Gods

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NTSC-U NTSC-J PAL
Gods
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: Mindscape (US), PCM Complete (Japan), Accolade (Europe)
Developer: Graftgold
Distributor: Ecofilmes (PT), Hent Gruppen (SE rental), Datart International (CZ), Metro Games (AU)
Licensor: Renegade Software, The Bitmap Brothers
Original system(s): Atari ST
Developer(s) of original games: The Bitmap Brothers
Sound driver: Graftgold custom
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code JP 1993-03-26 ¥8,8008,800 T-85013 US 1992-11 $49.9549.95 T-87016 US ▼ (Sega Channel) 199x SUBsub EU 1993-11-26 T-119036-50 DE 1993-11 DM 110110 T-119036-50 PT 1993 MD119036 UK 1993-11-26 £39.9939.99 T-119036-50 SE (Rental) 199x CZ 199x AU 199x
Non-Sega versions Amiga Archimedes Atari ST IBM PC PC-9801 VX Super NES

Gods (ゴッズ) is a 1991 platformer by The Bitmap Brothers, originally released for the Atari ST and later ported to a variety of home consoles and computers, including a 1992 port to the Sega Mega Drive. This version was the first game published by Accolade after acquiring an official license after winning Sega v. Accolade (though they still presumably continued to press unlicensed games).

Story

"Four guardians" have broken the citadel used to protect the city of the Gods, and have asked any warrior to retake the citadel in return for a favor. The greatest gift of all: immortality. The player controls one such warrior, who asks to become a God himself, equal to the others.

Gameplay

shoots the player's weapon (which they carry one of and find throughout each level), and jumps. Ladders can be jumped off by pressing HOLD or . By pressing , the player will face the wall, and can then use to do actions like flipping switches on the wall. The player can carry up to four extra items with them, such as keys (used to open doors). To take an item, the player should hold to crouch and press to pick the item up and put it in one of four slots (shown in the HUD), and then hit again to move the cursor to the next slot. To drop an item, move the cursor onto an item and leave item grabbing mode. The player does not need to drop items to use keys; they activate automatically they you approach a door.

Passwords are given out at the end of each world after defeating the respective boss. Should the player continue using a password, they will be given a pre-defined amount of money to power up with.

Enemies' appearance changes from world to world and sometimes also from stage to stage, but their behavior can be categorized:

• Walking a predefined path.
• Walking straight towards the player's position.
• Flying towards the player's position.
• Turret-like behavior.
• So-called "thieves" take a special position. Starting with world 2, these characters will grab items and carry them around. They can be attracted by dropping a golden key, the item they desire the most. They can be utilized to transport items out of areas they player can't reach by themselves.

Points are accumulated by defeating enemies and collecting treasure, often hidden away in secret areas that can only be accessed by solving puzzle sections. A lot of the bonus sections are very hard to find without the use of external resources. The game has a self adaptive difficulty level, sometimes giving out health and extra lives to players instead of score related items. Extra lives and bonus points are rewarded for certain scores. As all score is lost when powering off the console, a play session focusing on score needs to be done in one sitting.

While the score system was carefully crafted, a design oversight exists: The beehives in the labyrinth stage release an unlimited amount of bees, and thus infinite score can be accumulated.

Weapons

Main weapons

Each weapon has three power levels. Level 1 is a straight shot, level 2 is straight and upward, level 3 is straight, upward and downward. The angle the weapons are fired can be altered by pickups.

	Knife
	Standard equipment.
	Throwing Star
	Stronger than the knife.
	Spear
	Stronger than the throwing star, goes through walls.
	Mace
	Weaker than the knife, can break certain blocks.
	Axe
	Strongest weapon, no special properties.

Sub weapons

Aside from the main weapons, the game also features sub weapons, which are fired simultaneously with the main weapons.

	Energy Star
	Arching shot, can be used together with the hammer.
	Hammer
	Jumps along the floor until it finds a target.
	Spiked Ball
	Homing shot,

Worlds

Each world is split into three sections. Between these individual sections, new weapons, power ups and other items may be purchased at a traveling merchant's shop.

	The City
	The Temple
	The Labyrinth
	The Underworld

Versions

All versions are region locked. The PAL version has speed up music but slower gameplay. Disabling the region lock with a cheating device (e.g. Game Genie code EAAT-AL1T) makes the game and music run at the correct speed. Content wise, the games are identical aside from translation differences.

Compared to the Atari ST and Amiga releases, the home console ports feature:

• A new, animated intro screen (but without the image song) compared to the still image of the original.
• In-game music was added, while the ST and Amiga releases were silent.
• New HUD that displays all items. This works without compromising the visible area as the Sega Mega Drive version runs at a slightly higher resolution.
• Some palette changes in all stages, likely due to the higher amount of simultaneously displayed foreground colors - Amiga:32 MD:64 (e.g. the hero's armor is slightly blue colored compared to the grey ST version armor, enemies now have their own palettes).
• The Amiga's "copper mode" background gradients, which can't be reproduced on the Sega Mega Drive without heavy dithering, have been replaced with parallax scrolling buildings and scenery.
• The final ascension to Olympus scene was made exclusively for console versions.
• The ability to perform a straight vertical jump was added & walking speed is much faster, making it possible to clear the game in ~1 hour (compared to the Amiga version, which took ~2 hours).
• In the Atari ST version, the player is given "immortality" by receiving a screen full of 1UP items after the final boss, which is missing in the Sega Mega Drive version. The extended ending scene is a replacement for this.
• The game doesn't loop infinitely with an increased difficulty level after clearing it. Instead it brings the player to the highscore screen.

Production credits

• Design: Eric Matthews, Steve Tall
• Original Coding: Steve Tall
• Graphics: Mark Coleman
• Original Music: John Foxx
• Sega Conversion: Gary J. Foreman at Graftgold Ltd.
• Sega Sound: Jason Page
• Additional Graphics: Mark Coleman, Eric Matthews, Philip Williams

Source:

In-game credits

Magazine articles

Main article: Gods/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in Sega Visions (US) #11: "February/March 1993" (199x-xx-xx)

Print advert in Mean Machines Sega (UK) #15: "January 1994" (1993-11-30)

Print advert in Computer & Video Games (UK) #146: "January 1994" (1993-12-15)

Print advert in Video Games (DE) #1994-03: "3/94" (1994-02-23)

Print advert in Todo Sega (ES) #9: "Diciembre 1993" (1993-1x-xx)

Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1993-01: "January 1993" (1992-12-08)

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) 70 Alaab Alcomputtar (SA) 85 Aktueller Software Markt (DE) 92 Beep! MegaDrive (JP) NTSC-J 53 Consoles + (FR) 88 Computer & Video Games (UK) 83 Computer & Video Games (UK) 87 Digitiser (UK) 60 Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 1 (RU) 70 Mean Machines: The Essential Sega Guide (UK) 78 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 55 GameFan (US) NTSC-U 87 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 95 Games World (Teletext) (UK) 85 Hippon Super (JP) NTSC-J 40 MAN!AC (DE) 59 Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) 91 Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) NTSC-U 91 Mega (UK) NTSC 76 Mega (UK) NTSC-U 76 Mega Action (UK) NTSC 83 Mega Action (UK) PAL 88 Mega Force (FR) 82 Mega Fun (DE) NTSC-U 68 Mega Machines (UK) PAL 68 MegaTech (UK) NTSC 89 Marukatsu Mega Drive (JP) NTSC-J 65 Mean Machines Sega (UK) NTSC-U 89 Player One (FR) 75 Play Time (DE) 81 Power Unlimited (NL) 82 Sega Power (UK) PAL 87 Sega Pro (UK) NTSC 92 Sega Pro (UK) NTSC-U 92 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 81 Sega Zone (UK) NTSC-U 92 Sega Zone (UK) PAL 74 Sega Force (SE) 60 Sega Mega Drive Review (RU) 68 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 52 Sonic the Comic (UK) PAL 86 Todo Sega (ES) PAL 77 Tricks 16 bit (RU) 79 Video Games (DE) 72

	77
Based on 44 reviews

Gods

Mega Drive, JP
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, EU
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, EU (Triple Pack)
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, PT
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, SE (rental; Hent; orange)
Cover

Mega Drive, CZ (Datart)
Cover
Cart Manual

Technical information

Main article: Gods/Technical information.

References

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