Digitiser

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Digitiser was a feature broadcast as part of Channel 4's teletext service in the United Kingdom. It was updated daily (later three days a week) between 1994 and 2001, acting as a mini video games magazine, with news, reviews, quizzes and other editorials. Amongst its output were game reviews for Sega systems.

All forms of teletext ceased broadcasting in the UK in 2012, and given the nature of the transmissions, the vast majority of teletext pages have not been archived. Remnants of Digitiser between 1994 and 1998 have been preserved by the Teletext Preservation Project.

Reviews

Mega Drive

Aaahh!!! Real Monsters

Great name for a cartoon; but oh, what a lovely war (average game)!

It's one of those platformers where you control three guys with different abilities, and you have to swap between them at the appropriate moments.

It's like a dream Mr Hairs once had.

The graphics are fair enough and faithful to the show, but the gameplay isn't worth commenting on.

by Viacom	Players: 1
Graphics	63%
Sonix	64%
Gameplay	70%
Lifespan	68%
Originality	48%
Uppers	Sometimes it can be fun
Downers	Mostly it's just boring
Overal 69%	Aaah! Dull Concept!

Batman Forever

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Bloodshot

There is really no great need for a Doom/Wolfenstein style game on the Mega Drive. Zero Tolerance was perfectly adequate, and the issue should have been laid to rest then.

Like Mr Biffo, Bloodshot has taken an age finally to come out. And sadly, the wait hasn't been really worth it.

Bang bang. Shoot shoot.

You know the score.

by Acclaim/Domark	Players 1-2
Graphics	68%
Sonix	70%
Gameplay	69%
Lifespan	70%
Originality	61%
Uppers	A fairly reasonable effort
Downers	Buy a PC if you want Doom
Overal 69%	Blood not

Cannon Fodder

This is such a good idea for a game, we still can't believe it!

You control a little squad of soldiers through an increasingly difficult series of battles. How do you do that?

You point to where you want to move your men and click a button. You point to where you want to shoot or throw a grenade and click a button.

It's as simple as a really stupid man.

Though Canon Fodder has coped with its move to console well, we still have a major reservation regarding the game.

There are weeks of gameplay in there, but we somehow feel that boredom will set in after a few days. The relatively poor sales of CF2 tell their own tale.

The deranged amongst you will enjoy repeatedly shooting wounded soldiers, and the introduction of vehicles later in the game helps, but a bit more depth wouldn't have gome amiss.

by Virgin	Players: 1
Graphics	73%
Sonix	74%
Gameplay	84%
Lifespan	85%
Originality	92%
Uppers	Totally original
Downers	A little repetitive
Overal 85%	Cannon/ball joke

Comix Zone

Question: How many games based on real comic books have been any good? Answer: Few games.

This makes us feel all funny about Comix Zone - you see, it's a beat 'em up set inside the pages of a fictional comic book.

Does that sound a bit funny? It is. You leap from panel to panel - enemies being drawn onto the "page" by the artist's giant slug (hand).

Comix Zone makes the most of those peculiar comic book conventions.

Batman-style "Biffs", "Pows" and "Trotski-doos" litter your battles, whilst speech bubbles spurt from your fighter's rotting gob.

Visually, it's all rather lovely. One of the best-looking games, indeed, ever to grace the Mega Drive.

What else? Oh yes. Though it plays like any other beat 'em up, there are minor puzzles to overcome. How so?

Comix Zone occasionally hinders your progress with a spinning blade or falling block or spike.

Often you simply throw your pet rat at a switch; elsewhere you push explosives beneath the offending obstacle. It breaks the beat 'em up monopoly - mahogany (monotony) - nicely.

But as brilliant as it first seems, Comix Zone has problems. Problems that not even the free CD of the in-game music can stop you from living through.

Though Sega would probably argue that the game is foxy, we'd say Comix Zone was damned unfair.

If your pocket is free of explosives, you've no choice but to punch doors and barrels out of the way. This activity eats away at your health.

Also, you only get one life - and only one continue per level.

The harsh difficulty factor spoils a potentially classic title.

by Sega	Players: 1
Graphics	86%
Sonix	82%
Gameplay	76%
Lifespan	74%
Originality	79%
Uppers	Such a neat idea, dad!
Downers	Too damn unfair
Overal 79%	Chronic loan

Daffy Duck in Hollywood

Don't. Please. We really can't be bothered with another platformer!

by Sega	Players: 1
Graphics	67%
Sonix	69%
Gameplay	49%
Lifespan	52%
Originality	2%
Uppers	It's got Daffy Duck in it
Downers	Everything else, dear
Overal 46%	Duffy Dack

Light Crusader

Every time we receive a new RPG we're sure it'll be the giant strawb that snaps the monkey's back.

But every now and then we get a game like Light Crusader which makes our lips curl and our legs straighten out. Though one of these effects is perhaps the by-product of the other.

Light Crusader is an isometric RPG like Landstalker, but replaces the cutesy characters with a load of "Slim Jims".

Though Light Crusader is an action-based RPG involving the graphic decapitation of goblins and zombies, it's far more enjoyable than puzzling.

The Puzzle Rooms reminded us of crumbly old Knight Lore on the Spectrum.

It's a matter of pushing blocks and moving bombs and pulling switches in the right order to open doors.

It could have proved tedious, but as we emerged from sessions with the game, our faces glowed like petrol bombs.

Light Crusader looks like no other RPG.

The Japanese obsession with making everyone a stocky dwarf has for once been abandoned in favour of a more realistic approach to the characters and environment.

What is weird is the way you can push almost everyone and everything in the game around. You'll have particular fun positioning the farmer and his cows.

So yes, it's rather great. It's looking an oddly good year for the Mega Drive.

by US Gold	Players: 1
Graphics	78%
Sonix	79%
Gameplay	87%
Lifespan	87%
Originality	56%
Uppers	Big. Tough. Looks great. Lovely
Downers	Cliched storyline
Overal 87%	(Ca)rt-sha(ped) Crusader

Madden NFL 96

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NBA Jam Tournament Edition

Like the SNES version, this is well worth getting if you don't already own the original.

The basic game is near-identical, though it can now be customised through the use of power-ps and "hot spots".

And you can play a gorilla if you have the proper code, Mr Simons.

Fine basketball.

by Acclaim	Players: 1-4
Graphics	80%
Sonix	63%
Gameplay	91%
Lifespan	87%
Originality	59%
Uppers	Incredibly addictive
Downers	Amazingly NO tournament mode!
Overal 90%	Chicken in a basket joke

NBA Live 96

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NHL 96

Hockey, hockey, hockey - oui, oui, oui!

Surely this must be the final Mega Drive update of EA's now legendary ice hockey series.

As we've no doubt said when reviewing the previous 60 versions, if you don't probably own the game this is probably worth buying. If you do - it isn't.

And hey now - they've put the fights back in! That's so beautiful.

by EA	Players: 1-4
Graphics	79%
Sonix	82%
Gameplay	84%
Lifespan	82%
Originality	34%
Uppers	The finest hockey sim around
Downers	Pointless update
Overal 83%	NHL 1990.

Pac-Panic

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PGA Tour 96

It isn't very interesting, but you have noticed how whereas EA's sport titles used to imitate their MD counterpigs (FIFA), it's now turned the other way around (this)?

You see, MD PGA '96 is a bold bid to recreate the photo-realistic fairways and smooth digitised monsters (players) that made the PC version so liverish.

Which is a shame, because it's unfair to expect the MD to be able to manage.

PGA '96 is the first radical overhaul to the MD series. Gone are the lateral power bar, 2D rotatable green view and occasionally spartan graphics.

And in come a sort of 3D trace-the-club path power/accuracy arc (which splays confusingly over the putting line) and moderately enhanced views which take eons to re-draw. Courses? But three.

Poor EA. The one time they bow to pressure and make substantial changes in an MD sports update, and it turns out to be worse than its forerunner.

by EA Sports	Players: 1-4
Graphics	89%
Sonix	88%
Gameplay	79%
Lifespan	75%
Originality	86%
Uppers	Looks nice
Downers	So slow. Only three courses
Overal 82%	Bee Gee's saline T-sticks

Premier Manager

Let's not mess: this came out before Christmas. If you haven't bought it yet you've probably never even wanted to manage a football team.

As football management games go, it's all alone on the Mega Drive. It's also rather splendid, and though you've only one save position it probably won't make your skin crisp up and flake away.

It's so very thorough.

by Sega	Players: 1
Graphics	70%
Sonix	45%
Gameplay	84%
Lifespan	88%
Originality	76%
Uppers	Mmm. Good - and on its own
Downers	Non-foot-fans will hate
Overal 86%	Bremner anger

Primal Rage

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Mega-CD

Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side

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Eye of the Beholder

The latest twitch from the Mega CD's singed corpse, Eye of the Beholder admirably impersonates the PC original.

That's to say that you get six races, six classes, nine alignments and 40 faces from which to select your dungeon-questing foursome.

And that there's no scaling or baddie animation to speak of, making this one of the most visually-barren RPGs ever.

Eye of the Beholder is rare amongst console RPGs for its slavish adherence to the genre's stinking roots.

Experience tables, spell-memorising, ability score modifiers - all are here in their brown pomp. Along with a laughably misplaced rave soundtrack.

Why, they've even resisted the temptation to replace the click-on-sword-icon with a slightly more, ah, "fulfilling" combat method.

Or is the whole thing just very lazy?

by Sega	Players: 1
Graphics	35%
Sonix	65%
Gameplay	68%
Lifespan	66%
Originality	34%
Uppers	Faithful old-style RPG...
Downers	...and therefore stupid
Overal 62%	Why of the Beholder

Myst

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32X

Motocross Championship

Motocross is a two-pronged beast.

On the one hand it shows that in the right hands the 32X could almost handle something as graphically complex as Road Rash on the 3DO.

On the other, Sega have made such a pig's ear of putting it together that it just looks like a mess.

See now how we raise our arms in despair, dear.

Do you remember Kickstart with Peter Purves? It was a TV show which showcased the dirt bike antics of filthy young men.

That's sort of what Motocross is. Only Purves was more fun.

You can either choose to practice any of the muddy courses or take part in a special "season".

Of course, you can punch and kick out at your rivals. That is, if you can work out what's going on.

At times in Motocross - and at every start - there will be a multiple pile-up of bikers, generating a melee which makes it impossible to locate your own.

At other times your biker will dip off the bottom of the screen, or fly completely off the top.

And, of course, the scrolling is horrendously jerky.

But is that all bad? But is that all bad?

Despite its many faults, Motocross somehow proves stubbornly playable.

This said, any addictive qualities are promptly dashed by a lack of diversity among the courses.

All vaunt a similar muddy colour scheme, and all differ little from the curve/straight/bumpy bit pattern.

It's far from the worst 32X title, but if you're after racing thrills check out the superior Virtua Racing.

by Sega	Players: 1-2
Graphics	73%
Sonix	67%
Gameplay	70%
Lifespan	68%
Originality	52%
Uppers	Dirt bike racing is new!
Downers	But it could have been nicer
Overal 70%	Make-us-cross joke

Game Gear

Batman Forever

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Primal Rage

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Saturn

Bug!

After the terrible Virtual Hydlide and Digital Pinball, this more than clears the slime from Sega's rubber sledge.

Bottom line: Bug is the first proper 3D platformer. Yes.

From the collect-o-gem gameplay to the bonus rounds to the bosses to the power-ups to the jump-o-head attacks, Bug uses every platform cliche you can imagine. But that doesn't matter.

Where Bug doesn't bear the scars of its undistinguished platform lineage is in the layout of its levels.

If M C Escher had been a game designer and not a fart, this is the game he would have designed.

Not only can your character wander far into and out of the screen, but the stages stretch high for several screens. In/out; up/down. Incredible.

It's difficult to understand the score without playing the game.

Being a Bug, your character can walk up walls and across ceilings. He can also, depending on the power-up, zap them with his antennae or spit slime.

The 3D conceptualisation is quite incredible. Platforms, ramps and walkways criss-cross each other and overlap like veins on a cow's udder. Mapping the game must have been horrid.

Yet you can stand at one end of the level and look far into the distance to plan your route. It's like being in a coma.

Occasionally, one of Bug's enemies - perhaps an insane grasshopper, perhaps a sharpshooting snail - will spring from nowhere.

Generally, though, the game is fair in the extreme. For particularly tricky sections of platform-o-jump, the entire screen scrolls out and you're treated to a wider viewpoint.

That isn't to say it's easy. Bug is possibly the toughest platformer Sega have ever put together.

Bug's levels are vast. The first sub-stage of level one took us nigh-on 20 minutes to complete.

Even then we couldn't be sure we'd seen everything.

Subsequent levels become bigger and more complex, with multiple routes to the exit. For sheer ingenuity of level design, this game is on a par with Super Mario World.

Up there with Daytona and Fighter.

by Sega	Players: 1
Graphics	86%
Sonix	81%
Gameplay	89%
Lifespan	88%
Originality	90%
Uppers	The new era of platformer
Downers	Can be a bit TOO unforgiving
Overal 89%	Good (Bug)

Digital Pinball

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F1 Challenge

• Digitiser F1 Saturn Review Page1.png
• Digitiser F1 Saturn Review Page2.png

Hi-Octane

A neat litle port over from the PC, Hi Octane is pretty much intact from the original, retaining the nine tracks, umpteen cars and Magic Carpets physics.

Its techno soundtrack, "space" courses and combat angle give it a Wipeout feel, though the glitch-prone graphics don't even come close.

It plays nicely, but when offered a choice between this and Sega Rally, we know which one we'd smash with a hook.

by EA Sports	Players: 1-2
Graphics	71%
Sonix	85%
Gameplay	79%
Lifespan	79%
Originality	60%
Uppers	Nice "space car" violence
Downers	Dodgy-ish graphics
Overal 77%	HIgh egg stain

Johnny Bazookatone

Question: What has a purple quiff, a gun/guitar combination, and an array of enemies ranging from skeletons to walking hooters?

Answer: You know - it's Daff Ducky!

Incorrect. It is Johnny Bazookatone, star of US Gold's new platformer. Hasn't he got a funny name, everyone? It's because he's Polish, of course!

Johnny Bazookatone doesn't really want to kiss all those new wave, new generation, 32-bit gentlemen. Which is a bit stupid, really.

It's a traditional platformer in every respect, despite some rendered graphics and the odd special effect.

That would probably be dumb enough, but the difficulty level is mercilessly harsh, nay, unfair. Enemies randomly appearing from nowhere is a bad thing.

Johnny Bazookatone isn't a very big game, which probably explains why the decision was taken to make it so tough early on.

However, the music is really nice - if occasionally out of place - and it does come with a free CD of the soundtrack.

We may have to wait for Mario 64 to kill the old school of platformers, but having said that, who paid any attention to Mario on SNES

by US Gold	Players: 1
Graphics	80%
Sonix	87%
Gameplay	72%
Lifespan	73%
Originality	23%
Uppers	It's not awful
Downers	Could have been done on SNES
Overal 70%	Johnny Rotten joke

Panzer Dragoon

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Panzer Dragoon Saga

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Pebble Beach Golf Links

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Rayman

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Sim City 2000

• Digitiser SimCity2000 Saturn Review Page1.png
• Digitiser SimCity2000 Saturn Review Page2.png

Shinobi X

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Victory Boxing

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Virtua Cop

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Virtua Fighter Remix

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