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broadcasting in the UK in 2012, and given the nature of the transmissions, the vast majority of teletext pages have not been archived.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

Madden NFL 96

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NBA Live 96

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Pac-Panic

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Primal Rage

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Mega-CD

Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side

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Myst

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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

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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