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"FLASHBACK CITY, BABY"

When my father and mother divorced, I was just a five year-old kid who was left with the demoralizing prospect of never having my mom and dad under one roof ever again (which is exactly what ended up happening). It was 1978, and my mom needed to get a new gig to entertain the toddler under her watch; so the weekly Sunday trip to the arcades and the movies became as routine as going to church. You laugh, but a little kid depressed by the disintegration of his home really needs to dive into fantasy land to get away from that pain. "Donkey Kong", "Popeye", "Phoenix", "Pac Man", "Galaga", "Pole Position"...you name them, and I played them religiously every weekend for ten years. Then, in 1987 a new Sunday TV variety show premiered on Sunday afternoons, and the tradition quietly went away (much to my mother's distress); I pursued a career in Broadcasting (in which I'm currently employed), but the memories of those arcade thrills can last a lifetime. And that's what you should keep in mind when considering purchasing a retro collection: do you have fond memories of playing these old games? Because nostalgia is half the fun of playing, and usually younger players with the NES and Genesis as their first platforms don't find anything appealing about old arcade collections from Namco, Williams, Atari, Sega ("Sonic Jam" anyone?) and now, thanks to "Sega Ages", none other than good-old Working Designs.

Why would Sega pass on a chance to pay tribute to the heritage of their own trend-setting AM2 divisions is beyond me, but WD saw fit to grab the rights of the games, combine them into one package (exactly what the European division of Sega did) and release them into one CD at an affordable $39 price tag. Originally released in Japan individually, we have 1986's "Space Harrier", 1986's "Outrun" and 1987's "After Burner II"; as arcade perfect as the versions in this CD are, some remixed musical tracks that were available in each individual game (plenty of CD space left for that) had to be squeezed out and remixed versions of the originals have taken their place. If you ever remember playing any of these three at an arcade, then you know exactly what to expect: sprite madness, cool tunes (in a pre red-book audio sort of way), and truckloads of gameplay that Yu Suzuki and his co-workers eventually perfected into the likes of "Virtua Racing", "Daytona USA", "Panzer Dragoon" (think about it: "Space Harrier" could be considered a descendent!) and "Sky Target".

Working Designs' conversion is flawless and comes across without frills and any flashy extras; just a handful of option menus to increase/decrease difficulty, audio, number of lives, etc. Victor Ireland, WD president, is the only guy crazy enough to delay the release of a game for over a month just to tweak the color manual (for which the company is well-known for). WD's absence on the Saturn in 1998 will be dearly felt after "Magic Knight Rayearth" and "Lunar", but at least their line-up of releases can't be faulted: they brought "Iron Storm", "Shining Wisdom", "Albert Odyssey" and "Dragon Force" to the States. Name me other company willing to cater to the niche' markets those genres represented (gotta come clean though: I didn't like any of them). And the tribute on the back of the "Sega Ages" box reads like an admiring tribute to the arcade legacy of Sega; if we didn't know better about WD's true feeling towards Sega of America, that eulogy could be considered sincere (instead of laughable).

GRAPHICS / VISUALS: B
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Sprite madness! "After Burner II" is fast and still has that split-second thrill that requires dodging left and right, and the last-second outrun of the heat-seeking missile on your back still feels real. "Space Harrier" has the adrenaline-rush of "Doom" and "Panzer Dragoon", and about three times the amount of enemies on-screen and incoming fire. And "Outrun" feels much faster and has scenery that's more threatening and conveys a faster sense of speed than "Cruisin' USA", "Ridge Racer" and "San Francisco Rush". Not a polygon is in sight, just the richness of Sega using their knowledge to keep those sprites constantly repeating themselves at distinctive locations, with different color patterns. The menu screens, though, are basic and lack creative fonts or flashy visuals; the "Sega Ages" logo moving at the intro screens of each game are the only noteworthy addition WD added to the originals. My favorite visual flashback: the screen that plays during "After Burner II" when no one dropped a quarter on the arcade, with the planes shooting missiles to the title and the background balls twisting and dancing in different patterns. I used to spend minutes staring at that screen, wishing I had the money to play the game (once broke, always broke!). Arcade-exact visuals all the way.

MUSIC / SOUND EFFECTS: B+

Soundtrack material these tunes' ain't, but at least most of them don't grate and are quite enjoyable. For my money "Space Harrier" has the most forgettable music of the three, with this weird synthesizer-heavy fantasy music that was probably the best you could get in those days. Probably "Panzer Dragoon" allowed some of those guys the medium through which to deliver the appropriate fantasy musical themes; for it's time, "Space Harrier" was the premier forward-scrolling shooter of the time, with the sound effects to back-up the fantasy. Weapon shots, roar of incoming enemies and the classic "AAAHHHHH!" when your character bit the dust. All here.

Same for the tunes in "Outrun" (which are selectable before each race) and "After Burner II", which fit the moods of their respective games perfectly. "After Burner II" tunes are heavy on guitar and rock-wannabe tunes, which are appropriate when you consider that the game came on the heels of the successful 1986 Tom Cruise flick "Top Gun" (could Sega have...tried...to capitalize...? Nahhh!). The distinctive sound of your missiles being fired, the constant hum of incoming fire and the "Fire" command when you lock-on; all here, and still atmospheric as hell. "Outrun" tunes are relaxed and laid-back, which fit the location of the races (the West Coast of the United states) and the premise! The screech of the tires and the roar of incoming traffic (which come across more like amplified static than engine sound effects) are cool, and so does choosing from three "magical" tunes from your radio before the race :-). The music from all three games were composed by the same Sega musician, and you can read his (cliche'-filled) experience about remixing the music for this compilation in the game's manual.

GAMEPLAY / FUN FACTOR: B+
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Spaz, the subsidiary of Working Designs that handles their non-RPG projects, have the term "twitch gaming" as their slogan, and this game (alongside their PSX shooter "Raystorm" from Taito Japan) proves that they live by their slogans. None of these games last more than thirty or forty minutes if properly played, but beating "After Burner II" when set on Very Hard, or reaching the end of "Space Harrier" with only three lives isn't easy. You could argue that there isn't enough graphical enhancements of easter eggs to make the package more attractive (like the Sonic World level in "Sonic Jam", or the enhanced graphics of "Super Mario All-Stars"), but then those additional things don't make up for faulty gameplay, which is what plagues many selections making the rounds of "classic compilations" (about 75% of the titles in the "Namco Arcade Collection" are a forgettable bore...at least here in the States). Would you buy a compilation just for one or two games out a half-dozen selections? It depends on the games: are we talking about "Spy Hunter" and "Moon Patrol"?

Besides the twitch essence of the games (every shot matters, every little action by the player affects the outcome), there is a little psychology at work in the art design of each game that contributes to the player's involvement, and has kept interest in these titles strong even after a decade has passed since their release. Will "Tokyo Wars" or "Ridge Racer" be as fondly remembered a decade from now as the trio in "Sega Ages"? Doubtful! But everyone will remember the blonde girlfriend in "Outrun" bitching at you for wiping out, or the macho feel of accomplishment when gunning down an entire army of aircraft bent on destroying your plane. Little touches that affected the psyche of the typical arcade goers that sampled the game at the time (and still do): young teenage men with raging hormones! The psychological reward of getting through the entire course of "Outrun" is not only completing the race, but doing it without getting the blonde yelling at you and humiliating the player in front of the entire world. And by defeating lots of "them" with your thrusty plane, you get to be the man that saves the world in "After Burner II", or the Bruce Campbell-type that single handedly can save a fantasy kingdom from the clutches of fire-breathing dragoons and assorted organic weirdos. Actually, they closely mirror the movies of the time and Sega was able to emulate their look with their sprite-based technology: "Top Gun" for "ABII", and "Willow" for "SH". "Outrun" and "After Burner II" are my favorites because I played them more often than "Space Harrier", which had an off-the-radar difficulty level, but trust me that enough time with each of them will yield gameplay bliss. And those flashbacks...

That little guitar tune that plays after you push "Start" in "After Burner II" is classic, and so is wiping your car in "Outrun" as the clock comes to "00", freezing the crash scene in mid-air! If any of what I say means nothing to you, then "Sega Ages" is a nice rental to see what kids growing up in the 1980's wasted their allowance money on every weekend. If any of my memories ring a bell to you, then you know that having arcade-exact representations of those memories running on your Saturn is only $39 away (and an additional $50 RAM cart if you find one, since the three games take 46 blocks from the machine's internal memory).

OVERALL: B+
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It's a shame Working Designs and Sega of America have fallen out of each other's grace, since this could have ended up being a nice series of forgotten collectable arcades from Sega's past. "Penguin", "Fantasy Star" series of RPG's, and others could have ended up on a nice "Sega Ages" Volume 2, but with Sega passing on the first package there is little to no chance of them seeing a release this side of the world (import at your own risk). I'm also not content with WD's excuse there isn't enough room in the CD for a couple of extra titles: how about including "Outrun Turbo" and it's cross-country race through the States (which Eugene Jarvis shamelessly ripped off for his "Cruisin' USA" franchise)? how about "Hang On GP", the motorcycle racer that uses pretty much the same sprite technology seen in these three games? Extras aren't plentiful in "Sega Ages", just enough nostalgia from two out of the three games in the CD to make my wallet get lighter yet one more time for a Saturn game. And for the record, "Space Harrier" still is a hardcore shooter's bitch of a wet dream (does the mind wonder or what?), and "After Burner II" kicks the crap out of AM1's "Sky Target" (both the arcade and the Saturn coaster).

"Sega Ages" is bathed in history, and is a perfect chance for those of us who never had home versions to experience the real deal. "Outrun" was available on the Genesis, but it was set on a permanent split-screen that rendered it an eye-sore, and the 32X versions of "After Burner II" and "Space Harrier" failed to excite in any way (and each was sold at $59 when released...I feel old just thinking about it, and it hasn't been even two years!). Arcade control via the analog pad is sweet and precise, something the digital controls of the era didn't provide the players. And I guarantee you the manual WD provides is worth a look or two for nostalgic purposes. Can you believe Sega released a version of "After Burner II" for the NES back in 1989? I guess hell did freeze over once back in the late 80's!

NeXT!!!