Forgotten Worlds review - Sega Megadrive

Forgotten Worlds box art That number one bad dude, Emperor Bios (God of Destruction), has created eight other evil gods and they've ravaged civilisation. The (former) citizens of the ruins are a mite peeved, and have sent two muscle-bound laser-packing warriors to gently persuade Bios to go away.

Forgotten Worlds is a multi-directionally scrolling shoot 'em up with power-ups, shops, and trillions of aliens. Each level features different backgrounds as you progress through the ruined cities. The creatures - which come in an astonishing variety of shapes and sizes - attempt to stop you, but your satellite and firepower can stop them in their tracks. Once an alien has been blasted, it conveniently turns into cash that you can pick up.

Money can be used to buy extra weapons, health, information and various other goods in the shops which pop up on each level. And you really need to get yourself tooled up if you're going to beat that fearsome God!

What the Mean Machines staff thought

From the moment Forgotten Worlds starts, it screams "quality!". It don't think I've seen better graphics on a Megadrive shoot 'em up: it has some superb parallax scrolling, and best of all, you get to shoot hordes of alien scum with ridiculously large weapons - pure bliss! Arcade perfect, with loads of extras and special effects, the only let-down is the music; not bad, but not up to the standard of the rest of the game. This is a brilliant, addictive game - I want to have its babies.

Forgotten Worlds certainly gives you the chance to work out that itchy trigger finger! There's a whole pile of baddies just waiting to be blown away in this frantic shoot 'em up. I like the idea of collecting cash to buy extra weapons, as it adds a little bit of strategy to the action - do you power-up now, or save your cash for an even more powerful weapon on the next level? The graphics are excellent - very similar to the coin-op - and the sound is good, again faithful to the original machine. My only gripe is that experienced gamers might themselves completing the game fairly quickly due to the easy "Normal" level. However, on the "Hard" level, the game offers a challenge that'll tax even the swiftest of reflexes. Give it a go if you fancy a good blast.

Buy Forgotten Worlds from Genki

Retrospective comments

I've never really seen the appeal of Forgotten Worlds - like Side Arms before it, the game features a curious breed of multu-directional shooting that means it's not quite as easy to play as your average shooter. The visuals are decent enough considering the age of the title, and the music does the job. Sega have certainly done a fine job of converting the Capcom coin-op, but the trouble is the game isn't really what you'd term a 'classic' to begin with. With an arcade-perfect version available on Capcom's Classics Collection Remixed for the PSP, there's very little reason to recommend this port.