A playthrough of Electronic Arts' 1991 role-playing game for the Sega Genesis, Buck Rogers Countdown to Doomsday. The Genesis's library has often been accused of providing little in the way of RPGs, especially when compared to the SNES's line-up. The thing that many making this argument tend to neglect is how it really only lacks JRPGs. Outside of Phantasy Star, there weren't many titles made in the Final Fantasy/Dragon Warrior mold. The Genesis was home to several excellent western RPGs (or CRPG, if you prefer), hosting a number of quality titles that represent the digitial pen-and-paper style games that rose with AD&D's huge popularity in the 1980s. And Buck Rogers is a sterling example of what the Genesis could offer those with a hankering to save the world with menu-driven commands. It's a relatively faithful port of SSI's 1990 PC hit of the same name - part of the famous "Gold Box" series that had often been ported to consoles, with wildly varying results. The NES titles tended to be disasters, whereas the Genesis could quite capably reproduce the magic of the source material. All of the story and side-quests are present and accounted for here, which is impressive for the 8meg ROM the game was stored on. The gameplay has been simplified somewhat- ammo is no longer a worry, and the number of available character races and skills have been slashed pretty hard, but you are provided enough to still play the game the way you want to play it. The starting party's makeup can alter the way you approach many situations pretty dramatically. One sizable change - and an absolute improvement - is the change in perspective. Whereas the original showed movement from a small window in the first-person perspective, this version axes that in favor of a top-down view of the environments. It's cleaner looking, less intimidating, easier to navigate with, and gives a major kick to the atmosphere. The interface has also been cleaned up - now instead of loads of text options, the game uses an icon based system. Unlike many games of the time though (the 16-bit Might & Magic ports, anybody?), the icons are clear and make sense - you won't find yourself scratching your head trying to figure out what the stick man is doing in this game! The only real qualm I have with the changes made is a small one, but it does get annoying - everytime you need to access the character menu or go into a battle, the game sits there for a second or two loading. It's not really noticable at first, but you will start to feel it the further you get in the game. Also new is the soundtrack: I don't recall the being any sound card support for PC (the only sounds were sound effect bloops from the PC speaker), but the Genesis version has some pretty good music running throughout - except for where it counts most, weirdly enough. The battle "theme", if you can call it that, it's little more than a simple six-second snare/bass drum loop that repeats forever. Calling it music is really a stretch. It's annoying in the the first battle, and by the end, I guarantee you'll have the sound muted because of it. Oh, and does the title theme remind anyone else of that a capella song "Take You Back" from Rocky I & V? In moving from the keyboard to a 3-button pad, the interface has been given a huge overall. Many commands have been consolidated, and things feel much more streamlined than ever before. And finally, the story is excellent. It's certainly got its moments of humor, but the writing capably handles the dark and grim twists the plot takes, and it's utterly absorbing. What it lacks in length it certainly makes up for in quality, making it ideal for people who want a good, heavy RPG without a 40+ hour commitment to see it through to the end. The graphics also help a great deal - the simple environments and sprites are clean and easily identifiable, and the cutscenes at important scenes are thoroughly excellent at conveying the unfolding drama. These little square people really get put through the ringer before they can call it a day! The video shows all quests available in the game, including the optional side-missions. Unfortunately, I didn't fight the biggest starship, but everything else is shown. No cuts were made - as you can tell, grinding really isn't necessary at all here! Overall, I can't praise Buck Rogers Countdown to Doomsday highly enough. It's easy to learn to get into, and packs a helluva punch for an RPG that only takes ten hours or so the first time through. If you've been looking for a good reason to dig out the old Sega for some RPG action, this game has got your back. ____ No cheats were used during the recording of this video. NintendoComplete (
punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games! Visit for the latest updates!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/NintendoComplete/540091756006560 https://twitter.com/nes_complete 
