(Game Sack Theme)
- Hello, and welcome to Game Sack.
In this episode we're talking about games
with pre-rendered sprites.
And Joe, why don't you let us know
what a pre-rendered sprite is.
- Well, Dave, a pre-rendered sprite is,
well it's basically a graphic asset
that's designed on an external workstation,
mostly back in the day Silicon Graphics workstations
like in the case of Donkey Kong Country.
And then these computer animated little model thingys
are then digitized as sprites and put on the console.
And so they look, you know,
the graphics are like super awesome and powerful,
but really, they're not.
(laughs)
- Yeah, well said.
I mean, that's way better than I could've explained it.
But let's get right into it and show you some examples.
(sweet music from Dodonpachi Saidaiojo - Niji Stage 2)
- [Dave] Here's Vectorman for the Genesis.
The rumor is that this was Sega's answer
to the popularity of Nintendo's Donkey Kong Country series.
If you don't remember, we did an episode chock full
of Donkey Kong Country back in 2012.
In that episode, we mentioned how Donkey Kong Country
was Nintendo's first title to use pre-rendered graphics
build on a Silicon Graphics workstation.
This made Donkey Kong Country the third best-selling title
for this system as it should be,
because I love that game.
Sega did what they like to do at the time,
and copy Nintendo's great ideas,
and hence Vectorman was made.
Of course, it had to be more mature feeling
since only mature kids with lots of tude played the Genesis.
And it was, as the game is a run-and-gun
set on a gritty, dirty Earth that has been
over-polluted by humans.
Robots have been left to clean up the planet
but they're being re-programmed to kill
any human that returns to Earth.
Except for Vectorman, who was away on vacation,
or something like that.
Vectorman himself is made up of 23 body parts
that work in unison to keep him running,
and shooting, and killing rogue robots
all throughout the large levels.
The level design is good and there's lots
of secret areas for you to find,
if you wanna go searching for them.
If not, just hightail it to the end of the level,
but where's the fun in that?
Vectorman can collect different types of weapons
and health power-up via floating CRT monitors
that are strewn throughout each level.
Also, at times Vectorman can transform into other items.
He can be a drill to break through a floor.
He can become a bomb and break open walls.
And he can also transform into a fish-like thing
that can let you swim through water faster.
I remember playing this back in the day
and not thinking much of it.
My brother-in-law really liked it,
and kept telling me it was an awesome game.
All I could say was "No, it isn't."
Well something must have happened
since we used to argue about it 18 long years ago
and I'm kinda changing my opinion.
I'm actually really having fun playing this game.
I guess I just needed to be more open minded about it,
and let myself enjoy it.
But as you can see, the graphics haven't held up super well.
The game does a lot of really cool effects,
but the graphics are, well, they're just kinda pale.
I think any game at that time,
including Donkey Kong Country,
with pre-rendered graphics just don't look
as good as they used to.
They're still fun to play,
and speaking of fun to play,
how 'bout Vectorman 2?
This is a good sequel to the original.
It keeps the same play-style but adds new elements.
Instead of robots, you're fighting mutant insects.
There's new weapons to find and use,
and new things to morph into like this scorpion
that's not bothered by hot lava.
The levels are just as big
and hold just as many secrets as before.
A lot of activity is going on during the level
like lava cascading down everywhere
and it looks pretty good and adds to the atmosphere.
Vectorman has a lot of voice samples now,
and he says a bunch of stuff,
and luckily it's not annoying.
- [Vectorman] Oh my.
- [Dave] And again, I had a great time playing this game.
My only real compaint about both titles
is the lack of a continue option.
Once the game is over, it's over.
Hmm, I wonder what Josh Krebs,
the winner of the contest, is doing now.
He's gotta be a hometown hero.
- [Vectorman] Scene 4.
(cannon blasting)
(explosions)
(creature yells)
- [Joe] Here is Skeleton Warriors
from Playmates on the PlayStation.
This is based on a short-run cartoon and toy.
The premise basically is that a powerful crystal
has been split in half,
turning the bad guys into living skeletons,
and giving you tons of power.
Now, you need to battle.
Pretty enticing stuff.
It's a 2.5D action game and, as you can see,
all of the sprites are pre-rendered
and have that weird, plasticy feel to them
that so many pre-rendered sprites tend to have.
The movement is quick ad fluid, though still awkward.
Your job is to hack the enemies to bits with your sword.
And your sword can shoot blue things
if you have enough of these gem items in stock.
You can also swing your sword without firing
with another button if you wanna conserve your ammo.
Once you kill them, pieces of their pre-rendered sprite
will float around and start to come back together.
In order to finish them off for good,
you need to collect their soul,
AKA the power up they drop, or they come back together.
This is usually a shot or a health increase,
but most of the times they only increase your amount by one.
If you don't get the power-up in time,
the enemy reforms and you'll have to fight 'em again.
And all enemies take few hits to defeat.
It's not annoying though, usually.
The boss fights are pretty easy,
though you'll have to fight most at least twice
as they tend to come back together,
and there's nothing you can do to prevent it.
Every once in a while,
you'll be forced to ride a hover bike,
which is basically a poor man's Burning Force,
which itself is basically a poor man's Space Harrier.
You just fly slowly along shooting the enemies
and collecting the power-ups.
The graphics here are pretty bad.
I mean, why is the land breathing?
Even though it's solid it looks like it's moving like water.
The visuals in the 2.5D segments are much better
with no blockiness or polygon warping.
I mean come on, the pre-rendered sprites look kind of silly,
but that's to be expected.
Otherwise, the game is extremely dark.
The music is pretty good but
at the same time slightly disappointing.
And the only reason I say disappointing
is that because the magazine GameFan
really hyped the hell out of this game
and especially it's soundtrack back in the day.
It's definitely good, but it's not the end-all-be-all
musical score that I expected back when I initially
rented the Saturn version.
That's right, it's on the Saturn as well,
and that version actually has a few graphic effects
that are missing here like transparent fog in a few stages.
I wish I could've shown the Saturn version
instead of this one for the review.
But alas, I don't have it.
Overall, the game plays fairly well.
Usually you won't have an issue doing what you wanna do.
But sometimes it can get a little chaotic
as you don't know what's hitting you.
Or sometimes, things will even shoot at you from off-screen.
Also, your dude can hang from ceilings
and this could get wonky,
making some of the stages like this one kind of annoying.
And the camera can be a little floaty
and slow to follow which can add to the annoyance.
But again, it's not horrible, it's just a little annoying.
It's worth having for cheap if you can find it,
and now I have to go find the Saturn version.
(blasting)
(explosions)
(blasting)
- Alright, we're off to a good start.
And there's a couple really good examples
of pre-rendered sprites and even backgrounds.
- Mmm, pre-renderdness, love it.
- Mhmm.
(laughs)
- Let's just keep going.
(cool music from Double Dragon Neon)
- [Dave] This is Sol Divide for the Playstation from Psikyo.
And, of course, it's a shooter.
It's definitely not the prettiest game around,
and the pre-rendered sprites were a mixed bag.
Everything looks just jagged and washed out.
Your character sprite is big for a shooter,
but when it comes to detail it's hard to make anything out.
Hell, this goes for most enemies as well.
Bosses are the exception as they're all fairly large
and you can see the details in them,
and they also animate nicely.
I really wanted to like this game
as it had a lot going for it.
Your character can shoot a projectile for long range attacks
and can use a sword or a spear for close melee attacks.
You also have a bunch of magic that you can use.
The first four types on your magic scroll
will deplete a magic bar when used.
This can be refilled by doing melee attacks.
The rest of the magic has to be obtained
via icons dropped by enemies you kill.
You can chose choose from three characters,
and their abilities very slightly.
One is good with long-range attacks, but weak with melee,
and another is the opposite,
good at close-range while not so good at long-range.
The third character is supposed to be right in the middle.
Honestly, it didn't matter what character I chose,
as I has the same problems with all of them.
Or I mean the problem is most likely me.
Enemies take a huge amount of hits
before they decide that it's time to die.
Shooting at them takes forever and before you know it,
you have one or two coming in close
to fight you face-to-face.
This sucks as well since slashing them with your spear
takes just as long to kill 'em.
You might as well be using a wooden spoon
and hope they die from a splinter.
But you can perform a very powerful slash attack.
It sounds easy as all you do is push
up or down diagonally and hold in the CUT button.
But it is far from easy to do on a consistent basis.
For one, as you're pushing diagonally up or down,
your character will fly in that direction
which means you're gonna fly directly into your enemies.
Then, as per the instruction manual,
you have to hold the CUT button for a long time.
Really?
So I'm supposed to fly into my enemies
while I'm holding down this button
hoping the attack will come off like I want it to?
When you are able to pull it off,
it does a lot of damage,
but it's way too undependable to rely on.
One good thing is that you do have a decent sized life bar,
so you'll be able to take quit a bit of abuse.
Another thing is the levels are insanely short.
You barely have time to start enjoying the backgrounds
and tough enemies before you reach the end.
Seriously, you won't spend more than a minute on a level,
exluding he last one which is probably three minutes,
but I don't know because I haven't beaten it.
What I think is the last level has a lot of enemies
broken up by at least three boss fights that I encountered.
You can get a little life back
from dropped icons here and there,
but not enough to keep you going until the end.
Again, I'll say that I'm not good at shooters,
and I'm sure that some people
have beaten this game with no problem.
I wish I had the skills to do that,
or at least the patience to keep trying.
Who knows, maybe some day I'll try it again.
But, meh, it probably won't be anytime soon.
(mediocre music)
(shooting)
- [Joe] Johnny Bazookatone on the Saturn is one of the worst
games I've ever had the displeasure of playing.
I remember it being advertised in a lot
of the magazines back in the day.
You're Johnny, trapped in the year 2050
where apparently there's no sun
because this game is incredibly, super dark.
Just about everything here is pre-rendered,
and it looks awful.
I wonder if it's so dark because they couldn't afford
the advanced lighting that they'd need
to make daytime stages.
Actually, I have a feeling it might be a little easier
to make pre-rendered sprites look better
if you keep things kinda dark.
Anyway, this game plays as a crappy
run-and-gun slash collect-a-thon.
You have a guitar which doubles as your gun.
You even have a super weapon
that you can wind up and release,
but it takes forever.
And you can also use your gun to help flow
your fall after a jump and this will help
you cross wide gaps.
Thanks to the incredibly inept stage design,
it's hard to tell what you can stand on and what you can't.
Same goes for what can hurt you and what doesn't.
There really isn't a moment of fun to be had here.
You'd think that a game staring music dude
with a guitar would at least have a great soundtrack,
but even that is rather underwhelming.
I mean, the music really isn't that bad or anything,
but it certainly does not fit an action game.
(slow music that's barely even there)
This one is also available on the PlayStation,
3DO, and PC if you wanna suffer on those platforms, too!
(shooting)
Not much better is Doom Troopers Mutant Chronicles
for the Super Ninendo.
It's also on the Genesis.
It's based on a card trading game,
or some nonsense like that.
The story is that you're fighting the enemies
of the Megacorporation and you set off to
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, seriously, nobody cares.
You choose between one of two pre-rendered heroes
and you embark on your adventure.
Right away, you see that the game is pretty violent,
with lots of blood all over the place for no reason.
It plays like a broken run-and-gun where your gun
is actually assigned as a secondary weapon
until you switch the controls.
The enemies are all bullet sponges,
and will continue shooting directly at you,
even after their heads have exploded or fallen off.
And the only way to hit an enemy
is to get directly into their line of fire as well.
Along the way, you'll collect ammo and health refills.
You can also get a limited special weapon.
You can only aim up or down
if you hold the R shoulder button,
and your crappy-looking pre-rendered character
is in no hurry to change firing directions for you.
The level design sucks and so do the boss designs.
Take the level one boss here.
You can't shoot him by standing directly below him,
I mean of course not!
Why would you be able to do that?
You can only shoot him by firing diagonally
which puts you right in the path of the bones he tosses.
Not only that, but the green slime on the floor
constantly depletes your life.
I was able to beat him but I went through
my entire stock of lives to do it.
Sometimes, you'll even run into traps like this thing.
I don't know what's going on,
but I can't move or do anything!
Eventually I'm able to break free
but the controls are backwards!
Yes, always a wise decision by the developer
to make the player smile as they play your game.
The graphics are decent in spots,
but the pre-renderedness doesn't help.
The music can be kinda cool, though.
(fake guitars SNES-style)
The game is though, and honestly,
not tremendously enjoyable.
I think I would have liked it more when I was 13 or 14
because the blood and extreme violence
would have made me feel cool and rebellious.
Well, I'm not that angsty anymore,
so this game really doesn't have much to offer me.
(shooting) (metal clanging)
- Honestly, Joe, I have absolutely no idea
how Johnny Bazookatone got the green light.
But, what the hell's wrong with that guy?
What's wrong with that game?
I mean, you already explained it, but...
- Kinda but, just don't play it.
We've got a few more to go,
so let's finish this off.
♪ Let your body rock ♪
♪ Let your body move ♪
♪ Let your body jump ♪
♪ To the killer grove ♪
- [Dave] Killer Instinct by Rare and Midway
started out in the arcades in 1994.
I remember a local mall called Westminster Mall
had a pretty decent arcade back at this time.
The pre-rendered graphics were new and looked amazing,
an the fighters seemed way more diverse
that Street Fighter or even Mortal Kombat.
In 1995, Nintendo released a dumbed-down
version for the Super Nintendo.
A lot of stuff was cut out to fit onto the SNES cartridge.
Stages went from 3D to 2D,
FMV was removed and replaced with a still image.
Zooming in and out of a fight was also removed.
But hey, to make up for all this,
Nintendo included a CD with reminded music from the game.
♪ Killa ♪
♪ Killa ♪
♪ Ooooooo, she's a killa ♪
Sorry about that, guys.
Joe made me do it.
The pre-rendered sprites remained,
but they were a lot smaller and had less animation
from their arcade counterpart.
Still though, the game looked pretty good for the time.
A lot of people were impressed and I was one of 'em.
I was especially happy when they
left in the announcer's voice.
I always loved when he would scream out
different combos I'd lay on my opponents,
but not as much when one was laid on me.
- [Announcer] Hyper combo, super combo!
- [Dave] Speaking of combos, that's definitely
the bread-and-butter of this game.
Instead of just doing piddly punch and kick moves,
you waited for your chance to start a combo.
If you got it going, you did your best to get that combo
as high as possible.
I was never really good at this,
even though I tried and tried.
I'd always get a Monster Combo around ten hits or so,
and that would be it.
I had one friend who could do a lot better,
and would get an Ultra Combo quite a bit.
Very much like the computer just did to me right there!
It was also really cool to have finishing moves
like in Mortal Kombat.
The thing is, being that it's a Nintendo game,
you weren't gonna get any of the gore
that you saw in Mortal Kombat.
Still, it was always fun pulling of these moves.
I had a lot of fun with this game back in the day.
- [Announcer] Ready?
Master combo!
(punching)
Super combo!
(punching)
- [Dave] In 1996, Nintendo released Killer Instinct Gold
for the N64.
This was based on Killer Instinct 2 in the arcades.
Again, it was slightly dumbed-down
because the N64's cartridge limitations.
A lot of new characters were added and a few were taken out.
Thunder was one of my favorite characters in the first game
and he got the axe, slight pun intended.
The biggest problem with Killer Instinct Gold
is that you have to use the N64 pad.
That thing isn't exactly comfortable
when playing a fighting game with a directional pad.
And the smaller sizes of the C buttons is also annoying.
- But Dave, why don't you use a third party controller!?
- [Dave] Only OEM for me, baby.
I guess if you're playing it long enough
you'll be able to get used to it.
The pre-rendered sprites look way better here.
They're fairly clean eve though every character
looks like they're made out of plastic.
The animation is good although it's missing some frames
compared to the arcade game.
Overall, it's not a bad port,
and is definitely the best fighting game or the system.
And that's not saying a lot.
- [Announcer] Ready?
(screaming)
C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-Combo breaker!
(punching)
- [Joe] One game people rarely think of when it comes
to pre-rendered sprites is Viewpoint on the NEO-GEO.
The game uses an isometric perspective,
which looks cool but it also means
that you don't have much room to move around on screen.
The graphics don't have that typical
Silicon Graphics pre-rendered look which,
in my opinion, makes them look a little bit more pleasant.
It sometimes gives the impression that the NEO-GEO's
handling polygons which it really can't do at all.
Even the Genesis is more powerful at polygons,
mainly because of the way the graphics are engineered
despite using a similar chip set for the CPUs.
The music in this one is kind of interesting
and it has a few good tracks.
(sweet hyper jazz fusion)
(explosions)
But they definitely upped the pre-renderdness
when Electronic Arts ported this game to the PlayStation.
No one ever mentions this version.
Even the backgrounds are super shiny looking.
I do like a lot of the upgrades here,
but it slows down a lot.
That' because the Playstation can't handle the POWER
of a 1992 NEO-GEO game.
They even changed the music for some reason.
(funkadelic new music in glorious mono)
I'm not gonna like, I kinda like it,
even though it's all in mono.
The game is still hard as balls, though.
Did you just say tits?
No, I said balls, idiot.
The very best thing, though,
is that each and every time you die
you get to stare at a loading screen for ten seconds,
which only enhances your enjoyment of the game.
(crickets chirping)
(crickets still chirping)
(games sounds and musics and stuffs)
(explosions)
(explosions)
And finally, even puzzle games weren't exempt
from pre-renderdness as we can see in Sega's
Baku Baku Animal for the Saturn.
This is a basic tile falling puzzle game
where you don't just need to match up the color,
but also the animal on the food.
So for example, the monkeys will eat the bananas,
the panda the bamboo, the mice the cheese,
the dogs will eat the bones, and so on.
You can have a huge collection of the same-colored animals
or the same-colored foods all clumped together
but they won't disappear until you have an animal
to eat it all.
One animal can eat a ton of food,
and one piece of food can feed two animals
if the pieces are set up correctly.
Unfortunately, I'm not a huge fan of puzzle games
because stuff like this happens where a bunch
of random blocks piles up to the ceiling and then I lose.
Just leave me in peace!
I'm having a hard enough time on my own!
So that kind of ruins the single player experience for me,
but otherwise it's fun.
The pre-rendered graphics use is light,
mainly devoted to the chomping animals
and the random character in the center of the screen.
And that's the way it should be, in my opinion.
It's not a bad puzzle game and I really like the idea
behind it but it's probably way better
to play against another person.
(chomping)
(clanging)
- Okay, well there you go.
There's some examples of games
in that graphical style and...
- Of course we didn't cover every game
that features pre-rendered graphics.
Like we've already talked about X-Perts on the Genesis
which looks absolutely horrid.
And there are plenty other examples out there,
and why don't you let us know what kind of examples you like
or think are just ridiculous.
But, Dave...
- Yes?
- What do you think of pre-rendered graphics.
- I, back in the day, I was all goo-goo-ga-ga for 'em.
I liked it. - Really?
- I did, I was like Donkey Kong Country
I thought looked frickin' amazing.
And I know you never ever really thought they looked good.
- No, I was never impressed.
I always thought they looked kinda grainy
and cheesy, personally. - Yeah.
And that's what I feel now.
There's some nostalgia to some of the games,
but overall they just don't look that good.
- Yeah, and like I said,
let us know what games you like in the style
and thanks for watching Game Sack.
(Game Sack End Theme)
- Dave!
Did you know that Horizon Chase Turbo
is now available on the Nintendo Switch?!
- Oh my God, I didn't!
What is this game!?
- Let's take a look at the game!
(music that belongs in Top Gear on the SNES)
- Wow, that looks just like Top Gear
but for the future!
- And Dave, they even sent us T-shirt to celebrate!
- I love T-shirts!
- Whoah, okay they sent medium shirts
but I think I look okay.
- Medium?
I mean, what do they think, I'm 12 years old or something?
- Dude, judging by what I see on top there,
you are not 12 years old.
- Oh nice, a bald joke.
Way to be baldophobic, Joe.
- Horizon Chase Turbo.
Now available on the Nintendo Switch.
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