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Ahh, the wonderful Dragon’s Lair, the game that gameplay forgot! Dirk The Daring has disgraced many a machine over the years and the much maligned Sega Mega CD is not excluded. A conversion of the laser disc arcade game that featured cartoon quality animated graphics from ex-Disney artist Don Bluth, this version was one of the very first to appear in CD form. It was the arrival of the new CD consoles like the Sega add-on and the Philips CD-i that finally made a proper arcade translation of Dragon’s Lair Possible. This is both a good and bad thing because while remains very faithful to the original in both graphics and sound it also plays like a dog. All you do is watch a little animated sequence then try to press the right button at the right time. Incredibly boring, very pointless and ultimately very frustrating too. I have never been a fan of these interactive cartoons and this laser disc arcade game was the one that started it all. Press left, press right, too slow, die and then fall into a coma. While the Mega CD version is authentic graphically, with its use of full motion video to recreate the cartoon like experience, said FMV is very grainy indeed. Combine with the MD’s limited colour palette and the game really doesn’t look anywhere near as nice as the original arcade game. If you like Dragon's Lair then you will probably enjoy this conversion but for everyone else out there I really wouldn't bother. Not a lot more I can say really.

Final Fight is without doubt one of Capcom’s biggest hits, this game was original supposed to be a sequel to the Street Fighter games but soon became a game in it’s own right and went on to spawn several sequels. In the arcades this game took the scrolling beat ‘em up genre, made popular by Double Dragon, to a new level with its huge sprites, detailed backgrounds and end of level bosses. Being such a technically impressive game made it hard to port to the home systems and many of them faired very badly. The SNES version was only one player, lacked enemies, had a missing level and was heavily censored. It also only had two of the main characters, Guy was missing in the original version then one with Cody missing was released later. The home computer ports suffered from many limitations with things such as lack of hardware sprites and scrolling. So for a long time the only place to play Final Fight was in the arcades. That is until the Mega CD version came along of course! Not only do we get a pretty much arcade perfect conversion of the coin-op but we also get a wonderful added extra in the brilliant battle mode. This sees you trying to take out as many enemies as you can within a tight time limit and features some new background graphics too. There is also some voice acting present within the classic intro sequence and remixed CD music too. Without doubt Final Fight CD is one of the best games for Sega’s add-on and an absolute essential game for every owner of the machine.

This CD version of EA’s hugely popular series, that is still going strong today, is actually based on the original Mega Drive game, the one that started it all. However, this is a little more than just a cart game on CD, EA did at least make an effort to add some new features and make some improvements. The game looks basically the same, retaining the isometric viewpoint that made it so unique at the time and includes all the original features of the cartridge version. But they have added extra animation frames and improved the speed of the game too, it was far too sluggish in its original form. Of course they have added the obligatory FMV intro to the game as well as some clips that appear during play. Other big changes include 8 new game modes, 16 new teams and much improved computer A.I. that while making the game a bit more challenging also makes it much more playable. The CD version is also officially endorsed by Adidas and their revolutionary Predator boots so EA added “Predator Touch”, which works just like the ability to curl/curve shots in Sensible Soccer. I have to confess that I didn’t much like the original FIFA game, I found it far too slow and plodding to be any fun, but this CD version is a big improvement. While it is no where as good as the sublime Sensible Soccer it offers a decent alternative in the footy stakes and will definitely appeal to fans of the beautiful game.

Programmed by now defunct French team Delphine, Flashback was the spiritual successor the classic Another World. The game was initially pushed to the public as a CD-ROM game on cartridge, before it started to appear on the CD consoles too, as we see here! Of those original disk and cartridge versions the Mega Drive version was regarded as one of the best so what could they add to make it better? Well not much really, the FMV like sequences are now actual FMV and of course there is a new soundtrack too, but that is about it. In fact many I actually prefer the cut scenes from the cartridge version over these grainy examples. The game is set in the year 2142 where you play the part of Conrad B. Hart, an agent for the Galaxia Bureau of Investigation. It is an arcade adventure where you attempt to recover your lost memory and save the world. During one of his investigations, Conrad has discovered a plot to destroy the Earth involving aliens that disguise themselves as governmental officials. Fearing they would wipe his memory, which of course they did, he left himself a series of clues. You must travel around various locations finding the clues, uncovering the alien plot and ultimately completing your mission. Graphically Flashback is a tour de force with amazing animation, beautiful backdrops and, of course, the cut scenes. The whole game is designed to draw you in and really get you involved. It’s easy to see why this game has become such a big success and drained so many people’s precious time. This version has little to recommend it over the cart version, it all depends on how much you care about sound!

Ground Zero Texas was released at the very height of the FMV video gaming craze and still remains one of the more impressive examples of the genre on the Mega CD. Produced by Digital Pictures for Sony it was the most expensive video game ever made when it was released in 1993. It was directed by Dwight H. Little, who is best known for the films Marked For Death and Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, and contains nearly 2 hours of video footage! The game actually had a two million dollar budget and unbelievably most of this was funded by the deal for another one of their games, Sewer Shark, to be bundled with the US variant of the machine – the Sega CD. Because the game's FMV was shot by a full Hollywood film crew this meant that Digital Pictures had to negotiate with the Directors Guild, Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild in its production - the first time this had been done for a video game! But that is enough about how the game was made, I suppose you want to know how it plays? Well the plot revolves around a small town in Texas being invaded by aliens who have disguised themselves as redneck locals. By using the special battle cams and a plasma beam you must stop the aliens before they wipe out the whole town. It basically involves you switching locations constantly, a bit like Night Trap, which means you never really get to see all the movie footage in one go. The graphics make the most out of the limited hardware on offer. The video is played in a quite small window and doesn’t look quite as grainy as other similar games. GZT is a pretty impressive game for the time but one that hasn’t aged particularly well at all. So it’s pretty cool as history/talking piece but pretty crap as an actual game.