Rastan
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1988 Taito
Sega Master System
Here's another of my all time favorite arcade games from back in the day, although I admit I never really was that good at it at the time (I was only eleven years old after all.) But the fact that it took me two bucks to get past the first level didn't bother me, the game had the graphics, excellent music, plus you got to kill lizard people. Truly the coolest game ever, and when I found there was a Master System port I knew instantly that I had to have it.
Boy am I sorry. This port is an insult, an aberration, disgusting puss-filled cyst on the buttcheek of gaming, and it sucks too. Man, of all the games they could have screwed up why did it have to be Rastan? Damn you Master system, damn you to hell...
Well, ok, the game isn't THAT bad. It just has crappy graphics, wacky controls, and nonexistent sound effects. This travesty does manage to do a few things right, at least the sprites are of a decent size and resemble their arcade counterparts. It's when they start moving around is when you notice that Rastan animates extremely badly, two or three step animations in some cases. The bad lizard people are even worse, sometimes they don't seem to be animated at all - just like a still, cardboard cut out floating across the ground.) Pathetic.
Sound effects are crap, and the music sucks - which is really too bad because the arcade game music was actually very good. I mean I expect 8-bit translations to take a hit across the board, but usually with time and resources something decent can come of it. Don't tell me this was the best they could do.
Sad, just really, really, really sad. Such a great game, but after being chopped and squeezed and sacrificed to fit into an Master System game cartridge there's not much left. In today's age of arcade emulators I can't see why anyone should bother seeking out this pathetic arcade port, perhaps if you need to torture some enemy combatants or need a new way of committing suicide.
Graphics: Blurry, pixilated loads of crap that animated like weasel droppings. They do somewhat resemble their arcade counterparts sorta kinda if you quickly glance at them from the corner of your eye while playing something else better than this. But any movement of said graphics destroys the illusion.
Sound: Awful, when it is there at all. Thankfully no attempt was made to incorporate any of the voice samples, which only would have made matters worse.
Gameplay: For some reason even through the levels are laid out nearly arcade perfect and most of the major elements are there, without the graphics, sound, and control, the game just isn't as good as I remember it.