Blue Lightning is a fun videogame, so why the hate?

[Lynxpro]

BC it looks and plays like a shitty laser disc game.

 

Funny…back then, I would've preferred to have Atari's arcade Firefox on the JagCD.

[Bill Loguidice]

 

Funny…back then, I would've preferred to have Atari's arcade Firefox on the JagCD.

 

It's a pity that never made it home. I assume it's like many games of that type with multiple layers of licensing nightmares that make it less than cost effective to port.

[Lost Dragon]

The licensing aspect is an interesting one for a good few 'annouced' games that never made it to any home format.

 

A high profile one would be Capcom's AVP, which some claim was annouced alongside 32X Darkstalkers at a CES event.It never arrived on 32X or any Retro comp. released after the 32X and i've always wondered the licensing deal Capcom had, as Activision's seemed to last for years.They annouced they had the rights during the 8/16 Bit era of home micro's, but nothing appeared from them until the SNES title with planned conversions to MD/PC.

 

There was a rumour in Mean Machines that the reason Probe's Alien Trilogy appeared 1st on PS1, was due to Fox phoning Acclaim and pointing out that the contract between them allowed Fox to 'repossess' the license, if a version wasn't out at retail by a certain deadline...

 

Never been able to have this confirmed mind you.

[Lynxpro]

 

It's a pity that never made it home. I assume it's like many games of that type with multiple layers of licensing nightmares that make it less than cost effective to port.

 

I mentioned it at the shareholder's meeting. I can't remember the excuse that was made at the time but I think Sam Tramiel was already torqued at me for calling into question his status as a Highlander fan after I basically asked why-the-hell they licensed a game off the Highlander cartoon instead of the super popular live-action tv series...

 

The rights probably wouldn't have been much of an issue since it was a Warner film with Clint Eastwood retaining some control. The arcade code obviously was back at Atari Games which still had the on-again-off-again frenemy relationship with Corp which Time Warner tried to get both to cooperate with one another...

[AtariDean]

Loved blue lightning on the Lynx and still play it now, now playing it on my jag cd. Allways reminds me of a classic arcade game. The graphics are what you would have got in an arcade back then. I think it promotes the jaguar well.

[Bill Loguidice]

Allways reminds me of a classic arcade game. The graphics are what you would have got in an arcade back then. I think it promotes the jaguar well.

 

I can understand it reminding you of a classic arcade game (it's clearly inspired by titles like After Burner), but I really can't think of a similar contemporary arcade game that looked that bad, and it certainly didn't promote the capabilities of the Jaguar, at least in a positive manner (even at the time, it was panned for its poor visuals). I think two big issues are the way the graphics seem like cut-outs pasted onto the background and the general feeling of speed (the lack thereof). Of course, based on this thread, it seems like you're not alone in your opinion.

 

Interestingly, After Burner III on Sega CD is a somewhat similar disappointment (although it does have a nice sense of speed), particularly considering how relatively nicely After Burner II turned out on cartridge.

[racerx]

The graphics are what you would have got in an arcade back then. I think it promotes the jaguar well.

 

Yeah, no. By '94/'95 we were getting the likes of Wing War.

 

https://youtu.be/RFcAe1OLQtQ

Edited January 20, 2016 by racerx

[+save2600]

Graphically, I remember thinking 1985's Space Harrier and 1987's After Burner/Thunderblade had more in common with Blue Lightning than Blue Lightning had with current games of the mid 90's. Not saying it isn't fun for those reasons, just saying.

[Bill Loguidice]

Yeah, no. By '94/'95 we were getting the likes of Wing War.

 

 

That looks like a lot of fun. I've never played it myself. It's a shame Sega does such a poor job with mining its arcade catalog. Goodness knows they bundle and emulate their core Genesis titles enough.

[PeterG]

That reminded me of the cruise missile in Iron Soldier

[+madman]

That looks like a lot of fun. I've never played it myself. It's a shame Sega does such a poor job with mining its arcade catalog. Goodness knows they bundle and emulate their core Genesis titles enough.

Plenty of Sega arcade titles from that era were ported to home systems, other Model 1 games ported were Virtua Fighter, Virtua Racing and the Star Wars arcade game. Wing War, AFAIK, does remain unported to any home console. The Sega Ages games are nice, I can only vouch for the JP Saturn versions, haven't played any of the PS2 ports though from what I gather some are different than the arcade versions. The JP Saturn Out Run is perfection.

[Austin]

Plenty of Sega arcade titles from that era were ported to home systems, other Model 1 games ported were Virtua Fighter, Virtua Racing and the Star Wars arcade game. Wing War, AFAIK, does remain unported to any home console. The Sega Ages games are nice, I can only vouch for the JP Saturn versions, haven't played any of the PS2 ports though from what I gather some are different than the arcade versions. The JP Saturn Out Run is perfection.

 

Unfortunately, there were also boatloads of Sega arcade games that never made it to home consoles.

[+madman]

Unfortunately, there were also boatloads of Sega arcade games that never made it to home consoles.

True, but I wonder how many would stand up today (or as mid-late 90s ports). Off the top of my head, Clutch Hitter is the only one that I think would've been great to have as a home port...and yeah, I realize it was released on the GG.

[Austin]

True, but I wonder how many would stand up today (or as mid-late 90s ports). Off the top of my head, Clutch Hitter is the only one that I think would've been great to have as a home port...and yeah, I realize it was released on the GG.

 

Most would probably not stand the test of time well, but I suppose you could say that with a lot of games. It'd still be nice to be able to experience them in some form outside of emulation. Hell, I didn't even know Wing War was a thing. It looks really cool--I'd love to try it on a 32X or Saturn (but hey, I can't!). There are so many other games by Sega I keep coming across that didn't get console ports--polygonal games, 2D super scaler games, etc. Lots of cool stuff that would be neat to play today.

[Bill Loguidice]

 

Most would probably not stand the test of time well, but I suppose you could say that with a lot of games. It'd still be nice to be able to experience them in some form outside of emulation. Hell, I didn't even know Wing War was a thing. It looks really cool--I'd love to try it on a 32X or Saturn (but hey, I can't!). There are so many other games by Sega I keep coming across that didn't get console ports--polygonal games, 2D super scaler games, etc. Lots of cool stuff that would be neat to play today.

 

Well again, I'm not even talking ports, I'm talking official emulations. It strikes me as funny that companies with these huge game libraries don't make official emulations available for many of their games on the platforms and game services that they actively support. I can understand certain games never making it home for whatever reason (controls, no reasonable emulation layer available), but for many of these games, there's no real excuse. It's like turning away money. Instead, we almost always get the same offerings of games over and over again.

[Austin]

 

Well again, I'm not even talking ports, I'm talking official emulations. It strikes me as funny that companies with these huge game libraries don't make official emulations available for many of their games on the platforms and game services that they actively support. I can understand certain games never making it home for whatever reason (controls, no reasonable emulation layer available), but for many of these games, there's no real excuse. It's like turning away money. Instead, we almost always get the same offerings of games over and over again.

 

I know exactly what you mean and I've been saying the same for many years. Sega in particular is the biggest abuser of rehashing the same tired Genesis releases in particular. (Fortunately, they did give us arcade Golden Axe and Altered Beast, arcade Fighting Vipers and Sonic the Fighters, After Burner Climax and more on the 360; Those constant Genesis re-releases on Steam still leave a bad taste though).

[LianneJaguar64]

Well we've got a recent thread defending WMCJ, so really anything is possible at this point.

What's particularly wrong with White Men Can't Jump?

[LianneJaguar64]

I think it is fair to say that I only enjoy Blue Lightning as a Jaguar CD game, but it's still a very good game...

[+madman]

What's particularly wrong with White Men Can't Jump?

What's not wrong with it? It is one of the worst video games I've ever played.

[MantaNZ]

I just got my Jag CD the other day. I had one back in the 90s and I remember putting Blue Lightning in, playing it for a minute and never again. Problem is, I was pretty wealthy back then (sniff sniff) and tended to spend a lot of money on games but never play them... but put the disk in last night and I played for a couple of hours solid. There were a couple of times when the Jag CD stopped loading (it fecking crashed just as I completed one area, so lost my progress - gah), which scares me shitless, but I had a lot of fun playing the game. Not only is it a good Jag CD game, it's a good shooter full stop IMHO. It's an easy 7/10, maybe even an 8. I'm actually really stoked with it. Funny to rediscover it after two decades! Pretty true to the Lynx original too, only thing missing is the range of height you could fly on the Lynx - from the ground up into the clouds. I love unlocking new planes though. Never knew it did that. The Warthog is awesome

 

So what other Jag CD games are good? I only have Vid Grid and Hover Strike...

[JaGamer]

The problem with Blue Lightning was timing. It is a decent game, not bad at all. But it came out in Sept. 1995. Air Combat on the PS1 came out around the same time as Blue Lightning and was obviously superior.

 

My friend and I got Air Combat in Sept 1995 and played it a bunch. Then another friend brought over his Jag CD with Blue Lightning, and we just couldn't help but snicker at it...The cardboard cutout graphics and all. Here we had been playing Air Combat in full 3d huge environments...

 

The Jag CD and Blue Lightning should have come out a year earlier in 1994... And the Jag CD should have been bundled with Battlemorph and the Tempest Soundtrack, with Blue Lightning, Vid Grid and Myst demo sold separately... The price of the Jag CD should have been $100 as well, instead of $150.

[Bill Loguidice]

My friend and I got Air Combat in Sept 1995 and played it a bunch. Then another friend brought over his Jag CD with Blue Lightning, and we just couldn't help but snicker at it...The cardboard cutout graphics and all. Here we had been playing Air Combat in full 3d huge environments...

 

It just goes to show how quickly technology advances. In a semi-related story, I remember maybe 10 years or so back going to a museum with my family and observing a semi-professional flight simulator setup (it was obviously not meant as a consumer, but rather professional product, although I doubt it was military). Maybe 5 years earlier or so it would have seemed impressive with its photo-centric backdrops and what-not, but it was obviously not a true 3D environment and quite dated compared to normal videogame flight sims of that time that it was all but scoffed at for the most part. (I also remember an elder museum curator getting frustrated with the kids who just wanted to "shoot things.") I imagine that flight simulator setup was probably worth tens of thousands of dollars at one point and it was easily outclassed by that time by consoles that cost maybe a few hundred dollars at the most.

[Lost Dragon]

@Bill:Afterburner III on the Mega CD/Sega CD a bastardized version of Strike Fighter, which had earlier appeared on the FM Towns.It was a very poor showcase for the Sega CD hardware:

 

http://www.google.co.uk/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DFBJqgdxfVQk&sa=U&ved=0ahUKEwjx1r_2g6fLAhWFBBoKHe0XBw4QtwIIHDAB&usg=AFQjCNENLdLUb75kKKJ6BFqngROoPcBG1A

 

Fact Sega themselves never even handled the conversion, instead it was given to CRI to convert, probably didn't help matters either.

 

 

Crying shame really as both the Sega CD and Jaguar hardware were ideal for a lot of Sega's 2D coin-ops or clones of...and could of played host to a lot better software than we saw.

[phoenixdownita]

 

It just goes to show how quickly technology advances. In a semi-related story, I remember maybe 10 years or so back going to a museum with my family and observing a semi-professional flight simulator setup (it was obviously not meant as a consumer, but rather professional product, although I doubt it was military). Maybe 5 years earlier or so it would have seemed impressive with its photo-centric backdrops and what-not, but it was obviously not a true 3D environment and quite dated compared to normal videogame flight sims of that time that it was all but scoffed at for the most part. (I also remember an elder museum curator getting frustrated with the kids who just wanted to "shoot things.") I imagine that flight simulator setup was probably worth tens of thousands of dollars at one point and it was easily outclassed by that time by consoles that cost maybe a few hundred dollars at the most.

I came to realize that every game where the wow factor is in the tech (gfx, music) rather than in the fun factor, simply does not age well at all.

I've tried many times to go back to games I had fond memory of just because they were cool to look at .... but not 10Y later and I could barely stomach them due to severe lack of actual .... fun.

 

It is not ALWAYS the case, but more often than not tech showcase games are literally just that. I believe BL was in that category..

[+madman]

I came to realize that every game where the wow factor is in the tech (gfx, music) rather than in the fun factor, simply does not age well at all.

I've tried many times to go back to games I had fond memory of just because they were cool to look at .... but not 10Y later and I could barely stomach them due to severe lack of actual .... fun.

 

It is not ALWAYS the case, but more often than not tech showcase games are literally just that. I believe BL was in that category..

This is a pretty good rule of thumb, though I'm not sure I would've been wowed by Blue Lightning during its release.