House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 2 Review: The Bloody Aftermath and Sullied White Cloaks

This House of the Dragon review contains spoilers. Through its first two episodes, House of the Dragon season 2 has developed an admirable rhythm. Both the premiere and now episode 2 spend their first two acts delving into the psyches of combatants on both sides of the Dance of the Dragons and, just as importantly, […]

The post House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 2 Review: The Bloody Aftermath and Sullied White Cloaks appeared first on Den of Geek.

The Sega Master System is a peculiar part of video game history. It was middling compared to its contemporaries. Not a major success but not the most laughable failure. Not the greatest console of the time but not the worst either. On paper, it was technically superior to the NES, but it was also inferior where it counted (like library and third-party support). A huge step up from the SG-1000, but completely overshadowed by the Sega Genesis.

There was little tangible identity to the Master System. It was the other console you could get, and that was it. It lacked the energy of the NES or the attitude of the Genesis. It was simply run-of-the-mill. Yet…it found life beyond expectations. In its own unorthodox way, it lived on far longer than many realized.

What games truly defined Sega’s second console through the years? Let’s take a look.

Hang-On (1986)

With Nintendo having a near monopoly on third-party support, Sega did have one big ace up their sleeve: they were godly when it came to arcade releases. All they had to do was take some of their arcade hits that people were already aware of and bring them home, fitting in as much quality as possible. Hang-On was one of their arcade hits at the time. It basically took the blueprint of Outrun but made it about motorcycles. While they already did try porting it to the SG-1000, the Sega Master System offered a nice middle ground between the two versions.

The game is pretty simple, but addictive. You weave through other motorcycles while trying to speed through the winding road without crashing and failing to beat your appointed time. It was a perfect starter game for the system, which is why it was one of the two pack-in games. The other games were either Safari Hunt or Astro Warrior, depending on the bundle. Plus there was Snail Maze, which was built into the Master System itself.

Fantasy Zone (1986)

Something the Master System had over the NES was its rich color palette. Those colors popped off the screen and really made all the difference when more cartoony games were involved. Few games truly show this feast for the eyes better than the early Sega release Fantasy Zone.

In it, you play as Opa-Opa: a sentient spaceship trying to protect its febrile world from equally silly invaders. While it’s a shoot ‘em up, the setup is more about exploration while you blow everything to kingdom come instead of just scrolling endlessly to the right. It is another arcade port, but one of the more accurate ones on the console. It received several sequels, and they only got around to making a Genesis version of the game decades later for the Sega Genesis Mini 2.

It also has one of the most hilariously offbeat endings in any video game where it gets suddenly somber and deadly serious despite this tiny, adorable spaceship thingy being fresh from blowing up a giant snowman.

Alex Kidd in Miracle World (1986)

Opa-Opa was a neat character for Sega to play with, but they needed a real mascot if they were going to compete. Someone who could out-Mario Mario. A platformer they could build the console around. Well, the closest they could figure out at the time was a monkey-looking child who was redesigned for US box art as the most generic and ugly child you’ve ever seen.

Alex Kidd started off with Miracle World, where he replaced jumping on heads with punching people and blocks with his gigantic hand. And he is tired of these jokes about it (the first such instance occurred in 1956…). There were other unique platformer mechanics thrown in, plus the occasional game of rock-paper-scissor against bosses.

Before the Blue Blur put them on the right track, Sega tried a handful of games starring Alex Kidd. A couple of these releases were going to be completely unrelated games before they decided to just throw him in there for the sake of familiarity. Ah, the Die Hard effect. Most of them didn’t even play the same, meaning they were trying to build him as a brand instead of just a franchise. Alex and his Ms. Marvel hands faded into obscurity, best represented in an Altered Beast Easter egg where his name appears on a headstone. Weird for them to bury his body in Greece, but whatever.

Space Harrier (1986)

In the 80s, Space Harrier might not have been the absolute best arcade game available, but it was the arcadiest. It was that game that you saw, and you immediately knew it was a huge deal. It was premium gaming. You knew that no h