Thank you for such a nice review of our games, I am very glad that you liked them ^_^ Just a couple of things to say: Metal Dragon is (as it was advertised from the beginning years ago on the MSX version, and again on the Genesis/Megadrive version) a parody of several games and movies, and while it contains elements that very much resemble Metal gear Solid, such as the intercom communications, you will see that if you compare them side to side, while it is obviously based on it, there are plenty of differences, (the characters portraits are 100% original and the intercom gui is different. also, in the top middle part you can read "PTSD" as in post traumatic stress disorder, and in the bottom part you can read s-ram, which is what 8 and 16 bit consoles used to store saved games) and I recreated those graphics by hand. Regarding Life on Mars, while it initially looks pretty much like Metroid, once you play it you will nottice that the game play and mechanics are VERY different. It is much more action based, much less exploration based, and you can grind/farm resources and keep leveling up your weapons power and Energy generator efficiency to your hear's content, so it has a very strong RPG element in it that no metroid has. Also, you don't die, you just get teleported back to the last save point without losing any progress or items or story advancements. Also, story-wise and setting, it is WAY more based on the Alien movies than Metroid. Please do let me know what you think once you finish it. Thank you again for your review! EDIT: I forgot to mention: Metal Dragon has a bad ending and a good ending. You will not really finish/master the game until you get to see the good ending, so it's not as easy as it seems!
And yes, Metal Dragon's humor is not for everyone, but plenty of people has stated that they loved it, had a lot of LOLs and some even went to say that the humor is what they liked the most, so, while it's not for everyone, there are people like me who really like it ^_^
Thanks for the feedback. I did forget to mention that you don't actually die in Life on Mars. Great games.. hope we see more of your titles on Evercade.. I am very intrigued of the Snatcher like title coming soon..
That music on life on Mars is sooooo damn good!!! Cant get the level tune out my head lol both are great games and a solid gem for us to get on the evercade 🎮👌
This looks fantastic and I have pre-ordered this one. I’m very much looking forward to seeing what we will get next year from Blaze, I’m hoping we get more of these high quality retro inspired indie games. They are a great fit for the Evercade.
Great video as always. I played both these on Antstream Arcade and wasn't overly impressed but the Life on Mars is the OG and not remastered version. Maybe pick this up on an Evercade release dry spell. Keep up the awesome work!
The Antstream Arcade version of Life on Mars is the original 8 bit version and it is VERY different from the PC-Steam and Mega-Drive versions, to say the least ^_^;
Myself, I enjoyed Life on Mars. It's by no means perfect, being hit or miss at parts, but who can say no to a metroidvania on Mars? I think some of the backgrounds are some of my favorite backgrounds yet seen in a genesis homebrew. I skipped Life on Earth, but I am hoping their next title will be their best game yet.
The whole game sound and music are PCM samples. This is a Genesis/Megadrive game. That console has just 1 PCM channel that plays at a maximum rate of 32Khz. We use a technique very similar to the commodore Amiga to play 4 channels of PCM at the same time, but that divides the quality by 4, so each channel has a quality of 8Khz. This has never been done before on a Genesis/Megadrive. Yes, the quality is sub-optimal, I understand, but we really wanted to go for this retro-PC/amiga feel with only PCM music and sound effects and try to recreate a more "alien" vibe. If you want better sound quality you can get the PC Steam version, where everything plays at 44Khz.
It is so great to meet the actual developers in the comment section! What an honor! Thank you for the detailed answer. The game definitely reminds me the GBA Metroid titles, which I loved. I am really looking forward to playing your creation. Thanks for explaining your artistic intentions with this one. I wish you good success on the Evercade platform.
@@CZpersi Thank you for your very kind words ^_^ The honor is mine for being able to be part of the amazing Evercade community! My favourite Metroid game is GBA's Metroid Fusion, and you will see some familiar scenes in Life on Mars. I just couldn't resist ^_^
A TRI-CART you say Crazy Burger. An interesting idea! How would that one work compared to DUEL?! What blend of Three games would you choice for that to work Crazy Burger?! 🤔
The inclusion of posters is really good. Stickers are fine, but cards and posters are better. These games are alright. But I’m going to pass and hope more native games come to the evercade. I think they will be a better long term bet for the ecosystem. I guess they have made all the easy licensing deals and it may be harder and harder to get more. And I doubt sega will release anything on this system after the experience they had with AT Games.
I'm walking round in circles on Life On Mars, what the hell am I supposed to do!? I can't beat the boss at top level,I can't find boosters for my suit and can't find flame thrower. Seems a good game, but becoming boring playing the same rooms over and over with no way past.
If you cannot beat any of the bosses, then slow down, get back into the level and grind for more power cells to upgrade your weapons. It does make a difference. If there are no more enemies to kill, then leave the area and come back to make them respawn. Also, the main gun is not as useful as the secondary weapons, which should be upgraded as much as you can. Most enemies have vulnerability to either the flame thrower or grenade launcher. Also, as I am more of a casual gamer, I did use savestates and would definitely recommend to anyone, who feels frustrated by the difficulty.
Thank you for such a nice review of our games, I am very glad that you liked them ^_^
Just a couple of things to say: Metal Dragon is (as it was advertised from the beginning years ago on the MSX version, and again on the Genesis/Megadrive version) a parody of several games and movies, and while it contains elements that very much resemble Metal gear Solid, such as the intercom communications, you will see that if you compare them side to side, while it is obviously based on it, there are plenty of differences, (the characters portraits are 100% original and the intercom gui is different. also, in the top middle part you can read "PTSD" as in post traumatic stress disorder, and in the bottom part you can read s-ram, which is what 8 and 16 bit consoles used to store saved games) and I recreated those graphics by hand.
Regarding Life on Mars, while it initially looks pretty much like Metroid, once you play it you will nottice that the game play and mechanics are VERY different. It is much more action based, much less exploration based, and you can grind/farm resources and keep leveling up your weapons power and Energy generator efficiency to your hear's content, so it has a very strong RPG element in it that no metroid has. Also, you don't die, you just get teleported back to the last save point without losing any progress or items or story advancements.
Also, story-wise and setting, it is WAY more based on the Alien movies than Metroid.
Please do let me know what you think once you finish it.
Thank you again for your review!
EDIT: I forgot to mention: Metal Dragon has a bad ending and a good ending. You will not really finish/master the game until you get to see the good ending, so it's not as easy as it seems!
And yes, Metal Dragon's humor is not for everyone, but plenty of people has stated that they loved it, had a lot of LOLs and some even went to say that the humor is what they liked the most, so, while it's not for everyone, there are people like me who really like it ^_^
Thanks for the feedback. I did forget to mention that you don't actually die in Life on Mars. Great games.. hope we see more of your titles on Evercade.. I am very intrigued of the Snatcher like title coming soon..
@@CrazyBurgeroh wait, really? Snatcher was awesome. Played it on the sega cd
That music on life on Mars is sooooo damn good!!! Cant get the level tune out my head lol both are great games and a solid gem for us to get on the evercade 🎮👌
@@gamertron1991 Thank you ever so much for your kind words and for sharing this ^_^
Géniale ses jeux et le poster 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩
ordered these for the Alpa, can't wait.
Nice games , and the game mode selection is a good addition.
This looks fantastic and I have pre-ordered this one. I’m very much looking forward to seeing what we will get next year from Blaze, I’m hoping we get more of these high quality retro inspired indie games. They are a great fit for the Evercade.
Not broken the seal on mine yet but both games look good and it's a bargain right enough. Great video again CB
I've pre ordered this one and the new data east arcade collection
Life on Mars is my new favourite game on Evercade, it’s fantastic and game of the year
Mine arrive tomorrow can't wait
Great video as always. I played both these on Antstream Arcade and wasn't overly impressed but the Life on Mars is the OG and not remastered version. Maybe pick this up on an Evercade release dry spell. Keep up the awesome work!
The Antstream Arcade version of Life on Mars is the original 8 bit version and it is VERY different from the PC-Steam and Mega-Drive versions, to say the least ^_^;
I did play that version some time ago. I'm actually intrigued to get the steam version also.
Also hope for a Release on Everdrive for Life On Earth too🥵🥵🔥🔥Perhaps in Duo with The Secrets of The Four Winds😳😳🥵🥵🤩🤩🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼
@@nowaverocker Yes.. I hope so. Might not be this year.
@ There's a change this might be happen around 2026,fingers crossing🥳🥳🤩🤩
Looks like a great cart.shame there's no way to lock your fire direction in metal dragon, looks like your spinning in place to hit enemies
There is. You just hold down the A button.
Metal Dragon looks like Commando crashed into Metal Gear while being driven by a teenage edge lord version of Duke Nukem.
@@darthwiizius lol yep that's it. Very deliberate..
Myself, I enjoyed Life on Mars. It's by no means perfect, being hit or miss at parts, but who can say no to a metroidvania on Mars? I think some of the backgrounds are some of my favorite backgrounds yet seen in a genesis homebrew. I skipped Life on Earth, but I am hoping their next title will be their best game yet.
Didn’t think this was out in the UK till mid December.
Funstock shipped them early.
@ I’ve ordered from them before quite recently, but unfortunately I’ve pre ordered this from Argos!
The music in Life on Mars is intentionally like this, or is it an emulation problem?
The whole game sound and music are PCM samples. This is a Genesis/Megadrive game. That console has just 1 PCM channel that plays at a maximum rate of 32Khz. We use a technique very similar to the commodore Amiga to play 4 channels of PCM at the same time, but that divides the quality by 4, so each channel has a quality of 8Khz.
This has never been done before on a Genesis/Megadrive.
Yes, the quality is sub-optimal, I understand, but we really wanted to go for this retro-PC/amiga feel with only PCM music and sound effects and try to recreate a more "alien" vibe.
If you want better sound quality you can get the PC Steam version, where everything plays at 44Khz.
It is so great to meet the actual developers in the comment section! What an honor! Thank you for the detailed answer. The game definitely reminds me the GBA Metroid titles, which I loved. I am really looking forward to playing your creation. Thanks for explaining your artistic intentions with this one. I wish you good success on the Evercade platform.
@@CZpersi Thank you for your very kind words ^_^ The honor is mine for being able to be part of the amazing Evercade community!
My favourite Metroid game is GBA's Metroid Fusion, and you will see some familiar scenes in Life on Mars. I just couldn't resist ^_^
A TRI-CART you say Crazy Burger. An interesting idea! How would that one work compared to DUEL?! What blend of Three games would you choice for that to work Crazy Burger?! 🤔
I'd add Life on Earth to this
How much did you say this cartridge costs?
Same as most.. at £17.99
The inclusion of posters is really good. Stickers are fine, but cards and posters are better.
These games are alright. But I’m going to pass and hope more native games come to the evercade. I think they will be a better long term bet for the ecosystem. I guess they have made all the easy licensing deals and it may be harder and harder to get more. And I doubt sega will release anything on this system after the experience they had with AT Games.
I'm walking round in circles on Life On Mars, what the hell am I supposed to do!? I can't beat the boss at top level,I can't find boosters for my suit and can't find flame thrower. Seems a good game, but becoming boring playing the same rooms over and over with no way past.
@@martyrea79 Sounds like you've definitely missed something. Probably start by beating that boss.
@CrazyBurger thanks, yeah beat him last night thank god. Got the flamethrower now and double jump. All good.
If you cannot beat any of the bosses, then slow down, get back into the level and grind for more power cells to upgrade your weapons. It does make a difference. If there are no more enemies to kill, then leave the area and come back to make them respawn. Also, the main gun is not as useful as the secondary weapons, which should be upgraded as much as you can. Most enemies have vulnerability to either the flame thrower or grenade launcher. Also, as I am more of a casual gamer, I did use savestates and would definitely recommend to anyone, who feels frustrated by the difficulty.