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Title: Generations Lost
Author:Time Warner Interactive Inc.
Rom Player: Gens
Reviewer: Dr. Boogie
Synopsis: The Sega Genesis has been slighted for not having that many memorable games. I grew up with it, though, and I managed to find a few gems that show exactly the kind of quality games you could find on the Genesis if you strayed from the annual release sports games and endless incarnations of Sonic the Hedgehog. Thus I present to Generations Lost.
You play a guy named Monobe, and being of the bloodline of the “keptans,” it is your duty to investigate the mysterious disturbances that have arisen in your land, namely flooding, electrical storms, and areas in which people can float. Of course, no one expects you to do all this with your bare hands, and that’s why your village elder, the honorable “geezer” has bestowed upon you a fantastic suit once worn by his ancestors, the “Jani-tors”. Suffice to say, the plot is somewhat difficult to follow in the beginning. I assure you, though; it will all make sense when you start to make your way through the game.
Gameplay is somewhat reminiscent of Bionic Commando. The suit Monobe wears uses something called Erad, a beam that shoots out of the wrist that lets him climb up ledges far above him and, at times, swing over wide chasms just like Spiderman. Even better, the Erad can fire a bolt of energy for when your enemy is outside the range of your normal weapon (punching and kicking). Combat is secondary, however, as each stage will focus primarily on you getting around various dangerous obstacles with jumping, rolling, and use of the Erad.
To that end, the enemies you encounter are dead simple, all of them rigidly following attack patterns that are fairly easy to avoid, except for the mutants in the later levels, whose primary method of attack is leaping at you from an unseen location in such a way that they are almost unavoidable. Total cheese, if you ask me. Aside from them, most of your health will be eked away by accidentally falling into electrified water, running into spikes, and a myriad of other hazards.
Cheap enemy attacks side, the game has a few other problems. For starters, it’s a very short game. There are four stages, and each one is composed of a few short sectors that you visit via a series of transnodes. If you spend much more than an hour on the game, it’s because you’re trying to figure out which sector to visit first, and where to go therein.
Despite the shortness, however, the plot sees no real development either, like say, developed to the point where you don’t have to guess at what’s going on. Before each new stage, you read some scroll from the geezer in the beginning that gives you vague references to the different sectors, but nothing more. The conclusion is somewhat interesting, but it would’ve been nice if you didn’t have to wait to find out the whole story.
More notable, however, is the music. The opening theme is a crappy synth piece that will make you want to skip the main menu and get into the game as soon as humanly possible. Not that the music is much better in the game. Instead, you have a few minor notes and a hint of rhythm, as though the music director had only gotten a start on all the songs before the game was whisked off to publishing.
Still, it’s a fairly solid game altogether. It’s not the best by any means, but the gameplay is entertaining, and fairly novel. I recommend it to anyone looking for something different in a game, but doesn’t have too much time on their hands.
Best Cheats:
Game Play: 7
Graphics: 9
Music/Sound: 5
Originality: 8
Overall Rating: 8
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