While there has been a rise of retro remakes, HD reboots and retro inspired games, what some gamer that are casual retro game fans don’t know is that there are new games still being made for retro consoles. I was pretty surprised to hear that there are people still developing games for these long retired systems. But what about developing a game that was put on hold in the middle of development in the 90’s, almost forgotten and then completed almost twenty years later by members of the original development team? That dear reader is the story of the Sega Genesis game Ultracore which was brought back to life by Strictly Limited games and members of the original developers Digital Illusions, better known now as DICE.
Story
Ultracore is a run n’ gun shooter that takes plenty of cues from the Contra series (mainly Hard Corps and Alien Wars) that takes place in the far future. You take on the role as a solider who is a part of an assault force sent to stop some type of up rising by a person named Vance. It turns out that it Vance laid out an ambush and killed all of your fellow soldiers, destroyed crutial outposts and infested his state of the art robots in the base in under an hour. With his dying breath, your commander relays that Vance plans an invasion of your home planet as it is defenseless with its military forces spread out through the galaxy. It is now up to you to find and “destroy” Vance (its the 90’s saying the word kill in video games was a no-no) before he can carry out his plans. Si its up to you to stop him. As I mentioned Ultracore takes many similar story cues from the Contra series such as taking place in the future, an army of robots planning an invasion, the characters being in their own to fight off the invasion without back up and etc. Unlike the Contra series, which has plenty of backstory to grab from, Ultracore’s story kind of feels bland and flat. Yes fight killer robots in the future sounds really exciting, but it has been done many times before.
Gameplay
The core of Ultracore’s gameplay is run n’ gun, which is similar to Contra but without the fancy spinning jump. In all seriousness, the gameplay is really simple, solid and fun. Now unlike most modern-retro games that get modern gameplay features, the dev team tried to keep Ultracore as close as possible to feeling like an true Sega Genesis game. Which means limited to no check points and a password system to get player back where they were once they see the game over screen. The only real modern feature of the game is having the ability too shot in all directions by using the right joy stick, thus turning the game into a twin stick shooter. The game can be difficult at times with enemies spawning from right out of the screen the player is currently in and the dreading knock back stun, but other than that gameplay is very fun.
Graphics
The graphics of Ultracore feel like a true throwback to the days of the 16-bit era. The reason for that….is because the game is from the 16-bit era. Remember that Ultracore was in development in the 90’s and was almost complete until it was put on hold due to the next generation of consoles at the time were about to be released and then almost forgotten for the next two decades. Which means unlike the crisp HD sprites of modern retro games, Ultracore has authentic 16-bit SEGA Genesis graphics that, for being almost twenty years old, still hold up and look good. It kind of reminds me of the future scenes from Terminator 2, with its industrial color pallet of dark blues, browns and greens mixed in with pops of oranges, reds and yellows when enemy robots blow up.
Sound
The Sega Genesis had its very own unique sound. While not as varied as the SNES, the music capabilities of the Genesis were no slouch either as the system has produced some of the most iconic tracks in gaming as well. Ultracore however, is middle of the road. Its music sounds like a mix between the Taz Mania and X-Men video game soundtracks with its high bass and booming beat. It sounds alright, as it brings back some of that nostalgia of the 90’s. However if you want something a bit more modern sounding, there is the option to switch the music from the original to a more modern CD quality sound. As cool as the original music in Ultracore sounds, the 80’s synth wave sounds of the CD quality version really hit hard and is my personal prefer soundtrack to use when playing.
Final Verdict
For a game that was on hiatus for about two decades, Ultracore is a pretty solid throwback to the heyday of the Sega Genesis. The story is full of 90’s action movie cheese, which was good for its time but now has aged and is kind of behind the times as modern retro games have more complex stories. What’s not behind the times is the gameplay, as its fun and frantic, with various of guns to mow down the hordes of enemy robots. The graphics, even after twenty years, still hold up. As for the music, the original soundtrack brings to the ears nostalgia with the Genesis trademark sounds. However if you want to feel like a 80’s/90’s action start, then the CD version of the soundtrack will do the trick.
Overall if you’re looking for a blast to the past, a sort of time capsule of the days of 16-bit gaming, and some run n’ gun fun, Ultracore is a fun look into that era.
