Water Margin on The Sega Genesis!!

[retro junkie]

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Water Margin is a game that was developed in China. I don't think it was ever released  until it was released in Taiwan in 1996 for the Sega Mega Drive. There are games that were never even published and later discovered in old development kits. Some games like this were either never finished or were finished and never released. "Water Margin – The Tales of Clouds and Winds" fits into many of these categories. The original game was in Chinese and was based on a classic Chinese novel. Piko Interactive secured the rights to the game, translated it into English, removed the copyrighted content and re-released it physically in 2015.

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The gameplay reminds me of a mixture between Golden Axe and Knights of the Round. You have three characters to choose from that are similar in moves, their stats are the only thing which is different. There is a two player feature. You can pick up gold, magic spells, and food. Gameplay advances from left to right. There are as many as five enemies on screen at one time that you have to plow through, with more to take their place as soon as you crush those in your face. This can be considered as a "hack-and-slash" beat'em up due to the use of weapons, swords, spears, etc. And if you like this sort-of game then you know what it is all about. A constant barrage of enemies that you have to beat down in order to advance toward the boss. You then smash him and you are off to the next stage to do it all over again.

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To me the game's graphics, and visual design, have the look of Knights of the Round. Large character sprites, for the Genesis, colorful, and well animated. The whole game makes a great use of the Genesis color pallet. It really doesn't look like a Genesis game, if you know what I mean. Background music is very good, but many of the sound effects are somewhat lame.

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Final Thoughts: When I first picked this up, I thought in my mind as I was playing, finally a game like Knights of the Round on the Genesis. And basically that is what this is. The game is well polished and has tight responsive gameplay. I have a copy of both the Chinese version and the new translated version. I have been trying to compare the two just to see what it is that was taken out. I haven't seen anything unless I am looking in the wrong place. It might be in the special effects. That was taken from another Genesis game, possibly Golden Axe?

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