I have no idea what QBert is, but I know their game is maddening. The levels are angled which forces me to quickly translate what button goes which direction. This is the cause of many, many, deaths in this title. Even though I find the game frustrating as all get out, it is a popular title. That popularity baffles me, is it because of the style of the game? Are people good at this game? No matter, it was just released for the Sega Genesis thanks to itch.io member, Jaklub.
When Sega first launched their Genesis console (on my birthday) in 1989, it was marketed as the home console for arcade fans. Packed with Altered Beast, bringing Golden Axe and After Burner II (among many other arcade ports over the years) reiterated that push Sega had going.
Interestingly, the first Sega console, at least in North America, that would see an official QBert game would be the Sega Dreamcast, released in 1999. Thanks to independent homebrew developers, at least one more Sega console would see QBert. In Japan, the Sega SG1000 was the first Sega console to get a port of this frustrating arcade title.
I am sure I am not telling anyone that has played QBert anything by mentioning the frustration. It is almost like the designer intended to make this frustrating as possible. What is impressive is the quality of this port.
First, there are two modes. Arcade and Mega Mode. Arcade is just what it sounds like, a port of the arcade levels. Great for purists.
Mega Mode features 80 new levels for you to challenge. All the classic enemies are here as well so you are going to find familiarity in the new stuff. Two player simultaneous, cooperative gameplay is also available.
Head over to itch.io and grab the download, it is free. Inside will be two versions of Mega QBert – one for NTSC and one for PAL regions.
