What do you get when you combine pong with air hockey then add in fit, muscley, people? You get Windjammers on Neo Geo, er soon to be Sega Genesis. Originally released in 1994 by Data East, Windjammers was a unique idea. This was right in the early days of fighting games like Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat pretty much owning the arcades. To stand out, Data Easts’ release had to be different and it is certainly that.
Yep, this is another fan port. What is great here is just how amazing these ports are getting. I mean, sure these are not 100% recreated ports, that I know of, they are still amazing. I am stepping out of my realm of expertise here but I am assuming a lot of these ports are using downgraded assets from the original platform. Nothing wrong with not rediscovering the wheel here.
The essence of Windjammers seems to be here. High energy moves that give the game an almost fighting game feel, music, animations, etc. This is impressive to say the least considering the drop in colors on screen.
That is something SNK, and others, pushed hard – graphics and sound in their releases were above and beyond over the top. This was a selling point, and it had to be when games were more than the console of the competitors.
It looks like the developer has applied a CRT filter to their videos of Windjammers. This is unfortunate as it does hide a lot of details. At least I think so.
It is still impressive seeing Winjammers running on a Sega Genesis console.
I cannot say this was ever a game that was high on my dream list of Neo Geo games. I was just not into the premise, no matter how many flashy graphics and animation they added.
Cost for the game was just way too off to even add to a wishlist.
Going through the comments on various videos of Windjammers, it seems there are plans to release a physical version on Sega Genesis.
This could be troublesome depending on how litigious the owners of Data Easts’ library are. I hope they at least release a ROM download before they receive a potential Cease and Desist letter.
What do you think? Were you rocking the frisbee in arcades back in the 1990’s? Let me know in the comments.
