The From A to Z series lets our editors go back and take a look at games from past generations that are classics, overlooked gems, or just titles they remember fondly. The idea behind this is to pick five games from each letter of the alphabet, once a week to showcase. This delivers 26 weeks and 130 games to talk about. Hopefully it sparks some conversation, and of course plenty of memories.
The third in our series focuses on Sega’s Mega Drive (Genesis in the US).
Let’s continue with the letter “W”.
Wiz N Liz
A really enjoyable, light-hearted platform game in which Wiz (and Liz) run around various bright and well-designed stages collecting errant rabbits. Each stage has a time limit, so the game is always played at a pretty frantic pace. Wiz and Liz are wizards, and the rabbits (or wabbits, as they’re known in this game) are under a spell. So they need rescuing, obviously. Wiz N Liz also has a really enjoyable two player splitscreen mode, which consumed my best friend and I for many hours as we raced around collecting rabbits. We became extremely over-competitive about the whole thing. Fabulous fun.
World Cup Italia ’90
As far as football (and by football, I mean soccer) games go, this one is actually technically pretty bad. However, World Cup Italia ’90 is memorable for its top down view of the pitch. This was the source of much amusement whenever anyone kicked a long ball, due to the changed perspective as the ball got closer to the ‘camera’. The game itself was pretty easy.
Worms
This franchise is still going strong today. While Worms has, in my opinion, always been best played on a PC, this Mega Drive version did an admirable job of making the game eminently playable on a 16-bit console. It’s turn-based combat, in which the player’s worms use increasingly outrageous weaponry to conduct all out warfare against the opponent (be it the computer or a friend in multi-player), is one of gaming’s more memorable experiences.
WWF Raw
The ’90s was really the last time I had any idea about what was going on in WWE (or rather WWF, as it was then). For me, the line-up in this game featured the best selection of wrestlers from the glory days: Heartbreak Kid, Diesel, Razor Ramon and my main man Bret ‘Hitman’ Hart, to name but a few.
Tune in next week for the next collection of titles.
YouTube Credits:
Mark Farmer
euforiagaming
arnoldthebartender
World of Longplays