Dynamite Headdy (8-bit)

Dynamite Headdy is an action platform game developed by Treasure and published by Sega originally for the Sega Genesis in 1994, and is the third game to be developed by Treasure. A Game Gear port was released the same day and was done by Minato Giken, and also saw a release on the Master System in 1995, which was exclusively released in Brazil. While the Genesis/Mega Drive version is pretty decent, the Game Gear and Master System versions, not so much, which is why this article will focus on the later two.

Why These Ports Exploded

 * 1) The graphics are ugly compared to the original Genesis game.
 * 2) The music in this version is awful. While Walk Towards Me sounds decent, others like South Town's Theme are poorly remixed.
 * 3) All of the Keymasters had their heads replaced by Maruyama/Trouble Bruin’s.
 * 4) Strangely, Fingy/Heather does not appear in this version at all.
 * 5) Headdy always moves slow no matter what. sound familiar?
 * 6) The controls are very clunky and awkward, since controlling Headdy is somewhat unresponsive until attacking is slow, especially if you attack from above.
 * 7) The sound that plays when Headdy launches his head away from his body is a corny PLUCK
 * 8) The Tutorial, shoot em up and gatekeeper levels and secret final boss against Hayao Nakayama were removed, and North Town and South Town have been merged into one Puppet Town.
 * 9) The Game Gear version suffers from awful screen crunch.
 * 10) The Sega Genesis Nomad was released a year later and could play the Genesis version, rendering this port pointless.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) The Master System version, while it's not that great, it has some pretty cool stuff, like for example the colors are brighter (it's still ugly though), fixes the crackle of the screen of the Game Gear version which is now very big and wide, which makes this version more bearable.
 * 2) Unlike the original Sega Genesis version, the opening and closing cutscenes are text based, so they do a better job at explaining the plot of the game.
 * 3) It still retains the spirit and vibrancy of the Genesis version.
 * 4) The idea of ​​porting Dynamite Headdy on Game Gear is a cool concept, Sonic the Hedgehog had great games on the Game Gear and Master System, and mh:awesomegames:Ristar and Treasure's own mh:awesomegames:Gunstar Heroes both had great Game Gear ports, unfortunately, with Dynamite Headdy, it was poorly executed.