It may be one of the worst beat em ups I've ever played. Basically you get punished for fighting and need to get through the level as fast as possible.
The Atari Lynx was so advanced for its time. These comparisons don't do it justice, through no fault of yours, but because of these games in particular. Klax was fantastic, although playing it with the Lynx held sideways was a little uncomfortable. Batman Returns had me asking, why did they bother? It was a pack-in title for the Lynx II, so it ought to have been a multiplayer title, like California Games, the pack-in title for the original Lynx. Either that or have gone with a better multiplayer game like Warbirds.
Very well said! One of the big downsides to these comparison videos is that exclusives by their very nature can't be featured. Batman Returns is a very bizarre choice for a pack in game because of A) how bad it plays and B) the fact it's a licensed game. You'd think they would want an Atari property to be the pack in. Actually California Games would be a fantastic choice now that you mention it.
The Lynx was an astonishingly forward-looking console in many ways, with some capabilities comparable to the Super NES. It was severely constrained by the video drivers available in the late eighties. The primary bottleneck was its display. The underlying hardware was much more performant. The Game Gear, by comparison, was a weaker system overall but benefited from a better display since it came out a year later, so while its games don’t feature sprite scaling/rotation or advanced audio, everything looks sharper and more colorful.
I feel bad for the fate of the Lynx. It was ahead of its time and suffered because of it. The tech just wasn't quite there yet. Even still, I think it's a really cool handheld that doesn't get nearly enough love.
Even though the Lynx was limited to 16 on screen colors at once, some games managed to go beyond that limit, like Shadow of the Beast. But games on the Lynx still look really good despite the color limitation!
Interesting to see all of the cross-platform titles between the Lynx and Game Gear together. Since the list is small, I'll list the ones that win on each platform in my opinion. Winners on the Lynx: Desert Strike (not as detailed, but runs well and is definitely more fun) and Missie Command (looks good, has 3 missile batteries though no individual control, and has weapon upgrades...plus it came with Super Asteroids; GG version is okay too but not as interesting), Winners on the Game Gear: Batman Returns (Lynx version looks good when not moving, GG though plays much better), Paperboy (plays better, looks about as nice, runs smoother), and Super Off Road (no contest: the framerate on the Lynx version hampers gameplay too much). Tie: Klax (...), Lemmings (both are pretty good portable ports with pros and cons), Ms. Pac-Man (I like how Namco's GG port plays, but Atari's version for the Lynx has a lot of nice feature and plays ok enough), and Super Skweek (Lynx has more vertical tiles visible and, IMO, looks nicer while GG has music and scrolls better). I think, in these particular titles, the good/bad are more evenly split than some other library comparisons. But, this is a small list of titles that the Lynx and Game Gear share. The Lynx's biggest issue, aside from some performance problems in some games, is just simply the small library of games. Atari needed more 3rd-party developers on board and the games probably needed more money thrown at them to compete with the Game Gear or Game Boy. A few commercial games and definitely some homebrew titles show the Lynx's potential. Neither could compete with the Game Boy where it counts for a handheld: battery life. I think the Lynx is a little bit better here than the Game Gear (and Turbo Express though neither are quite as short as the Nomad...it's why my Nomad almost never is played with the battery clip). The Lynx, Game Gear, Turbo Express, and Nomad are all really cool handhelds, but the battery lives made them less affordable to play on the go than the Game Boy (and GBC, GBA, Wonderswan, and Neo Geo Pocket/NGPC). And, that was important.
So well said my friend! I don't think I can really disagree with your list of winners. I may give the Lynx a slight edge over the GG for the cool factor of being able to hold it in a vertical direction but...it's Klax. Super Off Road & Batman Returns on the Lynx were some of the worst handheld games I've ever tried which is a shame because both look really great if you just see still photos. You're spot on with how the game library is a huge factor in the overall discussion with these. The Lynx shared the same fate as a console like the Wii U or even just going back to Atari's history, the 7800 and Jaguar.
GEAR WINS: *Batman Returns* (it was almost a tie...but then I've noticed that I've confused my headphones, so it turned out that the only redeemable future of the Lynx' one was some big sprites, ehh) *Desert Strike* (sound is kinda annoying, but visually it's kinda works better as an 8-bit game, even though the Lynx' one was much closer to it's 16-bit counterpart, for better or worse) *Lemmings* (better visuals UI included, even though it slightly lacked in the sound department) *Ms. Pac-Man* (WAY closer to the original game) *Paperboy* (slightly better graphics, way better sound and game speed) *Super Off Road* (ahah, you again?... XDD) *Super Skweek* (arcade games should have at least some music during gameplay) LYNX WINS: *Missile Command* (slightly better presentation/color pallet) TIES: *Klax* (more or less the same)
Lol oh yes, Super Off Road on the Lynx again. Excellent assessment as usual my friend! Batman Returns to me is the most disappointing game I've played on the Lynx because it looks fantastic but it's almost unplayable. I've never seen a game like it where you play as Batman yet get punished for fighting. I may give Klax the slight win on the Lynx due to the novelty of having a vertical screen. Overall though I'd pick the Game Gear but I have a lot of respect for the Lynx.
Lynx McPixel vs Game Gear. Welp there is a clear winner here.. lol Winner: Game Gear Not a fan of the Lynx never have been. It had too strong of competition from Game Boy and Game Gear. Nice showing and thank you for playing Lynx games for us buddy!!!
Lol! I do have a soft spot for anything Atari so I've gotta give credit to the Lynx but if I had a choice between the big 3 handhelds of the time I'd definitely pick the Game Gear. Thanks as always for watching my friend!
I personally preferred it too, at least when it comes to these cross-platform games. Not to take anything away from the Lynx though which I think was ahead of its time.
strange that Atari lynx has 4098 color And the the Console have A technique similar to Mode 7 But its week in the grafx and fps is slow then game gear Who have just 32 color and it's 8 bit Console then lynx 16 bit
It doesn't use the standard tile based graphics as other systems from the era. You can do things with it that even a SNES, Genesis, or Neo Geo can't do...but there's a high price to pay for ambition, especially if you aren't given the time and resources needed to optimize your game. It's similar to the 3DO in that regard, for pretty much the same reasons. Which makes sense, given they're sort of related...
Klax on the Game Gear proves that giving a STEM major a bigger box of crayons doesn't automatically equal better graphics... Many of those choices are...I mean, can you explain why the yellow car has a blood red outline and casts no shadows? Or explain the three flavors of ground shadow organizing like ice cream? What am I even looking at? Also, you included Batman Returns but not Double Dragon? You know, Double Dragon, the totally for reals canon 1 player game where the other dragon dies off screen? And you look for a gun the same way an alcoholic looks for a drink, like a real American? Because the combat engine is so limited that you'll do anything that ends the Euro jank Hell just that little bit faster? And let's not forget how exclusives would change the calculus. Blue Lightning vs. Panzer Dragon mini? I like my sprites scaled in my sprite scalers, thank you. I'm not even sure what I can compare Battle Wheels with, besides other Lynx games. Is the Game Gear 32x compatible? ...Anyways, this is totally the best I can do to make the Lynx look good. Streets of Rage 2 alone turns the Double Dragon debate into a cruel joke. And Pit-Fighter is a great port of a primitive fighting game that can't even compete with bottom tier GG licensed trash like VR Troopers and Shaq for depth. Meanwhile, Scrapyard Dog easily wins "Best Mario rip-off on an Atari console", but isn't giving Alex Kidd any sleepless nights, much less Sonic and Mickey. And Asterix. And Donald Duck. And Ristar. And so on... And ultimately, that's the fate of the Lynx. It easily wins if you carefully cherry-pick the fights and opposition. But that's usually only happening if you're obsessed with Atari or would play everything anyways. In the real world, the Lynx, once you look past the cool forward thinking tech, makes the Game Gear look practical. And the Game Gear was just a cruel joke Nintendo played on Sega.
I have a soft spot for anything Atari up to the Jaguar so I really like the Lynx despite its many flaws. Having said that I think the GG blows it away in many cases. With the whole Batman Returns/Double Dragon thing it's always a tough call. Personally I like to include stuff if it's a different game but same name based on a movie/show/etc from the same time period. With Double Dragon though it's more like Weezer (The Blue Album) vs Weezer (The Green Album) where it's the same name but many years after the original and considered a completely different game in the franchise. On a separate note, I really wanna try Scrapyard Dog and I definitely will be soon enough for an upcoming Atari project since it's on the Lynx & 7800. Good to know it's pretty decent.
@@RetroComparisons The best way to approach Scrapyard Dog is... well, one man with a shrink ray vs. furries... look, I can't undo what the internet has done to that sentence. I'm sure many furries were happy to die for the cause. Let me try again. It's Adventure Island without the overeating. And a few other things. But most of all, it's a western platformer from an era where that usually means creative sadism. Inoffensive and simple really deserves some kind of an award. At least it sets a good example with all the recycling. I really look forward to your thoughts.
