The Sega Addicts record episode 53 tonight!

You guys have been picking awesome Gems since you came back. This is probably the SG/SMS game that’s the most underrated. There still really isn’t a puzzle game like it, kind of like a puzzler and platformer rolled into one. It screams for an XBLA update!

While I’ve never played the SG-1000 version, Penguin Land on the Master System, which I believe is pretty much the same game with some enhancements, provides to me some of my oldest gaming memories. Here are a few questions:

1. The level generator. How awesome is that? Have you ever made any fun high-concept levels or anything?

2. One of the first games ever to have the battery save. Again, for those custom-made levels. When you look at the SMS games that had a battery save (Penguin Land, Monopoly, Golfamania) and the games that didn’t (Golvellius, Zillion, SpellCaster) do you think SEGA’s choices on the matter were suspect?

3. I always liked how while the majority of gameplay seems pretty grounded in reality (a penguin pushing an egg through ice to avoid polar bears) there is somehow inexplicably a huge moon/space theme. Sat beside Phantasy Star, it seems that early SEGA had some weird space fetish. Thoughts? Does the game ever explain why the penguin is in space?

4. What’s your favorite action in Penguin Land? Mine is watching the polar bear flail on the ground after you push your egg to fall on him. Love the animation for that!

5. How is it that the large penguin is able to stand on a cracked block without breaking it, but a small egg containing a smaller penguin will cause the crack to break?

6. When confronted with the egg, rather than eat it as you’d expect, the polar bears instead punch it and follow up with a celebratory dance. My only explanation is that polar bears are pro-abortion. Thoughts?

6. Best SEGA bird-on-a-mission game…Penguin Land or Flicky?

7. If they were to make a modern Penguin Land, how do you think they’d do it and what would you like to see?