The Congo Conundrum

We are now a quarter century past the launch and all-too-brief lifespan of our beloved SEGA Saturn. That’s long enough that, shockingly, there is a cross-section of Saturn fans that were not yet born when the console was current. That’s also the perfect environment for Saturn myths and misconceptions to form and to grow unchecked or unchallenged, and with the passage of time, become increasingly difficult to prove or disprove. What does any of this have to do with Congo: The Movie – The Lost City of Zinj? Only that Congo is often lumped in with other bad movie licenses such as The Crow: City of Angels, Batman Forever, or Dragonheart – Fire and Steel as the cream of the crap of the Saturn’s library. However, we must ask ourselves… just how many of us have thoroughly played these hideous abominations; the Saturn’s cruelest mistakes? Is it possible that we have simply accepted long-standing notions about certain games without giving them the time of day? Could Congo be a rare diamond in the rough, overlooked by the vast majority of Saturn enthusiasts?

At release the game received a wide assortment of review scores, ranging from average to downright horrible. Today, it is almost universally derided as hot garbage: a laughingstock example of one of the Saturn’s dreadful North American exclusives. So… a game uniformly regarded as crap, based upon a movie that turned out to be a dud… let’s dive in, readers! What could possibly go wrong?

To fully understand the tale of Congo, some back-story is in order. As the US launch of the Saturn loomed, SEGA of America put together a Tiger Team (later renamed Away Team): a small consortium of the very best American third party software houses. These teams received special access to Saturn documentation and support, such as it was at the time. The idea was to create the first wave of locally-produced software to complement incoming Japanese games for the all-important Western launch. This short-lived partnership produced only a small handful of games before the Team disbanded and the third party developers resumed a more standard relationship with SEGA.

One of the Away Team members was Jumpin’ Jack Software, a small California-based group that ended up contributing first Ghen War, then Congo. The team acquired the rights to produce a video game adaptation of Congo the movie, and set out to produce an ambitious first-person shooter based on the license. Unfortunately the movie flopped prior to the game’s release, saddling the forthcoming Saturn title with a perception problem.

Saturn Congo’s storyline is a clever derivative of the movie’s plot. Here, you play the role of adventurer Butembo Kabalo, an original character created for the game. Kabalo is contracted by fictional Californian telecommunications giant TraviCom Corporation for some ‘field work’ in the heart of the Congo. Expecting a large payout, he is a member of the first expedition in search of fabled blue diamonds said to be found deep in the unexplored Congolese jungle. In the movie, all contact is lost with the first expedition and the film centers around the exploits of TraviCom’s second expedition. In the game, Kabalo is the sole survivor of the ill-fated first expedition and is not sure if his satellite field reports are reaching TraviCom headquarters. Despite being injured and alone, Kabalo sees dollar signs and decides to persevere and attempt to complete the mission.

The game is an intriguing first person shooter / platforming adventure game hybrid that takes place over the eleven consecutive days of Kabalo’s expedition. On Day One, he comes to his senses deep in the Congo; sick, disoriented and alone. His life hanging in the balance, he begins a search for the plane’s crash site, hoping to find food and medicine. The play field is a maze of marked paths through the jungle that serve to both guide and to confine movement. In most cases, you cannot simply go hacking through the dense jungle growth; you must follow the beaten path. That path twists, turns, forks, climbs, and sometimes becomes wider or narrower. All around you, sprites of trees, shrubs and other jungle greenery dot the landscape. The sheer number of sprites on display are a testament to the Saturn’s 2D prowess and they do a good job of creating the illusion of a really thick jungle environment. The downside to this graphical style is, of course, massive pixelation as sprites come closer to the point of view – it does take a bit to get used to the look of the game. Still, trees, vines and shrubs being what they are, the game doesn’t end up looking a complete mess. Players used to Saturn games using 2D assets in 3D settings will grow accustomed to this in short order. These were early days in 3D graphics.

The colors are well done in the game – there is usually a good contrast between the green foliage to the brown jungle floor to grey stone monuments or outcroppings. Indeed, the first time you come across a pink sunset sky during one of the more open areas of your jungle trek, you realize that a solid amount of effort has gone in to make this game look good. As Kabalo carries on, the jungle terrain becomes more varied. There are mounds to climb and navigate, secret areas in the forest not marked on your handy TraviCom GPS device that are off the main path, ravines to cross… and yes, you can elect to jump off the timber bridges and continue your trek in the shallow river below. For a game that likes to keep you on a pre-determined path, there are instances of open-world freedom to be found here and there, as well as first-person platforming to be done. As the adventure continues, Kabalo travels through maze-like corridors of the City of Zinj, and eventually, the diamond mines. Especially in the later cases, pixelation becomes less and less of an issue and the graphics look very solid and much more presentable.

The control scheme is very much in line with what could be expected from a 2D control pad in 1996. Kabalo can walk forward or backwards or strafe left and right; he can sprint and jump and duck as well as execute either a 90 or 180 degree quick turn. Fairly standard FPS movements, really. The control itself is responsive, with two notes: Kabalo sure takes his time to rotate, at which time he is exposed to enemies, and his limited field of vision makes judging jumps difficult, especially when on narrow ledges or when climbing a hill.

Perhaps surprisingly, the game is compatible with the Saturn Mission Stick! It may seem an odd choice to implement, but it works relatively well once you get the hang of it. The game takes on a Descent vibe; it almost feels like you are controlling a ship of some kind rather than a human being. The analogue control adds nuance to the proceedings, and targeting and shooting become perhaps more novel. Overall it is functional, but having played the game with both the standard control pad and the Mission Stick, the pad performs better, if for no other reason than it can get quite tiring using the stick. Flight games tend to feature smoother and more subtle movements which a fight stick can accentuate, whereas in a FPS, aiming at enemies coming in from all directions is a more jarring control experience. Most will likely prefer the pad.

As mentioned earlier, there is quite a bit of platforming to be done in Congo. Initially the game behaves as an ‘open’ corridor shooter, but as Kabalo progresses, he is asked to ascent ramps and negotiate raised platforms, and manage various jumps. One can’t help but get the sentiment that at some point, the developers thought ‘gee, what other cool things can we make with this new 3D system we have here?’. Some of these design choices are novel; some end up being frustrating. Ultimately, there is a fair bit of adventuring to complement the shooting on offer.

Due to the nature of the terrain, draw distance is never an issue, and in the few very open areas, the foreground blends very well with the background image. The framerate is steady and solid – if anything, the massive pixelization is what will detract from the experience long before the framerate ever does. Never unplayable or appalling, the framerate will sometimes dip lower if there are also effects on-screen.

No FPS game is complete without enemies to dispatch. Like in the movie, apes are your primary foe here. Being social creatures, they typically attack and charge at you in numbers. Once they reach you, they’ll kick you and they’ll beat you and they’ll tell you it’s fair, so beat it… but you wanna be bad!* Here, Jumpin’ Jack did a great job of programming some of the apes’ behaviors. Face to face, they will charge and pummel you, but they are also clever enough to hold the high ground, or stay across a chasm, and hurl stones at poor Kabalo’ head. In later levels, the apes are replaced by the much more powerful and aggressive grey gorillas – the true guardians of the Zinji diamonds – and these take considerably more effort to wipe out.

Taking some video game liberties, apes aren’t Kabalo’s only enemies. The very first enemies he encounters are giant yellow spiders. There are also Colobus Bats (think miniature flying monkeys), giant mosquitoes (always attack in swarms), chameleons (so cute, so deadly!), Voodoo Totems (poles of pain) and other relics and statues, as well as multi-headed snakes (because, reasons!) to impede progress. Most of these enemies can hurl stones or spit venom, causing considerable damage or even poison. Most enemies attack in waves, so seeing one giant moth, or one hydra-like snake, is a good indicator that others lie waiting in ambush. Unlike Kabalo, enemies have no trouble at all in travelling all across the map – they are not confined to any paths. The enemies are all well-drawn 2D sprites which scale and animate respectably, although they get quite pixelly when up close. Being 2D also means the Saturn can handle many of them at a time, and it’s not uncommon for Kabalo to find himself surrounded by a pile of dead primate / arachnid / reptile corpses that he has mercilessly mowed down. Hey – this is the Congo we are talking about; the Law of the Jungle. You have to beat it…. beat it…. beat it…. beat it…. no one wants to be defeated!*

To tackle the relentless hordes of jungle denizens, Kabalo makes use of high-powered weaponry available to him. Take up a machine gun or a shotgun and show them how funky and strong is your fight; it doesn’t matter who’s wrong and who’s right*. Kabalo has a total of five weapons he can carry in the game, starting with the default pistol. The pistol is your standard beginner’s weapon and the only one that can never run out of ammo (although – should you deplete down to one bullet, it will fire sloooowly as a consequence of your poor ammunition management, so beware!) The shotgun is powerful and has a dispersal that can take out multiple foes in close proximity, the machine gun sprays lead in rapid succession, the bio bazooka rains death with heat-seeking missiles, and finally, the phasic laser, found near the end of the game and using diamonds (!) as ammo slices and dices through gorillas like a knife through warm butter. Each weapon has its’ strengths depending on the situation, and the game provides enemies to shoot in abundance. Ammunition conservation quickly plays an increasing role in Kabalo’s odds of survival.

This game sucks!

Everyone who hasn’t played past the first few levels

Littering the jungle / city / cave floors is not only various types of ammo, but also two kinds of health packs (either 15% or 100% health restore), bottles of antidote, and even backpacks. Ammo and health packs are self-explanatory; the antidotes help stave off poison effects which plague Kabalo during some levels and the backpacks allow our intrepid adventurer to carry more total ammunition. Speaking of antidotes, Kabalo spends a few levels sick with fever. This has the interesting effect of making the entire screen shimmer and wave about, and all your on-screen indicators temporarily vanish. Especially in Day Four and Nine, Kabalo’s fever can get so bad that not only does the screen shimmer and undulate, but the cardinal directions on the d-pad become temporarily reversed. Imagine running from – or indeed standing your ground and engaging enemies – only to have your controls reverse at a moment’s notice. You have to show them that you’re really not scared, you’re playin’ with your life; this ain’t no truth or dare.* These reversed controls simulate the fever gripping Kabalo and is done very well; it adds a good sense of desperation to the game. Later levels feature effects such as earthquakes, and this literally translates to a shockwave passing through the terrain. Awesome. For a first generation title, Congo is really checking off a lot of boxes.  

Combat and platforming bring out one of the game’s frustrations: the game plays in a 4:3 aspect ratio, and in today’s world of letterbox displays, this has the effect of reducing your field of view – effectively, Kabalo has no peripheral vision. It takes precious seconds to turn yourself around, especially as you are being pummeled from behind or from the sides. Sure, all games from the era displayed like this, but the way enemies attack in groups and the length of time it takes Kabalo to turn around (the quick-turn functions help somewhat) elevates the level of frustration. Similarly, there are several areas where Kabalo must traverse narrow ledges or stone outcroppings, and must time his jumps well. Having such a restricted field of view is a huge detriment here. A mild fish-eye lens or a look feature independent of Kabalo’s movement would also have done wonders for the narrow field of view, but alas… this was 1996.

Pausing the game brings up TraviCom’s proto-GPS device. It displays a square view of the world map, along with your current coordinates. It does not track which areas you have already visited, so you must pay attention. Luckily, the much smaller in-game map indicator does indicate where you’ve been, so it is not overly difficult to consult both maps when necessary. Aside from the map, your ammo and health levels are also displayed, along with your cumulative diamond count. The player can bring up the level’s objectives from the TraviCom device as well. To conclude a level, Kabalo must find a small field camera / tripod / portable satellite dish (proto-iPhones, circa 1995) in order to beam out a field report to the telecommunications giant, and the level ends. You are then graded solely on how many diamonds you have collected. Collect them all, and an air drop of ammo and other goodies await you at the start of the following Day. Miss too many and you begin to receive employment-threatening messages from TraviCom, curse their corporate hides!

Perhaps surprisingly, the game uses none of the music score from the movie. Indeed, in-level music consists of mostly a subdued background track overlaid with multiple jungle chirps, roars, elephant trumpeting, and other ominous sounds. The effect is very appropriate, although the distant roars in the music track can sometimes be mistaken for an imminent enemy attack that isn’t really there. During production, Jumpin’ Jack received assistance from the SEGA Sound Team, so it is perhaps disappointing that the soundtrack is not more robust, but what is there is certainly contextual. Positional sound is also done properly. Sounds come from either the left or right audio channel as appropriate based on their location in relation to Kabalo.

Similarly, very little footage from the movie has made its’ way into the game. Aside from short clips of a telecommunications satellite orbiting Earth and some blurry cuts of a ghost tribe taken from the movie, the rest of the footage was shot specifically for the game. Here, Jumpin’ Jack must be given credit for engaging A Commotion Pictures in order to produce the shots. The sequences are well made, the acting is excellent and the costumes and sets are extremely convincing. Especially at the conclusion of the game, the clips of television news reports are done so well that it would be difficult to distinguish them from actual news broadcasts of the time. Further, original and movie footage is integrated seamlessly. On the technical side, Duck Corporation’s TruMotion was used to compress the clips into the game and the result is a surprisingly clean, full-screen experience. To hear more about how TruMotion featured in the Saturn’s lifespan, be sure to listen to our S4E3 podcast episode, “Duck Tales with Dr. Eric Ameres”, where we interview the man responsible for developing TruMotion for SEGA.

This brings us to the elephant (gorilla?) in the room: if this game has so much going for it, why it is so universally derided? There are two primary reasons: the heavily pixelated look of the jungle levels and the punishing difficulty level.

The game’s level of difficulty is utterly merciless. This game is HARD. Even once the player has mastered all the controls at their disposal, enemies tend to come hard and fast, leaving very little reaction time to escape unscathed. Only three lives are available to the player, and there are only a couple more to be found in the entire adventure. Once all the lives are used up, it’s not only Game Over, but the game erases its’ save file to ensure you must start back at the beginning.

Want to start on Easy difficulty? Sure, that’s what I did, too. Then I completed Day 5 and received a lovely ‘congratulations’ screen for making it halfway through the adventure, and informing me that this was too easy for me. In order to continue the adventure, to explore Zinj and to see the second half of the game, one must choose at least Medium difficulty, where the enemies are faster and cause more damage.

Kabalo’s slow turning makes it tough to avoid enemy hits, especially if enemies sneak up in ambush. This means absorbing several punishing hits just whilst Kabalo positions himself to retaliate. Sometimes, merely opening a door or turning a corner pits Kabalo face to face with enemies / guardian statues / traps that attack in microseconds, leading to cheap hits. The game is not exactly abundant in health and ammo pick-ups, and many were the times I either ran out of ammunition completely or hobbled along as a wounded one-hit wonder looking for health. Want to know what it’s like to tackle a boss fight with only a slow pistol? No invincibility / God / cheat codes have been found for this game as yet, so the player is in for a rough ‘n tough ride. Ultimately, in order to complete it, I played the game via emulation because it would have taken months to learn the game intimately enough to finish properly. Yes, the game is that tough.

This might explain why every single review / feature / video that can be found of the game – every single one! – only features jungle scenes, which comprise the first few levels only. I get the distinct impression that very few players, including those providing reviews and critical opinion, have ever found Zinj (Day 6 out of 11 in the game). The game is much more than a tough, pixelated romp through the jungle. For example, in Days 6 and 7 of his trek, Kabalo is exploring the City and the Temple of Zinj. Both feature impressive architecture, from winding, ascending passageways to giant open-air coliseums to domed hallways and wide staircases. Here, the pixelation isn’t nearly as bad, and very well drawn hieroglyphs adorn the walls, depicting the gorillas and their Zinji masters. Except for bosses, there are no enemies at all in these levels. There are only traps, enchanted totem guardians, and puzzles to contend with. An excellent change of pace. Enemies return in Day 8 – the catacombs underneath Zinj, and Kabalo must deal with much tougher grey gorillas as he navigates the uneven terrain, sidestepping various human skeletons and avoiding stalactites. Here, platforming takes on a greater importance as well. The game culminates in an exciting – but tough as nails – escape sequence as lava begins to fill the diamond mines and Kabalo must run out before being cooked. Great stuff.

Ultimately, Congo: The Movie – The Lost City of Zinj is an above-average mid-1990s FPS adventure game with all the trappings FPS games from that time period. The graphics range from overly pixelated in some places to shockingly good in others; the 3D is very stable with no warping or tearing, the presentation is nice, the video sequences are realistic, clean and well-integrated, the level design and gameplay is varied and only somewhat flawed, and once you get into it, it is not easy to put the controller down. The biggest problem is that ‘getting into it’ is made much, much harder by the insane difficulty level on offer. If you are a casual Saturn gamer, or even a hardcore gamer but with limited patience or little interest in the FPS genre, this game will not excite you. Those that love a tough old-skool gaming challenge; those that love Saturn gaming above all else and are willing to give each game its’ due, will extract enjoyment from this title. Those that invest time in climbing the ridiculous difficulty curve will find a game that, perhaps surprisingly, has much in common with Powerslave, and will be extremely satisfied with this unexpected diamond in the rough.

SHIRO Challenges!

• The obvious challenge: Finish the game on Medium difficulty. You can do it! Probably!
• Collect every single diamond in the game. Tough, tough, tough task, but as Sonic would ask: Are you up 2 it?
• There is a ‘super secret’ in Day 6 – the City of Zinj. Playing normally, you will only find one out of the three diamonds in the level. In one of the rooms, there is a mural depicting a map of the entire level… including a secret passage from the westernmost long room that leads to a buried chamber with the remaining two diamonds and a rare extra life. This is the toughest secret to discover in the game. Find this secret!
• If you haven’t noticed by now, I’ve snuck in a bunch of lines from Michael Jackson’s classic hit Beat it into the article, and for good reason. In true SEGA tradition (Moonwalker, Ready 2 Rumble Boxing Round 2, Space Channel 5), The King of Pop is a secret, playable character in the game! To unlock him, you must find his chimp Bubbles deep in one of the levels and free him. You’ll be rewarded with a single sequined glove, and suddenly Kabalo will be wearing a fedora. Beat It will start playing in the jungle, and a strong sense to grab your crotch will overcome you. You can then beat it, because unfortunately, I made the whole MJ thing up! Ha ha, I think?

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The Last Peripheral Generation

Congo is unique in that it specifically supports the Mission Stick – perhaps an odd choice of peripheral for this game, but a welcome option nonetheless.

The SEGA Saturn (and to a lesser extent, the original Sony PlayStation) is the last console to feature a full suite of high quality optional peripherals as part of its’ hardware launch. This included not only what most would consider essential add-ons (additional control pads, memory cards) but also secondary hardware compatible with a solid range of games (6-player adapter, arcade stick) and highly specialized peripherals only suitable for a narrow slice of Saturn gaming (flight stick, racing wheel, light gun). All of these were produced by SEGA themselves, leveraging their rich arcade hardware know-how to produce impressive items. Perhaps in part due to the PlayStation’s mass-market appeal and consequently, the industry’s emergence into the mainstream, peripheral hardware began to be seen as superfluous, was increasingly relegated to third parties to produce, and was no longer seen as an important piece of a platform’s appeal.

This has created an interesting sub-set in Saturn collecting: the peripheral collection. As with the software, some of the most interesting pieces of Saturn hardware stayed in Japan and never emerged in the West. Joining the specialized Stunner, Mission Stick and Arcade Racer are devices like the Floppy Disc Drive, the Battle Cable, the Shuttle Mouse, various MPEG video cards, RAM expansion carts, photo and ebook readers, and of course the modem. This highlights how the SEGA Saturn was perhaps the last great bastion of pure, original, geeky/nerdy/tech-y gaming culture, before Sony dragged the hobby into the mainstream.

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Deep Dive of the History of Congo – book to motion picture to video game

Congo the 1996 Saturn game is based on Congo the 1995 movie, which is based on Congo the 1980 novel by Michael Crichton – author of Jurassic Park. The novel is a ‘lost world’ genre story in the vein of King Solomon’s Mines, an 1885 (!) novel.  How did we get here?

King Solomon’s Mines (Haggard, 1885)

Written in 1885 by Englishman Henry Rider Haggard on a bet that he could write a better novel than Treasure Island (Robert Louis Stevenson, 1883), it tells the adventure of Allain Quartermain, a Caucasian safari hunter hired by a wealthy English aristocrat to find King Solomon’s mines deep in the jungles of Africa. Possessing an old map drawn in blood, he assembles a small team, including an enigmatic local named Umbopa, and leads an expedition into the jungle. Much struggle and intrigue unfolds before his expedition comes across the hidden Kukuana Tribe, led by their cruel King Twala and his mystic advisor, the old hag Gagool. Umbopa turns out to be the rightful ruler of the Kukuana tribe, and a struggle ensues. Using a Lunar Eclipse to demonstrate Umbopa’s ‘kingly powers’ to the Kukuanans, Quartermain and his crew are victorious and force Gagool to lead them to the treasure room deep in Solomon’s mines. They find gold, diamonds and ivory but end up trapped in the treasure room through Gagool’s treachery. Eventually, they make an escape and take what they can carry out of the mines, earning fame and a very comfortable life back home.

The novel was attractive because at that time in history much of Africa was unexplored, so the story resonated with readers of the time. The novel kicked off the ‘lost world’ writing genre and was a massive success.

Congo (Crichton, 1980)

Intentionally written as a modern-day homage to King Solomon’s Mines, Congo is the tale of several expeditions into the heart of the jungle in search of very rare Type II-b diamonds, which have industrial applications as semi-conductors. Competing American and international expeditions are sent into the Congo, but contact is lost with both. A second American expedition is dispatched, comprised of mercenaries, scientists, and a primatologist along with Amy, a gorilla trained in sign language. After much adventure, the team find the City of Zinj as well as both prior expeditions’ campsites, but no sign of life. Ultimately they discover that the previous expeditions were killed by a chimpanzee-gorilla-human hybrid race of highly intelligent, aggressive, and very social apes. These apes attack the expedition as well, and the team is forced to defend themselves. Exploring the ruins of Zinj, they discover evidence that the ancient Zinj civilization bred these apes to defend the mines and the diamonds within, and though the Zinji vanished, the apes remained. Ultimately, Amy is able to decipher enough of the apes’ language to communicate and convince them that the ruins of Zinj are bad and that the apes must leave. Success seems in hand until the nearby volcano explodes, and Zinj – including all trace of the diamonds and of the hybrid apes – is destroyed by lava. The expedition makes their hasty escape via a hot air balloon they find at one of the previous expeditions’ campsites.

Congo (Paramount Pictures, 1995)

Released as a summer blockbuster and heavily advertised as ‘based on the novel by Michael Crichton’, Congo ended up commercially successful but critically panned. The connection to Crichton was important – just two summers prior, Crichton’s Jurassic Park became a motion picture phenomenon and Paramount wanted to play off Crichton’s name recognition, even though Crichton himself had nothing to do with the film adaptation of his then-15 year old novel. The movie is only loosely based on Crichton’s book. Here, a telecommunications company not mentioned in the novel – TraviCom – sends an expedition into the Congo in search of the rare blue diamonds. Led by TraviCom’s boss’ son Charles, the interest in the blue diamonds is explained as a property of the stones that would be a game-changer in telecommunications technology. TraviCom’s first expedition goes silent, so a second expedition is sent. This new team comprises of mercenaries, an anthropologist with the sign language-talking Amy the gorilla, a Romanian treasure hunter, and Karen (yes, Karen) – associate of TraviCom. Featuring adventures somewhat reminiscent of the novel but clearly adapted for the big screen, the team eventually find Zinj, the killer apes and the diamonds, as well as Charles’ corpse holding a blue diamond. The volcano erupts. The apes are killed in the explosion and the city is buried. The TraviCom expedition escapes via hot air balloon but leaves Amy behind with silverback gorillas. 

As part of the research for this article, I (Peter) watched the 1995 film for the first time. Watching the movie in 2020 is unsatisfying as it is highly outdated in terms of plot, visual effects, and general premise, and now watches more like a B-movie than a first-rate contender. Searching for diamonds to create proto-GPS and cellular devices was surely cutting-edge in 1995, but seems duff in 2020. Even the female protagonist’s name – Karen – seems to fit the mold of a super cheesy flick. I mean, mercenaries, scientists, apes, diamonds, and… Karen.

On that note, if the movie is taken in from a B-movie, cheese point of view, then it becomes quite a riot. Much more palatable this way than the very serious motion picture it tried to be. A great Halloween flick.

Critics at the time were unkind, calling the picture a poor adaptation of the novel, although the movie is slowly acquiring a cult following as a cheesy B-film.

Congo: The Movie – The Lost City of Zinj (SEGA Saturn, 1996)

The premise behind taking out a license to create a video game based on a movie is that sales will be augmented by the movie’s name recognition, regardless of the game’s quality (especially true in pre-internet days). Release a sloppy videogame (cough… cough… The Crow) and watch it sell on the strength of the license. The risk in doing this is the possibility of the movie flopping. In the case of Congo, the movie was so poorly received that the game took on at least some of that bad reputation before anyone even picked up a controller. Whereas the Saturn game is a competent first person shooter with interesting – and even unique for its time – elements, it is forever saddled with being a game based on a horrible motion picture. The game is competent enough that simply changing the license – say, for Jurassic Park – could have made a huge difference. Change enemy sprites from apes to velociraptors, change the diamonds to canisters of dino DNA, and presto. If all other mechanics remained the same, the game would have quite possibly been received much more warmly. Although Congo: The Movie – The Lost City of Zinj won’t make anyone’s ‘Saturn Top 50’ list, it’s a fascinating, competent tile that unfortunately will forever be ‘scorned by association’ and seen as much worse than it really is.