In a bold move to revive the spirit of 90s arcades, Sega has somehow managed to track down and digitize two of their most bizarre creations: Magical Truck Adventure and Emergency Call Ambulance. Because what's more nostalgic than racing an ambulance to the hospital before its passenger dies in agony?
Magical Truck Adventure is exactly as advertised - a game where you control a train handcar (not actually a truck) while pumping a lever like a madman to keep it going, all while teleporting between stages and jumping over barrels. It's like a fever dream of Sega's glory days, when games were built around fancy-pants CRT screens and the phrase "just 3 bucks for three minutes" was a real thing.
The emulated version is mercifully easier on the arms than its arcade counterpart, but still manages to capture the essence of being utterly bewildered by Sega's creative choices. Who thought it'd be a good idea to time-travel in a train handcar? I mean, besides Sega.
Meanwhile, Emergency Call Ambulance is like something out of a bad dream - or a particularly sadistic medical training simulator. You're an ambulance driver with a patient on the brink of death, and you have to speed to the hospital before they flatline (literally). The game's highlights include oncoming traffic, pedestrian accidents, and the occasional passing ambulance that crashes into a nearby sea.
It's amazing how these games manage to be both hilarious and morbid at the same time - like watching a train wreck in slow motion. Sega must have been going for some kind of avant-garde art statement, but instead they just ended up with two bizarre games that are perfect additions to Yakuza Kiwami 3.
So if you're looking for a gaming experience that will leave you questioning the sanity of Sega's developers, look no further than these two glorious train wrecks. And who knows - maybe someone out there will actually beat Magical Truck Adventure on hard mode without needing a chiropractor afterwards.