The third game I got for my genesis was a puzzle game called Junction. Bought on credit the same day as Buck Rodgers, not a few days after I got the genesis. That is if memory serves. My childhood could very well have been spread out further than I think it was.



Junction is a hard to describe game. Firstly, it's a puzzle game. One thing that blew my young brains out was that I could pick which level I wanted to go from the menu. But I'm ahead of myself, let's try to explain how the game works, from memory. Then I'll replay it and see if I'm right, that's always the way I like to do things.



You're objective is to roll a red ball containing the gremlin from the start from point A to point B. Sliding tiles around and making him get there. Later puzzles included jumps and all sorts of zig zags and whacky things in the background. A carnival level and science level are what come to mind. The sciencey one I recall having all sorts of strange things moving around too quickly. The goal is to hit across these basketball rims on the sides. No seriously, take a look at a screenshot and tell me it isn't one.



If you follow my backloggery account, you'll notice that Junction is missing. I'm assuming I loaned the game to a cousin and it was never returned. I'm guessing the same happened to my Taz Escape from Mars, George Foremon, and Chakan games. It really bums me out that I don't have Chakan or Junction anymore, those two meant a lot to me. Chakan for the sheer brutality of it and Junction for being one of my first games on the system. Oh well. Guess I'll find a copy and play it. My mind right now is doing a recall of the intro stuff and gameplay, I wonder how right I am?



I forgot the gremlin was a robot. But I totally nailed the gameplay and style. My version that I just played didn't have music, but it did have the sound effects. One horrific sound effect when you speed up your balls movement. It's a bell ringing constantly and so jarringly loud my eyes hurt. I hunted the internet trying to find a video and in doing so, I found one with the music. I forgot how haunting the music was, but it's rang through my ears so much as a kid. I'm sure other video is out there, and I apologize for this one cutting into another game, but hey its better than nothing.



That's Junction. Far as I can tell from my usual internet sources, no sequel was ever made. However, a game gear version was available. Looks similar to the original, but ported down like most games for that system. Am I the only one who always, ALWAYS thinks of how those things ate batteries as soon as they're mentioned? It's not enough that the Game Gear took six of them, but it seemed to last all of ten minutes. Not to go off on a tangent or anything.

Box Art



Game Gear screens



Game Gear box