This debut episode is a little of both, intersecting with one of SEGA's most important creations ever and developer M2's attempt to pay it tribute with a new remaster for Nintendo Switch. OOPS! Housekeeping notes on things I misremembered or misspoke on: SEGA Ages for Saturn also included arcade games; some of the tragic 3D Ages games did come to the U.S. in a heartwrenching compilation for PS2; and M2 became involved in the SEGA 3D Ages 2500 line with Vol. 20, not Vol. 2. D'oh.
SEGA Ages on Switch proves its mettle with its second debut title, a conversion of the crown jewel of SEGA's recently acquired Technosoft catalog. It's Thunder Force IV, or as people without the good sense to talk to a copy editor before reprogramming complex title graphics know it, Lightening Force. Wonky name aside, it's pretty great.
The road to NES Works begins here! It's difficult to know what the year 2021 has in store for us, but you can at least look forward to one constant (fingers crossed): This comprehensive deep dive into the Sega 8-bit catalog. Beginning this week, most of my effort for much of 2021 will be focused on exploring the history of the Sega SG-1000 before rolling into the American Master System launch, bringing these compact Sega overviews into line with NES Works 1988 (which we'll still be checking in on from time to time!). I'll also be producing extremely brief summaries of the Famicom games released in Japan in parallel to these SG-1000 titles throughout 1984 and ’85, all the way through the American NES launch. This episode kicks things off with an overview of the Sega SG-1000's launch, which happened to fall on the same day as the debut of Nintendo Famicom, and the hardware itself.
Our first dive into the SG-1000 catalog covers the three games that the internet seems convinced comprised the console's day-one releases. It's difficult to say when SG-1000 titles actually debuted, as Sega hasn't been especially granular with its published historic information. But these three carts are the first three items in the SG-1000 catalog (Borderline, Safari Hunting, and N-Sub are G-1001, G-1002, and G-1003, respectively), so that seems like a good basis for an argument here. These games share a few details in common. They're all three conversions from the VIC-Dual arcade hardware Sega and Gremlin designed in the late ’70s, which was very similar in terms of components and capabilities to the SG-1000; and they all three appear to have been developed by a newly formed studio called "Compile." I don't know, maybe you've heard of them?
Beyond the initial trio of Compile-developed shooting games for SG-1000, we have the next four titles in the platform's library, all released on some indeterminate date in 1983. While they do help diversify the system's lineup to include something beyond shooting and combat, none of these releases manage to be particularly inspiring nearly four decades later—and one game in particular, which should have been this week's big triumph, misses the mark so badly it's best forgotten about. I promise things will get better from here, though!
A few more Sega arcade conversions this week, featuring—unbelievably enough!—shooters and sports games. You sense a theme taking shape here, maybe? Yamato covers a lot of the same ground (so to speak) as SG-1000's earlier ocean warfare shooter, N-Sub, though it mixes things up slightly by focusing on surface warfare. Meanwhile, Star Jacker is a scrolling shooter that plays a little more smoothly than Borderline, though its bizarre central premise and mechanic make for a curious inverted gameplay difficulty curve. On the sports side, Champion Tennis and Champion Baseball maintain the vibe of Champion Golf: Console ports of someone else's game, decent enough for 1983 but lacking in hindsight due to the massive upheavals and improvements those sports genres had lurking in the wings of history. All in all, not the most inspiring set of games ever... but definitely better than last episode's.
Only two games feature in this week's episode, because both are interesting enough (and contain a rich enough history) to merit a more in-depth discussion. First, Sindbad Mystery brings the maze chase genre to SG-1000 by adopting a number of elements seen in early games from the genre—ranging from Heiankyo Alien to Crush Roller—but approaching these concepts in a fresh and entertaining way. And then, of course, there's Monaco GP, one of the real heavy-hitters for this console. While more constrained by technology than its arcade forebear, this SG-1000 racer acquits itself nicely with a great sense of speed and a variety of on-track hazards to manage
Sega has always been an arcade powerhouse—even now, they run arcades in Japan. They've become fan destinations for more than just playing games; I bought taiyaki in the shape of the Sega logo at their Akihabara location a year ago. And this episode showcases just how heavily Sega plowed the arcade-to-home conversion furrow from the very start, with four games based heavily on arcade properties or concepts: • Sega Flipper, arguably the first true arcade-style video console pinball game; • Pop Flamer, a port of a weird Jaleco coin-op; • Pacar, a sequel in all but name to Head On; and • Sega-Galaga... which is just Galaga, but for Sega. They're not all winners, but they're mostly good! Just pretend Pop Flamer never happened. That game could never live up to its delirious box art, anyway.
This week we hit on the two most expensive games for the SG-1000. Every console's gotta have at least one of them, right? The ultra-rare collector's chase piece that hits the brakes on any reasonable dream of ever owning a complete set? In this case, those disasterpieces are Space Slalom, a mere slip of an almost-racing game, and Pachinko, the pachinko sim so busted they recalled it. Yes, the great console gaming tradition of incredibly expensive games also being incredibly undesirable for gameplay purposes really begins here, with the SG-1000. On the plus side, there's also Zippy Race, a pretty good conversion of a minor Irem arcade hit, and Exerion, a Jaleco arcade port that tries really hard, bless its heart. And that wraps it up for 1983! Next up: 1984, surprisingly enough.
A couple of follow-ups to 1983 releases this week, as well as a couple of games that appear to have been held over from 1983. Yes, SG-1000 begins 1984 with a hangover. Pachinko II is the affordable and expanded follow-up to Pachinko. Golgo 13 is not a sequel, despite the number in the title. It's a tie-in with a long-running manga and anime series, presumably tied to a big theatrical release. Orguss is another anime property, this one related to Macross and its ilk. You know what that means: Transforming robots. Home Mahjong brings multiplayer competition to the console mahjong space, using a fascinating physical accessory to make such a thing possible on a single television.
Yet another look at a Lode Runner game? Yes, that's right. It was a pretty big deal back in the early ’80s. The upside to this repetition is that the SG-1000 version of the game makes possible a direct comparison against its contemporary release, providing a clear picture of what the two platforms were all about. Also this episode, Sega finally starts to push beyond the innate limits of the hardware with another racing game and two more Champion sports titles, all of which employ graphical tricks that help make the console look a little more competitive against the competition at Nintendo.
Sega embraces its feminine side as 1984 comes to a close, with not one but two games starring a female protagonist, and the result is the single strongest set of games we've seen to date on SG-1000. And there are only three titles this week instead of four, because there was so much to say about each of them! 1984 was a bit of a soft year for SG-1000 (for reasons I speculate on in this episode), but it certainly ends on a strong note. The stage is set for the console to finally come into its own in 1985 as the platform evolves into the Mark III/Master System. I know this series of videos got off to a pretty painful start with some iffy releases, and it didn't help that my video capture setup didn't reproduce the system's colors accurately. But from this point on, the games will be much stronger... and I'm capturing from original hardware now, so everything will look great, too. This episode's games: Hustle Chumy would have been a high point in any other episode so far, but here it'
While Segaiden has covered every SG-1000 release through the end of 1984 at this point, there's technically still a set of games for the system that need to be touched on. Eight (or technically nine) unique releases for SG-1000 appeared in 1983 and ’84, under a non-Sega publisher, branded for release on a different console. Nevertheless, they're a part of SG-1000 history, as each of them runs on the system with no fuss. Yes, this episode we look at the SG-1000's semi-official clone, the Tsukuda Original Othello Multivision. With eight unique carts and one built-in ROM, it's worth exploring... but only barely. These games are generally of MUCH lower quality than Sega's own releases. In this episode, we explore: • Othello • Q*Bert • Guzzler • Space Mountain Buckle in. It's a pretty bumpy ride.
Well, I survived. I made it all the way through the Othello Multivision's library. If you thought the first four games were unimpressive, that's only because you had no idea what Tsukuda Original had up its sleeve for 1984: Yet another mahjong game, a glacial Xevious clone, and Video Works' very first (of many...) horse race-betting sim. But at least there's a somewhat inventive golf title and a solid conversion of a beloved (albeit crazy difficult) James Bond game. This version fixes a titling error from the previous upload. This episode's titles: • San Nin Mahjong • Challenge Derby • Okamoto Ayako no Match Play Golf • Space Armor • James Bond 007
Sega enters 1985 with the hottest game of 1982, and the good news is that Zaxxon looks and plays far more convincingly than its sibling release Congo Bongo did back in 1983. This adaptation of the arcade hit makes some curious tweaks to the game's flow and design, and it adds a bit of background music, which sets it apart from other conversions of the game. But in a good way, mostly. Champion Pro Wrestling fares less impressively, especially in hindsight. Apparently we have Sega to blame for how Tag Team Wrestling turned out on NES, with the sluggishness and the menus and the whatnot. Stupid Champion Pro Wrestling.
Sega winds down the cartridge format for SG-1000 in favor of a new media type, and this corner of the console library unfortunately wheezes to a half-hearted ending. Somehow, Sega even managed to completely squander Konami's brief show of support for the platform by turning in a pair of clumsy arcade conversions in the form of Shinnyuushain Tooru-kun (aka Mikie) Hyper Sports (a cousin to Track & Field). On the other hand, GP World does at least innovate a little bit in SG-1000's well-trodden racing lineup, and Tekhan's Star Force puts in a respectable showing, even if it's not quite up to the standards set by Hudson's Famicom/NES conversion.
Sega's 8-bit family goes on a diet this episode, with the SG-1000 media format suddenly slimming down from chunky cartridges to the svelte MyCard format, a credit card-sized chip that was so well-received that Hudson ripped it off wholesale for their PC Engine/TurboGrafx HuCards. Of course, this is really just a cosmetic change; the SG-1000 wouldn't enjoy proper technical enhancements until later in 1985 with the arrival of the Mark III. (Well, that was probably later in 1985; as this episode once again explains, Sega did a godawful job of tracking SG-1000 software launch dates.) Sega's 8-bit family goes on a diet this episode, with the SG-1000 media format suddenly slimming down from chunky cartridges to the svelte MyCard format, a credit card-sized chip that was so well-received that Hudson ripped it off wholesale for their PC Engine/TurboGrafx HuCards. Of course, this is really just a cosmetic change; the SG-1000 wouldn't enjoy proper technical enhancements until later in 1985 with
Beginning with this episode, I'll be knuckling down to wrap up as much of the SG-1000 video series as possible by the end of 2021. There are only about half a dozen episodes to go after this! It's a pretty small library, but the best times are ahead of us. This episode looks at, technically, three arcade conversions: Zoom 909, Choplifter, and Pitfall II. Of course, the two latter games got their start on Apple II and Atari 2600, respectively, but around the same time these carts hit stores, Sega also reworked them into pretty good arcade games. The question is whether or not that arcade magic rubbed off on these releases...
This week brings us two SG-1000 releases that feel miles removed from the console's earliest days of serious-looking war game: Doki Doki Penguin Land and Drol. Rather than involving the relentless destruction of military vehicles (and, by extension, the squishy humans inside them), these two titles see you doing your best to protect children. While some retributive violence is involved here, those polar bears definitely had it coming. Of the two, Penguin Land feels like the more meaningful work. It really elevates the production values of SG-1000 games and speaks to a Sega that's getting serious about its home development efforts: A wholly original creation for console that contains ample depth and subtle, precise controls and interactions. It's a real stand-out. Drol admittedly doesn't fare quite as well, but it has its merits, too. With this episode, I think it's safe to say SG-1000 has turned a corner, and you can expect to see more games on Penguin Land's level quality in the co
More arcade ports for SG-1000? Say it ain't so! These titles aren't especially well known in the U.S., since they've never seen a proper console release here (outside of maybe some collection that doesn't come immediately to my mind), but both merit a close look. EDIT: Moments after this video went live, I became aware of Taito Milestones, an arcade collection for Switch that will include Chack'n Pop. So there ya go. Taito's Chack'n Pop may not impress quite as much on the technical front as the more familiar Famicom version, but it features better level design... albeit with an absolutely unforgiving difficulty level. Sega's own Bank Panic plays like a clever attempt to capture the spirit of Nintendo's Wild Gunman without the use of a light gun, and the results end up being quite a bit more successful than you might expect.
A bit of an emphasis on day jobs this episode, but fortunately one of these games offers more than mere workmanlike effort. Activision's Rock'n Bolt stands out this week as one of the SG-1000's most appealing puzzlers—certainly a more interesting take on the genre than Soukoban, which gets credit for its primal nature but not for possessing any sort of audio-visual flair. And then there's Elevator Action, a perfectly decent arcade game done dirty by the console's hardware. In fact, I'd go so far as to say the SG-1000's limits do more to hamper this conversion than any other game we've seen on the system to date. Production note: SG-1000 footage in this episode was captured from a combination of Sega SG-1000 II with (with Card Catcher; RGB amp mod by @iFixRetro) and @analogueinc Mega Sg with card adapter module and DAC.
A couple of standout releases in this episode... but first, we have to survive another version of Lode Runner. Look, I like Lode Runner. Great game. But there's been a lot of it here in the mid ’80s! This time, the monk/robot guys win. Beyond that, however, we have the final entry in Activision's brief dalliance on SG-1000 (or maybe Sega's brief dalliance with Activision?): H.E.R.O. It's a strong conversion from 2600 that loses none of the original quality or originality yet manages to spruce up the visuals and replace the retro helicopter backpack with a jetpack, which of course makes this the objectively superior rendition. And then there's Champion Hockey, a game that actually makes me angry. No, I'm not angry because it's bad; quite the opposite. My brain tells me I'm supposed to find sports games interminable, and yet I love this ice hockey game. Absolutely unacceptable.
This week bring us the first of a two-part episode—or should that be "the second"? Sega's imprecise SG-1000 launch date documentation makes it difficult to know if Hang On II did in fact debut before or after Hang On (no Roman numeral) for Mark III in October 1985*. But the number II there is just for show anyway, as Hang On II is literally just a downscaled version of Hang On—but a very impressive downscaled version! By far the best and most convincing racer on the console, Hang On II was so impressive Sega made a controller specifically to support it. But it does pale in comparison to what waits in the wings for next time... [NOTE: A few days ago, we managed to determine that Hang On II actually shipped two months after the Mark III game, which answers the question of which came first! A little too late for this video, but I'll get it right in the Segaiden book.] Also up is Bomb Jack, seemingly the final home release from Tehkan before they metamorphosed into the butterfly we know
Continuing on from last week, we go from Hang On II to just plain ol' Hang On. But this in no way feels like a downgrade; quite the contrary. With Hang On (and Teddy Boy Blues), Sega brings its home hardware into line with Nintendo's Famicom/NES, boosting the basic SG-1000 architecture with a monstrous upgrade to its graphical capabilities and essentially creating a new console in the process. The continuity created between Hang On and Hang On II offers a remarkably convenient way to compare the SG-1000's state of the art with the capabilities of its successor, and frankly, there simply is no comparison. Also in this episode: Notes on the Mark III hardware (which will be expanded when we make it to the Master System's U.S. launch) and extensive rumination on the history of pop idol video games. We're not done with SG-1000, though, so we'll resume exploring Mark III/Master System once that little journey is complete.
The SG-1000 didn't have much going on during 1986, with Sega's attention focused primarily on the shiny new Mark III console, but what little did make its way to the older console was pretty strong. After an indifferent shrug of a vintage-style single-screen arcade-format MSX port with Compile's C-So!, we get to the good stuff: ASCII's The Castle and Compile's Gulkave. The former, also an MSX port, is a game so demanding and expansive Sega had to bust out the cartridge format again. The Castle simply wouldn't fit onto a MyCard. And as for Gulkave, you may have trouble believing it fit onto the SG-1000, period. Definitely Compile's swansong for the platform, and the culmination of several years of development work for this hardware and architecture, and unsurprisingly a highly sought-after collector's piece.
A brief break in the SG-1000's strong run of final releases with a set of titles that will remind you of the not-so-good ol' days when the console's library was generally pretty rough. This trio earns most of its points for effort from Ninja Princess, which converts an arcade game quite convincingly save for one massive technical hitch that has a hugely disruptive effect on the action. Unfortunately, it's followed up by Super Tank, a much less enjoyable game that basically uses the same basic shooter-action premise as Ninja Princess, but poorly. And finally, Champion Kendou, the final original "Champion" sports creation for this console. It's not good, but as a game about kendou, it has the novelty of being... unique.
The penultimate set of SG-1000 games arrives as the system does its best to remain current and competitive in the medium's changing landscape with technology built around the expectations of an earlier generation of game design. Although the SG-1000 is woefully underpowered to hold its own amidst the new creative frontiers being explored on Famicom, Mark III, and in arcades, these final releases push the hardware well beyond anything its designers could possibly have intended or foreseen. The Graphics Tablet peripheral and Terebi Oekaki cart bring the creative functionality of a personal computer to SG-1000. Wonder Boy brings Mario-esque scrolling action to the system. And Champion Billiards... well, you'll recognize it when you see it. You can almost smell the flop sweat as the hardware tries to keep up—but it tries, dammit, and that counts for a lot.
In this episode, we look at the SG-1000's 1987 release lineup in its entirety... and, with those two games, we also wrap up the SG-1000 library as a whole. That's it! Go home! From now on, it's just Master System and beyond here on Segaiden. These two works are not necessarily the kind of thing you'd want to spend much time playing in the modern day and age, but they are very impressive from a technical perspective. Imagine playing games like Borderline and Space Slalom in the early days of the SG-1000, then ending up with a complete graphical adventure set in Victorian London with Loretta No Shouzou, or playing a sprawling dungeon RPG with The Black Onyx! No question about it, the SG-1000 went down aiming for the fences. Bless this mess of a machine.
Our shared journey through the SG-1000 library has been illuminating, and in this episode I attempt to encapsulate much of what has been covered here over the past year. This episode isn't simply a recap and recontextualization of the system, though—it's also an attempt to reconcile some issues in my coverage of the individual games. Part of what I've learned since early 2021 has been how to properly record the SG-1000 color palette, something I struggled with all along whether I was recording from Analogue clone hardware or an actual SG-1000. The system's limited but distinctive color options are a big part of what defines it! Also, we have a MUCH better sense of the actual release order of SG-1000 games thanks to the work of Gaming Alexandria. So, this episode is one part recap, one part quick review of 70+ games in proper order with proper color. From here, I'm going to take a brief Sega break before returning late this spring or early summer to dive into the Mark III and transit
Well, here we go. I've already covered Sega's first console, the SG-1000, in comprehensive (if retrospectively inaccurate at times) details. Now, here we have the sequel: The American adaptation of the Mark III upgrade to SG-1000, the Master System. Or the Sega System, if we're being strictly accurate. Beginning with this episode, which covers the Master System hardware and its three pack-in games (or rather, two pack-in games and one built-in game), I will be focusing on the U.S. lineup until we get to the end of 1988 and Phantasy Star, bringing Sega 8-bit coverage even with NES coverage. And from there, we'll be moving in tandem into the future, juggling Nintendo and Sega retrospectives in 1989 and beyond. Please enjoy.
Sega leads off its non-pack-in Master System lineup with a solid conversion of an arcade masterpiece and a respectable original title: Fantasy Zone and Ghost House. While the former suffers some compromises in the move from System 16A arcade hardware to the less powerful home console, it retails its key features, and its charming personality still shines through. As for the latter, Ghost House falls short of greatness due to its lack of content and clumsy control mechanics, but it nevertheless features a lot of fun ideas and secrets to unravel... and, like Fantasy Zone, it packs in plenty of personality, which makes it a winner. Maybe not, like, "gold medalist" winner. But at least a solid bronze.
Three episodes into the Master System run and already we have some familiar sights—but understandably so, since each of these games comes to Master System from arcades. So, while we may have seen Choplifter during our SG-1000 survey, we certainly didn't see this version of it; Sega based the older, Japan-only release on the Apple II game, while this U.S.- and European-exclusive upgrade draws its content and aesthetics from the company's arcade interpretation. Barely a year between the two home releases, but this one feels far more of-the-moment than the SG-1000 port did. Teddy Boy, of course, launched alongside Hang On with the Japanese Mark III hardware. The Western release is almost exactly the same as the Japanese MyCard, with one crucial (but ultimately immaterial) difference. As for My Hero, unfortunately it does no favors for the optics of the Master System and its Sega Card format. While it looks almost as good as the arcade game (except that sickly green sky), it lacks a hug
I thought the main feature this week would be TransBot, a pretty OK shooter based on a pretty good arcade game that rectifies the failings of Orguss for SG-1000 while basically swiping the concept wholesale, but no. TransBot is fine. The main feature, however, turned out to be F-16 Fighting Falcon, a game no one would reasonably ever want to play, which does some absolutely ridiculous things with the Master System's more esoteric capabilities. Yuji Naka supposedly programmed this port, and all I can say is: What a mad man. There's also World Grand Prix, the sequel to GP World. It's a game about racing the same track over and over again because the requirements for qualifying for later tracks are human impossible to achieve.
A pair of games based on popular media works? Well, almost. Action Fighter clearly draws its inspiration from 1970s James Bond and his transforming Lotus Esprit, but unlike James Bond 007 for Multivision, it doesn't wear the actual Bond license. It's a much better game, though. Drawing heavy inspiration from the likes of Spy Hunter and (gulp) Xevious, it turns out to be an unexpected highlight of the Master System's launch period. On the other hand, Black Belt did sport a media license... in Japan. Here in the U.S., however, Sega scrubbed all of those details clean. And I do mean "scrubbed"—rather than simply redrawing the main character's sprites, the developers gave every single component of this game a visual overhaul. It's really quite an impressive effort—and yet, the underlying work still shines through. And, because it plays as a convincing Kung Fu clone, you can understand why they went to the trouble rather than just skipping over localization and publishing some other game
An unlikely star emerges in this week's Master System episode: The Sega Sports Pad. Required for (but not bundled with!) Great Ice Hockey, this analog-ish trackball controller ultimately didn't have much purpose in terms of deliberate tie-ins, but thanks to its alternate mode it proves surprisingly effective with a number of other titles, especially shooters. Such as... Astro Warrior, this episode's B-side, which goes from being OK-ish to OK (if a bit easy) when played with the Sports Pad.
It's an all-shooting episode of Segaiden with the Master System's second light gun game. (Or third, if you take a doggedly literal view on the names on cartridge labels and count Marksman Shooting / Trap Shooting as two separate games. I bet you probably still put an apostrophe in Ys, too, don't you?) That's followed by the first of December 1986's Commando / Front Line clones, Rambo: First Blood Part II. OK, that's not fair to Rambo. It doesn't want to be Front Line (who does?) but rather Ikari Warriors, and it has the cooperative play to prove it. Although it certainly is fussier about its secret continue codes.
When did the lie that girls don't play video games gain credence in America? I remember seeing little nerds of all genders in arcades in the early 1980s, so that fallacy must have taken hold around the time that the Master System arrived. Certainly that would explain why these two games, both of which featured playable female casts in their original incarnations as Sega Ninja/Ninja Princess and Gokuaku Doumei Dump Matsumoto, saw their sprites replaced by men here on Master System. A weird coincidence! However, it doesn't affect how either game plays, which is to say "pretty damn good." The Ninja delivers on the potential of Ninja Princess, presenting the same fundamental experience but with vastly smoother gameplay and all the arcade version's bonus stages restored. And Pro Wrestling may not be as good as the NES game by the same title that would ship a few months later, but it absolutely puts every other wrestling game on U.S. the console market in 1986 into a sleeper hold before pi
Before we start, I realize that I mixed up some details when I mentioned a non-existent submarine. No need for corrections—it's already been addressed for the book. For our two final American Master System releases of 1986, we have a game that looks remarkably derivative of an early Nintendo NES title (and rightly so) and a game that often gets compared to a major NES hit (but really is something much stranger and more ambitious). Yes, there's no denying that Super Tennis—no, not the Super NES one—looks almost exactly like Black Box Tennis for NES, all the way down the character sprites. But, you know, steal from the best, right? That philosophy seemingly looms over Alex Kidd in Miracle World as well: A game that Sega clearly designed as the answer to Super Mario Bros., what with it being a character platformer where you break blocks and all. Except the similarities really end there, and Miracle World ultimately embraces an entirely different design philosophy. If it weren't for t
Sega didn't publish a lot of Mark III titles in Japan but not America—just about everything the company released for its home territory always made its way to the U.S. Segaiden/Master System Works will be examining the handful of exceptions, which adds up to roughly a dozen games over the course of the Mark III's lifetime. Not all of these Japan-exclusive titles are worth playing, but you'll find enough interesting oddities here to merit some cursory exploration. Case in point, this episode. Although Great Soccer (not to be mistaken for the completely different game that shipped in America as Great Soccer) doesn't have much to offer the world, Great Golf (again, not our Great Golf) is a very different and quite enjoyable take on the sport, while Fushigi no Oshiro Pit Pot (not strictly a Japan-exclusive since it did show up on a European combo cart) scratches a primal action-RPG puzzle-dungeon exploration itch that The Legend of Zelda would properly treat with a metaphorical calamine p
A fairly short episode this week, and for good reason: These games are not terribly good! Only two of 1986's Mark III releases failed to make their way to the U.S., and you don't need to spend a lot of time with either of them to see why. Comical MachineGun Joe could have been a fun shooting gallery action game, but its sluggish controls and wonky aiming turn it into a real chore to play. And High School! Kimengumi offers very little in the way of gameplay and relies heavily not only on guesswork and memorization but also upon the player's familiarity with a manga and anime which, to my knowledge, have never made their way to the U.S. You can understand why they didn't bother to Black Belt this one.
Exploring Sega Master System's chronology in direct comparison to the NES lineup has proven education. I didn't own either system as of March 1987, when these two games premiered, yet I distinctly remember being as impressed by the Master System demos I saw at shops as I was by my friends' NES games. Releases like Great Baseball and Space Harrier assure me of my younger self's sanity: They really did blow anything Nintendo had on offer right out of the water. Great Baseball looks (and more or less plays) like Bases Loaded, a game that wouldn't appear on NES until mid-1988. In the meantime, all the NES had to offer on the baseball front in 1987 was Nintendo's own elderly Baseball, a first-generation release hailing from 1983. As for Space Harrier, no one cared about its strange graphical clipping effect at the time, because no one had ever seen a console game crank out so much high-speed action with such huge sprites. Master System obviously couldn't match the Super Scaler arcade orig
Sega draws once again upon its arcade work for this episode's set of releases, though they delve much further back into the past for one than the other. Shooting Gallery uses an electromechanical target gallery cabinet from the 1960s as its jumping-off point. Between that primal legacy and the addition of lots of other stuff to the mix, no one could ever accuse it of being a mere ripoff of a certain iconic Nintendo light gun shooter. As for Quartet, it looks to much more recent coin-op history—a 1986 game by the same name. Unfortunately, the Master System's limitations forced the company's designers to pare down the design to a mere pair of players, falsifying the title. To make up for the compromise, they also removed more than 90% of the original arcade game's stages as well. Sounds terrible, right? Well, Quartet on Master System isn't actually as bad as all that, undergoing a similar arcade-to-home reinvention as Capcom's Section Z. It's just too bad about the reversed button setup
It's fun to goof on the "Sega Does What Nintendon't" marketing line, but sometimes that claim was more than just sales hype. For example, this week's episode, in which we have a pair of games that would show up on NES about a year and a half later in lesser forms. Ghostbusters on NES lives in infamy as a flamin' hot hunk of garbage, but this version hews closer to the Commodore 64 original, adds some new material, and looks great, making it arguably the definitive console release. As for Wonder Boy, well, if you've been following this channel for any amount of time, you know the story there. And certainly its NES version—Hudson's Adventure Island—was by no means a disaster. I'd even say it turned out superior, music-wise. But, Sega's release did a much better job of recreating the coin-op game... and it hit the U.S. way ahead of Hudson's rendition. That makes this perhaps the last moment in time when American kids could look at the two consoles and say, "The Master System is the on
This week we have what may be the single most inexplicable set of releases for Master System: Great Football and Sports Pad Football. I mean, football games make sense for the U.S. market. Americans love football! (Not the soccer kind.) And it makes sense for a console to have more than one football game over its lifetime. But when they're only a month apart? From the same publisher? And are actually just the same game released under two unique titles with distinct box art and no real indication that they're almost entirely identical? Incredibly weird! Almost disastrously so! I mean, the core football sim underneath it all is decent. But still. It's just so baffling. Also up: Rocky, the first Two-Mega (256K) cart for Master System. Sega clearly poured that extra memory into visuals, because damn does this game look good. As for how it plays, well... it probably could have used another couple of megabits of data to shore up that aspect of the game, if we're being honest.
Master System has been a pretty wild ride so far, huh? Unfortunately, the software and tech highs that Sega brought to the table failed to make the headway you might expect (and that they deserved to) against Nintendo's head start with the NES, and this episode opens with a comparative look at the two consoles in summer 1987. And it's all tied to a less-than-wild ride: A very underwhelming reinvention of Super Scaler dirtbike coin-op Enduro Racer for console, which became even less whelming in its transition from Mark III to Master System. Of course, this one mediocre racer didn't cause Master System to slip so far behind NES's American market share. It's just one of those things.
The Light Phaser finally proves itself an invaluable companion to the Master System instead of simply a tool for maintaining parity with Nintendo's lineup thanks to Gangster Town, the most inventive light gun shooter we've seen so far on an 8-bit system. With a fun theme, imaginative scenarios, and tons of bonus details and mechanics, it sets a new standard for the genre. It's also unreasonably difficult unless you play in two-player mode, but, hey. That's Sega for you. There's also a volleyball game this week. I guess.
This episode's run time spans nearly five times as long as it does to complete a single playthrough of the game under discussion here. As a Light Phaser shooter, Missile Defense 3-D doesn't take terribly long to complete; Sega's designers understood that light gun gameplay can cause fatigue and always did their best to keep their shooting games brief. In this case, you have a shooter that adapts Missile Command into a quick, multi-scenario diversion, with some stages that only take a few seconds to complete. So, there's not too much to say about the game itself... but the setup and tech around it? Ah, now there's a tale to tell. I realize I refer to the Sega 3-D Glasses as "Sega 3-D System" throughout. There was a little NES Works Gaiden bleedthrough in my brain, I'm afraid.
We have peak Sega here: A technically and creatively groundbreaking arcade game that turned the world into instant fans, and which in turn became an excellent home conversion. Considering the gulf in power between the Super Scaler-derived Out Run arcade board and the Master System, this home adaptation is nothing less than a small miracle. Of course, Sega did juice the system a little, at least in Japan. Out Run is the first U.S. release to contain secret code to support the Japan-exclusive FM Sound Unit peripheral for the Mark III console. Before the Tower of Power, Sega fans had the Mark III sprawl, and the FM Sound Unit played a big part in that. And although we never received the add-on in the states, Out Run is one of many U.S. games that can be made to run with FM audio enhancements if you don't mind gimmicking things with modern methods, such as console mods or region-busting FPGA devices....
Kung Fu Kid brings us a genuine rarity: A direct sequel to an SG-1000 exclusive game. Sure, we've had spiritual successors (all those "Great" sports games) and direct remakes (a la Wonder Boy and The Ninja), but Kung Fu Kid continues the story of Dragon Wang. Such as any story could be said to exist in a game where you walk and kick infinite guys in an attempt to steal some of Spartan-X's valor. The real question is, why Dragon Wang and not, say, Girl's Garden or Gulkave? Ah well. Equally rare is Great Golf, a rare Master System sports title that deserves the "Great" appellation. A huge improvement over... well, everything that came before it on consoles, really. Great Golf offers an immersive, dynamic viewpoint and offers crisp, intuitive mechanics, advancing the golf game genre over the best available thing on any console market in 1987—which is to say, basically, Nintendo's aging Golf for NES.
This week brings us to our 50th (!) episode of Segaiden, which suggests that the "gaiden" part of the name has become a lie. And what more fitting subject with which to violate this semantic sanctity than with Zillion, the game whose title and license implies it should make use of the Light Phaser—but which doesn't? Yes, there is no truth in advertising when it comes to video games. Pretty good game, though, if unusually derivative of someone else's work. Sega usually works more discreetly with their clean room reverse-engineering. Speaking of advertising, this episode also bring us to parity with NES Works as we begin to take into consideration Sega's promotional efforts with its own in-house promotional newsletter (Sega Challenge/Team Sega) that would eventually evolve into a proper magazine (Sega Visions).
Fantasy Zone II arrives as the delicious filling in this week's terrible, terrible sandwich as Sega closes out its 1987 lineup with that ultimate game review cliché: A mixed bag. With the likes of Great Soccer and Great Basketball on hand, this is not so much closing the book on the year as it is driving a nail into its coffin. Once again, it's up to Opa Opa to save the day... with a little help from Team Sega, as it happens. On to 1988! You know, eventually.
A slightly spicy episode this week due to some racy historical background behind one of the featured games. In defiance of stereotypes, it's not the game with a bunch of schoolgirls on cover. This episode also contains a lie: It claims to be the final entry for 1987. This turns out not to be true! During production I realized I'd overlooked a few titles along the way, so next week ties a bow on 1987. Apologies for leading you astray. Anyway, I wouldn't recommend either of these games to friends, but in the tradition of classic Video Game History, both of these games are actually pretty interesting despite not necessarily being something you'd want to play in 2023. Sukeban Deka II combines an obvious knockoff (it really wants to be the Kunio games) with a surprising knockoff (it also wants to be Portopia). And the mahjong game, well, it's mahjong. But it looks really nice! And it's also the one presentable member of a family of smut-mongers.
OK, with THIS episode, we bring 1987 to a close. And 1985! It turns out my survey of Mark III games that never reached America overlooked two titles: The underwhelming co-op shooter Satellite 7, and Great Baseball. Yes, I know. I've already covered Great Baseball. But this was a different Great Baseball, because Sega never met a game historian they didn't want to confuse. Of greater interest this time around, we have 1987's two paddle-enhanced titles: Woody Pop and BMX Trial. Naturally, I also explain what the whole Paddle Controller thing is about (since that also didn't reach the U.S.) in service of discussing these tie-in titles, both of which shipped with the Japan-only analogue joypad as a pack-in. As for the games? Well, Woody Pop amounts to a clone of Arkanoid so similar to Taito's game that you could practically call it a reskin. And BMX Trial... well, it's much more unique. A top-down bike racer with branching paths, non-linear stage progression, and the ability to paddle y
Sega jets into 1988 with a new distributor and a pair of games that do what Sega did best on Master System: Namely, convert arcade games and create strong follow-ups to SG-1000 releases. After Burner doesn't pull off the Super Scaler-to-Master System adaptation trick quite as effectively as OutRun did, which is largely down to the more powerful arcade hardware behind After Burner's coin-op edition, but it still looks and plays a lot more impressively than any other console flight combat game at the time. Not that there were a lot. But still. As for Penguin Land, it's a top-flight puzzler... well, I guess "flight" isn't quite the word to use for a game about penguins. But it's quite good and has an interesting trick up its sleeve. As a treat.
Another arcade conversion? On Master System? Yes, it's more likely than you think. This time, however, Sega appears to have run out of eligible Super Scaler creations, so we have something that feels much better-suited to the hardware than After Burner did: Alien Syndrome. And yet for some weird reason, Sega's own home port of their own arcade hit plays less like the original coin-op than any other home version of the game, dropping the cooperative play, the free-scrolling stage layouts, and some of the moment-to-moment play mechanics. It's not bad, but it is a little underwhelming and really quite bizarre. Also this episode, we have an original Master System creation in Aztec Adventure, a game with some interesting ideas hampered by some hostile game mechanics.
Even as Konami was getting cheekily political on NES and in arcades with their audaciously titled "Contra," Sega cautiously dodges controversy by meekly retitling S.D.I.: Strategic Defense Initiative as "Global Defense" for Master System. Nice try, guys, but we all know the truth. Meanwhile, Zaxxon 3-D probably SHOULD have been given a different name, since it plays more like Zoom 909 with a few Zaxxon-esque embellishments.
We're back to Master System for a while, and folks, this was a rough reentry. I learned a lot about Master System hardware while trying to acquire literally ANY usable Rescue Mission footage at all—turns out this game is bizarrely hard to get working since it requires use of the Light Phaser but struggles to read the peripheral via my television on both real hardware and MiSTer. Special thanks to Mr. Porkchop of misteraddons.com for going to extra mile with me to figure out how to get the thing working (it gave his setup fits, too). Was it worth the trouble? Well, not really. Rescue Mission is charming and has some good ideas, but it is possibly the most frantic and unfairly-stacked-against-the-player light gun game this side of Revolution X. Eventually, Sega would discover the concept of a "continue feature," but that day is not today. Happily, Maze Hunter 3-D holds up a lot better! It's a different sort of 3D game, one that goes for the diorama effect rather than an immersive first
I know what you're thinking. "Jeremy, it would have made a lot more thematic sense for you to combine Maze Hunter 3-D and Fantasy Zone: The Maze into a single episode." Sure, but then I'd have ended up with an episode consisting of Rescue Mission and Parlour Games, and I'd lose thousands of subscribers overnight from sheer collective disgust. No, better to pair the good games with the bad and balance things out. Eh, that's not fair. Parlour Games isn't bad at all—it's a Compile game, how could it be? But it does feel a lot more uneven than Fantasy Zone: The Maze, a great home port of a great arcade game that combines two Sega legacy franchises into one thoughtfully crafted and thoroughly contemporary take on the maze-chase dot-gobbling format, which was feeling pretty creaky by 1988. I don't know that I've ever seen anyone sing the praises of Fantasy Zone: The Maze, and that's a damn shame—it's the kind of game that deserves to be immortalized through song and legend. Or at least th
Warning to sensitive viewers: This episode contains rapidly strobing 3D footage. I normally drop alternating frames on 3D games to minimize the effect, but in this case, the 3D imaging is central to the game's technical issues (which I did my best to explain despite being a layman). By mid-1988, the Master System had just about reached its second birthday... and, well, you know what they say about the "terrible twos." Here we have a string of second games in existing Master System franchises to prove the point. I wouldn't call either Space Harrier 3-D or Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars bad, but neither quite capture the excellence of Space Harrier or Alex Kidd: In Miracle World. In both cases, I feel that these failings result from the desire to chase an arcade-style experience, though each game falls short for entirely different reasons. Space Harrier 3-D makes questionable use of the Sega 3-D Glasses, while Alex Kidd abandons the rich design of its console-based predecessor in pursuit o
Another Master System sequel arrives, and once again it doesn't really live up to the standard of its predecessor. The original Zillion gave the Master System one of its most involving action games, a platform adventure inspired by Epyx's Impossible Mission but which improved on the existing gameplay template in impressive ways. Zillion II does not do that. A much simpler game, it abandons the adventure and exploration elements in favor of straightforward auto-scrolling combat and vehicular action. That said, it is one of the best-looking games ever produced for the system, so that surely counts for something.
Sega's other mascot gets his own sequel, too. No, not Alex Kidd. What? I don't mean Opa-Opa. I'm talking about Wonder Boy, baby. Fresh from his tropic island paradise, Wonder Boy has abandoned the grass skirt and stone axes of his first adventure in favor of... full body armor? A succession of castle-forged steel blades? Magic spells?! Honestly, if this game weren't called "Wonder Boy" right there in the title, you'd assume it was a different game altogether. But I guess Westone and Sega wanted to tap into a growing game design trend and said, "Hey, we have an existing brand to tap into." It worked for Zelda, I guess. Or rather, Link. The Zelda series. You know what I mean. Wonder Boy in Monster Land builds on a minor arcade and console design trend in a pretty solid way. It's not just respectable, it breaks the depressing streak of crappy Sega Master System sequels that decided to impose itself on the console in the middle of 1988. Well done, Wonder Boy. You truly are a... wonder.
We are halfway through the Master System library. Well, more or less. About halfway. It's close? Look, Segaiden is an art, not a science. The point is, this presents us with a golden opportunity to pause, look back at the journey so far, and remember the best times. Also, the worst times. Because light means nothing without dark, good cannot exist without evil, and best games have no weight if not balanced against worst games. So please join me for this momentary breather of video game history and celebrate the finest creations for Master System so far. And the bad ones, too. And be sure to look forward to the back half of SMS Works, because the best (and worst!!) is yet to come.
Sega delivers a convincing Master System conversion of one of its most striking arcade hits, tweaking the coin-op game's design in small ways that made for a more console-friendly experience. We've seen similar revisions made to previous Master System games, too, but the difference is that those games weren't Shinobi. A fast-paced platform shooter, Shinobi saw Sega offering its own take on a burgeoning format of the time. It arrived a little later than most of the big breakout titles in the genre, but that just meant that Sega had time to learn from everyone else's missteps and deliver a nearly flawless take on the genre. It also underscores the company's most direct rivalry... no, not Nintendo.
Here's a sight: Not one but TWO games for Master System that have already appeared in other video works productions. Both Spy Vs. Spy and Shanghai either had appeared or would eventually appear on a Nintendo platform at the time of their launch for Master System, but in a wild and unexpected twist of events, these were the versions to play. Spy Vs. Spy actually appeared simultaneously on Master System and NES, but this version includes quite a bit more content (read: twice as many levels) and a much richer screen interface that works more like the microcomputer original than the mediocre port that Kemco offered up. Not a bad farewell to the Sega Card format. As for Shanghai, the game never made it to NES, so Nintendo fans received it instead via HAL Laboratory. There's no such thing as a bad HAL game (probably), but that version of Shanghai had to overcome the logistics of working on a small, monochromatic screen, which is why most people just play it with the alphanumeric tile set i
This episode brings us two brave attempts by the Master System development cadre to create visually spectacular gaming experiences despite the fact that the console just didn't have enough juice under the hood to realize those aspirations. Sega promised arcade-quality experiences at home, but the gulf between their arcade tech and the Master System's aging architecture has really begun to make itself felt at this point. To their credit, the unnamed and uncredited programmers and designers laboring to create the Master System library give it their best shot here! They change up some fundamental elements of Thunder Blade to better fit the console space, adding new patterns and behaviors for enemies while redefining the basic scroll behavior of the action. I don't know that those revisions work, but you can at least respect the effort. And Blade Eagle 3-D... well, it's a 3-D game. But did it NEED to be 3-D? Out of all the 3-D "SuperScope" games, this one probably could have used a hidde
Whether you're conquering them with spin kicks or rent increases, this week's Master System pairing is all about taking charge of the streets. This is not a strictly chronological pairing, mind you, but I've kinda skipped over Monopoly for a few episodes because I've developed a real distaste for the source property (in reality, about two months separated the arrival of these two games). My dislike of Monopoly is not a knock on the Master System release, because it does a bad thing well. There's merit to that. But if you've got 10 friends who want to sit around the TV and take turns playing video games, why not skip Monopoly and do five consecutive sessions of Double Dragon? Unlike the better-known NES release, this version of Double Dragon sticks close to the arcade original... that means cooperative multiplayer! And also super-cheap enemies who get attack priority and make the whole thing feel deeply unfair. Well. So it goes, I guess. You take the good with the bad... as the fact t
Well, well, well, what have we here? It looks like Sega has taken a step back for a moment and gotten a read on the changing shape of the video games industry as a whole, which leads us to Kenseiden: Perhaps the first game for Master System clearly designed as a conscious effort to do the Nintendo/NES thing rather than trying to fit a Sega arcade-sized experience into a tiny console-shaped box. No, Kenseiden dials down the pace of the action from the usual coin-op-style mania we've come to expect from Sega and conspicuously imitates Konami's methodical Castlevania games. The NES (or maybe MSX?) Castlevanias, mind you, not Haunted Castle. Make no mistake; Kenseiden still includes some of the testicle-punching difficulty that is Sega's stock-in-trade, no question about it. But, miracle of miracles, those difficult parts are—wait for it—optional. This feels like a real turning point for the Master System, the system's clean break from "arcade experiences at home, more or less" to "on-tr
Take a peep into an alternate reality where Sega's 8-bit home console developers were given the time and resources to explore a project to its conclusion and buff it up to a spit shine. Phantasy Star towers head and shoulders above everything released on the console to this point—and, frankly, it handily crushes about 95% of competing console releases from the era, too. A fully realized work that brings a new level of narrative sophistication and audio-visual fidelity to the role-playing genre, Phantasy Star sees the creative luminaries of the Master System development world collaborate on a great-looking take on the RPG with no actual flaws to speak of. About the only criticism you can level at Phantasy Star is that the balancing makes it a bit of a slog... but that's true of every RPG from the late ’80s, and has been tidily remedied with modern patches and remasters. It's one of the few 8-bit creations that truly holds up today.
For those who found the authentic role-playing style of Phantasy Star a little too spicy (read: wordy) for their liking, Sega quickly followed up with a more Sega-style take on role-playing: Golvellius, which many people regard as the MSX's answer to Zelda II. I disagree, given that this is actually an MSX game reworked for the console, and that title shipped close enough to Zelda II's original release in Japan that their similarities almost certainly result from both games referencing the same foundational material. But "the Master System port of the MSX's answer to the games that inspired the Zelda series" doesn't really have the punchy zing of great marketing or console wars, so feel free to just shrug and go with the Zelda II comparisons if it makes you feel more alive.
Talk about hiding your light under a bushel. Power Strike finally brings Compile's trademark vertical shooting style to Master System, leapfrogging the design of Zanac for NES, and Sega of America celebrates this powerfully impressive work by the Master System's most reliable external developer by... making it a mail-order game exclusively offered in a single issue of the company's newsletter. Friends, that is what you call A Choice. Power Strike (that's Aleste, if you're nasty) merits discussion of more than just its tortured release. It's a great-looking game that runs smoothly on Master System despite throwing a ton of stuff around the screen at all times (though not SO smoothly that you can't hammer the attack buttons and cause some helpful slowdown to kick in), and it continues iterating on Compile's beloved eight-option secondary weapon mechanics previously seen in Gulkave and Zanac. Oh, and it's very difficult, which is why I recorded this episode with an infinite lives cheat a
This upload contains no test signal. 1988 winds down with a couple more games that feel extremely Sega Master System-like. One of them is a bad, difficult light gun game. Featuring Sylvester Stallone! Two clichés in one. The other, R-Type, is heck of good, but it's also a cliché given that it's heck of good in large part because Sega farmed it out to Compile to develop. And Compile, as you may have noticed by this point, does not miss. Unlike me with the Light Phaser throughout most of Rambo III. Alas.
Hey, we found Carmen Sandiego. Turns out she's on Master System. Sega (or rather, Parker Brothers under license from Sega—what a brave new era!) brings us the first of many console adaptations of this vaunted edutainment game, which would soon explode into a multimedia sensation. Before the cartoons, before The Learning Company, before Netflix, there was... Carmen Sandiego on Master System, which features an uniquely enthusiastic interface overhaul intended to better suit the world of two-button controllers.
Miracle Warriors brings us to the end of the Master System's run for 1988 in the U.S., bringing a clunky computer RPG to American homes where it became a clunky console RPG. Someone at Sega or Tonka looked at this one and said, "This definitely holds up well alongside Phantasy Star, we should ship them both at the same time." Meanwhile, over in Japan, the Mark III was winding down its run with the Mega Drive in stores and pretty much zero interest remaining in Sega's 8-bit line. As we turn our attention eastward to look at the final handful of Japan-exclusive releases for Mark III, we find a few familiar faces, beginning with that "Rygar" guy. Or maybe Rygar is the villain. Or is he called Ligar? So many mysteries abound! Including the way Argos no Juujiken shipped not from Sega or even Tecmo but from a little-known development and publishing company called Salio.
Two Japan-exclusive Master System (well, Mark III) titles this episode. First, the companion piece to Argos no Juujiken with Solomon's Key, the second and final third-party release for Mark III. Unlike the Mark III's take on Rygar, though, this version of Solomon's Key is barely distinguishable from the NES port. More uniquely, we have Galactic Protector, also the second and final of a set of Mark III releases. Specifically, the second and final Fantasy Zone spin-off. And I do mean spin: Galactic Protector requires use of the Paddle Controller that shipped with Alex Kidd: BMX Trial, since it involves Opa-Opa revolving around different planets in an attempt to defend them from harm. "You have to own Alex Kidd: BMX Trial" is a pretty steep barrier to entry! Weird marketing choice there, guys!
More Paddle Controller games? Yes, apparently. Megumi Rescue and Super Racing have the distinction of being the final Mark III releases for which the Paddle Controller was mandatory. And can you believe it—they actually put the thing to good use! Megumi Rescue is a descendant of Breakout and Circus Atari that combines fast action, a whimsical theme, and a surprising number of gameplay factors to be one of the more entertaining games of its type. And Super Racing is maybe the only top-down racing game to use an analog controller in the entirety of the post-Crash 8-bit era, which makes it stand out. Neither of these games left Japan, and that seems a shame: they're pretty danged good.
If you think eggs are expensive right now, imagine the cost incurred by the egg that figures into a central role in Hoshi o Sagashite... for Sega Mark III, also known as The Story of Mio. Not only does our protagonist have to fork over an undisclosed pile of cash for the thing, once it hatches he has to travel across the galaxy to learn more about the lifeform within, bribing and boozing galactic denizens along the way. But that's the charm of Hoshi o Sagashite..., really. It's kind of a load of nonsense, but it goes about its nonsense in a pleasant, non-confrontational way. What would you expect from a game whose lead designer was Rieko Kodama, though? A game with explicit ties to Phantasy Star... though you probably shouldn't take them too literally. Unless... is that Myau on the cover??
The end of the Sega Mark III's run in Japan coincided with the end of a major period of Japanese history, with its final game shipping just a few weeks after the death of Emperor Hirohito and the advent of a new calendar as the Showa era gave way to the Heisei. Coincidence? Sure. Nevertheless, the end of both the Showa and the ’80s in Japan really did feel like a time of transition and societal change, and these penultimate Mark III exclusives absolutely do come off as something of a time capsule that captures a slice of Showa spirit. In their own way. Sort of.
We cross the threshold into Segaiden 1989 this week with the final Mark III exclusive release—not chronologically, but in title at least—as well as the actual final game ever released for Mark III, period. The former title, Final Bubble Bobble, did eventually make its way to the U.S. on Game Gear about five years later. That barely counts! While the latter, Bomber Raid, also just so happens to be the very first Master System release for 1989 in the U.S. From this point on, the Master System is strictly a Western concern as it soldiers on in North America, picks up steam in Europe, and begins its millennia-long reign in Brazil.
I originally set out to make this a multi-game episode, but no. Cyborg Hunter turned out to have far more to see and say than I could have imagined. And so, here we have a fairly in-depth look at a largely forgotten game (certainly one I never hear people discuss) that Sega created, Activision published, and Zillion inspired in some pretty significant and undeniable ways. Yeah, that's right: this is Zillion III, and it plays a whole lot more like the first game in the series than Zillion II did.
The Master System stomps and smashes its way into 1989 with a pair of familiar titles. Rampage will be familiar because it had shipped a month earlier on NES—a bit of a lucky break for the NES port, because this adaptation blows it out of the water. And speaking of blowouts, the second game this episode features the king of them: Mr. October, AKA Reggie Jackson, the home run king. His game will seem familiar not just because it's another 8-bit baseball sim, but specifically because it's another 8-bit baseball sim by Whiteboard, whose work we just saw with Nekkyu Koushien.
The Shinobi series is making a comeback this summer after years of dormancy with LizardCube's Shinobi: Art of Vengeance. No simple visual facelift for a decades-old video game, Art of Vengeance appears to take a holistic approach to the series' evolution, pulling in bits and pieces from practically every game in the nearly 40-year history of Shinobi franchise. This episode, the first (but definitely not last) franchise retrospective for the Segaiden and NES Works projects, takes a look at the Shinobi games and how they evolved over time, with some thoughts on how those elements feed into Art of Vengeance. In addition to the arcade and Master System releases, which I covered last year, this episode also works as something of a preview for upcoming episodes on the Genesis and Game Gear titles, while also reaching even further ahead to games that are entirely outside of this channel's scope, like PlayStation 2 and 3DS. Oh, and modern systems (what with Art of Vengeance, you know).
This week's pair of games presents itself as royalty and nobility, but that just goes to show how little the divine right of kings is worth these days. Not that Poseidon Wars 3-D is bad, mind you, but it certainly doesn't have much going for it beyond its historic connections. No, not its connection to Greek mythology (it doesn't actually have one)—I mean its links to Sega's own past. That's certainly more than Lord of the Sword has going for it, a game that plays like someone dredged a forgotten mid-tier Falcom clone from the PC-88 library and did nothing whatsoever to freshen it up.
The most ’80s of Master System games are here to remind you that 1989 was, in fact, the pinnacle of the ’80s. Now, that has nothing to do with the quality of these games. Rastan gives us a pretty unsatisfying port of an arcade hit, and California Games offers a strong rendition of a fundamentally flimsy game. What I mean is that both of these games embody trends of the decades. California Games catches the tail end of "California Cool," the idea that America's far coast was a luxurious paradise of sun and sand (rather than the bastion of Evil Communist Murder that more poisonous elements of the media landscape have been pushing in recent years) pressed into service of a series of minigames that embody the supposed California lifestyle. As for Rastan, well, it was one of a legion of barbarian-based action games inspired by Conan as portrayed by the future governor who would preside over the California Games a decade and a half later.