Genesis/Megadrive import scene = lame?

[blue lander]

It seems with most systems out of Japan, specifically the NES, SNES, and Turbografx-16, there are quite a few great games that never made it to the US, many of which are playable if you can't read Japanese. But with the Genesis, it seems like every good game for the system made it to the US, and the few that didn't are too language intensive for me to play. I know the Genesis wasn't very popular over there, but am I missing some hidden gems?

[Zebbe]

Yes... Alien Soldier, Super Fantasy Zone, Panorama Cotton, Snow Bros., Eliminate Down, Gley Lancer, Twinkle Tale, Undeadline, Battle Mania 2, Puzzle & Action, Pulseman, Puyo Puyo Tsuu to name a few.

[Dark_Sol]

There are awesome import genny games that never made it to US or PAL:
Vixen 357
Surging Aura
Legend of Heroes 1 and 2
Maten no Soumetsu
King Colossus
Blue Almanac
Rent a Hero
Sorcerian

etc..

[blue lander]

I'm not sure if I'd be able to enjoy Legend of Heroes or Sorcerean without understanding the language. Maybe with a walkthrough or just by random luck, but I don't think it'd be much fun.


Yes... Alien Soldier, Super Fantasy Zone, Panorama Cotton, Snow Bros., Eliminate Down, Gley Lancer, Twinkle Tale, Undeadline, Battle Mania 2, Puzzle & Action, Pulseman, Puyo Puyo Tsuu to name a few.

So there are good Japanese Megadrive games that didn't make it here, they're just all very rare and expensive.

[Family Computer]

Yu Yu Hakusho Makyou Toitsusen (4 Player Multi-Tap Fighter by Treasure)

[Adol]

I'm not sure if I'd be able to enjoy Legend of Heroes or Sorcerean without understanding the language. Maybe with a walkthrough or just by random luck, but I don't think it'd be much fun.



So there are good Japanese Megadrive games that didn't make it here, they're just all very rare and expensive.


Puyo Puyo 2 is quite cheap
So is Tanto-R (Puzzle&Action)

and i have Super Fantasy Zone for sale for 25€ as an example.

[Steven]

http://www.whipassgaming.com/genesisreviews/magicaltaluluto.html

[Vroomfunkel]

Plus there's some PAL games that never came out in the US that are definitely worth getting, eg:

Micro Machines Military
Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament
Mega Man: The Wily Wars
Combat Cars

[Vectorman0]

Moved to the import forum

[Zebbe]

So there are good Japanese Megadrive games that didn't make it here, they're just all very rare and expensive.

Some of them, yes. But most can be found quite cheap if you look around a bit.

[vintagegamecrazy]

Some more good ones,

Snake Rattle n Roll and Megapanel

[tritium]

Sailor moon is a decent beat-emup. Dragonballz is a good fighter, as well as YuYuhakusho. and always Rockman Megaworld(aka Megaman Wily Wars)

[InsaneDavid]

And when you're ready for a multiregion system talk with me. I have a USA/JPN + 60Hz/50Hz modded Genesis 1 for sale right now and will be adding a pair of USA/JPN modded Genesis 2's tonight. Of course, all three have a modification to use standard RCA cables (Ye/Wh/Re) instead of the proprietary Genesis 1 or 2 multi AV cable.

[fahlim003]

Yes... Alien Soldier, Super Fantasy Zone, Panorama Cotton, Snow Bros., Eliminate Down, Gley Lancer, Twinkle Tale, Undeadline, Battle Mania 2, Puzzle & Action, Pulseman, Puyo Puyo Tsuu to name a few.

QFT. You covered all the import based, although I'd personally add:
Yu Yu Hakusho Makyo Toitsusen
Slap Fight
Rainbow Islands Extra

[blue lander]

I've already modded my Genesis and bought a handful of cheap Japanese Megadrive games, none of which were too impressive.

I actually came across a handful of pirate Megadrive games at a thrift store a few years back, and Yu Yu Hakusho was among them. It's a pretty decent fighter, but I understand that the legitimate cartridge is rare and expensive. It seems that most of the Megadrive imports that interest me (Snow Bros, Pulseman, Alien Soldier) also happen to be quite expensive.

[segagamer]

Why does someone keep on thinking Snake Rattle n Roll is a Japanese MD game...It most certainly is not!!!

[tritium]

Why does someone keep on thinking Snake Rattle n Roll is a Japanese MD game...It most certainly is not!!!

Genesis Non-U.S. Game Releases Snake Rattle 'n Roll Sega 4 1993 Europe
Nintendo NES U.S. Game Releases Snake Rattle 'n Roll Nintendo 3

Yep. its a Euro game. I thought it had only come out on NES. Still considered import though to US ppl. (how's the Megadrive play import euro games? Any mod required?)

[Zebbe]

Depends on if it has lockout or not. Games made before 1992 didn't have that, most after did.

[Ed Oscuro]

Sailor moon is a decent beat-emup.
It's on the SFC as well, though - unless they made more than one of these...

[InsaneDavid]

It's on the SFC as well, though - unless they made more than one of these...

The Mega Drive version of Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon is a watered down version of Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon for the Super Famicom. The ending is a little different but it's basically the same game, just far easier and less detailed. This is not to be confused with the sequel beat 'em up Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon R for the Super Famicom which is based upon the second series of the anime.

[Ed Oscuro]

This is not to be confused with the sequel beat 'em up Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon R for the Super Famicom which is based upon the second series of the anime.
And I'm the sort of dude who would confuse those games - we actually might've played that one. I'll have to check it out, but in the meantime thanks for the information :)

Whichever game it was we played, I'd say it's the sort of game that would automatically get dismissed as crap by any Western gamer, but for fun it wasn't too far off from TNMT 4: Turtles in Time, in my view...

[suppafly]

Great games that didnt come out in the US:

Mega man Wily Wars
Zero Wing
Mega SWIV
Alien Soldier
Yuyu hakusho
batteship gomora
Eliminate DOwn
Twinkle Tale
Turbo Outrun (A favorite of mine)

[Ed Oscuro]

Eliminate Down is a great game, same for Twinkle Tale (I keep forgetting the name of that one!); fans of shmups who might like something slower-paced might like Gleylancer as well. It has a weird gun pod setup thing but aside from that the game controls pretty intuitively and is fun.

[Fighter17]

Eliminate Down is worth $150, Twinkle Tale is worth about $60 for gameplay, and GreyLancer, my god the game is too easy for its own good.

I wouldn't even spend $20 on GreyLancer. On my second try I got to the last stage!!! (WTF).

[Aussie2B]

You basically answered your own question. The Mega Drive wasn't that popular in Japan. The Famicom, Super Famicom, and PC Engine were extremely successful in Japan, so it's only natural that there are loads of Japan-only releases, including many high quality ones, for those systems. The Mega Drive was much more popular in the US, on par and occasionally surpassing the popularity of the SNES. If they had a quality game, they'd definitely want to bring it out in the market where the system was seeing the greatest success. Plus, the Genesis library was just more suited to Western tastes with all the action and sports titles. It was overall lacking in RPGs and other such games that the Japanese really craved, which kept the system from getting particularly popular and, as a result of that, kept certain developers away - meaning less titles for the Japanese market.

Of course, there are exceptions, so the Japanese Mega Drive import scene shouldn't be completely ignored.

[ApolloBoy]

Combat Cars

Erm, Combat Cars was released over here.

[Jorpho]

What's this Rainbow Islands Extra? An enhanced version of the Bubble Bobble sequel?

[fahlim003]

Rainbow Islands (Extra version) in arcades was the original RI remixed with new enemy sprites. I believe the songs associated with each island is new too. The new enemies are from other Taito franchises such as Darius and Kiki Kai to name a few. Rainbow Islands Extra on Mega Drive is by default a conversion of the Extra version from arcade and in the options it has the choice for the original/normal game. It's a pretty good game to pick up (pardon the dull colours compared to the original) and from what I hear the FM Towns Marty version was even better overall.

[TurboGenesis]

Great games that didnt come out in the US…
batteship gomora)

You kid right? Bio Ship Paladin aka Space Ship Gomora is a horrible and broken shoot em up :( the game is look great but is suffer HUGE with game play.


…and GreyLancer, my god the game is too easy for its own good.

I wouldn't even spend $20 on GreyLancer. On my second try I got to the last stage!!! (WTF).

Damn dude are you have to say this EVERYTIME this game is mention?!?! Just because it is "easy" does not make it a bad game. It is a very nice game and well done. Just because you are 1cc it do not make it a bad game. Maybe you do not like GreyLancer[sic] but I do and others will find it pleasing too. I suppose Contra is crap game too because it is easy and can be 1cc in less than 12 minutes.

GleyLancer is a quality game. Want to add challenge, bump up difficulty and use any mover other than 'search'.

[zektor]

I have a few great Euro releases:

Alien Soldier (works great on a USA Genesis with a Game Genie + code)
Super Fantasy Zone (grabbed this mint/complete copy on ebay.uk for $4!)
Turbo Outrun (not great, but not bad either)

Alien Soldier is an awesome game, but I am very proud of that Super Fantasy Zone. This is a game that was ready for the US, but just never made it here. Perhaps they thought it would not sell...but I grew up with Opa Opa on the SMS previously! Needless to say, it is absolutely awesome. Just like the old games, graphics/sound updated. Awesome bosses, very colorful. And, no region lockout (works on any Genesis) which is a plus!

[The 1 2 P]

Don't forget the Dragon Ball Z game. It had awesome graphics for it's time and was fun to play too.

[The 1 2 P]

I can't wait for the day when I finally get my import versions of Contra and Castlevania for Genesis.

[colicub]

I'm surprised no-one's mentioned The New Zealand Story. I for one really liked the MD version!

And then there's all the stuff like Blue Almanac and Eliminate Down and Twinkle Tale and yadda yadda yadda.....

Did Super Skidmarks come out in the US? Don't think it did. That's always a fun game to while away a few hours with.

[Vroomfunkel]

Hmm, I probably meant Super Skidmarks rather than Combat Cars then. I forgot Mega SWIV never came out in the US. Kickass game (and tough as nails too!).

The two-player is great, one person with the tank and one with the helicopter. And it gets pretty darn hard very early on too ... I would have to highly recommend it to any shmup fan.

Super Fantasy Zone is also a great game, and the PAL version is dirt cheap generally. I liked Snake, Rattle and Roll too - very similar to Sonic 3D in some ways.

[BelPowerslave]

I second Sailor Moon. I was really surprised at how good that was...it just killed me that it was only one player.

RockMan MegaWorld is, as always, a great one to start off with(assuming you can afford it) if for nothing else other than the redone soundtrack(it's quite possibly the closest one can ever get to God). ;)

Alien Soldier is bad-ass, you just really need to be at the top of your game to get anywhere in it.

Dahna is alright, it's just impossibly hard without the invincibility code(via the Game Genie).

Darwin 4081 is kind of mediocre, imo. I don't know how I ended up with it...

Donald in Maui Mallard is really good stuff, and different from the SNES/PC version from what I hear. There's this one level, where you're constantly slinging yourself upward, that I just can't get past(I get to a point where I can't see what they want me to do).

Double Dragon II is a disgrace, true enough, but I'll tell you what: The soundtrack on it is even better than the arcade version's. It's great.

Golden Axe III is awesome, despite what the tools at EGM say.

Magical Taruruuto kun, or one of the 5,000 variations on the name it seems to have, was really hip. Great graphics, solid gameplay...about the only thing I didn't like was the cloud-riding level.

Snake Rattle 'n' Roll, as some one mentioned, is great too, if you liked the NES original. Just as hard, unfortunately.

Otsomatsu Kun Hachamecha Gekiio, IIRC, is that weird title with an offensive walking Japanese stereotype as the main character. I've played a little ways in to it, it gets more and more odd...

That's just what I own, there's plenty more out there.

I think that import scene does relatively well, certainly much better than most SNES fans will admit. Another strength the Genesis had was sheer amount of hacks and homebrews that made it to cart. There's some really impressive stuff out there...but I'll save that for another thread...

Bel

What really upsets me is that no one has mentioned Action 52. Nevermind that it's not an import, it's just so wonderful that is should *always* be mentioned. ;)

[Lord Contaminous]

Verytex is a good one too.

Arguably people say it's kinda a bland shooter, but Final Fantasy XII composer Hitoshi Sakimoto's music makes you forget that

[BelPowerslave]

Trying to remember which one that is. I've sampled/played virtually every Genesis/MD game out there, rom, cart or whatever. One starts to loose track after a while. Will break out Gens and take a look though...

Bel