Mega Drive Mania

[Oldskool]

I noticed the Mega Drive is not mentioned much, so I started a thread just for discussion of this highly underrated console.

I have Gynoug (Wings of Wor), and Daisenpu (Twin Hawk) on the way so I am pretty excited about that. The Mega Drive is full of excellent shooters. One thing I've noticed about the Mega Drive though, is that many of the games are already out on the Genesis/PAL Mega Drive.

What are some good English friendly Mega Drive games that were NEVER released in the United States?

I know about Eliminate Down and Alien Soldier - those are both amazing games. What else is there? I just don't know what's out there because Mega Drive collecting doesn't seem to be huge.

For those of you with Mega Drive games, how are you playing them? On original hardware? Region switched hardware? Through a Game Genie?

I myself plan on using my X'eye, and the Game Genie for carts that are region locked.

[ApolloBoy]

I'm going for a full set of Japanese Mega Drive carts myself, mainly because the cartridge design and the cover art are so much better than their US/EU counterparts. In fact I'm actually in the process of purging my collection of all my American carts (except for the US exclusives) just to make room for the Japanese stuff.

I don't have a Japanese MD yet, but I play them on a modded model 1 Genesis and a modded Genesis 2. I've also got a Nomad which I haven't gotten around to region modding yet.

[Oldskool]

A region switched Nomad would be cool. I have a Nomad myself, I actually use it quite a bit now that Jonjandran did the LCD screen mod on it. It just looks amazing!

Yeah the Japanese art does look much better in most cases. What notable games were exclusive to Japan, and to the USA?

[neist]

I noticed the Mega Drive is not mentioned much, so I started a thread just for discussion of this highly underrated console.

I have Gynoug (Wings of Wor), and Daisenpu (Twin Hawk) on the way so I am pretty excited about that. The Mega Drive is full of excellent shooters. One thing I've noticed about the Mega Drive though, is that many of the games are already out on the Genesis/PAL Mega Drive.

What are some good English friendly Mega Drive games that were NEVER released in the United States?

I know about Eliminate Down and Alien Soldier - those are both amazing games. What else is there? I just don't know what's out there because Mega Drive collecting doesn't seem to be huge.

For those of you with Mega Drive games, how are you playing them? On original hardware? Region switched hardware? Through a Game Genie?

I myself plan on using my X'eye, and the Game Genie for carts that are region locked.

Twinkle Tale is really decent, but be prepared to pay a bit for it. A decent condition copy is going to cost at least $100.

As for how I play my import Mega Drive games, I use a Game Genie. I'd really like to get a Super Mega Key, but they are hard to find and expensive.

A region switched Nomad would be cool. I have a Nomad myself, I actually use it quite a bit now that Jonjandran did the LCD screen mod on it. It just looks amazing!

Yeah the Japanese art does look much better in most cases. What notable games were exclusive to Japan, and to the USA?

I'm no expert, but Sub-Terrania was released only in the US and EU. It's a really good thrust-type clone. It's hard as heck, but I highly recommend it.

[Ayce]

I for one have been getting into the Mega Drive mood for some time. I just bought a Sega CD/Gen/32X again and am going crazy buying up all sorts of fun stuff for it again.
I even started a youtube page with reviews if you want to take a look
http://www.youtube.com/user/WelcomToTheNextLevel

[Oldskool]

Hey yeah I was watching some of your videos the other day.. good stuff! Love the remixed/sharpened Sega CD bios screen, how did you do that?

I too loved the Road Avengers theme song. There was just something about it, even though like you, I couldn't understand any of the lyrics except ".. on the road".. I guess it just has that 80's childhood nostalgia feel to it.

So have you actually been buying any Mega Drive stuff?

And what is this Twinkle Tale? I noticed one for sale for around $100. Is that a shooter of some sort similar to Magical Chase or Cotton or something?

[Nico87]

The Mega Drive is awesome. If you're going to make a list of the so-called best games for it you'll likely buy like 60 games for it, like I did! Loads of real quality for this system.

A few recommendations:

Bare Knuckle II
Forgotten Worlds (only works with the 3-button controller)
Hellfire
MUSHA Aleste
Tatsujin
Zero Wing
Fire Shark
Kyokyoku Tiger
Wardner No Mori
Slap Fight
Rocket Knight Adventures
Sparkster
Chiki Chiki Boys
Magical Taruruuto-kun
Aero Blasters
Alisia Dragoon
Arcus Odyssey
Elemental Master
Battle Mania Daiginjo (Battle Mania 2)
Burning Force
Castle of Illusion
Crack Down
Crude Buster
Golden Axe Trilogy
Sonic Trilogy
Gunstar Heroes
Dynamite Headdy
Land Stalker
OutRun
Strider Hiryu
The Revenge of Shinobi
V-V

Well, that wasn't really "a few", but still. Top quality games.

For those who are considering going into Sega CD importing, think twice. There's really not alot of great games for it. I'd say maybe three must-buys and four or five good ones.

[ApolloBoy]

What notable games were exclusive to Japan, and to the USA?

These are my favorite Japanese exclusives:

Advanced Busterhawk Gleylancer
Battle Mania Daiginjou (the sequel to Trouble Shooter)
Dangerous Seed
Eliminate Down
Monster World IV
Pulseman
Twinkle Tale

[Oldskool]

Thanks for the list, I'll have to check some of those out. I thought Pulseman and Monster World were US releases too, in fact, I think I have Monster World IV.

I don't want to buy any Japanese versions if there are US equivalents. No sense in that to me. Many on the list prior to this post were released here already. I want to get into the exclusives.

I've heard Gleylancer was pretty cool, but from what I remember it's a bit expensive, but may be worth it.

Sequel to Trouble Shooter!? No way! I might have to pick that one up. I love Trouble Shooter, in fact I need to pick that one up still - it's just that you don't see a good complete copy around very often.

I've played the ROM for Eliminate Down, it's pretty damn sweet! Another expensive one that I'll need to splurge on one day.

MUSHA I found a complete copy at the local game store for only $30 and it was totally freaking awesome, I loved it. But like an idiot I sold it (Got 115 for it). I should have just kept it, but the potential profit on it lured me into selling it. Now I want it again and I'll probably never find a deal like that again, and the Japanese version is not much cheaper either.

These are my favorite Japanese exclusives:

Advanced Busterhawk Gleylancer
Battle Mania Daiginjou (the sequel to Trouble Shooter)
Dangerous Seed
Eliminate Down
Monster World IV
Pulseman
Twinkle Tale

[Ed Oscuro]

If you're gonna mention platformers, might as well mention the other two Shinobi games (Super Shinobi II aka Shinobi 3, and Shadow Dancer, both among the best games on the system), and Ex-Ranza (Ranger X). I know these are all on the US system, but might as well for the JPN releases anyway. Revenge of Shinobi is Super Shinobi in Japan, for example, so they're all cross-region.

Is Crack Down X a straight port of the arcade game? I have yet to check it out.

ESWAT certainly isn't, but I perhaps like it more on the MD.

On the pure airplane / spaceship / running people shooter front, can't really think of any that Nico87 didn't mention, except for Undead Line (the MD version is the only version I'm still missing).

There's also the whole Thunder Force series. The list goes on...

[Oldskool]

Yeah I know the list goes on and on and on, but if we are talking about Japanese exclusives here, the list seems to be not too large.

What console did Thunder force 1 come out on? Was that Master System or Mega Drive? Or some old obscure Japanese computer.

[ApolloBoy]

What console did Thunder force 1 come out on? Was that Master System or Mega Drive? Or some old obscure Japanese computer.

The first Thunder Force was released around 1983/1984 on a number of Japanese computers like the FM-7, Sharp X1 and PC88.