Happy trials to you: Great Baseball / Satellite 7 / Woody Pop / Alex Kidd BMX Trial | Segaiden 53
705OK, 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 your BMX on water?! It's also uneven, though. We still haven't quite reached the era when Sega's home game design ambitions would be matched by the resources and time to really polish up those efforts. But soon....
Production notes:
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Master System footage captured from U.S. carts running through a cart adapter on Sega Mark III hardware with FM Sound Unit and RGB bypass modification by iFixRetro. Most arcade and Light Phaser footage captured from MiSTer, with thanks to MiSTerAddOns. Video upscaled to 720 with xRGB Mini Framemeister. RGB cables courtesy of StoneAgeGamer.com and Allie Bellrose.