Have you got this hardcore piece of Sega hardware?
39The Sega Menacer is the official light gun for the Sega Mega Drive, but surprisingly, only three cartridge titles were ever released (in Europe and Australia anyway). Body Count is one of the most impressive ways to test out this hulking piece of hardware. Released by Probe in 1994 Body Count features a fantastic array of bad guys, aliens and machines, stage damage and a whole heap of power-ups.
Body Count was released on the Sega Channel service in America, and it seems to have some extended cut-scenes fleshing out the story. The cartridge release has some garbled text that removes the language barrier along with the story. Either version delivers the fantastic arcade action that was sorely missing from the Menacer 6-in-1 pack in title. One trick with the cutscenes is that there’s a flashing light after every boss, before you start the next stage. Take note of the colour and the order, it might come in handy at the end and don’t worry about killing the hostages. If you don’t have a Menacer, the Sega Mouse as well as the standard joypad are also supported.
What I found a little disappointing is that on both the Master System and the Sega Saturn, there are plenty of hard hitting arcade action games to pick from. The Mega Drive and the Menacer received next to no support and it’s a bit of a shame we didn’t have a more titles that really pushed the hardware.
You can check out my original Sega Menacer review here: https://youtu.be/E_h3fllnz2Y Or check out the FMV games released for the Sega CD that supported the Menacer: https://youtu.be/BnY-t2i6L20
As well as my article on FMV gaming with the Menacer: http://www.leftoverculturereview.com/2018/02/02/fmv-games-failed-sega-menacer-couldnt-help/
Read more about the Sega Menacer here: https://medium.com/@leftoverculture/segas-failed-light-gun-the-menacer-6c69cf9d84bf