Sega Master System Grab Bag (Part 1)
2Time for a new series! This is an interesting one, where I look at a bit of an obscure retro system and look at 5 random games from the library to get a feel for the system itself. We'll be looking at the 1985 Sega Master System, which was competing with the NES back in the day, but was only successful in Europe and mainly in Brazil. I'll be using Retro Sanctuary's top 100 Sega Master System game list and a random number generator to select the games for this one, as seen here:
retro-sanctuary.com
random.org
Also, if you want a more in-depth look at the system over all along with a bit more history and information on technical specifications, I highly recommend the videos that Game Sack did on the subject, as seen here:
on the system itself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N0kmU4E7T4
on the 3d peripheral: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJKYovm_c9c
on the light gun games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noPID42Lfl4
Anyway, today we'll be looking at Operation Wolf, World Class Leader Board, Dynamite Headdy, California Games, and R-Type. Wish me luck!
Timecodes:
0:00:00 - Intro
0:03:36 - Operation Wolf
0:17:30 - World Class Leader Board
0:33:40 - Dynamite Headdy
0:50:17 - California Games
1:05:35 - R-Type
Also, since I love ranking things, here's my ranking of these 5 games from best to worst:
1. R-Type: This game was just awesome. Flicker was pretty bad, but the music, visuals, and amount of sprites on the screen was shocking. The difficulty was just right, as I was surprised myself by how far along I was getting through it. I've heard that the TurboGrafx-16 version is the go-to, but this isn't too bad at all of a back up.
2. World Class Leader Board: Geez, I was getting addicted to this one. Solid golf game with a shocking amount going on under the hood.Wind, incline, terrain, trees and other such objects. Took quite a bit of getting used to, and the load in takes a little bit, but it's really not too bad at all. Insane amount of courses, and you can play in group multiplayer, passing the controller.
3. Dynamite Headdy: Insane for a 8-bit port of a 16-bit game. Plays well, looks good, sounds good. Crazy difficult though, even more so than the original. I think this one was a Brazil exclusive from the mid-90's, which is silly, but hey, better than nothing.
4. California Games: Many mini-games, probably would be awesome in a big group passing the controller. That said, like the lesser versions of this game, the mini games can be hit or miss. That half pipe mode blows. Still probably the best version of the game.
5. Operation Wolf: I feel like this game's main appeal is playing with the light gun, and without it, it's kinda trash. Worse still, I couldn't figure out how to play with d-pad input (probably, in hind-sight, just plugging in a controller into port 2). If on original hardware with the light gun, definitely give this one a go.
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