Sega Genesis Buying Guide + Best Games & Hidden Gems!

hey guys metal Jesus here and I am back with the immortal John Hancock so glad to be back I know dude it's been too long and this is gonna be amazing because the number one request for a buying guide that I have got over the years I'm I'm not exaggerating every couple weeks people ask for this and you are the guy I love Sega I love Sega Genesis my favorite console to collect we're going to talk about Hardware accessories Games Galore here we go it's gonna be amazing let's take a look [Music] oh all right so this could be a massive video because there are so many parts to collecting for the Sega Genesis it's incredible yeah and and you can go to the deep end or you can go and just be basic this is just a great overview because there's a ton out there right right and so we're going to start with the three main consoles yes yes and you have the model one which its nickname yeah and this is the first release that Sega Genesis uh offered in the US and this is just a really beautiful aesthetically looking I also love the way that this console looks yeah and it definitely is you know it's got a volume control for headphones it just is really the one that I purchased with my own money back right yeah I had a friend who had it and I would go over there and I was just like wow what is this amazing looking console yeah it was so cool right yeah so that's the model one and then they went to a probably a more cost efficient version the model 2 which I have connected to the Sega CD yes and the this is how I store mine actually but this is kind of where we could get in the weeds a little bit as like okay the Sega Genesis is really the it also has this CD add-on and it has a 32x which yes pops on top also known as like a different you know people mushroom yeah mushroom or a tumor yeah it's like it's down and down in the Weeds about that but but we're just focusing right now on the model two right it's this Hardware unit here and the model one can attach to the Sega CD with an adapter as well as a 32x add-on yeah but we're really focusing on the Sega Genesis and uh the model 2 is everywhere it was probably probably sold the most it was on the market the longest this is the one I see the most whenever I'm out and about and it's the one that I I have the most of I actually have three of them because I would find them at garage sales all the time right yeah and this is important because this one you can add to it just like the model one yeah but the model 3 you can't look at this little thing in here it almost looks like a mini console right yeah and so the nice thing about the model 3 is if you have space issues I get a lot of comments on my own channel where people don't they can't collect or they have limited space this might be the way to go um I use this to demo my own game at shows and I bring this cute little model for me sure and I like it but you can attach you cannot attach additional things to it obviously it doesn't have a connection for sure so you see they simplified it quite a bit actually yeah now you have a box here so yeah just this is for the record John has every box but you bought this one yeah I bought this box I just you know I think it's cute it is and uh you know for people that collect boxes and the boxes are more expensive and it's harder to find but you know for people that want to know hey that's what a model 3 Box looks like nice now obviously the big challenge for these type of consoles for today is is like playing them on a big modern HD television absolutely and there's lots of different ways whether you're playing or capturing footage or streaming one option is the Retro tank line and so right you know and and that's very popular yeah uh if you don't want to go that route there's the HD retrovision cables they've been around a while so they're somewhat can be difficult to find yeah and then there's cheaper like cables uh in in the picture quality varies though yeah so yeah I mean typically like when people ask me the Retro tank is the thing I'll recommend but it's it can be a little bit more expensive however I'd be like is this going to be your only console yeah because the Retro tank works with almost every retro console so it is it's an investment but I think it's worth it so yeah and there's other like uh adapters that you can use individually for Sega Genesis for Sega Genesis and so uh there's a lot of options out there depending and if you just want to go CRT mode if you have a dis original CRT you don't need any adapter and it looks glorious like it's amazing too but as we move on though we're going to talk about other options for people clone system so all right so I talked about other options that you can play Sega on actual Hardware there's many other options including when I'm we're not showing jvcxi and the Pioneer laser active with the Genesis pack but really we're showing what you're probably going to see more often at like shows and made by Sega yeah yeah all right first up we have to mention the Nomad so cool yeah it's a really sweet handheld that you actually can plug into a TV and it plays portable games with a six button oh a feature add-on it's amazing that they made this so that I mean real cartridges back then that fit in it yeah it was awesome yeah and so people have modded the screens because the original screen's pretty blurry to these to standards today right and you can make these glorious it is fairly hard to get and expensive but it's a recommendation if you love gaming on the go with Sega yeah that's awesome next up is a console that I was so happy to get which is a CDX yes yes to see the exit combines Sega CD it kind of reminds me of like a 90s compact disc player absolutely even takes batteries I do believe to listen to music yeah with headphones gorgeous looking compact again if you have a space issue expensive but this is another option for people if you want to go the route of the original Hardware when I bought that I don't know how many years ago five years ago so this became my main system because it would play the Sega CD games and the cartridges it was awesome that was awesome then Sega made their own mini consoles two different ones the first came with three button controllers modeled after the model one and it came with 40 games plus a few bonus titles and simply fantastic yeah I mean a lot of people I think who were nostalgic for the Genesis at the time jumped here because because I mean this is it has a lot of games on it that people would want to play but also more importantly it just outputs to HDMI yeah it's super easy right absolutely and you know for people that just don't want to collect they just want to play games on official Sega Hardware you can go this route yeah yeah but wait there's more so this last year they sneezed this out which was super tough to get it was on Amazon you had to get it from Amazon and Japan yeah first and they made a model too many with one six button controller and it it comes with 60 games plus a couple bonus games yeah and this one's fun it's cute you know and it's it's it's smaller and you know for people that have Nostalgia for that model too Sega you may want to this route yeah I think people are really surprised myself included that they did a follow-up I mean it was like amazing right and this kind of goes along with it I have it here the Tower of the Tower of Power so for the original one in Japan they made this you know tribute to the Tower of Power and I don't know if this actually came out in in North America I don't think so yeah I think it was just one of the many Japanese exclusives they get all the cool things they do completely non-functional it's only for the fans but I wanted to point it out and people even on a friend that 3D printed fake cartridges that you can insert it doesn't it's a non-working cartridge slot for the mini too you can put games in there it's so cool so now we're going to move on to some of the Clone systems of which there has been quite a few times and these aren't all of them right there's other companies that do make some decent clone consoles these are some that we we have used in the past and currently use yeah and and when we say clone systems you're still using your original cartridges here right so it's just a way of kind of if you don't want to have the hardware but maybe you want a little bit more convenient way of playing games yeah because the original uh consoles you couldn't hook them up via HDMI cables and so these have that option built in where you don't have to Tinker around with cables yeah and the first is a budget option it is still technically available though it's limited in stock and this is the Mega Retron HD from hyperkin never used that huh yeah so um it's not perfect but for that 60 dollar range this is a great option it does play a few games that other clone consoles don't I do believe virtual racing works with it and I have to say that I'm very satisfied with this as for clone consoles uh it it's not perfect and the resolution is not perfect sure and there's problems but it does play at many homebrews including my own Homebrew through as well as others and I think for 60 bucks great pop yeah really so for years this was the system I used also by hyperkin this is a Retron 5. and I mean this system got a ton of use for so long and what I love about this is that it plays Genesis Mega Drive it also plays Super Nintendo NES uh boy Game Boy Game Boy Advance it's amazing yeah and so this is an emulation device and so there are limitations with Homebrew yeah but you can find this everywhere it's offered on Amazon it's offered at many different retro game stores still have it they reissued it with like a some different colors yeah like a bright blue I think for me the the only thing I don't like about this I do want to mention is that it comes with a controller it that is absolutely terrible yeah it's bad however what's great about this system is that it does support the original I mean you can get the original controllers so it has the connectors right here so that's what I would do I would just plug in the real Genesis controller no problems right and then oh boy oh yeah yeah so this this is what I typically use this is the analog Mega SG let's pull it out and see how these people okay so this is the bad boy this is out of stock from the official company but let me tell you this is what I use capturing footage on my channel now I do as well and this is not going to be for everybody because even at the time I mean it was it could be hard to get it's now kind of expensive to get so we just want to mention that you know you're gonna pay for it but if you're looking for what I consider one of the absolute best clone systems out there by far it is going to be this and you can also hook this up to a Sega CD yeah so that little pad here as well yeah so it's a really great option it is expensive but if you're looking for kind of the upper end with a Ferrari yeah the ferrarios yeah of of gaming for Sega Genesis it's awesome yeah John just reminded me that there's yet another way to play the Sega Genesis in my collection I completely forgot about it that is the poly Mega absolutely and it's a modular system and it uses emulation I do believe and you you get a base model that plays disc bass consoles like PlayStation and that's what I typically use this for I completely forgot that I have this this add-on to use the cartridges so then you can buy these separate modules turbo Graphics Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis and Mega Drive yeah and so you purchased one of these and you can play additional games and so this might be an option for some people it is expensive it is the thing I like about it I primarily use it I mean this is complete outside of this but I like it for the disk space systems and I also like its operating system is really nice but we want to mention it's not going to be for everybody but you may run into it at uh you know conventions and things like that so you can take a look at it all right so this is just a small sample of what's out there this is not everything it's insane yeah and so you're gonna find something that works for you it might be convenient to just find what you can at your Retro Game Shop or online yeah and so we're going to jump in here this is just a representation of everything out there there's just a ton yeah more than what we're showing we're going to first talk about the minister you're okay so you're skipping the main controller and going straight oh my God yeah no no no I think it's hilarious because you really really well this is the minister and so there's different gun options for Sega another one is the justifier right and so um this the the downside of these type of accessories is they don't work with a lot of games yeah and so you may want to don't work with a HD television anymore either so yeah this was a CRT only but anyways look at that man that's that's just scream in the 90s yeah that's why I jump to it yeah no no I I I know I'm I'm jealous that you have it like so nicely in the Box yeah brand new yeah yeah okay but getting back to the main controller that people would mostly find three button okay and Sega made two main controllers a three button and a six button yeah and this is what first was coming out with the model one Sega Genesis systems and then they quickly evolved to and this is a third party uh brand but this is what it looks like and it looks like a you know like a boomerang or something yeah it's a six button control one of my favorite controllers of all time both of these controllers I think are really uh really nice very comfortable controllers especially compared even to the Super Nintendo just because it's a little bit bigger you know what I mean yeah and some people have different opinions about the d-pad whether how tight or loose it is but I like it yeah I play a lot of games with the six button uh retro bit does a great aftermarket version of the six button controller which I showed there and it's simply fantastic and so but I know there's a lot of arcade Gamers out there and you may want to go the arcade stick route so I bought these because there are so many great Shooters on the system and I was like man and I love both of these yes they're excellent Sega did an awesome job and the first is a three button arcade power stick it's got a great like you know metal base to it and this is this is awesome if you want to go that route as Sega made a lot of arcade ports and offered them on absolutely and then you have like weird stuff like this I don't even remember where I got this you know yeah but it says Sega on or is you know it looks it looks kind of official I mean so for like you know playing like a game I think of like afterburner yeah you know after Burger two sorry and so uh you know playing those types of games so maybe space Harrier yeah but there is a six button arcade stick for uh Fighters that utilize the extra buttons okay and so you want to go that route for if you're especially into those uh more advanced games that use all six buttons okay yep cool all right and so then you have all these like Wireless options so you have this you have a wireless receiver which is a newer product though so that's like kind of a newer solution yeah retro bit offers a whole line of stuff and even they have a wireless you know eight button arcade pad and you can go that route if you if you want to play Sega that way yeah and then and I just I mentioned or I brought this in here too because there's also third-party control specifically designed for the mini yeah as well so given that you know maybe a different option for people who get the mini that with a USB connection to it so and and you can use it typically on the switch and also on your PC which is pretty cool absolutely and it opens up many options to play hacks aftermarket stuff that wasn't released officially yeah and so you may want to go that route yeah one of the reasons why you had to be a part of this video is because you are such a crazy Genesis collector and I knew you'd have a bunch of really crazy stuff yeah and this is just a fraction of what I have right I brought what I could in the time limitations that I had to come up here but I I really am happy to share this first thing and and the point of this is obviously a buying guide you may like you did run into some of this stuff out in the wild yeah the first one was pretty odd okay so this is pretty hard to find and at first you're looking at like what is this it looks like just a cable a nine Pin cable it's actually a Link cable and it only works with one game zero tolerance it was a send-off very few people got this and it came you know with a with a letter and essentially it makes the game into a two-player option at at the same time that's crazy yeah and so next up is the Sega channel in which it was heard about yeah so Sega worked with cable companies and there's a couple different versions of this I'm not the expert of this Hardware but essentially working with your cable provider and paying an extra fee you could download games that weren't offered on physical hardware and so you could play it through your Sega it's just it's awesome yeah it's really cool that they did that yeah this is something that I do have in my collection and it's pretty cool it is the power base converter that's right and power base was the first name of the Sega Master System before it was called that and essentially it allows your Sega Genesis another adapter yeah to play Master System and even the card games which is amazing that suddenly I mean there's already a ton of Genesis games but now you can play probably hundreds more yeah yeah absolutely amazing but what is this I've never seen this before so the powerbase mini so this is pretty hard to find and so Stone Age gamer made their own power base mini so people can play this okay on uh you know original Hardware use it and you put your Master System games on this so it's the size of a Genesis cart interesting and uh you know another option people can yeah absolutely that's really cool uh this is something that's sealed yeah so this is a four player adapter for the many many EA Games I've covered all the US EA Games and ranked them on my channel uh you can check that out but this is a four player adapter for the many sports games that EA did four player options there's other companies that did their own four player adapters and there's one separate that I don't have but I have this one sealed had to bring it wow that's cool and then what is this oh Action Replay yeah so you know it was really popular back in the day codes and unlocking things and this is kind of an oddity you know Game Genie comes to mind and that's the one more common yeah I've only seen this a few times I think I got this in Canada and so this is Action Replay I think it it came out the company's name is from Florida and so yeah and so you'd pop this in your console you put your cartridge on top and you could unlock it you know different codes and features and games yeah that's really cool all right John you have gone through the massive library of Sega Genesis games and come up with 10 of them that you think that pretty much new players to the system should definitely check out absolutely and first up is streets Rage 2 one of my favorite Brawlers of all time absolutely fantastic and a great follow-up to the first one this one's better people still play this today I mean it's getting ported everywhere it's like it's considered a absolute classic oh yeah and a follow-up that Ghouls and ghosts which was published by Sega was an arcade Port of Capcom dude I've never seen oh and sleet I've never seen that cover before how badass is that it's like epic yeah lightning yeah don't you play this like every year I play it every year and you have to beat it twice and it's absolutely fun and it's one of those games you know you play it over and over again and get good at it yeah awesome my favorite game one of my favorite Sega Genesis games of all time that's amazing next up is herzog's Vibe yeah and every time people see this title they're like how do you pronounce that yeah I know real-time strategy on a console that works two player you can play the computer there's nothing really anything else like it on the Sega Genesis Library do you know if that was originally an Amiga game or something like that you know how there's a lot of media portals I think so okay I think it I think it it started out maybe it's somewhere else but her songs by is on Sega Genesis yeah that's cool yeah next up there's uh three Shinobi games on Sega Genesis this is I think the agreed favorite and that's Shinobi three because you have a life bar it's a little bit easier okay um you know and uh awesome Graphics amazing sound and you know Shinobi is just a long-standing series for Sega and they really mastered it with this one nice huh I guess oh yeah yeah so there was three golden ax games I still like the first one I think it's the best there's even a dual mode where you can you know you attack different enemies over and over again and you get a grade anyways awesome great adaptation of the arcade original nice next up is a game that actually I own a complete copy of that is Fantasy Star four yeah and it's just amazing oh yeah it's great I mean there are three Fantasy Star games on the Genesis yeah they're all great and then you have the original on the Master System yeah but epic super fun to even play today like every once in a while if I'm in the mood for an old school you know RPG I'll pop this in and I the hours just fly by and I do believe it came out at like a hundred bucks it was like super expensive for the time really yeah well it can be kind of expensive to get a complete copy today as well yeah thankfully I got that uh quite a while ago next up Concha hardcore and this is oh my goodness there's so many things to say about the Genesis version of Contra and I don't think it's as good as the NES version but the next two have the Genesis kind of take of Konami classic so you have this and then you have Castlevania Bloodlines between the two I kind of lean towards Castlevania Bloodlines gorgeous shape game man that's really nice shape all right yeah I know yeah I'm looking at that might be better than mine all right but anyways fantastic version of a Castlevania Game and and really uh the color palettes just a little so-so but the gameplay is spot on yeah this next one here I've heard about so you you brought a sports title yes a sports title for anybody and that's the original mutant League football that's hilarious and you can do everything from bribing ref and there's really funny take on football using monsters and and you kill you kill people in the game and stuff awesome and even if you're not into sports games check this out in emulator check check it out play it it's fun next up is a game that I do not have a complete copy of it's yours and that is Musha yeah and this is just one of the best Shooters on the platform it's super expensive yeah play an emulator yeah but anyways yeah that's how I do it yeah yeah and so this is the way to go if you really want to see what the Sega Genesis could do for like one of the best Shooters on the platform so nice want to move on to kind of like the more hidden gems the games that maybe people don't immediately think of when they think of the Genesis yeah and I know some of these we've talked about before yeah that was like years ago when we had less gray hair in 4k yeah so it's been a while and maybe you haven't seen those videos we know that we've talked about some of these but these are still games that don't get enough recognition yeah we recommend people check these out starting with crew ball oh I was so happy that you brought this yeah you know I know we're both Motley Crew fans yeah this is a great pinball tie-in and I really enjoy this game in fact I went back and played this recently and it still holds up it does very cool great game video game Pinball next up is a game that I always recommend what's the game that doesn't get enough recognition Jewel master I don't think I played this so when you see the title it's like you think it's like a puzzle game yeah no it's a side scrolling action game kind of like a rastan and you have like you you have different rings and combine them for different powers huh and it's a great action platformer man that okay that cover does not do it justice no wow interesting yeah it's it's one to check out okay next step subterranea and this is if you're a fan of games such as like shoplifter or gravatar oh yeah okay and so this is this is fun it's got boss fights pretty tough and another game that gets overlooked uh this came out a little bit later in the Genesis Library so it was at a time when people were moving on to like Super Nintendo and other platforms okay great game huh okay oh yes okay all right so I just recently played this I saw this on your channel yes yeah and so I'm ranking Sega games published by Sega Mystic Defender and I went back and I was like wow this is so much better than I remember it and so it's got weird looking enemies and it's got a great atmosphere to it I do believe it's connected uh to an anime and so yes check it out okay wow this next one Red Zone I have a loose card of it oh yeah and the thing that really stood out for me is that it has this kind of like I want to say almost full motion video in the beginning it's amazing yeah it's it's kind of there this company's take who also did subterranea it's their take on desert strike yeah helicopter rescue mission base but it's like 3D yeah it's like top down it's it's stunning it's a really fun game and and nobody talks about it no that's really cool yeah okay and then you brought one for me yeah yeah so this is definitely a game that I think people don't know about and there was a a Pro-Am game a lot of people played the RC Pro M on the NES yeah those Championship Pro-Am on the Sega Genesis and it plays great and it's got that like 16-bit look you know slightly enhanced Graphics sure and it's well worth checking out if you're a fan of that Series yeah you got to play this one I will that's cool yeah no obviously we know that man some of these games are super expensive to get in their physical form I mean I mentioned a lot of these I don't have the complete inbox version of it because they're just so crazy expensive yeah and I don't I don't blame people for not having it because it's all about having fun and playing games not being stressed out or feeling bad that you can't have a thousand dollar game yeah well that's why we also want to talk not only about the original Hardware but also some of the mini systems and the closest some things like that yeah including like things like the ever drives yeah right and so it's it's initial upfront cost is expensive but then you can play everything on original hardware and maybe you don't want to collect games you just go this route often I will use this because it's just more convenient I don't have to worry about busting out my original cartridge you know or cleaning it or all that sort of stuff it is just very convenient it can play hacks and homebrews as well and so it's a nice convenient way of playing everything without taking a cartridge out of your hardware and then of course we need to mention that you know there is is I guess what would you call emulation or collections right yeah absolutely yeah and there are a ton of really great Sega Genesis collections out there on so many systems multiple platforms and you actually may have some of these already in your collection yeah and a lot of them are very well made and you know designed for handhelds or consoles or whatever they're available on Steam all we really want people to do is just enjoy the Genesis absolutely you know however you decide to do that yeah so there you have it guys that is our brand new Sega Genesis buying guide it was so fun to be back on the channel it's been too long man yeah and you are the guy I mean you are the guy like you have a complete collection so I knew you were you'd bring the common stuff the crazy stuff you did not disappoint oh it was so fun talking about my favorite console you know I've been thinking about maybe we should kind of go back and redo some of those buying guys because absolutely because there was a lot of stuff in this buying guide that has changed over the years like the condominium system the Clone systems the you know the way you connect it to your television all that sort of stuff so maybe it's something if you guys are interested in maybe it is time for us to go and update those old buying guides that could be fun there are several other systems I can help out with I know it'll be awesome so dude where can people find you on this massive internet uh you look up uh John Hancock retro the link will be below where you can find me on my YouTube channel where I'm talking everything from Atari to Xbox a little bit of retro a little bit of modern a whole bunch of fun yeah that's right all right guys thank you very much for watching thank you for subscribing and take care

Channel: MetalJesusRocks

Views: 185,471

Keywords: metal jesus rocks, metaljesusrocks, metal, jesus, console, system, review, gameplay, video, game, reviews, history, retro, retrospective, gaming, collection, collector, Sega Genesis, Sega Mega Drive, Buying Guide, Best Genesis Games, Genesis Hidden Gems, Genesis Accessories, Genesis models, mega drive, hidden gems, retro gaming, video games, retro games, top 10 genesis, sega games, the immortal john hancock, retro game collecting, sega genesis buying guide, metal jesus, sonic the hedgehog

Id: Fj-XO-GbxwM

Length: 28min 33sec (1713 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 23 2023