The Final Days of Sega's Consoles - The Series

forever [Music] in July of 1983 Sega released its first dedicated Home console in Japan the sd-1000 it was based on the popular z80 processor and used graphics and sound chips created by Texas Instruments Sega was intent on making a heck of a splash in the home consumer market so they also created a home computer based on the st1000 called the SC 3000 in addition to educational and productivity software it also played the same games as its console little brother sega's first year on the market had been productive they sold more sg-1000s than they had forecast and made more games than their number one competitor Nintendo big changes had also hit Sega around the same time in new ownership CSK Corporation had purchased Sega from golf and Western and the new management very much believed the future of Home consoles were going to be big Sega doubled down and released the sg-1002 in July of 1984. it had some quality of life improvements like detachable controllers that could be stored on the system itself things that started to go really badly for Sega the following year Nintendo had picked up incredible steam at retail easily outselling sega's efforts with the sg-1000 market in steep decline Sega had felt it was losing because it was underpowered looking to turn things around they beefed up the core technology of the sd-1000 giving it a radically improved set of graphics and sound chips and released a new console called the Sega Mark III in October of 1985. this machine would be released in the United States the following year as the Sega Master System in this episode we will be looking at how things went for this device in America some of the games it received in its lifetime and ultimately how it all ended I hope you guys enjoy the final days of the Sega Master System foreign [Music] foreign years of the Master System showed a lot of Promise in the United States in 1986 we got great games like the Shoot Em Up shoplifter a port of sega's arcade game which was a remake of the classic home computer release the side-scrolling action and one-on-one fighting of black belt came out that same year a westernized version of the Japanese hakuto no kin Fist of the North Star the other popular Alex kid in Miracle World made its debut as well and while I didn't much care for it there are Master System fans that swear by its gameplay variety and challenge the classic run and Gun action of the Ninjas showed up at the end of the year as did the movie license Rambo First Blood Part 2. [Music] thank you [Music] 1987 kept the ball rolling space Harrier showed up a port of the Sprite scaling arcade shooter that was better than it had any right to be the co-op fly and gun quartet got a Master System Port as well it didn't have the four players of the arcade but was as faithful as you could have hoped Wonderboy was yet another arcade Fort that was shockingly good it nailed the gameplay nearly one to one Sprite scaling Legend outrun made its home debut on the Master System that year too and while it wasn't quite the same visually it was still a really fun game Sega released zillion late that year which was sort of their version of Metroid it was created to tie in with the anime series in Japan which unfortunately never made its way to the United States [Music] oh [Music] as fun as some of those games were it was 1988 when the Master System really hit its stride zaxon got a release for the 3D glasses and was nothing short of phenomenal it made owning those things worth it all by itself space here your 3D showed up shortly thereafter giving you something else to play in 3D Ken seiden the side-scrolling action adventure that sees the samurai High opto battling to recover the Scrolls of his ancestors the Epic Ninja game Shinobi showed up that year as well this was one of the platform's defining games and while the port differed from its arcade cousin quite a bit it was still nothing short of incredible the RPG fantasy star released soon after giving Master System owners a sprawling and engaging tale of a planet locked in Civil War and your efforts to overthrow its mad Kings the end of the year was A Thrill Ride of high-profile releases you get an arcade Port of the beat em up Double Dragon as well as a port of the excellent Shoot Em Up our type foreign [Music] with the NES clearly ahead in controlling the North American Market Sega doubled down on getting games out to keep the platform relevant in 1989. the co-op Kaiju simulator Rampage made its way home early that year and it spanked the NES version in every way Reggie Jackson's baseball will sega's second generation baseball title that was one of my favorites it was so good Sega basically remade it for their 16-bit Genesis shortly thereafter East the vanished Omens was an RPG unlike anything I'd played before it took a little bit to get used to but there was a really good story and great exploration there Tito's arcade Masterpiece rostan showed up and did a marvelous job capturing the feel of that game's world old it was challenging and felt kind of like a video game version of Conan the Barbarian as 1989 came to a close Sega prepared to replace the Master System with their new genesis platform a 16-bit machine Loosely based on their popular system 16 arcade board Nintendo had thoroughly dominated the Master System in retail and it was time to try something new but Sega wasn't done trying to get the Master System into people's homes popular toy maker Tonka had been in control of Distributing the Master System for years and Sega took back that control for themselves and completely relaunched the brand with a new value proposition while the Genesis would remain their lead platform the Master System would become their lower priced entry-level brand 1990 would see a redesign and a major price drop for it and Sega would ready a new batch of games to sell with it live from your grave areola salt was a horizontal Shoot Em Up that was pretty decent there's a bunch of different power-ups to get the graphics have some nice backgrounds and there are some really cool bosses its main problem is the stages are just too long leading to some fatigue with the same enemy patterns dominating your play time if they had added just a few more scenes and a few new enemies to spice things up this one could have been a classic but it ain't bad as it is [Music] Sega was trying like hell to milk Mike Tyson's defeat so they re-badged heavyweight champions James Buster Douglas's knockout boxing in 1990. some folks like this one but I couldn't stand it the tedious back and forth of the matches never feels like you have any real control and the punches seem to land completely random despite being right in the other boxer's face the entire time it looks good but I just couldn't find a lot to enjoy here the Genesis version was shallow as well but at least your punches had some weight foreign Sega developed a strong relationship with the King of Pop back in those days so it made sense for the Master System to get aboard a Moonwalker it turned out to be pretty good too it follows much of the design from the Genesis game and despite being paired back it still looks in place Faithfully even the music was catchy this was one of those times that you really had to hand it to Sega for getting it so close to the 16-bit version if you ever get a chance at it it's really worth playing ha [Music] believe it or not tiertex gave us an unbelievably solid Port of Paperboy that year next to the arcade you just had to be impressed the color was great the scrolling was smooth and the gameplay was spot on at a time when most arcade ports were butchered on 8-bit machines the Master System stood apart with excellent results [Music] did you enjoy RC Pro-Am on the NES if you did give RC Grand Prix a go on the Master System it's essentially the same game you get an overhead racer where you can win money to upgrade your ride tracks get more complex as you play and there are a ton of them it's not especially deep or well playing but it is fun for a few laps here and there oh foreign Sega released another hockey game for the Master System in 1990 called Slap Shot this is sort of a bumper car's feeling take on the sport everyone bounces off one another while you fight for the puck it doesn't play too bad and the graphics are nice and colorful two players can be fun and it has a tournament mode for extended play not bad but there are better 8-bit hockey games out there [Music] dead angle was an interesting Port of the arcade game of the same name it's kinda like dynamite Duke but set in the 1930s you control both a Crosshair and your character silhouette As you move around the screen you must kill all the bad guys before a ball shows up the movement is really choppy and the life bar is completely misleading it looks like you can take a bunch of hits when in fact you fall after only a few not a big fan of this one personally it's heavily cut back from the source and it just isn't very much fun to play [Music] thank you oh man did Sega have their work cut out for importing golden ax to the Master System it uses the same four megabits as the Genesis version but gets a bunch of cutbacks you can only play a Zack's battler and it's only one player if you only had a Master System you likely found some fun in it but Genesis owners had a good laugh at this game's expense laughs [Music] I was no fan of Alex kid but Sega won me over with 1990s Alex Kidd in Shinobi world this one had some great gameplay mechanics and the level design was really fun it also looked and sounded nice had the other Alex Kidd Games been this good from the beginning there may have been no need for a speedy blue replacement years later one of the system's better games [Music] you'd think columns would be purely forgettable on the Master System but it's actually not bad at all flash columns is here and you can change the puzzle pieces and it sounds great too not a bad version at all laughs [Music] instead of trying to Port the Genesis version eswad on the Master System took its inspiration from the arcade game fight your way across various locations in a cyber suit that breaks away as you take damage take too much in your toast it's fast difficult and could have been a really great game if the enemies weren't constantly appearing behind you it quickly grows tires some fighting things from the direction you just came [Music] foreign I'll let you guys in on a little known fact I really dislike racing games with permanently split screens even in the one player mode super Monaco GP on the Master System is guilty of this and it really hurts it the gameplay is also a bit suspect the automatic transmission mode is not on unplayable because you can't slow down fast enough for the sharp turns this means you have to play it in the manual mode which is an auto accelerated control scheme that makes shifting gears your lone way of slowing down didn't really care for that either making this one better played on the Genesis [Music] [Music] 1990 ended with an 8-bit version of Joe Montana football Sega was clearly inspired by Tecmo Bowl's gameplay in this one but it misses the mark in a number of areas there's no League license no players license the gameplay is slower and the music is nowhere near as catchy it isn't a bad 8-bit football game but there are certainly better ones out there it had the building blocks of something special but the end product just fell flat on its face foreign [Applause] the start of 1991 came with the sobering reality that even with a price drop in new software the Master System was simply not going to catch on in the U.S Marketplace the Super Nintendo was about to launch so Sega shut down any more attempts to push the Master System hardware and software there were seven games slated to be released when this decision came down so Sega wrapped up their development and shut down North American distribution entirely these were the final games for the platform Dick Tracy was an interesting movie license on the Master System they tried to copy the Genesis version nearly stage for stage and with very similar gameplay while there are some differences in detail and Sprite size it even copied the visuals rather closely it would have been a good game too if it hadn't been for the gameplay requiring you to tap the attack button to shoot side to side and holding the attack button to shoot into the background it made things awkward and imprecise making it much more frustrating than it should have been [Music] Sega continued to utilize their Genesis licenses for the Master System with ghouls and ghosts you'd never think that an 8-bit machine from 1985 would have any chance of doing this game Justice and you'd be right while what is here is playable it has been scaled back heavily in every category gameplay is riddled with slow down constantly and it makes an already difficult game damn near impossible I admire the attempt but this is better played elsewhere [Music] thank you now this is the kind of stuff that sells Hardware Castle of Illusion was a killer addition to the Master System Library incredible experience top to bottom it looked good and played even better the level design left most Platformers in the dust and while it was short it was one heck of a ride all the way to the end a must-stone for fans of these kinds of games foreign [Music] tier techs developed the Master System Strider and oh man did they butcher it They Took an Ax to it and didn't let up for all five levels it's an awful mess of poor gameplay and terrible sound and visuals stuff like this didn't help the machine's fortunes at all thank you [Music] Sega wanted a game that looked and played like Zelda and it came in the form of golden ax Warrior played from the top-down perspective You Adventure all over looking for dungeons items and the nine lost crystals to defeat Death Adder it looks and plays great and every bit as good as its inspiration there weren't a ton of action adventure games on the platform so this one was quite the welcome surprise foreign [Music] license for a while and made a few different games with it the Master System version was actually not a bad game it just had a few frustrating elements that kept it from greatness moving around the screen felt really good web swinging was easy and climbing walls was natural the problems came when attacking enemies your hits had no real animation or weight to them so it was hard to get a feel for the timing it was also cheap as hell in the later game stuff would fall from the ceiling float up from the floor and enemies would come at you left and right had the balance been better thought out and the hitbox has been more refined this could have been a killer license instead it's just okay and a real missed opportunity [Music] foreign [Music] the final game released in the United States was none other than Sonic while you would think Sega would have just courted the Genesis game as close as they could they instead turned the title over to ancient who developed an entirely different game the end result wasn't bad and its own experience top to bottom level design is radically different as are the bonus stages in how you collect the chaos emeralds here the bonus stages are for extra continues and lives and the chaos emeralds are actually found during certain stages it's a lot more challenging than the 16-bit version which again lends quite a different feeling to it the performance does suffer here regularly with bouts of slow down near constantly in certain areas it's a black mark on an otherwise fun adventure [Music] thank you [Music] the close of the master system in the United States in 1991 was of course not the end of that system story it went on for another four years in Europe and even longer in Brazil there's no getting around the fact that the platform got slaughtered in North America however only 114 officially released games made it out there roughly a third of the system's actual Library even with sega's reboot and new marketing campaign in 1990 it still sold poorly and was quickly relegated to The Bargain Bin in fact Sega was so eager to close out the North American Market the following year the final four U.S releases were just European versions with a new UPC sticker on the back of the box while the Master System had a number of great titles the popularity of the NES was just too much to overcome Nintendo also signed exclusivity contracts that prevented many of the games developed for their Hardware to be ported elsewhere limiting third-party support greatly most of the stuff you saw here was published by bigger themselves for that very reason and that's the story of how things went for the Master System in North America right down to its final days a technologically sound piece of Hardware crippled by the lack of third-party support and Nintendo's Monopoly I have to hand it to Sega for supporting it as long as they did however despite having their ass handed to them at retail it supported the Master System from 1986 to 1991 a full five years the 32x the Saturn and the Dreamcast received no such support in the United States a sad reminder of just how poorly those systems were handled I'm Sigalert X thank you guys for watching and I will catch you next time [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] the Sega Genesis is easily one of my favorite game systems ever released originally it landed in the summer of 1989 with me getting mine at Christmas thanks to my hard-working mother less than a year after that I got my very first job they gave me the buying power to explore its library at will by running games regularly and buying the AAA hits as they arrive for the next few years I was treated to some pretty incredible software it was a great mix of new and established series many of which couldn't be played on anything else of course like all the great game machines that have ever existed over the years its time in the spotlight would pass and it would be replaced by newer and more exciting options the old Genesis had been a fighter however despite being released in 1989 it got games frequently all the way up until 1996. when things finally slowed down considerably that year we still got some really nice software however the superbly animated Pocahontas was released and though Sega wasn't responsible for this Disney property it's still is a pretty decent experience Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 also found its way home that year the age at Genesis Hardware couldn't reproduce the arcade 100 but you still have to admire the fact that it was still able to produce a very playable version Midway also released NBA Hang Time on the Genesis a great Port of their arcade basketball series that originally started out as NBA Jam once again the Genesis despite its age provided a solid gameplay experience that retained the original four-player co-op in competitive multiplayer Sega made sure that there was one final adventure with the little blue blur that year and we got Sonic 3D Blast by Travelers Tales this was an isometric action game that changed just about everything with the series some loved it some hate it but it definitely left its Mark virgin teamed up with Disney to bring us Pinocchio a side-scrolling action game that showed off that the Genesis could still put out some pretty incredible visuals and animation while the gameplay itself was kinda tame you just had to to respect those Graphics Vector man made his triumphant return in 1996 as well its heavy use of pre-rendered assets was seen as sega's answer to Donkey Kong Country it certainly had some great animation and special effects to go along with it when 1997 rolled around the Sega Genesis released a slow to a crawl and less than a dozen games made it out that entire year in this episode we will be going over the final days of the Sega Genesis in the North American Market did it go out with the bang it deserved or did Sega let it die without so much as a whimper keep on watching and find out [Music] foreign [Music] Sports had been a big part of the Genesis success story in the United States so it's no surprise to see NBA Live 98 here Electronic Arts had a number of games that always sold well for them on the platform and they made sure to eke out every chance of a profit while they could with the PlayStation version commanding the attention of their better development teams this one was dumped off to tier tags who basically just updated the previous year's engine still the NBA Live series had some solid Gameplay at that point it was fast easy to understand and the animation was actually quite nice THQ would publish it since Electronic Arts was fully focused on the 32-bit machines at the time they didn't break any new ground but it was a solid game if you enjoyed the sport it was only released in North America [Applause] Sega itself wasn't lost on the importance of sports games to the Genesis brand and they released NFL 98 in 1997. this one was based on the Joe Montana NFL 95 engine that was three years old by this point I guess the old saying that if it isn't broke don't fix it applies here because Sega just basically updated The rosters and slung it out the door it plays well enough for a 16-bit football title but its history is actually more interesting than the game itself while the Saturn was the flagship console at the time NFL 98 would never appear on it making the Genesis version the final release of the original Joe Montana style of football games and speaking of Joe cool this game was the basis of a nasty lawsuit filed against Sega for 5 million dollars Montana and his attorneys allege that Sega had breached a contract to produce a video game together when Sega released NFL 98 a product produced without Montana's input or likeness the relationship soured NFL 98 was also so the final football game from Sega before Sega Sports was reborn with the NFL 2K series on the Dreamcast Sega also only released it in North America the relationship between Electronic Arts and THQ continued with a release of the popular hockey series NHL 98 this one again pretty much followed the path that NBA Live 98 took keep what was working before add a few mile tweaks and update the rosters it's still fast and plays great so I suppose I can understand not risking anything on eight-year-old Hardware still if you had played the previous few years there wasn't much here to get excited about like a lot of these late Sports releases this was only released in North America oh thank you one of the more peculiar releases in the final days of the Genesis was Virtual Fighter 2. since the base Genesis Hardware had no hope of rendering a polygon version of the game Sega decided to use traditional hand-drawn Sprites and backgrounds as you can probably imagine this completely changed not just the look of the visuals but also how it played it's now a fixed 2D perspective so you lose the replays as well being on a cartridge also makes you got a ton of things cut out of it you lose both of the new characters that showed up in Virtual Fighter 2 and you lose a ton of moves and sound effects I really am impressed Sega wanted to do something like this but I think they should have at least broke out the old SVP chip and really made a more Valiant effort a 3D arena with 2D Sprites may have been a much more compelling product this was never released in Japan despite Virtual Fighter 2 being more popular there than anywhere else in the world the Japanese Mega Drive had not sold as well as other regions and its Market completely collapsed in 1995. one ready go [Music] [Music] golden ax III here was originally released in a few Asian territories back in 1993 while it never got a physical version in the United States it did make its way to the Sega channel in 1997. I was unlucky enough to live out in the middle of nowhere at the time so I was quite envious of those that had the Sega Channel as an option golden ax III is a grossly underappreciated title the simple Graphics really turned people away but hidden behind that was a robust gameplay system that had a ton of moves specials and Magic it was far beyond many of the other 16-bit beat-em-ups in this regard something many of its critics have no idea about seriously if you have only ever given this one a cursory look find yourself a moves list and try it again there is much more here than many give it credit for [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] Sega also released an update to its baseball franchise World Series 98. I always felt these games were decent but Sega didn't change much of anything in its final years hell man you put this beside the 95 96 and 97 releases and you'll have a hard time telling them apart the Saturn versions of World Series Baseball were such incredible upgrades going back to this was actually quite rough as you'd expect it was only released in North America foreign [Applause] perhaps the greatest gift in those final days was the Appaloosa interactive developed the Lost World Jurassic Park hidden behind this simple overhead action title are some of the most impressive Genesis special effects you'll ever see some of this stuff could pass for early Saturn and Playstation Graphics the core game itself is okay but those visuals tend to drive you on just to see what's next I highly advise Consulting a guide and get a clear understanding of the gameplay the overhead sections can bog down quickly getting you lost and unsure what to do next this one is kicked up in price big time in the last few years so if you're curious try it out on an emulator first if nothing more than to see those killer visuals thank you foreign Genesis game was mad in 98 of fitting into their run since Madden was among one of the first games they released for the platform both tiertex and THQ were involved in this game's creation as well but it still is mainly a retread of the engine seen from Matt in 1997. I actually had preferred the earlier Genesis Madden games to the later ones while 98 here is fully licensed by the NFL and Players Association I found the original engine more playable still Madden rode the Genesis train to the very end and gave eight years of solid football titles aside from being the final Madden on the Genesis it also happens to be the final Madden game on a Sega platform altogether Electronic Arts would not develop anything for the Dreamcast despite Sega playing a pivotal role in their growth as a game maker but but the final Sega Genesis game in North America was Frogger published by majesco in 1998. this was a straight Port of the original 1981 arcade game I had been under the impression it would be enhanced but nope this is not a re-imaging at all you may remember majesco as the company responsible for the Sega Genesis 3 console a miniature cheaper version of sega's own models Frogger here actually coincided with that release in 1998 under license from Sega and Konami what can you say about this one it's a damn fine golden air arcade game no doubt it plays looks and sounds just like it should making it a great home version of the original but let's be frank here this absolutely needed an enhanced mode for the graphics and sound maybe a puzzle mode or something with Co-op multiplayer The Bare Bones presentation and gameplay just didn't cut it in 1998 especially at the 20 asking price it was only released in North America and also happens to be the final game that was released for the Super Nintendo here as well [Music] thank you the end of a console's life is both a sad and interesting time while on one hand you tend to get software like rehashed sports franchises you can also get a few companies taking some chances While most of what we received during the final days of the Sega Genesis were of the former variety it was nice to see a game like the lost world so late in the cycle heck even though Virtual Fighter 2 missed the mark by quite a bit it was still quite surprising to see Sega take such a risk with Hardware so old I actually recall these last games quite well as many of them also happen to be among the final North American releases for the Sega Saturn and that is perhaps the saddest Legacy here while 1997 closed out most of the Sega Genesis Market it also closed out most of the Sega Saturn Market in North America while the Genesis had enjoyed a full life of many impressive games the poor Saturn had barely been given any time at all and most of its best games remain locked away in Japan it was amazing to see Sig go from a nearly Unstoppable force in the North American market with the Genesis to utterly and completely crushed just a mere two years later by the time 1998 got underway not only had the Sega Genesis Market disappeared but so had the Saturns this left North America without any real Sega presence for nearly two years before the Dreamcast showed up that left many of the hearts and minds of former Sega customers to be easily won over by Nintendo and Sony converts that would never ever return again I'm sigalord X thank you guys for watching and I will catch you next time [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] as most of you know the Sega Saturn did not have a very successful run in the United States the region never took to the virtual fighter series and most of the popular games in Japan were never released there Sega put a fair bit of resources behind the platform in 1995 and 1996 but by the time 1997 rolled around the writing was on the wall despite being outsold heavily by both Sony and Nintendo that year lots of great games still made their way out to eager fans 1997 brought some great games like super puzzle Fighter 2 Capcom Street Fighter themed puzzle game that uses falling gems to attack your foe it was a great looking game that sported some cool animations and a great soundtrack Die Hard arcade also got a release that year sega's in-house beat him up that was Loosely based on the classic film it enjoyed a fairly popular run in the arcade so the Saturn version was sought after because of the small amount of games that represented the genre especially ones that use 3D polygons the Mega Man series got two entries that year with both 8 and X4 showing up both games were great successes on the Saturn easily rivaling what had been on the PlayStation lunacy was a surprise late in the life of the Saturn a full motion video game with a spooky and mysterious setting and story don't let the looks fool you this is actually a really good game the incredible Fighters Megamix made its way to the United States that year a mix of Sega properties using the virtual fighter and fighting Viper style of gameplay it was a great game that showed Sega knew how to make something other than Bare Bones arcade ports a handful of really good RPGs made their way out including both Albert Odyssey and shining the holy Arc while both were quite solid they couldn't have been more different Albert Odyssey was a traditional hand-drawn Japanese RPG that looked more like something from the Super Nintendo while shining the holy Arc was a first person RPG with pre-rendered assets I really enjoyed them both sports games kept coming with the addition of sega's excellent World Series baseball line now all the way up to 1998 this one introduced polygon players for the first time Mortal Kombat Trilogy was an interesting release combining Fighters and elements from a number of games in the series into one package it was the kind of game you love to get in between the AAA first party stuff the 10 player Saturn Bomberman made its debut that year one of the craziest party games you've ever seen While most systems had a version of Bomberman to call their own you had never seen it quite like this Sonic Jam was there to finally give us a look at a real 3D Sonic World a Bittersweet edition of what could have been capcom's Resident Evil graced the platform after delighting PlayStation fans the previous year it was a good Port overall and still captured most of what made the game special in the first place Capcom also released Marvel Superheroes a 2d fighter based on the arcade version it had its issues with slowdowns but it was still a great game with some really impressive animation last Bronx was released late in the year and really showed us what could have been done with sega's Hardware with 3D Fighters it had taken two years but they had figured out how to get great looking 3D backgrounds using the vdp2's abilities lobotomy software got both Duke Nukem 3D and Quake out towards the end of the year two first-person shooters that really blew away the fan base neither game should have existed and yet here they were for our enjoyment despite the continued news that Sega was in terrible financial trouble and a replacement was coming much sooner than expected 1997 had been a great year to own a Saturn it was a good thing too because it all went to hell in 1998. [Music] with 1998 coming into focus it was clear Sega meant to replace the Saturn in the near future this destroyed its meager Market in the United States while the Saturn had always received less gains than the PlayStation things took a horrific turn for the worst almost overnight the faucet was simply turned off Sega of America led by one Bernie Stoller had basically let everyone know that they were killing the Saturn outright and that only a handful of gains were left to be released only two non-siga published Saturn games were released that entire year Electronic Arts had supported the Saturn far more than most people realized they released more than two dozen games and published a few more the last of the Saturn releases in the U.S was NHL 98 in January the series had been immensely popular on the Genesis so it's no wonder it continued to endure EA's ports to the Saturn begin to deteriorate a bit with the move to 3D players a game like Madden had 2D Sprites for players and the vdp2 drawing the field so things typically stayed smooth and played great games like NBA Live 98 really began to suffer because it used fully 3D engines that clearly taxed the Saturn a lot more and with the budget likely being tiny for these ports it just wasn't a good game NHL 98 though managed to stay fairly competitive visually and even had some nice shadows and player models the frame rate does get a bit choppy but never to the point of being unplayable it's fully licensed and loaded with teams and players you'd expect of the era and also included a ton of modes and options for you to explore in fact from a hardcore fans perspective it's the most complete hockey game on the platform the PlayStation version ran smoother but the Saturn version definitely sent the series off with a bang Tyrion gets shoved by Gilchrist hexdoll passes it Gilchrist gets the puck to Terrian he passes it at Center codeine to the net Terrier winds up codeine passes rebound Vernon saves he plays the the next release was in February and came from Sega themselves winter heat was sort of a sequel or continuation of decathlete a series of olympic-style sporting events that you compete in to be number one decathlete had been summer games while this one of course covers the winter events you get to compete in the likes of Speed Skiing slalom skating bobsledding and even skeleton the graphics here are quite a bit more Dynamic than what we saw in decathlete so it doesn't use the same high resolution mode it still looks good though in the variety of events really make the replayability Sky High it supports up to four players too so if you have some friends it makes for one hell of a good party game it's based on the STV Titan arcade version and is extremely easy to play don't let that convince you that it isn't competitive though my friends and I damn near killed each other over the this one foreign fans would have to wait all the way until May before they got their next chance to buy a game and that came in as the classic arcade light gun shooter The House of the Dead Sega formed this poured out to Tantalus interactive and something must have gone horribly wrong because it's about as ugly as a Saturn game gets piss poor textures models and a shoddy frame rate all come together to really hurt the overall presentation but it's a real Testament to the appeal of this one because despite the abysmal visuals it's still really fun to play they have the core of the content intact so while it may not look much like the arcade it manages to play just like it this really does make a difference in this game's appeal unlike sega's Virtua cop Series this doesn't use the Saturn's Mouse so if you have an HD tv play it with the 3D analog control pad it's much smoother and accurate though it's still no replacement for a CRT in the stunner the Japanese version is dirt cheap compared to the US release but you do need to contend with some green blood if you go that route [Applause] hell a few days after the House of the Dead was released the Saturn got Panzer Dragoon Saga the third and final entry into the T-man drama to produce Series this one was a big change to the formula we had seen in the first two games they had been on real Shooters with a sparse story team Andromeda turned everything on its head by making this one into a story heavy turn-based strategy RPG you control Edge as he fumbles around in complete ignorance of the world around him that all quickly changes as you find yourself Atop A Mighty dragon from there you explore battle and ultimately unlock the key to the mystery of Azel I'm gonna let you guys in on a little secret here I hated this game when I first played it I wanted another shooter not some pansy ass role-playing game I wanted to attack at will while the screen was spinning and shaking all around me it would not be until a while later that I actually gave it a real chance and while I did come to enjoy it I still don't hold it very high on the Saturn's list of best RPGs the limited release of this one means that it's not cheap to own today it's coveted by many a Saturn fan pushing prices for a US version up around a thousand dollars or so foreign [Music] about a month after Saga was released burning Rangers made its way out in June this was Sonic team's final game on the U.S Saturn a 3D action platformer that had you exploring burning buildings saving victims and battling giant bosses they used the Saturn to create some impressive fire effects and light sourcing making you think with another six months in the oven it could have been even more impressive this game is in terrible need of a remake or a reboot I really think Sega could do some incredible things with this on Modern Hardware again the Japanese version is much cheaper but not having the navigation in English makes for a much harder experience round to the other side of the plant site go up at the end of July we got the very last official Sega Saturn release from Sega themselves Shining Force 3 was a more traditional turn-based strategy RPG and a sequel to the much beloved games on the Sega Genesis it now featured a fully 3D environment with 2D Sprites for the characters battle scene switches everything over to 3D polygons and adds cool effects like light sourcing and transparencies the story takes place around a war that was brought about by Sinister forces working it from the outside your job is to bring this to light and expose the conspiracy of course the original Japanese Shining Force 3 was broken up into three episodes with the US release only being the first the other two remain Japanese exclusives in regards to official releases but they did get fan translation some years later they continued the story from different points of view though the gameplay and setup remained mostly the same the US version is expensive so if you're interested in this series I highly advise getting the fan translations together and burning them to disk or using an ode [Music] the final game released for the Sega Saturn in the United States was magic Knight Ray Earth it was released in the middle of December and its history is a heck of an interesting story the original Japanese version was released in August of 1995 quite early in the life of the system it was developed internally at Sega Cs and had both a regular and special edition working designs came in in 1996 and wanted to translate the game for the US the problem was that some of the original source code was lost and they needed to rebuild it coupled with some licensing approval issues it took over two years for the game to make its way west ironically what had been an early Japanese game ends up being the last game release for the system at all in the United States this one is an action-adventure game very similar in structure to the likes of Zelda combat takes place in real time while you explore the different areas it's got beautiful 2D art some really nice special effects X and it's chock full of voice acted cut scenes it was limited in its release so of course it's crazy expensive these days [Music] as the Saturn chapter in sega's history came to a close in the U.S it opened up the story of the Dreamcast with a massive mistake right off the bat with the regular releases for the Saturn Market essentially ending with the close of 1997 it meant that Sega had no real presence there for nearly two years Sega was out of sight and out of mind as Sony and Nintendo lapped up former Sega fans by the millions indoctrinating an entire generation while Sega readied its next Hardware by the time the Dreamcast showed up in September of 1999 there was nothing of substance left of sega's Mighty American Empire almost immediately Sony began flooding the gaming media with news of the PlayStation 2's unprecedented power DVD support and third-party games you'd never see on sega's offering the damage had been catastrophic to sega's Brand which was already in sharp decline while I do not presume to know how things would have played out otherwise I can't help but defeat deal that with sega's brand on life support is 1997 closed taking a 13-month Hiatus with next to nothing on the market was a really bad move there were still many many games left in Japan that could have been brought over in small batches to keep the market aware Sega existed especially since a few of these were some killer fighting games that needed very little in the way of localization the Saturn went out of the U.S market the way it had come in Sega of America wanted nothing to do with it and its customers suffered for it the effect it had on consumer confidence simply never recovered the European Saturn Market ended in 1998 as well but it got more games including a handful of exclusives the Japanese Market would go on strong in 1998 before fizzling out in 1999 well after the Dreamcast had already arrived sega's strongest market for the Genesis had been the United States yet it treated that Region's customers the worst when it came to the Saturn there is something to be said about the way a company treats success but I think it's just as important how it treats a failure almost 2 million Americans had stuck with Sega through its ups and downs that generation and to say thank you Sega gave us all a big middle finger I'm sigalord X thank you guys for watching and I will catch you next time [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] when the Sega Dreamcast launched in the United States in September of 1999 a newfound excitement swirled around the brand after years of poor sales media ridicule and being shunned by Third parties Sega appeared to finally be making All the Right Moves the new Dreamcast was incredibly powerful easy to develop for and most importantly priced at a level that made it quite competitive against its contemporaries it launched to some pretty stellar reviews and the platform seemed to be on Pace to reclaim the popularity Sega had with its Genesis years earlier behind the scenes things weren't looking quite so Rosy however lagging sales in Japan in the forthcoming PlayStation 2 had sega's Executives worried that the Dreamcast was a doomed Endeavor most of us outside of the industry had no clue just how cash strapped Sega had become if the holiday sales of 2000 didn't turn it all around Sega would need to face the music the following year in this episode we will take a look at the last days of Sega as a hardware maker from the Viewpoint of a 25 year old who was loving his Dreamcast what was it like to get so many incredible games to only see Sega announce it was all over just a month later I hope you guys enjoy sega's last Christmas [Music] foreign [Music] the year 2000 had been an epic time to be a Sega fan before the holiday season even got started we got an exceptional home version of Crazy Taxi the open world delivery game that had a kick-ass soundtrack and some pretty amazing visuals the extra modes that shipped with the home version were worth investigating whether you like the arcade or not legacy of Kane's Soul Reaver was a port of the PlayStation original with improved visuals in the same great story and gameplay it was my favorite version of that game tecmo's Dead or Alive 2 was a sequel to the original that first appeared on sega's model 2 arcade platform the Dreamcast powerful Hardware was shown off here in fine form easily making it one of the most sought after Fighters at the time Resident Evil Code Veronica showed up in 2000 as well this new entry into capcom's survival horror Universe finally gave us a look at the series with a completely 3D engine it followed the adventures of Claire and Chris Redfield and introduced some truly insane Rivals for them to battle against Capcom also showed up of multiple fighting games to keep ravenous fans satiated the criminally underrated plasma sword was the sequel to Star Gladiators we didn't know we needed it's not a graphical showpiece but it sure was fun Capcom also had the truly unique Tech romancer a mech-based fighting game with Snappy visuals and gameplay that was quite different from your normal six-button fighter Street Fighter Alpha 3 landed that year 2 an excellent Port of the final game in that series it didn't matter that you could get it anywhere else because the Dreamcast version was sharper loaded faster and had most of the arcade's animation both Street Fighter 3 double impact and third strike hit within months of one another giving happy Dreamcast owners access to all three versions of that game whichever one you preferred you were covered Capcom even blessed the world with the first home version of Marvel vs Capcom 2 that year and you could only get it on sega's platform a rich originally released in the arcades for the Naomi platform it gave you so many fighters to choose it seemed like you could never get tired of it powerstone 2 showed up and as good as the first had been it upped the ante in every single category better graphics more moves bigger stages it was the ultimate sequel of 3D arena-based fighting goodness of course Sega Sports were back on point and they loaded the Dreamcast up that year NHL 2K hit early and strong kicking off the franchise with a solid entry Virtua Striker 2 one of the most accessible and playable football games I've ever had the pleasure of owning showed up and it looked absolutely fantastic American football wasn't left out either and the absolutely breathtaking NFL 2K1 improved upon the first in every single way I had been a fan of Madden for years since the Genesis but this one showed me there could be more than one excellent NFL title there was a whole host of other genres that got excellent representation as well carrier was a great addition to the survival horror category and sega's own virtual on oratorio tangram made a hell of a splash for arena-based fighting games Giga Wing represented shoot-em-ups like a champ and I really enjoyed a number of racing games like V rally and siga GT the point is is that there were so many great Dreamcast games released in 2000 that I'd be here for hours trying to give them all their due time but I think you get the point leading up to the holidays there had rarely been a finer time to be a Sega fan from the perspective of a customer they were hitting home runs almost consistently and their Dreamcast was well on its way to a long and fruitful life thank you friends left [Music] I'm classifying the holiday season as November and December since that's when the shopping frenzy seems to be heaviest as strong as the Dreamcast lineup had been that year the last two months of 2000 produce some real Classics it started off with the excellent NBA 2K1 like their NFL series Sega really did an excellent job here they had only rebooted the entire line the year before so to get a game this good looking and playing was a real treat Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 was released as well while it was released after the PlayStation version man did it look so much better for many it was one of the best games of the year and you could play the best console version of it right there on the old Dreamcast shinyu also finally saw the light of day at the end of 2000 what it started out as a troubled Sega Saturn project ended up being a sprawling Masterpiece on a Dreamcast while it did have some rough edges I had never played anything like it before it opened up the world of video game aims to being life simulators mixed with Adventure elements mixed with fighting games mixed with an RPG hell pretty much mixed with everything you Suzuki really tried to give us something different and unique and I think they succeeded and then some the crossover Capcom vs SNK burst onto the scene at the end of 2000 as well in what many gamers had been wanting for years you could finally take many of your favorite Capcom and SNK Fighters and put them against one another in combat this is one of the best fighters on the platform and did both companies proud Skies of Arcadia sega's entry into the still crazy popular RPG category also made its way out an unforgettable cast of heroes and villains were just a small part of this game's beautiful and exotic world the battle system was cool as well featuring your typical hand-to-hand in magical combat as well as ship battles that really changed the feel of things it's one of my favorite RPGs of all time the gorgeous test drive LeMans was here a great looking game in its own right I adored the replay system in this game and could Loop them for hours capcom's weird and wonderful Canon Spike wowed us as well the 3D Arena style shooter featured a bunch of capcom's famous characters from some of their other franchises Mega Man street fighter ghost and goblins and more saw representation Capcom just kept the gold coming too we got both Resident Evil 2 and 3 during that stretch high-res versions of the original PlayStation games they even gave us Dino Crisis making the Dreamcast one of the best places for horror games almost overnight finally we get grandia 2 on the Dreamcast a sequel to the Saturn original that never made its way west for a Sega platform this was another one I absolutely loved the story the characters the gameplay it all messed so well into one epic adventure it was years late but it was so exciting to finally have grandia in the States on sega's Hardware [Music] um it was 20 years ago that It All Happened One of the single greatest years I've ever seen in gaming just release after release of top-end software it was non-stop man you couldn't keep up with everything you wanted to play you would start something in bam something else would be out you wanted to go pick up at the game store these rapid fire high quality releases came to Define my memories of sega's last platform not the BS you hear today about how it all fell apart and how the Dreamcast was doomed from the beginning even I'm guilty of the retrospective of making the Dreamcast seem like a dead system walking its entire life but back then in 2000 with so many games hitting and so many Unforgettable moments all you felt and thought about at the time was how incredible that platform was turning out and how much fun you were having with it this becomes a recurring problem with looking back at games and systems after the fact we often lump the history together like it all occurred at the same time instead of the real that these times and events were experienced over the course of weeks months and years back then most of us knew that Sega had a hard time with Saturn but things were looking so bright for the Dreamcast after it launched in North America we really did feel Sega had right at the ship and things were well on the way to recovery but 2001 would change everything [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] of course we later learned that Sega had been in bad shape for years they were struggling just to get the Dreamcast Hardware launched in every region and were pretty much broken millions in debt while we were playing all these great games I listed in fact Sega had been internally prepared for the demise of the Dreamcast for months rumors began to pop up towards the end of 2000 about ports of Sega games to other platforms and though Sega denied them you knew something was up but nothing could stop the shock of January 30th 2001 when Sega announced both the death of the Dreamcast and its Home Hardware business completely I had expected Sega to maybe license out some of its popular games to make some money in fact it would have been the first time they had done such a thing Sega games appeared on Rival consoles before after all but to hear that the Sega that I had known it for nearly 20 years was coming to an end was a blow that I just couldn't believe the Master System the Genesis the game gear the Saturn the Dreamcast it was all over games continued to flow well into 2001 and beyond for the Dreamcast but it was bittersweet considering the circumstances looking back on that final year and Christmas that the Dreamcast had is a viable and growing platform I really did have a great time I had supported it with dozens upon dozens of purchases and there wasn't a single day where I was left wanting something to play every genre got incredible representation in 2000 went out with a bang with the likes of shinyu Skies of Arcadia and grandia too I don't think there has ever been a console that amassed so many games so quickly into such an extent the Dreamcast was only on the North American market for a year and a half before Sega pulled the plug whether it was due to sega's design or the eagerness of third parties to support the business model something lit a fire under developers that really flooded that thing with tons of games really fast I did end up missing the games of Electronic Arts particularly the prospect of a Dreamcast version of Need for Speed 3 Hot Pursuit or Road Rash 3D but the platform still had plenty of racing goodness to substitute Forum 20 years ago it was last Christmas as a maker of consoles and I'll never ever forget their run it was indeed at times marked by the drama of failed add-ons and corporate drama but that last year was one of the best times I had as a fan of the company and its many products I'm Sega Lord X thank you guys for watching and I will catch you next time foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Sega Lord X

Views: 62,321

Keywords: sega dreamcast, sega saturn, sega genesis, sega master system, segalordx, sega lord x, mega drive, megadrive, game gear, 32x, mega cd, genesis, saturn, master system, sega, sega cd, gameplay, review, movies, retro games, retro gaming, video games, ps4, xbox, wii, nintendo, gamecube, n64, ps1, ps2, ps3, psp, vita, switch, atari

Id: UrmwtALzCHQ

Length: 70min 59sec (4259 seconds)

Published: Sun May 28 2023