I found the graphics of "Phantasy Star" to be much more appealing than its 16-bit sequel, "Phantasy Star II." To this day, I'm amazed it is a SMS game.
Yes, Phantasy Star was certainly ahead of its time. It's better than any RPG on NES and most of Genesis RPG's too. I had all labyrinths drew in a notebook, because it was easy to get lost in some of them. I just had again this 3D sensation playing Doom several years later.
Agreed! I’m still amazed how incredible PS1 looks compared to 2 and 3. It was only with 4 that it really blew my mind again with the graphics (not to mention the rest of the game)
I had a Colecovision before that, but it broke & never got fixed, so all I played on it was Donkey Kong. My SMS was the first one I really got to play a lot of different games for. Lots of good memories for me too.
The Intellivision was our first machine, but I bought a $79.95 Sega Master System in 1987 as soon as they dropped the price. It was obvious that the machine was capable of so much more, but they never pushed the limits on these machines.
Thanks for another quality video my friend. You have been my favourite youtube channel for ages on your Saturn coverage alone. Everything else is an awesome bonus. Big respect as always.
In the late 80s had a friend who owned a master system when I had an Amstrad CPC at home. The games were almost feeling like true arcade ports in comparison to what I had on CPC.It was a revelation, and when the Mega Drive came out it was clear that I absolutely should get my hands on the Master System's 16-bit successor. I hope you get better soon, take a break if you need to.
But there was an awesome third party NES exclusive saga that Sega Master System finally did get: Ninja Gaiden, an European Master System exclusive ....and what an incredible game it was
@@kevinrhea7332 Yeah it would be awesome ,If there is something the Master System had it was Ninja theme games: The Ninja, Shinobi, The Cyber Shinobi, Shadow Dancer, Alex kidd in Shinobi World, Ninja Gaiden...
I would consider myself a semi-hardcore retrogamer and have seen many RU-vid videos on the topic. I must say after watching this video it is one of the best on RU-vid. Thanks!!
Ignored would be more correct. Underrated implies people had negative opinions about it. Most people did not know this system existed or if they did knew close to nothing about it.
RGT 85 YES! One of my favorite games on the Master System! Also a VERY underrated game: Alien 3! The music on some of the levels are the best on any MS game!
We knew, playing this as kids, that the machine was capable of so much more. Only now do we get to see demos with 3D graphics, color mixing, rolling tunnels, and textured roads. There were only a handful of these limit pushers in 1992 when SEGA would again discontinue their machines in favor of yet another $300 addon--the Sega CD.
As a kid I had one cousin and friend who had master systems everyone else I knew had an nes but everytime we played master system I couldn't understand how the hell it wasn't more popular than nes at the time. Just look at though graphics
Software. The NES had a lot of great games. That's not to say the Master System didn't have a lot of solid titles... but the NES had Zelda, Super Mario, Punch-Out!, Dragon Quest II, Kirby, Mega Man... you get the point.
@@mattmurray07 yeah but once I got older and found out how Nintendo basically didn't let 3rd party developers release for other systems of they did nes games (not exactly but something to similar effect) makes me think that if the master system would of got more fair 3rd party support they might of actually stood a better chance in the US.. But yes the nes had some juggernauts and most were first party
My Dad tried to make me get another system like this because of its hardware power... when I was like 7... I.said no, I want NES... why? Because it had the most popular games.
Another well done video! I LOVED my Sega Master System and it could put out some nice looking games. What I also appreciated from the Sega made games was that the Sega Master System games where often totally different games than their 16-bit Sega Genesis counterparts and not a watered down 8 bit version. Other games I have to add include Ninja Gaiden and I really loved the visuals of Maze Hunter 3D with Sega Scope 3D.
I'm so psyched for this episode... Keep the Master System content coming SLX! You are the MAN! PS. I always thought Rambo 2 on the SMS obliterated Ikari Warriors on the NES... Even if Rambo 2 was a pixel swap of another Japanese SMS game!
Master of Darkness, the Master System's Castlevania, is another really great looking game, with awesome music and gameplay as well. In fact I feel it surpasses Castlevania in some respects.
MOD, like many MS games makes a good impression with big sprites and numbers of colors, but there's nothing much going on there... compare it to Castlevania 3 for the NES, obviously, C3 has lower resolution and colors, but there's much more going one, more sprites, more backgrounds, with more animations, and with a better depth feeling (that's the problem with MS system game, they often look somewhat flat), not to mention the art direction, the level-design, the multiple paths etc... MOD looks more impressive on screenshots, or at first glance, but by palying, you can feel why it's still miles behind Castlevania... the NES seemed to often do more with less, the Castlevania series, or the Megaman series have no equivalent on the MS, Ninja Gaiden, although showing more colors is way better on the NES, while the MS version of Double Dragon ate alive the NES version, the NES version of DDII is arguably the best version of any DD game on any machine ever, and simply put, one of the greatest BTA ever... at first, like many french guys, I was more a MS guy, because at a first glance, the games looked brighter, more vibrant, and SEGA was well known, thanks to the arcades, while Nintendo wasn't (here in France, the NES was released a month after the MS, with already old games such as Kung Fu or Duck Hunt, basically, nobody cared about the NES until the early 90's, it's only then than the NES became popular and outsold the MS), but a couple years later, I did really try the NES, and while the game didn't looks as colorfull, they often looked more detailed, with much more going one, another game I can think of is Batman, the NES game is even better than the 16 bits Batman games, and probably was the greatest (and only good) Batman game until the "Arkham" series :-)
As a former master system owner during its brief lifespan in the US, I love this video but it also makes me sad because so many of these games came out after my friends and I had all moved on to the Genesis. If they came out in America at all.
Great video. I still have my master system from 1986 but I need to have it worked on. Is there someone you can recommend for me to send it to? Thank you.
Loved my Sega Master System. It was the first console I bought with my own money when I was a kid. Rastan, Rampage, R-Type and Shinobi were some of my favorite games I had for it.
Shinobi and Rastan were two of my absolute favorites on the system as well. And they're still quite good today. I didn't have the other two, but I heard good things.
it helps that almost 10 years after the release the price of ROM goes down exponentially while the capacity skyrockets. technically, if they wanted to make a game for the master system TODAY, they could use a whole gb of space and get a game that would crush any period-accurate game, even though a gb today is way cheaper than a meg was then.
I got that game recently awesome game. Fun fact in Japan it was based on the hokuto no ken anime but the North American version they changed the likeliness of the characters
@@matthewnikitas2904 I had the game as well, never made the connection until someone on internet pointed it out. I had Last Battle on the Genesis, and by that time I had seen The Fist of the North Star animated movie, and made the connection easily. The only confusion was I didn't recognize any of the characters ( other than Kenshiro himself). I later found out this game covered a later portion of the storyline, the Shura arc.
Phantasy Star 1 is actually easy to get into, especially since it comes from the Dragon Warrior 1 era. A very enjoyable game, but one that becomes very tough! You can find it on some of the much-maligned Atgames Genesis-es.
Never played the master system! It's like discovering something new and I love it! Thanks SLX! I'm going to tryout Shinobi, r type and land of illusion!
There was that Castlevania clone on the Master System that looked and played well. I can't remember the name. As for games not in this episode Rampage Shinobi Black Belt Rambo/Ashura Gangster Town Safari Hunt Double Dragon (The first game Arc System Works ever worked on)
Great video and timely as well as I have decided that 2020 is the year to go after the USA Master System Set. A few games I'd mention are R-Type, Power Strike, The Ninja and Action Fighter. There are more for sure but thanks for showing off some of those great looking PAL games too!
Some of the games in this video I didn't even know were released for the Sega Master System, like Robocop vs. Terminator, Land of illusion and Forgotten Worlds. I definitely would like to see a part 2. I was always impressed with the games that came out during the time that the Sega Genesis life, like Ghouls & Ghosts (despite the slowdown) and Sonic the Hedgehog.
One special moment for me was finally finishing wonder boy 3 and seeing that starfield effect during the credits, it was totally unexpected and I was amazed. With the master system you didn't seem to miss too much if you didn't have a 16 bit system but I got Mortal Kombat 2 for sms and it was an absolute turkey, nothing translated well from the 16 bit versions of that. I think I remember reading that the reason they stopped releasing sms games in about 1994 was that the price to produce the cartridges was just too high, it was probably not much more to release 16 bit games. Sms seemed to have its most popular years from 1990 to 1994 while the most popular nes games seem to be from 1987 to 1990.
The SMS is impressive in that there is no flickering/tearing in the sprites when there's an insane number of them on screen, something the NES couldn't handle.
The NES and the SMS share the same limitation in that regard: up to 8 sprites per scanline - anything beyond will not be drawn. Some programmers managed to arrange displaying them in optimized ways to prevent flickering, but it's not something the hardware does automatically.
It's also looked over by the Sega defenders that the NES came out in '83, the Master System had a few years on that. The real NES Sega equivalent was the SG1000.
Much of that is done with the background tiles and how the SMS could do up to 16 colors per tile, the NES could do that too but it was always more obvious at only 4 colors a tile. Like for example 8 colors for the character and 8 colors for what's behind it in one tile hides the use of background tiles nicely.
Benchomp not a “sega defender” but the SG1000 was just a licensed Colecovision a year later. Master System was the first internally developed console from the company. Comparing the Master System to NES is a lot like comparing SNES to Genesis, except I don’t think the Master System has any weaknesses like SNES does to Genesis (CPU Power). Also the differences between MS and NES games are much more pronounced because of the color per sprite limit. NES can only do 3, MS can do 12 like a 16-bit console.
@@youtubeadmin1588 Good points. I am an SMS fan but I have to say the NES has better native sound capabilities than the non-FM MKIII/Western SMS though. I would say that's the SMS's weakness.
Just like with Fantasy Zone II, Sega had gotten Phantasy Star 1 remade as a ps2 Sega Ages release with gorgeous high res 2D graphics. There's a fan made translation patch for it too. I highly recommend trying it.
I still remember that Xmas morning my step Bro got his master system. Chop lifter, hang on,safari hunt SHINOBI was my Favorite besides Rambo ACTION FIGHTER WHOA!! I’m having flash backs as I write this. And the default Snail maze game. But I didn’t know the master system had Road Rash I loved it on Geniuses my mom said it sounded like a big mosquito:)
Everybody (me included) was too busy kissing Mario’s ass to realize how hard Master System was crushing it... I now have regrets... Looks like I missed out on some great stuff back in the day.
I know I saw one Master System in person back in the day, but skipped right over my opportunity to put hands on it because I was too blinded by Doki Do... I mean “Mario 2” 😏
I loved my Master System but I lived in the U.S. and Nintendo had all the games here. I bought the Genesis/Sega CD/32X afterwards but I didn't feel the same way about it.
There's me thinking all these years that Phantasy Star was Sega's response to Final Fantasy, when, in fact, the two games were released two days apart from eachother.
Some of the best looking Master System games (not on your list) in my opinion: Alex Kidd in Miracle World Kenseiden Wonder Boy in Monsterland Golvellius Valley of Doom
@@stephandolby I had the original US Master System which did not include the audio add on(which had no issues with). It is a shame Sega didn't make it standard on the console, as the audio was often criticized in US publications back then.
You had a good format and selection of games for your video mais the pacing was a bit slow. I gave it a thumbs up, though I ended up speeding it to 1.5x after the first minute or two. Not bad, thumbs up, I’ll definitely check out some of your other videos.
The master system is a real technical wonder (as was the pc engine by nec) and it blows my mind how comparable most multiformat games were on these two 8-bit consoles when put besides a 16-bit powerhouse home computer such as the Amiga 500 or the Atari ST (do keep in mind that Master System came out the same year as the original Amiga 1000, and PC Engine was released the same year as the Amiga 500). I'm sure a lot of this can be chalked down to the infamous shoddy quality of amiga programming in those years, and there are certainly SOME amiga titles that these consoles would be hard pressed to replicate, but as a rule of thumb the Amiga versions of most games were of equal or (in the case of pc engine), vastly lower quality than those found on these two 8-bit beasts of a console.
Because the look and sound of NES dominated the market, the retro trend of recent years did a disservice to what 8-bit was capable of. Simple colors, giant blocks representing characters, and primitive beep boop music, is the mainstream image of 8-bit for indie games tshirts and insurance commercials, while Master System was capable of a whole lot more. Win the war, write the history
Problem is that the RF out (which nearly everyone used at the time) was hideous - much worse than NES, so good luck getting the system to look good (in US, at least).
@@iwanttocomplain Subjective i guess. R Type Double Dragon Shinobi Power Strike Kenseiden Out Run all sound better to me. Not a fan of the tinny hi pitched sound all though Choplifter is bearable non fm.
@@iwanttocomplain i will check it out on my arcade machine. It has the menus of a lot of consoles and arcade ports. I do not have that cartridge for my sms yet
Sagaia and R-Type as well, also all four Wonder Boy games looked great on it not just the 3rd one. Had the SMS as a kid and loved it's colour palette, games looked so much better than rival platforms.
Some other good looking SMS games: Psycho Fox WB Monster World (not "Land") Streets of Rage Asterix and the Secret Mission Street Fighter 2 Sonic the Hedgehog (particularly the later levels) Ninja Gaiden
Amazing list! An sugestition for part II: "Shadow Dancer : The Secret Of Shinobi"! The Master System's port has big character sprites, parallax effects... I had this game in my childhood, such good memories.
I’m not your buddy, guy! Hehe, South Park. Seriously though, I love how you can release so much but not resort to easy videos like a lot of the guys who just talk about a news story to spam the algorithm every other day. These kind of videos take effort. Well done. I wish I had your grit for putting out content.
I know making videos takes a lot of hard work, especially when editing is put into the equation, but it's awesome getting a video every day. And much appreciated.
Wonderboy in Monster Land is much better looking than Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap; it runs at 60hz instead of 30hz at has far greater detail in its graphics..and to be fair to Alex Kidd, he never had an adventure as good as his first (I did like Shinobi World back I'm the day as it was an unexpected late release - but it only had 4 main stages and I beat it on my first go, which soured the experience a bit).
I’d agree, Monster Land is the better looking game. Didn’t care for Alex Kidd in Miracle World at all. Even as short as it was, I’d rather play Shinobi World any day of the week.
Yeah, you should do a sequel to this one. There are some that I can't help but wonder why they weren't on the list. Golden Axe Warrior is a great example that--in my opinion--was better than the first two Zelda games.
I was a very early UK Master System adopter. ***Gotta be honest - it was a bit underwhelming and not quite what I was expecting on the gameplay feel. The games were so expensive at the time too. Wasn't until the Megadrive(Genesis) that the price of games seemed worth it in the UK. Still - Wonderboy3 was ridiculously good and Y's was an amazing RPG. I liked Psycho Fox too. ***EDIT* I was very harsh in this comment - There were a lot of great games - I think it was just the price of the games that makes me remember it in a bad light sometimes. I still play ALL Sega games to this day so I obviously like them :)
I agree with most of these besides Taz, Rastan and MK. Would add Deep Duck Trouble, Legend of Illusion , Power Strike 2, R-Type, Asterix 1-2, Jurassic Park and Sonic 1-2 or use them for a second showcase. There's also a MUSHA homebrew on YT.
There is absolutely no contest when it comes to the graphics quality on the Master System vs say, the NES. However, the one thing that irked me back then and continues to do so is the Master System sound. Sure, its distinctive, nostalgic, but it just lacks the punch and variety you get on the NES. (FM synth add ons help, but the Famicom's in cart add ons gave the system nearly as much of a boost (though we US gamers missed out on that then). But even with FM, the sound effect options on the good old SMS just never resonated well with me.) Great video as always!
13:46 Name of the game. Please. EDIT: Answering my own question. It's Rastan, nice adventure scrolling with medieval thematic style. Worth to check it out, I guess
