22:09 , my favorite sports game on the system. NHL '94 CD. It felt so right, and I loved the new crowd audio, clear sound FX, and especially the organ music when it would kick in. NHL 94 CD was a 10/10. On the other side of the scale, Joe Montana NFL CD was a 1/10.
Preach! Getting a sample of the national anthems instead of a chiptune cover is a small detail, but it's a sacred tradition for hockey fans. Also the last good NHL game where the Nordiques and Whalers were selectable (I miss them).
It’s too bad the Sega CD couldn’t have sports classics like the regular Genesis did!!!! It really should’ve had a Greatest Heavyweights CD!!! The Sega Boxing Trilogy could’ve been complete!!!!
I was always a Nintendo kid (I had friends who had a Genesis, always preferred my SNES), but even now there’s just something about that model of the Sega CD double decker that still looks so cool to me.
I Was a Nintendo fanboy growing up. Sega cd fascinated me but no one at my elementary school had it..I.knew 2 peoples who had the 32x on the other hand.
@@georgesiv2082CD’s price never plummeted like the 32x’s did. When were you in school, by the way? Because if you were born in the late 80’s or early 90’s then your classmates and you were too young for the Sega CD’s rollout and then after that it wasn’t pushed much.
Simple though it may have been, I really loved that NFLs greatest game as a kid. It was like a choose your own adventure book in movie/football form. The answer is me! It was made for me! I wish they had put out a Giants one. Obviously now it has next to zero value but at the time, just having video on a disc was novel in and of itself.
I actually appreciate that. I know how it is getting a game and playing it until you like it. Doesn't matter if it was considered good or not by others.
I had the GameBoy version of World Cup 94 back in the day, which is even worse. My friend had World Cup from Nintendo which was decent and I thought World Cup 94, now with the license, must be awesome, but turned out it was total crap. That was the first time in my life I bought something with my own money and felt totally ripped off.
We loved NHL 94 on Sega CD.The enhanced sound was great when run through a home stereo.Also,we used to joke that the wrestling games were the only games that were more real than the actual"sport".
That’s because he gets paid a ton to say the line. You can hire him for less to not say the famous line. But no one wants to see Michael Buffer and not hear him say the line.
Is a shame that the Captain Tsubasa game for the Sega CD is basically just the same version of the SNES, it follows the story of the manga pretty well, even going into the all-Japan part, even allowing you to create a custom character.
The base Genesis had sports games covered so well that anything on the CD was just extra. NHL '94 CD, Fifa CD and Sensible Soccer CD were nice updates to already excellent games. I think the Sega CD needed more good adventure games with voice acting and super-scaler games - games that the Genesis or the SNES couldn't do. Nice that SLX has now played at least a port of Sensible Soccer, a total Amiga classic.
World Cup 94 is the only one of these I actually had, and not by choice. It was given to me by someone who knew I had a Sega CD and played soccer, so their heart was in the right place. The only really notable thing about it as far as I'm concerned is the music from The Scorpions.
The Sega CD was such wasted potential. Here they had a machine with more horsepower than either SNES or TurboGrafx CD,. More storage than the SNES. And what do they do with it? Nothing. I'm glad Nintendo didn't bother with a CD addon. It would have been a waste to have all that CD storage, but lose all the custom chips that they regularly included in the cartridges. They'd be losing hardware, in their case.
@@maroon9273 Yeah, but the SNES CD had no additional hardware. No extra RAM, no extra CPU or sound chips. They needed that boot cartridge, so its not like they could have extra chips in there. Which if they did, they may as well have included it in the drive itself.
@@PhilipMarcYT Nintendo also realized that those add-ons wouldn't work in the Western markets and kept them in Japan and there only the Famicom Disk System was considered a success due to the Disk Fax kiosks.
The thing about Sensible Soccer/Championship Soccer 94 that makes it so good is how well it balances stats with arcadey gameplay and pacing. One of its best known mechanics is the aftertouch, where you can help raise the ball's altitude or lower it, and/or curve it left or right. Basically giving you solid ball control on all fronts
If you want incredible sports action on CD, it's gotta be John Madden Duo CD Football, bay-bee! But for real, in addition to lacking support, I feel like the Sega CD really suffered from having new hardware that wasn't really powerful enough to do anything above what the base Genesis could do, well enough to constitute a genuine step up. The CD audio and added ROM size was nice, but FMV games fail to live up to what they try to be in concept, and the Sega CD's sprite scaling capabilities aren't quite there enough to do what Sega arcade hardware was doing at the time. In the end, the tools the Sega CD had to work with weren't enough to construct a satisfying next-gen experience, though that's what many of its titles went for, and failed. The PC Engine CD had the right idea. Rather than attempt new gaming experiences that wouldn't become realized until proper 32-bit hardware was on the market, the PC Engine CD took advantage of the virtually limitless ROM of a CD, Red Book audio that broke through the limitations of console-driven sound cips, and greatly expanded RAM to deliver some of the highest quality 16-bit experiences available at the time. Rather than build games around weak FMV or sprite scaling, PC Engine CD games, particularly the Super CD and Arcade Card games, gave us 2D, sprite based goodness with more variety, content, and stuff on screen than the SNES or Genesis were able to deliver on limited sized cartriges. What I would consider to be the best Sega CD games are those that play like the good stuff on the PC Engine CD. Action platformers like Popful Mail and graphic adventures like Snatcher showcase the kind of 16-bit content that Sega should have focused on. In hindsight, Sega should have saved money by cutting the FMV and scaling hardware and instead put out a Sega CD with more, and expandable, RAM to allow for more stuff on screen, more levels, more sprites, more detailed backgrounds, more frames of animation, 60fps, etc. Then, instead of just the base Genesis model 2, made the model 2 like the CDX or Turbo Duo, with all new Genesis consoles going forward including built-in CD functionality. Without the extra hardware for FMV and sprite scaling, the CD add on could have been much cheaper. Then, Sega should have put their effort into making great 16-bit style games that use the extra ROM and RAM to do more than the SNES could.
That fmv basketball game on Sega CD will make you cringe so hard your skin will crawl, i feel so sorry for any kids who were basketball fans and unlucky enough to get that game, i even feel bad for the actors, they'll never live that down.
12:16 Dick Miller. Nice 12:53 Slide tackle victim sells an ankle injury but then gets up 5 seconds later just fine when he realizes the refs are falling for his flop. Automatically makes this the most realistic fútbol game ever produced. Bravo
These sports games just highlight why the mega CD failed because pretty much all of these games were just enhanced mega drive ports with added, CD music and grainy FMV slapped on. And I agree with you in Sega and third-party developers doing the system dirty because it was clear. They were not interested in supporting the mega CD like they were with the mega drive. Yes, was good on but sadly it wasn’t as important to Sega as sonic was.
Plus, the sega cd created the genesis aging reputation during late 1993 to 1994 which led to the creation of the 32x. I wish the sega cd would've chose 32x like vdp over a cpu and scaler.
@@Hektols the most embarrassing part is that Sega had the hardware with the Mega CD but Sega was just being Sega and making dumb decisions with the Mega CD with their insistence on FMV garbage.
Sega was a budget system with great advertising. They sold add-ons to suckers but ruined their reputation and the company in the process. Meanwhile, SNES owners got quality without add-ons and Nintendo’s reputation is still intact to this day selling consoles like hotcakes.
@@anthonyrousseau8050 I think there was only one developer who really understood what the Sega CD was all about, and that was Core Designs. They got it. They knew what to do with all that extra power. Their Sega CD games felt like a true generational leap.
My friends and I used to play sensible soccer on the Amiga back in the day. Full leagues after school each day. I still think it's the best Football game ever made.
It's too bad sports and programming abilities rarely sync. I'm not a huge sports fan but any stretch but I think many of these games need some TLC from the retro community.
I suppose some clarification is required. My early childhood was spent in the sticks. We had dial up, and not a lot of money, so I inherited my father's Genesis and Sega CD, I enjoyed all the sports games that my dad supplied me with, but I guess that's because I'm not a whiny little bitch and I judge a game on its own merits.
Of the 16-bit generation? Definitely! The Turbo was severely lacking in this department and the Neo Geo did have great sports games, but most of 'em were made for short bursts of gaming, with loads of timers everywhere like the arcade games of the time. The SNES had some great sports games, but the Genesis had more of 'em. 16-bit home computers also had sports games, but most of those lacked the fluidity of the Genesis. So yeah, definitely.
Great Video. I remember most of these games on my Sega CD back then. And as a sports fan, some of the presentation upgrades and FMV additions seemed cool to me back then, but don't hold up today, except as a novelty and trip down memory lane, when minimal additions and FMV seemed cool.
Best Sega CD Sports Games Bill Walsh College Football ESPN National Hockey Night ESPN NBA Hangtime 95 FIFA International Soccer NBA Jam NHL 94 WWF Rage in the Cage
Links: The Challenge of Golf is much better on MS-DOS, because it has proper mouse support and the slow paced gameplay isn't so much an issue on more capable DOS hardware, or DOSBox with the right settings. The Sega CD version is the worst version, because it's not optimized for game controllers, on a system that can't be upgraded and is running directly off of a CDrom with longer load times.
@@drunkensailor112 I played Sensible Soccer on the Atari ST with a joystick which was excellent. The console versions are very playable with a joypad too. Cheers.
@@JD.78 imo they aren't because you can never do the ball effects properly without the stick twisting. Impossible on a controller. And the crazy effects and power shots is what sets sensible/swos apart
@@drunkensailor112 I prefer playing Sensible Soccer with a joystick too, but if one's not available a joypad will do. You're correct about swerving and aftertouch being easier and more efficient to pull off with a joystick though, and scoring a wicked free kick right into the postage stamp from 25 yards is just brilliant. Cheers.
The added hardware on sega cd was all waste to majority of developers. Due to sega did know how ultilize the hardware themselves until game arts, core designs and malibu.
I wonder if the sega cd would have done better if instead of focusing on really bad FMV games, they just focused on improving 16-bit games with better sound, graphics, and sparing fmv? Most of the best games on the sega cd did exactly this.
We have to take account that for the kids of that generation who grew up with the Atari 2600 and 8 bit consoles FMV games were a revolution, we forgot that they were just interactive movies with little replaybility. Sega made the mistake to not port to the Sega CD all those superscaler games that they had at the arcades, without the cartridge limitations and a dedicated hardware they could have made fantastic ports that would have made the system worth it.
I was born in 84 and my first console was in the late 80s, which was an Atari 2600->NES->Genesis in 1992. So i totally get you that fmvs were initially pretty awesome(I remember loving games like Mad Dog McCree in the arcade). They made for great advertisements but the second you started playing you quickly realized "yeah, fmvs do not make for a fun gaming experience in general" I get why Sega took the chance so maybe they put all their eggs in the fmv basket and by the time they realized "hey these games pretty much all suck" it was 94 and they just moved on to the 32 bit generation. I'm not a game dev let alone hardware dev(former web dev with some C++/QT experience) so I don't know how faithfully the sega cd could replicate the super scalers beyond the genesis version, but i agree, having an near arcade port of games like Outrun and Super Hang On on the sega cd would have been awesome!@@Hektols
Sega. More disappointments and missed opportunities out the A-hole. They gave us trash like Joe Montana Football on the Sega CD, but didn’t bother porting Clutch Hitter or MVP from the arcade.
The Sega hardware ports of Sensi are decent enough, but feel a bit more arcadey than the originals, especially run in NTSC mode where 60fps feels too fast compared to the 50hz the games were originally developed for. Also most fans of the series will point at "Sensible World of Soccer" which made the original entirely irrelevant on the native Amiga platform, yet never saw a console release. Aside from that a lot of these games either didn't add enough, or really showed the problems with the SegaCD and the fact that things like the rotation / scaling were only external RAM based processing effects that worked against the VDP rather than with it (the VDP RAM was internal to the chip, so no external chip could have fed data into it faster than the 68k, which meant 15fps at most for full screen use of the effects)
I had quite a few of those games unfortunately. sega cd sports game fans got the shaft. I do remember actually really liking world cup 94 with the music from the scorpions.
I really gotta say for what ever reason NHL 94 has become more popular than when I was kid its even on gamepass lol. Im not a sports fan but iv always enjoyed the game.
Not mentioned: NHL 94, the best hockey game on the Genesis gets ported to the Sega CD. Other than using real organ music and a revised roster, is there any differences?
As a PC gamer since 1983 or so - MAN do I miss the Links games. I think the last actual Links game for PC was 20 YEARS AGO in 2003. Just, what??! Microsoft brings back all these franchises and what not, but not Links? They still own the name and rights to the IP, could you imagine a Links game in 2024 using UE5 or even Unity for that matter by a good studio? I would love a new Links game. And I LOVED all the old Madden, NBA, NHL, MLB games on the consoles in those days also. But man, Links (and Virtua Tennis!) were my jam.
The Sega CD owns the 2 absolute best sports games of the 16-bit era: NHL 94 and Sensible Soccer. Both are enhanced versions of the Genesis and Mega Drive games and there’s no need to use the rotation or scaling effects (which are just gimmicks imho). These 2 games are so good people are still enjoying them to this day. I would argue that they are the best ice hockey and soccer games of all time.
The Sega CD. Otherwise known as the beginning of the end for Sega. The only good thing they have done at all recently is to include the long lost arcade game, Daytona 2,in Like A Dragon Gaiden. Just goes to show that if it wasn't for the Yakuza games Sega wouldn't be relevant at all. Although I will say that I made a lot of money selling my entire Sega CD collection. $1,000 from Popful Mail alone. The power of nostalgia is pretty useful.
NBA jam was so much better on Genesis, 32x and Sega CD than the SNES version. Always grew up with the Sega versions and played the SNES as an adult and was shocked at how BORING it was in comparison!
I really enjoyed this one although these are games I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. The only one I have in my collection is the ''Rage In The Cage'' game and I always hated it. I like how the Japanese sports games all have background music playing in them, it spices things up a bit more. I recognised that actor in the boxing game, he was in The Terminator 1984, the guy that ran the gun shop. Thanks for the video SLX! Quality content that has never been matched.
Rage in The Cage and NBA JAM are probably my most played Sega CD games. Most of the sports games are big disappointments. That NHL game does look good though. Might have to try it.
To give a different take, I would have preferred more international sports games and perhaps fewer American sports games on the Genesis/MegaDrive. A nice Curling game would have been good, more winter sports titles, cross country skiing, ski-jumping, that kind of thing. Would have loved some Rugby games perhaps too.
Always a SEGA kid we at least had the edge when it came to sports games the Madden franchise what the game to get and have I still go back and play Madden and NHL 94
As a huge Sega sports games fan during the Genesis/Mega Drive years, the poor showing of Sega CD sports games made me hesitant to get a Saturn or CD games in general.
Thank for the awesome content as always! I really enjoyed this. I only have NHL 94 and Nba Jam on Sega Cd but now I may have to grab Joe Walsh Football and the Fifa Soccer game to try. Any chance you could do this for the 32X? I know the library is small and it would be cool to get a deep dive from you on the sports outings on that add on as well.
I had Joe Montana as a kid and "dealt with it" once I got College Football National Championship on Genesis, Joe never got played. CFNC is still one of the best football games ever made.
