Jeremy Parish

Segaiden #039: Mark III JP exclusives (1985) (Patreon)

Published:

2023-02-22 12:50:15

Imported:

2024-04

Tags:

Pit Pot golf mark iii sega segaiden soccer

Content

I guess you could call this one Segaiden Gaiden, if you were inclined to do horrible things to the English (and Japanese??) language. I don't recommend doing that, though. It will make people dislike you.

This episode is one of roughly half a dozen videos that will present sidebars to the American Master System chronology by looking at the very few Japan-exclusive titles that got away from Americans (though as you'll see here, didn't necessarily skip Europe). There were honestly not that many of these! In fact, the Famicom saw more releases in 1985 that never made it to the States than the Mark III did throughout its entire lifetime.

I find these games quite interesting, because (again, as you'll see here) quality doesn't appear to have always been the primary limiting factor. Why didn't we get this version of Great Golf? Why did Pit Pot show up in Europe but not America? I do not have these answers, so all I can do provide you with a guided tour to a window through which to gawk and wonder.

Files

Panel de ’Pot: Great Soccer [JP] / Great Golf [JP] / Fushigi no Oshiro Pit Pot | Segaiden #039

Sega didn't publish a lot of Mark III titles in Japan but not America—just about everything the company released for its home territory always made its way to the U.S. Segaiden/Master System Works will be examining the handful of exceptions, which adds up to roughly a dozen games over the course of the Mark III's lifetime. Not all of these Japan-exclusive titles are worth playing, but you'll find enough interesting oddities here to merit some cursory exploration. Case in point, this episode. Although Great Soccer (not to be mistaken for the completely different game that shipped in America as Great Soccer) doesn't have much to offer the world, Great Golf (again, not our Great Golf) is a very different and quite enjoyable take on the sport, while Fushigi no Oshiro Pit Pot (not strictly a Japan-exclusive since it did show up on a European combo cart) scratches a primal action-RPG puzzle-dungeon exploration itch that The Legend of Zelda would properly treat with a metaphorical calamine poultice a few months later. Two out of three ain't bad... unless we're talking about how the U.S. missed out on two pretty good early Mark III games, in which case, it's kinda bad. Production notes: Why watch when you can read? Check out the massive hardcover print editions of NES Works, Super NES Works, and Virtual Boy works, available now at Limited Run Games (https://limitedrungames.com/collections/books)! Look forward to SG-1000 Works: Segaiden Vol. I, due summer 2023. Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! Plus, exclusive podcasts, eBooks, and more! Most Master System footage captured from U.S. carts running through an adapter on Sega Mark III hardware with FM Sound Unit and RGB bypass modification by iFixRetro. Most arcade and Master System Light Phaser footage captured from MiSTer, with thanks to MiSTerAddOns. Video upscaled to 720 with xRGB Mini Framemeister.