Jeremy Parish

Segaiden #040: Mark III JP exclusives (1986) (Patreon)

Published:

2023-03-01 12:59:05

Edited:

2023-03-01 12:59:33

Imported:

2024-04

Tags:

manga mark iii master system sega segaiden

Content

This episode actually made me regret my decision to cover Japan-only (and never-released-in-America) Mark III titles for the Segaiden series. As interesting as things like Galactic Protector, Bubble Bobble, and Alex Kidd BMX Trial promise to be, focusing on this facet of the Sega library also means that episodes like this will pop up from time to time. Comical MachineGun Joe and High School! Kimengumi offer a pointed reminder that many games back in the day remained Japan-exclusive because they weren't good enough to bother releasing in other territories. That's understandable with High School! Kimengumi, which draws too heavily and specifically on the setting and character traits of an unlocalized anime for Sega to have given it the Hokuto no Ken > Black Belt treatment. But Comical MachineGun Joe is a shooting game about a trigger-happy detective in what appears to be Prohibition-era America! It has no Japanese text! It would have been trivial to put out on Master System as a launch title in the U.S.! And yet—

Oh well. Next week brings us back to quality fare, so you won't have to suffer in the cold and dark for too long.

Files

Welcome to the quarantine zone: Comical MachineGun Joe / High School! Kimengumi | Segaiden #040

A fairly short episode this week, and for good reason: These games are not terribly good! Only two of 1986's Mark III releases failed to make their way to the U.S., and you don't need to spend a lot of time with either of them to see why. Comical MachineGun Joe could have been a fun shooting gallery action game, but its sluggish controls and wonky aiming turn it into a real chore to play. And High School! Kimengumi offers very little in the way of gameplay and relies heavily not only on guesswork and memorization but also upon the player's familiarity with a manga and anime which, to my knowledge, have never made their way to the U.S. You can understand why they didn't bother to Black Belt this one. 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.