That's why scanning these old magazines is so important. The magazines cited are all on archive.org and scanned by fans. These magazines might not have been available online when the early reviewers made those claims.
I hope SNES Drunk goes down in video game history as one of the most important people in retro gaming information for the sole reason of questioning the origin of the U.S. release of Hagane.
I enjoy the fact you provided scans, too. Granted, I didn't know people thought it was Blockbuster exclusive. I assumed it was high because scalpers are just jerks like that. Still, nice to know it's seemingly BS.
Andrew being that I personally seen it for sale at a radio shack kills the notion that it was a blockbuster exclusive. Been telling people for years lol. Great review!
It's funny how UA-cam has gone full circle. Started and there eventually was a bunch of decent smaller channels. Then it went hyper commercial and you have these titan channels with constant ads, etc. Monetization over quality (the matpat principle I'll call it). So now we've gotten to the point that all the great channels are small ones like this one. Keep it real man.
I hate to shill but I don't get why people have not gravitated towards the BAT token, I have 14 bucks from a few months of browsing the internet sitting right here on my browser and no one wants to get verified to accept it. even if you gave based on the token and not dollars (fractions of dollars a month essentially)it would still equal a pay day for a creator with no strings attached but an grateful audience.
Ex-Blockbuster manager here, it is and it is not accurate. It initially was a time limited exclusive, they got first run THEN some stores got it. So still a painfully rare game. Production run was absurdly low due to this. For example, I have seen Little Samson and Flinstones Dino Peak WAY more than this damn title in the wild and on eBay. Regardless there’s a rare aspect. Hell Final Fight Guy I have seen at a couple stores, Hagane they laugh when I ask. So that’s where the information comes from, I assume they made a crazy limited run as it was near the life of the system, I guess rentals made more money as opposed to asking $60 for a game on an old system be a $5 rental but still sold them after to kill off the production run.
Over here in Germany, Hagane was sold like any other game. I got my version back in the day from a local hardware store that also sold some SNES and GB games.
Thanks for fact-checking. I always knew it wasn't a Blockbuster exclusive. For instance my local non-Blockbuster family-owned rental store had Hagane when it was new.
It was a variation of the first Final Fight, not the second one. The only difference were one up dolls added to items you could find in barrels, and instead of Cody, you could play as Guy instead.
Mike Matei spewing nonsense and people believe him? NOOOOOOO, that cant be right at all! But in all seriousness he seems to be prideful of his ignorance despite talking about it at length. Great video, glad you covered it.
I met that clown at too many games a couple years ago. That kid is so full of himself.I was asking him a few legit questiions thinking hed be nice. I can't remember the last time I was this ------ close to kicking him in the dick. Acting like his fans are somehow beneath him. Putz
I've met Nerd and crew a few times. James and Kieran were cool, Justin is funny, met Tony twice and both times he smelled like fish. Mike was a little fuckwad that kept talking down to people all three times I was around him. The funny thing is that without James Mike would be the guy delivering your pizza. Remove James from Mike's career and your left with a racist, pro Trump, failed artist. When you meet the Nerd/Review crew, if you ignore Mike he will offer an autograph. Once he does if you tell him some form of "Nah, I'm good." he turns in to the most butt hurt little bitch you'll laugh at.
@@FnRenner Not sure why anyone expect anything else from him. Even on the shows he acts like an ass most of the time. The only person he seems to get along with is James. Everyone else he treats like an asshole.
I played this game on a Canadian TV show called Video & Arcade top 10. I found it odd that there was no cartridge and it was jut the chip inside the SNES. I ended up winning the episode and the winner was supposed to receive a copy of the game we played. I was under the understanding that I would be recieving the game HAGANE..... Instead I received a phone call from the show telling me I have to pick another game because HAGANE would not be available. So not sure if it was a Blockbuster exclusive but there was something going on with this game and probably had very minimal quantities released to the public at the time.
Wait, if I see something on the internet it might not be true? Anyway the real reason this game is expensive is cos the cartridge is haunted. My friend told me that and his dad is a cop so, yeah.
Ah Hagane, one of my favorite ninja games of the 16-bit era. I beat it many times already and can say this game is underappreciated quite honestly it is, the boss design is really good for the most part and the levels are short and sweet and focus on constant action, the controls needs some time getting used to but once you do its very natural using the weapon or ability you want in the game, and the music also has many good songs that fit well to their environments with a distinct Japanese feel over shakuhachi flutes playing in most of them which enhances the cool factor and ninja theme as well. Its also one of those games that the more you play it the more natural it gets on you as a player because so many things are added into the gameplay that makes it seem like a easy to pick up hard to master game that it ultimately feel rewarding, its a hard game with a strong focus on player reward, something which I think Ninja Gaiden and Shinobi for the most part are devoid of, you don't get a sense the developers wanted you to experiment with the game after a while, tossing impossible levels and ridiculously hard boss fights at you for no reason. Hagane just doesn't do that, not at all even the final boss once played through for a bit will feel natural to fight against. A great game.
I recently tried this game and really liked it. The combat is so complex. Your character has a lot of moves which makes it a lot of fun. My first playthrough took 5-6 hours but my second playthrough was just a little over an hour. I love starting over and seeing how much I improved. It also shows how good the game is.
Mike is the epitome of hit or miss. You can tell he thinks he's hot shit, but there's just so many red flags it's unreal. Unlike my boy SNESDrunk here. Solid content, all the time. Thanks for the content.
Mike knows absolutely nothing about game history. Almost nothing that comes out of his mouth is based on facts. It's all rumors or stuff that he heard other people say. Someone needs to teach him how to do some basic research. James isn't innocent either. I mean, why did he let someone spew misinformation on your channel without verifying it?
Come the fuck on, it isn't Mike vs Snes Drunk. Both make fun, qualiity content, it's ok to be wrong sometime, even Carl Sagan was wrong from time to time, think about the 3 layer human brain concept, it was debunked and he was a scientist. Don't be obnoxious.
Thanks for reviewing this game Snesdrunk. This is my 5th favorite game on the Snes and my 12th favorite game from the entire generation. Great graphics, level design and fantastic controls, I love all the L & R somersaulting and abilities you have at your disposal, finding different ways to use different moves throughout the game as you improve in your skill is *very* rewarding. A classic imo. I still tilt my hat to Shinobi 3 on the Genesis (my 2nd favorite game from the era) but this isn't far behind in my eyes.
Great video and I love the screen shots of the old video game magazines! Please use more video game magazine screen shots in the future videos! The nostalgia... so strong.
THANK YOU. I've been screaming for years that the rumor of this game being exclusive to Blockbuster is NOT TRUE. I still own the complete-in-box copy SlyBeast Sr. got for me for my birthday one year from a local Walmart.
I don't know about the release of this game in North America,but the PAL version was a normal release,over here in Europe.It wasn't an exclusive title or something,like that.
Unless all the Blockbusters in Australia were in Melbourne, I feel like we had way more than just a handful. I can think of 3 that used to be local to me. Hell one of them even survived up until 2010.
i worked at blockbuster when this game came out and i can settle this, when the games first came out it was a blockbuster exclusive HOWEVER, it was later for sell normally shortly after that. i remember this because i remember seeing it at a game store on one of my off days and asked the guy working there.
Mike Matei to this day still doesn't do research before spouting nonsense in Cinemassacre/his streams. I mean, to be fair the guy doesn't even read instructions so... Anyway, I wish this got re-released on SNES Online.
I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I do, in fact, own a copy of this cartridge. It has that classic VOID silver sticker that you get when purchasing a game that used to be a rental. I am pretty sure I got this in college when a nearby local video rental store was selling any of their snes/genesis games for $6. So you better believe I went down there at least 4 different times and dropped a healthy $60 bucks on any weird and obscure game they had available. While I can't weigh in with any facts about it's original availability, it does appear that I did in fact get this from a rental store that was selling their older games at the time.
My friend borrowed me this game saying I would never beat it. The end boss will give you arthritis, more so on the hard difficulty setting. His cart was from Blockbuster. I think you had to mail order it and not that many people did that. So it was a good thing Blockbuster bought some carts.
In Spain there was a magazine that gave it the title of Game of the Month, in the very same issue where they analyzed Panzer Dragoon. I guess that another reason for this game getting so expensive is that it got a small release, stores only got a few units. Then experts (rightfully) labelled it as one of the best Super Nintendo games and it's easy to see why he got such prices.
when you rented a game from blockbuster you could also just buy it afterwards and they'd just sell you that exact rental copy. maybe some stores didn't do this, but i still have quite a few games and movies in blockbuster cases that i bought. so technically you could have bought it even if stores weren't dumping inventory. however i still don't think it was a blockbuster rental exclusive, but maybe they also sold new copies and it was a blockbuster exclusive just not a rental exclusive
If only the game was still only $500 for the cart only. Surprisingly cart only seems to be hard to find. I see CIB ones (of course absurdly expensive as well)
Since the time of this review's uploading, prices have jumped even higher. With one ne'er-do-well seller listing a complete copy for almost two-thousand dollars. This is one of the few times that investing in a repro is a sane decision.
just one thing....Blockbuster video stores were everywhere across the UK, practically every town had one. Not that it really matters! great videos, keep up the good work
Well…just went to Portland Retro Game Con. This titles was the ONLY rare snes title not to be found even on display. I saw a Starfox Competition cart, Aero Fighter, not one Hagane. Hell I saw a yellow Zelda test cart.
Yes, I do have been to some of these retro gaming conventions, and have fun looking for the big titles. I can absolutely confirm I have seen more copies of little Samson than I have seen of Hagane, and in fact I have only ever seen one for sale in my entire collecting life in person
I only saw this at BlockBUster only for awhile. BUt I did see this one for sale at WALMART and Hastings few times. I bought my copy at Hastings long ago.
Great video and love the research you have come up with....This game is fun and I did beat it but honestly I do not think its worth the asking price.(no game is worth 500.00) Hopefully this video will make the gaming community more aware!
I remember renting this from blockbuster as a kid. I don't remember how it worked exactly but i think that it was marked on the box as being "blockbuster exclusive" anyway i remember it as being blockbuster exclusive but i don't really care. I use flashcarts... Going to start in on this one this weekend
Blockbuster was in the UK when Hagane was released, however, you couldn't rent SNES games from Blockbuster UK at that time, due to issues with Nintendo of Europe, but you could buy SNES games from Blockbuster UK. Once T.H.E. took over Nintendo distribution in the UK during the N64 period, N64 titles were available to rent.
This game is awesome, is my favorite "impossible" game. Doesn't worth this price (no game does), but a really good action game. Good jog on the research!!! We need more TRUE information.
The hype is real with this game. Besides being rare it's super dope. The tone is dark, gameplay is sharp. Hagane/Run Saber/Skyblazer: SNES' answer to Shinobi
Hello, I'm from Europe, namely Greece, and I can confirm it was released here in the stores. I still have my PAL copy complete with box and instructions.
While you're mistaken in your belief that Blockbusters wasn't a big deal in the British Isles - they were ubiquitous in England and Scotland - Hagane wasn't a Blockbuster and/or rental exclusive here. I bought it myself back in the day!
Here in the PAL region the game seems to be a lot less pricey. Around the 100$ point. Which when comparing it to the US versions always made the rental story seem more credible, but I've never read this to be confirmed anywhere other than the UA-cam videos you mentioned here.
I own a legit copy of Hagane, purchased it with the box for $475 from a Disc Replay - Why would I do such a stupid thing and buy a meme? Because the stars aligned for it to happen (Expendable income, peer pressure, my birthday, it was in a Disc Replay). Is it worth the money? Fuck no. Everything in this video is spot on. There's absolutely no indication of it being a Blockbuster Exclusive on the box and the rumor was bullshit. The problem now though is that the game has that perceived value, at least until people stop trying to buy it. It's basically the same issue as virtual skins and hats in Valve games like TF2 and CS:GO. It'll only ever go down once people stop buying it for the stupid price tag, or when Nintendo turn around and shove it up on their virtual console for the switch. My wife and I now measure the price of things in terms of how many "Hagane" they're worth. That joke alone was probably worth more than the price tag to be honest.
I live in England and there indeed was Blockbuster in this country (until it went under a few years back.) Never heard about Hagane being a Blockbuster exclusive though.
Just recently pulled the trigger on this one. I've wanted it forever so i saved and finally picked it up. It really is one of the best action games i've ever played for SNES. I put it up there with Mega Man X, Wild Guns, and TMNT IV. Its that good. I wish the game were a bit longer, but it makes up for it with the difficulty, once you master it, you really feel like a badass, kind of like mastering games like Ninja Gaiden and Battletoads. Its a shame this one got such a limited release, this could have been an amazing franchise if more people played it.
The Blockbuster rumor; the original reviewers had their information crossed. The easiest/least expensive way to get it was from a closing video store ($5.00?!), but it wasn't the only way and not exclusive to Blockbuster. That's where the reviewers fucked up causing the price increase. Still, it's not Earthbound's situation (not rare but still expensive), Hagane is truly rare and an amazing game, still cutting edge in a lot of ways.
I had a rom of this sitting in my pc since 2006. I never played it or bothered to delete it. I come across this video a month ago and play the rom, buy a repro cart and throw it on a retropie! Great game!
I just swallowed my pride and played it on an emulator with a snes usb controller, and I'm glad I did. Hagane is probably my favorite snes game. I like how it uses every button on the controller. The game has opportunities for high level players to seriously kick ass with some perfectly timed backflip/frontflip attacks while at the same time being approachable for newer players because it is still a viable option to just slash and throw shurikens/grenades at everything. I also like how the game is hard, but it's not "rip your hair out of your head while cussing out God for forsaking you" level of hard until you get to the final stages.
I just looked up the current price on price charting and loose cartridge is over 800 😮 it's ridiculous prices like that, that takes the fun out of retro game collecting. No game should cost that much, un-justifiable.
Never, and I mean NEVER take a "Chips and Bits" ad at face value -- they frequently advertised games that were A) not released yet, B) never localized to North America or C) sometimes even cancelled games. I'm not saying that Hagane was one of those games, but there were a fair few back in the day that I was looking forward to that "Chips and Bits" kept advertising (the precursor to "pre-orders," perhaps) that never materialized.
I have no doubt this was for sale, however I distinctly remember seeing this game at a ton of blockbusters but never in a store. Maybe blockbuster bought a whole bunch of copies?
Eh, Blockbuster was also in Scotland. I went to the one in Dundee regularly. Pretty sure it was in most of the UK too, and the UK at the time was one of the bigger markets for gaming.
I got this game called "Musya" in Chinatown NYC and never seen it anywhere. It turned out to be really good, but my point is I never saw it anywhere else.
well I can debunk that it is a rental only game in the EU/PAL Region, as I actually own a PAL Copy of the game (tough without the Box). Never knew it was this expensive...
I play this game on my emulator every couple of days since I saw your review for it. I love it. Its super difficult but sooo much fun in the versatility of play. I really like the dodging mechanics, it makes running through some areas really fun.
Those Chips&Bits pages in video game magazines were never completely reliable. Those weren't necessarily the actual price of games, and in fact, I don't think all games listed there were eventually released to the market. I know, because I tried ordering Super Bomberman for its listed price ($50) but they ended up selling it for $74.99. In case you're wondering why it was so expensive, it's because it came with the Super Multitap.
Really good video! While watching, I was reminded of Shinobi III.....and then you mentioned the similarity at the end! So in Shinobi III, there is a password to make you invincible to enemy fire. Is there a similar invincibility password for Hagane?
My guess for the price is simple supply and demand. There may not have been that many carts sold, so when reviews showed up on UA-cam, the supply dwindled. Someone must be paying big money for these rare games.
Forlorn79 the problem is, there are hardly any reviews for the games, and maybe 2 or three playthroughs from the past 5 years. It still hasn't been too popular.
It would have dropped off by now. False rumors like that would have caused an initial spike but it would have dropped rapidly afterwords after thousands flood ebay. See them going for $600-$800 now. I just don't think there are that many out there. Supply and demand rules all in the long run.
m0t0rcade by that logic earthbound would be a rare game but it's not. People want it and the ones that have it dont want to sell it. The people that do sell it know what people will pay. Part of it supply and demand but part of it is artificial scarcity.
I received this game the year it came out for Christmas, yes the game was hard and I beat it after learning enemy placement like damn near every other game. no I do not remember blockbusters getting any games exclusive to their store for any reason. The first time I heard mike say it thought maybe it was a thing in his area, I live NYC and I used to see this game in damn near every mom and pop shop I went to, I used to pronounce it as hag- gain lol. The only problem was that unless you were the type to buy egm every month, you probably would not have heard of this game back in the day. I brought dbz 2 & 3 after reading about them in a 93 issue which I still own
There were definitely games that were actually Blockbuster exclusives. Clay Fighters: Sculptor's Cut is one example. It's not hard to find proof of that, including IGN articles from the era, and Blockbuster's own site from 1998: web.archive.org/web/19980519130835/blockbuster.com/video2.0/gamenin.tin The thing is, while real Blockbuster exclusives exist, Hagane is provably not one of them.
Adam Zey Hagane isn't imo due to the fact that not only did I see it in the wild back in the day, I actually had to tell my aunt which store to buy it from, she also brought Dracula x for me the following year. The only game I remember not being able to get was chrono trigger due to the $75 price tag that never went down.
Adam Zey sorry, I remember a star fox challenge game or something like it exclusive to bb. Just looked it up there were a couple challenge games that were bb only but not worth anything in my opinion, just a high score
![SNES Longplay [023] Hagane: The Final Conflict (US)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/CKIngJDddYc/mqdefault.jpg)
What is this? Somebody actually doing research before they open their mouth? The nerve.
But seriously, good review.
Hes not the nerd nor critic,He's The Drunk. XD
That's why scanning these old magazines is so important. The magazines cited are all on archive.org and scanned by fans. These magazines might not have been available online when the early reviewers made those claims.
I hope SNES Drunk goes down in video game history as one of the most important people in retro gaming information for the sole reason of questioning the origin of the U.S. release of Hagane.
I enjoy the fact you provided scans, too. Granted, I didn't know people thought it was Blockbuster exclusive. I assumed it was high because scalpers are just jerks like that. Still, nice to know it's seemingly BS.
This was absolutely not a Blockbuster exclusive; I remember renting it from Hollywood Video and I never got games from Blockbuster.
To proper research and truthful retro journalism! Dilly dilly!! 🍺
Andrew being that I personally seen it for sale at a radio shack kills the notion that it was a blockbuster exclusive. Been telling people for years lol. Great review!
Gets right into info on the game speaks in a good tone n speed. And clearly stated his opinions.
It's funny how UA-cam has gone full circle. Started and there eventually was a bunch of decent smaller channels. Then it went hyper commercial and you have these titan channels with constant ads, etc. Monetization over quality (the matpat principle I'll call it). So now we've gotten to the point that all the great channels are small ones like this one. Keep it real man.
That's true, I always search info from smallers channels too, they're honest and pure.
MatPat sold himself out
Gumtree bued
I hate to shill but I don't get why people have not gravitated towards the BAT token, I have 14 bucks from a few months of browsing the internet sitting right here on my browser and no one wants to get verified to accept it. even if you gave based on the token and not dollars (fractions of dollars a month essentially)it would still equal a pay day for a creator with no strings attached but an grateful audience.
"No, go pay your rent instead" LMAO
Ex-Blockbuster manager here, it is and it is not accurate.
It initially was a time limited exclusive, they got first run THEN some stores got it. So still a painfully rare game. Production run was absurdly low due to this. For example, I have seen Little Samson and Flinstones Dino Peak WAY more than this damn title in the wild and on eBay.
Regardless there’s a rare aspect. Hell Final Fight Guy I have seen at a couple stores, Hagane they laugh when I ask.
So that’s where the information comes from, I assume they made a crazy limited run as it was near the life of the system, I guess rentals made more money as opposed to asking $60 for a game on an old system be a $5 rental but still sold them after to kill off the production run.
Obviously no way to verify, but this is interesting if it's true. Explains the insane rarity here in the states.
Over here in Germany, Hagane was sold like any other game. I got my version back in the day from a local hardware store that also sold some SNES and GB games.
A hardware store that sold video games? How strange! But very cool lol
Thanks for fact-checking. I always knew it wasn't a Blockbuster exclusive. For instance my local non-Blockbuster family-owned rental store had Hagane when it was new.
final fight guy was exclusive to blockbuster, a rare occurence.
But that's just because it was only a slight variation to Final Fight 2 and not its own full fledged game.
It was a variation of the first Final Fight, not the second one. The only difference were one up dolls added to items you could find in barrels, and instead of Cody, you could play as Guy instead.
Video Games Are Fun no it wasnt
Yep rental store exclusive
That's it boys. Sell me your Hagane's cheap. I'm not falling for the bullshit.
😂
Mike Matei spewing nonsense and people believe him? NOOOOOOO, that cant be right at all!
But in all seriousness he seems to be prideful of his ignorance despite talking about it at length. Great video, glad you covered it.
Ken Williams I hate that guy and AVGN isn't funny. Also, Mike's dick is probably not that big.
I met that clown at too many games a couple years ago. That kid is so full of himself.I was asking him a few legit questiions thinking hed be nice. I can't remember the last time I was this ------ close to kicking him in the dick. Acting like his fans are somehow beneath him. Putz
I've met Nerd and crew a few times. James and Kieran were cool, Justin is funny, met Tony twice and both times he smelled like fish. Mike was a little fuckwad that kept talking down to people all three times I was around him. The funny thing is that without James Mike would be the guy delivering your pizza. Remove James from Mike's career and your left with a racist, pro Trump, failed artist.
When you meet the Nerd/Review crew, if you ignore Mike he will offer an autograph. Once he does if you tell him some form of "Nah, I'm good." he turns in to the most butt hurt little bitch you'll laugh at.
@@FnRenner Not sure why anyone expect anything else from him. Even on the shows he acts like an ass most of the time. The only person he seems to get along with is James. Everyone else he treats like an asshole.
Then you people must be happy that James and Mike aren't working together anyone.
Japanese 90s art style and 16 bit era is incredible combination.
To illustrate how retro game inflation is now out of control, Hagane went for $75.00 in some parts as recent as 2012. Fuck that Blockbuster rumor.
Best Bout Gaming As recent as 2014? Bitch, that was 3 years ago.
Best Bout Gaming no, the rumors true. Blockbuster used to exist. But you have to reaaaaaaaaaaally believe, then it will appear.
This games priced $1,731 on Lukie games and that's on sale from $1,905 lol
@@joshuaWEC this game is on eBay now for 10 Grand that's is INSANE.
Mate, England was full of Blockbuster stores up until it's sad demise.
I played this game on a Canadian TV show called Video & Arcade top 10. I found it odd that there was no cartridge and it was jut the chip inside the SNES. I ended up winning the episode and the winner was supposed to receive a copy of the game we played. I was under the understanding that I would be recieving the game HAGANE..... Instead I received a phone call from the show telling me I have to pick another game because HAGANE would not be available. So not sure if it was a Blockbuster exclusive but there was something going on with this game and probably had very minimal quantities released to the public at the time.
V&A top ten.....wow...flashbacks
"Nicholas Picholas (is that his real name?)"
I can hear the theme song now in my head (and heart)
Cptkangaroo that's a cool story, always dreamt of being on there and uh oh as a kid
that show was fuckin jokes
My older brother was on that show too, it was a good one.
SHUT UP i always dreamt of being on that show. But they shot that shit out east :(
I've got Hagane when i was a kid... was on sale normally.
Totally LOVE the game anyway.
In the USA?
Wait, if I see something on the internet it might not be true? Anyway the real reason this game is expensive is cos the cartridge is haunted. My friend told me that and his dad is a cop so, yeah.
I would've believed u if u said ur friends dad was a Ghostbuster, but since he's a cop, I don't believe it!
Ah Hagane, one of my favorite ninja games of the 16-bit era. I beat it many times already and can say this game is underappreciated quite honestly it is, the boss design is really good for the most part and the levels are short and sweet and focus on constant action, the controls needs some time getting used to but once you do its very natural using the weapon or ability you want in the game, and the music also has many good songs that fit well to their environments with a distinct Japanese feel over shakuhachi flutes playing in most of them which enhances the cool factor and ninja theme as well. Its also one of those games that the more you play it the more natural it gets on you as a player because so many things are added into the gameplay that makes it seem like a easy to pick up hard to master game that it ultimately feel rewarding, its a hard game with a strong focus on player reward, something which I think Ninja Gaiden and Shinobi for the most part are devoid of, you don't get a sense the developers wanted you to experiment with the game after a while, tossing impossible levels and ridiculously hard boss fights at you for no reason. Hagane just doesn't do that, not at all even the final boss once played through for a bit will feel natural to fight against. A great game.
It wasn't a blockbuster exclusive. In Québec we had blockbuster and videotron rental stores and the game was available in both ;)
I recently tried this game and really liked it. The combat is so complex. Your character has a lot of moves which makes it a lot of fun. My first playthrough took 5-6 hours but my second playthrough was just a little over an hour. I love starting over and seeing how much I improved. It also shows how good the game is.
Mike is the epitome of hit or miss. You can tell he thinks he's hot shit, but there's just so many red flags it's unreal. Unlike my boy SNESDrunk here. Solid content, all the time. Thanks for the content.
Mike knows absolutely nothing about game history. Almost nothing that comes out of his mouth is based on facts. It's all rumors or stuff that he heard other people say. Someone needs to teach him how to do some basic research. James isn't innocent either. I mean, why did he let someone spew misinformation on your channel without verifying it?
Come the fuck on, it isn't Mike vs Snes Drunk. Both make fun, qualiity content, it's ok to be wrong sometime, even Carl Sagan was wrong from time to time, think about the 3 layer human brain concept, it was debunked and he was a scientist. Don't be obnoxious.
Thanks for reviewing this game Snesdrunk. This is my 5th favorite game on the Snes and my 12th favorite game from the entire generation.
Great graphics, level design and fantastic controls, I love all the L & R somersaulting and abilities you have at your disposal, finding different ways to use different moves throughout the game as you improve in your skill is *very* rewarding.
A classic imo. I still tilt my hat to Shinobi 3 on the Genesis (my 2nd favorite game from the era) but this isn't far behind in my eyes.
Great video and I love the screen shots of the old video game magazines! Please use more video game magazine screen shots in the future videos!
The nostalgia... so strong.
THANK YOU. I've been screaming for years that the rumor of this game being exclusive to Blockbuster is NOT TRUE. I still own the complete-in-box copy SlyBeast Sr. got for me for my birthday one year from a local Walmart.
13Gangland
LOL Why?
SlyBeast-He's a troll, just ignore him.
chuckobscure Blame the phone's auto correct for that one... no, I am not a "gangsta" as you say, just some dude on the net. Hi 👋
chuckobscure Blame the phone's auto correct for that one... no, I am not a "gangsta" as you say, just some dude on the net. Hi 👋
I don't know about the release of this game in North America,but the PAL version was a normal release,over here in Europe.It wasn't an exclusive title or something,like that.
Unless all the Blockbusters in Australia were in Melbourne, I feel like we had way more than just a handful. I can think of 3 that used to be local to me. Hell one of them even survived up until 2010.
There is still a Blockbuster near my place in Aus
Was thinking the same too
Yep, there were blockbusters all over QLD too, even in smallish towns.
It’s kept going WAY up in price in recent years. The myth that it was a Blockbuster exclusive unfortunately still very much exists.😔
How did this not become a series?!?!
I can confirm that the Wikipedia page never mentions Hagane being a Blockbuster exclusive, so you are probably right! :D
Confirm that you are probably right
I only found this game at a rental store that wasn't blockbuster, never saw it for sale outside of catalogs
My parents bought me this game in 99 in Germany. I sold it for ten bucks couple years later. Worst decision ever.
Last week I bought it back from the same friend. Don´t ask for the price, but it was still a good deal. Couldn`t be more happy.
i worked at blockbuster when this game came out and i can settle this, when the games first came out it was a blockbuster exclusive HOWEVER, it was later for sell normally shortly after that. i remember this because i remember seeing it at a game store on one of my off days and asked the guy working there.
Mike Matei to this day still doesn't do research before spouting nonsense in Cinemassacre/his streams. I mean, to be fair the guy doesn't even read instructions so...
Anyway, I wish this got re-released on SNES Online.
Did Hagane cme u in Europe
If there is a ROM from Europe version, it might be a cartridge of it.
I played it in Germany on cartridge
I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I do, in fact, own a copy of this cartridge. It has that classic VOID silver sticker that you get when purchasing a game that used to be a rental. I am pretty sure I got this in college when a nearby local video rental store was selling any of their snes/genesis games for $6. So you better believe I went down there at least 4 different times and dropped a healthy $60 bucks on any weird and obscure game they had available. While I can't weigh in with any facts about it's original availability, it does appear that I did in fact get this from a rental store that was selling their older games at the time.
Thumbs up from me man. I always look forward to your videos when I can't sleep.
Blockbuster was everywhere when I was a kid living in Australia 🇦🇺
My friend borrowed me this game saying I would never beat it. The end boss will give you arthritis, more so on the hard difficulty setting. His cart was from Blockbuster. I think you had to mail order it and not that many people did that. So it was a good thing Blockbuster bought some carts.
In Spain there was a magazine that gave it the title of Game of the Month, in the very same issue where they analyzed Panzer Dragoon.
I guess that another reason for this game getting so expensive is that it got a small release, stores only got a few units. Then experts (rightfully) labelled it as one of the best Super Nintendo games and it's easy to see why he got such prices.
perhaps theres some hoarder somewhere sitting on a box of them
when you rented a game from blockbuster you could also just buy it afterwards and they'd just sell you that exact rental copy. maybe some stores didn't do this, but i still have quite a few games and movies in blockbuster cases that i bought. so technically you could have bought it even if stores weren't dumping inventory.
however i still don't think it was a blockbuster rental exclusive, but maybe they also sold new copies and it was a blockbuster exclusive just not a rental exclusive
I confess that what I love the most of these videos is the intro: SnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnNES DRUNK!!!!
I can vouch for debunking that lie too.
In November of 1995 I rented it from our regional video store chain which was later to be Movie Gallery
If only the game was still only $500 for the cart only. Surprisingly cart only seems to be hard to find. I see CIB ones (of course absurdly expensive as well)
Since the time of this review's uploading, prices have jumped even higher. With one ne'er-do-well seller listing a complete copy for almost two-thousand dollars. This is one of the few times that investing in a repro is a sane decision.
simply mentioning the Turbo Tunnel in Battletoads gives me flashbacks
just one thing....Blockbuster video stores were everywhere across the UK, practically every town had one. Not that it really matters! great videos, keep up the good work
Blockbuster was also in Chile, Latin America
Well…just went to Portland Retro Game Con. This titles was the ONLY rare snes title not to be found even on display. I saw a Starfox Competition cart, Aero Fighter, not one Hagane. Hell I saw a yellow Zelda test cart.
Yes, I do have been to some of these retro gaming conventions, and have fun looking for the big titles. I can absolutely confirm I have seen more copies of little Samson than I have seen of Hagane, and in fact I have only ever seen one for sale in my entire collecting life in person
I only saw this at BlockBUster only for awhile. BUt I did see this one for sale at WALMART and Hastings few times. I bought my copy at Hastings long ago.
Hands-down the best retro game UA-camr of all time
I remember some things you posted on this on twitter. I did some digging you can get good repros of the game off of amazon for only 24 dollars.
Buddy of mine owned the PAL version. He lent me the game like 20 years ago. To my shame I still have the manual lying around here.
Great video and love the research you have come up with....This game is fun and I did beat it but honestly I do not think its worth the asking price.(no game is worth 500.00) Hopefully this video will make the gaming community more aware!
I remember renting this from blockbuster as a kid. I don't remember how it worked exactly but i think that it was marked on the box as being "blockbuster exclusive" anyway i remember it as being blockbuster exclusive but i don't really care. I use flashcarts... Going to start in on this one this weekend
My father bought this game in Germany in 1998.
your father has good taste, how is your father?
Blockbuster was in the UK when Hagane was released, however, you couldn't rent SNES games from Blockbuster UK at that time, due to issues with Nintendo of Europe, but you could buy SNES games from Blockbuster UK. Once T.H.E. took over Nintendo distribution in the UK during the N64 period, N64 titles were available to rent.
Thanks for bringing the hype down and hitting those freaking retro gougers with a slap of truth.
I have it still in my collection from back when I was growing up. We had no Blockbuster where I lived.
This game is awesome, is my favorite "impossible" game. Doesn't worth this price (no game does), but a really good action game.
Good jog on the research!!! We need more TRUE information.
You would think that at least several copies for sale on eBay would still have the Blockbuster stickers attached if the exclusive rumor were true.
The hype is real with this game. Besides being rare it's super dope. The tone is dark, gameplay is sharp. Hagane/Run Saber/Skyblazer: SNES' answer to Shinobi
Hello, I'm from Europe, namely Greece, and I can confirm it was released here in the stores. I still have my PAL copy complete with box and instructions.
Wow! Rental exclusive myth finally proven false.
Spot on. Same thing happened with Flintstones Surprise at Dinosaur Peak on NES
I had the chance to get this one for like a hundred bucks several years ago. I stopped collecting a while ago but I still rergret it.
While you're mistaken in your belief that Blockbusters wasn't a big deal in the British Isles - they were ubiquitous in England and Scotland - Hagane wasn't a Blockbuster and/or rental exclusive here. I bought it myself back in the day!
I grew up in England. We had Blockbuster here in the 90's.
Got my copy on Super Famicom on the way! Finally!
Here in the PAL region the game seems to be a lot less pricey. Around the 100$ point. Which when comparing it to the US versions always made the rental story seem more credible, but I've never read this to be confirmed anywhere other than the UA-cam videos you mentioned here.
Mike Matei catching strays!😂
I own a legit copy of Hagane, purchased it with the box for $475 from a Disc Replay - Why would I do such a stupid thing and buy a meme? Because the stars aligned for it to happen (Expendable income, peer pressure, my birthday, it was in a Disc Replay). Is it worth the money? Fuck no. Everything in this video is spot on. There's absolutely no indication of it being a Blockbuster Exclusive on the box and the rumor was bullshit.
The problem now though is that the game has that perceived value, at least until people stop trying to buy it. It's basically the same issue as virtual skins and hats in Valve games like TF2 and CS:GO. It'll only ever go down once people stop buying it for the stupid price tag, or when Nintendo turn around and shove it up on their virtual console for the switch.
My wife and I now measure the price of things in terms of how many "Hagane" they're worth. That joke alone was probably worth more than the price tag to be honest.
Selling for $10,000 dollars now lol
I live in England and there indeed was Blockbuster in this country (until it went under a few years back.) Never heard about Hagane being a Blockbuster exclusive though.
Just recently pulled the trigger on this one. I've wanted it forever so i saved and finally picked it up. It really is one of the best action games i've ever played for SNES. I put it up there with Mega Man X, Wild Guns, and TMNT IV. Its that good.
I wish the game were a bit longer, but it makes up for it with the difficulty, once you master it, you really feel like a badass, kind of like mastering games like Ninja Gaiden and Battletoads. Its a shame this one got such a limited release, this could have been an amazing franchise if more people played it.
Just beat it on original hardware with an everdrive... Damn that's a good game.... Took me a couple weekends
The Blockbuster rumor; the original reviewers had their information crossed. The easiest/least expensive way to get it was from a closing video store ($5.00?!), but it wasn't the only way and not exclusive to Blockbuster. That's where the reviewers fucked up causing the price increase. Still, it's not Earthbound's situation (not rare but still expensive), Hagane is truly rare and an amazing game, still cutting edge in a lot of ways.
bought a hagane repro for 20 bucks the other day... great game
Ninja robot's are not cheap apparently, I still want to try it. Thank God for emulators.
it's a classic imo, give it a go. You can get this via ever drive or reproduction cart too!
I had a rom of this sitting in my pc since 2006. I never played it or bothered to delete it. I come across this video a month ago and play the rom, buy a repro cart and throw it on a retropie! Great game!
I just swallowed my pride and played it on an emulator with a snes usb controller, and I'm glad I did. Hagane is probably my favorite snes game. I like how it uses every button on the controller. The game has opportunities for high level players to seriously kick ass with some perfectly timed backflip/frontflip attacks while at the same time being approachable for newer players because it is still a viable option to just slash and throw shurikens/grenades at everything. I also like how the game is hard, but it's not "rip your hair out of your head while cussing out God for forsaking you" level of hard until you get to the final stages.
I definitely bought this cartridge - at a Babbages!
I just looked up the current price on price charting and loose cartridge is over 800 😮 it's ridiculous prices like that, that takes the fun out of retro game collecting. No game should cost that much, un-justifiable.
Never, and I mean NEVER take a "Chips and Bits" ad at face value -- they frequently advertised games that were A) not released yet, B) never localized to North America or C) sometimes even cancelled games. I'm not saying that Hagane was one of those games, but there were a fair few back in the day that I was looking forward to that "Chips and Bits" kept advertising (the precursor to "pre-orders," perhaps) that never materialized.
Gregg’s no Kitarō is the hardest game and has the best soundtrack in super famicom. Great choice! Subscribed!
You mentioned as being a blockbuster exclusive in your first "Japanese SFC games that work for English Speakers" :)
Yup, that's correct, almost 3 years ago now. I was an idiot.
I just got the super famicom version and i freaking love this game. I beat it too. $100? I got mine loose good condition copy on amazon for $65.
lol damn you CGR and Mike Matei
Glad I stopped watching them years ago. They suck.
@bill gates The difference is that Mike is a huge idiot who is bad at games
Also, this game is every bit as hard as Super Ghouls and Ghosts. It's just demands more attention to quick reflexes.
Blockbuster was definitely in the uk. There was one near my house in Manchester. I miss it :-(
I have no doubt this was for sale, however I distinctly remember seeing this game at a ton of blockbusters but never in a store. Maybe blockbuster bought a whole bunch of copies?
Eh, Blockbuster was also in Scotland. I went to the one in Dundee regularly. Pretty sure it was in most of the UK too, and the UK at the time was one of the bigger markets for gaming.
Where's your critique of the black hud here in hagane? Hypocrite, wannabe dev and hero of the obsolete snes.
Yea I was def getting the shinobi 3 vibe. Still want to play it
I remember this game. It was awesome, but man did I rage hard while playing it.
I got this game called "Musya" in Chinatown NYC and never seen it anywhere. It turned out to be really good, but my point is I never saw it anywhere else.
95% sure my brother had this cartridge growing up. Granted we are Canadian so not sure if that makes a difference.
well I can debunk that it is a rental only game in the EU/PAL Region, as I actually own a PAL Copy of the game (tough without the Box). Never knew it was this expensive...
I really appreciate you're researching. GREAT WORK 👍👍👍👏
I play this game on my emulator every couple of days since I saw your review for it. I love it. Its super difficult but sooo much fun in the versatility of play. I really like the dodging mechanics, it makes running through some areas really fun.
Those Chips&Bits pages in video game magazines were never completely reliable. Those weren't necessarily the actual price of games, and in fact, I don't think all games listed there were eventually released to the market. I know, because I tried ordering Super Bomberman for its listed price ($50) but they ended up selling it for $74.99. In case you're wondering why it was so expensive, it's because it came with the Super Multitap.
Really good video! While watching, I was reminded of Shinobi III.....and then you mentioned the similarity at the end! So in Shinobi III, there is a password to make you invincible to enemy fire. Is there a similar invincibility password for Hagane?
No, the only Hagane cheat I know of is infinite continues
My guess for the price is simple supply and demand. There may not have been that many carts sold, so when reviews showed up on UA-cam, the supply dwindled. Someone must be paying big money for these rare games.
Right but my point his, why Hagane and not others? The only explanation I've found is that bullshit story
Forlorn79 the problem is, there are hardly any reviews for the games, and maybe 2 or three playthroughs from the past 5 years. It still hasn't been too popular.
Forlorn79 The blockbuster story could've created an artificially high demand
It would have dropped off by now. False rumors like that would have caused an initial spike but it would have dropped rapidly afterwords after thousands flood ebay. See them going for $600-$800 now. I just don't think there are that many out there. Supply and demand rules all in the long run.
m0t0rcade by that logic earthbound would be a rare game but it's not. People want it and the ones that have it dont want to sell it. The people that do sell it know what people will pay. Part of it supply and demand but part of it is artificial scarcity.
This game is really really good for a 16 bit game
I received this game the year it came out for Christmas, yes the game was hard and I beat it after learning enemy placement like damn near every other game. no I do not remember blockbusters getting any games exclusive to their store for any reason. The first time I heard mike say it thought maybe it was a thing in his area, I live NYC and I used to see this game in damn near every mom and pop shop I went to, I used to pronounce it as hag- gain lol. The only problem was that unless you were the type to buy egm every month, you probably would not have heard of this game back in the day. I brought dbz 2 & 3 after reading about them in a 93 issue which I still own
There were definitely games that were actually Blockbuster exclusives. Clay Fighters: Sculptor's Cut is one example. It's not hard to find proof of that, including IGN articles from the era, and Blockbuster's own site from 1998:
web.archive.org/web/19980519130835/blockbuster.com/video2.0/gamenin.tin
The thing is, while real Blockbuster exclusives exist, Hagane is provably not one of them.
Adam Zey, games I was talking about were for the nes, gen and snes period not the next gen up.
Adam Zey Hagane isn't imo due to the fact that not only did I see it in the wild back in the day, I actually had to tell my aunt which store to buy it from, she also brought Dracula x for me the following year. The only game I remember not being able to get was chrono trigger due to the $75 price tag that never went down.
Adam Zey sorry, I remember a star fox challenge game or something like it exclusive to bb. Just looked it up there were a couple challenge games that were bb only but not worth anything in my opinion, just a high score