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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
What I find most impressive about the Master System is that it pushed out such impressive visuals for its time without the aid of expansion chips inside the cartridge. All of the scaling that you see in games like Galaxy Force and Road Rash were all done on regular hardware. It’s a very well designed and flexible console.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
I think the first Sonic on the Master System is it's most beautiful game. Speedy Gonzales, Daffy and all the games with Donald Duck and Asterix were some really nice looking games too.
Sonic must be among the best looking 8 bit games ever released. The graphics on Asterix are also amazing, really captures the feel of its source material. 👍
Nice list. I actually didn't know a few of those. The only game I d add personally is kenseiden. Even though the backgrounds are simple they do look nice and sprites are large and detailed.
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 :-)
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!
I grew up with the SMS, rediscovered it last year during the holidays when I picked up a console and a handful of games. Coolest part is now, 30 + years later, much like you, I am discovering and enjoying games I never played before, and am amazed how awesome some of them look.
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.
Sega Lord is prolly my favorite retro video game channel in UA-cam. Good content, not annoying voice & he gets right into the content instead of being a zealot showing himself more than the game like most UA-camrs
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.
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.
So many good memories playing the SMS.... My first console. Alex Kidd in Miracle world, Shinobi, Wonderboy in Wonder land, Secret command, Mortal Kombat (yes, with the flickering). I used to play all day with my little brother. Good times...Thanks Sega!
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.
12:50 as a resident of New Zealand, i can tell you the game got the entire vibe and history of New Zealand right too. Kiwis always being kidnapped by seals, jumping on everyone's heads, collecting fruit, throwing bombs everywhere. A very historically accurate game.
Thanks SLX! Thanks as always for being even handed but also telling it like you see it. Your release schedule has been epic recently as well, so good job in that regard too. Get well soon.
I would consider myself a semi-hardcore retrogamer and have seen many UA-cam videos on the topic. I must say after watching this video it is one of the best on UA-cam. Thanks!!
I played home video game since their inception (the Magnavox Odyssey) and the first time I encountered truly colorful graphics was in Smurfs on the Colecovision. The next encounters were all on the Sega Master System. In my opinion these graphics were not surpassed until the Amiga (or Playstation if you're only counting consoles), because the NES was too dependent on its drab green-and-tan palette, the Genesis had better graphics but seemed to default to the background color always being black, and the SNES was a delight but its palette seemed to be too pastel.
I was completely blown away by a game called James Pond 2, as it features real 2-dimensional parallax scrolling, as well as some amazing shading work. It was so bad I had to double-check my Mega Drive was off, cause it actually puts that machine to shame! Gameplay is somewhat simplistic but fun but those graphics, they are just out of this world!
My cousin was the one who had one, but I remember enjoying most of the games he had on it like Shinobi, Safari Hunt, Fantasy Zone, but most of all Thunder Blade. Really loved that game back than.
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!
Great video , thanks for the upload. I have an original SMS with the controllers and laser. I have a few games but of course so many years have past I forgot which ones I should aim to get. RIght now I have Fantasy Zone 1, Zillion, Zillion 2, Mic and Mac (McDonalds game), Quartet. These other games you list are terrific reminders.
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!
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 was so glad to get my hands on a master system in 88 when I won it at an arcade in the mall. Sega had so many great games on this system. Glad I was able to experience them when they were first released.
I never knew Son of Chuck got a MS port! I've seen screenshots of it, but I always thought it was an Amiga version! The ol' Master System never fails to impress
Awesome amount and quality of content good sir. I feel bad to suggest a video, but I've been looking for a N64 vs. Sega Saturn type of well made video. May be right up your alley. Can't wait to see all your new content and I'm glad I'm a subscriber. Keep up the great work sir.
The Jungle Book, both Asterix Games. They looked amazing too. Great list, look forward to part 2! Edit: Also Cosmic Space Head (I think it was called Linux Space Head on others systems). It came in a weirdly shaped cartridge too, and had brilliant colours and visuals.
I had the MS and never had the cjance to play those games! I need to now, thanks for this great video and selection! I also recommend heavily Astérix, Sonic and R-Type on the master system which were amazing for the console!
@@ribenasquash 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.
@@ribenasquash 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
Hi Brother :) My favorite games on Master System / Game Gear : Mickey Land of Illusion (like you) and... I hope you know these : Daffy Duck in Hollywood, The Smurfs (1), Sonic (1) and Tom & Jerry The Movie ! And also : Donald Deep Duck Trouble, Asterix Secret Mission + Great Rescue ! Very good and beautiful 8-bits games !! All my childhood :p Have a good continuation & be blessed !
Very impressive. I never owned an 8 bit system. I went from Atari 2600 to the Sega Genesis. I only ever encountered the Master System "in the wild" a couple of times as a kid. On one of those occasions Wonder Boy III was the game being played and I remember falling in love with it instantly. I never had any complaints about my Genesis though. I was enjoying 16 bit graphics for years while all my friends were still rocking their NES waiting for the SNES.
Good selection of games! The only SMS games I'd like to see added to this already impressive list when talking about beautiful 8-bit graphics are: Zillion II -The Triformation, Alex Kidd and the Lost Stars, and Space Harrier.
The Master System had an astonishing knack for getting versions of 16-bit games that shouldn't have been possible. You highlight 3 great ones in Taz, Aladdin and Chuck Rock 2 but there's Jungle Book, Lion King, Cool Spot, Global Gladiators, Sonic Spinball and Desert Strike just for starters.
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.
SMS was my second console, after 5 years with a 2600 Atari. Shinobi world as a favorite of mine because of how it parodied the original game and Alex's Miracle world (present in the console memory) was always a blast to play through.
Master System was my first console. I had a huge games collection. Such good memories.
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.
same. :)
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.
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)
Sega rushed Phantasy Star 2 development and had to get it done within 6 months, that's why the graphics didn't blow us away.
Phantasy Star was the GOAT for me at the time. It's the grand daddy that got me hooked on RPG games!
Denza76 Agreed. I could not get enough of it. Amazing game.
This is 10 great reasons they should make a SEGA Master System Mini.
I agree.. most definitely
I would give SEGA my money right now to get a Master System Mini!
I'd be happy to add SMS games to my Genesis Mini through Project Lunar.
There is one like that in brasil. Master system 3. Made by Tectoy
Even better would be an AT Games version with built in games and a cartridge insert to play original titles.
The Sega Master System is the very definition of the term "underrated".
I keep saying that since the early 90's.
Alchemo Lozano That's a straight fact!!!
if everyone and their mother claims something is underrated then it's probably not
Maybe in the USA, but definitely not in Europe and Australia. It was very successful in those regions
Definitely in the US! When I mention it to friends and coworkers, most of them have never heard of it. All they knew was Nintendo back then.
I *never* knew the Master System was capable of graphics like these. Thanks, Sega Lord X!
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.
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.
Master System R-Type is a superb port. 👍
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.
Taz Mania and Land of Illusion were part of my childhood. I played this games so much.
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.
Part 2!!! Yesss. Some Zillion, Vigilante, black belt, Rambo first blood...these games looked way beyond their time. I’m all in for round 2 🤗
This channel deserves more love.
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!
Rambo had a different name in every region
Other NES games of the genre beat out Ikari on the NES. It's a very low bar.
@@SomeOrangeCat Yup... That's true as well...
Ikari II was done by Micronics, a small developer the SMS was lucky not to be (dis)graced with.
@@Bloodreign1 I actually liked Ikari 2... Crazy as that is... I appreciate the quest like elements Micronics added in...
R-Type was pretty amazing on the SMS. It even had an extra stage that I wish was in the Arcade/TG-16 versions.
This secret stage had an unforgettable songtrack.
@@ph_stuff Agree. Along with a couple of tracks on Sonic, it's my favourite Master System tune.
@@markchambers3833
No doubt about that. They are among my favorites too. The Black Belt boss stage also has an amazing track, just to name one more.
I always loved Cloud Master. Lots going on, a little kooky but that gave it character. A joy to behold. 😄
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.
What I find most impressive about the Master System is that it pushed out such impressive visuals for its time without the aid of expansion chips inside the cartridge. All of the scaling that you see in games like Galaxy Force and Road Rash were all done on regular hardware. It’s a very well designed and flexible console.
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.
My favourite console of all time. Please give it a part deux, Sega Lord!
Aladdin looks amazing. It's always amazing when the devs really push the system
The Australia version of this game and some others games come in a grey cartridge and case, its interesting how they look.
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.
Yes I find the sms always really pushed itself. I loved that about it. I saw it even recently when I played streets of rage on it.
Brazilian here. Need to say more?
SMS is on our blood. Pure love. This freaking console is still sold in here, with 100 games on memory.
Great episode! Still kills me that I had a Master System and no one I knew appreciated how great it was. Thanks for the great content as usual!
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
Not enough games with a good mix of replay value, depth, and proper difficulty curve. NES had more through shear volume of library.
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.
I thought that 2 but Mrs had alot of conversion plus Mario was mascot. Sega had alot but they never quite translated to 8bit.
Still have a Black Belt cartridge for the Master System. Fond memories playing it years ago.
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
My go to.
@@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.
awesome game!!!!enough said!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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.
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!
That Road Rash port does look amazing. I was very surprised by the GG version and how well done it is.
The Master System had some impressive looking games!
I think the first Sonic on the Master System is it's most beautiful game. Speedy Gonzales, Daffy and all the games with Donald Duck and Asterix were some really nice looking games too.
Sonic must be among the best looking 8 bit games ever released. The graphics on Asterix are also amazing, really captures the feel of its source material. 👍
Nice list. I actually didn't know a few of those. The only game I d add personally is kenseiden. Even though the backgrounds are simple they do look nice and sprites are large and detailed.
A lot of these look like Amiga games to me. They're THAT good.
On the subject of the Amiga, there's a Master System port of "Wolfchild" that looks fantastic! The lack of music is a big shame, unfortunately.
Fire and Ice is on the master system as well.
From what I understand, the Amiga and Genesis ran on very similar hardware
Actually Amiga games looked a lot better at least the ones I used to play.
@@ciredark Pretty much. Very minor differences. Just that amiga was expandable while genesis wasn't. (Well not expandable like a computer anyway.)
WOW! Chuck Rock 2 looks incredible on the Master System. Good lord, it looks better than some Turbo Grafix and Genesis games. O.O
I'm thinking the same thing you are. O.O
Even manages to play great
So... a part 2 is needed... please and thank you.😀
Master of Darkness and Road Rash are the most impressive Master System titles in my opinion. Heck, Road Rash was a miracle, kudos for the devs
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.
Velosiped I’d have to agree with you on that. Being in Canada I didn’t hear about this game to much later. But once I played it. Was blown away.
Never heard of it. Thanks for the suggestion!
Brilliant game that I lost hours to as a kid. Scared the hell out of me too! Wax figures coming alive.
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 :-)
I just downloaded it, and I agree: in a lot of ways Master of Darkness is better than Castlevania 1.
I always thought Jurassic Park looked really good. Great variety as well.
OMG it's Stevie Richards
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!
RGT hardware pushers man!
Yes, memories man... Memories....
I grew up with the SMS, rediscovered it last year during the holidays when I picked up a console and a handful of games. Coolest part is now, 30 + years later, much like you, I am discovering and enjoying games I never played before, and am amazed how awesome some of them look.
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.
I didn't know about them either, or that they looked so damn good on 8-bit hardware
Great video! Looking forward to part 2. I’ve been meaning to check out some Master System games now that I have a Mega SD for my Megadrive.
Sega Lord is prolly my favorite retro video game channel in UA-cam. Good content, not annoying voice & he gets right into the content instead of being a zealot showing himself more than the game like most UA-camrs
I audibly gasped and how good Aladdin looks. I just got done playing the Genesis and SNES ones... I might have to go back and give it a go.
The Master System was an underrated 8bit BEAST!!
Golden Axe Warrior looks fantastic too.
Your videos are pretty much the type i just watch regardless of what the focus of it is, always cool seeing you cover more obscure topics
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.
Thank you for doing the Master System. It is my all time favorite!
*Fantastic video sir and I have ALL these games except the very expensive Phantasy Star* ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Your content is great man. I love watching your channel.
I can almost see the Master System melting over Road Rash and Chock Rock II games. Good video, man!
asterix games, sonic games, streets of rage, several platform games...you have material for a top 50 easily. great work!!
That Tazmaina game is impressive looking. So glad Wonderboy 3 and Phantasy star made the list.
The colors are stunning!! They probably popped less on old CRTs but on LCDs and OLEDs , WOW.
Glad Road Rash popped up, real hidden gem that never gets enough attention!
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.
So many good memories playing the SMS.... My first console. Alex Kidd in Miracle world, Shinobi, Wonderboy in Wonder land, Secret command, Mortal Kombat (yes, with the flickering). I used to play all day with my little brother. Good times...Thanks Sega!
Great video! Asterix, Sonic, Spellcaster, Psycho Fox, and Power Strikes 2 had quite impressive graphics too!
Master system is a very underrated console for sure! I discovered it much later, but really enjoyed my time with it!!
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.
@@omegasupreme5527 great point! I would have to agree. 👍
12:50 as a resident of New Zealand, i can tell you the game got the entire vibe and history of New Zealand right too.
Kiwis always being kidnapped by seals, jumping on everyone's heads, collecting fruit, throwing bombs everywhere.
A very historically accurate game.
Yes Sega Lord X. Catch me next time with Part 2 😄
Phantasy Star was mind blowing back in the day. I wish they would’ve kept the rest of the series more like the original. Great video 👍
I know. The later ones were damn good, but would have been soooo much better with 1st person 3D dungeons
Great video! Nice job showing off what the SMS is capable of! It's one of my favorite systems to collect for!
Thanks SLX! Thanks as always for being even handed but also telling it like you see it. Your release schedule has been epic recently as well, so good job in that regard too. Get well soon.
I would consider myself a semi-hardcore retrogamer and have seen many UA-cam videos on the topic. I must say after watching this video it is one of the best on UA-cam. Thanks!!
Asterix was another graphically impressive title. :)
I played home video game since their inception (the Magnavox Odyssey) and the first time I encountered truly colorful graphics was in Smurfs on the Colecovision. The next encounters were all on the Sega Master System. In my opinion these graphics were not surpassed until the Amiga (or Playstation if you're only counting consoles), because the NES was too dependent on its drab green-and-tan palette, the Genesis had better graphics but seemed to default to the background color always being black, and the SNES was a delight but its palette seemed to be too pastel.
And I absolutely LOVE the hardware pause button, that stopped and resumed the action anywhere in the game.
I was completely blown away by a game called James Pond 2, as it features real 2-dimensional parallax scrolling, as well as some amazing shading work. It was so bad I had to double-check my Mega Drive was off, cause it actually puts that machine to shame!
Gameplay is somewhat simplistic but fun but those graphics, they are just out of this world!
My cousin was the one who had one, but I remember enjoying most of the games he had on it like Shinobi, Safari Hunt, Fantasy Zone, but most of all Thunder Blade. Really loved that game back than.
I still have my MS with Phantasy Star cart. Amazing system...
Totally jealous. Wish I could buy a master system but afraid to buy one on eBay. I want one that'll last. Maybe someday they'll release a mini.
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!
Great video , thanks for the upload. I have an original SMS with the controllers and laser. I have a few games but of course so many years have past I forgot which ones I should aim to get. RIght now I have Fantasy Zone 1, Zillion, Zillion 2, Mic and Mac (McDonalds game), Quartet. These other games you list are terrific reminders.
Batman NES = best game sound track ever
Thanks for putting me on to some pf these. My first console was a SMS and today i own an Everdrive, so I'll definitely be checking some of the out.👍
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!
"8 Bit power!" Ahh, take me back to them simple times
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
MS ninja games would be a great vid
@@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...
The Aladin and chuck games looks impressive. As soon I have time I will try the out. Please consider making part 2.
Great video's I watched tons now. I could sit there all day watching ya..... bless the master systems little heart
I was so glad to get my hands on a master system in 88 when I won it at an arcade in the mall. Sega had so many great games on this system. Glad I was able to experience them when they were first released.
Master Of Darkness & Street Fighter II are also pretty good looking Master System Games
I never knew Son of Chuck got a MS port! I've seen screenshots of it, but I always thought it was an Amiga version!
The ol' Master System never fails to impress
Awesome amount and quality of content good sir.
I feel bad to suggest a video, but I've been looking for a N64 vs. Sega Saturn type of well made video. May be right up your alley.
Can't wait to see all your new content and I'm glad I'm a subscriber. Keep up the great work sir.
The Jungle Book, both Asterix Games. They looked amazing too. Great list, look forward to part 2!
Edit: Also Cosmic Space Head (I think it was called Linux Space Head on others systems). It came in a weirdly shaped cartridge too, and had brilliant colours and visuals.
Now it's time for a Master system Mini Classic with the games listed :-). Great games they look a lot better than the nes pumped out.
I'd love to see that too. I hope they add Miracle Warriors and Y's to it, along with all these
Road Rash gave me chills! I loved my master system and game gear and sadly, I missed out on this!
Part 2 plz. I have over 60 complete sms games in my collection. Awesome system. This console always needs more coverage.
Imagine if Konami would have been allowed to port Castlevania 3 to this thing...
I had the MS and never had the cjance to play those games! I need to now, thanks for this great video and selection! I also recommend heavily Astérix, Sonic and R-Type on the master system which were amazing for the console!
I really need to get more Master System games, I don't have many but I love the console.
I was thinking of getting one myself... what about online for games?
Get the fm sound chip. You will enjoy any games you have that are compatible with it in a different way
@@ribenasquash 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.
@@ribenasquash 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
@@ribenasquash gave it a listen on a playthrough. Deep game. None fm sound chip was used well. Not so tinny
I was blown away recently when I played streets of rage on sms recently. What an effort.
Hi Brother :) My favorite games on Master System / Game Gear : Mickey Land of Illusion (like you) and... I hope you know these : Daffy Duck in Hollywood, The Smurfs (1), Sonic (1) and Tom & Jerry The Movie ! And also : Donald Deep Duck Trouble, Asterix Secret Mission + Great Rescue ! Very good and beautiful 8-bits games !! All my childhood :p Have a good continuation & be blessed !
Ive watched a few of your videos before but hadn't subbed. This episode did the trick and I'm looking forward to more SMS videos. Good Job man.
Very impressive. I never owned an 8 bit system. I went from Atari 2600 to the Sega Genesis. I only ever encountered the Master System "in the wild" a couple of times as a kid. On one of those occasions Wonder Boy III was the game being played and I remember falling in love with it instantly. I never had any complaints about my Genesis though. I was enjoying 16 bit graphics for years while all my friends were still rocking their NES waiting for the SNES.
Good selection of games! The only SMS games I'd like to see added to this already impressive list when talking about beautiful 8-bit graphics are: Zillion II -The Triformation, Alex Kidd and the Lost Stars, and Space Harrier.
The Master System had an astonishing knack for getting versions of 16-bit games that shouldn't have been possible. You highlight 3 great ones in Taz, Aladdin and Chuck Rock 2 but there's Jungle Book, Lion King, Cool Spot, Global Gladiators, Sonic Spinball and Desert Strike just for starters.
When I finally got a SMS a few years ago, it was mostly to justify also getting a complete copy of Phantasy Star.
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 really want the channel to blossom into something bigger and better. Working hard to make it happen.
SMS was my second console, after 5 years with a 2600 Atari. Shinobi world as a favorite of mine because of how it parodied the original game and Alex's Miracle world (present in the console memory) was always a blast to play through.
I never knew they did an Alex Kidd game based on Shinobi. Nice!
It’s short but quite good.
@@SegaLordX I had forgotten about that one until this vid. I do remember liking Miracle World much better than any of the NES Mario games though
It's the best Alex Kidd by miles and miles. I love Shinobi and this is literally cute Shinobi. It's awesome.
Great video. I love the bright colors of the master system. Having not grown up with it though, the music sounds like a broken carnival to me.
Duuuuuude, you're killin it... Great vid! ✊❤
Thanks man. Appreciate the support.