Sega Genesis Hidden Gems | Sunset Riders, Elemental Masters & More
Don't think I can. Here, let me put it in the camera.
Thrak:I mean, it's yeah. I can't see that. You're too white. Sorry.
Aaron:Let's try not to Said no one in America?
Gerry:I'm sorry, guys.
Thrak:But, yeah, like
Aaron:We're gonna let the algorithm catch us before.
Gerry:Because if it's, like, too sharp, try to
Thrak:get a file and file it down a little bit.
Aaron:No. It's it's in this weird spot where it's too close to my fucking nail bed to, like, pull it off or cut it off. Yeah. But it's also, like, it's not sharp. It's just, like, it's in there.
Aaron:But yeah.
Thrak:You just gotta struggle with it.
Aaron:Yep. That's my life from now on.
Gerry:Yeah. Cool. How about them Genesis games? Well,
Aaron:damn. Alright. I guess this is topic time. Hello. It's sorry.
Aaron:I'm having a fucking aneurysm today. My my brain is bleeding internally. Hello, Gerry.
Gerry:Hello. Hi.
Aaron:Yeah. How's your brain?
Gerry:My brain's good, dude. Brain's doing pretty good. Pretty good. We've had a little bit of a little bit of a summer break from doing some content and stuff. I feel I feel refreshed.
Aaron:Refreshed.
Gerry:Feel like I just had a had a horse bath in a waterfall.
Aaron:The horse bath in Baja Blast? A
Thrak:Baja bath, if you will.
Aaron:Oh, Baja bath. Well, that's
Gerry:Baja bath.
Aaron:Baja bath. That's that voice you heard a second ago.
Gerry:Baja bath.
Aaron:Baja fresh bath.
Gerry:No, No. Keep her out of this. Okay? Oh, that's probably wrong. We could get Baja
Thrak:and Beth on
Gerry:the line.
Thrak:Yes. Hi. It's it's it's yes. It's me. Hi.
Thrak:I'm Thrak. I I've I've returned. I'm a ghost that's come back from the dead, if you will. But, you know, I don't get I don't get summer
Gerry:and he just won't stay dead.
Thrak:No. I just won't die. No. No. I I try to have summer breaks, but no.
Thrak:The the content machine must keep rolling. I must keep serving my master in Connecticut who wears McLaren hats and shit.
Aaron:But, I mean, doesn't Bill do all the work though? He was kinda like
Gerry:Oh, yeah. For three d all the work. I don't
Aaron:do shit.
Gerry:Jesus Christ.
Thrak:There there are episodes where you can tell I'm carrying it because Bill's like, I got nothing. But that's okay.
Aaron:The hardcore guy.
Thrak:Yes. Hi. Hello. Hi. I'm so happy to be back.
Thrak:How are you how are you both doing? It's been a it's been a hot minute.
Aaron:It has.
Thrak:You know? I I I thought I thought Gerry had, you know, put a a a a a block on all American content creators because of, you know, the because of the issues with Canadian American relations, which, you know, I can understand. But I I I guess we've we've reached an agreement. Don't know. Don't know.
Gerry:May Is maybe that what it was?
Thrak:I think that's what happened. I don't know. You put some in my drink, so I don't remember.
Aaron:Don't drink it, Thrak. No. Oh.
Gerry:You go
Thrak:that came
Gerry:straight from the Reflecting Pond.
Aaron:Oh, shit. Yeah.
Thrak:My favorite Dark Souls area.
Gerry:Reflecting Pond? And it's just RFK junior just being, like, just constantly
Thrak:I saw that win. It's blue. You just have to bully me in here.
Gerry:He's like nemesis. Just like constantly pursuing you with no shirt on, but tight
Aaron:jeans. Just
Gerry:wearing nothing
Aaron:with his nipples. Nothing else.
Gerry:Not his nipples, his pecs
Aaron:where he moves them.
Gerry:Yeah. He's doing it.
Thrak:This man works out in jeans and nothing else. It is fucking horrific.
Gerry:I have friends with Chris Rock. Got the Rock. Not Chris
Aaron:Rock from
Gerry:fucking Rock.
Aaron:Fallout three.
Thrak:Friends with Chris Rock. I have a brain worm.
Gerry:Yeah. He's not friends with Chris Rock. No. He might think he is, but he's not.
Thrak:No. He's not.
Aaron:Imagine if you were friends with all three rocks. Chris Rock, Kid Rock, and The Rock. Do you have, like, the the the triforce of rock people? That'd be really
Thrak:That is an insane blunt rotation.
Aaron:Damn. I'm not gonna lie about you passing it to, like, Kid Rock, and he blurts off some MAGA shit mid puff or something, and it's like, give me that back.
Gerry:Kid Rock would definitely think that he's with two black people. It would just automatically think that the Rock is black.
Thrak:I mean, the rock is.
Gerry:I feel like
Aaron:kid rock
Thrak:his father is black. Really?
Gerry:Oh, I thought he was, like, Samoan.
Thrak:He's half black, half Samoan. His father was black, and his mother is Samoan.
Gerry:Yeah. Kid Rock's not gonna know. No. No. He's not.
Thrak:And to to be fair, The Rock doesn't really like to tell people he's black. He he emphasizes the Samoan part more.
Aaron:Let's get to those Sega Genesis hidden gems. I don't know who wants to start. I can start you guys want.
Thrak:But To to be fair, these are like fairly decent sized cartridges. So, you know, taking in yeah. You can't really eat these things.
Aaron:True.
Thrak:True. They're not like, you know, Vita carts or something like that.
Aaron:Throw in the blender first. Put some yogurt in there, make a little smoothie.
Thrak:Yeah. Some blue raspberry, Kasegah.
Aaron:Oh, yeah. That'd be good.
Gerry:Thrak, seeing that you're the the guest, I want you to go first.
Thrak:Okay. I think this is a good one to start with. So there was one company that became kind of notorious on the Genesis for it was kind of like the birth of them, but they kinda had some fights with Sega. That was Electronic Arts. Oh.
Thrak:Because if you've ever been if you've ever collected for the Sega Genesis, you would realize that their carts are very different from Sega's carts because they had, you know, went back and forth with Sega wanting a better publishing deal. And Sega's like, no, you're doing it the same as everybody else. What are you gonna do? Reverse engineer our console to make your own games? That's exactly what they did.
Thrak:So then Sega caved and gave them the better deal, which worked out because that was like, you know, the birth of Madden series, the NHL games, all those. Right? That was really where they grew in popularity here, but they did a bunch of other random stuff. And one game of theirs I've always really, really liked, and I'm glad I heard of a physical of it, is this little game right here called General Chaos.
Gerry:Oh, I've heard of that.
Thrak:Yeah. So if you've never seen the carts, by the way, they look like this. You know, they're much taller with the weird yellow thing on the side. If you try to open these things, this yellow tab telling you, like, push it down here, we swear, is a pain in the ass to to take off.
Gerry:Oh, I thought you were gonna say, like, it blows up like an ATM when you try to rob it or something. Like, it
Aaron:just, like,
Gerry:inks you. Dude, I
Thrak:imagine dying because of Madden 95. Anyways, so General Chaos
Gerry:is like a
Thrak:Yeah. So so general chaos is like a weird, like, action strategy type thing where you have like five or six different classes you can pick. But it's like groups of like three or two and you're on like a little battlefield and you can like switch between them and everybody has their own, you know, like you can throw grenades, you can shoot guns, you know. And and and yeah, it's like you have strategy to where you can sort of guide everybody to where they need to go, but you can also take direct control of people. And and the funniest part is sometimes two characters will get into a little struggle, and they'll just sit and everything will stop.
Thrak:And then they'll just be next to each other just going just punching each other until one of them falls down, and then the one who falls down pulls out a gun and just shoots the other guy anyway.
Gerry:Completely waste of time.
Thrak:It it it has a bit of a learning curve to it, but I think once you get into it, it it is a really fun, entertaining, and unique experience on the on the the Genesis from old EA there. Back when they used to make real interesting games. Because there's another game, I don't have it, but I'll recommend it real quick. It's called The Haunting starring Poltergeye.
Gerry:Yeah. That's cool.
Thrak:Yeah. You play as a ghost and you just like haunt this family in the house, and your whole goal is just to get them out of the house. Yeah. That's You know, really fucking cool unique game. Yeah.
Thrak:Yeah. So and that was re released on EA did like a random compilation of old Genesis games on the PSP in like 06/00/2007, and that was in there. That's where I first discovered it.
Gerry:Yeah. Cool. That's That's definitely an odd one. Mhmm.
Aaron:That
Gerry:general chaos and that poltergeist thing. What what is it called?
Aaron:Poultry guy.
Thrak:The haunt The Haunting starring Polter Guy.
Aaron:Polter Guy.
Gerry:That's what they called it. Yeah. Yeah. It was really cooking. Oh, yeah.
Gerry:With those I
Thrak:think it's when Trip Hawkins was still there.
Gerry:God. I will go. I will go next. I will shower you
Aaron:You have permission.
Gerry:Gems, hidden only hidden gems. So I really really like the the company Data East. They've made Oh, yeah. Pretty good games. I won't say like amazing games, but they've been good.
Gerry:I mean Rygar is pretty amazing. Yeah, and like on Super Nintendo, which was the console that I was most familiar with, they had like some pretty big bangers. Like they had Joe and Mac, they had Congo's capers, like they were doing things. Oh, you caveman games. Always had style.
Gerry:Me and my caveman I know, I know. That's where it started was with Joel Mac, dude. I But swear to the game that is on the Genesis that I think is worth checking out is High Seas Havoc. Yes. Because it's not amazing, but it's really not that bad.
Gerry:And it's just a really nice looking, colorful, plays fine platformer.
Thrak:It's a little slippery.
Gerry:Yeah. Like when you run, you kinda You do like the You just tap forward and you almost like, you move forward, then you kinda like move a little more. More than I want. I wish that didn't have that. But like, I threw that on today just to like refresh my memory and I was shocked by how good that game holds up.
Gerry:Like it's it's a really fun platformer because it's literally like you just jump on dudes. That's it. You just jump on their heads.
Thrak:Has a little pirate theme to it as well.
Aaron:Yep. Oh. Just like our boy Pamukkle. Remember him? Remember him, Gerry?
Gerry:Boy, do I. So yeah, I would say my first pick is for sure High Seas Havoc. Not the best of the bunch that I have, but it's definitely worth a look.
Thrak:A very seven out of 10 for its era.
Gerry:Oh, a 100%. Yep. 100%.
Aaron:Alright. A 100%.
Gerry:What else do we have?
Thrak:Aaron, what fucking bullshit you got?
Aaron:Dude, alright. You guys are never gonna believe this, but my list is, like, 90% shooters. They're Oh, I'm just guess.
Thrak:Shocker. Yep. That's why I didn't count any of them when I was looking.
Aaron:The Genesis I like to think of the Genesis was for shmups as the SNES was for for RPGs because
Gerry:Yeah.
Aaron:There's just There was a I forget exactly what it was, but the Genesis just the Genesis just did all sorts of things with shmups that that that the SNES couldn't
Thrak:I think the TurboGrafx 16 had more, but because that was such a lesser known console, that's why the Genesis is like right below it, you know? But I don't think did the Genesis get r type? I don't think it did.
Aaron:I don't think so. It got a lot things that we're really close
Thrak:to. Don't think so, because I know r type was on Super Nintendo.
Aaron:Yeah. The closest thing we got to r type on Genesis, I think, was Biohazard Battle, which is Okay. Not one of my picks, but No. So the first one I'm gonna go with, I'm gonna try my best to save the my my favorite one for last. I'm gonna go with Gaiaris.
Thrak:Okay.
Aaron:It's I guess it's kinda like like like later Darius games where you have this little capture ball, little device on you, and you start off with with just nothing. Your little pea shooter, the occasional missile that fires off underneath you, but you can use your little capsule thing to to grab enemies. And the more you grab that same enemy, the more it'll power up your your weapons. So, like, when you first start off, you'll grab the first enemy you find that'll give you, like, a a double shot, and then you grab another one of that enemy, it'll level it up again to a triple shot, and then so on and so forth until you get to level four. But you can also do the same with fucking any other enemy.
Aaron:Like, every other enemy will give a different type of of power up, whether it be, like, a three way spread shot or, like, a, like, one big, I guess, like, not a like a pellet shot, I guess. Just, like, one big pellet shot. Another cool thing you can do is you can just throw the little capture ball, like, behind enemies and position yourself right in front of them, and the capture ball will, like, boomerang its way back and blast the enemies apart when it comes right back to you. And, yeah, it's a really fun game. It you die in one hit, though, so that can be super fucking frustrating for for a lot of newbies, but it's it's cool.
Aaron:The the bosses are really fucking cool too. Like, the first one is this tall, like, insectoid person, then it shoots just like a spread shot at you, like, the whole time. And once you get the pattern down, it's easy peasy, fun little boss battle. And just like any other shmup, it gets tough as fuck later on. I have never beaten this one, but it's cool as fuck.
Aaron:I love a shmup that gives you that capture ball. Like, Darius Gaiden does that in a cool way. The Saturn version does that in a cool way where you throw the capture ball at an enemy and you literally take the enemy and use them as a weapon. Like, you'll take a robotic fucking squid, then it'll have some cool, like, shotgun ability attack or you grab a little, like, robotic fucking, I don't know, angelfish or whatever the fuck they're called, and then they'll have some other quart of
Gerry:It's just like Mega Man.
Aaron:Sort of cool weapon.
Gerry:It's just like Mega Man. True. Because you can also do it
Aaron:with bosses, and you'll have this gigantic fucking boss that you're
Gerry:Everything is Mega man.
Thrak:The Wily Wars, what a hidden gem.
Gerry:That's a good one. That's a good one.
Thrak:It's not a hidden
Aaron:gem No. Anymore
Gerry:No. Those ports are cool though, how they ported like the other Have you have you seen those? Because like Wily Wars is one, two, three Yeah. And they ended up making four, five, six using that engine.
Thrak:I have not seen that, no. Yeah. Six sounds like it'd be really interesting because it has all the rush suit stuff.
Gerry:Yeah.
Aaron:You know what, Gerry? There's there's an arcade a Mega Man arcade game called Mega Man. I think it's the Power Battle. The more
Gerry:Power yeah. Power or some shit. Yeah. There's two of those.
Aaron:That shit's we went to an arcade for Father's Day, I think, like, last Friday or something. And they had the app over there and that was really fun. Yeah. My my
Gerry:It's fun.
Aaron:Yeah. Come on, Thrak. I agree.
Thrak:No. But we're speaking of arcade games. So we're gonna talk about a game that was an arcade port. People don't really talk about this game anymore, but I've always really liked it. I think because it's like a weird game that exists in, like, the weird history of this, like, IP or whatever.
Thrak:But I've always really liked it, and I think it still holds up. And that is WrestleMania, the arcade game.
Gerry:Oh, shit.
Thrak:WWF. Russ look. Look. You got Bret Hart and Razor Ramon standing in front of this arcade machine being like, look at us. Right?
Thrak:Like, they won't they're trying to kick us out, but we we won't leave. So yeah. So for those who don't know, yeah, WrestleMania the arcade game, it was released in the, like, '93, ninety four ish and, you know, got ports to all the consoles at the time. You know, Genesis, SNES, I think there's a 32 x version, there's a PlayStation version, all that good stuff. And it was made by Midway.
Thrak:And it was even made by some guys from, like, the Mortal Kombat team. So, like, Sal Devita and some of them worked on it. And so, basically, it's a Mortal Kombat game, but it has bits of wrestling in there. So, like, think Saturday Night Slam Masters. It's like it's like a it's comparable to that, but I think there's more of an emphasis on, like, the wrestling and also some of the more outlandish stuff because your characters for this, you get you get Doink the Clown, Razor Ramon.
Thrak:I know. I know.
Aaron:I Fucking wrestling. Clown or whatever. Well Doo Doo the clown.
Thrak:He he was an interesting gimmick, but they kinda killed it. Anyways, yeah. Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, Yokozuna.
Gerry:Pushing the envelope in WrestleMania.
Thrak:Yeah. Yokozuna, Bam Bam Bigelow, and Lex Luger. So but everybody has their you know, they play like a Mortal Kombat. You have your high punch, high kick, all that stuff, but everybody has special moves. My favorite is, like, Undertaker.
Thrak:Like, he can pull, like, tombstones out
Gerry:of thin air and smack you in the head with
Thrak:them like a steel chair.
Aaron:Fuck. Yeah. They have fatalities.
Thrak:It's cool. They do not have fatalities, unfortunately. But, like, Undertaker can shoot ghosts at people, and then they just, like,
Gerry:fall asleep. I'm not kidding. That's Undertaker's Hutto ghosts.
Thrak:Yeah. Kind of. Yeah.
Aaron:But it But his fatality is he, like, throws you into a grave and then goes and bangs your girlfriend or something?
Thrak:Sounds about right.
Gerry:The Cloud just, like, lights a cigarette up.
Thrak:Starts he does, like, the buzzer thing where he, like, buzzes your hand and hits you with hammers and shit. Of It's it's incredibly over the top and silly. Like, it's mainly a fighting game, but there are, like, grapple moves. Like, can, like, engage a guy in a headlock and then do, like, you know, pile drivers and shit. You can jump off the top rope.
Thrak:There's even commentary from I think the commentary team at that time was Vince McMahon and Gerry Lawler. So occasionally, they'll say shit, such a total debacle or, you know, crazy shit. And it is so fucking silly and stupid, but playing it is still like like really really fun. Like, if you like Mortal Kombat and you sort of like that style of fighting game, I highly recommend this game. Like the
Gerry:idea of seeing Yokozuna chew blasts out of his ass or something, dude, like
Thrak:Well, he does he like, the his OP move is he'll just jump in the air and just like slam people to the ground with his big ass. And and if you and if you know how to do it, you can spam it and just win. You'll win the game doing that. It's amazing. They did a follow-up to this a couple years later called WWF In Your House.
Thrak:Nowhere near as good. Your House. It was a series of pay per views they were doing at the time called In Your House. They were like the smaller ones that were against, you know, like because you had Mania and Royal Rumble were the big ones, and then they'd have the smaller ones, and they were called In Your House. They had a whole stage set that was like a house.
Thrak:In fact, one of them, they actually held a contest to give away a house to somebody.
Gerry:No, I thought you were gonna say, go to someone's house and actually have WrestleMania some sick They should've done that. They really kid should've done is just like
Thrak:I mean, were dudes
Gerry:jumping off the top of his bed rails and shit.
Thrak:I mean, that's just backyard wrestling. Go play backyard wrestling.
Gerry:Come here, Jimmy. I'm gonna pile drive the cancer out of you.
Aaron:Beat the shit out of it with his IV stand.
Thrak:That reminds me of, like I think was a commercial that, like, Sting did for WCW where he's like he's like, hey, Timmy. Are you the the contest winner?
Gerry:And then they have a wrestling match
Thrak:in his house, and he's, like, beating the shit out
Gerry:of this kid. It's like it's implied. He's like a Make A Wish kid. Oh my god.
Aaron:And it
Thrak:was selling like Sprite or something. Something stupid.
Gerry:Yeah. Fucking baja blast this kid right through his window.
Aaron:Fucking slayable two liter Sprite throw up at his face.
Gerry:Yeah.
Aaron:Fucking Make a Wish, kid.
Thrak:Fucking wrestling, dude.
Gerry:Fucking shoving sling in his throat.
Aaron:Oh, yeah. I miss old wrestling. Fuck. Those
Gerry:are good days, man.
Thrak:Such good shit. Yeah. And this game, I I recommend it. And I believe on YouTube, people have uploaded they made like a VHS tape of this of like tips and tricks or whatever. And they got some of the wrestlers to be like, you know, hey, this is my move or whatever.
Thrak:It it it's a lot of fun. I'd recommend watching it. So, yeah. WrestleMania the arcade game. It's go the Super Nintendo version of this game is actually like the worst version.
Thrak:It's it's one of those rare instances because they take out two of the characters and it has really bad slowdown.
Gerry:I'm glad that brought up
Thrak:I do recommend the Genesis version specifically. Like Mortal Kombat
Gerry:Is much better on Super Nintendo. But.
Thrak:Nah, nah, Genesis
Gerry:is I'm a glad that you brought up the better on different consoles because that was one of my next picks. I was reminded by a friend, I think like last year or the year before about this game and how crazy it was for its time because it was doing some really insane three d rendering in the game that was like kind of unheard of for the Genesis. And it had a Super Nintendo version, but it wasn't nearly as good. And that's Mickey Mania. Game is so good on Genesis.
Thrak:An early Traveler's Tales game.
Gerry:Yes. Yes, it was. Mhmm. Right you, Arthrak.
Thrak:Well, it's it's fresh in my brain because I just played through Epic Mickey Rebrushed there are two d and there are two d sections in that game, and I was playing, I'm like, this is just Mickey Mania.
Gerry:Oh, really?
Thrak:Because it's because it's doing the thing Mickey Mania does where it's two d sections of like famous Mickey cartoons and stuff, you know? Yeah. Yeah. That game was fine. It was totally fine.
Thrak:Average as hell.
Gerry:The the Mickey Mania on Genesis though is it is wild. Like, I I remember there's a there's a part where you're like running toward the camera and like jumping over like logs, and there's like this I think it was Was it a bull or something like charging you from behind?
Thrak:Yeah, think it's a bull chasing you, yeah.
Gerry:Yeah, but like it's totally like Crash Bandicoot.
Thrak:Yeah. Before Crash Bandicoot,
Gerry:yeah. Oh. Yeah, it's crazy. And then like, as you're going up the side of like one of the towers, the way that the three d is moving, and like the way that like The first part of the game there's like this crane that moves, and it like, it looks almost like too good for the Genesis. Like, you see this thing move and you're like, Is this what like, how did they do that?
Gerry:Like, is that an actual three d model? Like, what the hell is this? But yeah, like, the game not only does it look fantastic, it actually plays well too. Like a lot of those Mickey games, real good. Real good.
Thrak:Oh yeah. A lot of I mean
Gerry:the Capcom ones are super good, but this one most like you said
Thrak:travel sales. Illusions, world of illusions, you know.
Gerry:Yeah. I think Mickey Mouse is the better one though.
Thrak:Yeah. In a way, it feels a bit more refined, I think. Yeah. And and it feels like it it's not trying to do something original. It's basically just going through the the highlights of, like, Mickey's history.
Thrak:Like, you start in Steamboat Willie and then you just kinda go from there. And, yeah, the little gimmicky stuff they do is fantastic. And it feels like it was one of those games made for Genesis.
Gerry:Yeah.
Thrak:You know, like like, you think of, like, say, like, Earthworm Jim or some other games where you can tell, like, they they made this game for this machine and then ported it super
Gerry:into the But Aaron, can I go off topic?
Aaron:First permission, sir. Permission granted. So Should I be like a soldier, but again, internal bleeding.
Thrak:I mean, that sounds about right.
Gerry:So on on the Genesis, I remember going over it might have even been Greg's house because I rented Jurassic Park and the Jurassic Park that I got was scary as hell because it was there was first person sections like Doom and I was a child playing this and there's like raptors jumping at the screen. I was terrified. I was absolutely terrified. And then I'm like I go to Greg's house and he's playing Jurassic Park and I'm like, what game is this? And he's like, it's Jurassic Park.
Gerry:And I'm like, no. Jurassic Park that I got is like like looks like Zelda. And then you go into places and it's first person. And he was like, That's the might even think that he might have called me a liar because the game that I was was not the game that he was showing me. And he was like, no man, you could be the raptor in this one.
Gerry:I'm like, bullshit, you can be the raptor. And he's like, check this out. And starts playing as the raptor. And I was like, where like why is this game on your thing and not mine? Like I want this one.
Gerry:And I remember like going to the video store and looking on the back of all the copies of Jurassic Park at Blockbuster to look on the back and be like, nope. Not this one either. Nope. Not this one either.
Thrak:Look how many copies did they have? They have three. Damn.
Gerry:It was like when the movie and stuff came out.
Thrak:So it was a
Gerry:big deal. Right? So like yeah. I remember just like looking at the backs of them being like, well, I guess, like, Greg's got like some special version that I'm never gonna find. Didn't
Thrak:realize themselves.
Gerry:Stupid kid that it was lit on literally, the only console it was on was Genesis.
Thrak:Yeah. Yeah. Because those were made by Sega. I think I think Blue Sky, the guys who ended up making Vector Man made those. And and speaking of scary, I'm surprised he didn't show you the intro where they replicate that or they have it's like where the car is, like, on the rail and it stops.
Thrak:And then it yeah. It shows the T Rex and the screen's flashing. It's like, oh, shit. Yeah.
Gerry:That was a fucking mess. Have you
Thrak:played you're playing was made by Ocean, I think.
Gerry:Yeah. It was not great.
Thrak:I beat the NES version of that, which has a banging soundtrack, and the game is very whatever. But I do love
Gerry:that soundtrack. The NES.
Thrak:Yeah. On the NES version specifically is really NES? Yeah. It's I I promise you, it's fucking amazing. But, yeah, back I've played I've played that game.
Thrak:It's it's fine, but, you know, it doesn't have that Genesis
Aaron:It's not
Thrak:one of
Gerry:my picks. It's not one of my picks. No. I announced I announced before I brought it up that I was going off topic. It is not one of my picks, Thrak.
Thrak:Well, I can make an argument for the Rampage edition, which is what I had as a kid, which was like their follow-up to the original. But it's really cool. Yeah. I don't have my childhood copy anymore. Might have been one of those that was like a cardboard box or something.
Thrak:Something is dead.
Gerry:Alright. Let's get back on topic. Let's get back on topic.
Thrak:Yeah. What other fucking shmup you gonna talk about?
Aaron:Oh, god. I had so many written down Four?
Gerry:Yeah. That's No. It's not a hidden gem. Everybody knows about that one. I agree.
Gerry:Yeah. These better be hidden gems, Aaron, or else you're fired.
Thrak:Oh, my my hidden gem is a Sonic two?
Gerry:Yeah. What?
Aaron:Fuck. I almost put Toejam and Earl as a hidden gem, but no.
Thrak:Maybe Maybe Funkotron, the sequel, maybe.
Aaron:Yeah. Because people don't
Thrak:because people don't think about
Gerry:that too well known.
Aaron:Yeah.
Thrak:I mean, the I'll I'll never forget. Somebody told me Toejam and Earl is just ET. I'm like, goddamn it. You're right. I can't see unsee that.
Thrak:Because both games are you collecting spaceship parts to escape.
Aaron:I guess they're right.
Thrak:Sucks. So, Jim and her ET's fine. But, anyway Aaron. Aaron. What?
Thrak:What do you got?
Aaron:My so my my number two is gonna be Elemental Master.
Thrak:Oh. That was on my list.
Gerry:Mine too?
Aaron:It's it's so fucking cool. Instead of, you know, a spaceship or, you know, the Zuin Steel Empire where you can be, like, a biplane or a blimp or anything like that, this one, you you're still a wizard man. You're still wizard man walking on the ground, and you're doing your shmup ship. And, you know, you can you can do each stage out of order if you want to. You'll be able go to the volcano stage.
Aaron:There's, like, fiery demons, fucking lava pits. There's skeletons and bats and shit. You're firing your weapons at them. You can take, like, what, three hit? No.
Aaron:Yeah. Four hits before you die. What's what's really fucking cool about this game is, like, most shmups don't have a whole lot of, like I mean, they have they have a story, but not much of a, I guess, like, exposition to it. It'll just be like, hey. You're spaceship man.
Aaron:Go to space. Boom. Game start. But this game has I wouldn't say, like, anime like cut scenes, but everything is drawn in a very Japanese style, and it it's got quite a bit of fucking story to it. It'll be like your your Elemental Master Band, I forget what the fuck his name.
Aaron:His name is like Logan or something stupid, walks in. Charles. Masters. Charles Master. Yeah.
Aaron:So he Charles Master walks in, and this evil emperor guy I've I don't even think didn't even say why he walks into this fucking emperor's room. He just Game start, walks in emperor's room. He's like, hey. You're the evil emperor. The evil emperor is like, I know.
Aaron:I'm gonna capture the queen. And this other dude, You're fucked, boy. And then the game starts, then you're just the Elemental Master Man walking along the ground shooting dudes. And there are fucking entirely too many power ups for
Gerry:me to describe in this game.
Aaron:Like
Gerry:That's a good
Aaron:You get a
Gerry:f or shmup.
Aaron:Yeah. It's it's dope as shit.
Thrak:Does Courage just really play value?
Aaron:Yep. It does. And fucking for whatever reason, I think it's probably because it's an early Genesis game, I think. You can't fire both your your backward and forward fire at the same time. It's like you have to there's a a different button for each one, which I mean, I guess, kinda adds a little bit more more challenge to it.
Aaron:You'll have to alternate between forward fire and backfire to take care of shit that's behind you. And you can kinda get stuck on walls a little bit easily because, I mean, you're walking, you're on a spaceship. But, yeah, really, really fucking cool game. Kinda janky, but cool.
Thrak:Yeah. I mean, there were quite a few janky games on the Genesis, you know, but it's it's kinda par for the course. Right?
Gerry:Jank it up, Thrak. What do got?
Thrak:Now, I I'm not a 100% on this being a hidden gem or not. I I it might be hidden enough. We'll we'll see. But this is a a kind of a beloved arcade game from from our boys at Konami that did get ports to the Genesis in the Wait.
Aaron:Hold on. Wait. Hold on. How many picks are we doing? Are we doing are we doing three or five?
Gerry:I have one more.
Thrak:Then Okay. So we
Aaron:all do before we all do our last picks. Sure. How about we how about we take an ad break? How's that sound?
Thrak:Okay. You didn't seem too
Aaron:happy about that, Gerry.
Gerry:I'm dumb. One of those Oh. Nigh on a 100 years.
Thrak:We'll be right back. Bye. Saga.
Aaron:Alright. So we all know reproduction karts. Right? They they they look very different. You know, Tengen ones.
Gerry:Sorry. Reproduction karts? I can do you want me to Karts. Oh.
Aaron:Karts with a c. Mhmm. With a c. I hope
Thrak:this So not with a k?
Gerry:You don't want me to
Aaron:Oh. That's good. Okay.
Gerry:This is the name of the company. Okay.
Aaron:So introducing reproduction carts. It's a it's a repro cart for your system, but it's it's basically a claymore. You can use it as like a a self defense mechanism for your home. You know, the burglar walks in. You know, cat burglar, like, doing the finger snapping thing.
Aaron:He's gonna come in and steal your stuff. But guess what, bitch? It's a Sega Genesis boom.
Thrak:It was the weirdest finger snapping I've ever seen. Like, you're you put your whole body into it.
Aaron:Because that's what the
Gerry:I'm here to break into your house. And you're like, no the fuck burglars do they're like On
Aaron:the jets. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I'm thinking of the the Eric Andre bit with the cat burglar where he's stealing shit from that cafe and they're like, get out.
Aaron:Get the fuck out of here. And he's just like, wee wee wee. Celebi. But so yeah. That that that that's the bit.
Aaron:It's just But make make sure that you spell it right. Disguise the Sega Genesis card with a k.
Gerry:Make sure yeah. But and with the on the end. There's a z.
Aaron:There's a z on the Cards?
Thrak:Mhmm. Cards.
Aaron:Cards? Yeah. With it.
Thrak:Because it's the nineties. K
Aaron:and then the z.
Thrak:We gotta be edgy, bro.
Aaron:Yeah. It's true. Yeah. It'll have the that weird, like, green and, like, white and purple design to it they used to see on the cups and, like
Gerry:I'm convinced that that's a UFO. Changed my mind.
Thrak:The aliens come out snapping their finger.
Aaron:All aliens are cock lurkers now. Alright. It's bunch of Gerry, your?
Gerry:Gerry, what's your favorite use for reproduction cards? This is with a z. I I use them to make things
Aaron:Wonderful. I'm kidding. I'm I'm sorry. Go ahead.
Gerry:Can I go
Aaron:to ad break?
Gerry:Ad break for the ad break. Do
Aaron:you wanna do a different ad?
Gerry:No. Keep doing this one. I just wanted to be super awkward so that when you edit it, it's all chopped up and like
Thrak:Oh, this is just a bit.
Gerry:Yeah. It's a bit. No. No, Thrak. It's a real thing that we're promoting, I'm very scared.
Thrak:I'm actually I don't want a bomb. Speaking of bombs, tell me about this this this device that is literally the bomb.
Aaron:It is the bomb. That's the slogan too. It's the bomb because it's the nineties. The bomb.
Thrak:You dropped the bomb on it.
Gerry:You can
Aaron:you know, they come in all sorts of shapes. You can even get little hue cards that are little little explosives. You know, you go up to potential burglar, I guess, or someone that you think is a threat. Be like, hey, motherfucker. Here's air zonk.
Aaron:And they're like, oh, sweet. And then they walk away like three feet. Boom. They're dead.
Gerry:They're air zonks. We're supposed we're supposed to read the If you have if you have an erection that lasts more than twenty four hours, call your doctor.
Aaron:Just tell him just tell him how your day
Thrak:is going. That's what I'm oh, that explains it.
Aaron:Yo. What up, doc? My erection is thick with, like, five k's.
Gerry:Talk on rock hard. What's the problem?
Aaron:Whack a king.
Thrak:I'm dizzy, but I can't stop.
Aaron:Holy shit. So, yeah. Reproduction cards, you use code Topic Time four twenty for 420% off. Thank you so much, Reproduction cards with a z.
Gerry:Don't put them in your urethras. And we're back.
Aaron:Thrak, what's your next one?
Thrak:Okay. So, yeah, I'm not sure if this is completely a hidden gem. It might be, because it it comes from our friends at Konami. And it's a game that I think if you know, you know. But, like, the the version that they did this on Genesis is very different from the arcade version, and I've always preferred it.
Thrak:Again, a childhood game of mine, and that is a Sunset Riders. I don't know if you
Gerry:That's a good game.
Aaron:Yeah. You know what?
Gerry:I feel like that's more well known than you think it is, though.
Thrak:Yeah. Probably.
Aaron:I'll allow it. I'll allow
Gerry:But I don't care. I'm making new rules.
Thrak:I I wanna talk about Sunset Riders.
Gerry:I wanna talk about Sonic and Knuckles.
Thrak:Where is my card at that? Anyway, so yes. Yeah. So for those who don't know, Sunset Riders, it it's a shmup where you play as you can be a cowboy or you can be a Mexican cowboy, and and and you shoot shit. Okay.
Thrak:I mean, is. Uh-huh. He's got a pink sombrero. What else would that mean? Anyway.
Thrak:But, yeah, you you you walk around, you shoot things. There there's very few power ups. There's you
Aaron:can get buzz?
Thrak:You can get I wish. That sounds good right now. But your power ups are you can get, like, double guns or you can, like, do rapid fire. You you heal by going into saloons and assaulting women,
Gerry:but they're with crunches?
Thrak:A Crunchwrap Supreme, an authentic Crunchwrap Supreme with some with some Baja Blast, of course. You know? So and then they're a little
Aaron:The official drink of Mexico. I
Thrak:mean, that's why it's called the Baja. It's it was named for the drink. Oh. What else did it be named for?
Gerry:Jeez. Oh, Christ.
Thrak:I mean I mean, there is a problematic
Gerry:level in this game where you
Thrak:just shoot a bunch of Native Americans. You basically just murder a whole tribe. Yeah. That part's a little iffy. But but outside of that,
Gerry:the game is reason, I recommend it. It's a
Thrak:a 10 out of 10 game of the year. Move over whatever. I don't know whatever's coming out. Anyway
Aaron:Move over, Grand Theft Auto six.
Thrak:I mean, that'll probably have some iffy shit in it too.
Aaron:Yeah.
Thrak:I expect nothing less. But yeah. No. Sunset Riders is really fucking cool game. If if you don't consider it a hidden gem, you can yell at me and let me know.
Aaron:You know what, Thrak?
Thrak:Have a very good War Song, and I'm like, I'm sorry.
Gerry:That's a good game. That is a cool game. Is a very cool game. Though. You wanna know what's a cool game?
Gerry:A cool game? Hidden gem game?
Thrak:What's that?
Gerry:A good hidden gem game. Decap attack.
Aaron:That was on my fucking list too. God damn it. I recommended this for Thrak for his Genesis stream, and it was cool.
Thrak:Did I play that one? I don't even remember. It's been so long. Yeah, you did. Okay.
Thrak:That game's fine.
Gerry:It's cool. Yeah. It's it's got a really, really awesome art style that I'm super into. It's like super like nineties Saturday morning cartoon horror theme. And it's all about like
Aaron:Yeah.
Gerry:You like you're just like this what not like you're like a mummy or like a skeleton type of thing.
Aaron:You're just like a mummy.
Gerry:Throwing guts at people until you find your head and then you can throw your head and it's like Thor's hammer, it just kinda like comes back and like gets back on your head. You take your The level design is really fun and like well thought out. More than like a lot of like earlier I recommended High Seas Havoc and that's good, but like the level design's okay. The level design in Decav Attack is awesome. Like there's there's a lot of layers to what's going Like, you're not just moving from left to right and jumping on things.
Gerry:Like, there's a lot of like verticality to it and a lot of like going back the other way and like kinda I don't know. I I just thought that the level design was was exceptional for a game that is not really ever talked about. The other thing that I really like too is the fact that every goddamn game that came out in the nineties had to have like starring something, and this was no different. This was like starring
Aaron:Yep.
Gerry:Is like
Thrak:it Chuck D Head?
Gerry:Yeah. Yeah. That's what it is. Was gonna look it up.
Thrak:Don't know what is. What's wrong with Yeah.
Gerry:Yeah. I've never heard it. So yeah, so Chuck D Head, you're going around as him starring Chuck D Head and they they make goddamn well sure that you know that. As soon as you load the game up, it's like, Decap Attack starring Chuck D Head. Because everybody Everybody I have a mascot.
Gerry:Know those weird like poles that swing back
Thrak:and forth where you jump over platforms?
Gerry:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's got it's got some some cool shit. I highly highly recommend the folks check it out.
Thrak:Check it out.
Gerry:Yeah. Yeah. Do it.
Aaron:It's a good game.
Gerry:It's a good game.
Aaron:What do you got?
Gerry:Better not be the last one.
Aaron:It is a shmup. It's my favorite shmup on the system. Swear to God. It's Moosha. Metallic Uniframe.
Gerry:Moosha's cool.
Aaron:Was it Metallic Uniframe? I don't remember what it stands for.
Thrak:Shithead algorithm. Something. Metallic Metallic uniframe shit happening awesome.
Aaron:Yeah. Beautiful. Sweet. It's it's like Shit happening? So it's in this like cybernetic, like, samurai era Japan setting and and the I guess your your ship, it's not really a ship, it's like a mech suit.
Aaron:It's just like this cybernetic samurai suit. They wanna say it's Mexican. Cybernetic Mexicans? The Mexicans.
Thrak:We're out
Gerry:here in Japan.
Thrak:Mexicans in Genesis
Gerry:eight on
Aaron:Galleon. Yeah. It's at Taco Bell. Anyway, Musha. So, yeah, it's like like a cybernetic samurai era Japan.
Aaron:You're piloting this this cybernetic samurai fucking mech suit. I almost said space suit, but you're the the bosses are fucking gigantic. Like, the very first boss is this, like, ancient Japan fucking temple, but it's got these, like the the caterpillar treads you see on a tank, and it's just constantly going upward, and you're shooting at all the different little cannons that are hidden on it. The the fucking the way the power ups work in this game are really cool. Like, there's three different main power ups.
Aaron:There's the the water one, which is this ring that circles around you and protects you from incoming bullets, and it'll damage enemies that get that get close to you. Then there's the the laser or not the laser, lightning one that shoots like a just a a vertical beam of lightning. And then there's the fire one which shoots missiles. And the more of those ones that you pick up or the more the more of the power up that you pick up that you already have or fuck. The more of the same one that you pick up, the more powerful it'll become.
Aaron:Jesus Christ. Then there's
Gerry:also like a teleprompter, the bouncing ball.
Aaron:You really fucking do.
Thrak:You sound very ESL. More that you have. You sound very ESL right now, my boy.
Aaron:Yeah. I'm fucking it up so much. It's okay. Yeah. There's also your little, I guess, options or turrets, whatever you wanna call them.
Aaron:Different games have different names for them, but they're like little secondary guns or ships that'll fly next to you and shoot shit around you. You can pick up, like, up to four of those, and you can set them to either shoot forward, shoot behind you, shoot all around you. You can set them to free to where they'll target certain enemies and shoot them down for you. But it's a really fucking cool game with a great setting, great visuals, and the fucking soundtrack slaps ass. It's like this nineties fucking thrash speed metal type shit.
Aaron:It's really fucking cool, especially on the Genesis. It sounds really, really, really good. Like, they they knew what they were doing with that fucking sound chip, and they they cranked it as much as they could.
Thrak:The the Genesis does really good with that more kind of like that like heavy metal style stuff, because like the Road Rash soundtracks as well go for that kind of sound. The kind of like dirty grungy sound of the Genesis sound chip really works for it.
Gerry:So like, I'm not a huge fan of most of what the Genesis sounds like, but when it does go for that like dirty grungy like sound, it just
Thrak:it nails it. If you haven't heard it, I recommend Good Rash three soundtrack. Goes fucking hard.
Aaron:It's a real Thunder Force three and four, those motherfuckers, they they crank they crank fucking hog.
Thrak:Absolutely. That
Aaron:Genesis hog. That hedgehog.
Gerry:That hedgehog. There you go. Cranking my cranking
Aaron:my hedgehog.
Thrak:But Crank that echidna. Yep.
Aaron:My my favorite game on the fucking Genesis is for sure.
Thrak:And that was Japan only at the time, wasn't it?
Aaron:I forget. I'm not sure. It might have been, actually, because they brought it to
Thrak:because it's on
Aaron:the Genesis thing.
Thrak:It's it's on the yeah. NSO, Genesis, Nintendo classics, whatever the fuck. It's on that now. Classics. So yeah.
Thrak:Very easy to play now. Should I have talked about booger man this whole time? Absolutely not. I fucking love booger man. Love this game.
Thrak:I love this game. I
Gerry:am not surprised. It's so good. What?
Thrak:You don't like games? Are you far
Gerry:on people? On Thrak.
Thrak:Have a
Gerry:nice night.
Aaron:You know what? Fuck it. Well, let's do lightning round. Three games that aren't hidden gems that you recommend.
Thrak:Oh, fuck.
Aaron:Go Thrak.
Thrak:Sonic one, two, and three.
Aaron:Awesome. Gerry, it's your turn. Christ. Or get a little bit of a
Thrak:go for you.
Gerry:Go away.
Aaron:Togemony real. Shining Force two. Darius.
Thrak:Fantasy Star four.
Aaron:Here we go. Oh, yeah. Fantasy Star four. Take the fuck you, Darius.
Gerry:You're insane. Alien soldier. Yes. Castlevania bloodlines. Yes.
Gerry:And
Thrak:Hunter record.
Aaron:Quackshot.
Gerry:No. Me take my time.
Aaron:That's what started the game club.
Gerry:Let me take my time thinking of this lightning round. This is supposed to yeah.
Aaron:You're not supposed to think it's lightning round.
Thrak:Read off the script I gave you.
Gerry:I wanna think about it. I want some time to think about my my pick
Aaron:because Boop. Boop.
Gerry:I only I only got to pick two because that's the only ones that I had on top of my head. But if I really had to pick another one, I'd probably go with Gun Stars.
Thrak:Gun Stars Heroes.
Aaron:Yes. Gun Stars Heroes is good.
Gerry:Yep. Gun Stars Heroes. Yeah. So, Alien Soldier, Gun Stars Heroes,
Thrak:and McDonald's Treasure Land Adventures?
Gerry:That's fucking good too. You shut the That's dirt really good. Oh, Dynamite Hedy. Dynamite Hedy's good.
Thrak:We're gonna be
Gerry:here all night. Yep. This is already Alright.
Aaron:Well, folks.
Thrak:Crusader of Senti.
Aaron:Thrak, stop it. Okay. That that's all we have for tonight, folks. There are no more games to discuss. We've talked about all of them.
Gerry:We did. No. Not really. There'll be more. There'll there'll be more of these.
Aaron:Okay. Bye. Everybody say bye.
Gerry:Bye. Ciao, man.
