10 Amazing Sega 32X Exclusives

In this video I look at ten system exclusive games worth playing for the failed Sega 32X add-on.
Video Links:
10 Amazing Sega 32X Facts - • 10 Amazing Sega 32X Facts
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5 Rare Sega Consoles - • The Story of: 5 Rare &...
5 Obscure Sega Consoles - • The Story of 5 Obscure...
Mega Drive 1 & 2 Comparison - • Sega Mega Drive - Mode...
Sega Mega CD Games - • Over 100 Sega Mega CD ...
Sega Mega CD Exclusives - • 10 Amazing Sega Mega C...
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Sega Mega CD2 Review - • Sega Mega CD 2 - Revie...
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#retrogaming #sega #segagenesis

[@retrojoe85]

PlayStation-style graphics, Mega Drive FM synthesized music: the 32X was kind of weird but the crossover feels very fascinating if seen under the nowadays' retrogaming optics!

[@JohnnyWednesday]

In an ideal world the Mega Drive + CD + 32x would have been hardware identical to a Saturn. Needed more power and all of the processors would have made it as hard to code as a PS3 - but it would have been incredibly cool - had it all worked as planned. It's not like we all didn't yearn for a 32x in the beginning!

[@jamiemclaughlin6899]

One thing that comes across in this video which I hadn't really noticed before is how great 32X music sounded.

[@JamesChessman]

Ha yeah it’s a matter of which specific games. Knuckles Chaotix has an awesome soundtrack, so does Kolibri, not sure exactly what else lol. My favorite title is Virtua Racing which has minimal music.

[@mattuw82]

Really? I was going to say the opposite. This sounds crazy dated for 1994.

[@arostwocents]

Its crazy they didn't just get Epic to port the best PC exclusive fighter, One Must Fall 2097 to 32x.

[@sarahbird-lx2de]

Darxide was the only game to run entirely on 32X hardware. That was the interesting thing with 32X, the Genesis/MD was almost always doing some of the work as well. You could tell what the Genesis/MD was doing versus what the 32X was doing by just unplugging the patch cable between the two.

[@TheLairdsLair]

Interesting!

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

​​@@TheLairdsLair​ It's silly not to use the Megadrive for anything. The 32x has no hardware graphics capabilities. It's all done in software, which is why even a simple 2D background can be a huge performance hit if you're also making the 32x handle sprites at the same time.

[@terran0797]

I’m going to describe a world that couldn’t have existed. Had the 32x come out with the sega cd and games been made together we would have had the best of both worlds there. Better graphics for the cd and more diverse games for the 32x and I think a bigger and more successful library for both. The sega saturn could have also held off for a bit instead of being rushed out as the 32xCD would have been a great gen 4.5. Sega could have concentrated on one at a time and maybe we would have seen a longer life cycle. I think it was a missed opportunity as I’ve seen what modders can do with the 32x now and that would mean early ps1 games on the 32x cd. But as I said, that’s in a world where they would have wanted to make a console like that, come out with a reasonable price to make it sellable and be willing to create a market for it and keep going with it.

[@jayesun3420]

No way, I thought I was the only one who thought Kolibri was freaking awesome

[@TheLairdsLair]

Such a beautiful game.

[@stude1965]

I loved playing it but it would usually freeze up on me. I still have it but haven't touched the setup in ages.

[@baroncalamityplus]

Never skip the intro! I know the 32X is considered a failure, but I don't believe failure in its purpose. It was a last-minute response to the Atari Jaguar, and it did end up out selling the Jaguar by significant amount. 665,000 vs the Jaguar's 250,000. My favorite 32x games were the arcade ports. Space Harrier, After Burner, Virtua Fighter, and Virtua Racing.

[@GoldenCroc]

Yeah but was it worth it to outsell the Jaguar? Pyrrhic victories and all that with presumable development, marketing and somewhat lost consumer confidence costs...

[@bottlecapdave2021]

The 32x overall was just another mistake Sega and Sega of America made since the 1x disc read speed of the Sega CD.

[@arostwocents]

Metalhead is good . Runs perfectly on Vita's Picodrive too ❤

[@elnoel1220]

I think “amazing” is a rather strong adjective to describe most of the games on this list. However, Stella Assault, Chaotix and Kolibri are all certainly worth a play.

[@arostwocents]

Tempo is very good too. Metalhead is worth a go if you appreciate the system it's on.

[@arostwocents]

Tempo Jr is good too on GG

[@mdhoover84]

I know the 32X failure is well documented but the Saturn being brought forward definitely killed any early momentum. I was nonplussed as a target-market kid back in the 90s, I kind of wanted one but it was the Saturn that I really was holding out for - that felt like the future, whereas the 32X was too closely positioned to the MD. The lacklustre MD ports and other half-arse games didn't help. In hindsight, the super scaler ports, VR and VF ports etc showed what it could have done, but the timing was catastrophically out. Plus, it was ugly as sin. Not a cool looking add-on at all.

[@shadowopsairman1583]

Motocross Should get a Remake with Motocross Madness 2

[@lewischenot7168]

Yay! Great episode. I have a lot of love for the 32x. Got it on clearance back in the day with a lot of cheap games and had a great time. Keep up the good work! 😊

[@TheLairdsLair]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@sarahbird-lx2de]

So much great stuff was heavily discounted around the time I just started to get some (unsteady) disposable income. 29 buck new Sega CD. 5 dollar 32x. Panzer Dragoon, Resident Evil, (which I did get) and Burning Rangers for the Saturn were 19 bucks new at Toys R Us. Wish I could wire money to my past self.

[@bubbles581]

Having the sega cd and 32x addon all together did look a bit silly lol i do wish the neptune had been a thing. I didnt care much for the early 3d consoles like the ps1/2 n64, saturn, etc

[@lurkerrekrul]

Metal Head - I like this game, but I really wish they had just used fog in the distance, rather a city backdrop. I always find it disorienting to see buildings in the distance, knowing that there's actually stuff there that's just not visible yet. If I can't see into the distance, I would have preferred to see nothing, so that it doesn't keep tricking my brain. I disliked it in the PS1 driver games as well.

[@shadowopsairman1583]

Tempo is no mascot, Knuckles was for the 32X

[@arostwocents]

Tempo is actually a good game though. Chaotix is awful

[@OldSchoolRetroGamingFan]

Given the fact the system only had 40 official games released for it in its lifetime, that's an impressive chunk of them that are both exclusive and genuinely amazing. Edit: Actually, having now watched the full video, I think it might be a little generous to label all those games as amazing. They were all exclusive though. An some of them were definitely cool.

[@arostwocents]

I love that you fully believed the clickbait and expected "genuinely" amazing 😂❤

[@GoldenCroc]

The last commercial caught my eye: "6 times more powerful than 3DO", Anyone know by which metric they claim this/are referring to?

[@mattuw82]

That's not so far off, as far as CPUs are concerned. The 32x has 2 23 MHz Hitachi CPUs, plus the 68000 from the Genesis. The 3DO has on 12 MHz ARM CPU. The graphics hardware on the 3DO is way better though.

[@jayesun3420]

Great episode Laird

[@kenwheeler3637]

I wish there had been more games like Kolibri for the 32X. Of course this type was thought of as "old tech" versus all of the 3D polygon laden titles that were in vogue at the time so I understand why it didn't happen. That and the short lifespan of the system itself obviously.

[@napoleonfeanor]

You're easily impressed, right?

[@arostwocents]

Its a stretch to call Motocross games and particularly Dirt Trax FX popular 😂

[@travishuffman6740]

I LOVED my 32X. My friend and I played DOOM, Virtua Racing and Virtua Fighter incessantly. I definitely got my moneys worth!

[@williamcrowe2576]

I'd nearly forgot about Zaxxon Motherbase. And speaking of Zaxxon, I'm wondering if you'll be reviewing the board game if you haven't already.

[@TheLairdsLair]

Not yet, it's in my queue!

[@FatNorthernBigot]

In the early 90s, my mate Nigel got a 32X from his dad as a "guilt present". I was so jealous. I wish my parents were divorced.😡😅

[@Tolbat]

Wish the 32X would have been a stand-alone machine that was backwards compatible with the Genesis/MegaDrive rather than the other way around. That way the 32x was not limited by the older hardware in any way shape or form.

[@TheLairdsLair]

I think it should have been both, but from day 1.

[@jsttv]

Too little too late effort. SEGA should of skipped the 32X, instead focus on the SEGA Saturn. IMO.

[@RetroGamerBB]

All the great 32x games would have been better on Saturn.

[@twankistevenson3884]

The 32x is what turned me against Sega. I loved my Megadrive AND my Mega CD but the 32X seemed like a stop gap cash grab attempt by the company to the point I became convinced they were delaying the Saturn just to eke out every single penny they could from megadrive owners. It had a lot to do with my choice to go with a PSX

[@arostwocents]

The entire 90s was a lesson not to buy a system before it had at least 10 games you actually wanted 😂

[@aaronsnowden6311]

Sega always had some weird ads, along with Sony. Loved the video.

[@arostwocents]

Spiderman looks awful :/

[@raymiecall]

I was super excited for Metal Head and the first hour was amazing but I barely touched it after that as it was just too repetitive. Cosmic Carnage was the opposite. I expected nothing due to the terrible reviews but I thought it was pretty decent!

[@TheLairdsLair]

Cosmic Carnage actually got a few good reviews in UK mags back in the day. which is what encouraged me to check it out.

[@KarlHamilton]

And after all that cool 3D stuff, Sega still designed the Saturn to be the utimate 2D system. Totally clueless.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

Virtua Fighter 2 runs at a higher resolution than any PS1 game, and at 60FPS. The real sin was Sega's third party development kits. They disabled hardware functions - check out Pandemonium's interview with the VR Racing director, and be amazed at how Sega of Japan sabotaged their own system's reputation just to make their own games look better by comparison.

[@KarlHamilton]

@@juststatedtheobvious9633 do you have a link to that interview please?

[@cubeflinger]

All of these games feel like tech demos or ugly megadrive games. I have a fondness for the 32x but I'm not sure I'd call any of the games amazing. We with the exception of Stellar assault perhaps these have mostly aged very poorly.

[@arostwocents]

Several of these look awful. Some are good though. Darxide looks like endless turning like a lot of 3D space games. There's a reason 3D shooters were on a fixed path other than just tech

[@15-Peter-20]

Breast milk?

[@BlueEyedVibeChecker]

Only disagreement I have is Knuckles Chaotix, to an extent anyway. If you like to play Sonic because you like to go fast, Chaotix will not be a good time. If you like it because "platformer", then you'll probably enjoy Chaotix. That ring tether mechanic was essentially the 2D equivalent of the Sonic Heroes flight characters; and I couldn't enjoy it no matter how much I tried.

[@TheLairdsLair]

Yeah, hence my comment about it being a bit divisive.

[@arostwocents]

If you like to play Sonic to go fast then you never actually played the originals that were out at that time, or just played Green Hill zone over and over. The only modern games that actually show what Mega Drive Sonic was is Episode 4 part I but people hated it and claimed it wasn't like original Sonic 😂 Agree Chaotix sucks though

[@arostwocents]

I think people played Sonic Advance and Sonic Rush and got it in their head that's what 2D Sonic was - so when Sega said E4 would go back to Mega Drive style Sonic they expected something totally different. Chaotix I have no idea what Sega were thinking 😂

[@poopedcheetah2]

this is fake news...there are no good 32x games...let alone 10

[@greggrsham-ri8sh]

32x Gamehead came with little metal guide sticks that shot sparks and smoked

[@arostwocents]

??