Good Games in Unexpected Places, Part 3 - SNESdrunk

[@Aztyph]

Speaking of Game Gear: There's a pretty fantastic game that never made it to the States called _Sylvan Tale._ The gameplay is similar to _The Legend of Zelda,_ but the main gimmick is that you can transform into various forms to traverse the landscape and solve puzzles. It received a fan translation, so you can enjoy it even if you can't read Japanese.

[@auralunaprettycure]

Aztyph dude! Thank you. Had never heard of this, but it looks fantastic, and the gimmick sounds great too. Reminds me of Wonder Boy except with an RPG

[@julsbarracuda9892]

There's an english patch for it on romhacking.net, I haven't tried it but it says it's fully playable

[@DoomsayerStudios]

The Power Rangers fighting games for the Game Gear were lit too.

[@Komagb]

I LOVED LOVED LOVED Below the Root, it was a truly magical experience for me at the time (I was about 12 or 13). The exploration of the huge trees, making to a new area, the deep underground caves during the end-game, all so mysterious and imagination provoking.

[@carloscolom6477]

It was awesome. Never finished it, but always drew me back in to try and re try. It.

[@cazamilfs8945]

You look like Malcolm in the middle ahaha old boyo

[@RP_Williams]

@@carloscolom6477 "Never finished it" - ya, me too....i think you needed to have the instruction manual (or have read the books) to understand how to beat it. There was always that section in the cave i couldn't get to....i couldn't figure out what to do to get there.

[@jymfiskburk2256]

The books sounds great

[@carloscolom6477]

@@RP_Williams Hahaha. True. I had the store bought original and even then couldnt figure it out. I remember orderimg it together with Amazon, a graphic and text game based on a novel by Michael Crichton, which also remained unfinished. 🤦‍♂️ it had to be my own fault...😔🤣🤣🤣

[@furwerkstudio2057]

I enjoy your videos, and I love the fact you actually find unknown games that very few heard of instead of the same rehashed popular "hidden gems".

[@SNESdrunk]

Thanks for taking the time to watch

[@humb1s3rvant]

Indeed. .this channel is a hidden gem, he really does some great stuff

[@tuiroakwood]

Totally agree

[@themilkman6669]

I will indeed have a great rest of my day, thank you very much

[@CodyMerritt]

I'm a new fan and I'm digging this series! These are some cool hidden gems

[@SNESdrunk]

Thank you for watching

[@TheReapersnub]

Snes drunk rocks

[@nimaiiikun]

wow Tails Adventure looks like a low res SNES game! good colors

[@whosaidthat84]

It's available on the 3DS! I bought it a while ago

[@RascalKyng]

Probably not bad looking with some filters... Like blending or even Scanline pixel sharpening...

[@andersdenkend]

nimaiiikun Damn, yeah. I want to play this now.

[@reillywalker195]

The Game Gear had a dramatically better colour palette than the Master System and the Genesis, so it'd make sense that its games would look like Super NES games but more pixelated.

[@zigfaust]

@@whosaidthat84 It's been available on consoles since it was included in Sonic Adventure 2 Battle.

[@raphaelfp]

I love how the chaos emeralds are hidden during the actual stages of Sonic SMS/GG instead of using bonus stages to do so

[@LavaCanyon]

Most of the Sonic Game Gear games did that. It does add more depth to the stages.

[@CarozQH]

Funny how you talked about Laser Lords in the same episode as Below the root, since both game were made by the same guy, Dale Desharone

[@frataltay4543]

Fun fact: Alien Breed 3D actually has rooms over rooms! Something Doom didn't have due to engine limitations.

[@TKnightcrawler]

Holy crap, Rescue on Fractalus, The Eidolon, and Koronis Riftj looks insane for the console. It's no wonder they went on to make the amazing X-Wing franchise.

[@Shmey]

Somebody mentioned Below the Root. I never thought I'd see the day! The trilogy ended kind of abruptly, and a little too open-ended. The author actually made this game's story canon, and used the video game platform to tie up loose ends and give a more satisfactory ending. We had the PC version, so no music. Still it is a very interesting and satisfying game. You can't die. Though you can be rendered unconscious, which causes you to lose a day as your character recovers in his/her home. Z. K. Snyder mostly wrote children's stories. Her best known stories include The Headless Cupid and The Egypt Game. It seemed like she was on track to live forever. She did eventually pass away at a good and old age. I grew up with this game, so it isn't that strange to me. I really love the setting and story. I second the uploader's recommendation. I am certainly biased in my opinion, however.

[@SNESdrunk]

Great comment, thank you!

[@Allerdyne]

I remember playing Below the Root on my brother's computer back in the day. It took me a while to figure it out, but once I did, I had a lot of fun playing it. I remember you had the psychic ability to sense people's emotions, and if you did it on someone and got a result of something like "avarice," you wanted to stay away from them because they'd kidnap you and you'd have to escape from their hideout. You could also kill dangerous animals, like snakes or spiders, if you found a knife but doing so was considered a sin or something, and would cost you...I forget. Experience points or something.

[@logicallydashing]

I love these obscure game finds. Great job with this one, drunk. 👌

[@Fattydeposit]

More amazing Game Gear exclusives: The Madou Monogatari quadrilogy (I, II, III & A all have excellent English patches now) and Power Strike II / GG Aleste II (arguably Compile's finest 8-bit shooter).

[@shadmere]

I watched a playthrough of Laser Lords that was MUCH more in depth, complicated, and just plain bizarre than I could have ever imagined. Love it.

[@billbyers2344]

I grew up playing Below the Root a lot on the Apple IIe. This game was so far ahead of its time. I would LOVE to see this game get a modern remake!!!! Kudos for mentioning this hidden gem!!!!

[@mekman4]

You have excellent taste. It’s good to hear you get excited too, you just needed the right content. Great stuff.

[@mekman4]

Thank you for the heart, your work is always appreciated!

[@scott_hard]

Below the Root was an amazingly deep game back in the day. One of our favorites.

[@morganerickson439]

I never played it by my wife's family had it, and she loved it.

[@BabusGameRoom]

I love these videos. A great game that doesn't get talked about because it's not widely available...The Horde for 3DO! It's probably most similar to Actraiser -- It has a Town-building strategy element, then transitions to isometric action sequences that take place in the town you've built where you defend the town you've built up from the titular "Horde". It's never been ported to any other consoles, not even the original PC release has been put up on Steam or GOG or anything. You really have to play it any way you can!

[@pal-of-pals]

I believe that it got released to the Sega Saturn and PS1 as well.

[@APesquera]

In these times of isolation, content like yours is a godsend :)

[@8thLife]

Thank you for including that singing [?] from Laser Lords 😂

[@DGFTardin]

If you are still on the look out for more great Sega Master System games, the single best one of the system imo is Wonder Boy 3, which is completely different from the first game in case you're wondering. It also was remade for all platforms in 2017, so it is still a great time to dive into it.

[@JoeyJ0J0]

Janet Jackson sampled the bridge zone music from Master System Sonic 1 for her song Every Step I Take, Yuzo Koshiro was even credited in the CD

[@alphaascii]

Good to know, i love the Sonic OST of the Master System/Game Gear version.

[@Spoocecow]

Went looking for this, and the song is actually titled Together Again... and HOLY CRAP I forgot all about this song! The chorus is indeed exactly the same as Bridge Zone, wow!

[@OzymandiasWasRight]

It's tough picking a favorite and I go back and forth, but this is probably the best series on the channel. Whenever I'm looking for a weird game to play I rewatch this series. I've gotta go check out Max Payne on the GBA now.

[@Awesoman]

Tunnel Runner was such a blast. Highly underrated.

[@wilcoleijdens9895]

I’ve personally always been a big fan of most Atari Jaguar games. Tempest 2000, Alien vs Predator, iron soldier 1/2, and the great doom port. If you want to go even obscurer, battlemorph and Baldies are both 2 great games on the jaguar cd. I doubt many people know of these games and it’s a same because there all very good.

[@OtySunset]

Wow, this video surely requested a lot of researches to be done. Lots of games that we would never heard about if not by your amazing work. Thanks again!

[@rafael_moreira]

You have no idea how nostalgia hit me with that sonic on sega master system clip you posted... I was around 4 to 5 years old... And yes, it was huge here in South America.. Anyway, it was a great game, but kinda sad. I remeber it had a "good" and "bad" ending, but for some reason I could only get the bad ending, where Tails died(?). And in my 5 year old mind, Tails was a girl and Sonic's girlfriend...

[@keving82383]

Cool series. A great game to check out on the Atari Lynx is Chip's Challenge. Super fun little puzzle game.

[@majorjoe23]

I love that a SNES game was hidden on a Gameboy cart. I tracked it down a few years ago for that reason.

[@JustinLeeper]

Tunnels of Doom: An RPG for the ancient TI99-4a computer. Exploration is smooth first-person, then you enter rooms for a traditional overhead turn-based combat with your party of 4 against various enemies. Super fun and pretty deep!

[@humb1s3rvant]

Lucasfilm...back in my day they were called LucasArts and Xwing was about the coolest got durn space game I've ever seen! I still remember installing TIE fighter from about ten damn 3.5 floppies on a Gateway 2g. My, how a long time it has been. Thanks for the great video.

[@BoneDryEye]

SD I always enjoy your finds and have never been disappointed w/ your selection. Keep up the quality work and onward to 150K! We’re all routing for you. You should do a Metroidvania hot take series (from the lens of classic gaming) on the latest iterations (Axiom Verge, Hollow Knight and Dead Cells to start)

[@falconheart21]

The most obscure games I played as a kid were on the Atari Super Charger. It was a device that allowed the Atari to use cassette tapes to load larger and more complex games than it normally could. The two I liked the most were Mind Master, a puzzle / maze game where you have to find your way through while solving puzzles and avoiding the master of the maze. and Dragon Stomper, a simplistic (by modern standards) RPG with three distinct game phases, including the overworld, a town, and the dragons lair.

[@elshrapnel]

Hooraaay new video! Thank you!!! :) Спасибо!

[@jimkrom]

Alien breed 3d has a sequel which needs a very powerful Amiga to run properly like an expanded A1200 or A4000 but if you get it to run on an emulator you will find it is amazing. No more pixelated graphics and full screen. There are two versions of it, the one you're looking for is the 4meg version

[@grongy6122]

Sonic the Hedgehog's OST by Yuzo Koshiro is sometimes better than used in 16-bit version, like in Labyrinth Zone. I think 8-bit tunes with Koshiro's SoR sound driver would kick ass.

[@danilofreire6113]

I really love the OST of this game. Besides, Sonic for master system was my first game that I played in my life, therefore it has a special place in my heart.

[@blacksunshine7485]

Yeah Sonic 1 for SMS was one of my first games. And I love it equally to the MD version. Its different and original to itself. The soundtrack is awesome too! Bridge is my favourite and sounds alot like Janet Jackson funny enough

[@kelvinmatheus6178]

Danilo Freire welp another Brazilian

[@scullystie4389]

I loved my Super GameBoy, it was pretty cool to be able to change the color palette and use the more comfortable SNES controller

[@SDinOZ85]

Well, if we're getting into the 2600 I've got to suggest Solaris. A game that was meant to be the tie in for The Last Starfighter before losing the licence and then being beaten on release because of being released in the dying days of a console and a certain Italian plumber arriving on the scene at the same time.

[@oaf-77]

Sonic on the NGPC was one of my favorite sonic games.

[@FiggsNeughton]

Best channel on youtube brother! You've saved my sanity.

[@jmbenetti]

Wow, that video was mindblowing. Nice games!

[@greyspot00]

You're welcome! Thank you for brightening up my lunch break.

[@katt-the-pig]

I absolutely love Tails Adventure. I played through it twice last year, once for a blind playthrough at Twitch, which I plan on posting here later this year. Nice thing is, the game is available on the 3DS Virtual Console.

[@NeoLotex]

I always love to come back to a classic like Giana Sisters or Boulder Dash on the Commodore 64. Back then that was my first experience with Gaming. There were other cool games on this system as well like Archon or I think Wizards of War, Gauntlet or Golden Axe, but the last one might've been an Atari game, but still. Good stuff.

[@cinemagamingnews]

awesome as always. It's inspiring for my channel. Keep up the great work.

[@thenostalgiafactor5023]

Total length of video: 600 secs. Total length of "SNES Drunk": 2.5 secs. .42% of the video was spent listening to "SNES Drunk."

[@bioblade]

Correction: .420% you are welcome

[@not2tired]

* "SNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNESdrunk"

[@owenwalters5818]

That Excalibur game is super impressive for the hardware. Very ahead of it's time, especially considering the new Mount & Blade is coming out in a few days to a lot of anticipation.

[@RP_Williams]

BELOW THE ROOT! I LOVED that game (i think we got it in late 86, along with about 100 other pirated games from my dad's buddy at work lol).. WAY ahead of it's time.

[@leocostaf]

Great video as always! I'm from Brazil and you can still find official Master System consoles for sale at department stores nowadays. I only have to correct you when you mention that the Sonic games for the Master System were ported to the Game Gear... Actually it was the other way around, these games were released first for the Game Gear and later on ported to the Master System! I'm a big fan, keep up the great work!

[@mrwii5741]

Hey you did a great job on this video! Keep up the good work with your videos!

[@TheReapersnub]

Wow tunnel runner you just slapped me in the face with forgotten nostalgia. Loved the sound in that game very memorable. Wow you're diving into c64 good on you. Love that system. If you wanna try the first ever fully open world with managment and lots to explore on the c64. Try lost city of gold its quite a game. Not sure how to find it these days i just had fond memories of it. Everytime i try to emulate it i hit a brick wall but if your interested give it look and play it any way you can.

[@Stinger420]

Rise of the Triad!! Yes! Wow, I haven't heard that title mentioned in quite some time! I remember going to Best Buy one night, my mom took me so I could spend some birthday money, and I ended up buying Witchaven. That was, to me, like Hexen on steroids! heh I never did play the 2nd one though.

[@Christian_Sandoval]

Oh my god, I worshipped Rescue on Fractalus when I was a kid in the 80's. I played it on an Atari 800XL though. Thank you for mentioning one of my favorite games ever.

[@rootbeer_666]

Christian Sandoval yep, that was the platform I had it on as a kid. I didn’t play it much though because the Jaggis scared the hell outta me. There was a real element of tension in that game, for sure.

[@natejoe9924]

Wow this was the first metroidvania I always thought it was Metroid for Nintendo you learn something new everyday thank you

[@TheLouzer_]

Spellcaster for the Master System! Amazing game, I feel it was ahead of its time!

[@jreschke5]

What a video. He’s heating up!!

[@jeffreyballinger133]

Below the Root... huh. That really brought back some memories. I had that on my Apple IIe.

[@mixschrecks3839]

Thanks for what you do.

[@SNESdrunk]

Thanks for taking the time to watch

[@reillywalker195]

If you're into turn-based strategy, _Stellar Track_ for the Atari 2600 is a challenging but fun playthrough. It's hard to find since it was only released in North America and exclusively sold by Sears, but you can also play it on Atari Flashback systems if you want to own the game yourself and either don't live in North America or don't want to track down a physical copy. You'll definitely have to read an instruction manual to know what everything on screen means, and you'll want paper and something to write with handy to keep track of coordinates in case your spaceship takes scanner damage, but it's still fun to play and a good glimpse at what early strategy games were like.

[@aipaloovik]

Oh gods! I remember playing Rescue on Factalus! You had to be careful, though, because you could pick up enemies as well that I don't quite remember what happened to you.

[@retroarchives8379]

You HAVE to try Project Firestart on the C64. It's literaly the first Survival Horror game, far before Alone in the Dark, and it's just amazing.

[@SNESdrunk]

PART ONE: kzbin.info/www/bejne/p6XGo4ttYtWmoKs PART TWO: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qJaXfaaZfKairZo PART FOUR: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aIeYlGalh86UfNE

[@nerb6833]

I had space invaders +sgb when i was a kid it was rad

[@NadrianATRS]

I had Below the Root as a kid. I had no idea it was from a book until I was an adult. As a kid I thought the game was weird and was overloaded on how huge the world was. After I read the book, the game made a little more sense story-wise. I remember being elated when I completed the game finally. It took years to do it without help of the internet.

[@Patzo8]

Laser Lords!!! My parents got a CD-I when they first came out thinking it was gonna be the next big thing. I loved this game..."who are you talking to, warrior?" Classic

[@Kinetixx]

You cannot do that warrior

[@Maggerama]

Holy shit, these videos surprise me every time!

[@fastbreak333]

Hearing about obscure games always interests me. You never know what could be out there.

[@willeysingleton3057]

Wow tunnel runner you just slapped me in the face with forgotten nostalgia. Loved the sound in that game very memorable. Wow you diving into c64 good on you. Love that system. If you wanna try the first ever fully open world with managment and lots to explore on the c64. Try lost city of gold its quite a game. Not sure how to find it these days i just had fond memories of it. Everytime i try to emulate it i hit a brick wall but if your interested give it look and play it any way you can.

[@matthewmerican]

I've owned that Game Boy Space Invaders game for 20 years, and I never know you could do that in the Super Game Boy. I've always just used the GameCube's player to play on a TV.

[@donkeytonk]

Hunter for the Amiga. It was basically a polygon third person sandbox adventure similar to GTA 3. Loads of weapons and vehicles. Blew me away when I played it way back in the early 90s. Far far ahead of it's time

[@bauernkind8595]

Ist still got my Seaga Master System 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog + 2 CRT TV's. Still a great game for its age.

[@alphaascii]

I played a LOT of it back in the day, great game with a great soundtrack.

[@bauernkind8595]

@@alphaascii Alex Kidd is a good game too. And it's pre-installed. 😊

[@SGlicks]

8:28 There's an Alice in wonderland game with identical gameplay and interface also for the C64

[@joeyvlo]

Fantastic upload! 👍

[@Sly88Frye]

one thing I like about 8-bit Sonic the hedgehog is that even though the Master system and The game gear games are almost exactly the same, the fact is there are a few minor differences.

[@uiogu]

Mastersystem Sonic was my first ever videogame! Could never get far in it though. Btw, the Mastersystem port of Alien Storm is surprisingly good, despite the limitations - it even kept the gallery shooter sections! Excalibur looks like Dwarf Fortress lol.

[@elieeee6]

Star Wars episode III for GBA is definitely a hidden gem it’s a pure in the Star Wars universe it’s really good

[@borrellipatrick]

Had both the gba and ds version. Both are great but the ds adds basic 3D ship shooting levels as a bonus

[@danielmccormick700]

Stay well and safe, SNESDrunk.

[@chakrazoo]

great stuff dude!

[@HybridAngelZero]

DOOD, HECK YEAH Tails Adventure is awesome! It was always my favorite Game Gear game, it's actually available right now on 3DS, it's also in Sonic Gems Collection and Sonic Adventure DX (GameCube version).

[@icaromiranda9981]

I had NO idea the Sega Master System wasn't popular in the US. Here in Brazil it was actually more popular than the NES, we even had games translated to portuguese and also an "official hack" of Wonder Boy with the graphics replaced by characters from a famous Brazilian comic book. 😁

[@frankschneider6156]

The SMS was only truly popular in Brazil and somewhat in Europe. It pretty much completely lost in Japan to the NES and was a rather non-existing thing in the US. Many of the late games (eg Street Fighter II) were only ported to the system for the Brazilian market.

[@blackcheesyghoul]

A snes drunk video i have time to eat my entire lunch watching. More like that would be great! 😜

[@duffman18]

A hell of a lot of British and European gamers got started with sonic on the master system games before later playing the mega drive ones. And the master system ones have a way higher focus on platforming. That's a part people often miss about sonic. It has never been "press right to win". Sonic games are about speed, but also about platforming and exploration in equal amounts. And so for a lot of gamers, sonic is about platforming first, speed second. The 8-bit sonic games are a real treat if you've never played them. They're different, but they're great in their own way. They're absolutely some of the best 8-bit platformers there are.

[@JohnnyProctor9]

Good finds! I didn't even know about a couple of these...

[@paulbennett2284]

I loved those three Lucasfilm games on my C64, you forgot that some of the people you rescued in Rescue on Fractalus turned out to be aliens and gave you a jump scare when they boarded the ship!

[@EpicLebaneseNerd]

i wish he included GLOOM for AMIGA-CD32, it was outstanding, the amiga cd32 had a lot of really good games....

[@titantim]

Hooooooooly crap! I didn't expect to ever see Below the Root ever again in my life! I had the DOS version, and hated it, but I still played it until I beat it because I didn't have that many other games. The platforming was so painful that it's hard to explain.

[@tokenblack7983]

I’ve been trying to remember this game for over 30 years…my best friend had it and we played all the time…I could never remember the title for the life of me..I thought it was the tree of life or something….I’ve been watching Snes Drunk off and on for a few years…and somehow here this game is…unbelievable

[@ethelchip3620]

My profile picture is from laser lords. Good video.

[@Pwnicus187]

Below the Root looks so much like Aztec, a game I played a lot on the Apple IIe as a kid. Aztec was something else for its time, I think it generated a different dungeon every time.

[@arciks11]

One interesting bit about Tails Adventure is that there exists an unofficial Sega Master System conversion which makes the amount of visible area fair bit bigger.

[@7thangelad586]

Tunnel Runner reminds me: how about a future video about the first-person AD&D style games? Thanks for your hard work mucking through the game libraries!

[@darrenfredrickson5282]

Great Video Man!

[@Projectwolfie21]

The game gear also got two "GG Shinobi" titles, which were not ports of already existing games but totally different once, which have kind of a Bucky O'Hare mechanic where you rescue other Ninjas that all have special abilities.

[@madspunky]

Laser Lords, yes!! Hey, Excalibur... I'm a gonna share this video with its creator, yeah!

[@christophercharles8766]

The Lucasfilm Atari games are crazy. The OG first person games that never get credit.

[@dano8902]

X-Wing wasn't a rail shooter...more of an action flight sim. Rebel Assault was a rail shooter though not a terribly good one.

[@frankschneider6156]

yeah, but it had INCREDIBLE graphics .. at least for the time, when it came out and really helped making CD-ROM drives a relatively common PC item. Given: as a game Rebel Assaul was terrible, while X-Wing and Tie-Fighter were pretty good. Not as good as Wing Commander or Elite, but still pretty nice.

[@TransientWitch]

I was going to say the same thing! I played SO MUCH of X-Wing, TIE Fighter and X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter. I haven't had a good flight stick for awhile, but every May 4th, GoG taunts me with those games...Some day soon, mayhap.

[@Raftuck]

I mostly remember Rebel Assault for being unforgivably difficult in the flight sections of the game. I only remember being able to beat those sections through the power of prayer...

[@jlarrick7334]

Great info. A +

[@katemoody1587]

I had Rescue on Fractalus on my C64. Of course the game cheats and uses a simple high-map fractal to generate the "3d landscape" but it was always fun making the guys you rescue wait outside the ship until they stopped banging...

[@Davtwan]

Wow, I don’t think I know half the games on this list. It’s really impressive.

[@onewaytriggames8832]

Daaaaaang, Matt Groening took his design for Clamps the Robot from "The Eidolon"?!?! That's wild!!

[@JakeWerkmeister]

Oddly, I think that I prefer Sonic on the Master System. The games just breathe a little better. It's nice being able to understand the world around you.

[@gc8972b]

3:08 thought you'd called in a guest 😂