Top 50 Sega Genesis / Megadrive Games You Couldn't Play - Great Japanese Megadrive Exclusives

[@FarNoGaming]

Sailor Moon is written and drawn by women for young girls. It's a super heroine series. Not being a Weeb just saying that Mahou Shojou (Magical Girl) as a genre is usually made so that girls can have powerful super heroes too. :)

[@LillyCharlotte7]

he sounded like a Sarkeesianite the way he kept screaming PERVERT at shit

[@heinrichagrippa5681]

I agree (though I happened to have watched it as a six-year-old boy back in 1995). The outfits and stuff are designed to look pretty, because that's what girls like. You could argue that there's a connection between prettiness and sexuality (heterosexual guys find pretty girls attractive after all), but I think the idea that the Sailor Moon characters are deliberately hyper-sexualized is more a case of guys projecting their own sexuality onto the concept of a bunch of young teenage girls in mini-skirts.

[@DemonicRemption]

+Far-No True, Sailor-Moon was written by a woman for a pre-teen girl audience. However speaking as a male Sailor-Moon fan for the past twenty years,(I'm 29) I admit that I did find the sailor senshi attractive during my adolescence. Though my initial attraction to the show was how the action differed from DBZ.

[@ernestmac13]

Actually, the first series was written and directed by men, Sailor Moon Crystal is the series directed and written by women. I never liked Sailor Moon due to the stories being weaker due to the frequent and lengthy power ups detracting from the flow of the stories. I was an adult when the series came out, and I could tell these slow drawn out power ups which just as easily could have shown the characters getting ready for action as has been done in other anime, rather then slowly having the characters transition so as to emphesise their female sexuality; we're designed for the male viewing audience. This is one reason Sailor Moon has a larger male following then female driven anime that doesn't use this ploy; which is why we also see in Japan that grown men dress up as female Sailor Moon characters vs those from other Anime. As far as perverts, Japan has pleanty of it's own who will press up against young school girls or even touch them on crowded trains. Watched a documentary about such things happening in Japan, not to say there aren't perverts here in the West. Perverts come in every Creed, gender, and sexual orientations. I think it's disengenuous to ignore that, Sailor Moon was smartly trying to market to both girls and boys, so as to have the largest audience; and the size of it's fan base especially among males showed their tactic worked. So much so that, many Anime that have followed have likewise hypersexualized females in a way that wasn't done prior to Sailor Moon.

[@theannoyedmrfloyd3998]

Far-No *otaku *Mahou shoujo

[@mariusamber3237]

I'm only surprised you didn't mention Surging Aura, which is a Sega-developed RPG, and one of the very last Japanese exclusive RPGs on the system. This and Madou Monogatari 1 are likely the most awaited fan-translations for the good old Genny all things considered.

[@ShyVioletIsShy]

Sailor Moon shows up at 12:26 for those just here for the thumbnail. Sailor Moon was aimed at teenaged girls, however, who surprisingly also played games in the 90s. The beat-em-ups were okay. The puzzle games on the SNES were way better, along with the RPG Another Story.

[@jutchow64]

How are the puzzle and RPG games are WAY better than this?

[@ChrissehCat]

They are ridiculously addicting puzzle games, more so than Sailor Moon Drops. The Game Gear had a platform style game, too, where you could play as Sailor Moon or Chibi Moon in the S season. It was rather easy if I recall but still fun.

[@randygelion]

Chrissehchan most game gear games are easy and very short. The beat em up sailor moon games were the best hands down. I actually finished them all on both mega drive and super famicom. The sega version is much harder since when you die, you don't respawn exactly where you died. You respawn at the very beginning.

[@ChrissehCat]

Ah I never played the Genesis version, I really love all the Sailor Moon games. I think my favorite was Sailor Moon R, just because it was cute and you could play as Chibiusa, even if it was an easier mode, it was just funny as heck to see her beating up baddies with her little parasol.

[@skylinefever]

There was an arcade ROM that you could play with MAME, and I liked it far more than any of her console games. If I won the lottery, I'd pay the AVGN to play her console games.

[@johnpenguinthe3rd13]

EXCELLENT video, but there is a huge error. That's NOT Phantasy Star Fukkokuban (which was a re-release of Phantasy Star part 1 on the Mega Drive)..... that's Phantasy Star 2 (a VERY different game which was a direct continuation of the Phantasy Star saga. Phantasy Star 2 was released in North America, Europe, and Japan). Very great game... if you have the hint book (I don't know about anywhere else, but the North American Genesis version came with the hint book filled with detailed maps)

[@marshy9948]

Good point. He said he reviews games from his massive collection, but I wonder if this list includes games not in his collection...

[@TopHatGamingManChannel]

John Rodriguez Yeah your right it is the wrong footage. Fatigued by the end of making this video. Created the whole thing including the script in less than 24 hours! Except the list itself, I made that with the help of a Sega Facebook group about 6 months ago. I am both bothered with the Fast Racing 1 Frame being the wrong size.

[@TopHatGamingManChannel]

Marshy No actually, I do not own any games on this list. In fact it's research projects like this that allow me to discover games I want to add to my games room. In January I made a video about the top 50 Super Famicom games and on my trip to Bangkok in Feb, I came home with loads of physical copies of games from the list.

[@johnpenguinthe3rd13]

It was still an excellent video. Lot's of interesting stuff that even I didn't know about but will seek out like Magical Taruruuto Kun. Anyway, I look forward to your next video.

[@kellychuang8373]

That's also something and also Curse may not be as great since another channel really tells it like it is so mixed signals.

[@adamphillip5305]

How the hell did Twinkle Tale not make the list. Apart from that, nice vid.

[@VGC-cc4xt]

Adam Phillip And its probably the best md jp game too

[@dbnpoldermans4120]

Request for a part two Top 51-100

[@takethatprunetracy]

Gley Lancer! Great call!

[@opaljk4835]

takethatprunetracy I think this one might be my favorite

[@ukrpgfan4029]

Brilliant list m8, always glad to see some Japanese imports..and also good to hear that your bored too of the same old gaming lists..look forward to some more in the future.

[@pnsmexico]

this was one of the best game videos i've ever seen. it was so fun to watch, enjoy, and hear your narration.

[@waltersobchak7275]

Top Hat you bring a lot of much needed flavor to YT with your uploads.

[@RobertSeeJen]

Dude! Why'd you show footage of Phantasy Star 2, when talking about the Phantasy Star Master Version "port"?

[@mdcvapor]

What a breath of fresh air! As an import gamer, I absolutely adore seeing games like these spotlighted. Sure, you may be able to find these games in lists elsewhere or what have you, but damn, is it satisfying.

[@colonelsandwich641]

Finally, a mention of Puzzle & Action, Tant R! I feel like I'm the only one who's played that title...

[@ColdOneK]

So... am I the only one watching these - looking for cool sega soundtracks? Mamono Hunter Yoko has some pretty sweet tracks I really like the music made with the sega sound card - especially how the bass sounds through modern speakers. Fav. Sega track: Golden Axe 2: Dragon Throat Cave

[@ribenasquash]

You mean the Yamaha YM2612. Yes it is a beast. Hybrid Front is quite the soundtrack if you weren't aware.

[@MOLTEN0]

Great video, didn't know there are so many secret gems on Mega Drive. I was lucky enough to own Golden Axe II and III though!

[@danielporchas2703]

Excellent video!! My favorite games are Verytex, Flink, Tinhead, Elemental master, Heavy unit, Gaiares, Musha, Thunder force 4, Gleylancer, Water margin, Dangerous seed, Sagaia, Eliminate down, Hellfire, Grind stormer, Sol deace and Zero wing.

[@stringanime]

You are definitely treading in my 1990's. I started Importing games with the SEGA Genesis. Although Alien Soldier had a EU release, it did not have a US release in cart form.

[@bobby3234]

Thumbs up if you almost voted this down before you got to the end.

[@TimChuma]

There were heaps and heaps of shumps that never made it out of Japan. Also 777 Casino where the final challenge is Russian Roulette where it costs 1,000,000 YEN per bet and you only get one go at it :-/

[@SharifSourour]

This is an excellent list! Thanks mate.

[@justindensebuds7279]

Nice job. There are not as many Japan only videos out there. Im not sure if it's Golden Axe Free made in year 199free though. Lol, i do think for 50 games you made good time.

[@luisreyes1963]

First off, why was footage from Phantasy Star II used in a description of a JRPG? And secondly, why did you leave out Undeadline?

[@opaljk4835]

I think golden axe 3 is more than a serviceable best em up. I really enjoy that one

[@JB3AZ]

Thanks for posting this. I've seen images in the past on various magazines back in the day but never learned most of their names. Domo!

[@RetroTiburon]

After 6 years I just realized my Retron 5 can play Mega Drive games. Thanks for this vid! Putting some of these games on my watch list on ebay.

[@RoboBlue2]

The Berlin Wall was actually an arcade game that got ported to the Game Gear.

[@maxim5893]

I lovveeeee battlemania daiginjou , I put it almost on the same level of musha just a overall fun game and just some of the best genesis music ive heard

[@mrtravoiceburges]

www.ebay.com/itm/263279653980?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

[@adamaus8770]

Megadrive music* it wasn't released in the us and y'all were the only people to take on that stupid bible based name

[@SomeOrangeCat]

Stuff like this is why emulation wowed me when I first stumbled on it in the mid 1990s. At last I was able to play games I'd only ever seen grainy photos of in magazines.

[@TopHatGamingManChannel]

Same as myself. Playing games like Super Mario RPG and Ganbare Goemon 2 for the first time, after pining for them for so many years, was magical.

[@skylinefever]

I found out about it back in February of 1999. It was one of the happiest times of my life. The first game I got into deeply was the translated ROM of Final Fantasy 5. The "Ahead On Our Way" theme takes me back in time whenever I hear it.

[@terrythe2dmaniac71]

Great video my friend, you really added a couple of rare gems on the old Megadrive to this list, mostly stuff north Americans never herd of, keep up the good work.

[@ribenasquash]

12:54 apparently "Japanese perverts" on the auto captions creates '/ Birds'. This is interesting as I've never seen a translation generate a non alpha-numeric character. That is all... Battle Mania Die Ginger was good too...

[@GoldenGrenadier]

I got into making repro cartridges because the US had so many good games that were Sega channel exclusive. I've thought about selling some to recoup the cost of the EPROM programmer.

[@Guernicaman]

Wani Wani World's gameplay seriously reminds me of Space Panic in the arcade & Colecovision.

[@TimChuma]

C&VG/Mean Machines/Mean Machines SEGA used to covert "grey imports" back in the 90s with the usual proviso that you needed your machine modded.

[@Mackadotious51]

Battle Mania is awesome.

[@willywampa84]

Great Video, love it! Thank you.

[@mrtravoiceburges]

www.ebay.com/itm/263279653980?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

[@Mace2.0]

Quick fun fact: Cotton only had one official game released in the US, but it was on the Turbografx.

[@unsummon_]

another great upload, will be checking these out on my system 💕

[@mrtravoiceburges]

www.ebay.com/itm/263279653980?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

[@SharifSourour]

King Colossus looks very cool!

[@neogenesis7706]

I have it. Sadly it impossible to play without a walkthrough.

[@ColpoRosso]

great stuff! those scrolling shooters looks very interesting.

[@Drewbe821]

Great video. It's nice to see someone else who admires the Shining Force series.

[@darkayn7924]

Great list man, but you forgot Honō no Dōkyūji: Dodge Danpei, a dodge ball game inspired by an old Anime series! I remember playing tourneys to death with my friends, and it even has a story mode! Fast game play and a ton of cool super throws! Definitely the best dodge ball game, even above super dodge ball on the neogeo for me ;)

[@lauraiss1027]

I am surprised, NA missed on Golden Axe 3, the game is so good (unarguably best in series) that everywhere else in the world people divided in Streets of Rage fans and those who preferred Golden Axe 3. Still in my top 10 beatemups on all systems combined. It's not just some game you have missed, it's one of great classics and still amazing game in world of beatemups. Soundtrack alone is amazing even by todays standards.

[@todesziege]

For some reason it gets a lot of hate. I loved the expanded moveset which gave more depth to the gameplay, similar to Streets of Rage 3. And although I can admit the backgrounds were a bit bland, the sprites were great. And the music, damn.

[@Igorsov]

todesziege I have no idea what are you talking about. Everyone who was fortunate enough to play this game in 90s loved it including myself.

[@todesziege]

@@Igorsov: GA3 gets a lot of hate online, probably from people who have never even played it. The flak it got never seemed reasonable at all to me.

[@therealhardrock]

For Everyone looking for the Sailor Moon game after clicking the thumbnail, go to 12:26.

[@mopeybloke]

When I was an early teen, my brother brought a cd from school with many mega drive titles emulated. It was probably a very illegal release. In any case, I ain't that good at games, and I had to play those things with a keyboard. Not that optimal. Pulseman was my favourite game from that collection. I played too much, and I only beat it once on emulator years later as an adult. We need more Pulseman. I need him on a handheld so I can play more often.

[@boxerblake1]

Guess I'll be buying a Mega Drive when I go to Japan heh. Some of these games look great.

[@loszhor]

Thanks for the suggestions.

[@evilpandakillabzonattkoccu4879]

So many shoot em ups!!!! Outstanding!!

[@jetboyblue4478]

Love your vid dude :)

[@InsideSmoke]

excellent video man

[@michaelsierra9]

Mazinsaga! Thanks for your awesome work sir!

[@evilpandakillabzonattkoccu4879]

I love Fire Mustang and Fire Shark....good shit.

[@LunaPrincessNinjato]

Oh wow some of these games! Omg thank you for reminding me about Monster World V...I kept saying I'll get it on Wii Shop....meh....time will tell I am soooo doing a run of Magical tarutokun!

[@bobby3234]

Colossus looks very cool!

[@bobby3234]

21:10 lol thats not an animation dovakhin does when he absorbs dragon souls... he was charging a master level fire spell... it looked cool though!

[@Irochi]

iirc... Wonder Boy IV was released in X360 and PS3 on the Wonder Boy pack as a digital only tittle

[@RelativeStrengthFit]

hey buddy can you share what kind of mic you use. It is decent audio quality.

[@whetherman3016]

>Says he can't make a list of 50 good N64 games >Proceeds to make list of 50 "great" Japanese Mega Drive exclusives, half of which are questionable at best. Yeah, I'm sure there aren't 50 N64 games up to the quality of Curse and frikkin Divine Sealing. Still, I wasn't familiar with some of those puzzle games, so interesting video all in all.

[@whetherman3016]

Anyone who's standards are low enough to consider Curse, Fire Mustang, Devil Hunter Yohko and Divine Sealing great games shouldn't have any difficulty coming up with a 200 strong game list on N64 tbh.

[@zinesis]

Nice vid you got my sub

[@AmyraCarter]

Hmmm... Most of the Japanese exclusive Sega games I know and have played are Master System games, like Mahjong Sengoku Jidai (a Mahjong game with decent speech synthesis and is good practice for Tournament Mahjong).

[@underamoon]

pro wrestling on NES was the first firepro style wrestling. The NES release was a favorite of mine as a kid.

[@gtPacheko]

Make one about western exclusives for japanese people. kek

[@farukemirsahin9572]

Is there any? Japanese people seems to get all exclusive stuff when it comes to video games.

[@skylinefever]

I always wondered what got released outside Japan and created jealousy. I always figured that games not exported to Japan would often be games not worth playing.

[@Shorai_3]

My favorite that wasn't mention is Dragon Ball Z: Buyū Retsuden.

[@Ayagur]

That one was released in some european countries as Dragon Ball Z: L'Appel Du Destin

[@Shorai_3]

You are right.

[@mrtravoiceburges]

www.ebay.com/itm/263279653980?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

[@willriley6964]

Excellent video - enjoyed watching it and now to Aliexpress.

[@Pesthauch666]

This Sumo game looks really good. Especially these nice big sprites.

[@mrtravoiceburges]

www.ebay.com/itm/263279653980?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

[@Patchuchan]

All of these would be a fine addition to my retro pi setup.

[@SharifSourour]

Wow didn't know there was a Devil Hunter Yoko game! Nice.

[@theannoyedmrfloyd3998]

Sharif Sourour *Yohko And yes there are a few.

[@anthonycassimiro2295]

Marble Madness is a Western game. What is it doing in the video?

[@TopHatGamingManChannel]

There are two versions of the game. Japan got a completely different version to the rest of the world.

[@anthonycassimiro2295]

Oh...

[@PandoryMagazine]

I actually bought Magical Flying Hat right here in the UK. When videoshops first started renting and selling Megadrive games the store imported a load of Japanese Megadrives and games to sell along with many Japanese games. As a result when DeCap Attack was released I was really sad to see what had been made of the game and still hate it with a passion today. I ended up buying a console and around 7 games for only £200, including Japanese versions of Toki, Fantasy Star and a few more games as well. Those were the days. :)

[@Dreams_So_Daring]

that was a fun video thanks

[@elliotschofield4777]

See that? The first point you make is the reason i watch your vids! keep it up top hat

[@reignick1133]

Thanks for posting this up ,got some shades of JewWario's "You Can Play This" vibes from the video. I think he and quite a bit of the youtube retro gaming community would be proud of your work here for this . I know I am.

[@ohdaUtube]

Which of these shooters are the best?

[@AndreasLindholm]

One of my all time favourite game series is never mentioned.. the Myst series.. and i completed it! Took a year or so, but it was worth it..

[@timurgildanov6552]

Great video!

[@matttherrien9608]

I love how he phrases it. For those less OCD people who don't feel the need to own a physical copy. lol Couldn't have said it any better myself. I don't want to look at a hundred game cartridges and physically have to change them every time I want to play something different.

[@Vriess123]

Love the music in verytex, very cool game

[@RandomAssaultPodcast]

The WonderSwan video you made was the first video I watched I think, a top 50 WonderSwan / Color games would be really interesting

[@LyingSecret]

Isn't there only about 120 something games for the system overall? If the system can manage 50 good games then I'd be really impressed at an almost 50% hit rate!

[@RandomAssaultPodcast]

true, but I have faith in Top Hat Gaming Man to deliver more quality WonderSwan education, education, education! :D

[@mariusamber3237]

There's a very good series on KZbin covering WS games, called Swan Song. The guy behind it covers all of the WonderSwan games chronologically. He speaks fluent Japanese too, which helps a lot with that console in particular.

[@RandomAssaultPodcast]

+Marius Amber thanks!

[@reidkemper]

Some of these games were re-released on the Wii virtual console, like Gley Lancer and Pulseman.

[@VinnytotheK]

KZbin hive mind, you cannot escape it. Related videos are filled with it!

[@theobscurestash6537]

I wish companies would put a lot more effort into translating the mountain of unreleased games from Japan for the rest of the world to enjoy. So many missed opportunities between every console ROM compilation and virtual market that has come and gone over the years. Japanese companies seem to be content with leaving these games in the dusty vaults they reside in. I understand there are reasons for some cases, but I'm sure they all suck. I find it sad when fans spend years translating, coding, and passionately working to finish translation projects because they want to share the experience they had with a particular title with the rest of the world, and these companies can't even hire a tiny team of professionals to work on back catalogs of games they should be especially proud of. Thanks to internet preservation you can have your Raspberry Pi, and eat it too fortunately :) (and a salute to Aeon_Genesis, who has helped translate and work on more Japanese gems for the world than anybody I can think of! agtp.romhack.net/projects.php )

[@RoboBlue2]

Fastest 1 looks exactly like a Master System game. I wonder if it originally was one?

[@yohkom.7988]

It was originally a PC Engine game and the Mega Drive port improves in some ways over the original such as smoother scrolling but ye, it looks a bit out of place in the Mega Drive library next to other racing games such as Ayrton Senna's Super Monaco GP II or F1. Still, Fastest 1 is said to be a good game, very realistic for its time so it migh be worth giving a go.

[@KTJohnsonkidThunder]

Gleylancer and Pulseman were on the Wii VC.

[@RiddlerOnYutube]

That was great thanks.

[@teknomax7883]

But New Zealand Story was released in Spain... Excellent list by the way. I frikkin LOVE Pulseman!!!

[@spencersmith7583]

Oh thanks you so much, you wouldent believe how long it has taken me to find a space shooter pervert game! sorry mate just could not resist, lol. have a good one.

[@Artee023]

I approve of this gentleman's tastes

[@MrDmoney156]

Kudos for adding Crayon Shin-Chan to the list! have you watched the series by anychance before?

[@TopHatGamingManChannel]

MrDmoney156 I havnt seen it sadly. My Anime knowledge is extremely limited.

[@MrDmoney156]

Top Hat Gaming Man It's cool, i was surprised you knew about it lol but if you got time there's episodes of the Japanese original version with subtitles of the show here on KZbin (well bits & pieces) it's a pretty hilarious show and that's saying much since not all anime aren't that funny or comedic at all to me. But anyways, excellent list and video :)

[@skylinefever]

Be sure not to watch the Funimation dub.

[@kellychuang8373]

Good list may want to look into those at some time or another. Though some of those can be conflicted since another part which is Curse really wasn't always a cup of tea I can say.

[@josephfrye7342]

cool you know sailor moon was coming up.

[@Burn_Angel]

12:26 Really dude? I've tried that game. It's so easy, it's boring. Far from being called great. 17:02 Uh, that's Phantasy Star 2...pretty well known to Sega fans in all the world. Great game. Also, thanks for the info, I didn't know King Colossus had an english translation. Gotta get that.

[@stevew8513]

Curse very, very nearly made it to America. It was licensed by INTV, the rights-holders of the Intellivision game console. The Intellivision market was drying up at the end of the '80s, so they attempted to branch out into developing for other machines. Monster Truck Rally was published for the NES by INTV, and they'd acquired Curse for the Genesis, but ran out of money and closed their doors before it could be released.

[@NightFlyStudio]

I dunno, I don't see many big youtubers talk about Ristar much. Edit: Nevermind, forgot about Norm's video

[@modembuddy4010]

Which of these have you played? Any recommendations?

[@PlumbDrumb]

Eliminate Down is a shoot-em-up masterpiece, up there with the Thunderforce games, imo. Shame it never got released outside Japan. Gleylancer is also really good stuff, but Curse and a couple others shown here I consider to be some of the worst on the system, lol.

[@Str0b0]

Wani Wani World looks like a cross between Ice Climber and Lode Runner

[@steammachine3061]

A couple of great platformers that did get a western release but are rarely mentioned by the yt echo chamber are marvel land (talmits adventure) and wardner. The latter i used to play in the arcades long before its megadrive release and both are pretty solid platform games

[@ThingsThingsAndThings]

" 'Rent-aye-hero', sometimes mispronounced as 'Rent Ah Hero' " xD

[@Alianger]

Pretty good list, though at times it seemed like you were mentioning obscure titles just for its own sake, games that belong more in the 75-150 range or even lower (Cutie Suzuki? Heavy Unit? Dvine Sealing? wtf).

[@bobby3234]

>sailor moon on thumbnail >i'm not weaboo like some of you

[@TopHatGamingManChannel]

bob by Needed a thumbnail to attract all the Anime perverts.

[@LillyCharlotte7]

stop sounding like Sarkeesian... your ignorance gives me an aneurism

[@TheBrainScratcher]

you can hate anita and weebs at the same time you know...im one of those.

[@katakisLives]

So its fine to both cater to and bash anime fans simultaneously?

[@Verbal_Kent]

bob by I love sailor moon. I just was George about the game

[@Jac2Mac]

I believe Curse was supposed to get released in the US by INTV but INTV went bankrupt before the game could be released at all.

[@Jikyuu]

発音頑張ったね. lol. Mega Drive consoles are less commonly come across in second hand stores here, so I haven't really covered any Mega Drive titles. Maybe in the future.

[@TopHatGamingManChannel]

I literally have a pile of Megadrives. Because they are so common here, they are practically worthless. The same goes for the PS1.

[@Jikyuu]

Maybe you could fuse them together and park a car on them as a ... Mega Driveway? ^_^

[@darrenjames9138]

great vid i got some good ideas for rom downloads though there is a lot of shit on here a few look really good