Game Sack

Here we look at some of our favorite arcade-to-home conversions. What are some of yours?

More games that never saw release outside of Japan! Games Shown: Famicom - Nuts & Milk Game Boy - Fortified Zone 2 PC Engine - Bonze Adventure PC Engine CD - Ane-San Mega Drive - Twinkle Tale Mega CD - Urusei Yatsura: Dear My Friends, Warau Salesman/The Laughing Salesman Saturn - Lunar Magic School, Saturn Bomberman Fight!! PlayStation - Harmful Park, The Adventure of Little Ralph *Fortified Zone (Game Boy), Operation: Logic Bomb (SNES), Parodius (PC Engine), Air Zonk (TurboGrafx-16) and Lunar Magic School (Game Gear) make brief appearances. *Yes, Nuts & Milk is a real game. *Special appearance by The Game Chasers in the ending skit.

Here we focus on the CD-i, widely known for its educational software and bad Zelda games. But is there anything more to the system? Games Shown: Tetris, Hotel Mario, Pac-Panic, Burn Cycle, Zenith, The Apprentice, Link: The Faces of Evil, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, Tetsuo Gaiden, Zelda's Adventure, Kingdom: The Far Reaches, Kindom: Shadoin, Micro Machines, Solar Crusade, Escape from Cyber City, Kether, Mutant Rampage Body Slam, Thunder in Paradise Interactive, Atlantis: The Last Resort, The 7th Guest *Quick side-by-side of Micro Machines on CD-I, NES, and Genesis. *First episode with gameplay recorded entirely in composite video, since that's all the CD-I unit we used offered. *Thanks to BlueBMW for supplying the CD-I and games. He was not eager to get it back.

So how has Sega been doing since they stopped making consoles? Let's look at some of their games since then and see if they still have any magic left in them. Games Shown: Xbox - Out Run 2, Out Run 2006: Coast 2 Coast GameCube - Super Monkey Ball Adventure Wii - Sega Superstars Tennis, Sonic Colors, Nights: Journey of Dreams, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz, Super Monkey Ball: Step & Roll, The House of the Dead 2&3 Return, The House of the Dead Overkill Xbox 360 - Sonic Generations, Virtua Fighter 5, Vanquish PlayStation 3 - Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, Sonic & All*Stars Racing Transformed, The House of the Dead 4, Valkyria Chronicles PSP - Valkyria Chronicles 2

Sunsoft has long been a purveyor of quality games and franchises. Let's take a look at a bunch of 'em here! Games Shown: NES - Blaster Master, Fester's Quest, Batman: The Video Game, Batman: Return of the Joker, Fantasy Zone, Journey to Silius, Ufouria, Freedom Force Game Boy - Blaster Master Boy, Batman, Trip World Game Boy Color - Blaster Master Enemy Below, Project S-11 Genesis - Blaster Master 2, Batman, Superman, The Death and Return of Superman, Super Fantasy Zone SNES - Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel TurboGrafx-16 - Batman Saturn - Galaxy Fight, Waku Waku 7, Albert Odyssey PlayStation - Blaster Master: Blasting Again Wii - Blaster Master Overdrive

Do you feel like less of a man when you play a game starring a girl? Or perhaps it fulfills some desires? Or maybe it doesn't make a bit of difference whatsoever! Let's take a quick look at some games with the fairer sex in the leading role. Games Shown: Sega Master System - Phantasy Star Genesis - Monster World IV, Valis 3 SNES - Super Metroid Nintendo 64 - Perfect Dark, Mischief Makers PlayStation 2 - Tomb Raider Anniversary, Space Channel 5: Part 2 PlayStation 3 - Heavenly Sword PlayStation 4 - Alien Isolation *Syd of Valis (Genesis) appears briefly in the Valis 3 segment. *The ending sketch originally went on for a bit longer back and forth between Joe and Dave, but it ended up being cut as it just worked better as it is, super short. *First time we've covered a PS4 game! *Joe bought Alien Isolation just to cover in this episode. Good thing he ended up liking it!

Another interesting system that never left Japan! The NEC PC-FX was the sequel to the TurboGrafx-16 also known as the PC Engine. This system is definitely odd. Would you ever want one of these? Games Shown: PC-FX - Team Innocent, Zeroigar, Boundary Gate, Battle Heat, Tengai Makyo Karakui Kakutouden, Blue Breaker, Welcome to Pia Carrot, Miraculum, Power Dolls FX, Raruli Ra Rura, Der Langrisser FX, Last Imperial Prince, Zenki FX, Fire Woman Matoigumi, Farland Story FX, Dragon Knight 4, Chip Chan Kick, Nirgends *Thanks to Blu BMW for providing the PC-FX system and SamIam for providing some usefull info and PC-FX music!

Let's take a look at more games that seem to do more than you might think a certain platform would be able to do! Games Shown: NES - Kirby's Adventure, Super Mario Bros. 3 Genesis - Gunstar Hereos, Contra Hard Corps Game Boy - Race Drivin', Faceball 2000, Zas Game Boy Color - Dragon's Lair SNES - Rendering Ranger R2, StarFox, Doom, Stunt Race FX, Yoshi's Island PlayStation - Tekken 3 Nintendo 64 - Resident Evil 2, Conker's Bad Fur Day, F-Zero X PlayStation 2 - Shadow of the Colossus, God of War II, Tekken 5, Gran Turismo 4 GameCube - Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II

Like many other companies, SNK tried to take on the Game Boy in the late 90's with this interesting handheld. It didn't last long but it was pretty cool while it was around. So let's look at the system and a bunch of games for it! Games Shown: Metal Slug 1st Mission, Metal Slug 2nd Mission, Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure, King of Fighters R-1, King of Fighters R-2, Dark Arms: Beast Buster 1999, Samurai Shodown, Samurai Shodown 2, Rockman: Battle and Fighters, The Last Blade, The Match of the Millennium: SNK vs Capcom, Neo Turf Masters, Baseball Stars Color, Dynamite Slugger, Pocket Tennis Color, Fatal Fury First Contact, SNK Gals Fighters, Cardfighters' Clash: SNK vs Capcom SNK version, Cardfighters 2 Expand Edition, Biomotor Unitron, Faselei!, Pac-Man, Bust-A-Move Pocket, Puyo Pop, Magical Drop Pocket, Puzzle Link, Puzzle Link 2, Big Bang Pro Wrestling, Cool Boarders Pocket, Evolution: Eternal Dungeons, Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams

Do you like collecting repros of popular, more expensive and harder to find games? Let's look at the ones we have. Games Shown: NES - Sweet Home TurboGrafx-16 CD - Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire, Bonk 3 CD, Dungeon Explorer 2, Godzilla, Dynastic Hero, Cycho Rider, Startling Odyssey 2, Xak III Genesis - Alien Soldier SNES - Starfox 2, BS The Legend of Zelda Ancient Stone Tablets, Shodai Nekketsu Koha Kunio-kun (River City Ransom 2), BS Excitebike, Shockman BS, Magical Pop'n *There were over 130 different camera shots done for this episode which lengthened the production time.

Some games are only available via digital download. But some of these are so good that we'd love physical copies. What games would you like to see physical copies of? Games Shown: Wii - Gradius ReBirth, Contra ReBirth, Castlevania The Adventure ReBirth, Lost Winds, Lost Winds 2 Xbox 360 - Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon PlayStation 3 - After Burner Climax, Daytona USA, Scott Pilgrim vs The Word: The Game, Hard Corps Uprising, Dead Nation 3DS - 3D Space Harrier, 3D Out Run, 3D Super Hang-On, 3D Thunderblade PlayStation 4 - Shovel Knight, FEZ, Axiom Verge *Many games were recorded, edited and then removed because they had physical releases in Japan. Removed segments include the new Strider, Urban Trial Freestyle and Limbo. Urban Trial Freestyle will appear in a future episode. *The ending skit was shot at Dave's house in a timespan of about 45 minutes.

Most consoles require you to obtain an official license to produce games for it and to meet certain quality standards. Not every publisher is willing to do that. So let's take a look at some of the games that were released without the license. Games Shown: NES - Camerica Quattro Adventure and Quattro Arcade, Chiller, Bubble Bath Babes, Tetris (Tengen), Fantasy Zone (Tengen), Shinobi, After Burner, Alien Syndrome, Bee 52, Toobin' Genesis - Barver Battle Saga, V.R. Fighter vs Taken 2, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Sonic Jam 6, Lion King 2, Lion King 3, Shui Hu Feng Yun Zhuan

Don't you love getting one disc with multiple games on it? Yes? No? Well we take a look at a few notable compilations here in this episode. Let us know of some good compilations that we should check out! Games Shown: Sega CD - Sega Classics Arcade Collection PlayStation 2 - Megaman X Collection, Taito Legends, Taito Legends 2, Capcom Classics Collection Volume 2, Fantasy Zone Complete Collection Wii - SNK Arcade Classics Volume 1, Metal Slug Anthology, Kirby's Dream Collection Special Edition Xbox - Capcom Classics Collection Xbox 360 - Namco Museum Virtual Arcade PlayStation 3 - Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection

Kart racers added very fun aspects to the normal "Go faster to win" aspect of most racing games. Here we take a look at some of the more interesting ones. What's your favorite kart racer? How about least favorite? Games Shown: SNES - Super Mario Kart Game Boy Color - Mickey's Speedway USA Game Boy Advance - Mario Kart Super Circuit, Konami Krazy Racers PlayStation - Chocobo Racing Nintendo 64 - Mario Kart 64, South Park Rally, Diddy Kong Racing, Mickey's Speedway USA PlayStation 2 - Pac-Man World Rally, Bomberman Kart Xbox - Crash Nitro Kart GameCube - Mario Kart Double Dash Nintendo DS - Mario Kart DS PSP - Modnation Racers PlayStation 3 - Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing, Little Big Planet Karting Wii - Mario Kart Wii 3DS - Mario Kart 7 Wii U - Mario Kart 8, Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed Arcade - Mario Kart Arcade

Sometimes we just can't figure how to fit certain games into an episode. Well here are some of those games! Guest starring Pat Kilbane as the Humor Coach. Games Shown: NES - Mega Man, Whomp 'Em Game Boy - Gargoyle's Quest Genesis - McDonald's Treasureland Adventure PlayStation - Loaded PlayStation 2 - Downhill Domination PlayStation 3 - Demon's Souls, Urban Trial Freestyle, Dragon's Crown Wii - Muramasa - The Demon Blade PC - Ys Origin *Shot simultaneously with the Gaming Compilations episode.

We've done regular ol' sports games, now lets look at some which are a bit different for the better or worse. Games Shown: NES - Caveman Games, Super Dodge Ball, Punch-Out!! TurboGrafx-16 - Ballistix Genesis - Arch Rivals, NBA Jam, American Gladiators, Jerry Glanville's Pigskin Footbrawl, Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe, Mutant League Football, Mutant League Hockey SNES - Super Punch-Out!! 32X - NBA Jam: Tournament Edition Neo Geo CD - Super Baseball 2020 GameCube - Sega Soccer Slam, Mario Superstar Baseball Wii - Punch-Out!! *Game Sack returned to being weekly starting wit this episode! *This one has been on the burner for a while. Once the previous sports episode hit 60,000+ views we decided it was time to go ahead with this one. Hopefully this one will do much better. *Super Baseball 2020 was recorded specifically for this episode back when the Neo Geo CD episode was made.

Sample or demo discs come in all shapes and sizes. Well actually they're pretty much all the same size and definitely the same shape. But you know what we mean! Let's take a look at some cool demo discs! Games Shown: Turbo Duo - Air Zonk 3-in-1 Kiosk Demo Sega CD - Dragon's Lair Demo CD Saturn - Choice Cuts Sega Saturn Video Sampler, Panzer Dragoon Playable Preview PlayStation - Spyro the Dragon Demo Disc, Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete Demo Disc, Squaresoft Collector's CD, PlayStation Underground Jampack Winter 1998 3DO - 3DO Interactive Sampler #'s 1, 2 and 4 Dreamcast - November 1999, September 2000, December 2000, February 2001 PlayStation 2 - Skygunner Demo CD, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Konami Preview Disc GameCube - Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Bonus Disc, Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike Limited Edition Preview Disc, Mario Kart: Double Dash Bonus Disc

Commodore released this peculiar system in September of 1993 and it was marketed as 32-bit. It only lasted until April of 1994. Let's take a look at the system and some of its games! Games Shown: Amiga CD32 - Arabian Nights, Bubble and Squeak, The Chaos Engine, Beneath a Steel Sky, Bump and Burn, Top Gear 2, Guardian, Super Stardust, Overkill, Lunar-C, Deep Core, Gloom, Roadkill, Pinball Illusions, Pinball Fantasies, Alien Breed Tower Assault, Alien Breed 2, Alien Breed 3D, Zool, Zool 2, Simon the Sorcerer, Superfrog, Battletoads, Skeleton Krew, Liberation, James Pond 2 Codename Robocod, James Pond 3 Operation Starfish, Heimdall 2, Pierre Le Chef is Out to Lunch, Naughty Ones, Disposable Hero, Banshee, Fightin' Spirit

Let's check out some more interesting one-on-one fightin' games! Games Shown: Neo Geo - SvC Chaos: SNK vs Capcom PlayStation - Ehrgeiz, Battle Arena Toshinden 2, Bloody Roar, Bloody Roar 2 Dreamcast - Guilty Gear X Wii - Castlevania Judgment *The arcade versions of Battle Arena Toshinden 2, Erhgeiz and Beastorizer are shown briefly. *A fly was bothering Joe which made him do an animation about punching a fly. The ending was built around this just to use the clip.

Even more great games that were only ever released in Japan. Get your wallet ready. Or your emulator if your wallet is crying for mercy. Games Shown: Game Boy - Noobow SNES - Flying Hero, Ganbare Goemon 2 Saturn - The Game Paradise!, Gale Racer GameCube - Kururin Squash! *Power Drift (Saturn) is shown breifly in the Gale Racer segment. *I don't care what anyone says, Sword of Vermilion is enjoyable!

An extremely large number of video games that originate in Japan are licensed from properties that started as a manga and/or anime. Games Shown: NES - Hokuto No Ken, Hokuto no Ken 3, Hokuto no Ken 4. Fist of the North Star, Golgo 13 Sega Master System - Hokuto no Ken, Black Belt Genesis - Shin Seikimatsu Kyuseishu Densetsu Hokuto no Ken, Last Battle SNES - U.N. Squadron Game Boy Advance - Shamen King: Master of Spirits, Astro Boy Dreamcast - Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage *U.N. Squadron (Arcade), Forgotten Worlds (Turbo Duo) and Lords of Thunder (Turbo Duo) show up briefly in the U.N. Squadron segment. *Both Game Boy Advance games had to be re-recorded as the original videos were of very low quality.

There's been lots and lots of games that have been controversial. So let's look at a few that made some headlines. Games Shown: Genesis - Mortal Kombat SNES - Fighter's History Sega CD - Night Trap PlayStation - Thrill Kill PC - Doom PlayStation 4 - Grand Theft Auto V *Lots of footage from both Senate Hearings Committee meetings from C-SPAN used. *Both Mortal Kombat (SNES) and Mortal Kombat 2 (SNES) make a brief appearance in the Mortal Kombat segment and Fighter's History (Arcade) makes an appearance in it's own segment, obviously.

The Game Boy was a juggernaut for Nintendo despite it's blurry, greenish screen and black and white graphics. So let's take a quick look at a bunch of different Game Boy games and see what all the hubbub was about. Games Shown: Game Boy - Burai Fighter Deluxe, Bionic Commando, Duck Tales 2, The Castlevania Adventure, Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge, Castlevania Legends, Kid Dracula, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX, Pokemon Red Version, The Sword of Hope, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Land, Donkey Kong Land 2, Tetris, Dr. Mario, Solomon's Club, Balloon Kid, Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters, Trax, Revenge of the Gator, Kirby's Pinball Land, Kirby's Dream Land, Kirby's Dream Land 2, Operation C, Contra The Alien Wars, Super Mario Land, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, Nemesis, Gradius: The Interstellar Assault, Metroid II: Return of Samus, Ninja Gaiden Shadow, Space Invaders, Small Soldiers

More arcade games that never got ported to a console. Why not?

Some games that don't get released outside of Japan just aren't very playable to us English-speaking folk. But some dedicated bilingual fans have fixed that for us. You can often play these games on an emulator, an EverDrive-type flash drive on a real console or burning a CD if your console can run that. Games Shown: NES - Akira, Fire Emblem, Cocoron Genesis - Rent A Hero, King Colossus Saturn - Shining Force III: Scenario 2 - Target Child of God, Shining Force 3: Scenario 3 - Bulzome Rising *Shining Force 3: Scenario 1 - God Warrior of the Kingdom (Saturn) makes a brief appearance in the Shining Force 3 segment (duh). *First episode using the Zoom H5 mic which replaced the old Zoom H4n.

Sometimes it sucks to be a gamer in North America as even Europe will get some games from Japan that we don't. Let's take a look at some of them here. Games Shown: NES - Devil World, Trolls in Crazyland, Crackout, Over Horizon Genesis - Zero Wing Game Boy - Hammerin' Harry: Ghost Building Company SNES - Twin Bee: Rainbow Bell Adventure, Terranigma Game Boy Advance - Kuru Kuru Kururin *Joe really enjoyed making the Zero Wing intro voiceover, but Cat's voice in particular caused a bit of vocal strain and he could not finish the rest of the episode's recording until 2 days later.

Let's check out some 3D platformers. Do you prefer 2D or 3D platformers? What 3D platformers would you like us to look at next? Games Shown: Dreamcast - Rayman 2: The Great Escape, Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2 PlayStation 2 - Jak II, Maximo PlayStation 3 - Mirror's Edge Wii - Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Galaxy 2 *Dave originally wanted to cover Journey as a 3D platformer but we decided it was not really much of a platformer. He chose Mirror's Edge instead. Same difference?

You may have heard some bad stuff about certain games or look at them and think that they probably won't deliver much fun. We're here to tell you otherwise. You are required to change all of your opinions after watching this episode. Or not. Games Shown: NES - Milon's Secret Castle TurboGrafx-16 - China Warrior Genesis - Altered Beast, Shadow Blasters SNES - Hook Nintendo 64 - Yoshi's Story *Altered Beast (Arcade, Sega Master System, Famicom, PC Engine and PC Engine CD) all appear briefly in the Altered Beast segment and are involved in a sexy side-by-side comparison. Hook (Sega CD) appears briefly in the Hook segment. Zoom (Genesis) appears briefly in the Shadow Blasters segment. *Dave and Joe both feel that the ending segment sucks almost as much as Beast Wrestler does.

We're both big fans of video pinball. Are you? Video pinball has the capability of doing things that no real pinball table could ever dream of doing. But is that always a good thing? Games Shown: Genesis - Sonic Spinball, Crüe Ball TurboGrafx-16 - Time Cruise Game Boy Advance - Sonic Pinball Party, Pokémon Pinball: Ruby and Sapphire Saturn - Digital Pinball: The Necronomicon PlayStation 2 - Flipnic *Sonic the Hedgehog 1 and also Sonic the Hedgehog 2 appear briefly in the Sonic Spinball segment. *Both Joe and Dave really love video pinball. There are a couple references to the early Naxat Pinball episode if you look closely enough.

We take a look at more shooters on the SNES. Games Shown: SNES - Darius Twin, Super Nova, Strike Gunner STG, D-Force, The Hunt for Red October, Biometal, Imperium, Aero Fighters *Aero Fighters (Arcade) appears briefly in the Aero Fighters segment. *The Super Nova segment was added a week after Joe and Dave got back from Portland and just as Joe was getting over his cold. The rest of Joe's dialog was recorded before the trip to Portland. If you listen closely you can tell. *The controller at the end is real and is the Dempa Micomsoft XE-1AP. The footage of M.U.S.H.A. being played is actual footage of the controller being used with the game. M.U.S.H.A. is one of the few games that are compatible with the analog controller.

Ever have a game (or games) that you just couldn't finish but always wanted to? They taunt you from the shelf, knowing that they are better than you. Will they forever remain unbeaten? Games Shown: NES - Ninja Gaiden, Legendary Wings Sega Master System - Alex Kidd in Shinobi, Lord of the Sword TurboGrafx-16 - The Legendary Axe SNES - Earthworm Jim 2 *Damn these games for getting the best of us! Still, this was a very enjoyable episode to make.

This time we check out some games that Japan missed out on but that multiple other regions enjoyed. How bad do you think Japan felt about not getting these? Games Shown: NES - Adventures in the Magic Kingdom, Batman Returns Genesis - Greendog - The Beached Surfer Dude, Pocahontas, Boogerman SNES - Secret of Evermore, Boogerman *Murumasa (Wii) appears VERY briefly in the Secret of Evermore segment. Batman (Genesis) appears briefly in the Batman Returns segment. *Features some stop motion animation of the Greendog cart inserted into the Genesis

This is it! The most powerful system ever created in the history of time!! At least that's what Chad the mighty Game Lord at SNK would have you believe. Correspondence with him back in the day as well as SNK's ads are what prompted the 'tude of this episode.

Lots of games are released as download-only titles. But hat happens when the service goes offline in the future and you want to play your game on a different system? Physical copies to the rescue! Let's take a look at some games that we were lucky enough to get hard copies of.

So many polygons, so little time. Why not make room for some 2D action which didn't get as much love in the 32-bit era as it should have. Here's some of those games.

There are a lot of fighting games out there and inour quest to cover a good majority of them we bring you the third (actually fourth) installment in our episodes dedicated to one-on-one fighting games.