It's always interesting hearing a fresh opinion on this game (admittedly a childhood / system favourite). Stand out characteristics of it for me are the amazing music, the stage order non-linearity and general non-localised vibe. There are a couple of thing I couldn't help remarking on: Regarding the optional bonus 'training' levels, failing and getting hit by an arrow costs a sliver of health. But if you're a little persistent, hitting arrows (or having them fly into your defensive duck sword move) will yield significant life restoration power ups... So they're kiiiinda like crypto-restorative hot springs as well as challenging gauntlets to master. About that aforementioned attack move - it makes short work of many enemies; keeping the attack button held down makes ducking an instant defensive move - this can be held in place or quickly canceled with moving. Anyway, thanks for the great video
The music was pretty good... it's a shame so many of the tunes were so shrill or I would've gladly put some of the tunes in for the review. Do you like the FM version? It's very twangy! That's interesting to hear about the bonus levels... I do remember getting a few health drops but the perfection required to get through them completely was too much. That's a good point though: even if you can't finish them, they can still yield some good prizes for the effort! I think I knew about the defense move but to me, blocking's like using brakes in racing games... I never remember to until it's too late! These are some great insights. Thank you for sharing them here!
@@hungrygoriya the training levels are hard. Like the respawning enemies you only go ahead in small increments so you don't trigger to many arrows at once. The crouch/sword block serves well throughout the game. Especially in the training areas and with some persistent enemies as well as the first iterations the final boss and his rolling fireball attack. Memorizing the training areas is hard at first but thats 80s hard gaming. When you complete a training stage you can return to get your life bar restored to full as many times as you need. The limited continues is also very 80s hard gaming. The FM music is easy listening compared to the non FM. I find most SMS games music to high pitched. Most of my games are FM thankfully. There is something to completing all levels and having all power ups etc to walk through the final stages and sort out the maze then kick the final bosses ass easily. Conversely, going as direct as possible to the final boss with limited power ups is challenging. Lots to like here. Keep it up! Sorry for the tldr post
@@Koexistence13 I need to get better at using the block button (you can probably tell in that MK3 clip I couldn't find it then either, haha) but yes, all good points here. It's nice that you can return to training rounds to get those bonuses again as many times as you like. I just wish I had been more patient with the training stages! It just didn't feel like a big enough payoff for the time I would've had to spend memorizing. If this was the only game I had as a kid, I would've definitely spent the time to do it. I don't currently have an FM-modded system, but yeah, lots of Master System music has that same shrill voice. I do enjoy lots of PSG tunes and this music was no exception. I wish I could've put it into the review as I normally would but it was competing way too hard with my voice no matter how low I made the volume. It's a shame!
I get so pumped when I see your videos pop up. The Retro scene blew up a while ago but you keep digging up stuff I have never heard of. Love it all. Thank you.
I have such fond memories of Kenseiden. It was such a visually stunning game with a really creepy atmosphere. The enemies and bosses where really frightening. It also had an amazing soundtrack. I don’t remember the game being too difficult.
Did you play it a ton as a kid? I wonder if you got really good at it back then and didn't feel it was hard after a while. That happened to me with The Lion King, which everyone swears up and down is a really tough game, but I don't struggle with it at all. But you're right: the visuals in this game were really cool. They really reminded me of my time with SpellCaster's ambience!
One of the first games I bought on the Master System as a kid, but didn't get very far in it as it was brutally hard. But it was Sega's answer to CastleVania on the console for years before Master of Darkness was released. But, check out the Korean version of the game, released at the height of the country's anti-Japanese imagry laws!
I loved this one... the difficulty almost put me off playing it but I'm glad I stuck with it and saw it through! I did look up the Korean game, and that background piece is very interesting. I had no idea that there were those sorts of laws in existence at that time, but it totally makes sense that they would make their own version! How neat!
@@hungrygoriya Japan's history in the area was not good. Korea suffered heavily from Japanese conquest as well as other countries in the area hence the law. Thanks again for the post
@@hungrygoriya Yeah, there was a huge anti-Japanese sentiment after WWII, they banned all goods and trade with Japan pretty much until the late '90s. So a lot of Korean console games have had all the Japanese-isms removed from their games.
Thanks, my friend! I've slowed down on the Master System stuff since I'm still sad about having no more RPGs left to experience, but this game scratched that itch a little bit.
I had a similar experience with this one; I really didn't care that much for it at first, but once I found out about the new moves you could learn (I think I read it at Hardcore Gaming 101), I committed, and didn't regret it.
You covered that game really well! The game gets considerably easier once you get the vertical slash (after beating the giant wielding a club if I remember). A great point I like about this game is the boss music. It feels like it's a boss theme : dramatic, building up, fast paced, ominous.
You not grabbing that item at 2:56 is still bothering me.. and yes, Harlot Lizards DO sound quite exciting. I commend you for giving this game a fair shake, seeing as it's one of the SMS games that I would say has that typical "SMS feel" to its controls. Nice work, boss!
Haha I cut out the health bar at the top, but I had full health. I just left that alone in case I ended up needing to come back for it or something... And thanks! I am still shocked I made it through the final boss fight. I'm pretty sure I had one hit left and the boss happened to die before me. Thank goodness!
@@hungrygoriya Ah, ok.. that makes perfect sense. It was more a 'me' issue than a 'you' issue :) And I'm pretty sure I felt the same way about getting through this one!
@@TheReNesance I remember we both took a few too many boulders to the shins... I'd love to practice up on this game and come back and destroy it one of these days.
I love this game so much! Brutally difficult and often unfair, but man that feeling you get when you're fully powered up and reach the end of the game was kind of unparalled at the time for me xD
Totally! I loved the feeling of getting so strong and smashing the final boss, though my victory was barely won. I think I had a single hit left. I needed some more practice at the fight I think!
Your game reviews are a throwback to simple times off RUclips. Just like another guy I subbed xygor gaming. You guys get right to review. No avgn ripp off, no stupid gimmick just a solid review. Which were the 3 types of vids back in the day. Idk I'm rambling on fuckin bored at work. Keep up the good vids lady!🤟🏻💯
From now on, "cuddling with the ground" will be my euphemism for dying. I haven't gotten very far in this game, but it's really good. One of the best games I've played for Master System. But, yeah, that difficulty is brutal. And man, those pics make me wish I had the manual and not just a loose cart.
I always find it funny when characters just straight up faceplant when they die like that. But it does look pretty cozy regardless! I hope you'll try to finish it some day! I unfortunately don't have the manual for this one, just the loose cart as well. I borrowed the images from Sega Retro for the review. I'm really grateful they've posted so many resources over there! They even have the official hints page scanned as well!
What a coincidence. I was just thinking of giving this game another go again for the hell of it, and here you are uploading a review. It's one of my all-time favorite games for the system, so I'm glad you got to experience it, too. Your anecdotes remind me very much of how hard it used to kick my ass when I first picked it up, though you also taught me some new things, such as the Up-Up-Down-Down-2 code only working a limited number of times, or the fact that continuing strips you of your life bar and defense upgrades. Thinking about it, Space Harrier on the Master System has similar continue codes: one that's described in the manual but only works three times, and a secret code that works nine times (I think). As for the training stages... yeah, screw those. The only one I ever bother with is the one in 土佐 (Tosa), and that's because that's the only one where the arrows stop showing up once the platforming bit begins. I think at one point I also tried beating the whole game without doing *any* of the training stages, but I can't remember if I had any success with that. That said, tip for the training stages, since I didn't see you doing it in the footage you recorded: use the vertical slash (up+attack) for the arrows. It has more range and is more reliable. It also does twice as much damage as your regular attacks. Speaking of challenge runs, I believe it might actually be possible to beat the game getting only a single upgrade, that being the high jump, which is unskippable, anyway, but you also need it in order to be able to hit the final boss in the face. Unfortunately I was not yet crazy enough to actually try this. ...okay, whew, enough rambling. Thank you for the trip down memory lane, and I'm looking forward to seeing which Master System game you intend to focus on next.
I'm glad I was able to show you something new. I really enjoy learning new things about games I've been playing my entire life. I struggled a lot with Kenseiden for the first bit, but eventually I think I got a handle on it for the most part. You've come bearing lots of great tips for the future for when I pick this one up again! I didn't really consider going to the training stages after struggling with them right at the beginning of the game, so truth be told, I didn't really try them out with any of the move upgrades. That would've made a lot more sense to do and it never dawned on me since I was so frustrated! And is it possible to beat the last guy without any of the upgrades? I only say this because I could NOT avoid the boulders and having my health bar chipped away at while doing measly damage to the boss all powered up was hard enough! I guess with practice you could do it, but it seems ludicrous to me to try personally... I'll leave that up to the professionals! Thanks so much for your insights here.
this channel is a gem I grew up with the game boy advance n ps2(im 26) so to me those are retro games and I've played super Nintendo games on emulator s as a kid thanks to my dad but I've never actually known much about anything past ps1 I never even knew there were handhelds besides the game boy series and the psp lmao
Well you're in for a treat! There's lots to discover heading backwards through gaming. I'm very fond of the 8-bit generation, particularly NES, Master System, and Game Boy.
I remember completing this game as a kid after many, many hours of playing. Back then I really enjoyed it and kept coming back. I tried to play it recently and did ok but I don’t see myself coming back to it again. Good game for its time but it doesn’t have the comeback and play feel as something like Wonderboy 3 or Castlevania on Nes. Great review as always!
Thanks so much for the kindness, as always! And yeah, there's some fun factor here but I agree that it's not as fun as the other games you've mentioned. There are better things to be playing, but for what it is, I think people that like the genre would enjoy it for an occasional playthrough!
Totally! I wanted to include the game music in the review but a lot of it was super shrill and was competing with my voiceover too much. Some of it was awfully catchy! I thought it was a very cool little game that was a lot deeper than I expected it to be!
One of my fav SMS games along with Zillion, Phantasy Star, Quartet, Black Belt, and Space Harrier. I just wish it was longer. I think this and Lord of the Sword came out at the same time in Japan. To me they are very similar in sound and presentation, just this one is vastly darker. And I love this soundtrack!
Oh man... th elast three in your list are such tough games for me to get anywhere in, but I love them! Lord of the Sword's a little more lighthearted in tone, definitely! I really liked Kenseiden though. It was awesome!
Oh I remember this game haha. As a little kid, I loved playing videogames, but it's not like I really understood much about what was going on, console generations or anything of the sort. The thing with this title in particular is that a kid that I used to hangout with had both the nes and a master system and he lent this game to me. I remember because his copy wasn't original. He wrote on the front of the cartridge "Japanese Castlevania". Honestly, seeing a bit of the gameplay, especially when you get to move on the stairs, it does resemble Castlevania a bit in my opinion. I don't remember finishing it though. 6yo me was pretty bad at videogames. Well, to be fair, both the Nes and Master System were pretty old already. I guess Playstation 2 was already a thing, but like I said, it's not like we really understood much about generations and stuff. We were just playing whatever we had. Anyway, thanks for reminding me of this. Always fun remembering a bit of our childhood, I think.
"Japanese Castlevania" is very cute... that's funny! SpellCaster has similar aesthetics, including the very long staircases just like this one, but that game has point and click elements too. I'm glad you have some solid memories with this one.
What a great review! It's so hard to see quality content on RUclips about Master System games! As a brazilian who has made lots of videos about Master System games myself, I really enjoyed seeing your content! I'm not sure if other people told you that, but the main character's color scheme is different on the Japanese version, where he's blonde. Unfortunately they just did a palette swap to make his hair look black in the american version, and that also changed the look of a lot of enemies and even items in the game, which should be more orange-ish and now look more black. A pretty silly change in my opinion, but it definitely doesn't ruin the game.
Yeah someone mentioned some palette swaps for other versions as well as a Korean version? Interesting stuff indeed! I only had the one cartridge so that's what I played and reviewed, but regional difference always intrigue me! And thanks very much about the review! I'm new-ish to the Master System (within the last 10 years or so) and I've really been enjoying the library. As someone that grew up with NES, this feels like more of that kind of gameplay I adore so much. I'll definitely pop over to your channel and have a look! Hopefully I'll learn of some new cool games to check out :)
@@hungrygoriya Exactly! Theres nothing quite like holding physical copy of a game with a manual or reading through a guide, its something so simple but it just enhances the experience so much. :)
Have got a big soft spot for this game, looks really good and its very similar to Spellcaster, which I love. Pity there weren't many role-playing elements, that really would have elevated it to greatness. Always nice to see one of your reviews pop up 👍
Oh I totally agree... I was hopeful it might have some kind of RPG elements tucked away inside like Rygar, but nope! It was still great for what it was though! They can't all be RPGs!
You should see the wiener slices Landau's dishing out in Lord of the Sword! And thanks for the plug... It's been very nice seeing you out at the streams, and here too!
Thanks for doing this one! One of my all-time favorites that I usually revisit once a year. What I found most interesting is that my nostalgia glasses are so thick that I never realized any of your criticisms whenever I played this despite all the times I've played this and every single one of them is more than valid! :-D
Awww see, you're just too good at this game to struggle with it like I did! I can see how it'd stay at the top of a favourites list, especially if you played it when you were younger.
@@hungrygoriya Oh man, it was certainly a challenge at 8 years old, let me tell you! It's funny, I think I'm so used to old games being unfair at times that it doesn't bother me in the present day. I love the setting and music of the game, and I never realized how much better the swordplay was in this one compared to other similar games at the time.
@@kevirdono I can imagine! I struggled at this point now in my 30s and I've played a lot of stuff... And I think having those retro roots does make folks like us a lot more tolerant of shenanigans! Definitely!
Man, the SMS has so many titles I've never heard of. These slower paced platformers have never really been my favorite, but it's still really cool to see their place in history. The graphics are pretty impressive for an SMS game too. Really interesting video!
I am kind of addicted to games that get better with how much time you put into it. Memorizing patterns and what not, and I like that sense of progression! Good lord that stagger damage though! I've never seen such a dramatic fall back. This game looks pretty cool though, kinda looks like it matches the actual art of the cover!
You'd definitely enjoy this one then! That's exactly what it's like... you learn a lot about the small things as you go and eventually know what to look out for. That knock back is something else! I've never experienced anything quite like it before. If you do decide to try this out, there are a few lengthier comments here that give some good tips that I wasn't aware of! I hope you like it if you do!
I just found your channel recently, and became an instant fan. Your content is great. Your voice is perfect for narration. I am happy I became a subscriber.
I played this title some months ago and beat it pretty quickly, but I spent more time on the training stages than the rest of the game 😄 however it's a really solid game, and top-20 material on the Master System
Another nostalgic favourite! My friend had this one and I would always try it out, but I would never last long 😅 I still loved to try as I really loved the graphics and theme. Still one I would love in my collection 😊 If I manage to play again, I’m looking out for those Alex Kid Easter eggs! Never noticed those before and saw him hidden in the background at least twice in your video
I went to the wrong level once and got completely wrecked so I can see why you might not have lasted too long! Others here have said that the training rooms are well worth the effort but I never used any of them. I just spent a lot of time perfecting my path through this one. There are so many Alex Kidd Easter eggs! I was honestly surprised they encased him in stone like that!
That makes sense! It's hard to imagine people renting Master System stuff. I didn't start renting games until the Genesis. I'd love to see what rental displays for the system would've looked like.
It was very impressive! Sometimes you'll rarely get a manual with a game but it's very uncommon now. Lots of that stuff's included in-game, unfortunately.
Thanks for the review! I didn't play Kenseiden at the time, and I was all for tracking it down until I saw you getting pushed backwards repeatedly then off the screen to your doom as a consequence of being hit once. It reminded me of Altered Beast on the Master System, where one enemy could smack you into another at the other side of you, then you'd bounce back and forth while your energy ran out.
A few people in the comments have mentioned being able to cancel the knockback with the attack button, but I swore I panic mashed my entire controller and couldn't break out of it. I haven't played Altered Beast before, but this makes me not want to any time soon! Oh no!
Yeah, that is Alex! Funny how they just made him into a rock in the background! And thanks so much for the kind words and for checking out the video here.
I think the thing I like best about this review is the comparison to other Master System games. I haven't played any SMS games... yet... and its always interesting to me to see comparisons between titles. When I'm thinking about getting myself into Master System collecting, I know where to find some amazing reviews to set me on my way. Thank you again for sharing this with us!
I finally feel like I've played enough other Master System games to draw some good comparisons within the library. Hooray! I can't wait to hear what you think about Master System stuff when you finally get going on it.
Just played it today, made it to the final boss until its skull headed face appeared, then i got hit by a boulder and died. Its a great game, sadly the flaws are a bit too much either it could have been a classic. I m surprised that you didnt mention the defense move ( hold attack and press down) its quite helpful - mostly before you aquire the berserker move and the downward cut. Is the sword getting stronger if you pick more than one katana. The dragon sword upgrade ( jumping head split or how its called) grant you a permanent sword upgrade. I think the block move and this should be mentioned. Great review btw
Honestly, I don't know if I ever used the defense move. I consulted the manual at the beginning and tried to keep track of what moves I got along the way as I played, but I'm pretty sure I didn't use that particular move at all. I didn't know about the Dragon Sword upgrade either. Apparently I didn't stay alive long enough to get a permament upgrade, haha
Great video. Er ... I'm probably focusing on the wrong thing here, but the image of the master warlock, with his raised arms & mangled looking finger feels ... familiar. :)
A good 90% of sega master games I played were rentals. I find plenty of glee seeing many if not most of the ones I played & actually enjoyed here on your channel. Lots of them were chores for just a sitting or two, but many of them have that magic which is hard for me to find in the current gaming climate.
Does this SMS game feature the same exact soundtrack as NES NG1? Listening to that stellar 8bit music in this video review made me seriously crave revisiting that brutally hard 8-bit classic :)
It does not! The PSG version of the soundtrack's pretty shrill and it was making my voice feel buried, so I stuck in some Ninja Gaiden instead. Kenseiden's soundtrack is worth a listen! I hope you have fun with NG1 though!
Neat. I've heard of this - next to _Master of Darkness,_ this is always recommended as an SMS game to play for _Castlevania_ fans - but I never looked much into it. Probably because of that comparison; I don't personally care about 8-bit Castlevanias. Didn't know it was more action packed like other action-platformers at the time; I kinda wanna try my hand at it now! And I do mean action-packed. I mean, yikes, you _were not_ joking - that opening gameplay at 1:30 really shows the game absolutely _assaulting_ you with enemies, lol. You know what you could try sometimes in any old-school game with unrelenting enemies and insane respawns like this? Kiting them. Usually, old platforms like the NES and SMS have a hard limit on how many enemy sprites appear onscreen, right? So if you, say, just get over a skeleton and start walking to the right while keeping him onscreen, their presence will prevent newer sprites from spawning onscreen as you go forward. So if you ever notice a limited number of baddies onscreen, just find two or three relatively slow, harmless enemies and "drag them along" with you to prevent the more annoying/difficult enemies from showing up. Its cheesing your way through, but I do it anyway in games when they get all cheap like that; far as I'm concerned, you're just outsmarting the game :D Then again, I also don't mind save-scumming my way through old-school shooters like Jedi Knight, or modern boomer shooters like Ion Fury, so I'm pretty much _trash_ by old-school gamer standards, lol. Its just a shame that its not a universal thing. Some retro games throw tons of enemies at you even if drawing more than 3 results in horrific frame drops and sprite flicker.... stupid Ninja Gaiden, _*grumble, grumble_ :P
This is very action-heavy, and I think you'd like it! Kenseiden reminds me of the most chaotic parts of Castlevania games, but not nearly as hard to manage as something like the hallway leading up to the reaper in the first game, for example. It's manageable, especially as the game presses on and you get more moves under your belt. I hope you enjoy it when you get around to it! Master of Darkness is also fun but it's really short and relatively easy compared to this. Castlevania games feel much harder to me. And yeah, kiting! I don't know if you could do that very much here... enemies seemed to have a pattern of going slow until they got close to you and then bowling into you. I do take your point though... I've brought enemies along for a walk with me in other games and appreciated the lack of meaner enemies spawning as a result. Good thinking! I still have yet to beat the first Ninja Gaiden game on NES. I made it all the way to the final boss gauntlet my first time playing, and I have a date with destruction... the Master System game is a lot easier at least! Grumble grumble, indeed!
Good review HG. There are some annoying parts but most get less annoying as you play and memorize where the cheap hits can get you. A fun game overall. There are several levels that can be skipped and only a handful of bosses are musts for defeating the final boss. I have only played through the "speed run" routing. I beat the game before I knew about any of the training areas. Holding some attacks allows you to hit some baddies without multiple swings. Showing the Mark III cart I thought you might show some of the visual differences with that version. Mostly color changes. The MK 3 has red/orange hair instead of black. One night I beat the U.S and Japanese game the same night.
Truly, it was hard to keep track of what moves I was actually using to fight against the final boss, but the strength boosts from some of the scrolls (if they were a part of beating those bosses) certainly helped! Unfortunately I don't own a Sega Mark III or any games for it :( I did see another version of the game that was Korean apparently? They changed the look of the protagonist and the map is Korea instead. Pretty cool!
Yay, new review! I really like that you are doing master system stuff, Ive never played the system and knew very little about it so its cool to see some of whats on offer. I *hate* the limited continue system of older games. Im glad that is no longer common. @9:20 the retro review says "...sprites that reak(sic) of Japanese origin" What an odd phrase. Reeking is generally negative so are they saying its bad? Personally I thought the sprites and design were awesome. Except for the characters walk cycle. It looks silly as hell and like he'd be making ditditditdit noises and quietly whispering "yeah, ninja run" to himself as he went
Yeah I didn't really understand whether or not that was a good thing to that reviewer either? I don't really get the tone of a lot of reviewing from back then. I read a few magazines that had really sarcastic-sounding articles from this time and it really surprised me! I liked the sprite design as well when I could see what was going on!
I just recently started collecting for The Master System, had a broken one in my closet for decades, decided to pull it out and look at it while i was home sick with the flu a few weeks ago, and managed to fix it. Managed to finish Double Dragon and Rastan so far. Wanted a castlvania style game and since Master Of Darkness is really expensive, lol, i ordered this game instead. Looking forward to the frustration it is likely to cause, lol.
I'm sure you'll have fun with it! Apparently there's a good defense move I never used in any of this footage, so If you can, give the manual a look and make sure you know how to use that. Apparently it makes the game easier! Congratulations on getting back into some Master System as well!
@@hungrygoriya Yeah its been super fun getting into the Master System. I've owned the thing for like 30 years, friend gave it to me back in the mid 90's. But it was broken. I had actually totally forgot i had it. Was digging through my giant box of random controllers looking for my other Genesis controller, and found the Master System buried down at the bottom. Pulled it out, hooked it up, not working, sound, but no vid, so i take it apart, find the problem, little quick soldiering job and I've got a perfectly working Master System. So its been like its the late 80's again, getting to collect all these games i missed out on as a kid.
@@hungrygoriya Been playing Kenseiden for the past few days. Game is hard as balls, lol. I can get through the first 3 or 4 levels pretty easy now, but the 2nd boss keeps kickin my butt.. The big barbarian looking guy with the club.. Can't figure out how to damage him. Really fun game though. That crouching block move does come in handy. Especially against those flying skulls, hold your sword up to block and they pretty much fly right into it. I find it makes the games easier to control using a Genesis controller instead of that terrible Master System one.. That D-pad.. ugh! lol.
@@jonesy7650 Aha! Glad to hear you're working at it! The guy with the club was a big game stopper for me at first too but once you figure him out, it's easy enough. The whole game's like that! Practice until it's perfect!
A pretty fair analysis of one of the biggest games of my childhood. I agree with you that the continue system is awful and training upgrades shouldn't be taken away by it (the diary is much worse than the continue code in the manual. If memory serves using the code instead will let you keep the upgrades). While the knockback from hits is indeed severe, it is, as you say, a much more methodical game than Ninja Gaiden or even Shinobi. Even as annoying as training sessions are, though, I think it's worth pursuing at least two of them: one for the larger HP bar and at least one of the two defense amulets. Two amulets may be overkill, but are also a possibility.
@@hungrygoriya Did you noticed that when running to the left you can see his left arm swings back and forth and when running to the right his right arm holds the sword's sheath and you can even see the elbow and fist swinging behind. Even most modern 2D games the characters changes stance to the direction facing. A nice defensive and very effective move is crouching down while holding the sword out, most weak enemies will just approach you and die.
@@guuuu666 It's definitely a nice touch! And I think I played this entire game without the defense move. I accidentally ignored it and just went in swinging most of the time.
Great video as usual! If you play it on original hardware, Kenseiden is brutally unforgiving but still pretty good, and it has nice music. If you emulate it and use save states, the game is far less difficult and has much better music via the FM Sound module (which doesn't work on a real non-Japan SMS). I played it on the NES Mini and I'm pretty sure I had a better experience than you did :)
Yeah, I imagine the addition of save states would've really helped with the difficulty here, but I tend to play on original hardware more often than not. I've actually given the FM soundtrack a listen and it's a lot nicer in many ways than the PSG one for this game. I think I could modify my system for that if I felt inclined to but I usually like the PSG sound more!
the pro strat is duck and hold attack! we beat this as kids somehow... but now, good luck getting through the training level where your sensei is chucking spears at you
Interestingly, Kenseiden and Lord of Sword you showed came out very, very close to each other IIRC; maybe even on the same day, at least in Japan? The former is a pretty good game, but you do have to get used to controls for sure. SMS has quite a few ninja games overall, definitely a couple more decent ones, at least.
Oh really? I wasn't aware that they'd come out so close together! It makes sense because they are so similar to one another in quite a few ways. I've been pretty impressed by most of the ninja games I've tried so far. I think the only one I really had experience with on NES growing up was Karate Champ... not super fun after five minutes.
@@hungrygoriya I had to buy a separate game. Shinobi in the box with the instruction manual and Sega poster. I was as giddy as a schoolboy on Friday afternoon. 😁
A rare case where the western box art is actually better than the japanese version. Also amazing that they didn't try to "westernize" this and leaned into it's japanese origin even leaving the kanji on the title screen.
Cool game, the aesthetic makes me of pre-Shinobi meets Castlevania. My guess is the extra continue thing was a glitch, my programmer friend told me that in debugging to save time you can say a bug is an Easter Egg/cheat/feature. Most SEGA cheats were that. This was probably that I'm guessing (say its part of the game and throw it in the manual so we be done debugging 🤣 )
I don't know if you caught it on the "Helpful Hints" still in the video, but there's also a hidden level select code and they ask you to try to find it. I actually discovered the official Sega Hints page on Sega Retro and it's some ridiculous combination that has to do with holding things at startup and then pressing a specific button on the title screen... just wow. Yep, these were probably developer tools! Thanks for watching!
Not many people are making Master System videos anymore and this one is a year old. I was one of those rare people that had both the Nes and Master System starting in 1986 (divorced parents). What's interesting is that while everyone thought Nintendo was the bees knees I always preferred my Master System. Don't get me wrong, I loved my Nintendo (remember that) but Sega scratched an itch the Nes rarely could. Addendum- Whoa...that was very strange. At the very beginning of the video you show Alex Kidd in Shinobi World with Ninja Gaiden music. I was like wait....how? ;)
I've made a lot of Master System reviews here because I was on an adventure game kick for a while. I've played most of those now so while I still do hope to make more on that console in the future, they'll probably be less frequent.
I always thought Shinobi was tough. But this game drove me nuts when my dad hired it from the video store. Took it back the same day and hired dynamite duke. Haha
Oh no! This one's got some puzzling to do and a "correct order" to go through the stages in a sense. You need to get certain abilities to fight certain bosses. Once you find the path though, you're all set!
I'm guessing that a lot of the enemies are based on traditional Japanese folk monsters ("yokai"). There are a LOT of them, and they get very, very weird. Anyway, great review!
@@poolboy22v I think by the end of the game, I'd only done the one really brief training area and abandoned all hope of getting through the rest. Even though I read the manual through, I apparently missed an important move that's essentially a block that would've helped a lot in those places, but I just fought through without the extra cushion. It worked out okay!
I was watching a complete in box copy of this game on Lukiegames and was planning to get it next month as my monthly pickup. It disappeared and now I see this video. I wonder if my favorite youtube celebrity snagged the copy that was almost mine? :)
I promise it wasn't me! The cartridge I showed in the video is mine. I don't have it complete in box by a long stretch. I hope you can find a copy someday though!
@@samp1862 I wish I'd had a Game Gear growing up... my husband has one and I've played a handful of things on there but it's nice that there's some overlap on the Master System as well. I much prefer a larger screen these days!
This is one of my favorite master system games but watching someone play the game without using the down crouch + holding attack button to stop incoming enemies by hitting them every frame is giving me anxiety. I guess this move wasn’t obvious? 👁👄👁 For instance, a spider is coming down from the ceiling, duck and hold your sword out as they kill themselves on your sword, rather than get hit and fall back into a pit. This works so well for many different situations in the game since monsters mostly just run at your front.
I think I did mention somewhere in the review that I'm bad at remembering combo moves... I didn't use it much at all, but I still made it through the game just fine... eventually, haha! Sorry for the anxiety!
Thanks for the reply and the review! If you give the game a go again try holding down and attack when something is coming at you like the 4 flaming skulls. It’s so satisfying!
Things I've learned: When you lose all your lives and go back to the title screen, you still have your scroll power-ups. It seems the only training round power-up you lose is the extended life bar. How I know this: When you finish any training stage and get its prize, then you enter the training building again, the man tells you to take a rest and your health bar replenishes. You cannot play through since you've already gained the prize. Last night I died, returned to the title screen, then entered the game again. My health bar was short, so I went to the training round to increase it again. Then I went to the early training round with the blue defense item, but the man told me to take a rest instead. In sum, when you return to the title screen and replay again, you do not lose all training round power-ups, just the extended life bar.
I had this game growing up and I have no trouble getting through it without using any continues. I’m not even that good at gaming. As far as the knock back, if you push the attack button when you are knocked back, I believe it stops you from the stumble.
You are truly a master of this one then! I think with practice I could get there too, but I spent an afternoon with it learning the game from scratch and juuuuust snuck by at the final boss with a single hit left! I swear I panic mashed all the buttons trying to cancel the stumbling, but I'll keep that in mind next time I try this. Thanks!
@@hungrygoriya lol I think I had plenty of time to practice when I was a kid with not many other games to play. It’s defined easier if you go through all the training stages and get the upgrades :)
Awesome review a youtuber who is great a getting colour out of the Genesis/Megadrive name Master Linkuei is doing a Version of this game for that console.
My cousin had the Master System growing up and I had the NES. This game was one I always looked forward to playing when I visited him on the weekends. Also, I'm glad you haven't given in and fallen victim to the lame trend of posing with silly faces in your thumbnail preview like almost every other videogame RUclipsr.
@@hungrygoriya I was with my cousin a ton while growing up, so we had a very spoiled videogame life. I had the Atari 2600, the Commodore 64 and the NES. He had the Sega Master System, the Atari 7800, Colecovision and was one of the very rare 1989 launch Sega Genesis kids. So through each other, we experienced just about everything you could from 1977-1991. It truly was incredible; the amount of games we experienced, when compared to our classmates.
@@hungrygoriya Well, the Master System library wasn't very large, so you've probably played all the genre has to offer. These aren't in your RPG/Adventure genre, but R-Type, Rastan and Shinobi are solid NES level titles. Some Genesis games you might want to check out that are in your action/RPG realm that I liked were: Buck Rogers: Battle for the 25th Century and King's Bounty: The Conquer's Quest. Both games were way better than I ever thought they were going to be (Especially King's Bounty (still addicting to this day)). Back in 1991, Electronic Arts had buy 2 games, get 1 game free. I mowed lawns back then, so had pretty good money for a 13 year old. Each time I bought 2 games that I knew I wanted, I would then always pick a random game as my free one. I ended up with 9 EA games in total when it was all said and done (6 paid for and 3 free). That went awesome 2 times out of 3, as I got Buck Rogers and King's Bounty for free. My third free game was Sword of Sodan and I don't want to talk about it...
@@randycruel I took some notes here, especially about the Genesis stuff! Thanks for the recommendations! And Sword of Sodan will remain not in my house as long as possible!
The momentum definitely isn't there, but I thought it was impressive for what it was... lots of freedom to roam around different stages from the beginning, interesting enemies, non-linear levels... there's lots here!
@@hungrygoriya I played both versions and had that impression, but maybe it was my imagination. I know that some NES games have differences in difficulty between versions, like Castlevania 3. The Western version was more difficult than the Japanese one.
It's always interesting hearing a fresh opinion on this game (admittedly a childhood / system favourite).
Stand out characteristics of it for me are the amazing music, the stage order non-linearity and general non-localised vibe.
There are a couple of thing I couldn't help remarking on:
Regarding the optional bonus 'training' levels, failing and getting hit by an arrow costs a sliver of health. But if you're a little persistent, hitting arrows (or having them fly into your defensive duck sword move) will yield significant life restoration power ups... So they're kiiiinda like crypto-restorative hot springs as well as challenging gauntlets to master.
About that aforementioned attack move - it makes short work of many enemies; keeping the attack button held down makes ducking an instant defensive move - this can be held in place or quickly canceled with moving.
Anyway, thanks for the great video
The music was pretty good... it's a shame so many of the tunes were so shrill or I would've gladly put some of the tunes in for the review. Do you like the FM version? It's very twangy!
That's interesting to hear about the bonus levels... I do remember getting a few health drops but the perfection required to get through them completely was too much. That's a good point though: even if you can't finish them, they can still yield some good prizes for the effort!
I think I knew about the defense move but to me, blocking's like using brakes in racing games... I never remember to until it's too late! These are some great insights. Thank you for sharing them here!
@@hungrygoriya the training levels are hard. Like the respawning enemies you only go ahead in small increments so you don't trigger to many arrows at once. The crouch/sword block serves well throughout the game. Especially in the training areas and with some persistent enemies as well as the first iterations the final boss and his rolling fireball attack.
Memorizing the training areas is hard at first but thats 80s hard gaming. When you complete a training stage you can return to get your life bar restored to full as many times as you need.
The limited continues is also very 80s hard gaming.
The FM music is easy listening compared to the non FM. I find most SMS games
music to high pitched. Most of my games are FM thankfully.
There is something to completing all levels and having all power ups etc to walk through the final stages and sort out the maze then kick the final bosses ass easily. Conversely, going as direct as possible to the final boss with limited power ups is challenging. Lots to like here.
Keep it up! Sorry for the tldr post
@@Koexistence13 I need to get better at using the block button (you can probably tell in that MK3 clip I couldn't find it then either, haha) but yes, all good points here. It's nice that you can return to training rounds to get those bonuses again as many times as you like. I just wish I had been more patient with the training stages! It just didn't feel like a big enough payoff for the time I would've had to spend memorizing. If this was the only game I had as a kid, I would've definitely spent the time to do it.
I don't currently have an FM-modded system, but yeah, lots of Master System music has that same shrill voice. I do enjoy lots of PSG tunes and this music was no exception. I wish I could've put it into the review as I normally would but it was competing way too hard with my voice no matter how low I made the volume. It's a shame!
I get so pumped when I see your videos pop up. The Retro scene blew up a while ago but you keep digging up stuff I have never heard of. Love it all. Thank you.
Thanks so much for the kindness! I appreciate it :)
This is my favorite SMS game, the graphics, the music being a bit dark, and the characters. Great review 👏
It was awesome! I loved putting the pieces together about the stage order as well.
I have such fond memories of Kenseiden. It was such a visually stunning game with a really creepy atmosphere. The enemies and bosses where really frightening. It also had an amazing soundtrack. I don’t remember the game being too difficult.
Did you play it a ton as a kid? I wonder if you got really good at it back then and didn't feel it was hard after a while. That happened to me with The Lion King, which everyone swears up and down is a really tough game, but I don't struggle with it at all.
But you're right: the visuals in this game were really cool. They really reminded me of my time with SpellCaster's ambience!
One of the first games I bought on the Master System as a kid, but didn't get very far in it as it was brutally hard. But it was Sega's answer to CastleVania on the console for years before Master of Darkness was released.
But, check out the Korean version of the game, released at the height of the country's anti-Japanese imagry laws!
Have that on an emulator. This game is awesome to me. Hard at first then rewarding to kick its ass
I loved this one... the difficulty almost put me off playing it but I'm glad I stuck with it and saw it through!
I did look up the Korean game, and that background piece is very interesting. I had no idea that there were those sorts of laws in existence at that time, but it totally makes sense that they would make their own version! How neat!
@@hungrygoriya Japan's history in the area was not good. Korea suffered heavily from Japanese conquest as well as other countries in the area hence the law. Thanks again for the post
@@hungrygoriya Yeah, there was a huge anti-Japanese sentiment after WWII, they banned all goods and trade with Japan pretty much until the late '90s. So a lot of Korean console games have had all the Japanese-isms removed from their games.
@@Koexistence13 Thanks for this. I am not up to speed on world history from that area in the slightest.
I really like that you review so many games I had never even heard of.
Happy to be of service here! Thanks very much :)
Always happy to see more Master System love! Great video as always
Thanks, my friend! I've slowed down on the Master System stuff since I'm still sad about having no more RPGs left to experience, but this game scratched that itch a little bit.
Solid agree with both statements.
I had a similar experience with this one; I really didn't care that much for it at first, but once I found out about the new moves you could learn (I think I read it at Hardcore Gaming 101), I committed, and didn't regret it.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one that wanted to call it quits at first. It seemed impossible!
You covered that game really well! The game gets considerably easier once you get the vertical slash (after beating the giant wielding a club if I remember).
A great point I like about this game is the boss music. It feels like it's a boss theme : dramatic, building up, fast paced, ominous.
Thanks very much! I enjoyed it and I hope others will give it a try. I agree about the boss music too. Very foreboding!
You not grabbing that item at 2:56 is still bothering me.. and yes, Harlot Lizards DO sound quite exciting. I commend you for giving this game a fair shake, seeing as it's one of the SMS games that I would say has that typical "SMS feel" to its controls. Nice work, boss!
Haha I cut out the health bar at the top, but I had full health. I just left that alone in case I ended up needing to come back for it or something...
And thanks! I am still shocked I made it through the final boss fight. I'm pretty sure I had one hit left and the boss happened to die before me. Thank goodness!
@@hungrygoriya Ah, ok.. that makes perfect sense. It was more a 'me' issue than a 'you' issue :) And I'm pretty sure I felt the same way about getting through this one!
@@TheReNesance I remember we both took a few too many boulders to the shins... I'd love to practice up on this game and come back and destroy it one of these days.
@@hungrygoriya there are so many better games to play!!
It sure seems a very struggly game to beat! Awesome review as always, Hungry!
Thanks so much for stopping by! This was definitely a fun one despite the struggles. Hope you're well!
@Boco Corwin I agree wholeheartedly. I'd gladly call games struggly!
Looks really good for MS game
I think it does too! It has a pretty drab colour palette compared to so many other games, but it has a lot of charm!
I love this game so much! Brutally difficult and often unfair, but man that feeling you get when you're fully powered up and reach the end of the game was kind of unparalled at the time for me xD
Totally! I loved the feeling of getting so strong and smashing the final boss, though my victory was barely won. I think I had a single hit left. I needed some more practice at the fight I think!
Really enjoyed this review. It makes me excited to play it some day!
I hope I get to see it when you do! It's a fun one!
Play it soon. Good game.
Your game reviews are a throwback to simple times off RUclips. Just like another guy I subbed xygor gaming. You guys get right to review. No avgn ripp off, no stupid gimmick just a solid review.
Which were the 3 types of vids back in the day. Idk I'm rambling on fuckin bored at work. Keep up the good vids lady!🤟🏻💯
Hey thanks! I haven't heard of that other channel but I'll definitely check it out. Hope your work day went by quickly!
From now on, "cuddling with the ground" will be my euphemism for dying. I haven't gotten very far in this game, but it's really good. One of the best games I've played for Master System. But, yeah, that difficulty is brutal.
And man, those pics make me wish I had the manual and not just a loose cart.
I always find it funny when characters just straight up faceplant when they die like that. But it does look pretty cozy regardless!
I hope you'll try to finish it some day! I unfortunately don't have the manual for this one, just the loose cart as well. I borrowed the images from Sega Retro for the review. I'm really grateful they've posted so many resources over there! They even have the official hints page scanned as well!
What a coincidence. I was just thinking of giving this game another go again for the hell of it, and here you are uploading a review. It's one of my all-time favorite games for the system, so I'm glad you got to experience it, too.
Your anecdotes remind me very much of how hard it used to kick my ass when I first picked it up, though you also taught me some new things, such as the Up-Up-Down-Down-2 code only working a limited number of times, or the fact that continuing strips you of your life bar and defense upgrades. Thinking about it, Space Harrier on the Master System has similar continue codes: one that's described in the manual but only works three times, and a secret code that works nine times (I think).
As for the training stages... yeah, screw those. The only one I ever bother with is the one in 土佐 (Tosa), and that's because that's the only one where the arrows stop showing up once the platforming bit begins. I think at one point I also tried beating the whole game without doing *any* of the training stages, but I can't remember if I had any success with that. That said, tip for the training stages, since I didn't see you doing it in the footage you recorded: use the vertical slash (up+attack) for the arrows. It has more range and is more reliable. It also does twice as much damage as your regular attacks.
Speaking of challenge runs, I believe it might actually be possible to beat the game getting only a single upgrade, that being the high jump, which is unskippable, anyway, but you also need it in order to be able to hit the final boss in the face. Unfortunately I was not yet crazy enough to actually try this.
...okay, whew, enough rambling. Thank you for the trip down memory lane, and I'm looking forward to seeing which Master System game you intend to focus on next.
I'm glad I was able to show you something new. I really enjoy learning new things about games I've been playing my entire life.
I struggled a lot with Kenseiden for the first bit, but eventually I think I got a handle on it for the most part. You've come bearing lots of great tips for the future for when I pick this one up again! I didn't really consider going to the training stages after struggling with them right at the beginning of the game, so truth be told, I didn't really try them out with any of the move upgrades. That would've made a lot more sense to do and it never dawned on me since I was so frustrated!
And is it possible to beat the last guy without any of the upgrades? I only say this because I could NOT avoid the boulders and having my health bar chipped away at while doing measly damage to the boss all powered up was hard enough! I guess with practice you could do it, but it seems ludicrous to me to try personally... I'll leave that up to the professionals!
Thanks so much for your insights here.
this channel is a gem I grew up with the game boy advance n ps2(im 26) so to me those are retro games and I've played super Nintendo games on emulator s as a kid thanks to my dad but I've never actually known much about anything past ps1 I never even knew there were handhelds besides the game boy series and the psp lmao
Well you're in for a treat! There's lots to discover heading backwards through gaming. I'm very fond of the 8-bit generation, particularly NES, Master System, and Game Boy.
I remember completing this game as a kid after many, many hours of playing. Back then I really enjoyed it and kept coming back. I tried to play it recently and did ok but I don’t see myself coming back to it again. Good game for its time but it doesn’t have the comeback and play feel as something like Wonderboy 3 or Castlevania on Nes. Great review as always!
Thanks so much for the kindness, as always! And yeah, there's some fun factor here but I agree that it's not as fun as the other games you've mentioned. There are better things to be playing, but for what it is, I think people that like the genre would enjoy it for an occasional playthrough!
One of my all time favs on the master system. The music was awesome.
Totally! I wanted to include the game music in the review but a lot of it was super shrill and was competing with my voiceover too much. Some of it was awfully catchy! I thought it was a very cool little game that was a lot deeper than I expected it to be!
One of my fav SMS games along with Zillion, Phantasy Star, Quartet, Black Belt, and Space Harrier. I just wish it was longer. I think this and Lord of the Sword came out at the same time in Japan. To me they are very similar in sound and presentation, just this one is vastly darker. And I love this soundtrack!
Oh man... th elast three in your list are such tough games for me to get anywhere in, but I love them! Lord of the Sword's a little more lighthearted in tone, definitely! I really liked Kenseiden though. It was awesome!
A classic and still very much playable. For 1986, this game was actually quite ambitious and competent.
It's a fantastic game!
Oh I remember this game haha. As a little kid, I loved playing videogames, but it's not like I really understood much about what was going on, console generations or anything of the sort. The thing with this title in particular is that a kid that I used to hangout with had both the nes and a master system and he lent this game to me. I remember because his copy wasn't original. He wrote on the front of the cartridge "Japanese Castlevania". Honestly, seeing a bit of the gameplay, especially when you get to move on the stairs, it does resemble Castlevania a bit in my opinion.
I don't remember finishing it though. 6yo me was pretty bad at videogames. Well, to be fair, both the Nes and Master System were pretty old already. I guess Playstation 2 was already a thing, but like I said, it's not like we really understood much about generations and stuff. We were just playing whatever we had.
Anyway, thanks for reminding me of this. Always fun remembering a bit of our childhood, I think.
"Japanese Castlevania" is very cute... that's funny! SpellCaster has similar aesthetics, including the very long staircases just like this one, but that game has point and click elements too.
I'm glad you have some solid memories with this one.
Loved this game! I’d forgotten about it…
Nice review! I enjoy learning about SMS games since nobody I knew growing up had one.
I'm in the same boat as you... it's been a joy experiencing the library and being able to share that with everyone. Thanks very much!
What a great review! It's so hard to see quality content on RUclips about Master System games! As a brazilian who has made lots of videos about Master System games myself, I really enjoyed seeing your content!
I'm not sure if other people told you that, but the main character's color scheme is different on the Japanese version, where he's blonde. Unfortunately they just did a palette swap to make his hair look black in the american version, and that also changed the look of a lot of enemies and even items in the game, which should be more orange-ish and now look more black. A pretty silly change in my opinion, but it definitely doesn't ruin the game.
Yeah someone mentioned some palette swaps for other versions as well as a Korean version? Interesting stuff indeed! I only had the one cartridge so that's what I played and reviewed, but regional difference always intrigue me!
And thanks very much about the review! I'm new-ish to the Master System (within the last 10 years or so) and I've really been enjoying the library. As someone that grew up with NES, this feels like more of that kind of gameplay I adore so much.
I'll definitely pop over to your channel and have a look! Hopefully I'll learn of some new cool games to check out :)
Classic games always felt far more complete when paired with the manuals/strategy guides! I miss it! :')
Me too! It's a shame that games come with so little these days. I don't like the digital media nearly as much.
@@hungrygoriya Exactly! Theres nothing quite like holding physical copy of a game with a manual or reading through a guide, its something so simple but it just enhances the experience so much. :)
Have got a big soft spot for this game, looks really good and its very similar to Spellcaster, which I love. Pity there weren't many role-playing elements, that really would have elevated it to greatness. Always nice to see one of your reviews pop up 👍
Oh I totally agree... I was hopeful it might have some kind of RPG elements tucked away inside like Rygar, but nope! It was still great for what it was though! They can't all be RPGs!
8:24 "Close to the body wiener slice". If you aren't watching HungryGoryia on Twitch, you're missing out.
You should see the wiener slices Landau's dishing out in Lord of the Sword! And thanks for the plug... It's been very nice seeing you out at the streams, and here too!
Agreed on the continue code. Good review! This was kinda like my (and I guess other SMS owners) Castlevania at the time
Thanks so much! This definitely does have a few parallels with Castlevania, you're right!
Thanks for doing this one! One of my all-time favorites that I usually revisit once a year. What I found most interesting is that my nostalgia glasses are so thick that I never realized any of your criticisms whenever I played this despite all the times I've played this and every single one of them is more than valid! :-D
Awww see, you're just too good at this game to struggle with it like I did! I can see how it'd stay at the top of a favourites list, especially if you played it when you were younger.
@@hungrygoriya Oh man, it was certainly a challenge at 8 years old, let me tell you! It's funny, I think I'm so used to old games being unfair at times that it doesn't bother me in the present day. I love the setting and music of the game, and I never realized how much better the swordplay was in this one compared to other similar games at the time.
@@kevirdono I can imagine! I struggled at this point now in my 30s and I've played a lot of stuff...
And I think having those retro roots does make folks like us a lot more tolerant of shenanigans! Definitely!
@@hungrygoriya 100 percent!
Agreed
Another quality review. Love it. :-)
Thank you for checking it out!
This was one of my favorites.❤
It's definitely a great Master System game!
Man, the SMS has so many titles I've never heard of. These slower paced platformers have never really been my favorite, but it's still really cool to see their place in history. The graphics are pretty impressive for an SMS game too. Really interesting video!
Thanks so much! I enjoy the exploring parts more than the platforming.
I am kind of addicted to games that get better with how much time you put into it. Memorizing patterns and what not, and I like that sense of progression! Good lord that stagger damage though! I've never seen such a dramatic fall back. This game looks pretty cool though, kinda looks like it matches the actual art of the cover!
You'd definitely enjoy this one then! That's exactly what it's like... you learn a lot about the small things as you go and eventually know what to look out for.
That knock back is something else! I've never experienced anything quite like it before. If you do decide to try this out, there are a few lengthier comments here that give some good tips that I wasn't aware of! I hope you like it if you do!
You can stop yourself from the knock-back if you hit the attack or jump button while being knocked back.
- Hit on an incline
- fall down the stairs
- should've gotten life alert
I vote yes for a Ninja Gaiden Master System review!
It's one I've wanted to review for a long time! It'll come down the pipe sooner or later!
I just found your channel recently, and became an instant fan. Your content is great. Your voice is perfect for narration. I am happy I became a subscriber.
Thanks very much!
In an alternate universe, a Harlot Lizard is a playable character in Super Smash Bros.
I'm sure many people would choose that as their main!
Thank you for the inclusion of that Mortal Kombat 3 clip
Thank you for bringing it to life! It was perfect for illustrating my combo ineptitude, haha
Another great review! I always wanted this as a kid.
Thanks very much! Have you gotten a chance to play it since then?
I loved this game as a kid! Also, the plural of "ninja" and "samurai" is ninja and samurai 😃
I looked this up and I think both are acceptable? Either way, glad you liked the game. Me too!
I'll give it this, I don't think I've ever seen a harlot lizard in a game before. :)
I played this title some months ago and beat it pretty quickly, but I spent more time on the training stages than the rest of the game 😄 however it's a really solid game, and top-20 material on the Master System
Those training stages were so intense... I believe it!
I'm not familiar with this game on the Master System. Thanks for the review. You do a great job on these videos.
Wow this game looks brutal!
It's not bad honestly... I liked it once I got over the initial difficulty hump.
Another nostalgic favourite! My friend had this one and I would always try it out, but I would never last long 😅 I still loved to try as I really loved the graphics and theme. Still one I would love in my collection 😊
If I manage to play again, I’m looking out for those Alex Kid Easter eggs! Never noticed those before and saw him hidden in the background at least twice in your video
I went to the wrong level once and got completely wrecked so I can see why you might not have lasted too long! Others here have said that the training rooms are well worth the effort but I never used any of them. I just spent a lot of time perfecting my path through this one.
There are so many Alex Kidd Easter eggs! I was honestly surprised they encased him in stone like that!
Thanks for another great review Goriya !!!😃
My pleasure! Thanks for taking the time to watch.
If I had to guess, sticking the code for continue mode in the manual was a way to thwart off casually beating the game as a rental.
That makes sense! It's hard to imagine people renting Master System stuff. I didn't start renting games until the Genesis. I'd love to see what rental displays for the system would've looked like.
Remarkably detailed manual. I'm without a current era console, do they have any paper with physical copies these days?
It was very impressive! Sometimes you'll rarely get a manual with a game but it's very uncommon now. Lots of that stuff's included in-game, unfortunately.
Thanks for the review! I didn't play Kenseiden at the time, and I was all for tracking it down until I saw you getting pushed backwards repeatedly then off the screen to your doom as a consequence of being hit once. It reminded me of Altered Beast on the Master System, where one enemy could smack you into another at the other side of you, then you'd bounce back and forth while your energy ran out.
A few people in the comments have mentioned being able to cancel the knockback with the attack button, but I swore I panic mashed my entire controller and couldn't break out of it. I haven't played Altered Beast before, but this makes me not want to any time soon! Oh no!
Another great video as usual. Thank you!!!
Thanks for watching :)
In 3:49, is Alex on the backgorund ?? Ohh, and great review, i really like your work. Salutes from south of Brazil =D
Yeah, that is Alex! Funny how they just made him into a rock in the background! And thanks so much for the kind words and for checking out the video here.
I think the thing I like best about this review is the comparison to other Master System games. I haven't played any SMS games... yet... and its always interesting to me to see comparisons between titles. When I'm thinking about getting myself into Master System collecting, I know where to find some amazing reviews to set me on my way. Thank you again for sharing this with us!
I finally feel like I've played enough other Master System games to draw some good comparisons within the library. Hooray! I can't wait to hear what you think about Master System stuff when you finally get going on it.
Just played it today, made it to the final boss until its skull headed face appeared, then i got hit by a boulder and died.
Its a great game, sadly the flaws are a bit too much either it could have been a classic.
I m surprised that you didnt mention the defense move ( hold attack and press down) its quite helpful - mostly before you aquire the berserker move and the downward cut.
Is the sword getting stronger if you pick more than one katana. The dragon sword upgrade ( jumping head split or how its called) grant you a permanent sword upgrade. I think the block move and this should be mentioned. Great review btw
Honestly, I don't know if I ever used the defense move. I consulted the manual at the beginning and tried to keep track of what moves I got along the way as I played, but I'm pretty sure I didn't use that particular move at all. I didn't know about the Dragon Sword upgrade either. Apparently I didn't stay alive long enough to get a permament upgrade, haha
Great video. Er ... I'm probably focusing on the wrong thing here, but the image of the master warlock, with his raised arms & mangled looking finger feels ... familiar. :)
Get your Genie Wheel nightmares out of my head!
A good 90% of sega master games I played were rentals. I find plenty of glee seeing many if not most of the ones I played & actually enjoyed here on your channel.
Lots of them were chores for just a sitting or two, but many of them have that magic which is hard for me to find in the current gaming climate.
I'm glad to know you've managed to connect with so many games! The Master System has lots of good stuff to enjoy.
Does this SMS game feature the same exact soundtrack as NES NG1?
Listening to that stellar 8bit music in this video review made me seriously crave revisiting that brutally hard 8-bit classic :)
It does not! The PSG version of the soundtrack's pretty shrill and it was making my voice feel buried, so I stuck in some Ninja Gaiden instead. Kenseiden's soundtrack is worth a listen! I hope you have fun with NG1 though!
Neat. I've heard of this - next to _Master of Darkness,_ this is always recommended as an SMS game to play for _Castlevania_ fans - but I never looked much into it. Probably because of that comparison; I don't personally care about 8-bit Castlevanias. Didn't know it was more action packed like other action-platformers at the time; I kinda wanna try my hand at it now! And I do mean action-packed. I mean, yikes, you _were not_ joking - that opening gameplay at 1:30 really shows the game absolutely _assaulting_ you with enemies, lol.
You know what you could try sometimes in any old-school game with unrelenting enemies and insane respawns like this? Kiting them. Usually, old platforms like the NES and SMS have a hard limit on how many enemy sprites appear onscreen, right? So if you, say, just get over a skeleton and start walking to the right while keeping him onscreen, their presence will prevent newer sprites from spawning onscreen as you go forward. So if you ever notice a limited number of baddies onscreen, just find two or three relatively slow, harmless enemies and "drag them along" with you to prevent the more annoying/difficult enemies from showing up.
Its cheesing your way through, but I do it anyway in games when they get all cheap like that; far as I'm concerned, you're just outsmarting the game :D Then again, I also don't mind save-scumming my way through old-school shooters like Jedi Knight, or modern boomer shooters like Ion Fury, so I'm pretty much _trash_ by old-school gamer standards, lol. Its just a shame that its not a universal thing. Some retro games throw tons of enemies at you even if drawing more than 3 results in horrific frame drops and sprite flicker.... stupid Ninja Gaiden, _*grumble, grumble_ :P
This is very action-heavy, and I think you'd like it! Kenseiden reminds me of the most chaotic parts of Castlevania games, but not nearly as hard to manage as something like the hallway leading up to the reaper in the first game, for example. It's manageable, especially as the game presses on and you get more moves under your belt. I hope you enjoy it when you get around to it! Master of Darkness is also fun but it's really short and relatively easy compared to this. Castlevania games feel much harder to me.
And yeah, kiting! I don't know if you could do that very much here... enemies seemed to have a pattern of going slow until they got close to you and then bowling into you. I do take your point though... I've brought enemies along for a walk with me in other games and appreciated the lack of meaner enemies spawning as a result. Good thinking!
I still have yet to beat the first Ninja Gaiden game on NES. I made it all the way to the final boss gauntlet my first time playing, and I have a date with destruction... the Master System game is a lot easier at least! Grumble grumble, indeed!
big brain moves
Good review HG.
There are some annoying parts but most get less annoying as you play and memorize where the cheap hits can get you. A fun game overall.
There are several levels that can be skipped and only a handful of bosses are musts for defeating the final boss. I have only played through the "speed run" routing. I beat the game before I knew about any of the training areas. Holding some attacks allows you to hit some baddies without multiple swings.
Showing the Mark III cart I thought you might show some of the visual differences with that version. Mostly color changes. The MK 3 has red/orange hair instead of black.
One night I beat the U.S and Japanese game the same night.
Truly, it was hard to keep track of what moves I was actually using to fight against the final boss, but the strength boosts from some of the scrolls (if they were a part of beating those bosses) certainly helped!
Unfortunately I don't own a Sega Mark III or any games for it :( I did see another version of the game that was Korean apparently? They changed the look of the protagonist and the map is Korea instead. Pretty cool!
@@hungrygoriya I would like to get a Korean gamboy and some games. The small changes between areas can be really cool to see.
Yay, new review! I really like that you are doing master system stuff, Ive never played the system and knew very little about it so its cool to see some of whats on offer. I *hate* the limited continue system of older games. Im glad that is no longer common.
@9:20 the retro review says "...sprites that reak(sic) of Japanese origin"
What an odd phrase. Reeking is generally negative so are they saying its bad?
Personally I thought the sprites and design were awesome.
Except for the characters walk cycle. It looks silly as hell and like he'd be making ditditditdit noises and quietly whispering "yeah, ninja run" to himself as he went
Yeah I didn't really understand whether or not that was a good thing to that reviewer either? I don't really get the tone of a lot of reviewing from back then. I read a few magazines that had really sarcastic-sounding articles from this time and it really surprised me! I liked the sprite design as well when I could see what was going on!
I just recently started collecting for The Master System, had a broken one in my closet for decades, decided to pull it out and look at it while i was home sick with the flu a few weeks ago, and managed to fix it. Managed to finish Double Dragon and Rastan so far. Wanted a castlvania style game and since Master Of Darkness is really expensive, lol, i ordered this game instead. Looking forward to the frustration it is likely to cause, lol.
I'm sure you'll have fun with it! Apparently there's a good defense move I never used in any of this footage, so If you can, give the manual a look and make sure you know how to use that. Apparently it makes the game easier! Congratulations on getting back into some Master System as well!
@@hungrygoriya Yeah its been super fun getting into the Master System. I've owned the thing for like 30 years, friend gave it to me back in the mid 90's. But it was broken. I had actually totally forgot i had it. Was digging through my giant box of random controllers looking for my other Genesis controller, and found the Master System buried down at the bottom. Pulled it out, hooked it up, not working, sound, but no vid, so i take it apart, find the problem, little quick soldiering job and I've got a perfectly working Master System. So its been like its the late 80's again, getting to collect all these games i missed out on as a kid.
@@jonesy7650 What a relief it was an easy fix! Right on!
@@hungrygoriya Been playing Kenseiden for the past few days. Game is hard as balls, lol. I can get through the first 3 or 4 levels pretty easy now, but the 2nd boss keeps kickin my butt.. The big barbarian looking guy with the club.. Can't figure out how to damage him. Really fun game though. That crouching block move does come in handy. Especially against those flying skulls, hold your sword up to block and they pretty much fly right into it. I find it makes the games easier to control using a Genesis controller instead of that terrible Master System one.. That D-pad.. ugh! lol.
@@jonesy7650 Aha! Glad to hear you're working at it! The guy with the club was a big game stopper for me at first too but once you figure him out, it's easy enough. The whole game's like that! Practice until it's perfect!
A pretty fair analysis of one of the biggest games of my childhood. I agree with you that the continue system is awful and training upgrades shouldn't be taken away by it (the diary is much worse than the continue code in the manual. If memory serves using the code instead will let you keep the upgrades). While the knockback from hits is indeed severe, it is, as you say, a much more methodical game than Ninja Gaiden or even Shinobi.
Even as annoying as training sessions are, though, I think it's worth pursuing at least two of them: one for the larger HP bar and at least one of the two defense amulets. Two amulets may be overkill, but are also a possibility.
A modernized action-rpg Kenseiden would be respectable!
I'd love to see that!
"1 billion steps per normal person stride" XD
Yes! At least a billion. Maybe more!
Best game ever! I love the fact that the character is left handed throughout the whole game and the Wonder Boy head easter egg at 3:46, marvelous.
There are some nice little details, for sure! Poor Alex Kidd though... preserved in rock form forever.
@@hungrygoriya Did you noticed that when running to the left you can see his left arm swings back and forth and when running to the right his right arm holds the sword's sheath and you can even see the elbow and fist swinging behind. Even most modern 2D games the characters changes stance to the direction facing. A nice defensive and very effective move is crouching down while holding the sword out, most weak enemies will just approach you and die.
@@guuuu666 It's definitely a nice touch! And I think I played this entire game without the defense move. I accidentally ignored it and just went in swinging most of the time.
The coolest thing about this game is to learn new sword moves during the game.
Yeah, they really make you feel like you're making progress!
Great video as usual! If you play it on original hardware, Kenseiden is brutally unforgiving but still pretty good, and it has nice music. If you emulate it and use save states, the game is far less difficult and has much better music via the FM Sound module (which doesn't work on a real non-Japan SMS). I played it on the NES Mini and I'm pretty sure I had a better experience than you did :)
Yeah, I imagine the addition of save states would've really helped with the difficulty here, but I tend to play on original hardware more often than not. I've actually given the FM soundtrack a listen and it's a lot nicer in many ways than the PSG one for this game. I think I could modify my system for that if I felt inclined to but I usually like the PSG sound more!
the pro strat is duck and hold attack! we beat this as kids somehow... but now, good luck getting through the training level where your sensei is chucking spears at you
You'd probably be unsurprised to learn that I always forget about "block" controls... especially in one-on-one fighting games, but elsewhere too...
4:20-4:42 That is the weirdest knock-back I have ever seen.
I've never dealt with anything quite like that before either!
Loved this game!
Me too!
Thou have learnt to slash. LUL. Love that ancient Japanese speak. Nice review HG.
Thanks for watching :) The ancient words always get me.
Interestingly, Kenseiden and Lord of Sword you showed came out very, very close to each other IIRC; maybe even on the same day, at least in Japan? The former is a pretty good game, but you do have to get used to controls for sure. SMS has quite a few ninja games overall, definitely a couple more decent ones, at least.
Oh really? I wasn't aware that they'd come out so close together! It makes sense because they are so similar to one another in quite a few ways.
I've been pretty impressed by most of the ninja games I've tried so far. I think the only one I really had experience with on NES growing up was Karate Champ... not super fun after five minutes.
Great video, I think the Master System was one of the better exclusives, along with Master of Darkness
From what I've played so far, I agree!
I m going to try to find this game. I recently acquired a Model 1 Sega Master System. I enjoy samurai themes in my games. 😁
Right on! I hope you have fun! Which games came on your console? Mine has Hang On and Safari Hunt.
@@hungrygoriya I had to buy a separate game. Shinobi in the box with the instruction manual and Sega poster. I was as giddy as a schoolboy on Friday afternoon. 😁
A rare case where the western box art is actually better than the japanese version. Also amazing that they didn't try to "westernize" this and leaned into it's japanese origin even leaving the kanji on the title screen.
Yeah, that's very true! Even SpellCaster had the soba noodles changed to "spaghetti" so it's nice to see some Japanese culture maintained here.
Cool game, the aesthetic makes me of pre-Shinobi meets Castlevania. My guess is the extra continue thing was a glitch, my programmer friend told me that in debugging to save time you can say a bug is an Easter Egg/cheat/feature. Most SEGA cheats were that. This was probably that I'm guessing (say its part of the game and throw it in the manual so we be done debugging 🤣 )
I don't know if you caught it on the "Helpful Hints" still in the video, but there's also a hidden level select code and they ask you to try to find it. I actually discovered the official Sega Hints page on Sega Retro and it's some ridiculous combination that has to do with holding things at startup and then pressing a specific button on the title screen... just wow. Yep, these were probably developer tools! Thanks for watching!
Close to the body wiener slice 🤣 thanks for another great master system video HG.
His slices are so small! Hayato's got so much more distance!
Not many people are making Master System videos anymore and this one is a year old. I was one of those rare people that had both the Nes and Master System starting in 1986 (divorced parents). What's interesting is that while everyone thought Nintendo was the bees knees I always preferred my Master System. Don't get me wrong, I loved my Nintendo (remember that) but Sega scratched an itch the Nes rarely could.
Addendum- Whoa...that was very strange. At the very beginning of the video you show Alex Kidd in Shinobi World with Ninja Gaiden music. I was like wait....how? ;)
I've made a lot of Master System reviews here because I was on an adventure game kick for a while. I've played most of those now so while I still do hope to make more on that console in the future, they'll probably be less frequent.
My favorite game on the MS. I could beat this without deaths, as a kid.
Oh no kidding! That's crazy to imagine. Did you do all of the trial areas or just power through?
@@hungrygoriya I think it was both, cause I remember taking a while to beat.
I always thought Shinobi was tough. But this game drove me nuts when my dad hired it from the video store. Took it back the same day and hired dynamite duke. Haha
Oh no! This one's got some puzzling to do and a "correct order" to go through the stages in a sense. You need to get certain abilities to fight certain bosses. Once you find the path though, you're all set!
@@hungrygoriya will definitely give it another go for sure.
I'm guessing that a lot of the enemies are based on traditional Japanese folk monsters ("yokai"). There are a LOT of them, and they get very, very weird.
Anyway, great review!
Very strange indeed, at least to me who doesn't know much about Japanese folklore. Thanks for checking this one out!
Kenseiden has a case to be the best SMS game of all time. Wonderboy 3 might be the consensus #1 but IMO Kenseiden is not far behind
It's a really fun one, I agree. I like Wonder Boy III more, as well as a few of the other RPGs but that's just my taste in games.
I grew up with this game. I never got all that far as a kid because it's pretty difficult but i really liked it.
It was a great game to sort out too, in terms of where to go first to get strong enough to keep going. Very fun!
@@hungrygoriya agreed, you gotta know which map to go to next and those training areas are BRUTAL!
@@poolboy22v I think by the end of the game, I'd only done the one really brief training area and abandoned all hope of getting through the rest. Even though I read the manual through, I apparently missed an important move that's essentially a block that would've helped a lot in those places, but I just fought through without the extra cushion. It worked out okay!
I was watching a complete in box copy of this game on Lukiegames and was planning to get it next month as my monthly pickup. It disappeared and now I see this video. I wonder if my favorite youtube celebrity snagged the copy that was almost mine? :)
I promise it wasn't me! The cartridge I showed in the video is mine. I don't have it complete in box by a long stretch. I hope you can find a copy someday though!
Thanks! Master System is fun to collect for and I love your videos. It reminds me of Game Gear, which was my first system.
@@samp1862 I wish I'd had a Game Gear growing up... my husband has one and I've played a handful of things on there but it's nice that there's some overlap on the Master System as well. I much prefer a larger screen these days!
Love this game
Me too! It was fun!
Are you bad enough Daimyo to save Zipang?
This is one of my favorite master system games but watching someone play the game without using the down crouch + holding attack button to stop incoming enemies by hitting them every frame is giving me anxiety. I guess this move wasn’t obvious? 👁👄👁 For instance, a spider is coming down from the ceiling, duck and hold your sword out as they kill themselves on your sword, rather than get hit and fall back into a pit. This works so well for many different situations in the game since monsters mostly just run at your front.
I think I did mention somewhere in the review that I'm bad at remembering combo moves... I didn't use it much at all, but I still made it through the game just fine... eventually, haha! Sorry for the anxiety!
Thanks for the reply and the review! If you give the game a go again try holding down and attack when something is coming at you like the 4 flaming skulls. It’s so satisfying!
My childhood Dark Souls game.
It definitely has some tough spots if you try to go forward out of the game's intended order.
Booted up the Master System and am currently playing this game... wish me luck!
Good luck!
@@hungrygoriya OMG, finally finished the game! Only took 34 years!
Things I've learned:
When you lose all your lives and go back to the title screen, you still have your scroll power-ups. It seems the only training round power-up you lose is the extended life bar.
How I know this:
When you finish any training stage and get its prize, then you enter the training building again, the man tells you to take a rest and your health bar replenishes. You cannot play through since you've already gained the prize.
Last night I died, returned to the title screen, then entered the game again. My health bar was short, so I went to the training round to increase it again. Then I went to the early training round with the blue defense item, but the man told me to take a rest instead.
In sum, when you return to the title screen and replay again, you do not lose all training round power-ups, just the extended life bar.
@@StasherDragon Oh nice! That was something I missed so good to know.
I had this game growing up and I have no trouble getting through it without using any continues. I’m not even that good at gaming. As far as the knock back, if you push the attack button when you are knocked back, I believe it stops you from the stumble.
You are truly a master of this one then! I think with practice I could get there too, but I spent an afternoon with it learning the game from scratch and juuuuust snuck by at the final boss with a single hit left!
I swear I panic mashed all the buttons trying to cancel the stumbling, but I'll keep that in mind next time I try this. Thanks!
@@hungrygoriya lol I think I had plenty of time to practice when I was a kid with not many other games to play. It’s defined easier if you go through all the training stages and get the upgrades :)
@@Darko1226 I can just imagine... you probably don't die as much when you have a giant health bar. I'm jealous of your skills on those training areas!
@@hungrygoriya I just go really slow and already know the patters for them. I use the down and block a lot too.
Never got far... But like the graphics.
The graphics and the atmosphere in this one are pretty awesome!
Awesome review a youtuber who is great a getting colour out of the Genesis/Megadrive name Master Linkuei is doing a Version of this game for that console.
Oh nice! Is it a straight port or are they also changing a few things?
Did you say… “wiener slice?” 😂😂😂
Watching your husband's spam strats in MK3 seems like grounds for divorce.
Naw, I just have to get good.
@@hungrygoriya blink twice if you're being rocket launchered into a corner right now.
Break dance practice, RUclips
I ate waaay too much candy during this video
My cousin had the Master System growing up and I had the NES. This game was one I always looked forward to playing when I visited him on the weekends.
Also, I'm glad you haven't given in and fallen victim to the lame trend of posing with silly faces in your thumbnail preview like almost every other videogame RUclipsr.
I think I would've looked forward to playing this as well as a kid, had I known about it!
And yeah, you won't have to worry about that from me!
@@hungrygoriya I was with my cousin a ton while growing up, so we had a very spoiled videogame life. I had the Atari 2600, the Commodore 64 and the NES. He had the Sega Master System, the Atari 7800, Colecovision and was one of the very rare 1989 launch Sega Genesis kids. So through each other, we experienced just about everything you could from 1977-1991. It truly was incredible; the amount of games we experienced, when compared to our classmates.
@@randycruel A dream come true! Any favourites from back then that you might recommend now?
@@hungrygoriya Well, the Master System library wasn't very large, so you've probably played all the genre has to offer. These aren't in your RPG/Adventure genre, but R-Type, Rastan and Shinobi are solid NES level titles.
Some Genesis games you might want to check out that are in your action/RPG realm that I liked were: Buck Rogers: Battle for the 25th Century and King's Bounty: The Conquer's Quest. Both games were way better than I ever thought they were going to be (Especially King's Bounty (still addicting to this day)).
Back in 1991, Electronic Arts had buy 2 games, get 1 game free. I mowed lawns back then, so had pretty good money for a 13 year old. Each time I bought 2 games that I knew I wanted, I would then always pick a random game as my free one. I ended up with 9 EA games in total when it was all said and done (6 paid for and 3 free). That went awesome 2 times out of 3, as I got Buck Rogers and King's Bounty for free.
My third free game was Sword of Sodan and I don't want to talk about it...
@@randycruel I took some notes here, especially about the Genesis stuff! Thanks for the recommendations!
And Sword of Sodan will remain not in my house as long as possible!
I definitely agree that this is one sluggish AF game.
*It looks like* SEGA *didn't put that much effort for this one.*
The momentum definitely isn't there, but I thought it was impressive for what it was... lots of freedom to roam around different stages from the beginning, interesting enemies, non-linear levels... there's lots here!
It's just me or the japanese version is more easy?? Great game :)
It might be? I don't know anything about the Japanese version's difficulty!
@@hungrygoriya I played both versions and had that impression, but maybe it was my imagination. I know that some NES games have differences in difficulty between versions, like Castlevania 3. The Western version was more difficult than the Japanese one.