Didn't see your favorite Sega Genesis game mentioned here? I might have covered it in one of my other Sega videos here: ruclips.net/p/PLdGtTWqCEvuKoGNFO64VvTcVx9HAw4H4u
@@thecaptain2281 each hardware can do things that another couldn't but the thing is, the mega drive is overall more powerful than the SNES in areas that matter more for most game genres. the more powerful CPU, higher resolution and better sprite capabilities in particular really help for things like shooters, run 'n guns, beat 'em ups or sports games. and the mega drive hardware allows for lot of freedom (and not only thanx to its CPU but also thanx to its efficient GPU and even the audio setup is flexible in some ways) and it happens that, as I said in my other comment here, treasure left konami in seek of more freedom so the mega drive was a particularly appropriate system :)
@@thecaptain2281 lol, that's all very correct. in fact, it's the SNES CPU which is faster in some ways but still, the Mega Drive CPU is overall more powerful. and most Mega Drive games run in 320x224 pixels whereas 99,99% SNES game are stuck in 256x224 pixels. did you even play on these systems? :) anyway more infos can be found online, at Sega Retro website for instance
Yeah what happened to them anyway? I imagine their niche of excellent action games, sadly couldn't keep them afloat, as the masses would rather drone around in gta
Aside from a few exceptions - including Nintendo for obvious reasons - the Mega Drive was otherwise graced with games from all my favorite developers at the time: Treasure but also Tecno Soft, Compile, Toaplan, Wolf Team, Game Arts, Electronic Arts (who rocked back then!), Bitmap Brothers, Core Design, Zyrinx... And also, of course, the numerous Sega's in-house studios. No wonder the phenomenal game library! And when it comes to Treasure, there are two main things which always stood out IMO: - the way it came to life. Been annoyed by Konami's attitude which, from a certain point, started to be too greedy and, thus, too predictable (always the same games...), a group of employees left said company to form a new one aiming for more creative freedom. Now that's the spirit! Major props to them. - the games. With their technical prowesses (the Mega Drive was perfect for this thanx to its CPU, the almighty M68000, and its efficient (yet underrated) GPU) and with their distinctive gameplay mechanics, Treasure games always reveal themselves as something special. The best Treasure games on the Mega Drive are Gunstar Heroes, Dynamite Headdy, Yū Yū Hakusho: Makyō Toitsusen and Alien Soldier. Those four are simply fantastic, masterpieces both in technical and gameplay terms. Then McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure and Light Crusader are a notch below in basically every way but they're still very good. I think that you overlooked a bit the former in your video whereas I tend to agree with you about the latter, it's a fine game but it needed more work. And Treasure kept delivering the goods thereafter, especially on Saturn and Dreamcast but also on Nintendo 64 or Game Boy Advance.
Alien Soldier remains my favourite game of all time, a masterpiece in programming and design that pushed both the limits of the console and the player and honed one's gaming discipline and skills. Managed to complete it several times on super hard mode. Also loved Treasure's output on the Dreamcast, awesome stuff.
"Sin and Punishment" and " Bangai-O" on N64 are both so dope although Dreamcast "Bangai-O" is a little better. Many of my favorite games are Treasure, I play Radiant Silvergun more than any of them though.
Love gunstar heroes. Prob my favorite Sega game. My weapon of choice is the homing laser. It'll stay on the boss while you run around and dodge. I call it easy mode haha. Too many great things about that game.
Yeah I mean it's not terrible - it's colorful and some of the music is quite good. I think I just got frustrated with it because I was playing all of these games right in a row for the purposes of this video and in Gunstar and some of the others, you can shoot in all directions. Then in Treasureland you're just stuck firing left/right and I couldn't force myself to unlearn the control schemes from the other games lol.
2:36 - Well, makes sense since Genesis and Neo Geo have the Motorola 68000 in common. Although the Neo Geo at a higher clock speed. Sega did good on choosing a processor that was widely used in arcades and home computers for the Genesis hardware. In another note, it makes sense to me how European developers were able to easily port their games from Commodore Amiga or Atari ST computers to the Genesis.
Good but then they chose to be cheap . Stuck with 64 kbt or ram And small color palette and a tiny 8kbt of sound ram.. Sega should have at least stuck Another 32kbt is ram in there =96 Went with a 12-Bit color palette 4096 colors with 128 on screen And snuffed the 8 kbt for 24 kbt of sound ram and added 2 extra sound channels so sfx and Voice each had their own dedicated Channel . And the extra two that would have opened up the amount of instruments at the same time . That would have been the genesis to own . Throw in the 6button from day one , never i😍
I love this channel! Clean audio, good production, great background information as well as the right amount of humor and persoanlity to set FNA apart from all the other (oversaturated) retro gamers on RUclips. Thanks man!
Mr_Peacock_ Alt Exactly! No politics or social politics ( weather Woke blue hairs, or angry fan boys). He cuts thru any BS, but doesn’t go too fast or forget anything important. Pleasant voice as well.
I got to play Light Crusader as a kid when I rented it - without a walkthrough or even a manual I couldn't get any further than wandering around the first town. It would be twenty more years before I learned that you had to push that gravestone aside to get into the first dungeon.
About your note in the description: Both Treasure Land and Gunstar Heroes were being developed more or less at the same time. They pushed out Gunstar first mainly due to the generation of buzz it received through magazines and interviews. Sega were definitely pumping some money behind treasure, they got some cool commercials on JP television. I guess it also explains why they were spaced apart by 2 weeks.
Your voice and James Rolfe's - of Cinemassacre when he's reviewing movies solo - are soothing to my ears and help me sleep. Please take that as a compliment, lol.
I recently came across your channel because of the last Sega Genesis video, and to follow that up with a video solely on Treasure games makes me super-happy I subscribed. Keep up the great work! I'll do my part to spread the word. :D
Damn, I remember playing Gunstar Heroes for the first time at CES 93. They had Mega Man X and Warioland too. Ah, for the days before E3 took over everything...
@@jokerzwild00 HAHA1 Awesome! i never tried myself yet, bvut I saw one of my youtubers I watych tralk about it and show it off. I would not recommend to a new player to the game, because it's so cheap, but for replays, sure. Either for after beating, or after giving up tryhing to beat it,t hen hell ya!
DAMN, I didn't know about any of these as a kid AND I had a Genesis. More recently I know of Gunstar Heroes. I'm seriously considering looking into some of these to stream. Aaron, thank you so much for your hard work with this one. Amazing job as always. Have a great weekend my friend!
Sega Channel introduced me to Gunstar, otherwise would have never known. The level select was great and kept me coming back, since back then it seemed insanely hard.
@@Lightblue2222 dude, I was just about to ent the same thing lol. Sega channel was the best. Played a lot of great games on there. Gunstar heroes, Bomberman, MegaMan the wily wars. I'm not positive but when I bought and beat beyond Oasis a year or 2 ago it seemed really familiar. I'm thinking I played that on Sega channel too. Sega channel was also way ahead of it's time.
@@chrisperciavalle3142 Truth! I keep getting deja vu while playing Genesis. Its all from the old Sega Channel days. I've been trying out and playing whatever I want through emulation and this keeps happening to me. It's a great feeling hehe.
It's pointless to argue which system is better in 2019 - both have had their day. Both systems were really good at different things. SNES could give you some prettier colors and crispier picture. Sega was really good at throwing together LOTS of enemies and/or on-screen animations at the same time because of the faster processor. Example: The Seven Force boss in Gunstar. That boss and the crazy animations of all of the little separate limbs and everything probably wouldn't have been possible on SNES without making some significant concessions. But then the SNES had other tricks up its sleeve such as Mode 7, etc. It was up to the developers for each system to figure out what it did best and turn up the volume on that when they were developing games. If you're going to focus on Gunstar Heroes, an admirable SNES comp is probably Contra III. Both games are fantastic, but different. Contra III features a wider variety of stages and although there are probably less enemies on screen at the same time, you could argue it's a prettier game to look at because of the increased color palette they had to work with. Both games maximize the potential of their respective hardware in different and unique ways ... more importantly they're ridiculously fun which is the point of all of this nonsense and the really good developers for any system (even the Atari 2600) understood that.
@@segazone1684 That's an opinion, and you're welcome to it. Both were great for different reasons and both out did each other in different areas. You're regurgitating a very tired old argument.
I think pushing the NPCs around and being able to jump on bookcases etc is the best part of Light Crusader. There’s something childishly satisfying about pushing the king into the corner and boxing him in with furniture.
One thing is certain...the Sega Genesis library would be significantly weaker if it wasn't for Treasures masterpieces Gunstar H, Dynamite H, Yu Hakusho and especially Alien Soldier. A.S. could almost pass for a Saturn/Ps1 2D game, and yes while the game is challenging, it is completely fair, and alot of the challenge comes simply from learning the innovative mechanics/controls. It is imo, a Top 3 game from the 16-bit era deserving universal praise alongside the Snes games that everyone always boasts about...but of course, due to Sega's stupidity, it didn't get a physical US release, because they thought it was 2015 in 1995. Treasure has produced some of the greatest video games ever.
Another great video! I wish I could remember most of the Genesis games I played back then, besides the obvious ones like Phantasy Star 2-4, Shining Force, Star Control, Sonic, Etc.
Dude, Laser and Targeted was king in Gunstar Heroes. A square of death that moved autonomously from enemy to enemy. All you had to do was dodge all the thousands of enemies and projectiles in the screen.
I can't believe I missed this review. Treasure was an absolute dream team for Sega rivaling even the mighty AM2. I do have a suggest for a Sega Genesis game if you're interested. It has a very unique story behind it and it's a game that mere words fail to describe how truly great it is. That game is Thunder Force IV or Lightening Force here in the US (yes, the title is horribly misspelled). Sega for some stupid reason decided to change the name and in doing so really hurt its sales. Thunder Force had a pedigree you just didn't mess with and with the misspelling no one knew what the Hell it was. I rented it from Blockbuster on a whim. It was one of those times that once you were on the way home you start having doubts about your decision after all that was going to be my whole weekend. I slowly walked up to my Genesis/Sega CD setup with trepidation thinking "I made a mistake." Finally, I slapped the cart in and said "let the suckfest commence" and almost instantaneously I ate my words as I realized this was Thunder Force IV! Too say the incredible otherworldly graphics, booming sound effects, music to die for, and uncompromising gameplay were phenomenal would be an understatement. This game truly looks like a high end Neo Geo AES/MVS shmup on the Genesis. I honestly did not understand what I was seeing at the time. Everything the Genesis was "incapable" of doing was happening all over the giant playfield. You have sprite manipulation, rotation, scaling, enemies coming from the background to the foreground, shots flying from the foreground to the background, regular enemies the size of bosses, bullets filling the screen from every direction, and a smooth power up system that's not the normal punishing kind we used to see. It is a true tour de force and shows why we still hold 16-bit gaming to such a high regard. When and if you do play it, try to put yourself back in early 1994 and gauge your response. What would Friday Night Arcade think in 1994? After that weekend I searched high and low for that game. It was nowhere to be found both my dad and mom tried to purchase Blockbuster's copy to no avail. They refused to budge so...we wound up renting it and I kept it. They charged my dads credit card and I finally had the game. The store manager was very annoyed with us and it took a call to corporate before they gave us the clamshell case and instructions. I still have that game today in our retro game room. For reference, you can download Thunder Force IV on the Nintendo Switch as it got the AM2 treatment. Check it out man...
Gunstar Heroes FYI, you are supposed to independently control the Chase + Fire flame with your D pad. Works best with the hero that is stationary while firing. As others point out, Chase + Laser is the best "heat seeking" option. Fire + Laser is heaviest damage and a lot of fun. Throws are heavy damage, too - a fun playstyle is to start up two player mode with only one player and do as much damage as you can just by throwing player 2!
Another amazing video. I had no idea Treasure made that last game. I’ll have to check it out because I love all of their other games. It will be on the mini? I have one on order so thanks for pointing it out.
Alien Soldier, Light Crusader, Gunstar Heroes, and Dynamite Headdy is also available on the Sega Genesis collection on Xbox One, PS4, and the Switch. I like it, there is some sound issues with some games, other then that, it's a good collection.
Another interesting developer (they weren't all gems) for the Genesis/Sega CD was Wolf Team. They made Sol Feace, Earnest Evans, Road Avenger, and more. They went on to make the Tales series as part of Namco.
I was lucky enough to have gotten the chance to play Gunstar Heroes on the Sega Genesis as a kid and I absolutely loved it. Unfortunately, my grandparents didn't really like how much time I spent playing video games and they got rid of all my old video games. I have no idea what happened to them and it pains me to this day.
the heat seeking/homing lazer gun in Gunstar Hero's is definitely the most over powered weapon in the game. It's all but certain that you can make it all the way through the game very easily, while using it 😏! So... Yes, it is far away the weapon combo i use most when i play it
My favorite weapon in Gunstar Heroes is the double flamethrower, because I'm all about the DPS wifey, but I have to admit that homing + laser = broken. Light Crusader was quite an experience; some of the puzzles were a pain because of the isometric perspective or just plain cryptic (PENUMBRA!!!), but the overall experience was really something special, once you got past the clunkiness.
Would be cool if they brought back the Mcdonalds one. Maybe as a digital giveaway code you can find in a Happy Meal. But then again, that might cause more scalping.
Gunstar best weapon is of corse chaser + lazer, altho it has minor hangups wanting to dance around unkillable things at times. Got it digitally for my 360, still a great time. Final boss is a nightmare solo lol.
This was a great video treasure seems like a game company with a lot of heart and soul, even when they did the mcdonalds game, instead of just pumping out a shitty game just to check it off, they actually made a pretty nice looking game with a lot of character and charm to it. That shows you how good and caring of a developer they were.
RPG's are my favorite genre, and I had heard many people on RUclips talk about how great of a game Light Crusader is, so I was quick to snap it up when I saw it one day at a pawn shop. I tried it and was *not* impressed. Why people think the game is so great is beyond me. I'm not saying it's bad, but it's not that good either. The controls kind of suck, and the game is just ugly to look at. I didn't get far into it at all though, so maybe I'll give it another go one of these days.
Pretty awesome stuff. I was a big Genesis fan but in Fall of '93 I went to college and never bought a new game after that for 16 bit. Too bad Treasure didn't start in the early 90s!
I get that. After the Nintendo 64 and it's 7 good games, I went through a dry spell and didn't buy a game again until like PS2 era actually. I needed a DVD player lol.
Great retrospective! Though that wacky McDonald's game was a childhood original, I really gotta replay it soon and see how it holds up. Also, how do you capture all the footage from these? MIght be just me, but dang, those pixels are crisp as heck! Good stuff^^
You might enjoy this video from My Life in Gaming about getting RGB video from the Sega Genesis ruclips.net/video/tT9OnPjQKWY/видео.html ..... they've got similar videos for just about every old console. Very well done and can't recommend enough.
The fighting sound effects in Yuu Yuu Hakusho: Makyou Toitsusen, along with other fighting games of that time, always reminded me of the fighting sound effects in the Kung Fu films of the 1970s and 80s. ruclips.net/video/x1imbiDDWU4/видео.html ruclips.net/video/GWS14U031WI/видео.html
The Super Nintendo could have produced Gunstar Heroes, it wasn't a matter of not being able to handle anything complex (we've see it produce many complex games), it just would have suffered from ALOT of slowdown.
Ya. But with slowdown. SNES was notorious for its slowdown. Dont get me wrong, overall SNES pumped out better looking (and sounding) games. But lower overall processing power meant that very busy action games struggled. That's why there are so many RPGs on the system.
@@thomaspolaino3188 have you seen Rendering Ranger R2? it's probably more intense than Gunstar heroes. but has 0 slowdown. gunstar heroes has a tiny bit of slowdown here and there.. also space megaforce, pop'n twinbee, firepower 20000, smash tv, just to name a few snes games that have tons of on sprites and action and no slowdown. i think it was far more capable than given credit for, it's just so many developers left slowdown in that wasn't the fault of the snes, it was them not knowing how to get rid of it or caring enough. snes was harder to code for. now we're seeing snes games being fixed(mainly slowdown) that can run on a real snes, and a lot more will happen in the coming years. Gradius 3, and Super ghouls n ghosts are just the start
Rodzilla, yes there are Snes games that indeed handle action and sprites pretty well, you named a few. But there is still a huge difference between the most expertly optimized games on Snes like Rendering Ranger, Contra 3 etc and Gunstar Heroes, Alien Soldier, Thunder Force etc. And that is sprite animation. If you examine these games, there's a stark difference in the way sprites are animated/designed, Genesis games generally have more frames of animation, and/or consist of multi-jointed sprites, to appear more flexible, "alive", and the games overall feel alot smoother as a result. Snes sprites are usually large but static (as seen in Rendering R, Super M, Wild Guns etc). I've never seen Vectorman or Treasure game quality animation on Snes. Then there's the fact that the Gen renders games at a higher resolution, 320x224 vs 256x224, giving a proper 4:3 aspect ratio unlike Snes. Furthermore more ram bandwidth, parallax scrolling, 3D polygons & wireframes without a chip etc. The Snes was hard to get adequate performance out of because Nintendo purposely designed it that way, foolishly prioritizing graphics over performance, thus yes the system is at fault to a degree. Many games only clock the cpu at 1.58 or 2.58 mhz! The Snes gets a bad reputation from some because the system came out 2 YEARS after the Genesis, so it should have been superior in every way, not only in some. And even then a few years had to go by before we started to see high profile games without so much slowdown. (even SMW and LTTP slow down sometimes when barely anything is happening on screen lol)
I would like to see Core Mega Drive and Mega CD games covered. Nice episode! Alot of how good a 16bit game looks depends on how much time they spent literally sitting down and drawing background images and making the sprites nice. It's not so much to do with hardware power. I will say Treasure made some of the best and smoothest playing games. I only really enjoyed Yuu Yu Hakusho although the backgrounds and menus did put me off a bit. I found the games a bit shallow and lacking in solid mechanics.
You are correct, Jackamomo. All of the hardware in the world doesn't matter much if the devs didn't put much care into the game and specifically the art style. You can tell the difference between a by the numbers game and a game where the devs really put the time and imagination into it.
@@FridayNightArcade Yeah. You have to admire Treasure for their programming prowess and imagination. But Light Crusader, Yuu Yuu and Alien Soldier were all lacking the investment in time and man power to make them really good as the full team were split into 3 after the completion of Gunstar Heroes - making them a bit unfinished.
Apparently after Gunstar Heroes the team was split into three to make Alien Soldier, Light Crusader and YuuYuu Hakusho. Hence they are roughly one third of the quality.
My understanding is this boss ( ruclips.net/video/fTRUlS62G_g/видео.html ) would be pretty tough with all of the moving parts ... but I've been wrong before ... FWIW I'm not a bit wars guy and just look for good games that make the best use of their hardware on any system. I was a admittedly a Nintendo kid growing up but could care less which is "better" now.
@@FridayNightArcade no I totally understand what you're saying. I have both systems. I just swear I've seen similar technical graphics on the SNES. I just can't think of any now. Maybe ActRaiser2 or Super Castlevania 4. I know games like Road Runner and Uniracer on the SNES could match the Genesis Blast processing speed for sure. But you might be right
Cool. Yeah I'm totally not an expert but the way I understood it was there'd be way too much overall slowdown to even attempt that many moving parts due to the SNES chip.
Gunstar Heroes is very impressive but imo it feels a bit like going through the motions at times as you just hold the button down and move and the game generally takes care of the rest. Dynamite Headdy is just gorgeous and doing so much to really make the Genesis shine in pretty much every way possible as far as I'm concerned. Yuu Yuu looks pretty decent but there's to much dithering going on, which I'm not a fan of. The MacDonald's game is actually impressive and a good effort for a licensed game. I'm not a fun of the boss-rush design of Alien Solider, and although the bosses are often very impressive, the backgrounds are nothing special. Light Crusader doesn't even look like a proper Treasure game imo; it's a little meh looking for them. Overall though, I can't argue with the general quality of Treasure's output on Genesis, and they really did make that system shine. I only wish they'd seen fit to try and push the SNES similarly.
@@FridayNightArcade lol indeed. I didn't properly upgrade from the genny-tower until 1998, so I had plenty of time. GSH on hard is no slouch, but it's easily more manageable than US Contra Hard Corps...on anything. I find it more satisfying, but I've played it to death. I would recommend you try, but you'll have to learn to avoid attacks first 😋 (looking specifically at the core hammering away at you). Also there's a standing slide attack, but I forget exactly how to do it.
@@JohnnyV83 Yeah sadly when I'm doing these types of list videos, I don't get to spend too much time with any one particular game to GIT GUD at it. That's one I need to go back and do a standalone episode on at some point to really get into it.
@@FridayNightArcade always go at your own pace, otherwise playing will feel like work. Life changes, school, work, and changes in taste led me to a nearly 15 year hiatus from JRPGs, but I'm toying with trying again...but not because someone told me.
I know you said you're not big on anime and manga, but when you got to discussing the Yu Yu Hakusho game, I cringed a tiny bit. You butchered some words and a bit of the plot. The show is pronounced "You You Hah-ku-show" and the main character's name is "You-skay Yer-uh-meshy". He also doesn't die in the car accident, he was rendered comatose and was given an opportunity to win his life back (failure would cause him to die in the coma), successfully completes his task for his life back, and repays the favor by assisting a spirit detective agency in stopping powerful demons from harming people both in the living world and the spirit world. By brawling and shooting bullets of spirit energy out of his finger.
Didn't see your favorite Sega Genesis game mentioned here? I might have covered it in one of my other Sega videos here:
ruclips.net/p/PLdGtTWqCEvuKoGNFO64VvTcVx9HAw4H4u
Dude once I saw the thumbnail I was likkkee HELL yeah
I love yu yu hakusho. I would love to play that game.
@@thecaptain2281 each hardware can do things that another couldn't but the thing is, the mega drive is overall more powerful than the SNES in areas that matter more for most game genres. the more powerful CPU, higher resolution and better sprite capabilities in particular really help for things like shooters, run 'n guns, beat 'em ups or sports games. and the mega drive hardware allows for lot of freedom (and not only thanx to its CPU but also thanx to its efficient GPU and even the audio setup is flexible in some ways) and it happens that, as I said in my other comment here, treasure left konami in seek of more freedom so the mega drive was a particularly appropriate system :)
@@thecaptain2281 lol, that's all very correct. in fact, it's the SNES CPU which is faster in some ways but still, the Mega Drive CPU is overall more powerful. and most Mega Drive games run in 320x224 pixels whereas 99,99% SNES game are stuck in 256x224 pixels. did you even play on these systems? :)
anyway more infos can be found online, at Sega Retro website for instance
segaretro.org/Sega_Mega_Drive/Hardware_comparison
Treasure was one of the best developers for the genesis. Alien Soldier and Gunstar Heroes is fantastic
And they continued their greatness on the Saturn.
And then even further with Ikaruga on the DC and Gradius V on the Ps2
Yeah what happened to them anyway? I imagine their niche of excellent action games, sadly couldn't keep them afloat, as the masses would rather drone around in gta
Aside from a few exceptions - including Nintendo for obvious reasons - the Mega Drive was otherwise graced with games from all my favorite developers at the time: Treasure but also Tecno Soft, Compile, Toaplan, Wolf Team, Game Arts, Electronic Arts (who rocked back then!), Bitmap Brothers, Core Design, Zyrinx... And also, of course, the numerous Sega's in-house studios. No wonder the phenomenal game library!
And when it comes to Treasure, there are two main things which always stood out IMO:
- the way it came to life. Been annoyed by Konami's attitude which, from a certain point, started to be too greedy and, thus, too predictable (always the same games...), a group of employees left said company to form a new one aiming for more creative freedom. Now that's the spirit! Major props to them.
- the games. With their technical prowesses (the Mega Drive was perfect for this thanx to its CPU, the almighty M68000, and its efficient (yet underrated) GPU) and with their distinctive gameplay mechanics, Treasure games always reveal themselves as something special.
The best Treasure games on the Mega Drive are Gunstar Heroes, Dynamite Headdy, Yū Yū Hakusho: Makyō Toitsusen and Alien Soldier. Those four are simply fantastic, masterpieces both in technical and gameplay terms. Then McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure and Light Crusader are a notch below in basically every way but they're still very good. I think that you overlooked a bit the former in your video whereas I tend to agree with you about the latter, it's a fine game but it needed more work.
And Treasure kept delivering the goods thereafter, especially on Saturn and Dreamcast but also on Nintendo 64 or Game Boy Advance.
Alien Soldier remains my favourite game of all time, a masterpiece in programming and design that pushed both the limits of the console and the player and honed one's gaming discipline and skills. Managed to complete it several times on super hard mode. Also loved Treasure's output on the Dreamcast, awesome stuff.
"Sin and Punishment" and " Bangai-O" on N64 are both so dope although Dreamcast "Bangai-O" is a little better. Many of my favorite games are Treasure, I play Radiant Silvergun more than any of them though.
Love gunstar heroes. Prob my favorite Sega game.
My weapon of choice is the homing laser. It'll stay on the boss while you run around and dodge. I call it easy mode haha.
Too many great things about that game.
Guys give Treasure Land Adventure a try. I think most people will actually love it. It's basically Dynamite Headdy precursor in a lot of ways.
Yeah I mean it's not terrible - it's colorful and some of the music is quite good. I think I just got frustrated with it because I was playing all of these games right in a row for the purposes of this video and in Gunstar and some of the others, you can shoot in all directions. Then in Treasureland you're just stuck firing left/right and I couldn't force myself to unlearn the control schemes from the other games lol.
I would but I'm too concerned that Ronald would give me nightmares.
Some of the few games on the genesis/megadrive that pushed the system to its limits, a real bag of gems here
I always love that dynamite headdy's arch rival was named Trouble Bruin
That McDonald's game was really good
Glad someone else here has some Class!
Favorite Gunstar Heroes weapon combo: The chaser laser.
Yes I was watching this thinking the whole time, your using the wrong gun!
Chaser Laser and Flame Laser!
Chase laser or double chase all day! Used to rent this one every weekend. The sequel on GBA is good too!
Fuck yes the treasure games are easily some of my favorite games on genesis. Glad you finally did these
2:36 - Well, makes sense since Genesis and Neo Geo have the Motorola 68000 in common. Although the Neo Geo at a higher clock speed. Sega did good on choosing a processor that was widely used in arcades and home computers for the Genesis hardware. In another note, it makes sense to me how European developers were able to easily port their games from Commodore Amiga or Atari ST computers to the Genesis.
Good but then they chose to be cheap .
Stuck with 64 kbt or ram
And small color palette and a tiny 8kbt of sound ram..
Sega should have at least stuck
Another 32kbt is ram in there =96
Went with a 12-Bit color palette
4096 colors with 128 on screen
And snuffed the 8 kbt for 24 kbt of sound ram and added 2 extra sound channels so sfx and Voice each had their own dedicated Channel . And the extra two that would have opened up the amount of instruments at the same time .
That would have been the genesis to own .
Throw in the 6button from day one , never i😍
I love this channel! Clean audio, good production, great background information as well as the right amount of humor and persoanlity to set FNA apart from all the other (oversaturated) retro gamers on RUclips. Thanks man!
Mr_Peacock_ Alt Exactly! No politics or social politics ( weather Woke blue hairs, or angry fan boys).
He cuts thru any BS, but doesn’t go too fast or forget anything important. Pleasant voice as well.
I got to play Light Crusader as a kid when I rented it - without a walkthrough or even a manual I couldn't get any further than wandering around the first town.
It would be twenty more years before I learned that you had to push that gravestone aside to get into the first dungeon.
Proof that Genesis does what Nintendon’t!
About your note in the description: Both Treasure Land and Gunstar Heroes were being developed more or less at the same time. They pushed out Gunstar first mainly due to the generation of buzz it received through magazines and interviews. Sega were definitely pumping some money behind treasure, they got some cool commercials on JP television. I guess it also explains why they were spaced apart by 2 weeks.
Ahh cool - thanks for clarifying. That makes sense.
Yes Light Crusader is “fine” lol. It had a lot more potential. You’re spot on about the shop mechanics.
Oh! Alien Soldier has TORTURED me for the past 25 freaking years!!!
Your voice and James Rolfe's - of Cinemassacre when he's reviewing movies solo - are soothing to my ears and help me sleep. Please take that as a compliment, lol.
That Yu Yu Hakusho one looks like it's engine was the precursor for Guardian Heroes'. NICE!
The pronunciations for it hurt though lol it’s got a dubbed anime and on toonami so it’s not like Yu Yu Hakusho is unknown lol
It was but there were also many Yuu Yuu fighting games on the SNES.
I recently came across your channel because of the last Sega Genesis video, and to follow that up with a video solely on Treasure games makes me super-happy I subscribed.
Keep up the great work! I'll do my part to spread the word. :D
Thanks for checking out the show!
Kitsune Hawk me too. I give credit where credit is due. He should have way more subs ( 150k) as well.
Another good Sega video. I was a Nintendo kid, so this makes me wonder what may have been in some goofy alternate universe.
Same!
The original release had such an unusual translation. The ending in particular when the final boss says "Loser, loser I loved you..."
Damn, I remember playing Gunstar Heroes for the first time at CES 93. They had Mega Man X and Warioland too. Ah, for the days before E3 took over everything...
Favorite is Gunstar Heroes. And I never thought how smooth it ran.
Looking forward to the treasures featured here coming out on the Sega Genesis Mini! 😄
Dude seriously your videos are AWESOME! you're my new VIDEO GAME LJR ! With a radio voice ! Two thumbs up DUDE !
Homing plus Laser = HAX
First time I tried this combo I thought I broke the game lol.
@@jokerzwild00 HAHA1 Awesome! i never tried myself yet, bvut I saw one of my youtubers I watych tralk about it and show it off. I would not recommend to a new player to the game, because it's so cheap, but for replays, sure. Either for after beating, or after giving up tryhing to beat it,t hen hell ya!
DAMN, I didn't know about any of these as a kid AND I had a Genesis. More recently I know of Gunstar Heroes. I'm seriously considering looking into some of these to stream. Aaron, thank you so much for your hard work with this one. Amazing job as always. Have a great weekend my friend!
Sega Channel introduced me to Gunstar, otherwise would have never known. The level select was great and kept me coming back, since back then it seemed insanely hard.
@@Lightblue2222 dude, I was just about to ent the same thing lol.
Sega channel was the best. Played a lot of great games on there. Gunstar heroes, Bomberman, MegaMan the wily wars. I'm not positive but when I bought and beat beyond Oasis a year or 2 ago it seemed really familiar. I'm thinking I played that on Sega channel too. Sega channel was also way ahead of it's time.
@@chrisperciavalle3142 Truth! I keep getting deja vu while playing Genesis.
Its all from the old Sega Channel days.
I've been trying out and playing whatever I want through emulation and this keeps happening to me. It's a great feeling hehe.
Such great memories of play gunstar heroes with friends. My favorite weapon is lazer+seeker, keep firing, focus on dodging.
Agreed
Seems lots of ppl do too to.
Treasure was a juggernaut for sega. It seems like most of their games would have made the snes explode with slow down lol
Myth. There are a ton of games on the SNES that the Sega couldn't run.
It's pointless to argue which system is better in 2019 - both have had their day. Both systems were really good at different things. SNES could give you some prettier colors and crispier picture. Sega was really good at throwing together LOTS of enemies and/or on-screen animations at the same time because of the faster processor. Example: The Seven Force boss in Gunstar. That boss and the crazy animations of all of the little separate limbs and everything probably wouldn't have been possible on SNES without making some significant concessions. But then the SNES had other tricks up its sleeve such as Mode 7, etc. It was up to the developers for each system to figure out what it did best and turn up the volume on that when they were developing games. If you're going to focus on Gunstar Heroes, an admirable SNES comp is probably Contra III. Both games are fantastic, but different. Contra III features a wider variety of stages and although there are probably less enemies on screen at the same time, you could argue it's a prettier game to look at because of the increased color palette they had to work with. Both games maximize the potential of their respective hardware in different and unique ways ... more importantly they're ridiculously fun which is the point of all of this nonsense and the really good developers for any system (even the Atari 2600) understood that.
@@FridayNightArcade I agree they both had amazing games I grew up with snes and only recently got into sega genesis I love both of them so much
@@segazone1684 That's an opinion, and you're welcome to it. Both were great for different reasons and both out did each other in different areas. You're regurgitating a very tired old argument.
Light Crusader was a fun game, it was basically Land Stalker part 2 :)
I think pushing the NPCs around and being able to jump on bookcases etc is the best part of Light Crusader. There’s something childishly satisfying about pushing the king into the corner and boxing him in with furniture.
You're not wrong.
@@FridayNightArcade “I’m the heroic knight! I can do whatever I want! I’m gonna walk on your dining table!”
Indie games like Freedom Planet and Cuphead have taken a lot of inspiration from Treasure’s work, especially Gunstar Heroes.
One thing is certain...the Sega Genesis library would be significantly weaker if it wasn't for Treasures masterpieces Gunstar H, Dynamite H, Yu Hakusho and especially Alien Soldier. A.S. could almost pass for a Saturn/Ps1 2D game, and yes while the game is challenging, it is completely fair, and alot of the challenge comes simply from learning the innovative mechanics/controls. It is imo, a Top 3 game from the 16-bit era deserving universal praise alongside the Snes games that everyone always boasts about...but of course, due to Sega's stupidity, it didn't get a physical US release, because they thought it was 2015 in 1995. Treasure has produced some of the greatest video games ever.
Another great video! I wish I could remember most of the Genesis games I played back then, besides the obvious ones like Phantasy Star 2-4, Shining Force, Star Control, Sonic, Etc.
neuromancer9k shining in the darkness, ogre tactics, Herzog Zewi,
Dude, Laser and Targeted was king in Gunstar Heroes. A square of death that moved autonomously from enemy to enemy. All you had to do was dodge all the thousands of enemies and projectiles in the screen.
I can't believe I missed this review. Treasure was an absolute dream team for Sega rivaling even the mighty AM2. I do have a suggest for a Sega Genesis game if you're interested. It has a very unique story behind it and it's a game that mere words fail to describe how truly great it is.
That game is Thunder Force IV or Lightening Force here in the US (yes, the title is horribly misspelled). Sega for some stupid reason decided to change the name and in doing so really hurt its sales. Thunder Force had a pedigree you just didn't mess with and with the misspelling no one knew what the Hell it was. I rented it from Blockbuster on a whim. It was one of those times that once you were on the way home you start having doubts about your decision after all that was going to be my whole weekend.
I slowly walked up to my Genesis/Sega CD setup with trepidation thinking "I made a mistake." Finally, I slapped the cart in and said "let the suckfest commence" and almost instantaneously I ate my words as I realized this was Thunder Force IV! Too say the incredible otherworldly graphics, booming sound effects, music to die for, and uncompromising gameplay were phenomenal would be an understatement. This game truly looks like a high end Neo Geo AES/MVS shmup on the Genesis. I honestly did not understand what I was seeing at the time. Everything the Genesis was "incapable" of doing was happening all over the giant playfield. You have sprite manipulation, rotation, scaling, enemies coming from the background to the foreground, shots flying from the foreground to the background, regular enemies the size of bosses, bullets filling the screen from every direction, and a smooth power up system that's not the normal punishing kind we used to see. It is a true tour de force and shows why we still hold 16-bit gaming to such a high regard. When and if you do play it, try to put yourself back in early 1994 and gauge your response. What would Friday Night Arcade think in 1994?
After that weekend I searched high and low for that game. It was nowhere to be found both my dad and mom tried to purchase Blockbuster's copy to no avail. They refused to budge so...we wound up renting it and I kept it. They charged my dads credit card and I finally had the game. The store manager was very annoyed with us and it took a call to corporate before they gave us the clamshell case and instructions. I still have that game today in our retro game room. For reference, you can download Thunder Force IV on the Nintendo Switch as it got the AM2 treatment. Check it out man...
Gunstar Heroes FYI, you are supposed to independently control the Chase + Fire flame with your D pad. Works best with the hero that is stationary while firing. As others point out, Chase + Laser is the best "heat seeking" option. Fire + Laser is heaviest damage and a lot of fun. Throws are heavy damage, too - a fun playstyle is to start up two player mode with only one player and do as much damage as you can just by throwing player 2!
Your ad was very intriguing keep up the good work
Another amazing video. I had no idea Treasure made that last game. I’ll have to check it out because I love all of their other games. It will be on the mini? I have one on order so thanks for pointing it out.
Supposedly, Contra Hard Corp was ghost-produced by Treasure, but I've never seen verification. It definitely has the feel of a Treasure game.
Great ep! Entertaining and informative as always. What a great showcase
The YuYu Hakusho is a fucking masterpiece, that one was amazing as a fighting game.
Alien Soldier, Light Crusader, Gunstar Heroes, and Dynamite Headdy is also available on the Sega Genesis collection on Xbox One, PS4, and the Switch. I like it, there is some sound issues with some games, other then that, it's a good collection.
Great job as always, man! You deserve a lot more subs!
You can also find Light Crusader on Sega Genesis Classics for the PS4; am I right?
Another interesting developer (they weren't all gems) for the Genesis/Sega CD was Wolf Team. They made Sol Feace, Earnest Evans, Road Avenger, and more. They went on to make the Tales series as part of Namco.
Sol Deace is easily my fav space ship shooter. A perfect port of Sol Feace, minus the CD music and cutscenes.
Chaser lightning is overpowered, but i always liked the power bar lazer, Short but damn powerful.
All those games is on the Sega Genesis Classics for the PS4/Xbox One/Nintendo Switch except for the McDonald's game and Yu Yu Hakusho
I was lucky enough to have gotten the chance to play Gunstar Heroes on the Sega Genesis as a kid and I absolutely loved it. Unfortunately, my grandparents didn't really like how much time I spent playing video games and they got rid of all my old video games. I have no idea what happened to them and it pains me to this day.
My favorite weapon in Gunstar Heroes is throwing the other player
the heat seeking/homing lazer gun in Gunstar Hero's is definitely the most over powered weapon in the game. It's all but certain that you can make it all the way through the game very easily, while using it 😏! So... Yes, it is far away the weapon combo i use most when i play it
My favorite weapon in Gunstar Heroes is the double flamethrower, because I'm all about the DPS wifey, but I have to admit that homing + laser = broken. Light Crusader was quite an experience; some of the puzzles were a pain because of the isometric perspective or just plain cryptic (PENUMBRA!!!), but the overall experience was really something special, once you got past the clunkiness.
Man, really makes me wish they had made a "metroidvania" style game for the genesis!
Great video Treasure made awesome games for the Sega genesis / mega drive 👍
Would be cool if they brought back the Mcdonalds one. Maybe as a digital giveaway code you can find in a Happy Meal. But then again, that might cause more scalping.
>left Konami to have more creative freedom
history repeats itself
I may be wrong, but did they also develop “Beyond Oasis”? That’s one of my favorite Genesis games.
That was developed by Ancient and published by Sega.
My bad. I will say, it looks glorious and does have a very “Treasure”-esque feel to it.
Streets of Rage 2 and Beyond Oasis both done by Ancient. Talk about knocking it out of the park. Two of my favorite games ever.
Gunstar heroes was the best game in sega genesis I loved playing it with my cousin
Treasure land adventure was surprisingly good 👍
Gunstar best weapon is of corse chaser + lazer, altho it has minor hangups wanting to dance around unkillable things at times. Got it digitally for my 360, still a great time. Final boss is a nightmare solo lol.
This was a great video treasure seems like a game company with a lot of heart and soul, even when they did the mcdonalds game, instead of just pumping out a shitty game just to check it off, they actually made a pretty nice looking game with a lot of character and charm to it. That shows you how good and caring of a developer they were.
RPG's are my favorite genre, and I had heard many people on RUclips talk about how great of a game Light Crusader is, so I was quick to snap it up when I saw it one day at a pawn shop. I tried it and was *not* impressed. Why people think the game is so great is beyond me. I'm not saying it's bad, but it's not that good either. The controls kind of suck, and the game is just ugly to look at. I didn't get far into it at all though, so maybe I'll give it another go one of these days.
I've never beaten GH without trackers and laser combination.
Also did you say $40? Why did I chuck my mega drive!?
I wonder if you going to review treasure games after the Sega genesis
Pretty awesome stuff. I was a big Genesis fan but in Fall of '93 I went to college and never bought a new game after that for 16 bit. Too bad Treasure didn't start in the early 90s!
I get that. After the Nintendo 64 and it's 7 good games, I went through a dry spell and didn't buy a game again until like PS2 era actually. I needed a DVD player lol.
It was hard watchin u butcher my favourite anime but i still love this channel
Well, at least he admitted he couldn't say it and he doesn't follow anime /manga.
Yall should see gunstar heroes on game gear. It's the most absurd yet awesome port ever made.
I love Treasureland Adventure. It's a nice little game.
These are the types of programmers all video game companies should have...the kind that push hardware to its limits
Another fantabulous episode.
The way you said yuyu Hakusho lol
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
These games are really a Treasure, just heard of them.
2:05 How? You make a pretty goofy claim here...
06:53 Mcdonalds treasure land adventure
Great retrospective! Though that wacky McDonald's game was a childhood original, I really gotta replay it soon and see how it holds up. Also, how do you capture all the footage from these? MIght be just me, but dang, those pixels are crisp as heck! Good stuff^^
You might enjoy this video from My Life in Gaming about getting RGB video from the Sega Genesis ruclips.net/video/tT9OnPjQKWY/видео.html ..... they've got similar videos for just about every old console. Very well done and can't recommend enough.
The fighting sound effects in Yuu Yuu Hakusho: Makyou Toitsusen, along with other fighting games of that time, always reminded me of the fighting sound effects in the Kung Fu films of the 1970s and 80s.
ruclips.net/video/x1imbiDDWU4/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/GWS14U031WI/видео.html
The Super Nintendo could have produced Gunstar Heroes, it wasn't a matter of not being able to handle anything complex (we've see it produce many complex games), it just would have suffered from ALOT of slowdown.
Blue on blue is the best weapon in gun star for me
The best weapon combo in GSH is laserbeam+chaser. It's easy mode.
Alien
Soldier was awesome
Keep them comin man. Cool vid
SNES totally could have handled this game, technically speaking.
Which game?
The first one
Ya. But with slowdown. SNES was notorious for its slowdown. Dont get me wrong, overall SNES pumped out better looking (and sounding) games. But lower overall processing power meant that very busy action games struggled. That's why there are so many RPGs on the system.
@@thomaspolaino3188 have you seen Rendering Ranger R2? it's probably more intense than Gunstar heroes. but has 0 slowdown. gunstar heroes has a tiny bit of slowdown here and there.. also space megaforce, pop'n twinbee, firepower 20000, smash tv, just to name a few snes games that have tons of on sprites and action and no slowdown. i think it was far more capable than given credit for, it's just so many developers left slowdown in that wasn't the fault of the snes, it was them not knowing how to get rid of it or caring enough. snes was harder to code for. now we're seeing snes games being fixed(mainly slowdown) that can run on a real snes, and a lot more will happen in the coming years. Gradius 3, and Super ghouls n ghosts are just the start
Rodzilla, yes there are Snes games that indeed handle action and sprites pretty well, you named a few. But there is still a huge difference between the most expertly optimized games on Snes like Rendering Ranger, Contra 3 etc and Gunstar Heroes, Alien Soldier, Thunder Force etc. And that is sprite animation.
If you examine these games, there's a stark difference in the way sprites are animated/designed, Genesis games generally have more frames of animation, and/or consist of multi-jointed sprites, to appear more flexible, "alive", and the games overall feel alot smoother as a result.
Snes sprites are usually large but static (as seen in Rendering R, Super M, Wild Guns etc). I've never seen Vectorman or Treasure game quality animation on Snes.
Then there's the fact that the Gen renders games at a higher resolution, 320x224 vs 256x224, giving a proper 4:3 aspect ratio unlike Snes. Furthermore more ram bandwidth, parallax scrolling, 3D polygons & wireframes without a chip etc.
The Snes was hard to get adequate performance out of because Nintendo purposely designed it that way, foolishly prioritizing graphics over performance, thus yes the system is at fault to a degree. Many games only clock the cpu at 1.58 or 2.58 mhz! The Snes gets a bad reputation from some because the system came out 2 YEARS after the Genesis, so it should have been superior in every way, not only in some.
And even then a few years had to go by before we started to see high profile games without so much slowdown. (even SMW and LTTP slow down sometimes when barely anything is happening on screen lol)
1:18 WTF? Why didn't you get the heart?
Dynamite Headdy!! TOTALLY NOT LAME!
I would like to see Core Mega Drive and Mega CD games covered. Nice episode! Alot of how good a 16bit game looks depends on how much time they spent literally sitting down and drawing background images and making the sprites nice. It's not so much to do with hardware power.
I will say Treasure made some of the best and smoothest playing games. I only really enjoyed Yuu Yu Hakusho although the backgrounds and menus did put me off a bit. I found the games a bit shallow and lacking in solid mechanics.
You are correct, Jackamomo. All of the hardware in the world doesn't matter much if the devs didn't put much care into the game and specifically the art style. You can tell the difference between a by the numbers game and a game where the devs really put the time and imagination into it.
@@FridayNightArcade Yeah. You have to admire Treasure for their programming prowess and imagination. But Light Crusader, Yuu Yuu and Alien Soldier were all lacking the investment in time and man power to make them really good as the full team were split into 3 after the completion of Gunstar Heroes - making them a bit unfinished.
Vitality 999? Is someone cheating in Gunstar heroes? And it's all about the tracer laser weapon combo.
So they were like the Image Comics of games
Gunstar heroes was the shizz!!!
6:18 *DUELO A MUERTE CON CUCHILLOS*
Apparently after Gunstar Heroes the team was split into three to make Alien Soldier, Light Crusader and YuuYuu Hakusho. Hence they are roughly one third of the quality.
Yu Yu Hakusho was pretty good... For the first 2 seasons. After that, it turns into Dragonball Z wannabe.
Wait a minute the SNES could definitely handle creating the bosses on GunStar Heroes.
Hmm.... some but not all.
@@FridayNightArcade Hmmm 🤔 I'll get back to you on this.
My understanding is this boss ( ruclips.net/video/fTRUlS62G_g/видео.html ) would be pretty tough with all of the moving parts ... but I've been wrong before ... FWIW I'm not a bit wars guy and just look for good games that make the best use of their hardware on any system. I was a admittedly a Nintendo kid growing up but could care less which is "better" now.
@@FridayNightArcade no I totally understand what you're saying. I have both systems. I just swear I've seen similar technical graphics on the SNES. I just can't think of any now. Maybe ActRaiser2 or Super Castlevania 4. I know games like Road Runner and Uniracer on the SNES could match the Genesis Blast processing speed for sure. But you might be right
Cool. Yeah I'm totally not an expert but the way I understood it was there'd be way too much overall slowdown to even attempt that many moving parts due to the SNES chip.
Gunstar Heroes is very impressive but imo it feels a bit like going through the motions at times as you just hold the button down and move and the game generally takes care of the rest. Dynamite Headdy is just gorgeous and doing so much to really make the Genesis shine in pretty much every way possible as far as I'm concerned. Yuu Yuu looks pretty decent but there's to much dithering going on, which I'm not a fan of. The MacDonald's game is actually impressive and a good effort for a licensed game. I'm not a fun of the boss-rush design of Alien Solider, and although the bosses are often very impressive, the backgrounds are nothing special. Light Crusader doesn't even look like a proper Treasure game imo; it's a little meh looking for them. Overall though, I can't argue with the general quality of Treasure's output on Genesis, and they really did make that system shine. I only wish they'd seen fit to try and push the SNES similarly.
How many of these games will be on the mini...?
They made their games with good graphics❤
Chaser lightning.
You're missing 2 forms for the 7-force boss. Try playing on hard difficulty to reliably see them all.
You try playing on hard difficulty lol.
@@FridayNightArcade lol indeed. I didn't properly upgrade from the genny-tower until 1998, so I had plenty of time. GSH on hard is no slouch, but it's easily more manageable than US Contra Hard Corps...on anything. I find it more satisfying, but I've played it to death. I would recommend you try, but you'll have to learn to avoid attacks first 😋 (looking specifically at the core hammering away at you).
Also there's a standing slide attack, but I forget exactly how to do it.
@@JohnnyV83 Yeah sadly when I'm doing these types of list videos, I don't get to spend too much time with any one particular game to GIT GUD at it. That's one I need to go back and do a standalone episode on at some point to really get into it.
@@FridayNightArcade always go at your own pace, otherwise playing will feel like work.
Life changes, school, work, and changes in taste led me to a nearly 15 year hiatus from JRPGs, but I'm toying with trying again...but not because someone told me.
I know you said you're not big on anime and manga, but when you got to discussing the Yu Yu Hakusho game, I cringed a tiny bit. You butchered some words and a bit of the plot. The show is pronounced "You You Hah-ku-show" and the main character's name is "You-skay Yer-uh-meshy". He also doesn't die in the car accident, he was rendered comatose and was given an opportunity to win his life back (failure would cause him to die in the coma), successfully completes his task for his life back, and repays the favor by assisting a spirit detective agency in stopping powerful demons from harming people both in the living world and the spirit world. By brawling and shooting bullets of spirit energy out of his finger.
I knew no matter how hard I tried, I'd likely butcher it.