Sega Games on the NES
| The Sign of the Apocalypse:
This may sound apocalyptic, but believe it or not, at least two Sega games were made for a Nintendo system. (Yes, I know that Sega is now making games for Nintendo, but back in the days of the NES, it was more unusual.) After Burner, Fantasy Zone, Alien Syndrome, and Shinobi were all unlicensed games made by Tengen for the NES. Space Harrier was made by Takara, and Altered Beast was made by Asmik. Of course, if you're someone who's been into the world of NES gaming for awhile, you probably already knew that. But if not, then now you know! I would think that these games might be somewhat rare. The first time I had ever laid eyes on any of them was at Funcoland. Unfortunately, After Burner isn't too good on the NES, and Shinobi is cheesier than Wrath of the Black Manta and a lot less fun. (The character doesn't even look like a ninja to me.) Fantasy Zone seems kind of fun, though, despite having somewhat nauseating graphics. Alien Syndrome I didn't play too much of, and I only have a ROM of Space Harrier and Altered Beast, as they weren't released in North America. (Thanks to Dire 51 for input on the NES versions of Alien Syndrome and Space Harrier, thanks to "Dan" for sending me the Space Harrier ROM, and thanks to Kairobi King for information on the NES version of Altered Beast.) Here are cart scans of Shinobi and After Burner. Click the image to get a larger picture: | |
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And here are some screenshots of these games: ...
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Squaresoft Sega Rip-Offs?
And while we're on the subject of Sega games on the NES...It seems like before Square became big in the RPG field, they spent their early years making NES rip-offs of Sega games! Rad Racer is an NES cross-country auto racing game that is very similar to Outrun. They even both have a red car and the ability to choose the background music. The 3D Battles of WorldRunner (or just 3D WorldRunner) is very similar to Space Harrier. They are both behind-the-back perspective shooting games in which you control a running man instead of a ship. They have similar graphic styles and segmented Dragon bosses. The one major difference is that WorldRunner cannot fly except when fighting the bosses, whereas Space Harrier can fly whenever you want him to. Here are some screenshots:
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