When NES is less: Ghostbusters & Wonder Boy | Segaiden #043

It's fun to goof on the "Sega Does What Nintendon't" marketing line, but sometimes that claim was more than just sales hype. For example, this week's episode, in which we have a pair of games that would show up on NES about a year and a half later in lesser forms. Ghostbusters on NES lives in infamy as a flamin' hot hunk of garbage, but this version hews closer to the Commodore 64 original, adds some new material, and looks great, making it arguably the definitive console release. As for Wonder Boy, well, if you've been following this channel for any amount of time, you know the story there. And certainly its NES version—Hudson's Adventure Island—was by no means a disaster. I'd even say it turned out superior, music-wise. But, Sega's release did a much better job of recreating the coin-op game... and it hit the U.S. way ahead of Hudson's rendition. That makes this perhaps the last moment in time when American kids could look at the two consoles and say, "The Master System is the one to have." The NES renaissance of Summer ’87 was just around the corner, but right here, Sega stood proud. Production notes: Why watch when you can read? Check out the massive hardcover print editions of NES Works, Super NES Works, and Virtual Boy works, available now at Limited Run Games (https://limitedrungames.com/collections/books)! Look forward to SG-1000 Works: Segaiden Vol. I, due July 2023. Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! Plus, exclusive podcasts, eBooks, and more! Most Master System footage captured from U.S. carts running through an adapter on Sega Mark III hardware with FM Sound Unit and RGB bypass modification by iFixRetro. Most arcade and Master System Light Phaser footage captured from MiSTer, with thanks to MiSTerAddOns. Video upscaled to 720 with xRGB Mini Framemeister.