Collector Chronicles: Super Rare Games #2

Today's rarity focus is on Sega. They have a very interesting and colorful history, but I'm not going to focus on that. I am going to make vague observations about games that I will most likely never get to play. I hope you enjoy it!

Sega Master System: James "Buster" Douglas Knockout Boxing

Sonic the Hedgehog is close, but none of the US games are harder to find and more expensive than this one. This is almost always the last game collectors get for the system. I hardly ever see them on Ebay, but there might be a couple of logical reasons for that. First of all, it has a very confusing title. You can't just type in "Buster Douglas" or you'll get a bunch of boxing memorabilia. This turns away confused game collectors. Also, the Genesis version is much more common, so it's difficult sorting through all of them to find the two SMS copies on there. I guess the easiest way to do that would be to set your search to show the most expensive first. 100 dollars is a pretty good price for it if you ever see one with a box.

Sega Genesis: M.U.S.H.A.

For years I didn't think Genesis even had any rare games. It doesn't have the large amount of online support that Atari and Nintendo does, so its history is a little more hidden. Well as it turns out there's this game called M.U.S.H.A. for it, which is also an annoying title to type. I really don't know much about this game, but it seems like the Genesis has about 20 popular games and 700 obscure ones, so my ignorance can be forgiven. Due to this game's obscurity it seems a little more likely to show up cheap in the wild. Keep your eyes open.

Sega CD: Keio Flying Squadron

Now Sega CDs got some expensive games. Almost any famous game or RPG is going to cost you a good amount, but not even Shining Force CD or Snatcher cost as much as Keio Flying Squadron. I have no idea where the legend of this game comes from as it's not even that rare. There are plenty to be found online everyday. It's also a side scrolling shooter, which makes it sound more like a rare Turbografx game than a Sega CD game. On top of everything else, it's only a good game and not a great one. Would someone please explain this one to me?

32X: The Amazing Spider-Man: Web of Fire

Sure it was only around for about a year, but that was long enough to have a rare and expensive game. I think this was the last US game, so it had a very limited production run. What drives me crazy about this one is that if you leave it out the 32X has one of the easiest libraries to complete. About 20 of the 31 games can be bought for under 5 dollars. Most of the rest are less than 20. This game by itself costs almost as much as the whole rest of the catalogue. Thanks Spider-Man for crushing my dreams.

Sega Saturn: Panzer Dragoon Saga

This is the best example of a game coming out too late. When this game came out the Saturn was already dead. Sega was getting ready to release the Dreamcast and everybody was playing Playstation or N64. This game came out to universal acclaim, but by then nobody had a Saturn anymore. Nowadays it sells for about 250 dollars if you're lucky, so it's still a secret classic. Incidentally Sega released several other great games in 1998 including Shining Force 3, Magic Knight Rayearth, and Burning Rangers. If they had released some of these games a couple years earlier the Saturn might have had a different fate. That just wouldn't be very Sega though.

Well that's about it for the Sega. I know I didn't do an entry for Dreamcast, but it doesn't have any super expensive games from what I can tell. They have a few that are kind of rare, like Cannon Spike, but they can all be found for a fair price if you look around a little. Perhaps in 10 years there will be some, but until then it's safe. Oh also none on Game Gear. That's all I need to say about that one.