

Horizontal SHMUP with an 80s hair metal soundtrack and an actual in game plot told through level progression. Written by someone that has never played the game. Voiced cut-scenes don't matter but are a great add-on. If you like horizontally scrolling shooters you have no reason to not play this. A bit on the easy side but undoubtedly one of the best shooters for the Mega CD. Great Shoot'em Up with a crazy story about steam robots in traditional Japan. If you can't get this game but kinda curious you can always get Genesis version. And the gameplay became less linear, cause you can travel around the city collecting clues. Because cd version features several improvements like animated scenes, two new levels, extra combat moves, the ability to collect reproductions of Spider-Man comic books issues, and an original musical score. The Kingpin on Genesis is a pretty solid game, but this is even better. Still, the games are region-locked, and it takes modding or a special cart / Flashcart to bypass that. PROTIP: as the Mega-CD was released long before CD burners became popular, it has no copy protection system. Regardless, both are identical in performance. Model 2s do have a tendency to last longer since there's no mechanical tray to load and eject each game. The Model 1 Mega Drive does require a plastic extender to "properly" fit on the Model 1 Mega CD. You can use either system model (or the SG Mega) with either Mega CD, but the Model 2 looks small on top the Model 1 Mega CD. The Model 1 was built around being used with a Model 1 Mega Drive and likewise for the Model 2.

The Model 1, with a mechanical tray for the CD drive. It could also be combined with the 32X to form a behemoth of a system for which only six (terrible) games were made. All this power was mostly wasted on hilariously cheesy FMV "games" nonetheless, this system had a good number of quality games. Known as Sega CD in the US, this was not just a CD drive for the Mega Drive: it added a faster CPU, new graphics and audio processors, and more RAM.
