I don’t know what to say. The unthinkable has happened. Of ALL the licensed Sega Genesis and Mega Drive games out there I found the one single game that use to hold the #1 position on my ‘Fantasy Wish List’. The ‘Fantasy Wish List’ being a list of games that I would love to have but would never ever be able to afford. And this one particular title was the most unattainable of all.

…entirely unattainable.

Until today when I purchased a complete and Excellent condition Eliminate Down for the Japanese Sega Mega Drive.
Even now looking at it actually in my collection I can hardly believe it!

I remember writing a blog a while ago stating that “I think the Sega Collection Might have Peaked…“. I’m glad (and surprised) that I was wrong. I’m pretty sure the collection has now actually peaked. Until I some how end up with a complete copy of the official yet unlicensed copy of Tetris for the Japanese Sega Mega Drive (but that’s just crazy talk) my collection has now ‘peaked’ as high as it ever will.

So if by chance the image below is still off screen and you haven’t seen it, hold on for just a moment. Before you scroll down get the tune ‘We Own It‘ from Fast and Furious 6 in your head. Got it? Crank the mental volume way UP! AWwwwwww Yeeaaahhhhh….. OK, I’m done. You can scroll down now.

Eliminate Down for the Japanese Sega Mega Drive.

Eliminate Down Gameplay by the Sega Dude.

One of the most exciting things about getting to add Eliminate Down to the collection is that it’s a good game. So far it has been really good. If feels great, sounds fantastic, looks awesome and it’s packed full of bosses and mini-bosses. Which helps keep the action intense and fresh. I’ve had a lot of fun playing it!

So… What did Eliminate Down cost me? I bought it in a bundle with a Japanese Mega Drive model 2 and 9 other games. So it’s hard to say exactly what this one game cost me. I’ll break it down at the end of this post.

Of these ten games I already had seven of them but I didn’t care because I had target fixation on Eliminate Down. But for now, on to the other two games that I’m adding to the collection.

At first I thought I already had Heavy Unit but after digging through the whole Mega Drive collection I realized I didn’t. The condition is Excellent, it’s complete and I’m really glad to have it.

Heavy Unit

Heavy Unit Gameplay by the Sega Dude.

Heavy Unit isn’t actually that good. It’s not terrible but playing this Space Ship Shooter right after playing Eliminate Down really highlighted it’s flaws. The graphics are OK and the levels do have some good variety but the game feels a bit flat and unpolished. And it’s one of those games that can really be punishing but not in a good way. If you die and lose your power-ups you’re in big trouble. When this happened to me I found the ship to be so slow that I couldn’t really react in time to anything. And I haven’t noticed any use for changing between ship mode and robot mode; which seems to happen when collecting a particular power-up. I checked ebay to get a sense of it’s cost and I found it listed for $40 USD. It’s really not worth this much. But the cover art really does rock.

The first few minutes of playing James Bond 007 the Duel I thought the game was really good. By the time I was able to beat level one I decided that is was just OK. The only thing that knocked down my first impression is the fact that the controls are a bit stiff. It’s pretty hard to get Bond to shoot at an angle or crouch as fast as you need him to. It felt a bit like Rolling Thunder and even used the same cover mechanics (ducking into a door way) but it wasn’t very useful in this game. The cheapest price I found on ebay for this game was $70 USD for the Japanese version. That is way too much if you only care about playing. Just like Heavy Unit James Bond 007 the Duel should be a $20 game.

James Bond 007 The Duel

James Bond Gameplay by the Sega Dude.

Bond is now in the collection! The condition is Good. You can’t see it in the picture but the edge of the cart label is peeling off a bit on the back side. Otherwise I would have given it a rating of Very Good.
…or Excellent if it was any Bond other than Timothy Dalton.

Here are the other 7 games that came with this lot (Found locally on Kijiji):

The Other Games Purchased with Eliminate Down.

The good news is all but one game can be played without needing to know Japanese. They’re also really good games. Two are actually bootlegs; Insector X and a 5-in-1 cart. The 5-in-1 cart is pretty cool. It contains Sonic 2, Jewel Master, Thunder Force III, Same Same Same and Master of Weapon. Once you power on the system you’ll get Sonic 2 by default. Pressing reset will cycle through the games.

So, what did Eliminate Down cost me?

I’m going to sell the doubles and take that money away from my cost of this bundle.
I spent $300 CND on a complete working Japanese model 2 Sega Mega Drive, ten games and one Honey Bee adapter. The adapter allows you to plug a Mega Drive cartridges into a Genesis. This will spare you from having to carve/shave the cartridge slot on a Genesis and make it physically wider. This Honey Bee adapter will not make region locked games play on the wrong system but since most games don’t have region locking it’s still very nice to have.

I’m going to be very conservative about the value of what I bought here. I think the cheapest price you might ever get a complete and working Mega Drive (or Genesis) would $30 and if each game other than Eliminate Down is valued at $20 and the Honey Bee adapter is about $10 then I paid $220 CDN for everything not counting Eliminate Down. Leaving the cost of Eliminate Down at an affordable $80 Canadian. I’ll admit that $80 is still a lot of money to be spending on a 25 year old game but I’m reasonably sure I am a through-and-through fanatical Mega Drive collector so how the heck could I pass this up?

I also want to thank my stunningly Beautiful wife for not once questioning the amount of money I threw down on these games! There wasn’t even so much as a “are you sure you really need it?”. I got nothing but unbridled acceptance. Which is normally the case and I feel it’s worth mentioning.

Below is the Japanese Mega Drive Model 2 that came with the lot. It’s in very nice shape. The only flaw is slight discoloration to both the power switch and the reset button. It’s complete with the hook-ups and an extra identical joystick.

Japanese Sega Mega Drive Model 2

I didn’t realize that the Japanese joysticks were much smaller than the Genesis controllers (of the same type). I don’t have a preference between the two. They’re both a good comfortable size.

So that was my day and what a good day it was!