Nice Package! (Shining Force II, Mega Drive)

Although I've been a fan of Sega's 16-bit console--the Genesis in North America, and the Mega Drive elsewhere--since it first came out in the late 1980s, I only began "collecting" for it last year.

Even then, I've only got three Japanese Mega Drive games at the moment: the first Shining Force, the sequel highlighted here and the similarly styled ARPG, Landstalker.

All three titles have me wondering why it took me so long to start buying Mega Drive cartridges. After all, as the photos in this post hopefully show, as well as those found in the "Nice Package!" write-up I published about the original Shining Force, Sega produced some stellar packaging for its Japanese 16-bit games.

Now, I can't quite say I prefer Shining Force II's box art, above, to that of the first Shining Force, but I still like the former a lot. Maybe if Shining Force II's main illustration took up the entirety of its case's cover I'd find it more appealing?

I also prefer Shining Force's side spine to that of its sequel.

Both games' cartridges sport rather snazzy labels, thankfully, with Shining Force II's on display in the snapshot below.



One area where the Japanese Shining Force II ably competes with the SRPG series' initial entry is its instruction manual.

Nowhere is that more evident than in the section of the Shining Force II manual that showcases that game's colorful cast of characters.

The back side of Shining Force II's Japanese case probably is the least impressive part of its packaging, but that's OK. Most of the rest of it is nice enough that it's easy enough to overlook.

See also: previous 'Nice Package!' posts

From the back of my boyhood closet, part one

Those of you who read this post from yesterday afternoon will know that I recently discovered a bunch of game-related treasures while digging through my boyhood closet. (And if you haven't read the aforementioned post? Uh, maybe you should read it now.)

Well, one of those finds--I'll write about five more in the coming weeks--is the Sega Genesis 2 system (and controller) seen in the following photo.

Neither item is in perfect condition, but both are in good, working order, so you know what that means: I now can play that copy of Pier Solar I bought early last year. (Read about that situation here.)

I don't expect Pier Solar to be the only game that gets stuck into my recently-rediscovered Genesis 2 this year, of course; I also expect to slide copies of Shining in the Darkness, Shining Force, Shining Force II and Landstalker into the system's cartridge slot at some point or other.

Before I purchase those titles, though, I'm going to have to get one of those slick, six-button controllers, since I've never been much of a fan of the cheap, chunky, three-button ones.

See also: Previous 'from the back of my boyhood closet' posts