Ah, the Sega 32X. This crazy thing was a 32bit add-on to the Sega Genesis which was intended to act as a holdover during the tail end of the Genesis’s life, before the Saturn had released in the United States and Europe. Interestingly, the thing was actually released after the Saturn in Japan! While the idea isn’t too terrible, and the hardware is okay, it really was far too little far too late in the life of the Sega Genesis.
It’s like the Genesis is on life support!
Getting to the Nerd, following up his Sega CD review he goes right into the problems with the famous device, first off addressing just how the thing looks and connects together, before going on a rant about, get this, end labels for game cartridges. Hey, it is an annoyance!
I would say James goes out of his way to express just how annoying the Sega 32X is to use but, quite honestly, it actually is a pain in the ass to use the thing, plugging in another power brick, more video cables, and all for games that honestly just aren’t much better than what the Sega Genesis had to start with.
Primal Rage, one example of many 32X games.
As far as jokes in this episode go, this one follows a similar pattern to the Sega CD video, and others where James really takes a good, but quick, look at the actual experience of using the 32X. It had potential but it was the wrong thing at the wrong time.
Final Rating: 3.5/5
Like the Sega CD episode, this one focuses more on really honestly criticizing the 32X add on, as well as some of the games for it. Jokes are thrown in, especially the rather absurd “The characters act like they have problems” moment from Virtua Fighter, but much of the comedy really comes from the just the raw reactions to how absurd the system is to use.
Of course, there is a nice ending rant, and a bit of fire thrown in for good measure. All in all, a fun time. Not a super great episode, but for its length, it’s not bad at all.