Turbo facts

[toymachine78]

For the life of me, I will NEVER understand why people call Kieth Courage the worst pack-in game.  Even ignoring less commonly known pack-in games like Gyromite, are there people who think that Altered Beast is some fantastic work of gaming literature?  Honestly, that game is boring and bad.  I've never understood why people seem to think that it's better than Kieth Courage.

Altered Beast was no digital masterpiece, but at least it was familiar to the NA market due to the arcade.

KC gets my vote for worst pack in. I still remember how let down I was with it. I played through the first level, then saw the second level was more of the exact same.... Time to pop in Splatter house and Legendary Axe.

Pole Position for the 7800 was a better pack in lol

You must have been really let down by Super Mario Bros then.

  No way. SMB was familiar from the arcade. Had catchier music and more engaging gameplay. It was just more fun.

[Gentlegamer]

For the life of me, I will NEVER understand why people call Kieth Courage the worst pack-in game.  Even ignoring less commonly known pack-in games like Gyromite, are there people who think that Altered Beast is some fantastic work of gaming literature?  Honestly, that game is boring and bad.  I've never understood why people seem to think that it's better than Kieth Courage.

Altered Beast was better in that it was a recognizable arcade game that looked and sounded impressive, even if the game itself is mediocre. And of course, the Genesis didn't really take off until Sonic the Hedgehog became the pack-in game.

Keith Courage looks and plays like a slightly prettier but mediocre NES game.

[Arkhan]

Keith Courage would have been much more recognizable if

AMERICA HAD THE f*ckING CARTOON ON TV.

HEY LETS LOCALIZE A CARTOON GAME THAT DOESN'T EXIST IN USA.

SEEMS

LEGIT.

[Bloufo]

Altered Beast was better in that it was a recognizable arcade game that looked and sounded impressive, even if the game itself is mediocre. And of course, the Genesis didn't really take off until Sonic the Hedgehog became the pack-in game.

Off-topic here but that took some balls to put Sonic in as the bundled game.
I mean nobody makes much (if any) money on the sale of hardware and then they go and put their best title in with that hardware. Must have seemed to many that they were now giving up a high profit margin in doing so.
Credit to Kalinske for having that foresight.

[esteban]

Trüth: I have never purchased a game based on cover art. Flip the box and look at the screenshots.

BASIC LIFE LESSON: One of the first things a person learns is that packaging art (books, films, music, video games, cereal, candy, vitamins, pillow cases, etc.) does not necessarily have any connection to with the contents.

TRUTH #2: pretty screenshots ***will*** garner attention, quarters, purchases.

LESSON: We are not total imbeciles (we learned lesson #1), but we still are suckers for pretty screenshots.

[Black Tiger]

Altered Beast was better in that it was a recognizable arcade game that looked and sounded impressive, even if the game itself is mediocre. And of course, the Genesis didn't really take off until Sonic the Hedgehog became the pack-in game.

Off-topic here but that took some balls to put Sonic in as the bundled game.
I mean nobody makes much (if any) money on the sale of hardware and then they go and put their best title in with that hardware. Must have seemed to many that they were now giving up a high profit margin in doing so.
Credit to Kalinske for having that foresight.

It would be more noteworthy if the NES and Collecovision hadn't done the same thing from launch onward and if Nintendo wasn't packing-in Super Mario World with SNES systems at the time.

The Sonic pack-in sets were also sold for more than a regular Genesis, so it's not like they were giving them away. It only became noteworthy long after the 16-bit generation, when it was attributed to the success of the Genesis and interviews revealed that his bosses didn't like the idea.

[wildfruit]

Trüth: I have never purchased a game based on cover art. Flip the box and look at the screenshots.

BASIC LIFE LESSON: One of the first things a person learns is that packaging art (books, films, music, video games, cereal, candy, vitamins, pillow cases, etc.) does not necessarily have any connection to with the contents.

TRUTH #2: pretty screenshots ***will*** garner attention, quarters, purchases.

LESSON: We are not total imbeciles (we learned lesson #1), but we still are suckers for pretty screenshots.

I can think of one occasion where lesson #1 backfired. Rubbish box, nice screens on back, terrible game.
TRANSBOT.
All I learned that day was transbot sucks.

[EvilEvoIX]

For the life of me, I will NEVER understand why people call Kieth Courage the worst pack-in game.  Even ignoring less commonly known pack-in games like Gyromite, are there people who think that Altered Beast is some fantastic work of gaming literature?  Honestly, that game is boring and bad.  I've never understood why people seem to think that it's better than Kieth Courage.

Gyromite was a necessary evil at the time to get the NES on the Shelves with Rob the Robot.  You must remember that at the time Video Game Systems were a complete failure and all systems crashed in 1983.  Nintendo had to Market the NES as an Entertainment System and had a Robot, see not really a Video Game system but an entertainment center.  Stores would not stock Video Game Systems at the time.

[esteban]

Trüth: I have never purchased a game based on cover art. Flip the box and look at the screenshots.

BASIC LIFE LESSON: One of the first things a person learns is that packaging art (books, films, music, video games, cereal, candy, vitamins, pillow cases, etc.) does not necessarily have any connection to with the contents.

TRUTH #2: pretty screenshots ***will*** garner attention, quarters, purchases.

LESSON: We are not total imbeciles (we learned lesson #1), but we still are suckers for pretty screenshots.

I can think of one occasion where lesson #1 backfired. Rubbish box, nice screens on back, terrible game.
TRANSBOT.
All I learned that day was transbot sucks.

I have TransBot, too. I feel your pain from decades ago.

I'm surprised a transgendered robot didn't ruffle a few feathers back when it was released.

[Tatsujin]

lol, read this before. absolute hilarious nonsense.

[pulstar]

Trüth: I have never purchased a game based on cover art. Flip the box and look at the screenshots.

BASIC LIFE LESSON: One of the first things a person learns is that packaging art (books, films, music, video games, cereal, candy, vitamins, pillow cases, etc.) does not necessarily have any connection to with the contents.

TRUTH #2: pretty screenshots ***will*** garner attention, quarters, purchases.

LESSON: We are not total imbeciles (we learned lesson #1), but we still are suckers for pretty screenshots.

I can think of one occasion where lesson #1 backfired. Rubbish box, nice screens on back, terrible game.
TRANSBOT.
All I learned that day was transbot sucks.

I was almost suckered in to buy Transbot. Now I'm glad that I never bought it with my birthday money when I was a kid and I got Psycho Fox instead.

[sunteam_paul]

Transbot's actaully a pretty good conversion from the arcade.

It's certainly better than My Hero which is stupid hard.

[wildfruit]

Transbot's actaully a pretty good conversion from the arcade.

It's certainly better than My Hero which is stupid hard.

I enjoyed it at first. Colour is great and the music, all two tunes of it, I actually find quite pleasant.  Then felt completely misled when it only took about 5 minutes to play through. At least it was my brother's money not mine.

[esteban]

Transbot's actaully a pretty good conversion from the arcade.

It's certainly better than My Hero which is stupid hard.

I enjoyed it at first. Colour is great and the music, all two tunes of it, I actually find quite pleasant.  Then felt completely misled when it only took about 5 minutes to play through. At least it was my brother's money not mine.

Exactly. Playing the same three levels over and over and over...

...at the very least, there could have been a creative attempt to have a few more "stages" that seemed distinct, even if they were minimal/creatively recycled assets.

The same with enemy patterns and enemy designs.

I know Sega Card was limited ROM size, so I don't expect more assets (graphics)...but I do expect some level design (short but sweet experience) or (longer, with recycled assets).

But that's OK, I kept my SMS and I still play Spy vs Spy, too.

[Gentlegamer]

Keith Courage would have been much more recognizable if

AMERICA HAD THE f*ckING CARTOON ON TV.

HEY LETS LOCALIZE A CARTOON GAME THAT DOESN'T EXIST IN USA.

SEEMS

LEGIT.

What would have been killer is a HuCard Macross game. That would have been perfect for 1989.