What is this? Somebody actually doing research before they open their mouth? The nerve. But seriously, good review.

I hope SNES Drunk goes down in video game history as one of the most important people in retro gaming information for the sole reason of questioning the origin of the U.S. release of Hagane.

"No, go pay your rent instead" LMAO

Ex-Blockbuster manager here, it is and it is not accurate. It initially was a time limited exclusive, they got first run THEN some stores got it. So still a painfully rare game. Production run was absurdly low due to this. For example, I have seen Little Samson and Flinstones Dino Peak WAY more than this damn title in the wild and on eBay. Regardless there’s a rare aspect. Hell Final Fight Guy I have seen at a couple stores, Hagane they laugh when I ask. So that’s where the information comes from, I assume they made a crazy limited run as it was near the life of the system, I guess rentals made more money as opposed to asking $60 for a game on an old system be a $5 rental but still sold them after to kill off the production run.

It's funny how KZfaq has gone full circle. Started and there eventually was a bunch of decent smaller channels. Then it went hyper commercial and you have these titan channels with constant ads, etc. Monetization over quality (the matpat principle I'll call it). So now we've gotten to the point that all the great channels are small ones like this one. Keep it real man.

Over here in Germany, Hagane was sold like any other game. I got my version back in the day from a local hardware store that also sold some SNES and GB games.

That's it boys. Sell me your Hagane's cheap. I'm not falling for the bullshit.

To illustrate how retro game inflation is now out of control, Hagane went for $75.00 in some parts as recent as 2012. Fuck that Blockbuster rumor.

Thanks for fact-checking. I always knew it wasn't a Blockbuster exclusive. For instance my local non-Blockbuster family-owned rental store had Hagane when it was new.

I've got Hagane when i was a kid... was on sale normally. Totally LOVE the game anyway.

Mike Matei spewing nonsense and people believe him? NOOOOOOO, that cant be right at all! But in all seriousness he seems to be prideful of his ignorance despite talking about it at length. Great video, glad you covered it.

Wait, if I see something on the internet it might not be true? Anyway the real reason this game is expensive is cos the cartridge is haunted. My friend told me that and his dad is a cop so, yeah.

Mate, England was full of Blockbuster stores up until it's sad demise.

Great video and I love the screen shots of the old video game magazines! Please use more video game magazine screen shots in the future videos! The nostalgia... so strong.

I played this game on a Canadian TV show called Video & Arcade top 10. I found it odd that there was no cartridge and it was jut the chip inside the SNES. I ended up winning the episode and the winner was supposed to receive a copy of the game we played. I was under the understanding that I would be recieving the game HAGANE..... Instead I received a phone call from the show telling me I have to pick another game because HAGANE would not be available. So not sure if it was a Blockbuster exclusive but there was something going on with this game and probably had very minimal quantities released to the public at the time.

Ah Hagane, one of my favorite ninja games of the 16-bit era. I beat it many times already and can say this game is underappreciated quite honestly it is, the boss design is really good for the most part and the levels are short and sweet and focus on constant action, the controls needs some time getting used to but once you do its very natural using the weapon or ability you want in the game, and the music also has many good songs that fit well to their environments with a distinct Japanese feel over shakuhachi flutes playing in most of them which enhances the cool factor and ninja theme as well. Its also one of those games that the more you play it the more natural it gets on you as a player because so many things are added into the gameplay that makes it seem like a easy to pick up hard to master game that it ultimately feel rewarding, its a hard game with a strong focus on player reward, something which I think Ninja Gaiden and Shinobi for the most part are devoid of, you don't get a sense the developers wanted you to experiment with the game after a while, tossing impossible levels and ridiculously hard boss fights at you for no reason. Hagane just doesn't do that, not at all even the final boss once played through for a bit will feel natural to fight against. A great game.

Thumbs up from me man. I always look forward to your videos when I can't sleep.

I recently tried this game and really liked it. The combat is so complex. Your character has a lot of moves which makes it a lot of fun. My first playthrough took 5-6 hours but my second playthrough was just a little over an hour. I love starting over and seeing how much I improved. It also shows how good the game is.

Mike is the epitome of hit or miss. You can tell he thinks he's hot shit, but there's just so many red flags it's unreal. Unlike my boy SNESDrunk here. Solid content, all the time. Thanks for the content.

Thanks for reviewing this game Snesdrunk. This is my 5th favorite game on the Snes and my 12th favorite game from the entire generation. Great graphics, level design and fantastic controls, I love all the L & R somersaulting and abilities you have at your disposal, finding different ways to use different moves throughout the game as you improve in your skill is *very* rewarding. A classic imo. I still tilt my hat to Shinobi 3 on the Genesis (my 2nd favorite game from the era) but this isn't far behind in my eyes.

THANK YOU. I've been screaming for years that the rumor of this game being exclusive to Blockbuster is NOT TRUE. I still own the complete-in-box copy SlyBeast Sr. got for me for my birthday one year from a local Walmart.

It wasn't a blockbuster exclusive. In Québec we had blockbuster and videotron rental stores and the game was available in both ;)

Did Hagane cme u in Europe

My parents bought me this game in 99 in Germany. I sold it for ten bucks couple years later. Worst decision ever.

I confess that what I love the most of these videos is the intro: SnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnNES DRUNK!!!!

I don't know about the release of this game in North America,but the PAL version was a normal release,over here in Europe.It wasn't an exclusive title or something,like that.

Japanese 90s art style and 16 bit era is incredible combination.

How did this not become a series?!?!

Great video and love the research you have come up with....This game is fun and I did beat it but honestly I do not think its worth the asking price.(no game is worth 500.00) Hopefully this video will make the gaming community more aware!

I can confirm that the Wikipedia page never mentions Hagane being a Blockbuster exclusive, so you are probably right! :D

Unless all the Blockbusters in Australia were in Melbourne, I feel like we had way more than just a handful. I can think of 3 that used to be local to me. Hell one of them even survived up until 2010.

I only found this game at a rental store that wasn't blockbuster, never saw it for sale outside of catalogs

i worked at blockbuster when this game came out and i can settle this, when the games first came out it was a blockbuster exclusive HOWEVER, it was later for sell normally shortly after that. i remember this because i remember seeing it at a game store on one of my off days and asked the guy working there.

I really appreciate you're researching. GREAT WORK 👍👍👍👏

just one thing....Blockbuster video stores were everywhere across the UK, practically every town had one. Not that it really matters! great videos, keep up the good work

Really good video! While watching, I was reminded of Shinobi III.....and then you mentioned the similarity at the end! So in Shinobi III, there is a password to make you invincible to enemy fire. Is there a similar invincibility password for Hagane?

Were you referring to Mike Matai from Cinnamascre? Also, do you have maintain copies of Die Hard Gamefan and Gamepro or did you find online? I am looking for an old edition.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I do, in fact, own a copy of this cartridge. It has that classic VOID silver sticker that you get when purchasing a game that used to be a rental. I am pretty sure I got this in college when a nearby local video rental store was selling any of their snes/genesis games for $6. So you better believe I went down there at least 4 different times and dropped a healthy $60 bucks on any weird and obscure game they had available. While I can't weigh in with any facts about it's original availability, it does appear that I did in fact get this from a rental store that was selling their older games at the time.

In Spain there was a magazine that gave it the title of Game of the Month, in the very same issue where they analyzed Panzer Dragoon. I guess that another reason for this game getting so expensive is that it got a small release, stores only got a few units. Then experts (rightfully) labelled it as one of the best Super Nintendo games and it's easy to see why he got such prices.

awesome-looking game. never seen it before. always love your vids.

simply mentioning the Turbo Tunnel in Battletoads gives me flashbacks

Mike Matei to this day still doesn't do research before spouting nonsense in Cinemassacre/his streams. I mean, to be fair the guy doesn't even read instructions so... Anyway, I wish this got re-released on SNES Online.

Gregg’s no Kitarō is the hardest game and has the best soundtrack in super famicom. Great choice! Subscribed!

I have it still in my collection from back when I was growing up. We had no Blockbuster where I lived.

I remember some things you posted on this on twitter. I did some digging you can get good repros of the game off of amazon for only 24 dollars.

I only saw this at BlockBUster only for awhile. BUt I did see this one for sale at WALMART and Hastings few times. I bought my copy at Hastings long ago.

Spot on. Same thing happened with Flintstones Surprise at Dinosaur Peak on NES

Hands-down the best retro game KZfaqr of all time

Blockbuster was everywhere when I was a kid living in Australia 🇦🇺

perhaps theres some hoarder somewhere sitting on a box of them

when you rented a game from blockbuster you could also just buy it afterwards and they'd just sell you that exact rental copy. maybe some stores didn't do this, but i still have quite a few games and movies in blockbuster cases that i bought. so technically you could have bought it even if stores weren't dumping inventory. however i still don't think it was a blockbuster rental exclusive, but maybe they also sold new copies and it was a blockbuster exclusive just not a rental exclusive

My friend borrowed me this game saying I would never beat it. The end boss will give you arthritis, more so on the hard difficulty setting. His cart was from Blockbuster. I think you had to mail order it and not that many people did that. So it was a good thing Blockbuster bought some carts.

Just recently pulled the trigger on this one. I've wanted it forever so i saved and finally picked it up. It really is one of the best action games i've ever played for SNES. I put it up there with Mega Man X, Wild Guns, and TMNT IV. Its that good. I wish the game were a bit longer, but it makes up for it with the difficulty, once you master it, you really feel like a badass, kind of like mastering games like Ninja Gaiden and Battletoads. Its a shame this one got such a limited release, this could have been an amazing franchise if more people played it.

Amazing review by the way

Buddy of mine owned the PAL version. He lent me the game like 20 years ago. To my shame I still have the manual lying around here.

This game is awesome, is my favorite "impossible" game. Doesn't worth this price (no game does), but a really good action game. Good jog on the research!!! We need more TRUE information.

Blockbuster was definitely in the uk. There was one near my house in Manchester. I miss it :-(

I can vouch for debunking that lie too. In November of 1995 I rented it from our regional video store chain which was later to be Movie Gallery

Blockbuster was in the UK when Hagane was released, however, you couldn't rent SNES games from Blockbuster UK at that time, due to issues with Nintendo of Europe, but you could buy SNES games from Blockbuster UK. Once T.H.E. took over Nintendo distribution in the UK during the N64 period, N64 titles were available to rent.

I had the chance to get this one for like a hundred bucks several years ago. I stopped collecting a while ago but I still rergret it.

I remember renting this from blockbuster as a kid. I don't remember how it worked exactly but i think that it was marked on the box as being "blockbuster exclusive" anyway i remember it as being blockbuster exclusive but i don't really care. I use flashcarts... Going to start in on this one this weekend

I got this game called "Musya" in Chinatown NYC and never seen it anywhere. It turned out to be really good, but my point is I never saw it anywhere else.

Yea I was def getting the shinobi 3 vibe. Still want to play it

Here in the PAL region the game seems to be a lot less pricey. Around the 100$ point. Which when comparing it to the US versions always made the rental story seem more credible, but I've never read this to be confirmed anywhere other than the KZfaq videos you mentioned here.

Since the time of this review's uploading, prices have jumped even higher. With one ne'er-do-well seller listing a complete copy for almost two-thousand dollars. This is one of the few times that investing in a repro is a sane decision.

Thanks for bringing the hype down and hitting those freaking retro gougers with a slap of truth.

I live in England and there indeed was Blockbuster in this country (until it went under a few years back.) Never heard about Hagane being a Blockbuster exclusive though.

Got my copy on Super Famicom on the way! Finally!

Eh, Blockbuster was also in Scotland. I went to the one in Dundee regularly. Pretty sure it was in most of the UK too, and the UK at the time was one of the bigger markets for gaming.

The hype is real with this game. Besides being rare it's super dope. The tone is dark, gameplay is sharp. Hagane/Run Saber/Skyblazer: SNES' answer to Shinobi

I have this on a 100 in 1 cartridge. I haven't checked it out past, checking to see if it works. I need to play it, looks fun

Hello, I'm from Europe, namely Greece, and I can confirm it was released here in the stores. I still have my PAL copy complete with box and instructions.

While you're mistaken in your belief that Blockbusters wasn't a big deal in the British Isles - they were ubiquitous in England and Scotland - Hagane wasn't a Blockbuster and/or rental exclusive here. I bought it myself back in the day!

I just got the super famicom version and i freaking love this game. I beat it too. $100? I got mine loose good condition copy on amazon for $65.

*I played it on a plane back in the day!*

Awesome game !! Run Saber and Hagane are the most awesome action games at SNES ever released at my opinion. Had both roms in 1994. Damn, that was the times !! ツ Sometimes I crave to get back to 90th so much !! :P Thanks for the video

I have no doubt this was for sale, however I distinctly remember seeing this game at a ton of blockbusters but never in a store. Maybe blockbuster bought a whole bunch of copies?

Blockbuster was in the UK. It took over many other video rental chains. For example Ritz video where I lived. Yet I don't think Hagane was released over in pal format right?

Wow! Rental exclusive myth finally proven false.

1:24 Mike Matei reference XD

In the UK I never even saw this in my local blockbuster! and I practically lived there

Good work man

The Blockbuster rumor; the original reviewers had their information crossed. The easiest/least expensive way to get it was from a closing video store ($5.00?!), but it wasn't the only way and not exclusive to Blockbuster. That's where the reviewers fucked up causing the price increase. Still, it's not Earthbound's situation (not rare but still expensive), Hagane is truly rare and an amazing game, still cutting edge in a lot of ways.

If only the game was still only $500 for the cart only. Surprisingly cart only seems to be hard to find. I see CIB ones (of course absurdly expensive as well)

I grew up in England. We had Blockbuster here in the 90's.

Blockbuster was also in Chile, Latin America

Never, and I mean NEVER take a "Chips and Bits" ad at face value -- they frequently advertised games that were A) not released yet, B) never localized to North America or C) sometimes even cancelled games. I'm not saying that Hagane was one of those games, but there were a fair few back in the day that I was looking forward to that "Chips and Bits" kept advertising (the precursor to "pre-orders," perhaps) that never materialized.

Has some great music

Appreciate the fact checking. Most people fallow blindly and it takes time for real facts to surface. Great video as always 👽

Mike Matei catching strays!😂

95% sure my brother had this cartridge growing up. Granted we are Canadian so not sure if that makes a difference.

This game is fantastic. I beat it a couple weeks back... I agree that its not worth the premium, its pretty rewarding though. The last boss is absolute brutal platforming, my right thumb was numb when I finally finished it

What it be possible to add this to my snes mini?

well I can debunk that it is a rental only game in the EU/PAL Region, as I actually own a PAL Copy of the game (tough without the Box). Never knew it was this expensive...

I play this game on my emulator every couple of days since I saw your review for it. I love it. Its super difficult but sooo much fun in the versatility of play. I really like the dodging mechanics, it makes running through some areas really fun.

bought a hagane repro for 20 bucks the other day... great game

You mentioned as being a blockbuster exclusive in your first "Japanese SFC games that work for English Speakers" :)

Just beat it on original hardware with an everdrive... Damn that's a good game.... Took me a couple weekends

You would think that at least several copies for sale on eBay would still have the Blockbuster stickers attached if the exclusive rumor were true.

Well…just went to Portland Retro Game Con. This titles was the ONLY rare snes title not to be found even on display. I saw a Starfox Competition cart, Aero Fighter, not one Hagane. Hell I saw a yellow Zelda test cart.