This stuff was mind blowing in 1992. Again, you just had to be there.

Cobra Command was where it was at for me. I absolutely loved that game.

I still own nearly all of these Sega CD full motion video games, many of which were showcased but not mentioned, and others that were still displayed on the screen. During that time, I thoroughly enjoyed playing them. My personal favorites included titles like "Road Avenger," "Space Ace," "Mad Dog McCree," "Crime Patrol," and "Who Shot Johnny Rock?". Additionally, I had the opportunity to play "Mad Dog McCree" and "Crime Patrol" at my local arcade. The arcade versions provided a superior experience. I played them so frequently that I reached a point where I could complete them flawlessly without ever making a mistake or dying. Consequently, games such as "Revenge of the Ninja," "Dragon's Lair," "Tomcat Alley," "Surgical Strike," and similar titles typically lasted around 30 minutes. As mentioned by yourself and others, in order to truly appreciate them, one had to be present in that moment.

At 1 point in high school, I had the whole thing built (gen 1 Genesis, cd, 32x) and I fondly remember having these CD games: sewer shark, tomcat alley, jurassic park and racing aces

I was enamoured by the look of FMV and in my last year of school when the Mega CD released, I worked a weekend job solely to save up to buy one. It was also my/our first CD player and hooking it up to my Dad's stack system and hearing music not played on tape or record is a memory I'll always cherish. What I don't like to remember is selling the system (along with a copy of Snatcher) so I could afford to buy an N64...

When I think of FMV games I think of Night Trap, I think that's absolutely the most well known one by miles! Wish we had more stuff like that now

Your vids are making me want to invest in a bunch of old tech I don't need.

Sewer Shark blew me away at the time. It sucks as a game but it's fun as hell to watch. My buddies and I still quote it to this day. Classic.

6:07 I think I've watched Total Recall too many times: I immediately recognised this guy as Arnie's friend who warns him not to go to Rekall because it'll fry his brain. (I kid, of course. You can't watch Total Recall too many times.)

I played Sewer Shark a lot, and the biggest problems back then was figuring out when the next turn point was because the screen was a mixture of being too small, too pixelated, and not enough colors making it hard to see the upcoming turns.

Double Switch was my favorite FMV from back then. I enjoyed Ground Zero Texas as well but only played it briefly as a rental. Screaming Villains brought back several of these FMV games on PC (Corpse Killer, Double Switch, Ground Zero Texas, and Night Trap ).

I used to play Sewer Shark and Corpse Killer a lot as a kid. I never beat Sewer Shark but I did beat Corpse Killer a few times

Silpheed was great on Sega CD. You're absolutely right about it being a great template for what devs could've accomplished on the platform, but alas... And Merry Christmas, Sega Lord. Thanks for another year of amazing content.

I love the cheesiness of FMV games, they are good fun.

Thanks for covering this. What a great list! I too remember what it was like to see FMV come out and play on my 16-bit Genesis via the Sega CD for the first time. I actually was a fan of Sewer Shark and played that game all the way to the end a couple of times. I also loved Tomcat Alley. Say what you will but these FMVs made me want to be a retro gamer after I sold my orginal Sega CD. These games have a charm of their own. These games are also the reason why I prefer to use a composite video connection with my Sega Genesis because it helps to blend the graininess of the video and help produce colors on screen well beyond the 64 color limit of the hardware. What is great is that many of these games are now on Steam with improved picture quality.

Sonic CD and Silpheed sold me on the Sega CD. Never regretted my purchase. Didn't realize the stages In Silpheed were FMV.

These reviews are golden. 🎄

Thanks for dedicating an episode actually naming & praising FMV games. Sure, gamers in that era (like me) can say iykyk, but spelling out why these cheesy but ahead-of-their-time games were fun is important for appreciation & game conservation 🧙🏿‍♂️🎮✖️

About the Congressional Hearing of 1993, I remember reading that Howard Lincoln bashed Night Trap stating that "you'll never see a product like that on a Nintendo console". The irony is that 25 years later it got ported to Switch.

I remember playing Time Gal on the Sega CD and thought how cool it was to play an anime game

Enjoyed your picks! I still watch playthroughs of Dracula Unleashed and the Sherlock Holmes series to this day for some nostalgia and mental recharging. Happy to see someone covering FMV games positively.

I'm always impressed with how you keep coming up with fun ideas for your videos. You never fail to keep us entertained with this stuff. Road Avenger is the one I remember most vividly. First time I saw that game running at a Toys R Us, I really I thought it was the start of an age of playable anime movies!

Mansion of Hidden Souls was incredible on Sega CD. The music and voice acting created such a beautiful yet terrifying ambiance. Top recomendation. Way better on Sega CD than Saturn.

I enjoyed that Sherlock Holmes FMV "game." It was even less a game than Dracula, but I liked the acting and it was nice to play a part in a Sherlock mystery.

Happy Holidays Sega Lord X! Partly thanks to your Sega enthusiasm I started collecting Mega CD and Sega 32X. I just completed the NTSC 32X set, CiB.

Night Trap is a cheese classic!

Road Avenger not being on the Sega Mini 2 was a crime.

You are the best. Funny how excited I can get over content like this. Thanks.

Oh man, The moment i saw sewer shark at my pals house in ‘93 Vs 10 min later when we popped Sonic back in.

This is the first time I've heard anyone say anything nice about Sewer Shark. I remember magazines roasting it brutally even when it was new.

Not only did Road Avenger feature a new song, but ALL of the sound was redone with the exception of the little ditty that plays right before the J-WALK song starts. That alone makes it 10x better than other versions which use the wimpy original sound. They also redid all of the sound for Cobra Command, which might be my #2 FMV game on the platform.

Sega CD FMV was my jam back then. The grainy video was just cool to see a video game console be able to do that. Played pretty much all the Digital Pictures games and enjoyed most of them. They all had some pretty entertaining plots.

You nailed it with your thoughts at the end. Sega CD forever fam.

Full motion, video games are what made the Sega cd great I’ll never forget playing mad, dog and crime patrol with the light gun good times revolutionary for the time

I was in 5th grade. I was only allowed a glimpse at fmv games from 5 minutes I ended up in a cool older stoner kid’s house during a comic book trade. He made it seem like some next level that I wasn’t cool enough to be privy to. I believed it. I spent months saving up. And I got a very, very valuable lesson in books and their covers.

I'm so glad you included Ground Zero Texas. It was my absolute favorite as a kid. I was super into sci-fi and so this game was perfect for me. I still play it occasionally, I really like the initial mystery of the alien invasion and then the 2nd half with the full invasion. Also, thumbs up for Night Trap and Sewer Shark. I loved the remaster of Night Trap. I hope someone gives the same treatment to Sewer Shark.

I remember back in the day they thought this is how the future of movie theaters would be the audience would have some kind of interaction lol

The FMV background and sprites really mesh well in silpheed All other shooters that use FMV background that I've seen have the interactive graphics that really clash with the FMV background

ROAD AVENGER! My third favourite Sega CD game only next to Snatcher and Space Adventure Cobra

Surgical Strike is incredible as well. It really feels like you're blowing everything to Hell.

idk why but you saying "the Drac is back" made me laugh

I love how you continue to time stamp just like your classic videos!

Thanks from New Zealand Mr. Lord. Still spinning SEGA CDs down by the south pole

If the fantastic Silpheed is included, I think that just about allows one of my all time favourites from the days of the Mega/Sega CD which was Jurassic Park. I put a lot of time into that one and played it over and over. I was 12 when JP came out, and it absolutely blew me away, I watched it 5 times in the cinema with anyone I could convince to go with me. So, that may have something to do with it as I also loved the Mega Drive/Genesis JP games!

I got Night Trap with the Sega CD, or as the first non pack-in game atleast. As disappointing as it was I spent alot of time replaying and trying to learn it. Its part of the memories I have with the system even though I dont like the game. In the end I wrote down all the camera times, password changes on an envelope, after getting them out of a magazine and I used that to easily beat the game. Road Avenger and Sewer Shark were my favorite FMV games, and ones that I really enjoyed. They hit right. Time Gal was also a quality FMV game. Sewer Shark had pretty solid and engaging gameplay and the presentation was very unique to me at the time. Biggest anoyance was unclear instructions on how to turn into the re-fueling stations which I could not figure out for a while. Once I figured out how that worked I really enjoyed the game and completed it. Beating it again on the 3DO through emulation I still enjoyed it. It was more impactful at that time though. The tech was what made it more exciting. Road Avenger has great animation and made me want to see it through to the end. Simple controls but it kept me engaged until I memorised it. The best games on that add on definately werent the FMV games, but it was something new at the time. Lethal Enforcers just came to mind too. I had some fun with that one as well. Will have to give Silpheed a second look. Completed the PS2 version and really enjoyed it.

I couldn't agree with you more Sega Lord X. Road Avenger was my absolute favorite the songs get stuck in your head just a great game. Awesome ending everything. Thanks brother nice walk down memory lane for 47-year-old me.

So many good ones! Some I didn't know about. I still remember when dad got me the sega CD. That night we stayed up late taking turns playing Sewer Sharks.

Night Trap, Ground Zero Texas, as well as Double Switch, Corpse Killer, and Kids On Site are all on Steam with updated higher quality video. I really wish they would put out Sewer Shark.

Digital Pictures was responsible for shooting the video in a lot of the titles you listed. Tom Zito headed them up back then and said they always recorded in HD. It was Sega’s horrible video and audio compression that turned things “grainy”. I loved FMV games! But as most are aware…. Even great games would have FMV scenes repeat frequently. Still…. Grinding through TomCat Alley and Ground Zero Texas were some of my all time favorites. Ground Zero Texas actually just recently got a full HD remake!!! Side note…. I picked up the entire library of Sega CD titles for $5 each back in the day when Toys-r-Us pulled the products off the shelves. I was so proud of my sweet score.

The Lawnmower Man on Sega CD (I've played the DOS version though) is one of the craziest games I've ever played. You should see it just for the sheer madness of it.

Road avenger was always my fav.

I liked Sewer Shark. It was the game I had the most fun with, when I got a Sega CD at Christmas 1992. Merry Christmas to you and yours, Lordster! SEEEEEEEEGAAAAAAAAAAA!

Tomcat Alley 😄😍😍 great call, Sega Lord!

I personally think Fahrenheit is pretty good, it really does feel like you have the choice of where to go and it is rewarding when you try something and it works. I also turn off the assistance menu for more immersion. It looks like they just used primitive filters and simple effects to make the building look like its on fire which is fun to try and spot. I have always hated those fmv games where you are moving a cursor over the screen to shoot the background, lots of fmv pc games are like that.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE Sewer Shark! It's my favorite Sega CD game. Robert Costanzo's Stenchler is hilarious! David Underwood as Ghost is fun as hell and always reminded me of Christian Slater. Catfish was funny. And Keri Peyton (Falco) and Stevie Sterling (Friday) were entertaining and gorgeous.

I just love how many FMV games are on the PS4. ❤

Back in 92 we knew nothing about the mechanics behind the gameplay of these games. We saw the beautiful images on the magazines and thought that we could control every movement of those characters in real time.... Well, the truth couldn't be more shockingly desappointing. 😢

Brutal Paws of Fury, Sewer Shark and Microcosm were the 3 sega cd games i owned back in the day

I really like the genre. Plus it was very impressive to see at the time. Ground Zero Texas, Surgical Strike and Night Trap are some of my favourites.

Loves this video. I will never forget the first time I saw Sewer Shark and Sonic CD cutscenes.

this channel never fails to bring me back to my own childhood. SEGA Lord X was there when it all went down, and you can tell

I will try some of these old classics for the first time in many years this weekend. Thanks for the memories1 By the way, Night Trap, Corpse Killer and Double Switch are available in anniversary editions on modern consoles.

I loved FMV games. My favorite still on the Sega CD is Sewer Shark

I love Road Avenger! Just yesterday, I was talking about it to my son (who was born in 1992) and trying to explain why I loved it so much. Glad to see I'm not alone.

I was a Sega fan through and through and somehow convinced my patents to buy me the Sega CD on release day. As others here commented, you had to be there. These blew me away at the time and i still enjoy a lot of them. Road Avenger will always be my favorite, but i really liked Dracula Unleashed (?) and quite a few others .

One of the most iconic video gaming influencer has passed away (3/27/2024), RIP Senator Joe Liberman.

Please do a top 10 worst next

I've just recently been able to play the Sega CD FMV games for the first time, and Revenge of the Ninja is the most addicting for me. It jumps right in, there's no huge plot-heavy intro or any of that.

Aw man, no Time Gal? I loved that one. But yeah, FMV is so weird, but so unique....

The GOAT of sega content.

tomcat alley will never not be immensely funny to me (i'm french, and the french version has *atrocious* voice acting), but i think my favorite "pure" fmv game is rebel assault, despite the immense loss of video quality compared to pc. i feel games like rdf global conflict and iron helix are worth mentioning, too ; they weren't stricktly "fmv" games and only used them as actual cutscenes (rdf being basically a tank version of wing commander, and iron helix always felt like a robotic space survival horror to me) and that's the way fmv always felt better used to me : to boost the narrative element without compromising the gameplay, not with full-on "interactive movies". that's also why "background fmv" games like silpheed (which actually is my favorite mega cd game, period, i still remember how it felt seeing this for the first time in 1993), starblade or novastorm work so well.

Shout out to Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective (at 19:06) It actually decent because it's first and foremost a game, and then just uses FMV to give it some Sherlock Holmes TV show vibes - it's not an FMV game, it's a game that uses FMVs. Dracula Unleashed looks like it would be a similar game, but from your description it's essentially a Visual Novel? Going to try it out for sure, thanks for highlighting it! Mansion of the Hidden Souls reminds me of The 7th Guest, at least on initial impression. Going to check it out as well

I think games like the Batman racers and Soul Star show that the Sega CD was actually a pretty significant upgrade over the base system, and I wish there were more games that used it to it's full potential. There were a number of adventure games on the PC that used a mix of FMV and regular point and click gameplay that I think would have been a much better fit. As opposed to all the quicktime stuff we ended up with. Phantasmagoria 1 and 2 are good examples of this. Also, games like the MacVenture series ( Shadow Gate, Uninvited, De Ja Vu ) could have been made as well.

more sega cd content, love to see it

as gimmicky as FMV is, there is quite a bit of fun to be had with these kinds of games.

Never having played an FMV game, i must withhold judgement. But i always drooled over Dragon's Lair in the arcade. I just didn't wanna fork put the $1 for one life.

Sega Lord X Merry Christmas Happy New Year thanks for all you do

A Sega Lord X video! Christmas has come early, boys!

Silpheed should be #1. Its one of the best games on the platform, period. The soundtrack is phenomenal and the game is still fun to play in 2023....

I somewhat enjoy the FMV games of the time for their simplicity. Not to say there are some absolute stinkers for sure but there's something about playing games like Time Gal or just sitting back and piecing together the clues in Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective that I enjoy. Great video and picks! I'll need to check out that Kamen Rider game.

I love so much Sewer Shark that I have it for Sega CD and 3DO. 😆 The actor who played Ghost nailed it.

I would love a Silpheed sequel with flat shaded polygons in 4k.

After the fall of TellTale games I wonder if FMV story driven games are simply a cyclical fascination that will rise and fall every few years. I'm still such a sucker for them that I'm just glad they happened in the first place. Also Sewer Shark was amazing just for the way it lampooned 90s EXTREME pop culture as it was already happening. What a time to be alive.

I really love some fmv

sega's decision making regarding the cd add-on will always be a perplexing case of what could have been. i mean, it had two competing 16-bit platforms in nec and nintendo to emulate into leveraging their cd technology into some kind of success. nec used their cd tech combined with memory upgrades to fill their library with games that featured arcade quality effects along with improved stereo sound. practically every variety of game genre was represented on the cd platform. nintendo; while lacking a cd platform of its own, utilized specialty chips to do essentially the same thing as nec; pack its library with games featuring arcade-like visual effects with great sound. all sega had to do was replicate its competitors moves, and while the sega/mega cd might not have become a runaway hit, it would at the very least have been a fruitful experiment. i'd like to imagine in an alternate universe somewhere, there's a version of sega that has a library of cd exclusive versions of its popular cartridge titles like ninja turtles cd, street fighter 2 cd, golden axe cd, super monaco cd, thunderblade cd, etc...that used more arcade accurate color palettes, larger arcade-like sprites, and hardware scaling. And in that alternate universe there is a version of me who has overwhelmingly positive memories of owning a sega cd rather than someone who feels cheated out of $300.

I didn't get to play most of these because my Sega CD died on me. I had just rented Bram Stoker's Dracula from Blockbuster when I realized my system was dead. I did get to enjoy Ground Zero Texas.

Yes Mansion of Hidden Souls is great for what it does and how it presents it. When the Saturn port came around I was pleasantly surprised that it /wasn't/ a bad rehash of a good game.

I miss FMV. The best FMV game is Myst.

I like the new outro! ❤❤

Thanks for the FMV/Laserdisc love SLX, as these types of games are often the "red headed" step children of the industry. I love these types of games, and they never get the appreciation they sorely deserve, as some really created games came from this technology. My biggest issue with these games on the SEGA CD happened to be with the grainy video quality, and not so much the actual games themselves.

Just remember that it was in 90s and on a CRT TV (i.e., blurred graphics with scanlines): it was impressive at the time.

19:40 As for the colour palette. The 32x paired with the MegaCD addressed that.

I loved my Sega CD and 32x. Star Wars Arcade got played into the ground by me and my group of friends.

One of the main problems of FMV games was that once you master them you could clear them in very short time and due to their low replaybility they were not worth their price, however they were perfect for weekend rentals for those who were lucky enough to live near a store that rented Sega CD games.

Amazing that Road Avenger was ported well to the GBA.

FMV games literally only could've come out in 1992-1993. We went from 1-2 Megabyte games to suddenly having 650MB available in a super cheap to produce format, so devs went CRAZY with adding multimedia to their games to do SOMETHING with the extra space. Nowadays that space is easily taken up by textures and high quality sound but back then it was just such a luxury to have all that room. Also can we get a shoutout to Time Gal, for being the game the ESRB *should* have been worried about, instead of Night Trap? lol

Thirty years after I purchased Road Avenger for my beloved and misunderstood Sega CD in my youth, I still listen to the intro theme at least once every few weeks while at the gym!

Sewer Shark came with the sega cd box here in brazil, i played it so much! and played a lot of road avenger also, so many good memories!

Looking back at the senator hearings of '93 just makes me laugh when they were picking on poor Night Trap for its "graphic violence". Night Trap was about as tame as Saved by the Bell was when that was still in syndication on TV back then. Those senator hearings were such a joke.

I remember my cousin got his hands on the Sega CD first, and at the time, Sewer Shark was mind blowing. We had never seen anything like it, grainy screen and all, and were mesmerized. Great memories.