Quantum closet: Mass Effect 2 for the Sega Genesis

Josh
Friday
11:32 am

So, I was going through my quantum closet the other day — it’s a pesky rabbit hole, filled with junk that I bought in various converging timelines and parallel realities — and I found this little nugget I’d almost forgotten about.

In Universe U3X-945, everything is precisely identical to ours, except for the fact that Canada formed its own dominion in 1842 instead of 1867. This changed effectively nothing, except for an odd quirk that Canadian software developers Bioware incorporated in 1985 instead of 1995. In this universe, their intellectual property of “Mass Effect” started as a Sega Genesis title in 2001.

The game was a fascinating little romp, and it’s exciting to compare the differences between the 945 Universe “Mass Effect 2,” and our own, which didn’t come out until 2010. I’ve put a few scans below, on the chance you might find them interesting.

The cartridge for Mass Effect 2 on the Sega Genesis (gently used).

Above: The story and boss battles in Mass Effect 2 for the Genesis followed a similar pattern to the version in our universe. Shepard is seen here battling the Thresher Maw on the Krogan homeworld.

Click to enlarge.

The Gameplay: The gameplay is, of course, pretty different, but incredibly hard — it makes Battle Toads look like Space Invaders. I included a scan of the control page of the manual — the game apparently included a bonus Normandy level, but I could never make it that far.

Most of the game was fairly linear, but it featured a stage select screen that allowed for different progression through the game reminiscent of the universe map from the deck of the Normandy.

Tactics: The game did have one feature fairly unique for its time. It allowed for a second player to join the game at any time as a member of Shepard’s squad. In the screen shot below, Shepard is using a biotic power against one of the Collectors while Player 2 is using Grunt (about to get plowed by a Heavy Robot).

In all, the game was a riot to play, although I think I’ll stick with our universe’s Mass Effect 2. The voice acting, huge environments and stellar gameplay outweigh Bioware’s fun, yet kitschy, Genesis version.