Mad Stalker: Full Metal Forth Collector's Edition (Mega Drive Compatible Game)

Mecha beat-em-ups on a fresh Genesis cartridge. The year is 2142 in the game, but it might as well be 1993 on our shelves. The Mad Stalker: Full Metal Forth Collector's Edition for Mega Drive is a PAL-compatible cartridge from Strictly Limited Games, limited to just 400 copies worldwide.

If you've never heard of Mad Stalker, you're not alone. Originally released on the Sharp X68000, a Japanese home computer that never officially left Japan, this game lived in obscurity for decades. It blends traditional beat-em-up brawling with 2D fighting game mechanics, creating something that feels tighter and more deliberate than your average side-scroller.

You pilot the SlaveGear mech Hound Dog through six stages of Artemis City, and every boss fight demands actual strategy. The Collector's Edition is built around an exclusive X68000-themed box that tips its hat to the game's origins. Inside, the extras tell a story: Shikishi-inspired artwork, a replica telephone card, six character cards, an acrylic standee, and a DVD-ROM containing live concert videos.

The OST and manual round things out. This is a collector's package that respects its source material rather than just piling in generic merchandise. Four hundred copies for the entire PAL region is vanishingly small.

For Genesis and Mega Drive collectors who've cataloged every Streets of Rage variant and are hungry for something genuinely obscure, Mad Stalker fills a gap you didn't know your collection had. The 2-player versus mode, where you control the bosses, is reason enough.