Eliminate Down Genesis/Mega-Drive cartridge reprint announced from Retro-Bit; Pre-orders open now until January 2nd

It’s Retro-Bit time again, but I can’t say I predicted they’d pick up this game. Eliminate Down (1993) is coming back in style with an all-new collector’s cartridge, officially licensed for its first ever official release in North America and Europe, and playable in any Genesis/Mega-Drive console or associated clone console. This should resemble Retro-Bit’s other recent collector’s cartridge releases, including Gley Lancer, El Viento, and Sol-Deace. Pre-orders have already begun in North America via Castlemania Entertainment, Rondo Products, and Limited Run Games, and in Europe via 8BitMods, Dragon Box Shop, RetroCables, Spel & Sant, Strictly Limited, XtraLife, and Zed Labz.

Update: New pre-order links are available. North American customers can now also pre-order from Canada-based store PNP Games (Which Americans may wanna consider as the US Dollar is currently more valuable than the Canadian dollar) and Europeans can now also pre-order from Arcade Dreams and Just For Games.

Check in past the break for more info and for a bit of history on Eliminate Down.

Eliminate Down was released exclusively in Japan and South Korea by relatively unknown developer Aprinet (Who apparently merged into another company called VR-1 Japan, which would later work on Sonic Mega Collection (2002) for Nintendo Gamecube. Bet you weren’t expecting a connection to Sonic the Hedgehog.) and publisher Soft Vision. Before Eliminate Down, Soft Vision was known mostly for publishing golf video games. We may not know what made them take a chance on a shmup like Eliminate Down, but they did so with a remarkably low print run. Eliminate Down has gone on to be one of the most expensive games on the Mega-Drive, even compared to other beloved Mega-Drive shmups infamous for their ludicrous prices like M.U.S.H.A., Battle Mania 2, or Gley Lancer. You’ll have a hard time finding even a loose copy for less than a grand, so if you want a physical copy of this game and don’t have one already, Retro-Bit’s collector’s cartridge may be your only chance.

Eliminate Down begins in the year 299X, where humanity has traveled through the farthest reaches of space. They soon discovered a looming organic threat in the Amulet Nebula that they named the “Amulet Monster”, which began consuming various solar systems. The only thing that can stop this terrifying beast is the new experimental fighter jet Steel Pylon. You’ll be piloting this ship throughout the adventure, mastering its forward, reverse, and diagonal cannons that you can switch between and fire alongside your main cannon. You can power up the main cannon up to 3 times and the extra cannons twice. You’ll need them against the various giant bosses standing between you and the titular Amulet Monster.

Retro-Bit have also taken the liberty of adding an all new extra lives cheat code in this version of the game. That will likely help a lot, since Eliminate Down, like many games of its ilk, is far from a walk in the park. With that, you should be more than prepared to bring peace to the galaxy. (At least until a little over 300 years later, when the GCS-WT AI system terrorizes the human race and murders the creator of the fighter jet you have to pilot to save the universe again in Sol-Deace. (Not a sequel to Eliminate Down.))

The other main features of this Collector’s Cartridge are as follows:

• First time officially released outside of Japan & South Korea
• Emerald Nebula Cartridge for SEGA Genesis®/Mega Drive
• Full-colored instruction manual including an unreleased code to make gameplay easier
• Individually numbered lenticular cartridge slipcover
• Reversible inlay box art featuring original and new covers

Be sure to visit Retro-Bit’s Eliminate Down webpage for the latest pre-order info. Pre-orders will be available until January 2nd, 2024 (Happy New Year), so don’t put it off for too long if you’re interested. Just to help encourage you, we’ll also link you to reviews of this game from our friends at Sega-16, Honest Gamers, and Hardcore Gaming 101. (Spoiler alert: They all liked it.)

Will you be picking up Eliminate Down? Have you played this game before? Perhaps you might even be one of the fortunate few who has an original copy? Have you gotten any of Retro-Bit’s other Collector’s Cartridges? Eliminate down in the comments below to tell us all about it.

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