The Sega Genesis is a console with a long history of popular games that were a major part of our childhoods. And while there were many releases that players were able to pick up for their collections, some of those games were harder to find than others. And over time, they became increasingly rare and valuable to collectors around the world.

You might be a big fan of the Genesis, but you still might not be able to find these gems on the console. Locating a rare video game like this could be an adventure in itself. These are the five rarest Sega Genesis games that you’ll probably never own.

5 Crusader of Centy

An action-RPG that’s like Zelda

If you ever wondered why the Sega Genesis never had a game similar to Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda, you’ll be surprised to find out it actually did. Or rather, a game that was an action-RPG that contained elements usually associated with The Legend of Zelda. But what made Crusader of Centy different was its presentation and unique story. Some critics over the years have compared it to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past on the Super Nintendo.

The game was developed by ATLUS and released on the Sega Genesis in 1995, towards the latter part of the console’s lifecycle. However, don’t expect to easily find physical copies of the game lying around in hobby stores. Most copies of Crusader of Centy can demand a high price point, upwards of $500 for just the cartridge. A complete boxed copy of the game can be even more valuable, with auctions of the game reaching as high as $2000 - $3000 in some cases.

4 Blockbuster World Championships II

Competition for what Nintendo did

Everyone remembers what Nintendo had with the Nintendo World Championship competition on the NES, but did you know Sega had something similar for the Genesis? It wasn’t exactly what Nintendo did before, but the video chain Blockbuster collaborated with multiple companies to put together a competition during the summer of 1995. One part of the event was players choosing between a Sega Genesis or Super Nintendo cartridge with select games on them.

The cartridge for the Blockbuster World Championships II on the Sega Genesis contained only two games, Judge Dread and NBA Jam: Tournament Edition. Both games are a fraction of their original versions for the competition. Although there are fewer games included here than on the Nintendo World Championships cartridge, this is still a rare and expensive collectible. Only a handful of cartridges were produced for the event and were supposed to be destroyed after the competition, but that didn’t happen. Today, units of the game are occasionally sold on auction and can demand prices in the $2000 to $5000 range.

3 Tetris

An elusive classic variant

Everybody loves playing Tetris. It’s one of the most famous and ported games in history. But there are a few versions of Tetris that are incredibly rare, including the Sega Genesis port from 1989. While this is still the same Tetris you know and love, the Sega version of the classic game never made it to full cartridge production and was never officially released.

Only a few known copies of the game are said to exist, with some even saying the number is as low as 10 cartridges. One of those copies was sold at auction by a collector back in 2011, which included a signature from Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov. The starting bid for that auction was $1 million, but general estimates of a Sega Genesis version of Tetris value it at around $30,000 or more. It’s quite possibly the most expensive version of Tetris that anybody could own.

2 MUSHA

A gem for shmup fans

The Genesis had its fair share of shooters that were action-packed. But not many of them matched up to the quality of MUSHA from 1991. The game has players taking on the role of a flying mech and battling legions of enemies under the command of a hostile computer intelligence. While MUSHA has retroactively received praise in the years following its release, most critics at the time had mixed reactions about it, mostly due to the large number of shmups being released at the time.

Unfortunately, MUSHA ended up fading into the background of the Sega Genesis library. It became a lot harder to find the game for collectors, which drove its value upward. Today, you might find a loose copy of MUSHA priced at around $300, which may be more or less at auction. But a complete in-box copy of the game can be even more expensive, hitting the $1000 range.

1 Outback Joey

This will break your wallet

One of the rarest games on the Genesis is also one of the weirdest games released for it. Outback Joey is a packed-in game for the Heartbeat Catalyst peripheral in 1993, which only had around 1000 units produced. Playing the game also meant you were going to get a good workout, as your heartbeat was directly tied to what the character would do in the game. The gameplay Outback Joey was similar to any other platformer, but the experience was very different from anything in the console’s library.

To many collectors, Outback Joey is the rarest game on the Sega Genesis that was released officially, and its value reflects that. Loose copies of the game can reach anywhere from $3,000 or higher, and that’s not even including the Heartbeat Catalyst it was packed with. A complete boxed copy of everything with the game is much more valuable, with prices soaring into the $5,000 or higher range. With the circumstances surrounding its release, and how few cartridges were produced, no wonder this rare game demands a high price.

Loving rare games from afar

The charm of rare video games isn’t in their content, but in how elusive and fleeting they are to players. It’s not easy to find them, otherwise they wouldn’t garner the high value that people place on them. Rare games are often seen as a capsule of a point in time in a console’s lifespan, where things were shifting for it for better or worse.

And yet, fans of the Sega Genesis can still appreciate their place in the history of the console. They aren’t always the best games to play, nor the smartest games ever designed, but are still relevant to the library of titles for collectors. You don’t need to break your bank account or scour the globe for rare games like these in order to admire what they were. Unless, of course, you’re trying to complete a Sega Genesis game collection, and in that case you might be out of luck.