SB Recommends Mega Drive / Genesis Games

Sega's 16-bit console, home to hundreds of shooters and platform games, most of them being arcade ports. It also had lots and lots of hardware variations and add-ons, such as the Mega-CD, 32x, Wondermega, and so on.

• Alien Soldier (also on: PS2)
  • Let's Go

• ACME Allstars
  • Mr Brooks: an MD title I must always have some kind of access to.

• Alisia Dragoon
  • Rudie: If only for the things that aren't gameplay.
  • Schwere Viper: It's a Game Arts platformer in association with GAINAX. You play as a leggy sorceress with the power to annihilate foes in hordes thanks to her plentiful streams of lightning, as well as four different familiars with various attacks. Stages start off pretty normal with a linear romp through a forest full of beasties and an old temple with some fairly sneaky secret paths, but quickly become more interesting with a trek through a multi-layered canyon filled with old pathways and secret items, and even an assault on an flying airship. Then, once it crashes (thanks to you) you make your way through the wreckage in an interesting stage filled with odd angles and nasty surprises. I'm so glad I happened across an actual copy of this game before my nearest cool game store closed down. It's really worth a look!

• Batman

• Battlemania 2
  • Dessgeega: a must-pirate.

• Brave Battle Saga

• Castlevania: Bloodlines
  • Sniper Honeyviper: Best in the series, will rock your socks off from start to finish. Use John Morris and pretend you're playing Umihara Kawase.
  • Rudie: Fuck Dracula's second form though. I dropped the game like a bad date there.

• Contra: Hard Corps
  • Sniper Honeyviper: Not a Treasure game, but might as well be one.

• Cool Spot (also on: Amiga; GB; GG; PC; SMS; SNES)
  • BenoitRen: Decent platformer with a character that can shoot in all directions. Yes, even up!
  • Eudaimon: some of the stages (thinking of the pier level here) really irked me. The bonus stages were pretty cool, though.
  • Shnozlak: Has Blue skies, Corporate mascot, Cool to the max, collect U N C O L A for a continue, NOT ENOUGH COOL POINTS, Great music

• Comix Zone
  • Rudie: I still like this stylistic beat-em up.

• Decap Attack / Magical Hat Flying Turbo Adventure (JP)
  • JamesE: Awesome cartoony fun with neat dynamic action feel. It's a solid traditional platformer.

• Dynamite Headdy (Also on: PS2)
  • Lick Meth: Back when Treasure had to make a name for themselves they released this vivid platformer with a great sense of visual humour, a great soundtrack (and memorable sound effects such as the 'Target!' shout) and the crux of the gameplay dynamic, the switchable head function. It's really quite hard, much more so than the earlier Gunstar Heroes which didn't punish as badly for continuing. It's mostly a platformer, with scrolly shooty levels appearing from time to time, and a great running theme in the stageshow presence in the background and between levels (and occasionally falling onto the player). Standout tracks include the exciting bonus game music, and an interpretation of the March part of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker.

• Ecco The Dolphin
  • Rudie: Music that haunts me to this day. Oppressive, cold and dark. Like the sea.
  • CubaLibre: In this game you are always dying.

• El Viento
  • Rudie: Sort of brutally unfair platformer. But like Alisia Dragoon worth it for everything else.

• Eliminate Down

• Flashback (also on: 3DO; Amiga; Archimedes; CDi; FM Towns; Jag; Mac; Mega-CD; PC; PC-98; SNES)
  • kerobaros: Flashback was a great game, regardless of the system. (Except for the SNES version.)

• Gleylancer
  • Sniper Honeyviper: Stick to it and believe in your power. Make sure to crank up the difficulty.

• Grandslam / Jennifer Capriati Tennis (NA)
  • Chris B: Seriously, this thing is ace and a must have for anyone remotely interested in tennis games. It feels like an unofficial sequel to the legendary Final Match Tennis, which says it all really.

• Grind Stormer
  • Loki Laufeyson: Fairly late Toaplan shooter, that kind of bridges a gap between the tradition Toaplan games and the bullet hell games they'd go on to create.

• Gunstar Heroes (also on: PS2)
  • DESTROY THEM ALL

• Heavy Nova
  • Rudie: I will continue to hold irrational love for this game. Maybe it's the anime intro. Maybe it's the giant robots. Maybe it's the romantic wall-less stages. Let your giant death machines skate together against the stars.

• King Colossus

• Landstalker
  • Rudie: Your isometric Zelda game with great towns and great dungeons and great music. I did say it was isometric though.

• Light Crusader
  • Loki Laufeyson: Treasure made an isometric action game that looks like an amiga game. It's short and slightly bizarre. Has the usual isometric frustrations, though.

• Mickey Mouse - Castle of Illusion
  • Rudie: Whimsy!

• Midnight Resistance
  • Booter: awesome contra rip-off, arcade port.

• Phantasy Star II / Phantasy Star II: The End of the Lost Age (JP)
  • Mr. Toups: part 2 is really amazing once you get past how clunky it is. The music and artwork are fantastic and it's got some of the most interesting dungeons of any RPG that I've played.

• Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium
  • JamesE: The only game in the series that stands up as being legitimately worthwhile without rose tints and childhood attachments - the music's great if you can dig dirty synth sounds (and I'm a total synth freak), your party moves at a snappy, quick pace and there's a neat system by which you can use macros in battle and execute special joint attacks. The whole thing moves with a really quick pace once you beat the first Dungeon and it'll probably feel like an awesome doujin game if you squint.

• Quackshot starring Donald Duck
  • Rudie: An excellent game for a small child or anyone that likes good platformers.
  • Loki Laufeyson: Has really nice music, and goes from very easy in the opening stages, to incredibly hard in the last stage or two. It's also sort of semi-linear!

• Ragnacenty (JP) / Crusader of Centy (NA) / Soliel (PAL)
  • Isfet: kind of a Zelda clone, but it has some pretty interesting things going on all by itself to justify its existence.
  • Loki Laufeyson: has a reputation as being a zelda clone, but other than them both being action rpgs, there's not much similarity. it has a really unique plot, too!
  • Rudie: 15 years after it's release it's more cute than anything. The cloud effects are pretty impressive for the Genesis!

• Ranger X / Ex-Ranza (JP)
  • Touran: Only play this one if you have a six button pad or some equivalent. But get it at whatever cost. You can't finish it on the “hard” difficulty as far as I know though, so stick to normal.
  • Duckzero: One of the best mech games of any generation.

• Red Zone
  • Remember: You only have 24 hours! So have a nice day…

• Ristar
  • The Blueberry Hill: Ace platformer with some really lush graphics.

• Rocket Knight Adventures
  • Your rocket opossum needs to save a princess.

• Shadow Dancer (also on: Arcade)
  • Loki Laufeyson: far superior on the mega drive than it is in the arcade. really, the arcade version is just awful, but the mega drive one is great.
  • Sniper Honeyviper: I prefer the arcade version, but that's just me. The “layering” of the stages is better visually defined between the two planes of movement, preventing moments of confusion that lead to cheap deaths (though there are still plenty of those). Additionally, stage layouts are often more deliberately paced, with every aspect of them meticulously fine-tuned. Note that the two versions have completely different stages and should be considered two different games.

• Shadowrun
  • kerobaros: pretty badass, if you like the universe.
  • jiji: It's a nonlinear, freeform affair that lets you take quests and go anywhere and build your character as you see fit. It uses a top-down perspective, and is pretty difficult. It's also pretty good.
  • haircute: I love Shadowrun on the Genesis. Everyone says the SNES one was better but…I just don't see it. The matrix was more fun to screw around with on the Genesis and…I thought the music was better.

• Shinobi III / The Super Shinobi II (JP)
  • kerobaros: when I went over to my Sega friend's house, I always had a good time with Shinobi 3. Rather pretty game, and I think it's decently common too!

• Sonic The Hedgehog

• Sonic The Hedgehog 2
  • Rudie: A terrific co-op game for someone who isn't that good at video games and someone that is. It's my favorite Sonic for that reason.

• Sonic and Knuckles/Sonic The Hedgehog 3
  • Rudie: Really the only way to play these two games is the locked on catridges or a patched ROM. Has probably some of the smoothest level and wordless story progression in video games, and it came out in 1993/4. Having a second player as Tails isn't nearly as viable.

• Story of Thor / Beyond Oasis (NA)
  • Shnozlak: Light weight RPG-ish adventure. Kind LOZ but with FAST ACTION and very little back tracking. Turn up the bass during the anime cut-scene and let that Yamaha FM synth sing.

• Street Fighter II: Special Championship Edition
  • kerobaros: with a six button controller, it's far better than any other port pre-Saturn.

• Streets of Rage II
  • Rudie: Yuzo Koshiro did the music, and it's a beat-em up that takes the fact it isn't connected to an arcade in mind.
  • Interstellar Dinghy: Worth noting is the fantastic amount of depth the game's combat has despite only having 3-buttons to work with, and a super-hard mode that actually necessitates a mastery of said combat. Your quarters can't save you now.

• Sub-Terrania
  • Family Computer: I love that game. It is so underappreciated.
  • Spinach: I love that game very much. I have never finished it, but it's one of the games I missed the most after Sega Channel went offline.
  • RT-55J: a game that is absolutely nervewracking in its constant and unyielding desire for your concentration.
  • Deets: Yes. Hell yes. I especially love how they stop giving you concrete mission objectives by the end, and just ask you to figure shit out based on the game logic you've been submerged in up to that point.
  • Shapermc: I've always had a soft spot for it in my heart, but never finished it so never felt like I could properly praise it.

• Thunderforce IV
  • Loki Laufeyson: Tied with Alien Soldier for the title of “Best Mega Drive Game”, this game doesn't have a single flaw. Gameplay, graphics, and music are all incredible.
  • Sniper Honeyviper: I can think of one flaw: enemies don't flash when hit.

• Tinhead (also on: SNES (unreleased, but completed)
  • Ronnoc: As far as obscure Genesis games go, Tinhead is probably my favorite.

• Twinkle Tale
  • ?: It's like Commando, but with a little girl.

• Valis III
  • Wasted Potential: Valis III is like a poor man's Castlevania III (which I have also never played, but I'm making that simile anyways), but with anime chicks who have swords and a hot transformation scene.

• Vectorman
  • Shnozlak: I'm still in love with this game assuming I can beat clockwork. I HATE clockwork, some times I JUST CAN'T get his rhythm. Great adventure of a game. Lots of blasting. Kill things with your foot boosters for cool points.

• Wings of Wor (US) / Gynoug (JP/PAL)
  • Sniper Honeyviper: What would be yet another boring Genesis-exclusive shmup is saved by some awesomely grotesque, homoerotic sprite design from Cho Aniki's artist.

• Wonder Boy in Monster World

• World of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse & Donald Duck
  • Loki Laufeyson: only get world of illusion if you have someone to play co-op, as the 1 player mode is about 15 minutes long. but the co-op is fucking awesome.
  • Lick Meth: It's not a difficult game by any means (it's very easy to get through without losing a life), but instead it's more about the dazzlingly lovely marriage of a nice soundtrack and glorious display of colourful surroundings. Your co-op abilities either work as piggybacking your partner up cliffs, letting down a rope for the other to get up, or Mickey pulling Donald's fat arse through small gaps. It's not without problems, but it's nice enough to stop worrying for a bit with. Also features different level designs for Mickey/Donald/Co-op, for some variety.

• Zero Tolerance
  • The Blueberry Hill: Stylishly presented Doom Clone, that, along with its unreleased sequel, is now public domain. Lives are represented by a team of player characters, with differeing abilities; the enemies are agressive; there is jumping!, and a flame-thrower. It may get repetitive after so-many levels, but highly recommended until that point.

• Batman Returns
  • Shnozlak: Holy sprite scaling and rotation batman! this game LOOKS amazing.

• Ecco The Dolphin
  • Rudie: It's Ecco the Dolphin, with even better music!

• Heart of the Alien
  • Sniper Honeyviper: Forgotten sequel to Another World where you play as the alien buddy from that game, and it even includes AW for good measure. I haven't played too far into it yet; it's definitely less subtle than AW, with a huge bombastic actiony intro, but the puzzle design definitely seems to be of the same caliber.
    • UPDATE: I have done my research on this thing and played it more, and it's “irredeemable shit.” Never mind.

• Sonic CD
  • Sniper Honeyviper: Some extremely solid level design here, although the focus on exploring the stages rather than merely rushing through them is a bit of a buzz-kill in a Sonic game. There's a time-travel gimmick which allows you to visit four different versions of each stage, but it's mostly an excuse to have more pretty graphics and music. Ignore what everyone says, the US version's soundtrack is the best.

• Snatcher
  • Shnozlak: Burn the Disc. Play it with the Justifier.

• Sonic The Hedgehog
  • Take It Sleazy: Aggressively stylish with beautiful graphics, modern pop music, a crazy physics engine, and wild, giant levels that despite their alien architecture feel perfectly natural and lived in. So good that it should be wiped from history to prevent the mental destruction of a generation of men and women.
  • winkerwatson: Sonic 1 is probably more interesting in terms of design, (momentum etc) but I really like the spin dash and despite the game being made without it in mind I just really wanted to play the Sonic Jam version :(
  • Broco: Sonic 1 is my favorite Sonic as well. It varies up the pacing more instead of aiming for nonstop speed, and it has a nice difficulty curve where you pick up lives in the earlier levels and lose them in the later ones. It's the only Sonic where I get more engaged as I get further in the game rather than less so.

• Sonic The Hedgehog 2
  • winkerwatson: I think select button maybe hates Sonic 2 now and I would say that it's something of a curate's egg. Metropolis Zone derails the games pacing entirely I feel. And Casino Night and Hilltop are two ideas that were far better executed in Sonic 3. But levels like Chemical Plant, Mystic Cave (best bottomless pit in the whole franchise) and Oil Ocean are all great in terms of music, unique level features and whatnot. From Sky Chase Zone on its a great precursor to the narrative of 3 and Knuckles.

• Street of Rage 2
  • handsomenattou: (Yuzo Koshiro at the very top of his game (i.e. Better soundtrack than any game that would come before or after), awesome grapple moves that make you feel like a god, perfect length. The best beat 'em up to come out of the golden age of beat 'em ups)

• Toejam and Earl
  • Take It Sleazy: Still a singular game after all these years. An action roguelike with brilliant multiplayer mechanics that other roguelikes should be copying by now and this should be a genre good lord it's 20 years old come on you fucking nerds. It's also a rather clever inversion of the typical videogame cliche of a world filled with nothing but wandering monsters and treasures for the hero. A stellar soundtrack and a great sense of humor. Super ahead of it's time and the kind of SEGA-ness that made Nintendo just look sad and old.

The 32X was a bulbous mushroom intended as a life support device for the Megadrive. It requires two proprietary cables to hook up to a Model 1, and one cable and a plastic spacer for a Model 2. It sold less than half a million units and is generally hated by everyone today, usually only warranting mention for Chaotix. Many of the games for it were barely upgraded ports of Megadrive titles, or re-releases of Mega CD FMV games that used the extra hardware for better video quality. However, it remains my favorite unpopular console. There was a handful of highly experimental and interesting polygonal games, and arguably the best versions of some AM/2 arcade ports. There were scrapped plans to release it as a standalone console, the Neptune. - Sniper Honeyviper

• Chaotix
  • Sniper Honeyviper: Freaky experimental Knuckles game where you and a partner bungee through a level with Delicious Physics. The stages themselves feel sprawling and unfinished, but at least you've got the most beautiful 2D backdrops in the series to stare at, as well as some really cool polygonal bonus stages. A real curiosity, with one of the best FM synth Sonic soundtracks.

• Cosmic Carnage / Cyber Brawl (JP)
  • Sniper Honeyviper: Overlooked Mortal Kombat-esque fightman game with some cool sprite scaling and wonderfully cheesy graphics that's good for dicking around in, but definitely not for “serious” play. Featuring the only fighting game character I'm aware of with an 8-way dash. The US version replaced the human characters with generic aliens to escape an M rating, but you can switch it to Cyber Brawl with a code.

• Kolibri
  • Rudie: Still possibly the finest hummingbird based shooter for the Sega 32x.

• Space Harrier
  • Rudie: This is my favorite game, and this is my favorite version of my favorite game.
  • Sniper Honeyviper: I own the cart, and can definitely attest to it being Harrier's best port. It even lets you continue from Stage 7 after you get that far, if you just want to see the whole thing.

• Stellar Assault (EU & JPN)/Shadow Squadron (US)
  • Sniper Honeyviper: Holy shit, a 32X game that's really well designed? Stellar Assault is a very solid space flight sim, not unlike Wing Commander, that pushes the 32X to its limits while maintaining the smoothest of framerates. It's still thrilling to barrel roll past blocky solid-color battlecruisers in complete freedom of movement. There is a remake on the Saturn, but it's very expensive and apparently inferior.

• Zaxxon's Motherbase 2000 (NA) / Motherbase (PAL) / Parasquad (JP)
  • unlabored flawlessness: Zaxxon Motherbase 2000 is very underrated. It has a clever “jack your enemies' ships” mechanic, lots of stage variety, and some impressive polygonal bosses. There's also a multiplayer versus mode for added kicks. If it had been released on the Genesis, it would be considered a hidden gem.

• SB Recommends Master System Games - playable via convertor
• Mega Drive Mega Thread - selectbutton forum thread