On the Sega Genesis

[ZZoMBiE13]

Some of my favorite games on the Genesis:

Chakan: An immortal undead warrior has to go through a massive world trying to find a way to die
Polter-Guy: You play a ghost who is haunting a family who moved into his house
Mutant League: This was when EA wasn't a pariah. They made great games back then, and Mutant League football and Mutant League hockey were two of my favorites
Eternal Champions: SEGA's answer to the fighting game craze of the time, EC has some inventive characters and fatalities
Phantasy Star: Not quite as good as the SNES era RPGs from square (IMO), but as close as you could get if you only had the Genesis

That's just off the top of my head. I played most multiplatform games on my SNES though.

 

[ISearchForTraps]

I think part of why SEGA bit the dust was lack of recognizable franchises. Nintendo has Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Donkey Kong, Pokemon, Kirby, Earthbound, Kid Icarus, etc. SEGA never really had any besides Sonic, so it had lack of broad appeal for characters and franchises to pull in gamers, and in general their games were more about the core gameplay and less about personality or stand-out characters.

They could easily have made Gunstar Heroes, Dynamite Headdy and Ristar into franchises. Sadly though most of its more memorable games were stand-alones that never got a sequel.

 

[Callate]

Street Fighter II

Oh god no!That was the absolute worst home console version of that game.

The absolute worst? Au contraire!


The absolute worst legitimately released console version, possibly.

 

[SomeGuyOnHisComputer]

Comix Zone
Splatterhouse 2+3
The Genesis version of Out of this World plays so much better than the SNES.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

Mirroring everyone on this thread, genesis had some games that were the shit but basically didn't spawn franchises like Nintendo did. Surprisingly, the second time this week I get to mention this game, play X-men 2:clone wars to see what I'm talking about. The game was brilliant period especially for something based on a Saturday morning X-men cartoon. But such a title isn't exactly remembered well

Lion King (has some touchy controls and the stampede stage still haunts my dreams

I girl I work with told me her boyfriend started playing her genesis and was shocked at how hard Lion King was. He made a bet with his roommates that whoever beats the Elephant Graveyard level got $20. Pussies, I beat that level when I was 8

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Sega, in their console making days, had a penchant for experimentation and risk taking with their hardware that unfortunately also lead to its downfall. Sega took risks, and worked to deliver better hardware than the competition. And the price of pushing the envelope can be costly at times.

Sega having 'better' hardware is arguable to say the least. Most of their systems are inferior in many or all respects to at least one of their direct competitors, or they have a major drawback, like the Game Gear eating batteries like candy or the Saturn having very complex architecture so programming games on it was very hard.

Still, there is something about Sega consoles, especially the Genesis. The Snes may have it beat on most accounts, but there are some things were it just is no match at all (YMMV). The console's casing is one of them. The Genesis's design doesn't look as dated. Supposing you have one that still looks brand new, you could line it up alongside a PS3, Xbox 360 or Wii and it wouldn't look very much out of place. Seriously, I love its design. It's still a sexy beast. Meanwhile, the EU/JP Snes is not bad looking, but not great either, and the US Snes ... no comment.

And I think the Genesis has the best pack-in controller for general 2d gaming of any console ever. The Snes controller may have more buttons, but the Genesis' is IMO more comfortable and has a far better d-pad.

Also, the games came in plastic jewelcases. Looks so much nicer in my closet. Fuck Nintendo and their stupid cardboard crap.

Ok, that said, here's a few games that haven't been mentioned yet:

Quackshot Starring Donald Duck
Mega Man: The Wily Wars[footnote]Sort of a 'best of' of Megaman 1-3[/footnote]
Contra: Hard Corps
Alien Soldier[footnote]Holy crap this game is hard. And awesome, but mostly hard![/footnote]
Thunder Force series
Zero Wing[footnote]All your base are belong to us[/footnote]
Cyborg Justice
The Lost Vikings
Road Rash
Rings of Power
Warsong AKA Langrisser 1
Langrisser 2
General Chaos
Dune: The Battle for Arrakis
Mutant League Football
Mutant League Hockey
Castlevania Bloodlines

 

[NeutralDrow]

Most all of my recommendations are already here...

Jurassic Park

I'll see your Jurassic Park and raise you a :Rampage Edition.

Jurassic Park: The Lost World was also pretty fun.

 

[Hazy992]

You kidding? The Genesis has some really memorable titles

I mean you've got:

Sonic (which goes without saying)
Streets of Rage
Strider
Rocket Knight Adventures
Gunstar Heroes (fuck Contra, fuck Metal Slug, Gunstar is the shit!)
Shinobi
Golden Axe
Phantasy Star
Shining Force
Mortal Kombat (actually has blood!)
Thunder Force/Lightening Force
X-Men 2
Altered Beast
Road Rash

Plus a load more I'm forgetting

 

[loc978]

I would like to reinforce a recommendation for one game that many others have mentioned: Phantasy Star 4. It's up there with Final Fantasys 4 and 6, Chrono Trigger et cetera for one of the best RPGs of its generation.

Aside from that, what hasn't been mentioned is pretty sparse...

Dungeons and Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun was a pretty damned good introduction to a basic D20 system, and also a decent representation of the Hollow World campaign setting. I had quite a bit of fun with that game, and it kinda got me into D&D as a kid.

Then there's the Lunar series on Sega CD, but honestly it's easier to get on Playstation 1.

Zero Wing

Don't forget the other very popular phrase that game's shoddy localization created (like most of the internet seems to have done):

 

[Patrick Vogt]

Rocket Knight Adventures ruled my childhood. And it still holds together today.

Jurassic Park was pretty solid as well - those raptor stages let your childhood fantasy of being a dinosaur come true. And its sequel, Jurassic Park Rampage Edition was pretty tits too.

...is no one going to mention The Lost Vikings? Or Toe Jam and Earl? Those games are HUGE, and have hours of fun available if you're into exploration and puzzles, respectively.

EDIT: Someone has mentioned Toe Jam and Earl, and the Lost Vikings. But still, they were pretty awesome games, and deserve recognition.

 

[TrevHead]

The Megadrive's greatest strengths were in arcade games especially those made by SEGA themselves plus EA who were their strongest 3rd party. The main weakness of the MD was it's lack of JRPG's even though the few that were available were very good, Plus later into the 16bit life cycle SEGA went addon crazy with the 32X and MegaCD while the SNES had mode 7 and 3D games like Starfox.

Street Fighter II

Oh god no!That was the absolute worst home console version of that game.

If you had a 3 button Gamepad, you actually had to toggle punches and kicks with the Start button.

Because of the lack of colour display of the Genesis (as opposed to TG-16 and SNES) the visuals were a downgrade.

But the worst things was the sound effects. Just plain bad when compared to the SNES and TG-16 versions.

I'd swap that sound quality for the SEGA 6 button pad any day of the week, the SEGA MD / SAT D-pad is widely regarded as having the best Dpad for fighters. The Nintendo cross dpad is fine for platformers and that's it imo.

EDIT I don't even know why the 3 button get's brought up in discussions like this, as only a chump would play Street Fighter that way, buying a 6 button pad was practically mandatory, my guess is that all the SNES owners when visiting their MD friends were forced to play 2nd player with the 3 button and have built up a strong dislike for the MD version

Also doesn't the TG16 version miss out the bonus stages?

 

[___________________]

X-Men 2: Clone Wars

I love all of the games I ever played on the Mega Drive, but that one was my favourite (as far as I can remember). The soundtrack was out of this world. Kurt Harland rocks.

 

[Batou667]

I'm probably just echoing a lot of people's suggestions, but:

Platform
Sonic series
Aladdin
Ristar
Comix Zone
Vectorman
Chakan

Fighting
Streets of Rage series
Golden Axe series
Revenge of Shinobi and Shinobi 3
Mortal Kombat series
Eternal Champions
Cyborg Justice
Alien Storm

Shooter
Desert/Jungle/Urban Strike
Thunder Force 2/3/4
Gunstar Heroes
Alien Soldier
Contra 4

Racing/driving
Road Rash series
Micro Machines series
Outrun
Hang On

Adventure/RPG
Phantasy Star 2/3/4
Shining In The Darkness
Shining Force 1+2
Soleil
Story of Thor
Flashback
Another World

Everything Else
Mega Bomberman (awesome fun with the 4-player multitap)
Ecco 1/2

 

[ASan83]

X-Men 2: Clone Wars

I love all of the games I ever played on the Mega Drive, but that one was my favourite (as far as I can remember). The soundtrack was out of this world. Kurt Harland rocks.

I was an SNES kid through and through, but this is the game that eventually made me get a Genesis. That and the superior version of NHL 94. The first X-Men game was pretty kick ass as well.

And yeah, Sonic 2 > All.

 

[TehCookie]

Nintendo won because it had more family appeal. If you're going to buy your kid a console are you going to get the one with fun kid friendly games or the more mature violent ones? Or maybe that's just my brainwashing since my dad hated Nintendo for being a kiddie console and Sega was for mature gamers such as himself. Not to mention you remember all the Nintendo classics because they've been remaking them for the past 20 years.

Just listing my favorite games:
Altered Beast, Golden Axe, Haunting, Fireshark, and Toejam and Earl. Star Control was a really deep game for the time, but my 4 year old self found it boring.

 

[bluepotatosack]

Skitchin'! Think Road Rash. A violent race to the finish line through traffic where you can beat up on your opponents with weapons you find. Only, instead of motorcycles you're on rollerblades. Stick with me on this.

The reason rollerblades serve this type of game better than motorcycles is revealed through it's one of it's featured mechanics. Since there are cars and buses driving along with you, you can grab onto the back of them and slingshot off for a speed boost. Cop cars would also drive along and you could hitch a ride on them, too. You get a nice cash bonus for doing so, but if you stay on too long you get arrested. Risk vs. reward!
You also sometimes get 5 or 6 characters on the back of a single vehicle slugging it out. So you skate, and you hitch rides. Hence the title.

The whole thing is infused with an early '90's grunge aesthetic. Which includes the fantastic soundtrack.

The game is criminally underappreciated.


Other great Genesis games: Comix Zone, Shining Force II, Strider, Toe Jam 'n Earl, Gunstar Heroes

 

[stroopwafel]

Sonic 2 and Phantasy Star 4 were truly fantastic games on the Genesis/Megadrive. I owned a snes myself at the time and was kinda late to the Genesis party so I have the feeling I never really got to know the system. That's one of the great things about those Sega collection discs to find out all the great games you missed out on. Nintendo had some fantastic games as well though such as A Link to the Past and Super Metroid. Both companies were really at the top of their game during the 16-bit days.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Though I do hear the Saturn was the best controller for fighters, as far a standard ones go. Don't know for sure as I've never used it, since nobody I knew owned one.

Well, it kinda goes like this.

First there was the 3-button Genesis controller, which has a great d-pad. Your mileage may vary since it seem like you're much more used to Nintendo controllers, but the disk-shaped Sega d-pad lends itself much better to the kind of circular inputs Street Fighter-style fighters require than the cross-shape of Nintendo d-pads. But, only 3 buttons of course made it less than suitable for fighters.

Then came the 6-button Genesis controller, released alongside Street Fighter 2: Super Champion Edition, which of course had 3 extra face buttons and an extra Mode button on the top, while keeping the same d-pad[footnote]It also meant the controller had the same amount of buttons as its Snes counterpart[/footnote]. The 6 face buttons mean it's much more analogous to the button lay-out in arcades than the Snes controller.

The Saturn controller is pretty much the same as the 6-button Genesis one, only adding an L and R button and dropping the Mode button. Tastes may differ, but yeah, save for plugging in an actual arcade stick, the 6-button Genesis and Saturn controllers are arguably some of if not the best for 2d fighters.

Anyway, I'm gonna give some love to the Sega CD. Like it or not, it is part of the Genesis' history and it did have some great games on it, like:

Lunar: Silver Star
Lunar 2: Eternal Blue
Snatcher
Silpheed
Shining Force CD
Robo Aleste
Lords of Thunder
and of course Sonic CD

Special mentions go to Final Fight CD, Earthworm Jim Special Edition, Eternal Champions and Ecco The Dolphin[footnote]Each probably the best version of their respective game on 4th gen consoles[/footnote].

 

[Callate]

I see your nes version and raise you the C64 one, and you had to load each level!!

Well, in fairness, yesbag did specify console version.

If we want to fight dirty and get into home computer versions, we could haul out the ZX Spectrum version (caution, eye bleed-age ahead.)

 

[Raioken18]

Oh crap! I totally forgot about Shining Force <3

Also the amount of people who reinforced Phantasy Star 4 have made me very happy