- Crusader of Centy / Soliel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBWCYH71qoU Amazing Zelda clone that stands on its own, unique play style where animals you collect can be mixed and matched to give you abilities. Unlike a link to the past, the story actually has time travel as well. - Puggsy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKTHHtmnpVA Originally an Amiga title, this game uses a block physics engine that was pretty mind blowing for myself at the time. Solve puzzles and find secret exits to levels that will take you to new paths on the map. This version is far superior to the Amiga version. - Kid Chameleon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BH5GY_TIIk This is another unique game, you pickup masks to become different characters that have different abilities. Some of the best masks don't appear until much later in the game, such as the skateboarding mask the art style gets gritty - Beyond Oasis / The Story of Thor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt2qHulcUR0 Collect spirits to help you. Very zelda like and a great game. - Fantastic Dizzy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IshgDSr44hc Also originally on the Amgia, this is not just a port but a complete graphic & audio overhaul. A puzzle game where you must find items to help you progress through the level while trying to collect every star in the world. - Cosmic Space Head https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSpiI1y0DLc This is a point-and-click adventure game with Platforming between areas. It has a similar feel to The Secret of Monkey Island, not only because of the puzzle item collection, but because some of the item uses are pretty silly. - Shining Force 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPcpMkBdgEY A tactical RPG with better graphics and tweaked gameplay then the previous game. Lots of hidden characters to find. - Thunder Force IV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDpWMyZnaCM I love shooters, and this is one of the best on the Genesis. - Wonder Boy in Monster World https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oullp_KrG9U I know some people prefer the Master System version, but this one is great. The game feels 'linear' until you unlock some items and then you realize the whole over world has so much to explore! Also you mentioned you have a flash cart, so... - Wonder Boy in Monster World IV (With translation patch) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM88wnYdnVo This one is also great, but never got an English version for the mega drive. Lucky for you though, you can flash on the translated ROM.
Most of my picks have been mentioned, but I have some sports games to suggest. NBA Jam World Series Baseball 98 Triple Play 96 Prime Time Football Starring Deion Sanders
Magical Hat no Buttobi Turbo! Daibouken Really great platformer, spiritual successor to Psycho Fox, was butchered for western release to become Decap Attack, which lost all of the charm of the original.
so does retro just not consider the phantasy star series classics, or did I miss the post where II, III, and IV were mentioned? also pulseman if it hasn't, I was focused only on searching "phantasy" and didn't notice if someone said pulseman
Mega-Lo-Mania/Tyrants: Fight Through Time Micro Machines Military General Chaos The Chaos Engine Alien Storm
Shinobi III. Come on guys, you can't forget this gem! Also, Contra HardCorps. There are some others, but I'm fairly certain they've already been brought up in this thread.
Puyo Puyo/Dr Robotnik's Mean Machine is one of the best puzzle games out there (okay technically it's Sonic but just barely). Puyo Puyo Tsu is good for the same reasons. Golden Axe is a fun button masher, naturally so are it's sequels. Seconded Rocket Knight Adventures and Sparkster. Great platformers that outshine many of the Sonic rip offs of the day by being far more innovative. Wonder Boy 3: Monster Lair is good (though I like the Turbografx one even more).
Much obliged for the suggestions everyone. I finally have a decent Genesis library for the first time in... well forever. Now just to get around to playing them all.
Exclusives: Toe Jam & Earl Streets of Rage 3, 1, and 2 (in that order) Aladdin (also on different platforms, but different games) Golden Axe Road Rash Revenge Of Shinobi Altered Beast Comix Zone Shining Force Berenstein Bears ITS A GREAT GAME SHUT UP Phantasy Star II There were games that were good that were also on SNES like The Lion King and Rockin Roll Racing, but the SNES versions were almost always better.
I know you've already gotten quite a few, but I'm throwing my hat in anyway: Streets of Rage - A Beat-'em up in the style of Final Fight for the SNES, only way better and with a timeless soundtrack. Awesome with 2P. Streets of Rage 2 - A Beat-'em up which took the original and added arcade-style graphics and a larger roster of characters with varying attributes. The best 2P game on the system. Golden Axe - The classic arcade-style hack 'n' slash. Great with 2P. The Revenge of Shinobi/The Super Shinobi - An excellent action platformer, with pixel-perfect precision. Quite a punishing game. Shinobi III - Action platformer. easier than the prequel, but more cinematic with a more varied and fluid moveset. An epic game. Space Harrier II - Third Person Rail Shooter. Not as good as the arcade original, but pretty damn good still. Challenging. Comix Zone - A unique Beat-'em up game, where you have to jump between the pages of a comic to fight the bad guys. Awesome music and good combo-system make this a really satisfying game. Super Thunderblade - Third Person Rail Shooter but with a helicopter twist, bitches. Hard as nails and best with a joystick. Super Hang-On - An Arcade Racing Game, quite like OutRun or Rad Racer for the NES. A fine classic. Dune II - If you've ever played Command & Conquer, then you'll recognize this. The daddy of the modern RTS, this version actually improved somewhat on the PC original with certain features that have been RTS staples ever since. Wildly addictive and hugely time-consuming.
The two rare ones are Monster World IV and Golden Axe III. Both Japan only as far as I remember. Why the hell Sega didn't bring those two localised to the West is beyond me. Golden Axe I can understand because it didn't review well and was weaker than the previous two games but the Wonderboy game is the best in the series. I played almost everything the Genesis had back in the day but those two evaded me because of their Japan only release. I ended up emulating them something like seven years after the Genesis had died. Monster World IV came quite late in the Genesis' life after Sega had made the infamous decision to abandon their console hence the Japan only release. Golden Axe is worth checking out just to say you've played it whilst Monster World IV is all kinds of amazing and you'll love it. Hope this helps. EDIT: Oh and before I forget; one game that people almost always miss: Shadow Dancer. Awesome and underrated Shinobi game.
It's a great game. It sounds and looks stupid but it's a fun platformer. I still play it sometimes. It's probably not too interesting for the older crowd but it has a good balance of difficulty for the kiddos.
MWIV came out in early '94, so it wasn't quite at the point where Sega was abandoning anything. There are a few reasons that it wasn't localized. Mac Senour, a producer at Sega of America, described the rather arbitrary process to determine which games were localized. A producer at SoA would take a look at the game, and if they thought it would sell well they would recommend it for localization. Famously, Gunstar Heroes went through 12 producers and assistant producers who all refused it before Senour decided it had potential. The way he describes it, the decisions were based almost entirely on the marketability of the games, not their quality. Apparently nobody liked Gunstar Heroes because it had small sprites. It's easy to see how MWIV was rejected: The "IV" meant it was nothing new (which is why Thunder Force IV was changed to Lightning Force in the US); the game looked too "cute" and had a female protagonist, which clashed with the target demographic of male teenager in the US; and it looked like just another ordinary platformer. At this time, also, Japanese games were not selling well in the US. If you look at US sales charts for the Genesis, most of the top 10 games from that era were sports titles. SoA was marketing the hell out of those, while Japanese games were, with a few exceptions, afterthoughts. Of course, this only applies to games localized by SoA. Third party developers were free to do the localization themselves. http://www.sega-16.com/2013/10/interview-mac-senour/
Devil's Crush/ Dragon's Fury One of the best pinball games ever made with an awesome sountrack. It has some graphical improvements over the PCE version. As for the music, I wouldn't say it sounds better or worse on any system. It's more a matter of personal preferance. Zero Wing Don't laugh, the game has more to offer than just great justice. It's a pretty good Shmup with some badass music. My only gripe is that the lack of an extra boss theme makes the fights a bit anticlimactic. Gaiares Another Shmup, also a nice soundtrack and a cool weapon system which allows you to snatch enemy weapons. There are also some very nicely drawn boss sprites Turtles - The Hyperstone Heist Not quite as cool as the SNES version of Turtles in Time but the music sounds much better through the MD than the slightly muffled SPC tracks. Most of the others which come to my mind were already named, like Maui Mallard, Cool Spot (one of the few games were the music actually sounds much more like real intruments than on SNES), Thunder Force IV or Ranger X
Well, it does have a dirt cheap PC release. Not sure how it compares to the Mega Drive version, however.
Castle of Illusion QuackShot World of Illusion Mickey Mania Pulseman Monster World IV (M2's English translation recommended) Earthworm Jim 1 & 2 Streets of Rage trilogy The Lost Vikings (MD version has 5 levels the other versions don't have) Mega Bomberman (inferior port of Bomberman 94, but still a great multiplayer game) Micro Machines 2 & 96 Puggsy Super Fantasy Zone ToeJam & Earl Socket (a rather dodgy Sonic clone, but it has some great music)
