Science presents: the top 10 best and worst Mega Drive games

One feature of Sega Retro is acting as the "Metacritic of the 1990s". We've been collecting magazine articles and reviews for years, and it's getting to a stage where the lists are rebust enough to actually highlight popular opinions.

Or at least, Mega Drive one is. We're generating averages from double figures, so while there are still massive margins of error (and it's really more of a 20-95 scale than 0-100, so don't get hooked on the numbers), it's vaguely reliable sometimes.

So because this as exciting as our lives can get at the moment, the top 10 and bottom 10 Mega Drive games, according to science, right now, because wiki clickbait is the best clickbait. All of these scores are based on contemporary reviews - the wiki has all the details and workings if you're into that sort of thing.

Top 10:


10th best Mega Drive game - 90.875 - NHL Hockey
The very first EA Sports ice hockey game, pre-dating the EA Sports brand. This is the North American version with official NHL teams, with the rest of the world's EA Hockey currently sitting around 88-ish. While John Madden Football was a big thing for American football games, NHL Hockey seems to have been a bigger thing for ice hockey, as none of its competitors even come close in terms of popular opinion. I don't know enough about the sport to tell if EA is still the industry leaders, but they absolutely were in 1991.


9th best Mega Drive game - 91.30354267310796 - Earthworm Jim
It seems the internet classes this as "graphics before gameplay" these days, but before the sequels and remakes spoiled the legacy, Earthworm Jim was stupidly popular. I'm surprised it's rated this highly, given it's a game not actively talked about much today, but here we are.

Not sure this is the best version of the game to actually own though - Earthworm Jim: Special Edition on the Mega-CD seems like a safer bet.


8th best Mega Drive game - 91.32942592592592 - Street Fighter II': Special Champion Edition
Fighting game experts will be able to tell you why this consistently scores higher than Super Street Fighter II, but there was a great deal of hype for a Sega version of Street Fighter II in 1993 which probably feeds into this result. In fact I believe this is Capcom's most successful Sega product, followed by Resident Evil: Code Veronica on the Dreamcast years later.


7th best Mega Drive game - 91.52941176470588 - FIFA Soccer 95
All Mega Drive FIFAs score highly, but this was the last one where the Mega Drive was the target console. It's also a meaty upgrade over the original FIFA with all the club teams and customisation gubbins - others might have the edge in gameplay, but in terms of content, I'm not sure this was bettered in 1994.


6th best Mega Drive game - 91.59677419354838 - Sonic the Hedgehog (Mega Drive)
A milestone in gaming. It was only after Sonics 2 and 3 that we began to re-assess Marble Zone, but such was the initial praise, the average still ends up being extremely high.


5th best Mega Drive game - 91.69736842105263 - Earthworm Jim 2
I mean we're only talking a .3 pecentage point difference, but yeah, I think it's better than the first too. But again, not the version you want - the Saturn's soundtrack is among the best on the system.


4th best Mega Drive game - 91.72988505747134 - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Mega Drive)
The best selling Mega Drive game is also one of the highest rated? Who'd have thought. I think you can write your own sentence here.


3rd best Mega Drive game - 92.0909090909091 - Micro Machines: Turbo Tournament '96
Collectively Micro Machines has the best multiplayer on the Mega Drive, and Turbo Tournament 96 was the last and most polished version. The added track editor also probably helps.


2nd best Mega Drive game - 94.5 - Tetris
And this is where the system breaks down. Tetris wasn't on the market long enough to get a decent number of reviews, but for what it's worth, it's a decent version of the game. I think the story goes that Nintendo's versions have the music, but Sega's attempts are closer to the modern Tetris Company-enforced standard. Also more illegal.


Best Mega Drive game - 95.0 - John Madden Football: Championship Edition
And then there's this one-off special edition of Madden from 1993 that only has one review and isn't widely understood and completely ruins this list. Unless it really is the best game on the system - American football isn't my thing.




...and the bottom 10:


10th worst Mega Drive game - 37.16666666666667 - Dark Castle
Dark Castle's a decent game... on the classic black and white Macintosh, with high resolution graphics and mouse controls. But it doesn't translate well to d-pads and buttons, nor is it really suited to an audience brought up by Sonic. There's a reason it makes good AVGN material.


9th worst Mega Drive game - 37.121452380952356 - Double Dragon II: The Revenge
I'm not an expert on Double Dragon lineage, but this definitely seems the least pleasant of the Mega Drive offerings. It's a curious thing to release when Sega had games like Golden Axe on the system, and was set to be trounced by things like Streets of Rage.


8th worst Mega Drive game - 36.833333333333336 - Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Another AVGN classic. Mega Drive owners are spared from the LJN brand, but it's still Acclaim under the hood making shoddy decisions with movie licenses.


7th worst Mega Drive game - 36.142857142857146 - Unnecessary Roughness '95
The Mega Drive's worst American football game. I'm sure the experts could tell you why.


6th worst Mega Drive game - 35.20871428571429 - Nekketsu Kouko Dodgeball Bu: Soccer Hen MD
Football game in Technos' Kunio-kun franchise that looks and plays like something designed for the NES (because it was). With so many more modern options to choose from, it was torn apart by critics.


5th worst Mega Drive game - 34.625 - Time Killers
Really late conversion of a not-so-good Mortal Kombat clone. Standards were too high for this sort of thing in 1996.


4th worst Mega Drive game - 30.0 - Earth Defense
Unlicensed tat from Taiwan. Unlike most, this was packaged up and sold in the US, but it doesn't stop it from being a crappy shooter.


3rd worst Mega Drive game - 29.9375 - Chester Cheetah: Wild Wild Quest
Not sure if it's the game that's truly awful, or what the product represents, given that it's a sequel to a crap platform game that's only out to make quick cash.


2nd worst Mega Drive game - 29.4 - Super Battleship: The Classic Naval Combat Game
Remember when they made a film and an FPS out of Battleship? This isn't that - it's just Battleship. I'm guessing the board game cost less and was generally more fun.


Worst Mega Drive game - 13.0 - Barney's Hide & Seek Game
I think this is an easy target given it's clearly a game for very young children, but hey - statistically the worst Mega Drive game.


Sadly(?) some of the genuinely horrible games, Action 52, The Great Waldo Search and X-Perts are all sitting in the 40s right now. Really need more review scores added to fix that.

 

As we speak, Sonic 3 is in 11th place

You have to scroll down a bit to get to Sonic & Knuckles though. But even then it's 87 vs 91 - well within the margin of error.

 

That is one way. It's hard to know what's missing without checking scans (and if you're checking scans, you might as well add the scores there and then)

The other way is to play with the database and look for gaps

e.g.

https://segaretro.org/index.php?tit...by_options[0]=ASC&limit=1000&offset=0&format=

 

Big news in numbers: they changed. Earthworm Jim is no longer in the top 10.



Your new 10th best Mega Drive game - 90.7800925925927 - Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament

No I'm not going to update this topic every time a new batch of review scores is added, but Micro Machines is another franchise that was huge on the Mega Drive... only to fall off the face of the earth. They try and revive it every now and then, but nobody cares about top-down racers anymore.


As for other Sega systems, the numbers aren't quite as reliable yet, but the very best and very worst are probably set in stone, as they tend to transcend wonky journalism. So quick run down:


Best Master System game: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit)

The version where the Underground Zone boss can be comfortably beaten. Probably the best 8-bit Sonic, definitely the best soundtrack on the system.


Worst Master System game: ALF

Badly made tat from a fledging Sega of America. Its programmer, Kevin Seghetti, as admitted as such, but claims it's on-brand as the TV show sucked too.



Best Game Gear game: Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament

I think the idea is that every version of Micro Machines and its sequel is excellent.


Worst Game Gear game: Hyokkori Hyoutanjima: Hyoutanjima no Daikoukai

Video game tie-in to a Japanese puppet TV show. The numbers aren't really here for this to be reliable - we have one score from a French magazine, so don't read much into this.



Best Mega-CD game: Earthworm Jim: Special Edition

Told you the CD version was the way to go, although it's very telling that the best Mega-CD game is a slightly enhanced Mega Drive port.


Worst Mega-CD game: NFL's Greatest: San Francisco vs. Dallas 1978-1993

And honestly 22/100 is generous for this one. It's not a game, it's low quality video covering old NFL matches. It would be a questionable release on VHS, nevermind on your expensive new CD-based Mega Drive add-on. In fact it's probably one of the stupidest things released on a video game console full stop.



Best 32X game: Doom (32X)

I pointed this out in a previous topic - it's a joke today, but in late 1994, the options for playing Doom were this version with crappy music, the Jaguar port with no music or the original IBM PC version that was not guaranteed to be specced up to run the thing. It's high-end PC gaming at a fraction of the price - the press loved it.


Worst 32X game: T-MEK

Don't know enough about this - it's an Atari Games arcade conversion that nobody cared about. I suspect it's not really the worst 32X game out there (Spider-Man: Web of Fire is just above), but meh.



Best Saturn game: Virtua Fighter 2

There's a bug currently hiding Virtua Fighter 2 from the wiki table, but I'm fairly sure this tops the list. If not, Sega Rally Championship. Until Virtua Fighter 2, the Sega Saturn narrative was that it couldn't do 3D as well as the PlayStation... at which point Sega came along and made a Saturn game that does 3D better than most PlayStation games. It's a techncial showpiece and as Virtua Fighter was the main selling point for the console in Japan, sold bucketloads.

This actually runs at a higher resolution than most PlayStation 2 games... maybe even including the Virtua Fighter 2 port for the PS2. Someone should check that.



Worst Saturn game: The Incredible Hulk: The Pantheon Saga

Word on the street is this is what happened to that scrapped 32X X-Men game. We only have one review claiming this is horrendous- second worst-rated game Death Crimson might be a better fit, because Death Crimson is... well... look it up.



Best Dreamcast game: SoulCalibur

Absolutely no surprises here if you give even the slightest damn about Dreamcast software. Truth be told I'm not sure I'd personally class it as the best thing ever, but others call it the perfect video game, and it's undoubtedly a massive improvement over the arcade version. Also you can play as a lizard man called Lizardman. OUT OF THE RING


Worst Dreamcast game: ESPN NBA 2Night

This one fascinates me, because I followed the Dreamcast religiously back in the day, and the butt of all jokes was usually Spirit of Speed 1937 or Ducati World. It must have been spectacularly bad for a licensed basketball game published by Konami to consistently rate even worse.

 

Master System top and bottom 10, because I literally have nothing better to do.

There's never been a massive amount of interest for the Master System on the internet, mostly because it didn't make much of a splash in the US, and while it was top dawg in Europe, we weren't really into dedicated games consoles at the time. But the good thing about being in second place is you're spared from the dregs of LJN or Color Dreams or whoever else was trying to cash in - you had to be pretty serious if you were to get into Master System publishing.


Numbers are less reliable here than on the Mega Drive, but that's because console game reviews weren't really invented until late 1987/1988, off the back of the PC Engine and Mega Drive launches. There just weren't as many opinions out there.



10th best Master System game - 88.81818181818181 - Prince of Persia

I've been told this isn't a particularly good conversion of Prince of Persia, but whatever. Unique on this list as the Master System and Game Gear ports are pretty much identical, right down to screen resolution.

In 2021 there's no reason to favour it over the IBM PC version. Or the SNES if you're a heathen. Though the (PAL) Mega Drive version isn't too far behind in the grand scheme of things.



9th best Master System game - 88.84583333333335 - R-Type

For those who didn't have access to a PC Engine or TurboGrafx-16 (i.e. most people outside of Japan), this was the best home versions of R-Type around at release. Probably isn't worth bothering with today given the arcade version is just as easy to emulate, but this was a big deal in 1988.



Joint 8th best Master System game - 89.0 - Ecco: The Tides of Time and Micro Machines

SMS Ecco II was one of those wonky, Brazil-only, Game Gear to Master System conversions, and with only one review to its name this is likely an unreliable score. Micro Machines we've discussed before - it's never far from the top ten.

Also yes, high resolution mode.



7th best Master System game - 89.52941176470588 - California Games

Not sure why this is consistently rated so highly but whatever - the best in Epyx's "Games" series. It's averaging higher than the Mega Drive port, and if I cared more I'd look into why. Remember this one because there's a test later.



6th best Master System game - 89.79333333333334 - Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar

I forget how it works with Ultima since they re-released the early ones, but I suspect this Master System conversion of IV might have been among the best versions in its day. It's an actual port, rather than the jumbled up version the NES got, and well... people like Ultima. A Western RPG on a Sega console that people might have heard of - shock horror.

What's a Paladin?



5th best Master System game - 90.36231884057973 - Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (8-bit)

There's some who say the 8-bit version of Castle of Illusion is better than the Mega Drive one. I'm not qualified to have an opinion, but either way, quality licensed platformers are a rare thing.



4th best Master System game - 90.7666666666668 - Sonic the Hedgehog (8-bit)

A surprise to nobody.



3rd best Master System game - 91.11764705882354 - Populous

One of the games that made Peter Molyneux famous. Not sure if it beats out the Mega Drive conversion, but it's impressive to see it on the Master System. Whether it's a good fit for a 2021 audience is another story - I can't imagine it would be near the top ten if these lists were compiled from more recent reviews, and nobody would willingly choose this version over the home computer originals.



2nd best Master System game - 91.25 - Ecco the Dolphin

Again if you didn't have access to the Mega Drive version, 8-bit Ecco got you most of the way. A lot of these later SMS ports rate highly on the grounds they exist - this conversion was released in mid-1994, because the install base doesn't magically disappear when you put a new machine on the market.



Best Master System game - 91.98484848484841 - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit)

Even less surprising because I posted it above.






And the bottom 10:


10th worst Master System game - 44.5 - Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story

This probably doesn't deserve to be this low as there were plenty of dull movie licenses in the early 1990s, but it's here and it's... dull. It's a very home-computery experience with samey gameplay and no music - I suspect reviewers wanted more from full price console game.



9th worst Master System game - 43.81818181818182 - TransBot

The simplest shoot-'em-up on the console, because it's a 1985 game designed for budget priced Sega Cards. In the West though, you didn't get this thing until 1987 or 1988, and by then it was so old hat that the hat was dead and buried alongside its hat children.



8th worst Master System game - 43.458333333333336 - Zaxxon 3D

3D on the Master System is great, because if you don't have the glasses (which don't work in half the consoles), you can't play half the games! While Zaxxon 3D has a fully working (and non-hidden) 2D mode, without the extra dimension it's just a dull shooter that looks less interesting than the 1982 original.

In fact this was the perspective the Atari 2600 and Intellivision ports of Zaxxon opted for because they couldn't do the isometric graphics. i.e. it was a crappy compromise in 1983 and amazingly was still one in 1987.



7th worst Master System game - 43.23076923076923 - Ace of Aces

Pseudo flying simulator that came across from the home computers. I'd need more time with this (and the other versions) to form an opinion of my own, but it sounds like they shipped a worse game five years too late.



6th worst Master System game - 42.7 - Super Tennis

A clone of Tennis on the NES, though probably not as good. Another one originally released on card in 1985, that later found its way onto cartridge and was torn apart by the gaming press. Still, at least Sega weren't copying Urban Champion.



5th worst Master System game - 42.61538461538461 - Smash T.V.

"Play Smash T.V." - no, don't. While it's one of the greatest twin-stick shooters ever made in arcades, on the Master System, you have a D-Pad and two buttons... and not much else since they had to cut so much content.

Not much better on the Mega Drive, and while it has enough buttons to actually work on the SNES, the Nintendo versions have slightly different music and that annoys me. A poor showing all around tbh.



4th worst Master System game - 42.375 - Space Gun

Taito's cutting edge arcade light gun game comes to the Master System two years later with most of the bits taken out.



3rd worst Master System game - 38.5 - Back to the Future Part II

Back to the Future games from this era are unusually unlucky in that they're all awful. One of the few cases in history where Acclaim might have done a better job with the license.



2nd worst Master System game - 37.333333333333336 - California Games II

Yes the first game is one of the best, and the second is one of the worst. And here's me thinking the only "games" they played in California were EA and Activision swindling idiots with loot boxes.



Worst Master System game - 10.666666666666666 - ALF

It hasn't got any better in the last few days.


Fun fact: despite being the face of the system, Alex Kidd in Miracle World is currently ranked 54th with a score of 82.42857142857157.