I’ve been filling out my emulator collection and thought I’d poke my head into the world of Sega consoles, which I have no experience with.
What classic Master System/Genesis/32x/Game Gear/Sega CD games should I try? I’m more of an RPG guy, but I’ll play a good retro platformer or whatever.
What I’ve found so far from my own research (mostly Genesis):
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Altered Beast
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Beyond Oasis
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Castlevania Bloodlines
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Comix Zone
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Crusader of Centy
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Death and Return of Superman (I just really liked this comics arc)
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Earthworm Jim 1+2
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Gauntlet 4
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Golden Axe 1+2
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Landstalker
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Might and Magic - Gates to Another World (I think this is MM2?)
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OutRun and OutRun 2019
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Phantasy Star 1-4
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Shadowrun
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Shining Force 1+2
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ToeJam and Earl
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Ys - The Vanished Omens
What I have no interest in:
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Sonic
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Fighting games
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Sports games
These are all Genesis suggestions:
- Rocket Knight Adventures
- Sparkster
- Shinobi III
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist
- Rock n’ Roll Racing
- Thunder Force III
- Lightening Force: Quest for the Darkstar (aka Thunder Force IV)
- Dynamite Headdy
- Ranger X
- Gaiares
- Gargoyles
- Eliminate Down
- Alien Soldier
- Chakaan
- Dragon’s Fury
- Sonic Spinball (if you like pinball games, you might like this)
The uhhhh Shinobi games. Mega Turrican. Chakan, if you enjoy a challenge. Edit: Streets of Rage
Weren’t the Earthworm Jim games also on SNES? Or are the Sega versions different? Like Shadowrun on Genesis is a TOTALLY different game than Shadowrun on the SNES.
Anyway, I don’t see Ecco on your list. That’s a good one.
They were, yeah. I remember vaguely hearing they were supposed to be better on Genesis though, so I figured I’d grab 'em and compare.
The sonic games are some of the best things, along with fighting games from that era. Other than that Rolling Thunder 2 was a good port of an arcade side scroll shooter.
You have to do Phantasy Star Online! I mean, the Dreamcast version at this point has a lot less in it (and is fucken hardcore dont die with your favorite weapon in your hands!) but PSO is absolutely a legendary RPG title you should experience if you are a fan. Controls are clunky as fuck by today’s standards.
If you’d like to try general action games as well:
- Gunstar Heroes
- Strider
- Final Fight CD
- Contra Hard Corps
- Streets of Rage 1-2
Also try Snatcher on Sega CD.
Other thoughts:
- I’ll just note that Phantasy Star III, even if it is older-school grindy at times, is a really interesting take on multi-generational epic storytelling. I like it more than Phantasy Star IV.
- Night Trap on the Sega CD is interesting to play around with for an hour just to see what FMV games in the 90s meant, for some interesting bad late 80s/early 90s acting, and to remember that was all it took to cause a national panic for awhile.
I need to get Gunstar Heroes still 😥
Second PS3, playing as your descendants was a really cool touch. I think I saw a more recent game utilizing similar mechanic, released around 2010~, but I’m blanking on the title.
Record of Agarest War is the game you’re thinking of.
Ooh, are the descendants predetermined, or do you get to hook your party up in different configurations for different ones, like Dragon Quest 5’s kids?
Desert, jungle and urban strike
I loved those games omg
To add to others’ suggestions:
- Road Rash 1-3
- Micro Machines 2
- Lotus Turbo Challenge 1 & 2
- Truxton
- Bonanza Bros
- Ristar
- Aladdin
- Gunstar Heroes
how about Sega Saturn? Panzer Dragoon Saga is one of the best JRPGs ever. Don’t mistake it for Panzer Dragoon 1 and 2, those are rail shooters and you don’t need to play them. Also Dreamcast has some really good RPGs, I love Grandia 2
I’ll probably move on to trying Saturn/Dreamcast later, when I know what I like from the earlier generations, but I’ll add that to my list. Loved both Grandia 1 and 2, we got them on Playstation as well.
Don’t mistake it for Panzer Dragoon 1 and 2, those are rail shooters and you don’t need to play them
Heresy! Panzer Dragoon Zwei is the better of the two and it’s a fantastic rail shooter. Play it! The first is still a great game too, even if the framerate suffers a little.
I agree that Panzer Dragoon Saga is a phenomenal RPG. The combat system is really interesting, and for the time it was extremely ambitious to have a fully voice-acted, fully 3D RPG.
Ha yea, but they aren’t required to play before Saga
I strongly agree, the rail shooters are great. Saga is also one of the best games ever made imo. I think as a whole, it’s actually Sega’s best series. Sadly, it just never got much of a chance to grow.
Sports Games
Well, I have bad news for you about a significant fraction of the Genesis’ library…
Some other decent Genesis/Megadrive titles I can think of off the top of my head: Gunstar Heroes, Vectorman, Megaman: The Wily Wars, Zero Wing (for the memes), Aladdin (which was a completely different and vastly superior game to its SNES coutnerpart), Blaster Master 2, Contra: Hard Corps, Ecco the Dolphin and its sequels, Jurassic Park, and probably loads of others I’m forgetting.
The Saturn is notable for having Radiant Silvergun locked to it, in Japan only no less, and I don’t think that title was ported or rereleased at all until the XBox 360 version. It’s the precursor to Ikaruga, which is itself on the Dreamcast.
If you’re into shmups, the Dreamcast is kind of a holy grail. It also has the first two Shenmue games on it.
Alas basically everything on the Sega CD is crap with few exceptions. I will probably surprise my readership by mentioning that I think Sonic CD is not one of them, as its easily the weakest of the classic Sonic titles. It has some cult favorites that are so bad they’re good, though, infamously including Night Trap, Time Gal, Corpse Killer, Sewer Shark, etc. For games on it that don’t suck, don’t forget that the first two Lunar games originated there, there’s Popful Mail, Keio Flying Squadron, Snatcher, etc.
The 32X is an interesting novelty but I’m not certain there’s a single compelling title in the entire library. Which, admittedly, is only something like 30 games.
Lunar
Seconding these on Sega CD. Great times.
The 32X is an interesting novelty but I’m not certain there’s a single compelling title in the entire library. Which, admittedly, is only something like 30 games.
Knuckles Chaotix has a unique play mechanic that’s not in any other Sonic game and it’s worth it for the novelty.
adding some i always found unique or interesting
- Flashback
- Cyborg Justice
- Ecco the Dolphin
- James Pond
- road rash
- Skitchin’
- General Chaos
- streets of rage (i liked 2 the most)
- Combat Cars
- Bonanza brothers
- World of illusion
- Quackshot
- Sunset Riders
- Action Fighter (i swear this isn’t a fighting game, it’s about evolving motor vehicles)
Plus one for Flashback! Loved that game.
I like Sunset Riders on SNES more and would recommend it over the Mega Drive / Genesis version. World of Illusion is my favorite Micky game! Highly recommended to play with second player. The stages change a bit, depending who you play or if you are together.
If you leave Saturn and Dreamcast off your list then you’re really missing out.
The emulator I grabbed to start with Genesis also has support for the other consoles I listed, so I figured I’d start there and then see if there were any series I wanted to follow into Saturn and Dreamcast. I’m not opposed to any recommendations for them too, I just wasn’t going to start there.
A couple interesting ones that I remember:
- Haunting starring polterguy
- Jurassic Park
- Aladdin
- Ghostbusters
- Castle of illusion starring Mickey mouse
- Road Rash 2 (maybe it doesn’t hold up these days)
Worth mentioning that Aladdin for Genesis was a much different game than it’s SNES counterpart, and the Genesis version was also much more challenging.
I can’t believe no one has seconded Landstalker.
Seriously, give Landstalker a shot.
Landstalker is usually at the top of my list for these things, but I took OP’s list as already being definite plays, so I skipped it. 75% of OP’s list would be near the top of my list.
Streets of Rage, and Revenge of Shinobi were sidescroller brawler games.
Last Battle was an adaptation of the manga Fist of the North Star.
The Kid Chemelon series and Alex Kidd series were kind of early metrovania types.
Colums was a Tetris-type game.
There was also a couple titles where you played as an Apache helicopter, from an overhead view. I think the first one was based off the first Desert Storm in the 90’s. I forget the name, but you can probably find it.
There was also a game I think called Sewer Rats which was the flagship title when Sega CD came out.
