The Sega Genesis turns 20 this week, and that's as good an excuse as any by me to remember its great moments (and I suppose, to fire up the Virtual Console, hey?). The system launched in 1988, after the NES but before the SNES, and also after the TurboGrafx-16. Much as the story went with the Dreamcast and the PlayStation 2, Nintendo more or less beat out the system eventually with the massively popular Super Nintendo Entertainment System (with a name like that, who could compete!). Nevertheless, the Genesis did stand its ground, being the company's most successful system, and has a library to be proud of. Maybe it's not as expansive as the SNES catalogue, but it's arguably as memorable. So with that, here are the gems that I find really shine -- feel free to add your own images (keep 'em small) and stories from the Genesis' heyday!
A truly unique and bizarre title, it was a seemingly medieval and dark take on the typically colourful and lighthearted sidescrolling beat-em-up genre. Having played this a lot as a kid, I'm pretty sure this game has significantly warped my brain, and I'm glad for it. Like some other gamers, I still quote this one from time to time. Its greatness is best exemplified with actual footage, so here you are:
One of the great RPGs, if I dare say so myself. From the art style to the music to the third person battle system, this game struck me as something special from the moment I saw it. Not to be missed if you're an RPG fan.
Sort of in the vein of Altered Beast, Splatterhouse 3 was as gritty and gory as it got in the 90s. And having played Dead Space last night, I would argue its influence is still showing up.
One of the greatest action games of all time, in my personal opinion. Heroes gave you the option to combine different kinds of firepower to make a whole new kind; it had vibrant, stylish graphics, sweet music, and some of the coolest bosses I've ever seen in a video game. I beat this 17 times as a child...oh dear.
This one is tied with Final Fantasy VIII as my favourite RPG of all time. Beautiful graphics and art, great story, very memorable characters, extremely addictive gameplay, heaps of weapons and spells to hunt down, lots of secrets, and tons of depth have kept me coming back to this one. I recall renting it week after week until one day I found out my local game shop was having a sale on their 'old' games -- I called them up immediately and asked if they had this one. The guy said he didn't know cause they had a ton, and I should come down and see. There was a blizzard on that day, but I'd be damned if that stopped me! I went down and got it and played the hell out of that game. If you like tactical RPGs and haven't played this one, you've been seriously missing out!
One of my favourite platformers ever. It takes a very simple concept - a talking, walking star with stretching arms - and turns it into one of the best experiences on the Genesis. Its deceptive simplicity is part of what makes it so great - not to mention the lovely graphics and worlds, great music, and very cool bosses.
I've saved this one for last, and many of you probably know why. Anyone not familiar with this game has been left out on some serious greatness. Like Altered Beast (though they are completely different games), this one really needs footage to showcase why its such a gem:
Other honourable mentions, which were excluded for various reasons (one of them being space, another being obviousness) are the Sonic, Shinobi, Golden Axe, and Ecco the Dolphin series', Landstalker, Fatal Fury 2, Streets of Rage 2, Beyond Oasis, Shadowrun, Decap Attack, and Aero the Acrobat (I really should've covered these last three, but didn't remember until after - try 'em!). Of course there are others!
So that's our retrospective. See you in a couple of years when we look back on the Super Nintendo, perhaps...
Gunstar Heroes and Phantasy Star 4 are some of the most awesome games I ever played on the Genesis, and even today! Sonic and Streets of Rage rule too. But what about the Shinobi series? those were pretty badass.
Well Bioshock is pretty epic for the 360/PS3 I thought, and so far Dead Space is looking like another epic game. I really don't remember any epic games for the PS2/GC/Xbox era. I remember there being a lot of racing games for the PS2 though. That's okay (racing games are good) but I don't remember anything standing out.
Hehe, the first video game system I ever owned was a Sega Genesis. Ecco the Dolphin was the first video game I ever played, and it was on this system. I also got into the Sonic the Hedgehog series after playing a few games from the series on this system. Unfortunately though, I never got any of those other games listed above.
I didn't play a lot of these games until the sega dreamcast came out. Sega Dreamcast had the sega smash pack games, which had all of the classics from the sega genesis. The only titles I did play when the sega genesis was out were: Sonic, Earthworm Jim, and maybe maybe street fighter and double dragon.
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I think one under-appreciated Genesis game was Target: Earth.
360/PS3? Hmm..I'd think the PS2/GC/Xbox era was better overall..but maybe I haven't seen enough..
Meh, when I had the genesis, I mostly got the usual stuff, Sonic and such >_>