Genesis/MegaDrive Thread

[cmlancas]

Yeah the Vectorman games were really solid games. Really fun. I never played In the Groove, wait I think I played it at the arcade but I didn't like it. If I remember correctly there was bombs on certain arrows that I had to avoid....lame.

I love ITG. Been playing DDR/ITG for around two years now. Not the greatest, but I've passed all the songs on the ITG cabinet except Vertex^2

[Fabricated]

Strat rts didn't start on the Genesis in terms of consoles, it started on the TG-16 I think with Military Madness.

Also, I wanna add another omission to that list: The Killing Game Show.

Well if you want to get technical it started with Herzog by Technosoft on the MSX. (This was in 1988) Nectaris (Military Madness) was in '89, which was the same year Herzog Zwei was released. Herzog Zwei is more important because it was RTS successfully executed. The Original Herzog was pretty poopy.   Herzog Zwei was a better game than Military Madness in my opinion because it was bringing something new to the table in its execution and gameplay. It  was very balanced and almost all RTS developers credit Zwei as the grandpappy of RTS. This is really not an issue because as I am sure you are aware, Nectaris is a turn based strategy game. 
 
Are you saying that the Killing Game Show is not on the list, or that it sucks? Cause I like that game, and I have like 2 or 3 copies for the MD In the states it is called Fatal Rewind.

I'm not really up on my MSX titles since the only ones I've really played are Metal Gear, Snatcher SD, and Snatcher (both with awful english-as-second-language translation patches).

Also, I keep forgetting that The Killing Game Show was called Fatal Rewind here in the states.

edit: Now that I'm thinking of it, here's all the stuff I liked on the Genesis I don't see on your list:
Crusader of Centy
Cool Spot
Toughman Contest (not the best boxing game in the world but filled with amusing stuff and eastereggs)
The Immortal
The Humans
Mega Man - The Wily Wars
Warrior of Rome (I can't actually remember too much about this, so it may not be as good as I remember).

[HAMMER FRENZY]

Strat rts didn't start on the Genesis in terms of consoles, it started on the TG-16 I think with Military Madness.

Also, I wanna add another omission to that list: The Killing Game Show.

Well if you want to get technical it started with Herzog by Technosoft on the MSX. (This was in 1988) Nectaris (Military Madness) was in '89, which was the same year Herzog Zwei was released. Herzog Zwei is more important because it was RTS successfully executed. The Original Herzog was pretty poopy.   Herzog Zwei was a better game than Military Madness in my opinion because it was bringing something new to the table in its execution and gameplay. It  was very balanced and almost all RTS developers credit Zwei as the grandpappy of RTS. This is really not an issue because as I am sure you are aware, Nectaris is a turn based strategy game. 
 
Are you saying that the Killing Game Show is not on the list, or that it sucks? Cause I like that game, and I have like 2 or 3 copies for the MD In the states it is called Fatal Rewind.

I'm not really up on my MSX titles since the only ones I've really played are Metal Gear, Snatcher SD, and Snatcher (both with awful english-as-second-language translation patches).

Also, I keep forgetting that The Killing Game Show was called Fatal Rewind here in the states.

I just recalled another good game you don't have though. Crusader of Centy. (edit: and Cool Spot, which while being a 7up advertisement was a pretty good platformer)

Yeah Coo Spot was actually a really solid little game. Crusader was a hot little game as well. I am glad someone else likes The Killing Game Show around here. I really played the hell out of that game.

[Fabricated]

I really liked it but man was it hard at times. You had to pretty much hit the ground running on some of the levels.

[HAMMER FRENZY]

I really liked it but man was it hard at times. You had to pretty much hit the ground running on some of the levels.

Yeah, that game was really fast paced. It was only really crazy if you didn't know the level, otherwise you could cruise through it pretty quick and not see the acid/goop level rise. The Genesis port was a pretty decent port. I really enjoyed it.

Man on that Crusader of Centy stuff, it is weird how much that game is like Zelda. It is really good though, I am really going to have to pick that up pretty soon here. It is weird that Crusader got so little play. It was pretty damn solid. I actually like Beyond Oasis much more, but crusader was damn good. But with Crusader, Landstalker, and Beyond Oasis, there was some pretty decent adventuring goin on on the MD. You can through in Light Crusader too, that game was pretty damn fun too.

[Strazos]

Where is my Dune: Battle for Arrakis love at?

Some highlights of mine through my Genesis year:

All the main Sonic games before 3D. God, Sonic 3D was ass.
General Chaos. Multiplayer. Much love.
Early Triple Play games. With multitap. Fight over who gets to be batter. 
NHL 93-96. Pure Pwnage. Also, go across the goalie in close on your forehand = easy goals. Also, the rare dump from the opposite end, bank off the backboards, off the goalie's ass, and in. Lolz
Gunstar Heroes. No list is complete without it.
Rocketknight Adventures. Seriously.
Early Fifa series.
Joe Montana Football. Bootlegs FTW.
Jurassic Park was kinda neat.
Sword of Vermillion. I don't care what the douches on YouTube say, the game is fun if you don't suck at it.
Phantasy Star, especially IV. EPIC.

Many others. I had both a SNES and Genesis, and got tons of play out of both; each system had their strengths.

[HAMMER FRENZY]

Where is my Dune: Battle for Arrakis love at?

Some highlights of mine through my Genesis year:

All the main Sonic games before 3D. God, Sonic 3D was ass.
General Chaos. Multiplayer. Much love.
Early Triple Play games. With multitap. Fight over who gets to be batter. 
NHL 93-96. Pure Pwnage. Also, go across the goalie in close on your forehand = easy goals. Also, the rare dump from the opposite end, bank off the backboards, off the goalie's ass, and in. Lolz
Gunstar Heroes. No list is complete without it.
Rocketknight Adventures. Seriously.
Early Fifa series.
Joe Montana Football. Bootlegs FTW.
Jurassic Park was kinda neat.
Sword of Vermillion. I don't care what the douches on YouTube say, the game is fun if you don't suck at it.
Phantasy Star, especially IV. EPIC.

Many others. I had both a SNES and Genesis, and got tons of play out of both; each system had their strengths.

Man I a, happy someone pointed out that they like General Chaos. That game was freaking crazy fun. All the unit types were cool, and going in commando style was a blast. That is a game I would like to see played a t a high level... And on that Rocket Knight Adventures. Holy crap I love that game like crazy. That game was seriously a great game. Travelers Tales needs to revisit that shit quick. I would buy a DS port of that game in a heart beat... Holy crap, dude, imagine DS General Chaos with online multiplayer....Oh man that would be sweet.

[Sky]

Joe Montana Football. Bootlegs FTW.

That was probably exploitable, because that was my golden play, too.

No love for Battlemaster by anyone? I used to love that game, but I was pretty messed up on drugs at that point. The guy who turned me onto the Genesis was a coke dealer and we'd sit and play Joe Montanta Football for hours. Days.

I think I had Sword of Vermillion, Golden Axe, Phantasy Star something, Starflight, a few others (Sonics, of course).

Got into playing ROMs a little, couple years back.

[HAMMER FRENZY]

Yeah Star Flight is a pretty good game. I don't care what anyone says, the Montana games were really good.

[murdoc]

Joe Montana Football. Bootlegs FTW.

That was probably exploitable, because that was my golden play, too.

You could also return every kickoff for a TD by running down the sideline, if I remember correctly.

[HAMMER FRENZY]

All these Montana strats only worked on the comp, did any of you play with friends? That game held up pretty well in multiplayer.

[raydeen]

Yeah Star Flight is a pretty good game. I don't care what anyone says, the Montana games were really good.

Damn, forgot about that one. That was another one that kept me up all night on a number of occasions. I remember getting Starflight II for the PC really cheap and it was even better.

[Ozzu]

Where is my Dune: Battle for Arrakis love at?

Some highlights of mine through my Genesis year:

All the main Sonic games before 3D. God, Sonic 3D was ass.
General Chaos. Multiplayer. Much love.
Early Triple Play games. With multitap. Fight over who gets to be batter. 
NHL 93-96. Pure Pwnage. Also, go across the goalie in close on your forehand = easy goals. Also, the rare dump from the opposite end, bank off the backboards, off the goalie's ass, and in. Lolz
Gunstar Heroes. No list is complete without it.
Rocketknight Adventures. Seriously.
Early Fifa series.
Joe Montana Football. Bootlegs FTW.
Jurassic Park was kinda neat.
Sword of Vermillion. I don't care what the douches on YouTube say, the game is fun if you don't suck at it.
Phantasy Star, especially IV. EPIC.

Many others. I had both a SNES and Genesis, and got tons of play out of both; each system had their strengths.

Wow. Dune really brings back memories. I really sucked at it though. The moment things started flying over my base, I started having major issues. :) It was my first RTS though and really kicked off a whole genre for me.

Oh and the NHL games? Those were greatness. I can remember checking people and then falling to the ice and kicking their legs while blood poured from their heads. Or the early Madden games when someone would get hurt and the ambulance would come rolling onto the field to pick them up. That in of itself would be cool, but no, it ran over the other players to get to the injured one. No kidding.

Phantasy Star IV is absolutely incredible and for the life of me, when I discovered it, I could not find a copy. So, I rented the same game over and over and over. Shining Force 2 was another favorite.

Edit - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_138p6uzhUk - A video montage of the Madden 92 ambulance

[Fabricated]

Ahahah, oh shit, the Madden 92' ambulance. I actually own that specific title, and it was one of my favorite games because of that.

[Strazos]

Ah shit, I remember that neon green field. Awesome.

Also, I forgot about some Clutch titles. The Streets of Rage series of games were always great. I really wish we still saw games like this.
Golden Axe, mostly just #1. Awesome.

[HAMMER FRENZY]

Ah shit, I remember that neon green field. Awesome.

Also, I forgot about some Clutch titles. The Streets of Rage series of games were always great. I really wish we still saw games like this.
Golden Axe, mostly just #1. Awesome.

Yeah, I have to agree with the you on the Streets Of Rage and Golden Axe stuff. I think that Genesis had some damn awesome brawlers on it. Golden Axe was just great but man SOR 2 and 3 were freaking masterpieces. They really are some of if not the best examples of the brawler/beat em' up genre in my opinion. And it really isn't because of the way they played, which was just freaking awesome, but how the games were paced. There was seriously always the right amount of enemies on the screen and the amount of moves and how they could be used was just awesome, then  add to that how dynamic the multiplayer was, with the tandem moves and cooperative brawling, it was just too damn good.

I don't know if you had a chance to play Golden Axe 3. It was not released here, but now it IS available on the Genesis collection on the PS2. Don't let anyone bullshit you, it was a fun game. Lots of fun fighting in that.

[cmlancas]

Shinobi 3. I know it was on your list, but it needs some discussion board love.

Also, as far as baseball games go, RBI '94 was excellent. My brother and I still play it from time to time. If you don't own it, you should pick it up.

[Kail]

Shinobi 3. I know it was on your list, but it needs some discussion board love.

Truth.

Original Toejam and Earl kicked the shit out of all of it's sequels.
Sonic and Knuckes was awesome.  Lock-on technology, IT WILL BE THE WAVE OF THE FUTURE SOMEDAY IF SOMEONE REMEMBERS IT!
Had a lot of fun with Earthworm Jim.  I loved Beyond Oasis, too.
But Rocket Knight Adventures was simply ten flavors of awesome.

Rastan Saga 2 was vomitous bile, as was James Pond which you didn't mention and should never ever fucking play.

TMNT Tournament Fighters was wierd for me... me and my brother were huge TMNT fans back in the day, and the game was fun, but it was hideously unbalanced.  You could knockdown an enemy and throw them as they were getting up without them being able to do anything to guard against it; it was a forgone conclusion once someone got knocked down that they would lose.  So we made up these elaborate rules about when you could and couldn't re-throw... and Leonardo's standing fierce hit both high and low, so my brother decided that I shouldn't be able to use that one too much... and then later he had some move that I hated... and we ended up with this incredibly elaborate code of behavior that dictated how we'd play.
We also played a lot of Samurai Shodown, but we never got to that level of absurdity with it.  I rocked at that game.  Played a lot of Street Fighter 2 Champion, and he pulverized me usually.

[Strazos]

Fuck Yeah Toejam and Earl. Fuck you, damn proctologists (re: dentists?) and "Furnt-Furnts" (re: invisible ice cream trucks.) And fucking Level 0 with the hot tub? Come On.

I played GA 3, but I didn't much like it. The graphics just seemed....wrong.

I remember the SEGA TMNT fighter....I thought it was terrible. The SNES TMNT fighting game was much superior.


I'm trying real hard to think of some more great Sega games, and just fail. My buddy had the Star Trek: TNG game. We never really "played" it; instead, we would go find Romulans, fuck with them, and then just into combat mode and sneak-attack them while they thought we were still negotiating. Then we would see how long we could last against endless waves of Romulan warbirds. One great tip was to fly backwards when your forward shields were damaged, and vice versa. Also fun: me acting like data and scanning systems for starbases. Those damn torpedoes are not going to replenish themselves.

What else....Pt Fighter was kind of neat. Gotta love the original MK, with the blood code on of course. So many games...

[HAMMER FRENZY]

Fuck Yeah Toejam and Earl. Fuck you, damn proctologists (re: dentists?) and "Furnt-Furnts" (re: invisible ice cream trucks.) And fucking Level 0 with the hot tub? Come On.

I played GA 3, but I didn't much like it. The graphics just seemed....wrong.

I remember the SEGA TMNT fighter....I thought it was terrible. The SNES TMNT fighting game was much superior.


I'm trying real hard to think of some more great Sega games, and just fail. My buddy had the Star Trek: TNG game. We never really "played" it; instead, we would go find Romulans, fuck with them, and then just into combat mode and sneak-attack them while they thought we were still negotiating. Then we would see how long we could last against endless waves of Romulan warbirds. One great tip was to fly backwards when your forward shields were damaged, and vice versa. Also fun: me acting like data and scanning systems for starbases. Those damn torpedoes are not going to replenish themselves.

What else....Pt Fighter was kind of neat. Gotta love the original MK, with the blood code on of course. So many games...

Yeah, I can see that GA3 was a little weird in the looks dept. but the game played well. It had multiple moves per character and fought pretty well.  Man i have to admit I played Pit Fighter like freaking CRAZY. I had friends who all played it in the arcade so we played it on the Genesis. As silly as the game is, it was freaking fun. A MUCH better port than the SNES one. Man I ddn't like the TMNT fighting game much on the Genesis either, it was just sloppy. The SNES one was a legitimately good fighting game. People actually played that pretty seriously and it still has a small following. I have seen some good matches in it, they are all on You Tube.

Was that Star Trek TNG game pretty good? like worth owning? I might have to look into that. Oh and I really liked all the MK stuff too, especially Ultimate MK3. That game was a pretty damn good game on the Genesis. Pretty good port.

I updated the list today, added the following:

Alien 3
Columns
Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure
Sonic and knuckles
Sonic 3D Blast
Star Control

[Strazos]

Eh, worth owning? I don't know, how much would you be paying for it? My buddy had his parents buy it when we were all kids anyway.


He also had Tommy LaSorda's baseball game, which I liked. It was sort of ahead of its time, where you had to actually select your pitch and batting technique like you do now, instead of just using the d-pad to throw heat or silly curves/sinkers, such as in RBI baseball.

[cmlancas]

Hah. I remember Columns 2 for the Game Gear. I can still remember the last guy laughing at you while you were losing.

[HAMMER FRENZY]

Yeah I really enjoyed Columns when I was young. Now, it just seems a little to random for me. Like a lot of combos just happen by chance...I have yet to see high level Columns, I may have to look into that.

[Velorath]

I enjoyed Master of Monsters a lot.  It was a fairly easy game, but there weren't a lot of strategy games back then.  I also loved the basic concept of Outlander, even if the gameplay wasn't all that great.


Edit:  Also, Gain Ground bitches.

[dusematic]

I only have a few Genesis games, but I'll blather about one I really liked.  Greatest Heavyweights was easily the best boxing game of the 16-bit era.  In terms of mechanics it was very similar to a lot of side-view boxing games of that era (like the Bowe, Holyfield, and Chavez licensed games) but it was the most evolved of the bunch.

There were three possible bodies of different height and build a fighter could have, which made a huge impact, and a variety of noticably different AI scripts for the opponents.  An AI Muhammad Ali fought in a completely different way than an AI Rocky Marciano, and if you got really good with Larry Holmes, you'd need a new strategy if you started playing as Joe Frazier.  It's the kind of thing you'd take for granted just a few years later when the PS1 came along and EA put out Knockout Kings, but it was way ahead of it's contemporaries, most of which had fighters that were all just clones with different faces.

It was just a really competent piece of work.  Given the era in which it was made, I don't think it could have been done much better.

Yeah that game was amazing.  It's career mode was spot on too, working your way up from fighting the small gyms against complete nobody's to being the number one contender in huge arena's with big purses.  It had the training mini games, the create your own boxer, and just the right amount of challenge.  It also had surprising depth as a two player game. 

Another great game was General Chaos.  Real time squad based combat with cartoony graphics, a great sense of humor, and you could play cooperative, against the computer, or against a friend.  It had this cool system where you couldn't quite pick exactly what team you wanted, so it forced you to become proficient with all combinations of troops (gunners, dynamite, bazooka).  This way you couldn't just cheese a five man squad of machine gunners every time.  Also, there was a campaign map, and the winner of the last battle got to select the turf of the next battle.  Pretty cool. 

[cmlancas]

I saw the PSP Genesis collection at EBStop yesterday for $19.99 new. Some pretty decent games, many of which I liked.

[HAMMER FRENZY]

Yeah, I really enjoy General Chaos. I never really had anyone to play that with unfortunately. I thought that game was just a damn fun game to play. But I agree with the 5 machinegunners thing, that was wack.

[cmlancas]

I haven't seen Desert Strike or Jungle Strike on here.


It had a destructible White House. That's just sweet.

[Strazos]

Fuck yeah, Desert Jungle and Urban Strike.

[cmlancas]

I also think I missed Road Rash 3. This was my all-time favorite genesis game.


Fuck, you could cattleprod the pigs. That's fucking awesome.

[WindupAtheist]

Yeah that game was amazing.  It's career mode was spot on too, working your way up from fighting the small gyms against complete nobody's to being the number one contender in huge arena's with big purses.  It had the training mini games, the create your own boxer, and just the right amount of challenge.  It also had surprising depth as a two player game.

Career mode was great.  The fictional boxers weren't static, either.  Guys would work their way up from newb status, winning matches and increasing their stats, then eventually peak and begin to age, falling back down the rankings as their stats decreased and they began losing fights.  It was fun taking a guy who had given you a hard time on the way up and fighting him again much later, whipping his ass with you in your prime and him over the hill.

[KyanMehwulfe]

The Genesis started and ended for me with Shadowrun.

In hindsight I'd opt to have spent more time on the platform. Shining Force in its prime, more Gunstar Heroes, Warsong (Langrisser), any interest in Sonic at all. But the way it turned out, it's the only title I've ever got around to putting serious time into. And even then, likely less than the more linear Snes version. Again, more as fate would have it than as a conscious decision.

[HAMMER FRENZY]

Man seeing all you guys talk about the genesis and bring up all these random ass games...It just goes to show how badass that system really was. Anyway, I am going to need to pick up this boxing game you guys are talking about, it just sounds too good.  I actually enjoyed Toughman Contest. It was no Punchout Killer but it was a fun game.

ROADRASH! Man I played that game like freaking crazy. I own Road Rash 2 and 3 and I thought that they were both awesome as hell. They just felt fast and mean. I Liked using the code for that fast ass red bike, that thing was a freaking monster.

This reminds me that I went from that straight to Skitchin and that game was actually fun as hell. I just like the idea of having to use the other cars to move around and the trick system  and all the silly crap you could do. It was just a fun ass game.

I have been playing a lot more Herzog Zwei recently. Damn that game was just too good. All the units are useful and the gameplay is just freaking crazy. I love the amount of control you have in that.

I also started playing Gargoyles as well, that is a pretty solid platformer. Pretty hot little number.

[Riggswolfe]

I loved several Genesis games, especially Dune and Mutant League Football but my favorite game was for the Sega CD:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Wizard

I played that over and over.

[dusematic]

Another sweet game was Gemfire.  Pretty sexy little strategy game for back in the day.