On the Sega Genesis

[Brendan Stepladder]

Ok, guys, I need you to help me out. I started gaming in the tail-end of the N64 lifespan, so I wouldn't know this. The Genesis/SNES generation is considered by-and-large to be the first console war, however, I hear very often about the killer line-up the SNES had, ie: Super Mario World, Super Mario Kart, Yoshi's Island, ALTTP, Donkey Kong Country, Chrono Trigger, etc.

However, whenever I hear about the great games the Genesis had, the list usually consists of Sonic. And Sonic 3. Sometimes Sonic 2. Now, Sonic is a great series that I really wish I got into more as a kid, but I sometimes wonder what other hits the Genesis had that were on par with some of the legends above. Also, did Nintendo just "win" that console generation by amassing such a fantastic line-up over time, or did Sega have a few tricks up its sleeve I just don't know about?

EDIT: Well, the fast responses and corrections I'm getting only show how badly I needed to make this thread lol.

 

[Kurai Angelo]

Sometimes Sonic 2.

Sometimes? D: This game alone is THE best reason to own a Genesis (or Mega Drive depending on where you live) Aside from that, a few other titles you should know about:

Street Fighter II
Streets of Rage 1-3
Golden Axe 1 & 2 (3 in Japan)
Altered Beast
Zombies!
Vectorman 1 & 2


Those are off the top of my head. There are more if I thought about it. Obviously, the Sonic titles 1-3 and Sonic & Knuckles too... and Sonic Spinball!

Edit: Ecco the Dolphin, Comix Zone, Ristar, De-Cap Attack, Kid Chameleon ^^

 

[thebakedpotato]

Totally ignoring the factual stuffs (Sega having released two consoles that competed with the Nintendo entertainment system. The Atari vs Collecovision. The ZX Spectrums and the Commodore 64s and all that jazz) And the fact that the sales of the Genesis were comparable to the SNES...

The Genesis, by the time the SNES came out had 3 years worth of games under its belt. And adapted several addons and peripherals in the market adding and pushing the hardware functionality further in the vein the Sega CD, 32x, an experimental streaming game service, and the Nomad.

Sega, in their console making days, had a penchant for experimentation and risk taking with their hardware that unfortunately also lead to its downfall. Sega took risks, and worked to deliver better hardware than the competition. And the price of pushing the envelope can be costly at times.

Also:
Dynamite Heady, the Haunting with Poulterguy and Jurassic Park

 

[shrekfan246]

Also, did Nintendo just "win" that console generation by amassing such a fantastic line-up over time, or did Sega have a few tricks up its sleeve I just don't know about?

The problem is that history is written by the victors. Sega got beaten out of the console space, while Nintendo has still been persistent in sticking around. They also have a much greater number of titles that have penetrated into the mass-consciousness, such as Super Mario Bros., Mario Kart, Donkey Kong, Metroid, Zelda, Kirby, etc. whereas Sega has... Sonic.

Anyway, depending on what you like and what you can put up with there are a few titles you could check out.

For platforming, there's Aladdin, Taz in Escape from Mars or Taz-Mania (both games are pretty freaking hard though, fair warning), Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote in Desert Demolition, The Lion King (has some touchy controls and the stampede stage still haunts my dreams though it's nowhere near the same horror as something like Battletoads), Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse or Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck in World of Illusion, Earthworm Jim and sequel, Vectorman and sequel.

For brawlers/hack&slash, there's Comix Zone, the Golden Axe series, the Streets of Rage series, or Blades of Vengeance (also really unforgiving, but I may just suck at it).

For a balls-to-the-wall creepy and difficult sci-fi dolphin sim, there's Ecco the Dolphin and Ecco: The Tides of Time.

For RPGs, there's Phantasy Star and Shining Force (and probably others that I don't know about).

Admittedly, some of them may not stand the test of time as well as others and a good number aren't on the same level of recognizability as some of Nintendo's products, but there were a lot more games on the SNES that nobody remembers anymore as well.

 

[The_Scrivener]

One of the biggest reasons the console war then was more interesting than it appears now is that there wasn't Internet. Many gamers at the time on either console barely knew half of what was on the other. I owned both, but didn't discover games like Chrono Trigger until long after the PS1 was out.

SNES won it in my household thanks to reading up on GamePro and sort of knowing what was out there and heavily favoring the SNES. But I still own both and have always found the Genesis quite charming. The Mortal Kombat port for Genesis was heavily favored over SNES because of intact violence. Aladdin was great as well.

As the gen wore on, it became apparent Nintendo was just working with more muscle as the quality of games on Genesis in the late going was super inferior to what SNES had.

 

[Glongpre]

Gunstar heroes, light crusader. The others have been said. It was my favourite console until the ps2.

 

[evilneko]

What, no mention of Herzog Zwei? FOR SHAME. FOR SHAME I TELL YOU.

Also, Genesis did Desert Strike first, and better. And let's not kid ourselves: Subterrania, Toejam & Earl, and Michael Jackson's Moonwalker (what other game can you rescue little kids in, and have them fly away on a glowing blue phallus?) were also great.

OTOH, I ended up also getting an SNES for SimCity. >.>

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Genesis version of Aladdin was better

I'm going to have to object there...I'll grant you Lion King was better on the Genesis but but Aladdin was more fun on the SNES.

---
List! These are a few games to keep a look out for;

Kid Chemeleon
Revenge of Shinobi (early versions include boss fights against Batman, Rambo, Godzilla...)
Rocket Knight Adventures
Vectorman
Wonderboy in Monster World (Sega's Adventure Island/Joe & Mac)
Vampire - Master of Darkness (Sega's Castlevania)
Zero Tolerance (dated FPS...be warned)

That's all I've got off the top of my head.

 

[Kurai Angelo]

Michael Jackson's Moonwalker (what other game can you rescue little kids in, and have them fly away on a glowing blue phallus?)

I still proudly own that cartridge, but I didn't want the probing questions that would follow explaining such a "unique" game. Although, dat Mecha Michael....

 

[evilneko]

Michael Jackson's Moonwalker (what other game can you rescue little kids in, and have them fly away on a glowing blue phallus?)

I still proudly own that cartridge, but I didn't want the probing questions that would follow explaining such a "unique" game. Although, dat Mecha Michael....

Pfft, what's so hard to explain about a dude who uses magic punches and kicks to rescue kids? XD

Now, see my avatar? That one is hard to explain. Luckily I'll never be able to walk around carrying it.

 

[Hap2]

Joe & Mac for Genesis was a near arcade perfect port. General Chaos was amazing too, and don't forget Quackshot. Most of my favourites have already been said, e.g. Castle of Illusion, the Streets of Rage series, Gunstar Heroes, Comix Zone, Vectorman, etc.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

Nobody ever mentions Soleil/Crusader of Centy in these threads. Sure, it was very similar to A Link to the Past, but it was a damned good, anyway! Story of Thor/Beyond Oasis was a very unique take on the same formula, too; it added combos and shit which made it feel like some kind of Golden Axe/Zelda lovechild (and not the blatant clone that was Golden Axe Warrior).

The Megadrive Shadowrun game was, in my opinion, better than the SNES one, too. They're both fantastic, though.

Rocket Knight Adventures is also the best platformer ever made by anyone, ever.

Also, being a Brit, we never got any Final Fantasies, or Chrono Trigger, or Earthbound or anything like that. It was dark times, man.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

Also, being a Brit, we never got any Final Fantasies, or Chrono Trigger, or Earthbound or anything like that. It was dark times, man.

That's because they were not released on the Sega Genesis anywhere - and not because you are British.
Those were SNES exclusives.

Now Phantasy Star and Shining Force, those were exclusive to Sega's consoles.

I know they were. What I meant was, that we missed out on a lot of classic SNES games here. We got basically no RPGs on the system; I think we had Secret of Mana, but that was it.

Oh, and Shadowrun, obviously.

 

[Madman123456]

Landstalker, Phantasy Star 2 and 4 and Shiningforce 1 and 2 are also games that should be mentioned.
Brilliant adventures even though the Snes had, thanks to square, much more of those.

Sega took some weird turns later with the Mega CD which still had some very nice games, one of which being the wonderful "Lunar: the silver Star". Guess i should mention some other genre. "Thunderhawk" was able to show of the nicer graphical capabilities of the mega CD.
We all know the mode 7 effect. "Thunderhawk" had textures added to that. And some sprites disguised as 3d objects, the things that keep turning with you when you move by them. Trees and houses. It looked awesome back then.

"Mansion of the hidden Souls" had an actual 3d environment with a weird grid movement.

Some of the games for the mega cd where really nice and the CD technology was put to good use in some games.


The 32x was where Sega failed badly. Too shitty for actual 3d, not much use for anything else and furthermore the "Saturn" was on its way. One good game as far as i can remember, "Knuckles chaotix" just wasn't enough to pull the 32x out of the gutter.

The consoles Snes and genesis where vastly different hardware from one another. Genesis had faster cpu, snes had more colors and better sound.

 

[popa_qwerty]

I feel sad that no one mentioned batman and robin genesisThis game is hard as hell and I never made it passed the first stage but it is still one of my favorite games on the genesis.

 

[Call me Baz]

Man Streets of Rage was fun, but nothing tops Shining Force 2 for me, that wonderful chess-battle RPG was great. I love the variety of characters and promotions that were available, but man was master monk an OP class. I swept the last battle using only 3 MMKs and it wasn't even tricky, but then I had ground out a lot of levels.

 

[Raioken18]

Sonic 2 was the best Sonic game on the Genesis. Period.

I'm not sure about cross console releases but here are the titles I really enjoyed...

Notably for me was the Phantasy Star series. With Phantasy Star 4 being one of my favorite RPGs of all time.

Kid Chameleon was pretty good. Alex Kidd was really fun as a kid. Home Alone the game was really good especially for a game based upon a movie.

James Pond, Lion King and tons of arcade games.

-Sorry I head to leave I'll edit it later.