25. Phantasy Star IV
One genre that was noticeably under-served on the Sega Genesis was the RPG. With Final Fantasy (and other Square games) firmly entrenched over on the side of Nintendo, something needed to make up for the deficiency for Sega. Thankfully, the Phantasy Star series came along, and the 4th entry proved to be not only one of the greatest Genesis RPGs of all-time, but one of the greatest RPGs period. The game combined deep storytelling, well-honed game mechanics, and a unique take on combining fantasy and science-fiction to create one of the most memorable RPG experiences ever crafted. They were so confident in their games, they didn’t even care how they spelled “fantasy.”
24. Shining Force II
Shining Force II is one of the greatest tactical RPGs ever created, not that that sounds too impressive when you realize how few tactical RPGs there really are out there. One of the reason there are so few is because everyone saw this game come out and figured “who could possibly top this?” But Shining Force II was something more special than just that – it had unparalleled depth in both gameplay and story, and more characters ready to join your party than an episode of Game of Thrones. The only drawback was the game required a huge time investment to fully appreciate it – but at least you weren’t technically lying when you told your friends you couldn’t hang out because a huge party was taking up all your time.
23. Gunstar Heroes
There were a lot of great co-op games back in the days of the 16-bit console – but many were similar beat-em-ups that didn’t offer much in the way of variety. Gunstar Heroes was something else entirely. Two players could run ‘n gun their way through some supremely colorful levels, facing off against some of the most awesomely-rendered bad guys in the history of the Genesis. And what made it so memorable was the sheer madness to everything – there was a near-constant stream of explosions and gunfire going on at all times (and your ability to combine weapons made for some interesting gameplay), yet everything was always clear and comprehensible. It was like a more chaotic, better-looking Contra – which is one of the best game descriptions I think I’ve ever heard.
22. The Revenge of Shinobi
Few greater joys exist than throwing shurikens as an endlessly powerful ninja, as The Revenge of Shinobi was proud to remind us all. In addition to the usual trappings of a ninja arsenal, you had the ability to use several ninjutsu techniques, which were essentially magic. Ninjas and magic, this all sounds good, but what else is there to really add in the nerd appeal? Well, you also got to fight a T-Rex in the middle of a New York City dock and say hi to Spider-Man. Eat that, every other game ever.
21. Ghouls ‘n Ghosts
There are tough games, and then there’s Ghouls ‘n Ghosts – a sometimes impossibly difficult game that has no right to be as fun as it is. Yet with the right mix of memorable music and solid gameplay, it managed just that. You play as the knight Arthur, racing through the standard medieval levels crawling with undead hellspawn, trying desperately to not get hit, lose your armor, and be stuck moving forward in only your boxers. If this doesn’t sound too difficult, just ask someone who have played the game about the purple tongues and watch years of repressed rage burst out.
20. Contra: Hard Corps
Set five years after Contra III (in case you were wondering where this fell in the Contra canon), Hard Corps combined all of the great, non-stop shooting gameplay with the delight of a well-made pun. Really though – the appeal was simple: Contra games are great, and this had everything the previous games had PLUS 4 different characters to select from, and branching mission paths and endings, so every time you played you would have a different experience. It’s a simple approach, but never doubt the Konami code (for success).
19. Comix Zone
This was one of the most unique and interesting games ever released on the Genesis – you starred as Sketch, a comic artist with a horribly ironic name trapped in his own horribly named comic. The gameplay lived up to the promise of the premise though – you ran and jumped through pages of the comic frame-by-frame, attacking enemies as they were being drawn in front of you. Even though it was extremely short (only 3 levels long), the game was (and probably still is) the best literal comic book game ever.
18. X-Men 2: Clone Wars
X-Men provides a lot of great fodder for videogames – superpowers, villains, death being only a temporary deterrent – but there was always a problem with videogame adaptations: they limited how often you could use your powers. Cyclops wants to use Optic Blast? Well he only gets to do it a few times. The rest of time you have to do lame kicks and punches like an unpowered loser who can’t shoot laser beams out of his eyeballs. Clone Wars changed that – now you could use your powers as often as you wanted (with a nice roster including Cyclops, Wolverine, and Magneto – in his first playable videogame appearance), albeit if you wanted to use them well, you had to charge them up. A small price to pay for the best non-6-player-arcade X-Men game.
17. Altered Beast
Of all the games about undead ancient Greece zombie heroes, Altered Beast is probably among the best. Side scrolling through graveyards and the underworld was made all the better by being able to transform into a werewolf, weredragon (who can shoot lightning bolts out of his eyes), weretiger, and a werebear, which is just as badass as it is hilarious to say aloud. Plus, the majority of the game is spent kicking zombies in the groin until they explode. The game feels a little rusty these days, but it still holds up as one of the finest platformers around. Also: WEREDRAGON.
16. Toejam and Earl
There’s never been another game quite like the original Toejam and Earl. How many games do you spend all your time casually strolling around and opening presents? The genius of taking the two chillest aliens possible and giving them a relaxing stroll through a series of floating blobs of land is that when something horrifying showed up – the present moles, swarms of bees, or sharks – it became more terrifying than almost anything in any other game. It was like a terrifying Christmas morning every time you played the game. Although hopefully no one ever gave you “instant death” as a present.
15. The Lion King
Who would have guessed that “the 2nd best Disney movie game” would actually be extremely high praise? The Lion King went far beyond the simple route of a traditional side scroller by adding in some fantastic graphics – the backgrounds were drawn by actual Disney animators! – and, most of all, the incredible (and hard-as-hell) wildebeest stampede level, where Simba would desperately run towards the screen while dodging animals and stones. This was a game made for kids that was still challenging to the most hardcore gamer. The game was equal parts joy and stress. No worries? Hakuna matata, my ass.
14. Double Dragon
The classic game about two brothers who are both fighting for the love of the same girlfriend was a unique example on the Genesis – it was released as an unlicensed third-party cartridge. This didn’t get in the way of the the maintaining its exceptional gameplay as one of the greatest beat-em-up’s ever, and one of the few games that would force co-op players to betray one another at the end. Hopefully it was worth it, although maybe one of the brothers should have just gotten their own girlfriend.
13. Battletoads & Double Dragon
What do you get when you combine two of the best beat-em-up games from the 2D era of gaming? You get, well, pretty much what you’d expect. Billy and Jimmy teaming up with the Battletoads crew (who, frankly, are superpowered toads, and could have probably done just fine without the help of some streetwise ninja brothers) made for a fun game, bringing together the strengths of each of their franchises, although a few of the lesser points remain (the infamous Battletoads’ hoverbikes). And most importantly, the Battletoads’ weirdly detailed butt animations are still on display.
(Note: we did not exclude this game, even though both Double Dragon and Battletoads appear on this list, because it actually outperformed Double Dragon, and because it was a unique enough game – as a crossover – to include.)
12. Zombies Ate My Neighbors
Zombies Ate My Neighbors was so much more than just a “zombie game” – in addition to the walking undead hordes, you faced off against aliens, possessed dolls, mummies, and – perhaps most horrifying of all – giant babies. And you (either a sassy girl or a guy with a Kramer hairdo and always-useless 3D glasses) were armed with little more than water guns and silverware to fight ’em off. Complicating matters further were the titular neighbors, who were only able to stand still and wait patiently for anything to touch them and send them to the great Game Over in the sky. Still, this weird game ended up being one of the greatest co-op games of all-time, and a true classic.
11. Golden Axe
Golden Axe was a special game – as one of the first side-scrollin’, thug beatin’, magic blastin’ videogames ever, it had a huge influence over games that would follow. You could play as a dwarf, a barbarian, or an amazon on your quest to beat up everyone in sight and defeat Death himself (well, Death Bringer, but close enough). And best of all – once you progressed far enough in the game, you got to ride a dragon that truly put that Yoshi punk in his place.
10. Castlevania: Bloodlines
This was a solid entry in the Castlevania series – nothing too spectacular (this was a pre-Metroidvania installment), but great graphics (for the time), smooth gameplay, and great music made it something memorable. Also making it memorable – one of the characters, Eric, could wield a huge, awesome spear instead of a boring ‘ol whip (which the other character, John, had). Add a dash of awkwardly trying to tie things in to Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel, and you have all the makings of another impressive The Laziest-Named Castle Ever, er, I mean, Castlevania.
9. NBA Jam TE
This was the most ideal sports game ever made for videogame nerds – it simplified the sport immensely by reducing games to 2-on-2, shots were easy to make, and it added just enough ridiculousness to the proceedings to make it an absolute blast. It was fast, fun, and the perfect multiplayer game that appealed to nearly anyone. Not only that, but the iconic announcer and the entire concept of being “on fire” have seeped so deeply into pop culture consciousness that they’re brought up by people who have never even played NBA Jam. Boom shaka laka, indeed.
8. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist
If you had to criticize The Hyperstone Heist, the worst you could really say about it is that it’s not quite as great as Turtles in Time (which is like complaining having 999 million dollars isn’t as great as having 1 billion dollars). That’s about it though. Judged on its own merits, it’s another great entry in the side scrollin’ beat-em-up genre that TMNT took by storm after thankfully abandoning the horrible design of the first NES game. Really, not having any electric seaweed alone makes every subsequent TMNT game a small victory on its own.
7. Battletoads
The fact that Battletoads is fondly remembered as a great, fun, if somewhat difficult game is kind of incredible, given it’s probably one of the hardest popular games to ever find a substantial audience. And not just the infamous (and already mentioned) hoverbike level – the whole game is filled with difficult platforming and unforgiving challenges. Luckily, it also had wonderful gameplay and a great sense of humor. The Genesis version of the game is likely the best – it’s just slightly easier than the other versions (and is more generous with lives). Odds are there were far less Genesis controllers flung across the room than any other system’s controllers due to this game.
6. Streets of Rage 2
A few things are clear about the Streets of Rage series: you guys like it a lot (every installment was voted in the top 25), the second one is your favorite, and they probably should have made a 4th one, if only to bolster this series spot on this toplist (also, it probably would have made a bunch of money). Streets of Rage 2 played like a more refined Streets of Rage 1, but with more stuff: more moves, more levels, and more characters named Max Thunder (well, one). It was a boiled-down, great side-scrollin’ beat-em-up – actually, the highest ranking one on this list. Maybe they should have called this one Streets of Joy. Actually, that probably would have been a bad idea.
5. Aladdin
“A great videogame based on a cartoon movie” sounds like an oxymoron, something completely impossible in today’s gaming environment. But this one actually earns its distinction – and it holds the honor of being one of the games existing on both Genesis and Super Nintendo where the general consensus is that the Genesis version is the superior one. Much of the game was animated by actual Disney animators, and you had a freakin’ sword in this one. The gameplay was amazing, the levels were huge and nicely detailed, and there were few things as thrilling and fun as racing away from tidal waves of lava on a flying carpet. “This game fulfills all of your gaming wishes!” is the pullquote we would give to this game, if they were still looking for a pullquote a few decades late.
4. Mortal Kombat 2
The 2nd Mortal Kombat game is well-regarded as the best in the series, and for good reason – there was much more variety (in characters and gameplay) from the first entry, and there wasn’t as much unnecessary or overbloated crap as the third game (“You know what this series is missing? A fat, middle-aged cop with a taser!”). Plus, this is the game that introduced Babalities and Friendships as a commentary on the perceived brutality and violence that personified the series. The end result was a truly solid, little-bit-of-nonsense fighter that was great for diehards and button mashers alike.
3. Super Street Fighter 2
This is the game that many still refer to, in hushed tones, as the greatest fighting game of all-time. Although, to be fair, they may have been referring to one of the twenty or so permutations of the game (which included the extra words Turbo, Hyper, and/or Tournament). The craze started in arcades across the country (for our younger readers, “arcades” were basically in-person multiplayer settings but with less racial slurs) and eventually made its way to home systems, including the Genesis. Suddenly your quarters were safe, but your controllers were now in immense danger of being thrown across the room in frustration when your brother wouldn’t stop being cheap with Dhalsim.
2. Earthworm Jim
Funny games are hard to come by – funny games that are also really, really fun to play are even rarer. And Earthworm Jim holds the distinction as easily one of the funniest, weirdest, best games ever released. The game was memorable if only for the sheer amount of variety that came with it – it was a standard platformer, then you racing a psychotic crow through space, then you were desperately trying to prevent a puppy from tearing you to shreds in his alternate Mr. Hyde-esque personality. And the incredible thing is that none of this ever felt “gimmicky” – it all felt organic to the weird, idiosyncratic nature of the game. It was – and still is today – perhaps the most stellar platformer ever (where the main character is a worm in a super suit).
1. The Sonic Series (Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and Sonic & Knuckles)
Sonic the Hedgehog was more than just a game series – it completely defined a generation of gamers. You didn’t get the Genesis because it was a solid system with a lot of great features and games (even though it was) – you got it because then you could play Sonic games. While Mario slowly hopped around, Sonic introduced something new to gaming – speed. But better than just raw speed, it was a fluid type of speed. You could blast through huge levels, barely pausing for even a moment the whole way. While you would always be clumsily traipsing through most platformers, you were able to zoom through Sonic levels in a way that seemed revolutionary – amazingly, it felt like this was the way games had always been meant to be played, but no one had cracked the code before. The Sonic games were not only something new to platforming and to Sega – they were new to gaming as a whole, and changed the way games were made from then on. Plus, that music. It’s not surprising that the four core Sonic games (Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2, & 3 and Sonic & Knuckles) took up the top 4 slots in this toplist. They were, in essence, what the Genesis was all about. You voted well, and we have a hard time disagreeing with your choices.
From: Dorkly.com
