The Best of the Best on the Sega Genesis

forever [Music] if you have been watching my channel for the last few months you likely have seen my best of the best series that's where I take a console and show you what I think are its very best games based on genre and Technical traits I did one for the Sega CD first and then moved on to the Dreamcast what you might find interesting is that it was actually the Sega Genesis That was supposed to be the subject of the very first edition of best of the best but I had such a hard time choosing the games I had to actually rewrite it a dozen times before I was happy with it that caused it to get delayed by months but it's finally here in all its 16-bit Glory before we begin I want to throw down the guidelines of how I decided to do things first all the games considered needed to be retail releases during the life of the console I appreciate indie games but I wanted to keep things fair by not including titles that come on much larger cartridges or developed with today's software tools I also simplified a fusion roast to keep things within a certain time limit the RPG category includes many sub-genres as well such as turn-based strategy and adventure games I also separated the platformer and action genres into two sections platformer could be used to describe three quarters of the Genesis Library when you get right down to it so I used an action section to filter out titles that put a heavy emphasis on its combat mechanics as well outside of that this episode is pretty straightforward you'll get one runner-up and one winner resulting in what amounts to the best the Genesis has to offer that of course doesn't mean there aren't other really good games for it it just means I consider these to be the absolute cream of the crop to say this episode was difficult to make as a massive understatement and you'll no doubt feel different than I do on a great many of these choices remember it's all for entertainment purposes and I hope you enjoy the show [Music] foreign our first category is the often overlooked puzzle genre this is an area that has more games than you may have guessed and many of them are actually really well made to kick things off our runner-up is columns three the sequel to sega's own in-house falling block Puzzler what makes this one so nice is the fact it supports as many as five players thanks to the multi-tap and elevates the column's experience to one heck of a party title it doesn't do anything special visually but puzzle games rarely do what matters here is fun factor and columns 3 has that and then some but when we are talking about the very best I have to go with the Lost Vikings this is what seems like At first a simple action platformer but it's very much a puzzle title each Viking has a set of skills and you'll need each one to figure out how to negotiate the area the fun really kicks in when things aren't so obvious and it takes a fair bit of trial and error to figure it out it supports three-player Co-op has more than 40 levels of play and has a pretty good soundtrack it Blends action and your powers of deduction and ends up being something special for it it supported the Super Nintendo Edition but includes five exclusive stages not present in that release [Music] foreign [Music] s the Genesis really excelled in was the sports category and here there are countless options to consider football basketball hockey boxing wrestling golf tennis and many more to choose just to is a heck of an undertaking all its own but our runner-up is NBA hang time this one makes the list because of raw fun factor and its accessibility as one of the easiest pick up and play basketball games ever created it uses just a few buttons to give you gameplay that feels just right from the moment you slam away your first score it's so immensely playable that even folks that despise Sports video games tend to enjoy it it also happens to be a really solid technical Port of the arcade game a 24 megabit cart loaded with secrets and supports 4 player competitive and Co-op action it's so good even the outdated rosters won't bother you a lick and while NBA hang time is incredible the best sports title goes to greatest heavy weights this is point blank the best 16-bit boxing game ever created fantastic visuals with great animation paint the picture that frames its outstanding gameplay Jabs hooks body blows uppercuts Your Arsenal of punches can set up Victory against some of the greatest boxers to ever grace the squared Circle the likes of Ali Frazier Patterson Holyfield and Holmes are at your disposal or they stand in your way if you use the create a player train your creation to become the very best they can be a battery backup saves your progress in old age and mandatory retirement guarantees you'll be making new boxers again and again as far as simulations of the sweet science this is 2D Gameplay at its finest Nancy [Applause] [Applause] one two three 16-bit racing games may seem like a forgotten art now that we have hyper realistic textured polygons that look so real but back then they could still be a really good time my runner-up for this category is Micro Machines a top-down racer featuring Trax raced by tiny Vehicles these vehicles include cars boats and even helicopters it's so cool how the tracks are from areas around your home a bathtub a kitchen table a desk it really is a childhood fantasy come true this lit the UK charts on fire and spawned multiple sequels and spin-offs each one adding cool new additions including built-in multi-tap support this one here supports just two players but it's still a blast and a great one to play with your family our winner is a bit less family friendly but no less a great time Road Rash 2 was the sequel to The Original Classic that adds two-player races new track attacks new bikes new weapons and a whole load of nitrous to make things go faster I don't think the music is quite as memorable as the first but there's no question the gameplay is it comes off choppy to eyes that didn't play it as a kid but you quickly adjust and appreciate the speed it affords you in the later game it's incredibly challenging as well the final stages are so hard you'll need to really invest some time to see it through should you enjoy this there is also a sequel that takes you around the world but I always found part two the easiest to recommend foreign misconception about the Genesis is that its RPG lineup offered little compared to its competition this is utter nonsense and there were some great titles I could have put in here and we begin with my runner-up Fantasy Star 4. boy was this a big upgrade to the series that began on the Master System the 24 megabit cart gave us colorful Graphics a great new soundtrack and a massive Adventure that takes numerous hours to consume the story takes place after part two and the planet of motavia is experiencing hardship and an increase in the appearance of monsters as a hunter your job is to investigate these beasts and wipe them out with extreme prejudice of course along the way you meet a bad guy that wants to unleash these monsters on the planet and Destroy Everything you'll Recruit new members to your calls to help stop this threat a great mix of characters that have killer magical abilities and weapons to keep things interesting finding something to beat this absolute Gem of a game was a tall order but my pick for the best of the best when it comes to RPGs is Shining Force 2. this is a turn-based strategy RPG that continues and improves the great fundamentals of the first build your team into a vicious assortment of Warriors that each have unique and valuable skill sets battle can be long and tough but each Victory brings a sense of accomplishment few games in this genre can boast the story is also easy to follow and gives you a sense of purpose right from the get-go ancient bad guy is let loose and only you and your Shining Force can stop him and with graphic sound and gameplay this good that's all the motivation you'll need to invest dozens of hours into this epic adventure foreign [Music] the Sega Genesis is where I really discovered the Shoot Em Up genre oh I had played many shooters before but they really came into their own during this 16-bit era and our runner-up was the Fantastic gyrus this one features a weapon system that actually allows you to steal the power of your enemies this leads to quite a few different deployments you can take advantage of and it adds quite a bit of strategy in how it's played this was also a great looking and sounding shooter at its release garnering praise in the media as one of the Premier Home examples of the genre it has massive bosses was extremely challenging and was among the first eight megabit cards to see a western release it was a memorable experience that was only bested by our winner Thunder Force 4. this technosoft developed Marvel but many arcade games to shame in 1992. it is an absolute visual Masterpiece of color Parallax scrolling and Sprite design paired with its outstanding soundtrack and saw solid gameplay it becomes one of the platform's most impressive titles top to bottom the first half of the journey even allows you to choose the order of the stages you play before launching you into the latter half of challenging locations wrap it all up with a bow that includes a weapon system you can change on the Fly selectable speed settings and an incredible amount of variety in the settings and you have a Shoot Em Up of rare caliber all right foreign [Music] [Applause] [Applause] the platformer section is a bit of a juggernaut because it encapsulates such a massive number of games during that time nearly every side-scrolling game released had elements of platforming to some extent I Define the genre by games that made the environment the star of the challenge negotiating obstacles was just as important as jumping on enemies heads maybe even more so and with that I give you our runner-up restar this game is criminally underrated had it been released by Nintendo it would be spoken of with a reverence similar to the likes of Donkey Kong Country but it's late showing on the Genesis in 1995 minute was quickly overlooked and forgotten your initial thoughts may be that it looks really similar to Sonic and I'd agree but boy does it play different wrist star is a rather handsy fellow that can grab just about anything on the screen he can grab enemies and attack them he can grab things in the environment and launch himself around it makes for a platformer that feels so different from the stuff available before it wristar is also a beautiful game of lush visuals great backgrounds and impressively animated Sprites even the soundtrack belts out some tunes that might make you rethink what the Genesis sound Hardware was capable of when it comes to Raw fun Factor my pick for platforming Nirvana is Sonic 2. this is the pick up and play equivalent to crack an immensely playable Adventure that improves upon the original in every single way every color looks brighter every background seems deeper with more layers every Sprite sporting more frames of Animation every song more complex and memorable I also enjoyed the stage design here immensely another big improvement over the first some of you may Define the best two-dimensional Sonic S3 and Knuckles but as good as they were neither had the charm and appeal of this one foreign [Music] I split the action game section away from the Platformers to focus more on games with combat as the centerpiece of its gameplay yes there may be some platforming here but enemy interaction is the main feature of the mechanics and with that I give you our runner-up Shinobi 3. wow this takes everything you loved about the previous games and UPS the quality across the board the combat is deeper with more attacks it's got a complex blocking system and a new Dash to close in on your enemies more aggressively visually it's another step up over revenge of Shinobi and Shadow Dancer thanks to its more pronounced Parallax and its more exotic locations the soundtrack also manages to Bing out some of the better Tunes you'll hear from this Hardware start to finish everything feels top of the line from the simplest of kicks to the way the enemies are designed to stop you never cheap or unfair and always balanced for the peak of fun Shinobi 3 may just be one of the best games on the entire platform to choose a game to best it and win this category is no small task but I give you Castlevania Bloodlines as the best action game on the Sega Genesis while not quite as deep as our runner-up it makes up for this in style and presentation this is a throwback to the 8-Bit castlevanias of the 1980s a straightforward Adventure that has a whip wielding Hero trying to stop the resurrection of Count Dracula himself along for the ride is a second playable hero that uses a lance and has a high jump that allows him a few different routes throughout the stages he feels just different enough to give this Castlevania a feel all its own visually Bloodlines isn't the best looking in the series but it's still loaded with a treasure Trove of special effects and cool looking tricks that come off pretty impressive for Hardware from 1988. I was also thoroughly impressed with the soundtrack you wouldn't think it but Konami did a bang-up job taking the gothic Vibes of these familiar tunes and making them sound fantastic in FM scent if you loved the series on the NES this is an homage to those games with big upgrades to the presentation and if you're anything like me that's one heck of a reason to play it [Music] thank you [Music] the Run and Gun is another genre that may incorporate some platforming but it's the shooting that's the focus of the gameplay our runner-up here is Contra hardcore like Castlevania Bloodlines it adds just enough to the core of the series to stand alone and it's very much worth your time here you get multiple characters to choose from each with their own arsenal of weapons that can be switched during the action the gameplay sees a special focus on the slide mechanic to help you avoid enemies this is a big part of doing well and you'd be wise to test it often to see where it's most useful I love the special effects here as well there are some great pseudo scaling and rotation in use that makes it feel like something you'd see on the Super Nintendo of course it also retains the multiplayer that made this series so memorable in the first place add in the different endings and the nice soundtrack and you have a run and Gun must play that is easily among the best in the genre to beat it you'd almost have to approach Perfection and luckily for Genesis owners gun star Heroes by treasure comes pretty damn close this was actually done by ex Konami employees and it shows in nearly every area in fact some areas of its design are so familiar it's almost as if it was done by the same team that did Contra in the first place there's a slide weapons that can be switched during gameplay and it's loaded with similar special effects this says no mirror image however the art style is radically different as is the musical score and while it would be easy to label this a contra clone and Overlook it there is just so much here that does the genre prowl it uses a hit point system instead of one-hit kills you can grab and melee attack enemies and there are copious amounts of bosses and lieutenants to face the presentation screams Genesis but the gameplay will appeal to you no matter which platform you preferred foreign [Music] -up was a proud and strong genre on the Genesis and there are many choices here to pull from our runner-up was a remix of sorts of the arcade game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles turtles in time renamed and refitted into the hyperstone heist and like turtles of time it was a top-tier multiplayer romp that allowed you to use any of the four turtles each with their own weapons in many ways I prefer this over the arcade that inspired it thanks to a dedicated dash button and the way your hits make perfect contact with the Sprites it's missing the zoom effect of throwing enemies at the screen but outside of that it came together exceptionally well the visuals the sound the music this is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as you remember it just moved around a tad to give you a fresh story and longer stages and it's still one of the better beat em ups of that generation and in order to beat that kind of quality you need something that comes along just once in a great while Streets of Rage 2. you knew this had to be here how could it not Sega took the formula from the first revamped the visuals and added new attacks to elevate this well beyond the stripped down arcade ports that came before it it was a Powerhouse exclusive at the time they showed what the Genesis could do with lots of large Sprites animation and a soundtrack that felt like it was intrinsically tied to how it played while I fully admit the mechanics of the third entry are superior I still feel part two best sit in overall presentation and fun Factor but honestly either one of these should make a beat-em-up fan more than happy foreign [Music] the fighting game genre was still in its infancy when the Genesis was at the height of its popularity Street Fighter 2 had redefined everything only a few years prior and the explosion of copycats flooded the scene in the time since fortunately treasure had the platform exclusive uu Hakusho battle to unite the demon plane a four-player fighting game unlike anything else at the time it uses a two-plane Battleground that allows you to switch between them similar to something like fatal Fury this allows you to avoid attacks or get a better position on your foe as you'd expect there are multiple Fighters here to choose from each with their own set of special moves and attacks in fact the gameplay almost feels like a modern three-dimensional fighter with back dashes a block button slides and being able to change your fighting plane no doubt this heavily influenced Guardian Heroes and if you enjoyed the combat there this should feel no less entertaining but let us be real for a moment when it comes to fighting games on the Genesis there was Street Fighter 2 special Champion Edition and there was everything else this was a combination of the arcade games Champion Edition and Hyper fighting allowing you to play as The Boss characters and including the much faster gameplay of the latter and aside from some scratchy voice effects this was a top-notch port when it comes to music gameplay and visuals coupled with the six button arcade pad I dare say it was the best 16-bit Home console version of these games in terms of playability everything just feels right from the weakest jab to a perfectly placed Dragon punch this captures the feel of the arcade as well as any Home console could at the time those voice effects are the only thing holding it back from being the clear-cut console choice that generation let it goes [Music] [Music] [Music] I separated out a best arcade Port category because this was pretty much the last generation where major Cuts happened to two-dimensional arcade home conversions and I don't mean simple animation and content Cuts I mean major revisions to color Sprite number and size and loads of missing special effects when an arcade Port came home impressively during the 16-bit era it was a Marvel and something to be oohed and odd over and our runner-up Road blasters certainly deserves that sentiment since the Genesis cannot do hardware-based Sprite scaling effects the visuals had to approximate it something that usually ended in disaster yet here Road blasters is still fast smooth and looks remarkably similar to the arcade original you drop this side by side and you can't help but be impressed it's also a fun combat racer with 50 levels so there's a lot to see and do I still find this criminally underrated and under appreciated which leads us to our winner of this category Mortal Kombat 3. to understand this pick you need only to consider the day the Genesis Hardware first graced the home consumer market and the day Mortal Kombat 3 launched in the arcade there's nearly seven years difference between the two so for the Genesis to get a home version of this title at this level is nothing short of astounding unlike the previous Mortal Kombat games this one was developed by sculptured software on a massive 32 megabit cartridge that means more animation more sound effects more of everything that made the arcade version so popular pound for pound it is easily one of the mega drive's most impressive late life arcade ports right up there with the likes of NBA Hang Time and WWF WrestleMania the arcade game best part is is that also like those titles it plays extremely close to the arcade speed moveset and finishers all seem to be here in all their mature Glory I always thought Mortal Kombat 2 played better but there's no question as far as faithfulness Mortal Kombat 3 trounced the previous entries by a mile [Music] foreign as someone that came up through the 1980s enjoying japanese-made arcade games the soothing Melodies of FM synth based soundtracks really resonated with me on the Genesis picking a favorite among this list was a daunting and thankless task I knew I would need to leave so many great soundtracks on The Cutting Room floor while Western made software gave the platform a bad name many Japanese developed titles showed exactly what this machine could do and we begin with the runner-up Gauntlet 4. this M2 developed remake of the arcade original features music even I didn't think was possible on the old Sega Genesis there is a variety in the compositions here that goes well beyond anything in the original Source material and the wide arrangement of instruments really comes off strikingly similar to something you would have heard on Nintendo's sample based chip let's have a quick listen to give you an example [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] that leaves us with the winner of our best music category the Untouchable Batman the video game from Sun solved this is about as perfect as FM sound gets it's so full of body and emotion the kind of sound that doesn't just go with the gameplay but drives it to be better to make you feel like a hero to fill the environment so full of emotion and motivation that you want to return to it as soon as you cut the power off the strange thing is is that the music in this game is nothing like the musical score of the movie yet still feels like it belongs this is quite frankly one of my favorite gaming soundtracks ever Feast your ears on this masterpiece [Music] foreign [Music] our final category will perhaps be the most divisive by quite a bit choosing the best graphics isn't just a simple case of picking easily definable technical traits but also a matter of artistic personal preference there can be no choice here that will work for everyone still this is the best of the best and our runner-up is Ranger X the unique run and gun shooter that's loaded with great special effects and animation some of these backgrounds are so convincing they look 2.5 D and you really have to appreciate touches like the use of sunlight and Reflections to give the environments a bit of extra polish there's even some Sprite scaling style effects in various stages all this on top of the well-animated Sprites and colorful stages make Ranger x a real standout the kind of game you don't easily forget once you've experienced it it's absolutely criminal that Sega never sold a sequel to this for its 32-bit Saturn [Music] thank you that leaves our final pick in the winner of the best graphics on the Sega Genesis comic Zoom yep you heard that right this one is all about art and presentation you could easily find a game to best it in terms of special effects and visual tricks but there's just nothing like comic Zone on the platform by using comic book style panels fourth wall breaking animations and massive Sprites that move and attack smoothly you get a game that looks like it belongs among early 32-bit titles as opposed to the ancient Genesis hardware and the old Genesis was ancient indeed when this was released in July of 1995. the freaking Saturn was out by then and Sega would have done well to Port this over with additions and improvements yet the Saturn got nothing of the kind to date I am honestly in complete shock Sega never Revisited this with a sequel or remake it's so deserved one to wrap up this category and this show voice I'll leave you with this if you want cool effects fire up Vector man Toy Story 2 The Adventures of Batman and Robin the Lost World Jurassic Park or Red Zone but if you want something wholly unique and one of the best examples of what late Genesis development could accomplish comic zone is your huckleberry [Music] foreign so there we go guys the best of the best on the Sega Genesis no doubt some of you are sitting there already typing your choices for these categories but remember it isn't about arguing the details it's about celebrating just how incredible the Genesis library was the fact that we can look at a list this strong and still talk about Alternatives really shows how special sega's 16-bit platform was to so many if if you found this episode fun and enjoyed the recommendations I have also added a section in the description for the games I considered in the early drafts of this script it'll give you an idea of many more fantastic titles for the platform I'd also like to hear what you guys think are the best in each of these categories all of our experiences are different and it's always interesting to see how certain games affected different people all those years ago now that I have tackled the Genesis the next best of the best episode we'll deal with the venerable Sega Master System a platform that had quite the different run here in the United States and if you think this list pissed you off just wait until you have a go at that one I'm Sigalert X thank you guys for watching and I will catch you next time foreign [Music]

Channel: Sega Lord X

Views: 195,815

Keywords: sega genesis, mega drive, retro gaming, best genesis games, best mega drive games, segalordx, sega lord x, sega saturn, sega dreamcast, megadrive, game gear, 32x, mega cd, genesis, saturn, master system, sega, sega cd, gameplay, review, movies, retro games, video games, ps4, xbox, wii, nintendo, gamecube, n64, ps1, ps2, ps3, psp, vita, switch, atari, sega genesis mini, sega genesis mini 2

Id: 88d_C9HoWWg

Length: 33min 53sec (2033 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 25 2022