List Games That You Think Are Hidden Gems For The Genesis/MD
Elemental wrote:My favorite hidden gem on the Genesis would have to be Cool Spot. Who would have ever thought that a game with the 7-Up mascot tie in would actually turn out to be good?
Cool Spot has been added.
Feel free to write 150+ words about it to enter the contest
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retrogamer
Beggar Prince was the latest Genesis/MD game to come out. The development team worked hard to bring us this translated title, manufacture new cartridge cases, circuit boards, outer case with quality artwork and instruction manual. I even made an announcement about it on this site back when the game was slated to be released, but nobody really seemed to care. The game did not get the proper recognition it deserved and it is a true collectors item since only 600 were made. People are selling these on Ebay for very low prices when this is something that should be held on to and cherished for it is the true future holy grail of Genesis collecting. I'd like to write about this game if you feel it is a worthy choice to be added to the list.
retrogamer wrote:Beggar Prince was the latest Genesis/MD game to come out. The development team worked hard to bring us this translated title, manufacture new cartridge cases, circuit boards, outer case with quality artwork and instruction manual. I even made an announcement about it on this site back when the game was slated to be released, but nobody really seemed to care. The game did not get the proper recognition it deserved and it is a true collectors item since only 600 were made. People are selling these on Ebay for very low prices when this is something that should be held on to and cherished for it is the true future holy grail of Genesis collecting. I'd like to write about this game if you feel it is a worthy choice to be added to the list.
Go for it!
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Forgotten Worlds: Genesis
Forgotten Worlds
Platform: Genesis
Publisher: Capcom
Forgotten worlds is similar to a horizontal scrolling shootem'up style (shmup) space game, except that instead of playing as a space ship you are a flying man and you have a small satellite that follows you arround and has a gun as well. How does he fly, who knows. Where does his awful dialog come from, also unknown. The second big difference between this game and the standard space shooter is that you can spin your man around and shoot in any direction you wish, which is what makes this game so good..in the arcades but not so much on the Genesis where you only have two buttons to spin your man. Imagine playing robotron on the Nintendo 8-bit system controller and you can imagine the issues I had with this game. Also, unlike most shooters, instead of picking up your weapons you pickup money, and you can choose your weapons and powerups at a store. When you kill enemies they give you money and there is also money to be found all over the board, and more money in dangerous places that will most likely get you killed. This is one area the Genesis version is much better than the arcade, the arcade version's weapons always seemed extremely expensive. This game even has a level with multiple branching paths that take you to different areas where you fight completely different enemies. Forgotten Worlds was my world when I was in 6th grade.
Originality/Graphics 10/10: There is nothing like Forgotten Worlds on the Genesis, branching paths, free control of where your guy shoots, money strategy (do I buy napalm now or save up for homming later?), but most of all the art style. The game is beautiful, even by today's standards. Its not so much a technical graphical achievement, as it is a what they put on the screen is so creative and so cool that you can't help but wonder why more games aren't like this. The first level is a little drab, but still pretty cool (flying space lizards and sandworms, pretty cool), but the art department really shines when you start fighting fire breathing cloud men who are wearing puffy 70's suits and titans who emerge from the clouds to barf swarms of bees at you. The Egypt level is also amazing, not only because it has a great motif, but because it is the level with the branching paths, I dont think I have ever managed to see all the paths, which truely says something because I have played that game a freakish amount. The God of War is one of my all time favorite boss characters, he has these giant fists that just come down from the sides of the screen and are just huge, and all the while he is shooting eye lighting. When you shoot his weak spots he grimaces in pain, and you can shoot his arms off, as I said this game has lots of little details and is very polished. I am not comparing these to modern graphics mind you, I am more rating the art design, I wish every game looked as cool as this game.
Gameplay 8/10: This game has not aged as well as it could have. As mentioned previously, since this is the Sega Genesis this spining and shooting mechanic does not work as advertised, in the arcade a dial was used to spin the character around, but the genesis has three buttons, one is for firing, and the other two for spinning. Now as it is digital, it is sometimes hard to get the perfect angle on your enemies. The control issues are remedied by the excellent "Capcom Classics Collection" for Xbox and PS2 which maps the aiming controls to the second analog stick on the controller, which is the perfect way to control this game (better than the original dial in the arcade!) and is the definitive way to play this game. The Capcom Classics Collection even has a boss and a few sections that were not in the original, good stuff.
Besides the control isues, this game is solid, you spin around and blow stuff up while flying and collecting money. I was after a certain amount of time able to beat the game with the alotted amount of continues. There are a few bosses that are cheap, there is no way around that. The last boss is extremely hard, but there is a way to beat him that just requires alot of memorization. The reason I use the word cheap, is that since your character in this game is a guy standing instead of a sleek space ship, it is MUCH more difficult to avoid enemy fire than in comparable games. Also there is the issue that just because your aiming at something properly, doesnt mean your sattelite is, but that is pretty uncommon.
Conclusion: I can say that Forgotten Worlds is a excellent game, and one that game designers should definitely play so they dont crap out a bunch of generic looking games. However, the Sega Genesis version is probably not the version to play, besides the fact you probably don't own a currently functional Genesis, you probably do own a Playstation 2 or an Xbox and there is a way better version of this game for those systems that comes with TWENTY-ONE other classic Capcom games, and it looks and Controls better than the Genesis version.
Platform: Genesis
Publisher: Capcom
Forgotten worlds is similar to a horizontal scrolling shootem'up style (shmup) space game, except that instead of playing as a space ship you are a flying man and you have a small satellite that follows you arround and has a gun as well. How does he fly, who knows. Where does his awful dialog come from, also unknown. The second big difference between this game and the standard space shooter is that you can spin your man around and shoot in any direction you wish, which is what makes this game so good..in the arcades but not so much on the Genesis where you only have two buttons to spin your man. Imagine playing robotron on the Nintendo 8-bit system controller and you can imagine the issues I had with this game. Also, unlike most shooters, instead of picking up your weapons you pickup money, and you can choose your weapons and powerups at a store. When you kill enemies they give you money and there is also money to be found all over the board, and more money in dangerous places that will most likely get you killed. This is one area the Genesis version is much better than the arcade, the arcade version's weapons always seemed extremely expensive. This game even has a level with multiple branching paths that take you to different areas where you fight completely different enemies. Forgotten Worlds was my world when I was in 6th grade.
Originality/Graphics 10/10: There is nothing like Forgotten Worlds on the Genesis, branching paths, free control of where your guy shoots, money strategy (do I buy napalm now or save up for homming later?), but most of all the art style. The game is beautiful, even by today's standards. Its not so much a technical graphical achievement, as it is a what they put on the screen is so creative and so cool that you can't help but wonder why more games aren't like this. The first level is a little drab, but still pretty cool (flying space lizards and sandworms, pretty cool), but the art department really shines when you start fighting fire breathing cloud men who are wearing puffy 70's suits and titans who emerge from the clouds to barf swarms of bees at you. The Egypt level is also amazing, not only because it has a great motif, but because it is the level with the branching paths, I dont think I have ever managed to see all the paths, which truely says something because I have played that game a freakish amount. The God of War is one of my all time favorite boss characters, he has these giant fists that just come down from the sides of the screen and are just huge, and all the while he is shooting eye lighting. When you shoot his weak spots he grimaces in pain, and you can shoot his arms off, as I said this game has lots of little details and is very polished. I am not comparing these to modern graphics mind you, I am more rating the art design, I wish every game looked as cool as this game.
Gameplay 8/10: This game has not aged as well as it could have. As mentioned previously, since this is the Sega Genesis this spining and shooting mechanic does not work as advertised, in the arcade a dial was used to spin the character around, but the genesis has three buttons, one is for firing, and the other two for spinning. Now as it is digital, it is sometimes hard to get the perfect angle on your enemies. The control issues are remedied by the excellent "Capcom Classics Collection" for Xbox and PS2 which maps the aiming controls to the second analog stick on the controller, which is the perfect way to control this game (better than the original dial in the arcade!) and is the definitive way to play this game. The Capcom Classics Collection even has a boss and a few sections that were not in the original, good stuff.
Besides the control isues, this game is solid, you spin around and blow stuff up while flying and collecting money. I was after a certain amount of time able to beat the game with the alotted amount of continues. There are a few bosses that are cheap, there is no way around that. The last boss is extremely hard, but there is a way to beat him that just requires alot of memorization. The reason I use the word cheap, is that since your character in this game is a guy standing instead of a sleek space ship, it is MUCH more difficult to avoid enemy fire than in comparable games. Also there is the issue that just because your aiming at something properly, doesnt mean your sattelite is, but that is pretty uncommon.
Conclusion: I can say that Forgotten Worlds is a excellent game, and one that game designers should definitely play so they dont crap out a bunch of generic looking games. However, the Sega Genesis version is probably not the version to play, besides the fact you probably don't own a currently functional Genesis, you probably do own a Playstation 2 or an Xbox and there is a way better version of this game for those systems that comes with TWENTY-ONE other classic Capcom games, and it looks and Controls better than the Genesis version.
Gain Ground
Gain Ground - Sega Genesis
Gain Ground for the Sega Genesis is the one game that when I saw was on the Sega Genesis Classics collection I cheered. This game never got the recognition it deserved for being a great co-operative game as well as a single player game that had an amazing amount of replay value. This game had excellent co-operative game play when it was called "2-player". Gain ground was an over head game where you controlled a small band of tiny warriors all of whom possessed different attacks. The concept of the game is that you are trapped inside of a mad computer that recreates various times in history, such as prehistoric times, Medieval times, World War I times, Post-Apocalyptic times and the Future, where they build robots just to kick your butt.
The gimmick the game uses is that you enlarge your army by picking up soldiers who were often put in hard to reach spots, thus gaining more useful recruits and enlarging your army. Obviously, some characters were much better than others, the Viking could take out most of the first two worlds single-handedly, and the lady with the side-ways boomerangs was also pretty amazing at polishing off bosses while both the grenade characters were largely cannon fodder with their short range attacks. Since you pick up new recruits, its not simply that you have a certain number of lives, each character is unique in some way, and this is especially important when you play two player.
In Gain Ground screen the screen is static and does not scroll, so aside from enemies who were off screen, you could see all the action. Your choice was to either run for the exit, kill all the enemies, or gather recruits and get them to the exit. Sometimes you don't want to waste a good soldier in a unknown situation, so you send in some cannon fodder. The time limit makes this game very intense, and on some levels you might have to give up that new recruit to finish the level before the time expires. An interesting side note is that when your current character dies, you can rescue them by getting them to the exit. There are high attacks and low attacks, meaning attacks that can get enemies who are perched on ledges, or behind cover, and low attacks can shoot ground level enemies. Usually you have to choose one or the other, with characters like the Viking being the only of a few characters having both a mediocre low and high attack. This is why co-operative play is so fun, because then you can play more specialized units. If you are playing the original cartridge or on the Sega Genesis Collection for PS2, and not using save states on an emulator. When things go wrong and that enemy armored unit that takes more hits than you thought breaks through your defenses starts running amok and kills you and your buddy starts running away blindly that this game gets really frantic.
I have never played the arcade version, though I saw it once as a kid. I can say that the Genesis version is much better than the PS2 remake in the Sega Ages collection, which is terrible. The graphics are pretty poor in Gain Ground, since it was a launch title for the Genesis (1989 anyone?), but the game play will have you and possibly a buddy nailed to your seat for hours. The main complaint is that the enemy AI is pretty much stone stupid, and some of the levels are really difficult, especially the final boss who just feels a little cheap, though not impossible (I beat him without save states). This should be a Wii virtual console title for sure. The PS2 or PSP the Sega Genesis Collection are a really good way to get this old title for people who dont already have this game, and you get 27 other really good Genesis games to boot. I have always believed Gain Ground was a hidden gem for the Sega Genesis, and apparently so did someone at Sega when they put it in the Sega Classics collection.
Gain Ground for the Sega Genesis is the one game that when I saw was on the Sega Genesis Classics collection I cheered. This game never got the recognition it deserved for being a great co-operative game as well as a single player game that had an amazing amount of replay value. This game had excellent co-operative game play when it was called "2-player". Gain ground was an over head game where you controlled a small band of tiny warriors all of whom possessed different attacks. The concept of the game is that you are trapped inside of a mad computer that recreates various times in history, such as prehistoric times, Medieval times, World War I times, Post-Apocalyptic times and the Future, where they build robots just to kick your butt.
The gimmick the game uses is that you enlarge your army by picking up soldiers who were often put in hard to reach spots, thus gaining more useful recruits and enlarging your army. Obviously, some characters were much better than others, the Viking could take out most of the first two worlds single-handedly, and the lady with the side-ways boomerangs was also pretty amazing at polishing off bosses while both the grenade characters were largely cannon fodder with their short range attacks. Since you pick up new recruits, its not simply that you have a certain number of lives, each character is unique in some way, and this is especially important when you play two player.
In Gain Ground screen the screen is static and does not scroll, so aside from enemies who were off screen, you could see all the action. Your choice was to either run for the exit, kill all the enemies, or gather recruits and get them to the exit. Sometimes you don't want to waste a good soldier in a unknown situation, so you send in some cannon fodder. The time limit makes this game very intense, and on some levels you might have to give up that new recruit to finish the level before the time expires. An interesting side note is that when your current character dies, you can rescue them by getting them to the exit. There are high attacks and low attacks, meaning attacks that can get enemies who are perched on ledges, or behind cover, and low attacks can shoot ground level enemies. Usually you have to choose one or the other, with characters like the Viking being the only of a few characters having both a mediocre low and high attack. This is why co-operative play is so fun, because then you can play more specialized units. If you are playing the original cartridge or on the Sega Genesis Collection for PS2, and not using save states on an emulator. When things go wrong and that enemy armored unit that takes more hits than you thought breaks through your defenses starts running amok and kills you and your buddy starts running away blindly that this game gets really frantic.
I have never played the arcade version, though I saw it once as a kid. I can say that the Genesis version is much better than the PS2 remake in the Sega Ages collection, which is terrible. The graphics are pretty poor in Gain Ground, since it was a launch title for the Genesis (1989 anyone?), but the game play will have you and possibly a buddy nailed to your seat for hours. The main complaint is that the enemy AI is pretty much stone stupid, and some of the levels are really difficult, especially the final boss who just feels a little cheap, though not impossible (I beat him without save states). This should be a Wii virtual console title for sure. The PS2 or PSP the Sega Genesis Collection are a really good way to get this old title for people who dont already have this game, and you get 27 other really good Genesis games to boot. I have always believed Gain Ground was a hidden gem for the Sega Genesis, and apparently so did someone at Sega when they put it in the Sega Classics collection.
Revenge of Shinobi and Shadow Dancer.
Revenge of Shinobi and Shadow Dancer.
Why do Revenge of Shinobi and Shadow Dancer rule? Revenge of Shinobi rules because it is pure video gaming. No plot, no characters, just rire breathing dinosaurs on cargo planes, boss battles with spider-man, who turns into batman after taking damage and of course copious amounts of Ninjas. Shadow Dancer is the sequel to Return of Shinobi, ignoring Shadow dancer's sissy name, it kicks ass because the first level has exploding manholes that have flame popping out of them and you have a dog that you can sic on people, that's what sequels are all about. No sneaking around in this game, just chopping people up into quivering bloody sushi.
These games have all the ninja fan-service you could ever want, you can chuck shurikens from a distance, or double jump and chuck eight shurikens at once, get up close and whip out your Katana and slice fools just for living. Also, what game about ninjas would be historically accurate wihtout ninja magic? The magic system in Return of Shinobi is more complex, and allows you to do have different cool powers, while Shadow Dancer's magic system is more basic but since this was based on a arcade game so it is understandable that it lacks the depth of it's predecessor.
Revenge of Shinobi has that excellent "Genesis game" look to it, and was perhaps the best looking launch title. It's not the most beautiful Genesis game since it was so early in the Genesis life cycle, but the art style is second to none, and the the bosses are amazingly creative as are many of the later levels (though the first two are pretty bland unfortunately, a dojo and a caver for crying out loud). As the game progresses, it gets more and rewarding to look at. The gameplay itself is very good as well, though it has not aged as well as Shadow Dancer's due to the controls. The difficulty in Return of Shinobi is pretty high by today standards, but not to bad compared to other Genesis games of the day, meaning you will have to start from scratch a few times since this does not let you load from the last check point unfortunately (that's a new innovation).
Shadow Dancer has aged better I would say. The game is still beautiful and really pushes the Genesis hardware to its limits, with scrolling backgrounds, big clear sprites, you name it. Its almost as good as the arcade version. The gameplay is quicker and the controls more responsive than Revenge of Shinobi, both of which make Shadow Dancer seem more fun. However, one hit and your dead, no life bar. If Shadow Dancer had a life bar, it would be the easy winner in this match up, but the lack of a life bar really hurts this game, but other than that it is the superior title in regards to graphics and controls. However, in terms of boss fights, Revenge of Shinobi has some of the most memorable boss fights I can remember, who actually thought that after fighting a bunch of M-16 wielding soldiers on a cargo plane the boss would be a fire breathing Brontosaurus? Definitely not me. Revenge of Shinobi is available on the Sega Genesis Collection for the PS2, if you dont have a Genesis laying around, which also has a bunch of other great Sega games on it. I recommend both games and even say that the really over looked "Return of Shinobi" for the Sega Saturn is worth playing, most people seem to hate that game just because the graphics look funky, but it plays really well.
Revenge of Shinobi: B
Shadow Dander: B
Why do Revenge of Shinobi and Shadow Dancer rule? Revenge of Shinobi rules because it is pure video gaming. No plot, no characters, just rire breathing dinosaurs on cargo planes, boss battles with spider-man, who turns into batman after taking damage and of course copious amounts of Ninjas. Shadow Dancer is the sequel to Return of Shinobi, ignoring Shadow dancer's sissy name, it kicks ass because the first level has exploding manholes that have flame popping out of them and you have a dog that you can sic on people, that's what sequels are all about. No sneaking around in this game, just chopping people up into quivering bloody sushi.
These games have all the ninja fan-service you could ever want, you can chuck shurikens from a distance, or double jump and chuck eight shurikens at once, get up close and whip out your Katana and slice fools just for living. Also, what game about ninjas would be historically accurate wihtout ninja magic? The magic system in Return of Shinobi is more complex, and allows you to do have different cool powers, while Shadow Dancer's magic system is more basic but since this was based on a arcade game so it is understandable that it lacks the depth of it's predecessor.
Revenge of Shinobi has that excellent "Genesis game" look to it, and was perhaps the best looking launch title. It's not the most beautiful Genesis game since it was so early in the Genesis life cycle, but the art style is second to none, and the the bosses are amazingly creative as are many of the later levels (though the first two are pretty bland unfortunately, a dojo and a caver for crying out loud). As the game progresses, it gets more and rewarding to look at. The gameplay itself is very good as well, though it has not aged as well as Shadow Dancer's due to the controls. The difficulty in Return of Shinobi is pretty high by today standards, but not to bad compared to other Genesis games of the day, meaning you will have to start from scratch a few times since this does not let you load from the last check point unfortunately (that's a new innovation).
Shadow Dancer has aged better I would say. The game is still beautiful and really pushes the Genesis hardware to its limits, with scrolling backgrounds, big clear sprites, you name it. Its almost as good as the arcade version. The gameplay is quicker and the controls more responsive than Revenge of Shinobi, both of which make Shadow Dancer seem more fun. However, one hit and your dead, no life bar. If Shadow Dancer had a life bar, it would be the easy winner in this match up, but the lack of a life bar really hurts this game, but other than that it is the superior title in regards to graphics and controls. However, in terms of boss fights, Revenge of Shinobi has some of the most memorable boss fights I can remember, who actually thought that after fighting a bunch of M-16 wielding soldiers on a cargo plane the boss would be a fire breathing Brontosaurus? Definitely not me. Revenge of Shinobi is available on the Sega Genesis Collection for the PS2, if you dont have a Genesis laying around, which also has a bunch of other great Sega games on it. I recommend both games and even say that the really over looked "Return of Shinobi" for the Sega Saturn is worth playing, most people seem to hate that game just because the graphics look funky, but it plays really well.
Revenge of Shinobi: B
Shadow Dander: B
Ok, here's the list:
http://www.racketboy.com/retro/2007/01/ ... -sega.html
Lemme know what you think.
I'm sure there are still some to add...
http://www.racketboy.com/retro/2007/01/ ... -sega.html
Lemme know what you think.
I'm sure there are still some to add...
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