(Another) Pre-Sonic Era Genesis Thread

[Aarzak]

So I was browsing my......ahem, "good" set today, and felt compelled to play some of the titles from the Genny's first two years (or anything prior to that fateful day of June 23, 1991). They reminded me how unique the pre-Sonic Genesis era was. If the Genesis was a musical band, than "pre-Sonic" would be its "indie" years, when the band had a small, but loyal following, and little money to throw around.

Most of the big developers hadn't jumped on board the Genesis bandwagon yet, either because Nintendo had them by their balls or because they didn't see the console as a viable platform. Lesser-known developers and publishers (Seismic, Sage's Creation, Renovation, Kaneko, that Electronic Arts company) however, were happy to pump software goo into the nubile black box, and the results were often weird, sometimes crappy, yet equally unique.

What were your favorite pre-Sonic Genesis games, and for those who owned a Genesis that early on, care to share your experiences?

[muteKi]

Really big on Castle of Illusion, Phantasy Star II, Super Hang-On, and Shadow Dancer as major first-party titles. Shadow Dancer, on its default difficulty, is the most fair and well-balanced game with one-hit kills I've ever played. Enemies are generally very easy to predict and it's all about being careful and methodical on how they're all taken out and thinking about, say, when to use the ninja magics. Super Hang-On is really fun and I like the idea of the career mode (though it shows its age for sure; it's a bit slow at times and the scaling doesn't look very smooth, but at least it's not Super Thunder Blade bad).

This would also be the era of Darwin 4081, MUSHA, Gynoug, Verytex, Zero Wing, Sagaia -- so a lot of the Genny's more interesting shmup entries predate the blue hedgehog. Zero Wing, the only one I'd say I've played enough beforehand to have a good sense of, is actually a quite competent clone of R-Type despite what the opening translation may have led you to believe, and the music (which uses the same sound driver and the same instruments and samples as Langrisser/Warsong) is some of the better stuff you'll see on the console, and beats out the arcade version's for sure. Graphically speaking, it's not much to write home about; the environments are interesting but the graphics understated. Since R-Type Leo is basically arcade-only this is probably some of the closest you're gonna get to that action on a console. Most frustrating is that the multiplayer mode from the arcade was removed -- it's single-player only here, folks.

[Tanegashima]

I was only 3 when my brother and I got our Genesis in 89 but I played the hell outta Revenge of Shinobi and Altered Beast and still play the hell outta Revenge. Best game on the damn system it is.

[j_factor]

This would also be the era of Darwin 4081, MUSHA, Gynoug, Verytex, Zero Wing, Sagaia -- so a lot of the Genny's more interesting shmup entries predate the blue hedgehog.

That's funny, I came in this thread to mention four completely different shmups: Thunder Force III, Granada, Hellfire, and Gaiares. Holy shit the Genesis had a lot of good shooters early on.

Major props to Revenge of Shinobi, Shadow Dancer, Phantasy Star II, Gain Ground, Final Zone, Castle of Illusion, Zoom, Herzog Zwei, Golden Axe, Strider...

[QuickSciFi]

I've always been fascinated by the pre-Sonic era games. But mine is more of an interest in the art-style (graphically, musically, story-wise and, even gameplay-wise). The games, to me, feel (look) very "metallic"; at least that's how I think of them (graphically, there's always the use of a certain "metallic shine" to the choice of colors; which is most indicative of this era, and most specifically, of the Genesis). The stories are very sad (although short for the most part, there's always a profound element to every single line) and the music is somewhat melancholic or, even, romantic (Space Harrier II, Phantasy Star II, Phantasy Star III, Sword of Vermilion, etc). There were, of course many more games that followed with this look and feel, overlapping well into the whole of 1992 and, even, early '93 (as far as U.S. releases go, I mean). But one can always be sure to find this style with "metallic" graphics, sad stories, melancholic music and an overall "classical" essence in the pre-Sonic (1991) era of the Genesis. Usually, if I see a grid-box design, I'm reminded of this style (although not always).

Some of the Games that come to mind that hold this certain allure for me are:

1. Space Harrier II
2. Phantasy Star II
3. Phantasy Star III
4. Sword of Vermilion
5. Forgotten Worlds
6. Altered Beast
7. Ghouls N Ghosts
8. Thunder Force II
9. Last Battle
10. Mystic Defender
11. The Revenge of Shinobi
12. Truxton
13. Herzog Zwei
14. Shadow Blasters
15. Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi
16. Midnight Resistance (This reminds me, though, you can virtually include all Data East ports to this list of mine and, for that matter, even all Renovation games).
17. MJ's Moonwalker
18. Sword of Sodan
19. Strider
20. Stormlord
21. Darwin 4081 (JP only, but Data East, nonetheless)
22. Columns
23. Ghostbusters
24. Phelios
25. Insector X
26. Bimini Run
27. Elemental Master
28. Fire Shark
29. Atomic Robo Kid
30. Decap-Attacck
31. Arrow Flash
32. Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday
33. Shadow of the Beast
34. Road Rash
35. Valis
36. Valis III (There's ambivalence as to which one was released first, though)
37. Streets of Rage
38. Turrican
39. ToeJam & Earl
40. El Viento
41. Arcus Odyssey
42. Blue Almanac/Star Odyssey (Brandon Brooks is the man!)
43. James Pond
44. Warsong
45. Shining in the Darkness
46. King's Bounty
47. Battlemaster


Overlaping Post-Sonic 1 Games with the same feel:
1. Golden Axe II
2. Atomic Runner
3. Sonic (Obviously)
4. Sonic 2 (but this "certain" allure ends here for me along the lines of traditional 2D Sonic)
5. Sonic Spinball (The only non-traditional 2D Sonic that holds this certain allure for me)
6. Raiden Trad
7. Fatal Rewind
8. The Immortal
9. Vapor Trail
10. James Pond II
15. James Pond III
16. Streets of Rage 2
17. Streets of Rage 3
18. Jewel Master
19. Rolling Thunder 2
20. Ys III
21. Exile
22. Growl
23. Sol-Deace
24. Shadow of the Beast II
25. Sorcerer's Kingdom
26. Splatterhouse 2
27. Splatterhouse 3
28. Sunset Riders
29. Universal Soldier
30. Robocop III
31. Robocop Vs. The Terminator
32. The Terminator (SEGA CD VERSION)
33. Wolfchild (Both versions)
34. Two Crude Dudes
35. Alisia Dragoon
36. Cadash
37. Biohazard Battle
38. Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun
39. Kid Chameleon
40. Road Rash II
41. Chakan
42. Ecco
43. Ecco 2: The Tides of Time
44. Earnest Evans
45. Prince of Persia
46. Shining Force
47. Shining Force II
48. Technoclash
49. Blades of Vengeance
50. Alien 3
51. Outrun 2019 (also, the other Yu Suzuki racers to a lesser extent).
52. Warlock
53. Gauntlet IV
54. Jurassic Park (also R.E.)

A couple of these are found even well into 1994. To sum it up, these are games that, for the most part, most would consider "bad" (most of which has to do with the fact that they tend to be either hard to beat or hard to get into for their graphics or gameplay). I, on the other hand, love them!

[Masked Avenger]

Castle of Illusion. A really great, well-made, imaginative platformer. Graphics look nice and the music is lovely. Controls are a bit floaty, but you get used to it. It was the flagship game Sega used to compete with Super Mario World and the SNES in Japan (the launch). SMW has more long-term appeal (lots of levels and secrets), but CoI is definitely flashier.

Shadow Dancer. A bit short, but great action game. I've always liked it more than Revenge of Shinobi.

Super Monaco GP. Enjoyable racing game. It has aged though.

[KimbleJustice]

Strider would be my obvious pick - I love that game to death and consider it flawless.

Aside from that, I'm mainly thinking about shmups. I was looking through the lists of MD games released by year, and there was just so many back in those days - especially in 1990. I think I counted NINETEEN shmups released for the system in that one year! And not just any old rubbish either - there was M.U.S.H.A (a crazily good looking game for 1990), Gaiares, Elemental Master, Fire Shark, Thunder Force III - all of them are gems. Even amongst the lesser lights you had games like Dangerous Seed, Phelios, Arrow Flash and Whip Rush - not necessarily the best titles, but they could be impressive in their own ways.

[Benjamin]

There was a lot of great innovation going on in those days. People tend to overlook what an innovative company EA once was, and it was a big reason I was excited for the Genesis since I couldn't afford a PC. It meant I got to play Populous, Budokan, and Zany Golf. Not to mention Accolade bringing Star Control over under its Ballistic label, which was awesome. Then you had Razorsoft with its own memorable PC port of Tongue of the Fatman, a one-on-one fighter pre-dating the whole SFII craze. Reading VG&CE and seeing all these interesting PC games come and go was always disappointing, and the Genesis helped bridge the gap.

Sega and EA ran some crazy good offers pre-Sonic, too. EA had its "buy 2 get 1 free" campaign just prior to Sonic's release which netted me a couple of freebies -- buy Blockout for $30; 2nd game for $50; three new games for $80, which was an absolute steal back then. Battle Squadron may not be in the same league as TFIII or others, but it's still a damn good game for $30 or so. It introduced me to NHL Hockey, which I ended up loving like I didn't think I could, and it and Madden were pretty amazing and innovative back then. Other developers were still putting out innovative stuff like Herzog Zwei, but EA seemed committed to pushing the envelope with wave after wave of interesting, innovative releases. EA used to be so good. :/

It was also great getting "perfect" arcade games home. Altered Beast and Ghouls 'n Ghosts are great, and Strider is still amazing. I was disappointed that Moonwalker and ESWAT didn't match the arcade though, and Sega still left a ton of arcade games in the arcade. I wonder why that was. Did arcade ports not sell as well? I've always been of the mindset that beyond Nintendo's illegal practices, the SMS failed because Sega stressed arcade ports on a machine which wasn't ready for them. I wonder if that's why ESWAT and Moonwalker were changed as they were. They're still good games, but that kind of treatment was not what I was looking for with the Genesis. Sega made the right move focusing on creating games developed for the console, and I can't complain much since we still were getting arcade ports down the stretch from Takara and others.

Rennovation's pre-Sonic shooter line-up has already received praise here, but there's also Todd's Adventures in Slime World, Master of Monsters, Arcus Odyssey, and the Valis games. Todd aside, Rennovation, Technosoft, and Sega allowed more distinctly Japanese games in the US. Yeah, the cover art would get trashed, but the game content remained largely unchanged, and seeing the awesome animated cinemas in the above games really left an impression on me. It helped that they were all excellent games, of course, but the character designs and style really set them apart from what we've been allowed to play in the West.

If anything, I'd say the early releases had a more "adult" sheen about them. You look at the cinemas in Phelios or Altered Beast, and you see a lot of teenage titillation and comic book/fantasy driven demonic imagery. Similar games post-Sonic leaned more on being gory than evoking a more "adult" mood. Games had to be drawn from a darker palette to be "adult." The soundtracks, too, seemed to change, with less songs with melody and more tracks composed of hard electronic sounds and such. I don't think a 92/93 Altered Beast would look or sound anything like the 88/89 Altered Beast.

[StarMist]

This was the MD's most fruitful and distinctive period, though I'd personally cut it off at Sonic 2 as I feel Sonic 1 belongs to it.

The games, to me, feel (look) very "metallic"; at least that's how I think of them (graphically, there's always the use of a certain "metallic shine" to the choice of colors; which is most indicative of this era, and most specifically, of the Genesis). The stories are very sad (although short for the most part, there's always a profound element to every single line) and the music is somewhat melancholic or, even, romantic (Space Harrier II, Phantasy Star II, Phantasy Star III, Sword of Vermilion, etc).

Quite right.

[Solkia]

All Genesis(es?) came with Altered Beast originally, right?

I loved that game as a kid. Me and my friend would play it all the time.

Other than that, I don't really know many Pre-Sonic titles

[QuickSciFi]

This was the MD's most fruitful and distinctive period, though I'd personally cut it off at Sonic 2 as I feel Sonic 1 belongs to it.
Quite right.

Yup. Sonic 2 should be the cut-off.

And thanks for the rep.

[Obviously]

Though it doesn't fit with the thread being pre-Sonic or even Sonic 2, in my head the early and late games have always been split up as the Grid Box era and the Red Box era.

[sheath]

The Genesis' first two years of unique software and near-complete lack of franchises is what I expect from a new platform. These games are by far my favorite on the system. Once 1992 rolled along I basically lost interest in new Genesis games and moved on to the new unique offerings the Sega CD presented by mid 1993.

[Aarzak]

The Genesis, Jaguar, 3DO are the last consoles which I recall having a dearth of game-changing killer apps during their first and second years, while every other system from Nintendo, Sony and later Microsoft hit the ground running, software and sales-wise.

[j_factor]

You really think PS2 "hit the ground running" in terms of software?