1989-early 1990 Genesis titles: Your most or least favorites?

[Diablo Griffin]

I'm just going to say that Last Battle and Super Thunder Blade aren't very good games, but they do have a decent soundtrack. For example, the chapter 2 theme in LB and the level 3 theme in STB are some pretty good tunes.

[The Coop]

I'm introducing a new category for this; my, "Middle of the Road" group. These are the ones I played a fair bit, but didn't really love a lot, or hate to the core. They're ones that were just fairly good to a little below average to me.

1989- Rambo III, Super Thunder Blade, Altered Beast, Forgotten Worlds, Super Hang-On, and Arnold Palmer's Tournament Golf.

Early 1990- Zoom!

[SEGA.GENESIS1989]

My middle of the road titles from 1989: Altered Beast, Space Harrier II, Alex Kidd in Miracle World

My middle of the road titles from 1990: Atomic Robo-Kid, Battle Squadron, DJ Boy, Rastan Saga II

[Falucho]

Middle of the road 1989: Super Hang-on, Revenge of Shinobi, Ghouls 'N Ghosts, Rambo III. Very good games, but don't touch me
Middle of the road 1990: Dj Boy, Dynamite Duke, Dick Tracy, Castle of Illusion, Ghostbusters, and the majority of the Shmups of this years!

I love to notice the diversity of opinions out there regarding the Sega library. Even in its first two years.

[knicksfan89]

Middle of the road 1989: Super Hang-on, Revenge of Shinobi, Ghouls 'N Ghosts, Rambo III. Very good games, but don't touch me
Middle of the road 1990: Dj Boy, Dynamite Duke, Dick Tracy, Castle of Illusion, Ghostbusters, and the majority of the Shmups of this years!

I love to notice the diversity of opinions out there regarding the Sega library. Even in its first two years.

castle of illusion is a true classic and ghostbusters isn't half bad either, why are you saying both are middle of the road

[Bloodreign]

Least favorite, Arnold Palmer Golf, Last Battle, Super Thunder Blade (sort of like that one). Wasn't Kid Chameleon also in the first 2 years of the systems life? If so, didn't care much for it either.

Stuff I like:
Ghouls N Ghosts - feels so good to play, it really is devilishly delightful to play.
Forgotten Worlds - for all the stuff they cut out, mainly some stages, it's still a blast to play.
Alex Kidd - yes most folks hate it, I find it charming, though the die in 1 hit element and what feels like random elements to me (the flying bike thing) might throw some off, the latter throws me off.
Revenge of Shinobi - it stars a ninja, who fights, well ninjas, and deadly female ninjas dressed as nuns.
Rainbow Islands Extra - I was late to the party with that game as I didn't know of it's existence thanks to being an import, till many years later I played it in emulation and got to try it out. I got a copy now, but there's missing music and it plays more like the original Rainbow Islands (the arcade one had a different way to get secret items in the hidden rooms inside of a boss room, the original was always the same items in the same rooms) than Extra despite it having the original game in it. The original game however seems to be missing the hidden 3 worlds and true last boss.
Ghostbusters damn me for not picking this one up when I first got my Genesis in 98, it's actually a fun Ghostbusters game, especially after that bomb on NES that wasn't worth shit.
Thunder Force 3 - awesome Tecnosoft shmup, great soundtrack, nice difficulty balance.
Dick Tracy from what I've played of it in emulation over the years, I enjoy how the game has two elements to it, the standard side scrolling levels with enemies on one plane, and the other one where enemies could be on two different planes, found that unique back in the day.
ESWAT- this one took a little while to grow on me, there was the arcade version, but it played so differently from it's arcade big brother that it threw me off. In time I grew to like it for what it was.
Shadow Dancer another changed from it's arcade version, plays much like the original arcade Shinobi. Sure it was no Revenge of Shinobi, but it was action packed, you carried a useful canine companion, plus the bonus stages had you jumping off a building all the while shooting ninja stars at ninjas on their way up.

[Falucho]

castle of illusion is a true classic and ghostbusters isn't half bad either, why are you saying both are middle of the road

I know they are good games, and you can't really compared them with stuff like Dynamite Duke, but i don't connect with them. I beat it and never comeback. May be they can still grown on me, but isn't the time now.

[KitsuneNight]

Middle of the road 1989: Super Hang-on, Revenge of Shinobi, Ghouls 'N Ghosts, Rambo III. Very good games, but don't touch me
Middle of the road 1990: Dj Boy, Dynamite Duke, Dick Tracy, Castle of Illusion, Ghostbusters, and the majority of the Shmups of this years!

I love to notice the diversity of opinions out there regarding the Sega library. Even in its first two years.

middle of the road my ass
ghostbusters was one of the best 1990 releases and the best ghostbusters game released untill the 2009 game

[knicksfan89]

middle of the road my ass
ghostbusters was one of the best 1990 releases and the best ghostbusters game released untill the 2009 game

it sure was

[Aarzak]

Super Thunder Blade and World Championship Soccer deserved the same fate as those 2600 E.T carts.

[meanbean81]

Hey, this is a really interesting thread, because I got my Mega Drive in, say, 1992, or maybe late in 1991, just when the Sonic era hat begun. I do remember that I looked at SEGA's back catalogue and some of the games thrilled my, but i wasn't actually in touch with them. I had Alien Storm, which is from 1991, but looks like 1990 ... and, well, I liked it a lot.

So from what I know today I'd go with Phantasy Star II, Castle of Illusion, Decap Attack, Super Hydlide, Crack Down. Yes, the latter two do suffer from mini sprites, but their gameplay is good fun.

[RPGbandit]

Most: Ghouls 'N Ghosts, Super Hydlide, Phantasy Star 2 n 3, Shadow Dancer, Last Battle
Least: Sword of Sodan , Rastan Saga , Tecnocop,

[retrospiel]

I've been drooling over the MD's back catalogue for more than a year before buying my MD in 1992. Discovering the earlier years in retrospective has been A LOT of fun since then. Of course I could not afford to buy every last one of the pre-Sonic era games back in the 90s so there are still a few I discover today that I've missed out on or didn't give a fair chance. My most recent discovery is Altered Beast which I always thought of as a very bad game but as it turns out it actually is rather impressive for a game from 1988. It's a true classic.

Super Thunderblade on the other hand definitely is awful.

[Melf]

Dynamite Duke is fun, but it's too short and doesn't offer much replay value. Castle of Illusion and Revenge of Shinobi are far superior, I think.

My biggest gripe with DD was that Sega didn't add anything for the home release. The game would have been so much better if they had added an original mode or something, with new levels and enemies or weapon types. A barebone arcade release was cool, but the game's over by the time you really get into it.

[zetastrike]

1989: Revenge of Shinobi, Ghouls n Ghosts, Golden Axe

1990: Columns, Castle of Illusion, PSII, Shadow Dancer