Genesis Games that Hold Up?

For various reasons, I always wanted a Genesis when I was a kid, but was unable to acquire one. My lab was cleaning out some closets full of old electronics and I found a working Genesis with all the needed connectors, a copy of MK3, and a copy of Sonic 2. At last, my childhood dream was finally realized. It turns out that MK3 is still fun, and Sonic 2 sucks more than I remember.

Anyway, what other games should I get? I'm open to anything, but having some a two player aspect is a big plus. Also, what's my best bet for finding a good deal? It seems Gunstar Heroes costs almost as much as a new game does these days.

Dr. Robotnics Mean Bean Machine

Altered Beast

Phantasy Star II

Sonic 1

I recently rebuilt/expanded my Genesis collection

Sonic 1 - 3 is still pretty good, despite what they say on the podcast.
Altered Beast
Comix Zone
Mortal Kombat II
Road Rash II
Mickey Mania
Disneys Aladdin
Lion King (That game is HARD)
Rocket Knight Adventures (This game rocks)
Spider-man VS The Kingpin
Spider-man Seperation Anxiety

Ecco The Dolphin is a good WTF game

I could continue but I'll leave some for the others

Light Crusader

My brother and I played a ton of Dashin Desperados as kids, I definitely recommend that one for more competitive co-op.

- Dr. Robotnik Mean Bean Machine

- NBA Hangtime

- Final Fight

- Phantasy Star (depending on your feelings on the series)

- Someone mentioned it before but Disney Aladdin is still surprisingly fun to play. It's actually a better platformer then it should be.

- MK II is still alright.

phantasy star 4 holds up

2 is a rough one unless you know your going into an 80s era jrpg

This is probably worth checking out if you're that interested.

It contains Kid Chameleon as well, which is what I was going to recommend.

Mother fuckin Tiny Toon Adventures: ACME All-Stars

Streets of Rage 2 was probably my favorite Genesis game.

Shinobi 3

Sonic 2

Contra Hard Corps

Beyond Oasis

Tiny Toons Acme Allstars

Kid Chameleon

Aladdin

Castlevania Bloodlines

Streets of Rage 2

The Adventures of Batman and Robin

M.U.S.H.A, Thunder Force IV and Gley Lancer. They're shoot em ups.

Contra: Hard Corps

Vectorman 1+2

Streets of Rage series

Comix Zone

Kid Chameleon

Revenge of Shinobi

NBA Jam

Lion King/Aladdin

Road Rash series

Tiny Toons

Earthworm Jim

Boogerman

And I still love the Sonics, dammit.

Am I right in saying that Gunstar Heroes and Shining Force are both Genesis games? They are good games.

I think E-Swat still holds up.

Toe Jam and Earl

While Toe Jam and Earl 2 is a far departure from 1 I enjoyed it.

Most of the others I can think of have already been mentioned.

The ooze, booger man (if just for the experience), earth worm Jim 1 + 2, sonic and knuckles

DAT JURASSIC PARK DOE

BATMAN FOREVER THE MOVIE (it's mk, platformer but batman!)

Thing is, if you get stuck in anything Genesis Please for the love of god use a guide and don't give up - some of the first levels are just meant to give renters longer play session OR force them when they restart just to have a longer time (like the lion king monkey puzzle in level 2)

Also: Aladdin and freaking JUNGLE BOOK!

I need to go bust out my retro great now, dang it..

Forgot to add: Xmen (another hard one, don't give up!)

xmen 2 (way more accessible)

You can choose an xman and have these different platformers in two really great platformers

Aaaaand pretty much any spiderman game, but maximum carnage or the sequel with coop separation anxiety are still gold - but that hard as nails xmen/spiderman arcade's revenge is just nuts.

Regarding best deal - get a "lot" on Ebay. Most of these games I pick up for like $10-$20 from a local shop, but really 8 bucks by themselves on ebay or even a "lot" for anything less than $8 per cart is worth the money.

Gunstar Heroes still really holds up well.

I remember loving Rocket Knight Adventures but I haven't played it since I was a kid so whether or not it still holds up is another question.

GUNSTAR HEROES

I like playing old games so they almost always hold up for me. There's been some great games mentioned above and I'll re-list a couple:

Streets of Rage 2 - easily the best of the three with the first game not being too far off it. If 2d beat em ups are your thing.

Landstalker - An isometric Zelda like Action Adventure game that has a lot of depth.

Jungle Strike - Isometric helicopter shooter. Relies on a bit more strategy than modern imitations such as Renegade Ops.

Aladdin - Great platformer, great charm, graphics and sound.

NBA Jam - Either the original or the tournament edition is still entertaining with 2 or more players.

Rocket Knight Adventures - The first(?) platformer that blended other genres in one game.

Ecco the Dolphin - Hard as nails but as long as you pay attention to the clues given to you, you'll enjoy some of the best graphics and sound to come out of the Megadrive.

Shinobi 3, aka the greatest GEN game ever.

Herzog Zwei is still rad. A pretty cool FPS on the system is Zero Tolerance. Looks really good for a Genesis FPS, even though the levels are entirely flat like they were in Wolfenstein 3-D and Blake Stone. Has a crazy link cable multiplayer mode which used a proprietary cable hooked up to the second controller port, I doubt you'll be able to find any of those in the wild.

The Genesis also had a bunch of simulator games, which all had terrible framerate but were still pretty cool. Some of them still look alright too, such as F-117 Night Storm.

I don't know, but those are the kinds of games I've enjoyed the most going back to, really don't care for Sonic or those kinds of platformers that there were plenty of on the system (Ecco is still great though).

If you track down a Sega CD I strongly recommend GameArt's shoot 'em up Silpheed. Incredible looking and sounding game on that system.

Streets of Rage 2, ToeJam and Earl, and Ecco the Dolphin (2 I think, they weren't numbered) were my favourite Megadrive games, despite me never getting past the 2nd level of Ecco :D

Kid Chameleon

Battletoads

World of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck

Altered Beast

Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition

Mortal Kombat and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (The one without Scorpion is inferior)

Aladdin

Lion King

Quackshot

Streets of Rage

And the best Genesis game of all time Moonwalker

Others people have probably mentioned already- I could keep going, but I won't.

Two not mentioned yet:

Crusader of Centy

Wiz 'n' Liz: The Frantic Wabbit Wescue

The first is a Zelda clone. A very good Zelda clone. The second a platformer that plays really well and has some interesting mechanics not typical of platformers of the era.

Pulseman

I've only seen one person mention Shining Force. Those games are awesome. They are basically FF Tactics.

General Chaos and Bonaza Bros. are great two-player games. General Chaos in particular.

BTW, can't believe someone actually recommended Batman Forever. Yuck!

• Ecco: The Tides of Time (mainly because dolphins are cool, and it's better than the first game)
• Comix Zone (mainly because of the great concept, which is well executed too)
• Ristar (mainly because of the great graphics)

Are the Altered Beast mentions just sneaky troll attempts. That game is on most people's worst games of all time list. It's like E.T. And Friday the 13th for a new generation.

Look to the 3 being released on the 3DS in the next 6 months!!

• Streets of Rage (any of them)
• Any of the Phantasy Stars if you like RPG's, 4 is the best.
• Sonic 2
• Either of the Oasis games. (was the second one on Dreamcast???)
• Shining Force
• Shining in the Darkness (If you like first person dungeon crawler RPG's)
• Shinobi 3
• Gunstar Heroes
• Castlevania Bloodlines (actually one of the old school best 2d Castlevania's)
• Landstalker (awesome overhead action adventure game, think like genesis version of Zelda)
• Vectorman (really good platformer/shooter)

Wow that's a lot to sift through! Thanks for all the suggestions guys!

• Desert Strike
• Flashback

@carlthenimrod:;D

Gunstar Heroes.