Genesis / Mega Drive Hidden Gems

[Kreegs]

Recently hooked up my Genesis (small model) and have been playing. I know most people had a SNES during this era, but my parents got me a Genesis because of my obsession with the Sonic games. I have a pretty small library, but I do own some of the well known, great games. I also have some games that maybe were not as well known, but still really fun.

I remember playing Tiny Toons Adventures: Buster's Hidden Treasure at a friend's house because I never owned it. I recently picked this one up used and I can't recommend checking this out enough! It is a pretty tight platformer, the music is great, and the presentation is nice. It reminds me of a Sonic/Mario hybrid with an interactive map akin to Super Mario World. There are even alternate pathways and hidden level exits.

Some gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd5ZvFnUmps

Did anyone else play this game? What are some of your hidden gems on the Genesis?

[Claytone]

Ooh, good thread. I haven't poked around my Genesis collection in a little bit. One "hidden" gem that comes to mind is The Ooze. It's far from the most obscure Genesis game out there, but it's also definitely not one of the first that comes to mind for the system. It's a weird, cool game made by Sega Technical Institute (who made Comix Zone). I've still never beaten it, but I hope to one day. It's pretty tough!

Here's a video about it from Video Game Vault (one of my favorite series for this sort of thing):



I'll give my collection a look tonight when I get home and see if there's anything else in my collection to recommend.

[Kiwi the Tortoise]

I suggest Crusaders of Centy (AKA Soleil)
It's a Zelda-like that came out fairly late in the Genesis era, but it's fun and sweet.

[Kong Wen]

Warsong doesn't seem like it should be a hidden gem, and it might not be in Japan, where it warranted a release on one of Nintendo's many disparate Virtual Consoles.

It was developed by Masaya Games sub-team Team Career, which also made the Growlanser spiritual sequels to the Langrisser series, was later acquired by Atlus, and made their Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor sub-series. The problem with the original Warsong at least might stem from the fact that it was published in North America by a company called Treco, which, as far as I can tell, is now defunct.

Anyway, Warsong is a stylish turn-based grid-based tactical game that has a mix of generals/main characters and generic troop units that each general can hire before a battle. It has permanent death for the main characters, and a little promotion-tree system where you can choose between various classes as you level up. There's no world map per se—you progress naturally through set chapters. The maps have a lot of variety, though, and there are interesting enemies and events in each map.



It also famously has some of the best music even the Genesis had to offer, and many people argue that Genesis had the SNES beat in the sound department. There are some SNES soundtracks that are near and dear to my heart, but this one is hot hot hot.



This is one of my favourite games.

[Kreegs]

We should also maybe include the means to plays these games now in case people want to check them out. The Tiny Toons game is only available on the original cart to my knowledge, but it is fairly cheap on the market. I paid around 10 bucks for a pretty good copy in box.