A few weeks ago, I looked at the best SNES games that I’ve played so far. I’ve also looked at the NES games that I’ve played. Now, I want to look at the Sega Genesis games that I’ve played and make a list of those.
I don’t think I’ve played as many games for this system. While it has a lot of games that I enjoy, they aren’t in the genres that I typically go for. There are a lot of arcade ports and sports games. These can be fun for retrospectives, but not games that I typically do reviews of.
Just like the other lists I’ve done, these games are taken from my YouTube channel and from my blog. This means that there won’t be a lot of the “Best Games of All Time” on this list. Especially, since this reflects my personal preference. Let’s get into the list.
TLDR: A list of the best Sega Genesis Games I’ve Played So far.
Phantasy Star IV
This is the best RPG on the system. Phantasy Star IV brings the series story to a conclusion and explains many of the things that happened in the previous games. It has the best graphics, gameplay, and story out of all four games.
Phantasy Star IV’s story is pretty good. It starts off similar to the other games, where you have to defeat Dark Force. Then, you learn that there is much more to it, and that the events of the other games were part of a greater plot. I do like how this plays out, and how parts of the other games play into it.
This was the first game I played in this series, and the one that made me want to go back and play the others. The comic book cutscenes were amazing back in the day, and I liked how different it was from the other RPGs I’d played. It was a weekend rental for my friends and me, but one of the first games I bought when I started collecting games for the Sega Genesis. It is always fun to revisit this game.
General Chaos
General Chaos is one of the games that I didn’t know existed until I started collecting retro games. My friend Justin introduced me to this, and it was one of the party games we played during a spring break. There is a much longer story to that, but I won’t get into it here.
This is a very simple arcade war game. You pick a group of soldiers and fight the enemy soldiers. There are sides to this war, and a little background on who these two characters are. You play as General Chaos, and you have to defeat General Havok. It is like a cartoonishly violent version of capture the flag.
General Chaos is one of the unique games that EA used to publish back when they cared. It helped the Genesis stand out from what was on the SNES, and it is a very fun game. There isn’t too much to the single-player game, but it really shines during multiplayer. Just about all of my memories are of the multiplayer mode.
Phelios
Phelios is a vertical scrolling Greek-themed shoot’em up. It’s a pretty fun and challenging game, and one that I played in the last year. Unlike many of the games on this list, I didn’t play or collect it in the 1990s or 2000s. The first time I heard about this game was through YouTube.
You play as the god Apollo, and you ride Pegasus into battle. This is the biggest problem with the game, as your character’s sprite is quite large. Your goal is to defeat Typhon and free Artimus. There are some temporary weapons you can get, but your main weapon is a single-shot sword. Like in the R-Type games, you can charge up the sword for a more powerful shot.
This was a fun game that I wish I had played earlier. Phelios has some great things in it, and I like the setting quite a bit. The controls and graphics are also quite good.
Gemfire
This is a wonderful fantasy strategy game on the Genesis. If you’re in other parts of the world, you might know this game as Royal Blood. There isn’t much difference between the different versions of the game as far as I can tell.
Gemfire is a simplified version of games like Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Genghis Khan, and Nobunaga’s Ambition. What helps it stand out is the introduction of fantasy characters like Dragons. It also has a battle screen that reminds me of Heroes of Might and Magic, or at least a simple version of it.
The graphics are decent enough for what this game is, but the gameplay is what stuck with me. Once I learned how to play it, I found a fun little strategy game. There are several scenarios and factions for the player to try, and it is more accessible than other strategy games like this.
Shining Force
Shining Force is a solid tactical RPG. On a system that doesn’t have a lot of RPGs to begin with, this is one of the better ones. There weren’t too many tactical/strategy RPGs on the Genesis or SNES, and seeing something like this was different enough to stand out.
The plot isn’t all that amazing. It is a fairly standard high fantasy story where you have to stop a doomsday event. There is quite a bit of exploration in this game, which is necessary to find all the possible characters. This is an interesting way of doing things because most RPGs in this subgenre don’t have the player explore at all.
I think the first time I played this game was on the Dreamcast. It came with a disc of classic Sega games, and that was one of them. I could be remembering this wrong, but I’m pretty sure it was on that disc. Eventually, I found a copy and played the game in the late 2000s, and had fun with it each time I revisited the game.
Saturday Night Slam Masters
Saturday Night Slam Masters is the wrestling game that I had the most fun with out of all the Sega Genesis wrestling games. It is a wonderful arcade wrestling game, even if it isn’t as good as the SNES version of the game. Capcom really nailed it with this game.
Like other arcade wrestling games and Capcom fighting games, the story is bare bones. You have a group of wrestlers who are fighting for a championship, and you go on a world tour to defeat them. Also, Mayor Mike Hagar is in the game, which makes this a spin-off of the Final Fight games. It’s a nice addition.
There weren’t too many wrestling games on the Genesis, and this was the best out of all of them. The controls and graphics are great! It is a simple wrestling game, and I had more fun with it than with any other wrestling game on the system.
Captain America and the Avengers
This is one of the better beat’em ups on the Genesis. Captain America and the Avengers has a few stages where it turns into a side-scrolling shoot’em up, which is always fun to see. I missed out on the arcade game, so this was my first experience with it. It is a solid beat’em up, and I had a lot of fun with it.
In this game, the Red Skull has mind-controlled a few villains into attacking the world. The Avengers have to figure out what is going on and put a stop to it. If you have to play one of the console versions of the game, this is the one to play. It is miles better than the SNES version. While you can only control a few of the Avengers, a few others appear in the game.
The little cutscenes in this game were great! It has solid gameplay, but the graphics were what really caught my attention. They were great, and I loved the overall look of the characters, stages, and cutscenes. While it isn’t the best beat’em up on the system, it is one of the better ones.
The Punisher
The Punisher is one of the many beat’em ups that I didn’t know about. I had no idea that there was an arcade game based on The Punisher, and I didn’t follow the comics. The only experience I had with this character was on the Spider-Man cartoon, and that is something that I barely remember.
In this game, you play as either The Punisher or Nick Fury. The goal of the game is to defeat Kingpin. Along the way, you fight a bunch of robots and villains from the comics. There are a bunch of weapons you can pick up along the way, as well as the standard power-ups that are in most beat’em ups from this era.
I have this on one of my Arcade 1up cabinets. That was the first time I heard of this game, and then I played the Genesis version. I must’ve bought the console port at some point, because I had forgotten about it. When I went back to play it, I really enjoyed it. The game has great graphics and solid gameplay.
Mercs
Mercs is the sequel to Commando, and one of several Capcom games that Sega ported to the Genesis. In an attempt to get around Capcom’s console exclusivity deal with Nintendo, Sega handled the development of the game itself. They did this with a few arcade ports.
There are two modes in this game. One is the standard Arcade mode, and the other adds some shops to buy power-ups and has more levels. Sega did a great job of adding value to this arcade post. It is something that I wish other developers had done with their games. I also wish Sega had done this with a few of their arcade ports.
Mercs is a game that I first played in the 2010s. I didn’t live near an arcade when I was a kid, so I didn’t play or know about most of the arcade ports on the NES and Genesis. As far as I knew, the console versions were the original game. This is one of the games that I would’ve liked when I was a kid. I enjoy it now, but I would’ve liked to have played it with my friends back in the 1990s.
Steel Empire
Steel Empire has a story that feels like it should be in a different genre of video game. It is a side scrolling Shoot’em up where you pilot zeppelins. The game has you changing directions from time to time, which kind of feels like an excuse to use all the buttons on the three-button controller.
This game is similar to other shoot’em ups. There is a steampunk theme to the enemies, and eventually you end up in space. There are a few wrinkles to the gameplay in an effort to help the game stand out. You have two planes to choose from, and levels end with a fight against a big boss. You’ll also have to shoot forward and back, which is a nice twist.
The story is what helped this game stand out for me. I first played it back in the late 1990s, and it managed to stick with me. What I remember most is picking this game up and having no idea what it was. Back in the day, if you bought a used game, the only thing you had to go on was the title and the picture on the cartridge.
Streets of Rage 2
The Streets of Rage games have been in my collection for a very long time. I’ve had them since I started collecting retro games, and they’re still fun to go back and play. Streets of Rage 2 is my favorite from the original three. One of the funnier things is that this game has a Mike Hagar rip-off in it.
This game has the best characters out of the first three games, the graphics are great, and the gameplay is wonderful! The story is pretty good, and there are plenty of moments where I can laugh at the game. I like to think that most of the enemies are simply defending themselves from some jerk who is randomly beating people up. Especially when you wander through an arcade in the game.
I played this game a lot with my friend Alex. We played quite a few beat’em ups back in high school. Neither of us took these games all that seriously, and it was more fun to play with someone else. When I went back to play this, it brought back a lot of those old memories.
Toe Jam and Earl
This is one of the games that made me want to buy a Genesis. My friend Eric owned this game, and we played it several times in the early 1990s. This game felt very different from the other video games I was used to playing.
At the time, I hadn’t played anything like this game. You have to collect pieces of a spaceship so you can escape from Earth. The game gets progressively harder as you go, and it is filled with jokes that made more sense in the 1990s. It felt much cooler than the games on the NES that I was used to playing.
I don’t think we beat this game back in the day. What I do remember is playing a lot during a few summer breaks. It was one of the Genesis games that really stood out because of how different it was.
The Haunting
I didn’t hear about this game until the 2010s. It is a very unique horror game, and a sad reminder of how EA used to value creativity. The Haunting has the player control a ghost and try to scare a family out of a series of homes. There is a whole backstory to the game’s story.
The player’s character was killed in a skateboarding accident, which could’ve been avoided if the company had made the skateboards safer. You then spend the game terrorizing the four family members and have them flee a few homes. This all leads up to a fight with the family’s dog.
The best part of this game is seeing the different scares. Some are controlled by the player, and others are proximity-based scares. I wish there were more games like this. It would be really cool if this game got a modern sequel similar to what happened to Toe Jam and Earl.
Mutant League Football
Mutant League Football is another unique game published by EA. This is an ultra-violent arcade football game. It was exclusive to the Genesis, which is pretty cool! It was a weekend rental for my friends, and I remember having a lot of fun with it.
Some of the teams in the game are parodies of NFL teams, and the players have comedic names. This is a 7-on-7 football game, there are environmental hazards on the field, and the rules are greatly relaxed. It is also possible to win the game by killing the other players.
I’ve gone back to play this game a few times. It is a very good football game, but it has some of the same issues that are present in other football games from this time. Because of the increased violence, this game is able to stand out from the other football games.
TMNT: Hyperstone Heist
This is my favorite beat’em up on the Sega Genesis. It is a wonderful game! It has some similarities with Turtles in Time on the SNES, mostly because it was based on that version of the game. Having both versions is pretty cool from a collector’s standpoint.
In this game, you play as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and you have to stop the Shredder from doing something. It is a fairly standard plot for a TMNT game, and it leads you through a series of levels. The controls and the graphics are very good! This was the beat’em up that I had the most fun with.
I don’t remember if I played this game in the 1990s when I was collecting retro games. As far as I can remember, I started playing it in the 2010s. The first time I remember playing it was after seeing a YouTube video about it. Hyperstone Heist is a great beat’em up that is on par with Turtles in Time.
Castlevania: Bloodlines
Castlevania: Bloodlines is the only game from the series to show up on the Genesis. It is quite different from the SNES version, which is always nice to see. There are two playable characters, which creates some options for the player when trying to get through each level.
This plays more like the NES games, specifically the first and third. One of the characters uses a whip, and the other uses a spear. The game takes place across Europe, and you’re trying to stop people from bringing Dracula back. I mean, what else would you expect from the plot of a Castlevania game?
Games like this are why I enjoyed collecting retro games. I didn’t know it existed until the early 2000s, and I had a lot of fun with it when I was younger. When I revisited it, I found it to be a great game. I love the graphics, and the differences in the gameplay are quite fun while still sticking to a familiar formula.
Phantasy Star III
I’ve changed my mind on Phantasy Star III over the years. When I first played it, I didn’t like it very much because I was comparing it to the fourth game. I played this series in reverse order, so I was comparing all of the games to the fourth in the series.
The story is told across three generations of heroes, and there are four endings. The setting is also different as the game takes place on a spaceship. A different development team made this game, which makes it feel different from the other games in the series. It has a muted color palette, but the gameplay is better than that of the previous game in the series.
This is one of the games that I’m glad I revisited. It was much better than I remember it being, and it was a lot of fun to play. Phantasy Star III took the series in a different direction, and I wish this team had been given another chance at making a Phantasy Star game. Especially since this group of people is still out in space. If Sega ever wanted to make a Phantasy Star V, I hope they follow where this colony ship went and what they’ve been doing.
Conclusion
There are a lot of games that I haven’t had a chance to play yet. When I looked over all the games I’ve played for the Genesis, I was surprised by how few there were. I was expecting to see around one hundred, and I wasn’t even close to that. Granted, this does give me a good reason to revisit this next year to see if anything has changed.
There are a bunch of games that I remember playing with my friends. This was the go-to system for most of the kids I grew up with. For some reason, I lived in an area where everyone owned a Genesis instead of an SNES. When I started collecting retro games in the late 1990s, I was the one who gravitated towards the Genesis instead of the SNES.
I know that there are plenty of good and great games on the system. There are also a bunch of games in my collection that I really haven’t played too much, or don’t remember playing. I’ll hopefully get to more of them in the coming year, and this list will look a little different the next time I put one together.
If you liked this post, check out my other Best games so far lists. So far, I’ve done them for the NES and the SNES.