What genesis/megadrive games turned out to be way better than you anticipated?

[GameMaster600]

Sonic 1. I seriously expected some boring Mario clone and avoided the title for a while.

While it wasn't a Mario Clone, it was extremely boring. Avoiding it is a good idea.

Anyway, Mcdonald's Treasure Land Adventure sounds like a terrible game, but as soon as I saw it was made by Treasure, I had to try it, and it actually ended up being one of my favorite Genesis games, up there with the Splatterhouse's, Decap Attack/Magical Hat, Zombies Ate My Neighbors (better on SNES but still), and Dynamite Headdy.

[SEGA.GENESIS1989]

After reading a number of negative reviews, I was pleasantly surprised when I procured a copy of Arcus Odyssey. I enjoyed the sense of exploration and discovery. The isometric view took a bit of getting used to but as with most games, you eventually learn how to play the game as it was intended.

[Solkia]

After all the shit Zero Wing got from the All your base meme, I wanted to play it just to see how bad it was. So I downloaded a rom, and now it's my second favorite shooter on the Mega Drive next to Musha.

[StarMist]

^Ha, that's funny: having seen how poorly Zero Wing's thought of round here I had nothing but high hopes, which it didn't disappoint.
Similarly I have to nominate Eliminate Down. It gets such consistently high marks I assumed it'd be gash play through mindless lv design decked in worthless special effects. Turns out it's extremely polished and fine tuned, though certain aspects of art direction leave something to be desired. Unfortunately the music is quite as bad as it's made out to be.

[Damon Plus]

McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure. No doubt about it.
Who expects anything good to be related to McDonald's?

I have to say, almost everything related to McDonalds is good. Global Gladiators was above average to me, and MC Kids on the Nes was great, IMO.

As for surprises, Flintstones is one. It bored me in my first playthrough, where I reached the third level and dismissed it as a step-down from the Nes version. But when I tried it again I found it had a lot more levels than I tought and a bit harder too.

The other big one for me was Road Rash. I picked 2 cart-only because it was very cheap, and thought at first it was a boring motorbike game. How wrong I was. I got hooked to it from day one and then purchased the first and third ones.

[Kamahl]

Similarly I have to nominate Eliminate Down. It gets such consistently high marks I assumed it'd be gash play through mindless lv design decked in worthless special effects. Turns out it's extremely polished and fine tuned, though certain aspects of art direction leave something to be desired. Unfortunately the music is quite as bad as it's made out to be.

Eliminate Down is really a game of contrast. It gets so many things right... the level design is excellent, the graphics are great for the most part, the compositions of the music are pretty badass... but then the sound effects and instruments are so grating and ear raping you have to wonder if the developers actually ever listened to them, not enough to ruin it but then you realize just how lame and uninspired the weapons are, which takes away all the joy one might have with it IMO.

[Obviously]

After all the shit Zero Wing got from the All your base meme, I wanted to play it just to see how bad it was. So I downloaded a rom, and now it's my second favorite shooter on the Mega Drive next to Musha.

It's a solid Toaplan shoot'em up. Not much else you could ask for.

[tbp]

I would say Street Fighter II ' SCE. I played the famous arcade game from Capcom, it was the "top".
The release of the title on the SNES was a kind of pressure and created a great expectation for SEGA fans.
THE question was "How the Genesis would make it with this port ?". Finally Capcom did a fine job and I was happy.

[StarMist]

Eliminate Down is really a game of contrast. It gets so many things right... the level design is excellent, the graphics are great for the most part, the compositions of the music are pretty badass... but then the sound effects and instruments are so grating and ear raping you have to wonder if the developers actually ever listened to them, not enough to ruin it but then you realize just how lame and uninspired the weapons are, which takes away all the joy one might have with it IMO.

I suspect its tonality might be an extreme case of developing for tv speakers: it should definitely be played with treble cut far down and bass moderated.
The weapons are, what, too Gradial for you? I like their graphics, that's enough for me; you must be on the more fantastic side of preference. Would it help to look at the ground shot as I do, that is as roving warrior lice?

[Kamahl]

The weapons are, what, too Gradial for you? I like their graphics, that's enough for me; you must be on the more fantastic side of preference. Would it help to look at the ground shot as I do, that is as roving warrior lice?

My problem with the weapons is that for 2 of them, the 3rd level is actually worse looking. The forward shot turns into these really lame rotating balls instead of the awesome spreadshot, the backwards shot turns into these really stupid and small Z shaped thingies, the groundshot... I have no idea what the improvement is on that one. The laser is pretty lame too, more so counting it's sound effect.

[BrianC]

I wasn't expecting much from Roadblasters, but it turned out to be a pretty good port, despite the missing voice.

[DarkDragon]

I didnt like Splatterhosue 3 at all. The time limit thing was BS and I never could beat it before the timer ran down and they dont give you enough time. The gameplay was pretty repetitive also because there werent enough moves/attacks.

Dinosaurs for Hire for me because all I saw was average to mediocre reviews and I played it and I was like "damn, this game is really fun and entertaining."

[NeoZeedeater]

Mystic Defender. Spellcaster was just okay, a disappointment compared to other SMS games. I wasn't very excited about a sequel of sorts coming so soon afterwards. It turned out to be a huge improvement.

[dapperdan]

I remember Gain Ground being great when I was a kid. Now it's difficult to come by for a decent/ bargain price.

I picked up Rolling Thunder II for about £1 in Gamestation - didn't think it would be that good, but now every time my mate comes round, we get on the co-op mode and smash it up!

[j_factor]

Hellfire, at first glance looks like a totally average, lower-tier shooter with bland graphics. Great game though.