Sega-16's Top 100 Mega Drive/Genesis games (please read post #5 before posting)

[Seingalt]

I'm honestly curious to see if Xeno Crisis or Paprium (or any other homebrew, but I guess those are the ones with the more chances to) are entering many top 20

That's one of the most interesting things about the voting for me, too.
Barone's and Benkei789's votes put Xeno Crisis currently even in the Top 20 overall; however no votes so far for the other high-profile new releases like Paprium, Pier Solar, Ultracore, Tanglewood or Beggar Prince.

[Zebbe]

1. Phantasy Star IV
2. Gunstar Heroes
3. Revenge of Shinobi
4. Shining in the Darkness
5. Alien Soldier
6. Streets of Rage II
7. Landstalker
8. Thunder Force IV
9. Contra: Hard Corps
10. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
11. Elitserien 96 (NHL 96)
12. Road Rash II
13. Light Crusader
14. Ecco the Dolphin
15. Xeno Crisis
16. Star Cruiser
17. ToeJam & Earl
18. Herzog Zwei
19. Mega Man: The Wily Wars
20. Langrisser II

[Barone]

That's one of the most interesting things about the voting for me, too.
Barone's and Benkei789's votes put Xeno Crisis currently even in the Top 20 overall; however no votes so far for the other high-profile new releases like Paprium, Pier Solar, Ultracore, Tanglewood or Beggar Prince.

Honestly, I feel like Xeno Crisis is the only one solid all around to really exchange punches with the heavy hitters.

Compatibility, AI, collision detection, hit boxes, control response and lack of any major/critical bug.
Those are entry-level attributes to be in this list IMO and they already eliminate most of the games you cited and some others out there.

Then you have the AAA graphics and sounds of Xeno Crisis which are better than most of the other games' in my list.
And a very solid, challenging and well-balanced gameplay experience to support all of that.


Regarding recent releases or re-releases, I think both Canon: Legends of the New Gods and Brave Battle Saga - The Legend of The Magic Warrior are likely in the same ballpark of Beggar Prince; but there are far better RPGs in the MD's limited library and those recent releases have some serious bugs.

Another game you didn't list is Water Margin - The Tales of Clouds and Winds. It is quite repetitive (especially in single player), has pacing issues, pixel art issues in the background and the soundtrack is mediocre at best; but it has a solid engine.
I could see people including it in a beat'em up-heavy list after SOR2, SOR3 and one of the Golden Axe games.

[Team Andromeda]

Here's my top 20

1) Revenge Of Shinobi

2) Ghouls N Ghosts

3) Greatest Heavyweights

4) Golden Axe

5) Super Hang-On

6) Strider

7) Star Flight

8) SOR II

9) EA Hockey

10) QuackShot

11) Gynoug

12) Thunder Force IV

13) Buck Rogers

14) Desert Strike

15) Shadow Dancer

16) Mercs

17) John Madden

18) PGA Golf 3

19 Bria Lara 96

20) Battle Squadron

[Baloo]

1. Sonic 3 & Knuckles
2. Streets of Rage II
3. Sonic the Hedgehog
4. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
5. TMNT: The Hyperstone Heist
6. Quackshot
7. Castle of Illusion
8. Toejam and Earl
9. Ghouls n Ghosts
10. NBA Jam
11. Aladdin
12. Ronald McDonalds Treasure Land Adventure
13. YuYu Hakusho: Sunset Fighters
14. Comix Zone
15. Gunstar Heroes
16. Castlevania: Bloodlines
17. Thunder Force IV
18. General Chaos
19. Shinobi III
20. Strider

What a hard list to make. Feel like ports and sports games will inevitably get snubbed in a modern Top 20 list based on the ability to play other versions in 2020. But hard to leave NBA Jam off of there. Some games I feel have aged horribly because of improved sequels as well, while others have aged like fine wine. To me, MKII and Street Fighter II play like crap now, but they were a ton of fun at the time of the console launch. I feel like taste will play in big as well. Lots of good RPGs on the Genesis but I didnt think any of them (Shining in the Darkness, Shining Force, Landstalker) could realistically replace any of the games in my Top 20. I am sure there are those who will disagree. But a fun project nonetheless.

[Seingalt]

Here's my top 20

1) Revenge Of Shinobi

2) Ghouls N Ghosts

4) Golden Axe

5) Super Hang-On

6) Strider

7) Star Flight

8) SOR II

9) EA Hockey

10) QuackShot

11) Gynoug

12) Thunder Force IV

13) Buck Rogers

14) Desert Strike

15) Shadow Dancer

16) Mercs

17) John Madden

18) PGA Golf 3

19 Bria Lara 96

20) Battle Squadron

Thanks for contributing to this as well as to the Master System poll.
Unfortunately the 3rd place on your list is missing.

[sjorspion]

1 Sonic 3 & Knuckles
2 Adventures of Batman & Robin
3 Mega Turrican
4 Street of Rage 2
5 Batman
6 Golden Axe
7 Earthworm Jim
8 Aladdin
9 Ecco the Dolphin
10 Shinobi 3
11 Revenge of Shinobi
12 Xenon Crisis
13 Gunstar Heroes
14 Comic Zone
15 Alien Soldier
16 Rock n' Roll Racing
17 Beyond Oasis (Story of Thor)
18 Bio Hazard Battle
19 Tiny Toons Adventures - Buster's Hidden Treasure
20 Yuu Yuu Hakusho - Sunset Fighters

[RvR]

1. Sonic 3 and Knuckles
2. Sonic 2
3. Sonic
4. Contra The Hard Corps (J)
5. Comix Zone
6. Gunstar Heroes
7. Ghouls n Ghosts
8. Gleylancer
9. Bloodlines
10. Splatterhouse 3
11. Revenge of Shinobi
12. Bare knuckle 3
13. SoR 2
14: Top Fighter 2000 MKVIII (yes it did have a physical release)
15. Fatal Fury
16. Mortal Kombat 2
17. Road Rash 2
18. Battlemania 2
19. Thunderforce 3
20. Street Fighter 2


The quality over favorite rule basically just inverted the order of the sonic games for me. Also cool to see so many people listing Xeno Crisis.

[Cafeman]

1. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
2. Sonic the Hedgehog
3. Streets of Rage 2
4. Super Hang On
5. Road Rash
6.Ecco the Dolphin
7.Earthworm Jim
8. MUSHA
9. Gunstar Heroes
10. Sonic 3 + K
11.Shinobi 3
12.Revenge of Shinobi
13.Ristar
14.Flashback
15.Shining Force II
16.Comix Zone
17. Adventures of Batman and Robin
18. Lightening Force (TF4)
19.NHL94
20. Super Monaco GP

I may tweak this list after reviewing it.

[Seingalt]

18. Street Fighter 2

I assume that you refer to the Special Champion Edition (not the Super version)?

[chilled]

Fun to see that many oddball choices in the top 10 or even top 5 of many of those lists.Very weird choices considering what is left out by including them. I guess the personal experience differs quite a lot from one person to another.

[Seingalt]

Regarding recent releases or re-releases, I think both Canon: Legends of the New Gods and Brave Battle Saga - The Legend of The Magic Warrior are likely in the same ballpark of Beggar Prince; but there are far better RPGs in the MD's limited library and those recent releases have some serious bugs.

Another game you didn't list is Water Margin - The Tales of Clouds and Winds. It is quite repetitive (especially in single player), has pacing issues, pixel art issues in the background and the soundtrack is mediocre at best; but it has a solid engine.
I could see people including it in a beat'em up-heavy list after SOR2, SOR3 and one of the Golden Axe games.

I listed only the new releases that received the most attention and presumably the highest sales; of course that doesn't mean that these are the only noteworthy new games.

I bought and played through all three games you mentioned:
- Water Margin's graphics and colors are quite impressive, unfortunately the number of attack moves is very limited which makes the game very repetitive; another issue is that the difficulty is too low.
- Canon had some bright moments and I'm a fan of the TRPG genre but these respawning enemies really got on my nerves, making large parts of the game quite tedious.
- Brave Battle Sage was the one of these three that I enjoyed by far the most and I wouldn't be surprised if it shows up in someone's Top 20.

Another game that I could possibly see someone including is Tänzer. However because of the limited sales I would call this game a hidden gem, not a high-profile release.

[Barone]

Fun to see that many oddball choices in the top 10 or even top 5 of many of those lists.Very weird choices considering what is left out by including them. I guess the personal experience differs quite a lot from one person to another.

I'm curious to know what do you consider "oddball" and "very weird" choices.

I bought and played through all three games you mentioned:
- Water Margin's graphics and colors are quite impressive, unfortunately the number of attack moves is very limited which makes the game very repetitive; another issue is that the difficulty is too low.
- Canon had some bright moments and I'm a fan of the TRPG genre but these respawning enemies really got on my nerves, making large parts of the game quite tedious.
- Brave Battle Sage was the one of these three that I enjoyed by far the most and I wouldn't be surprised if it shows up in someone's Top 20.

Another game that I could possibly see someone including is Tänzer. However because of the limited sales I would call this game a hidden gem, not a high-profile release.

Thanks for the comments on those games. I played them quite a lot too.
Brave Battle Saga is quite addictive.
Water Margin was probably stretched out too thin; it shouldn't be much longer than the first Golden Axe but I feel like it has more waves of enemies and it takes too long.
Also, it doesn't have the mounted units that GA had and which helped to spice things up a little bit.

Yes, I forgot about Tänzer.
If has very good ideas but some annoying bugs too. And, yes, I could see it being included too.

[sjorspion]

Fun to see that many oddball choices in the top 10 or even top 5 of many of those lists.Very weird choices considering what is left out by including them. I guess the personal experience differs quite a lot from one person to another.

Depends on what you define as `weird. It can be easy to just choose all the latest releases which where (most of the time) graphical superior because of there bigger Meg-sizes. So some early games can be impressing considering there meg-cart-size.

[Seingalt]

Made an addition to post #5 today:

For comparison I will also provide an alternative Top 100 ranking that weighs all lists equally irrespective of the voter’s Rep Power. However Rep Power will still be used for step 4 of the tie breaking procedure.

The "official" ranking that will be posted at the front of the thread will of course still incorporate the Rep Power multiplier.