Best Non-SEGA Games for the Genesis/Mega Drive

[Nz17]

Simple as that: What are the best games for the Genesis (A.K.A. Mega Drive) that weren't published by SEGA?

[Niku-Sama]

I liked the gauntlet

[FieryReign]

Obvious answer would be Konami's output, aside from those 2 lazy arcade remixes of TMNT and Sunset Riders. Contra was ugly, goofy, and too hard. The rest were solid.

Warsong was great, one of the few strategy games that didn't bore me to sleep. Robocop vs Terminator was badass. I'll stop there.

[Flynn]

Another World is a huge game. But wasn't published only on Mega Drive. Also, Earthworm Jim, and Micro Machines series :)

[Steve W]

The Chaos Engine (known as Soldiers of Fortune here in the US) was always fun but kind of tough, Outlander started out life as a Mad Max game before the license was lost, it's fairly long and I never managed to get the good ending (if there is one). I always liked Galahad, which is a port of the Psygnosis Amiga game Leander, but with atrocious sound. I always liked Toki - Going Ape Spit, it's a decent port of an oddball arcade game that wasn't widely ported, and Todd's Adventures in Slime World was another favorite with me, mainly because I loved the Atari Lynx original. Dragon's Fury is a loose adaptation of the PC Engine game Devil Crush, and RoadBlasters is a solid arcade port.

[Alianger]

Simple as that: What are the best games for the Genesis (A.K.A. Mega Drive) that weren't published by SEGA?

Well I could list about a hundred worth playing, what genres do you like?

Edit: Top 50, only including multi-plats that are mostly better on MD.
1. Panorama Cotton - Success
2. Rocket Knight Adventures - Konami
3. Micro Machines: Turbo Tournament '96 – Codemasters
4. Langrisser II (fan translated) – Masaya
5. Contra: Hard Corps (JP or modded ver.) – Konami
6. Battle Mania Daiginjou - Vic Tokai
7. Thunder Force IV – Technosoft
8. Thunder Force III – Technosoft
9. M.U.S.H.A. – Compile
10. Dynamite Headdy (JP version) – Treasure

11. Mega Turrican – Factor 5
12. Sonic the Hedgehog with Tails (Hack)
13. Sonic Classic Heroes (Hack)
14. Castlevania: Bloodlines – Konami
15. TMNT: The Hyperstone Heist – Konami
16. General Chaos – EA
17. Alisia Dragoon – Game Arts
18. Super Fantasy Zone - Sunsoft
19. Twinkle Tale – Zap
20. Gaiares – Telenet Japan

21. Earthworm Jim 2 – Shiny Entertainment (w/ weapon select hack)
22. Eliminate Down – Aprinet
23. NHL '96 – EA
24. Herzog Zwei – Technosoft
25. Mega Man: The Wily Wars – Capcom (emulation (Regen Debug) is preferable because you can easily remove all slowdown and restore some mechanics to NES style that way)
26. Metal Sonic Hyperdrive (Hack)
26. Disney's Aladdin – Virgin Interactive
27. Advanced Busterhawk Gley Lancer (fan translated) – NCS
28. Elemental Master – Technosoft
29. Rock N Roll Racing – Blizzard/Interplay (w/ bonemagee's hack)
30. The Lost Vikings – Silicon & synapse (higher res than SNES ver. helps gameplay, it retains 3-player from the DOS ver. and sounds noticeably better than it)

31. Rolling Thunder 3 – Namco
32. Wiz 'n Liz – Psygnosis
33. Soleil (Crusader of Centy)(EU version somewhat better translated)
34. Pulseman – Game Freak
35. High School Soccer Kunio Kun – Technos (port of Nintendo World Cup that plays a bit differently)
36. Bubba N Stix – Core (easier/less frustrating than on the Amiga)
37. Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster’s Hidden Treasure – Konami
38. Chuck Rock II – Core (better level design than on the Amiga and MCD)
39. Dragon's Fury – Technosoft
40. Splatterhouse 3 – Namco

41. Pirates! Gold – MicroProse
42. Warsong/Langrisser – Masaya
43. NHL '95
44. Steel Empire
45. Devil Hunter Yohko – NCS
46. Fire Shark – Toaplan
47. Puggsy – Traveller’s Tales
48. Gynoug – Masaya
49. The Lion King (better controls, higher res IIRC)
50. Two Crude Dudes – Opera House

[Wraith Storm]

There were a ton of great non Sega games on the genesis.

In addition to some excellent games already mentioned I'll list some of my favorites in no particular order.

Wings of Wor
Elemental Master
Steel Empire
(3 of my favorite shmups ever made)

Ranger X (Excellent and unique Run N' Gun)
Two Crude Dudes (Simple, fun brawler with fantastic Hitoshi Sakimoto sound track)

[FieryReign]

Toki and Ranger-X were both published by Sega. Almost forgot about Namco. Splatterhouse 2+3, Rolling Thunder 2+3, Phelios, etc.

[The 1 2 P]

TMNT: The Hyperstone Heist and Spider-Man, although apparently Sega produced Spider-Man but it was developed by Technopop.

[Tanooki]

I'm in no way an expert just finally owning one again for a couple days after a good decade, and even back then I was work and multi-console swamped too.

That said though, non-Sega published I can think of some. Easy enough you can toss out the Konami stuff like Rocket Knight Adventures (which got some download rental re-release fairly recently) and the TMNT game too and obviously Castlevania and Contra. Capcom got their fighters but really that excellent Ghouls n Ghosts title. The stuff that Renovation published, they grabbed some insane stuff from various places, including a good one for consistency Technosoft. I currently their last one Elemental Attack which is fantastic, but also I recall being good - Gaiares, Exile, Valis 1-3, Arcus Odyssey, Ys3, and Sol-Deace. Technosoft also had some stuff picked off by Sega like Thunderforce, but Tengen got their hands in a few things like Devils Crash / Dragon's Fury (Devils Crush TG16 pinball) from them too. Tengen also popped out some gems like Gauntlet IV, the Atari arcade conversions, Dragon's Revenge (sequelt to Dragons Fury), Prince of Persia, and Grind Stormer. Dreamworks also put out Fire Shark another stunning shooter.

I also have 2 personal favorite PC conversions Sega had no hand in, one even was entirely unlicnsed -- Ballistic released Star Control and well known bitchin Disney game releaser Virgin Interactive put out Dune (2) The Battle for Arrakis, westwood studios original RTS precursor to C&C.

Be advised though Tengen used crap boards supposedly, they tend to fail causing the games not to work, so run the risk, or buy a lame educational/sports game and pop n' swap the game chip and it'll live once more!

[SparTonberry]

From what I heard that Rocket Knight game was a new one, not a re-release.

[Alianger]

Ghouls 'n Ghosts on MD was all Sega, programmed mainly by Yuji Naka himself IIRC. I would've recommended Dune 2 if it had mouse support.

[Nz17]

I asked this question / created this thread because just like the Intellivision and Atari all-in-one consoles, you see so many SEGA all-in-ones but the games on these things are always from a small handful of companies (like 1-3) so that they aren't a very good representation of their respective console's heydays. And while I do like my compilations from SEGA, I want to know of the bigger scene on the 16-bit wunderkind.

With that said, of these recommendations, what are some that are 1) action games, and 2) not shoot-em-ups nor beat-em-ups nor Zelda-likes, and 3) cost $10 or less before taxes and shipping and handling? I tend to like things like Contra, Sonic, Castlevania, Gunstar Heroes, Sparkster, Rocket Knight Adventures, Vectorman, Bonanza Brothers, Flicky, etc.

[Alianger]

I think you are missing a few games that were published by Sega by only looking at compilations, like Ranger X and Puyo Puyo 2. Here's a revised and expanded list based on your criteria:
Edit: Hell, those compilations are even missing the two Monster World games and Shadowrun as well. So add those to the list if you haven't played them!

1. Panorama Cotton - Success
2. Micro Machines: Turbo Tournament '96 – Codemasters
3. Langrisser II (fan translated) – Masaya
4. Mega Turrican – Factor 5
5. Sonic the Hedgehog with Tails (Hack)
6. Sonic Classic Heroes (Hack)
7. General Chaos – EA
8. Alisia Dragoon – Game Arts
9. Super Fantasy Zone - Sunsoft
10. Twinkle Tale – Zap

11. Earthworm Jim 2 – Shiny Entertainment (w/ weapon select hack)
12. NHL '96 – EA
13. Herzog Zwei – Technosoft
14. Mega Man: The Wily Wars – Capcom (emulation (Regen Debug) is preferable because you can easily remove all slowdown and restore some mechanics to NES style that way)
15. Metal Sonic Hyperdrive (Sonic Hack)
16. Disney's Aladdin – Virgin Interactive
17. Rock N Roll Racing – Blizzard/Interplay (w/ bonemagee's hack for CD audio, new courses etc.)
18. The Lost Vikings – Silicon & synapse (higher res than SNES ver. helps gameplay, it retains 3-player from the DOS ver. and sounds noticeably better than it)
19. Rolling Thunder 3 – Namco
20. Wiz 'n Liz – Psygnosis

21. Pulseman – Game Freak
22. High School Soccer Kunio Kun – Technos (port of Nintendo World Cup that plays a bit differently)
23. Bubba N Stix – Core (easier/less frustrating than on the Amiga)
24. Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster’s Hidden Treasure – Konami
25. Chuck Rock II – Core (better level design than on the Amiga and MCD)
26. Dragon's Fury – Technosoft
27. Pirates! Gold – MicroProse
28. Warsong/Langrisser – Masaya
29. NHL '95
30. Devil Hunter Yohko – NCS

31. Puggsy – Traveller’s Tales
32. The Lion King (better controls, higher res IIRC)
33. Great Circus Mystery starring Mickey & Minnie – Capcom (worse sound and fewer colors, sometimes different level design)
34. Rampart – Tengen
35. Cannon Fodder – Sensible Software (mouse support)
36. Rolling Thunder 2 – Namco
37. Arcus Odyssey – Wolf Team
38. Klax – Tengen
39. Chiki Chiki Boys – Capcom
40. Mickey Mania - Traveller's Tales (slightly better on PS1 & MCD)

41. Uncharted Waters: New Horizons – Koei
42. Valis III – Telenet Japan
43. Vixen 357 – Masaya
44. NHL '94
45. Demolition Man - Alexandria/Acclaim
46. Snow Bros – Toaplan
47. Batman – Sunsoft
48. Misadventures of Flink – Psygnosis
49. Master of Monsters – Opera House
50. Sokoban/Shove It! – Masaya

51. The Adventures of Batman & Robin
52. James Pond II: Codename Robocod – Vectordean
53. The Jungle Book
54. Mega Panel
55. Rainbow Islands: The Story of Bubble Bobble 2 – Taito
56. Snake Rattle ‘n Roll – Rare
57. StarFlight
58. NBA Jam
59. Exo-Squad
60. Donald in Maui Mallard/Cold Shadow

61. Trampoline Terror! – Masaya
62. Wani Wani World
63. Robocop vs. Terminator
64. Battletech (best played in an emulator where you can map 2-player mode into letting you strafe)
65. Star Control
66. Rolo to the Rescue
67. Lemmings 2 (mouse support)
68. Phantom 2040 - Viacom New Media
69. Target Earth/Assault Suit Leynos

Cheap games:
http://www.racketboy.com/retro/sega/genesis/the-best-sega-genesis-games-under-10

[Tanooki]

I asked this question / created this thread because just like the Intellivision and Atari all-in-one consoles, you see so many SEGA all-in-ones but the games on these things are always from a small handful of companies (like 1-3) so that they aren't a very good representation of their respective console's heydays. And while I do like my compilations from SEGA, I want to know of the bigger scene on the 16-bit wunderkind.

Which is why I dislike atgames fairly much with their microscopic improvements to their Sega licensed handheld, I can't fault them or Sega entirely. Sega knows they can't get around the licensing **** going on by game makers because they can sell them themselves on downloads or whatever, so they created a nice workaround. The almighty SD card slot in the top and the advertise on the box you can go online to get more games. The internal manual says that it will use .BIN format files found online ...they as legally skirting as possible say go online, download ROMS, have fun since we can't put stuff we can't control on there but YOU can. :D It's the only reason why I even own one despite it not doing save games and some moderate audio issues. I can throw Konami, Capcom, Renovation, Ballistic, etc publishers games on there.

Aliangers list there is goddamned excellent if you want a kill sheet of stuff to throw on that handheld or into an emulator in general to see if it's to your liking before buying a cart, at the last good for going to google or sega-16 to research some more.

[retroman]

Tecmo Super Bowl is one. I also have always liked Pit Fighter and DJ Boy.

[Nebagram]

The very first thing I thought of when I saw this thread was 'Micro Machines'. as pointed out earlier in this thread, '96 is easily the best of the series, but MM2 (the J-cart version) is very, very good as well. he Mega Drive is also when EA were at their finest- Road Rash 2 and James Pond 2 are also worth looking into, and all of the games I've mentioned can be found relatively inexpensively.