Genesis games they love....but you hate

[Gamereviewgod]

Any Genesis games that recieved rave reviews, is loved by just about anyone, but your completely lost as to why?

Mine is Strider. Note that I'm not a huge fan of the arcade version to begin with, but the Genny version is a mess of flicker, slowdown, and piss poor controls. Never understood it's appeal except for the whole "8-meg" thing.

[8-Bit Master]

I've never really liked Vectorman, Toejam & Earl, or Ecco the Dolphin. All those games seem to be at least moderately popular among Genesis fans.

[djbeatmongrel]

mortal kombat. its a waste of bits in my opinion and for some reason i own 1 and 2 :?

[ManekiNeko]

I'm with DJ Beat Mongrel on Mortal Kombat. There's a legend that Probe and Sculptured Software competed to make the best home version of the original Mortal Kombat. I find that hard to believe, because Probe really phoned in the Genesis version of that game.

JR

[NintendoMan]

Mortal combat was fun back in the day but sucks when I paly it now!

[pango]

echo has to be one of the most boring games i have EVER played

[Red Warrior]

I've never been able to understand people's infatuation with Space Harrier. You're a floating guy who shoots blindly at things you can barely see cuz you're forced to stare at the back of your character the whole time. :hmm:

Not my idea of a good shooter. Very boring.

And I'll second Strider. After you've played the awesome NES version, there's little reason to play the others.

[Bratwurst]

Mortal Kombat hasn't aged well across the board but the 16 bit ports are sucky one way or another.

Toejam & Earl just never grabbed me, I suppose it's because I was unfortunate to not have access to it when it was new and no second player to go along with. No appreciation for where it's coming from nor nostalgia.

Sonic Spinball seems to be one of those games that people either love or hate.. I hate it. On that note the casino / pinball / amusement park themed levels in the Sonic games were supposedly the most popular ones. They are my personal hell in what are otherwise pleasant, superb games, so I grit my teeth and tolerate them while they last. The ritzy colors and forced music are the worst.

[WiseSalesman]

I pretty much didn't like the Genesis, period. It's my least favorite of the systems I own, and I don't know if I've ever finished a game on it.

[Push Upstairs]

Strider...yes. Only because i played it about like 6 months ago. Fine graphics for the time but the game doesnt do much for me.

Toejam & Earl - I liked this game back in the day but upon playing it again recently i cannot understand why people love this game so much. Very boring.

[DigitalSpace]

Altered Beast. I understand it was revolutionary for its time, but it seemed pretty average to me, and I remember playing it when my brother got it in 1995. It hasn't aged well. But that "Rise From You Grave" quote sure gave me a chuckle, I'll give it that.

[Oobgarm]

I'll definitely say ToeJam & Earl. Ecco was boring to me, and I never like Streets of Rage.

Chalk it up to the fact that I didn't grow up with a Genesis, I guess.

[Gast]

Those Shining Force & Phantasy Star Games - they appeal to me just as much as most 8bit-RPGs, the story & battle system simply don't catch me like most SNES-RPGs do.

[rbudrick]

Super Monaco GP. It got 10s in EGM (their first), and my friends raved about it. I borrowed it, and while the graphics were great for their time, I thought it was the most boring, uncontrollable game ever. I just don't get it. And I really tried to see the appeal in it....I did...I bored myself to death trying to get into it.

Then again, besides racers like F-Zero and the cart games (which I think are fun tyoes of games, generally), any "real" racing game has always been extremely boring to me....They are just slightly above watching paint dry, only without the paint. The Gran Turismos? Bah. Booooring.

-Rob

[Keir]

Earthworm Jim

[Dire 51]

Ouch, no love for Strider. Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I never had a problem with the controls, never noticed much slowdown (some flicker, yes), and always felt it was superior to the NES game, which - while great - is far buggier than either the arcade or Genny versions of Strider. It's still one of my favorite Genesis games. Journey From Darkness: Strider Returns, on the other hand... yuck. That was a piece of garbage.

I love Space Harrier too - I'm a crack shot at them, especially Space Harrier II. Shooting blindly at things? Not here.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I have to also agree with Ecco, Vectorman and Super Monaco GP. Ecco, while looking and sounding fantastic, really did bore me - it was too mazey for my tastes. Same thing with Vectorman. SMGP just didn't do anything for me.

I'd also have to add the Sonic games - they bore the hell out of me. Not just subpar crap like Sonic Spinball (which I have a special loathing for), but the major games in the series. The funny thing is I can't put my finger on what makes them so boring to me. I've tried, with no success. The graphics are great, they've got great music, the controls are good - but usually within five minutes of starting one up, I really want to play something else. I don't get it.

[Sotenga]

Erm... all sports games? I think I'm not partial to Genesis sports games because they pretty much compose of 80% of the Genesis bin at GameStop... and sports aren't my favorite genre. That doesn't help. :o

No specific games that come to mind, though I never really got into Ecco myself. Space Harrier, on the other hand... rock. Can you believe that I beat SHII the very first time I popped into my Genesis? Oh yeah, an instant classic. :D

Sorry, can't resist bragging sometimes... not a very good trait of my personality. I'm not really a Shining Force fan either, RPG's aren't my favorite genre either.

[Ed Oscuro]

Ecco on the Genesis is much less impressive than the PC CD-ROM version (also found as a pack-in on some computer systems, like the L-190 "Multimedia" version '96 Packard Bell brand PCs). That game has redbook audio (very cool, not the best CD-ROM music I've ever heard but much better than those Genesis tunes), and even a high-resolution mode. The Genesis does have a ripple effect on text messages/level name screens (the blue screen of...text), but as far as I can tell that's the only thing it's got going for it past the PC version.

[Graham Mitchell]

People seem to be hating games that I love here.

The Genesis version of Strider was a great game in my opinion, and an impressively close conversion of the coin-op version. If you play the playstation emulated version packaged with Strider 2, you'll be pretty shocked at how close it was. And the guy can cling to any surface, and has a huge sword. How could you not like that?

Ecco the Dolphin is also one of my favorites. The cart version suffered from bad music, but the Sega CD game is a frickin' masterpiece. With the proper sound tweaking, I think the designer's point got across better. The music (or lack of music at parts) from the upgraded version effectively made the game tense, creepy, relaxing, dramatic, or whatever was called for, and made it the epic it was supposed to be. The Dreamcast version is beautiful as well, in all aspects. It can be frustrating, and it may seem outdated now, but it was jaw-droppingly gorgeous in 2000. Long, and fun to play.

Space Harrier, like Ecco, relies on that "suspension of disbelief" and recognition of subtlety that is long gone in contemporary games. It's just wierd, atmospheric, and fun at it's core. It's not terribly original, but it does the old concept in a fresh way.

I think that one of the biggest turds for Genesis was Golden Axe. It didn't feel right, and they cut corners on digital sounds and visual effects for the home port. MK as well. I remember comparing it to the SNES version back in the day and wondering if the gore was really worth the crap execution.

[Ed Oscuro]

Space Harrier, like Ecco, relies on that "suspension of disbelief" and recognition of subtlety that is long gone in contemporary games. It's just wierd, atmospheric, and fun at it's core. It's not terribly original, but it does the old concept in a fresh way.

Very nice post. However, the original Space Harrier came out in 1985. I can't think of another game of its style that came before it (unless you want to count Gyruss or maybe Tempest).

[Jorpho]

Is Altered Beast still loved by many?

[ManekiNeko]

The Genesis version of Strider was a great game in my opinion, and an impressively close conversion of the coin-op version. If you play the playstation emulated version packaged with Strider 2, you'll be pretty shocked at how close it was. And the guy can cling to any surface, and has a huge sword. How could you not like that?.

Golden Grahams is right. The Genesis version of Strider was an excellent port of the arcade game. To fully appreciate it, you'd have to compare it to the TurboDuo version, which was so utterly shameful its lead designer committed suicide to shield himself from the embarassment. Or even better, compare it to Strider 2: Heart of Darkness, which could go down in history as one of the most disappointing sequels EVER.



Space Harrier, like Ecco, relies on that "suspension of disbelief" and recognition of subtlety that is long gone in contemporary games. It's just wierd, atmospheric, and fun at it's core. It's not terribly original, but it does the old concept in a fresh way.

That still doesn't change the fact that the Genesis version stunk up the joint like an exploded whale carcass (http://rezrov.perp.com/whale/whale-hi.mov). Boy was that ever the wrong system to port Space Harrier to.


I think that one of the biggest turds for Genesis was Golden Axe. It didn't feel right, and they cut corners on digital sounds and visual effects for the home port. MK as well. I remember comparing it to the SNES version back in the day and wondering if the gore was really worth the crap execution.

I'd second that vote. The two sequels were forgettable as well, especially Golden Axe III, which had such tiny sprites it could have been renamed "Honey, I Shrunk The Barbarian".

I thought Altered Beast was kind of underwhelming. I recall my brother getting really excited about it, but I could tell that it wasn't a perfect arcade translation. Most of the sweet special effects were taken out, like when you kick a zombie and its limbs go flying toward the camera. Conversely, I loved MERCS to death, while my brother had some sort of vendetta against the game for its lack of a multiplayer mode. He said, and I quote, "It's not a two player game! Hell, it's barely a ONE player game!"

JR

[Ed Oscuro]

I'd second that vote. The two sequels were forgettable as well, especially Golden Axe III, which had such tiny sprites it could have been renamed "Honey, I Shrunk The Barbarian".

http://www.vgmuseum.com/pics4/golden3.html

Not the prettiest stuff in the world, but each character had a bunch more moves in the original. Wierd, they do look small but I remembered them as being large. Oro! o_O

[Ed Oscuro]

Er, each character had more moves THAN in the original. Also, compare:

http://www.mobygames.com/game/shots/p,16/gameId,8738/
Golden Axe III

to

http://www.mobygames.com/game/shots/p,16/gameId,199/
Golden Axe

The main thing about GA III is that most everybody looks heftier (bulked up MLB muscles and such). Sprite sizes are about the same.

[Bratwurst]

I liked (and still do, in a vague way) Altered Beast. Just not enough games that feature were-dragons.

[jdc]

Well....I've got a sizeable collection of near mint Genesis games that have yet to be played through.....but I'll agree with Ecco....but only for it's high level of difficulty.

The older Phantasy Stars as well...not my thing I guess, but I love my Shining Force.

One that I'll probably be sent to burn in hell for is The Legend Of Zelda on my NES. I can't get into it at all. My favorite game of all time is Ocarina Of Time, so it's not like I don't care for Miyamoto's stuff..

[Push Upstairs]

That still doesn't change the fact that the Genesis version stunk up the joint like an exploded whale carcass (http://rezrov.perp.com/whale/whale-hi.mov). Boy was that ever the wrong system to port Space Harrier to.

Oh yeah. Space Harrier (for me) is a blast on the 32x.

Space Harrier + arcade stick = fun all around.

That bad part is that i played Space Harrier II after i had played the 32x version....SH2 was choppy as hell.

[Dire 51]

That still doesn't change the fact that the Genesis version stunk up the joint like an exploded whale carcass (http://rezrov.perp.com/whale/whale-hi.mov). Boy was that ever the wrong system to port Space Harrier to.

I think that this thread has definitely proved the saying "one man's ceiling is another man's floor" correct. I absolutely loved Space Harrier II - it remains one of my favorite Genny games to this day, and it probably always will be one of my favorites.


Or even better, compare it to Strider 2: Heart of Darkness, which could go down in history as one of the most disappointing sequels EVER.

Please, don't ever call that waste of plastic Strider 2. The real Strider 2 was the game Capcom released a couple of years back, not the Tiertex-designed/U.S. Gold released abomination that they had the balls to call Strider II. Rather than call it what it isn't, you could alternately use (if you're reading the front of the box) Journey From Darkness: Strider Returns, or (if you're talking to me) Spectacular Crapfest for the "game"'s title.

Didn't mean to rant there, but I really loathe Strider Returns.