Your Favorite Genesis/Megadrive Shooters

[Sofa King Gud]

So... What were/are your favorites?
It would be cool to make a list, but I'm not sure if the Genny has enough great shooters FOR a list.
I'm most likely wrong...

[Sotenga]

Truxton would be one, but it was already an arcade game... same thing for Forgotten Worlds and Phelios. The greatest original shmup for the Genesis that I can think of is Thunderforce III. Thunderforce IV, its sequel, is also a quality shmup, and it was quite groundbreaking for its time. Then there's a seriously wacked-out shooter called Gynoug... the bosses are macabre. Take this ugly sumnabitch:



Worse still, try this sin against nature:



Oh, and I can't forget MUSHA, the greatest overhead shmup for the Gen! The gameplay is awesome, and so is the soundtrack! Those are some great bosses too... especially your rival, I really like him.



And how could I forget Gaiares? Quite a bastich, this one is, but the T.O.Z. adds much depth to the gameplay. It's that little Force-like thing floating behind the ship in this shot:



Just for posterity, here's a shot of Thunderforce III, against the boss of the forest planet:



And here's a shot of the boss of the first level in Thunderforce IV, whatever the hell it is:



Thanks to shmups.com for these multiple images! NO LAWSUITS, PLEASE.

[Dire 51]

Oh, and I can't forget MUSHA, the greatest overhead shmup for the Gen! The gameplay is awesome, and so is the soundtrack! Those are some great bosses too... especially your rival, I really like him.

Gee Sotenga, might you be referring to... DIRE 51?

Anyway, there are several outstanding shmups on the Genny. Sotenga's named quite a few of them (which reminds me, Gynoug was released in the US as Wings Of Wor), but there are several others (mostly Japanese exclusives whose names I can't recall offhand) that need to be brought up as well. I'm partial to Whip Rush and Bio-Hazard Battle myself.

MUSHA, Gaiares, TF 3 & 4... mmm mmm good.

[Ze_ro]

My vote goes for Xenon 2. I've been in love with Xenon 2 ever since playing it on my brother's Amiga back in the days. Great music, great graphics, great powerups, and great gameplay. No one else ever seems to have heard of it though.

I actually have a version of it for the Gameboy, but not surprisingly, it's kinda crummy.

--Zero

[Cafeman]

The strongest ones for me were MUSHA, Thunderforce 3 and Lightening Force, and Gaiares. I also enjoy Biohazard Battle.

[Dire 51]

And for those that don't know, Lightening Force: Quest For The Darkstar = cheesy-ass retarded American title of ThunderForce IV. WHAT WAS SEGA OF AMERICA THINKING, AND HOW THE HELL DID THEY MANAGE TO MISSPELL LIGHTNING?!!? *sigh*

[ArnoldRimmer83]

All the shooters mentioned are pretty good. Some other good ones are Burning Force, Phelios, Dangerous Seed, Eliminate Down, and Gleylancer. (The latter 3 are only available in Japan.

[Dire 51]

Eliminate Down and Gleylancer - that's two of the ones I was trying to think of! Thanks!

[Daniel Thomas]

There are loads of great shooters on the Genesis/MD. Thank goodness I was really into shooters at the time.

There are a lot of Toaplan shooters available: Truxton, Slap Fight, Twin Cobra, Fire Shark, Twin Hawk. Those are all great games, but Fire Shark was always my favorite of that bunch. It was very popular with my friends (we loved Tiger Shark on the NES), thanks to all those crazy airplanes, guitar-ish soundtrack (very '70s AOR), and the flamethrower weapon. It always gets overlooked by shooter fans for some odd reason; maybe Fire Shark just appealed to me. Nostalgia is nostalgia, I suppose.

After that, there's Forgotten Worlds, of course. MUSHA, Gaiares, and TF3 were just about the coolest thing ever, and they still kick everyone's ass. Since when did Gaiares become too hard for everybody? I did pretty well back in the early '90s; but then again, I had a good joystick, too.

There's Trouble Shooter, which is good, and it's Japanese sequel, which is even better. There's "Lightening Force," err, Thunder Force 4 (again with the bad corporate decisions from Sega), which may be the best of them all. Then again, nostalgia comes roaring back, and I pine for TF3 and Gaiares and Fire Shark.

[Sofa King Gud]

Wow! Thanks everyone, you've been really helpful! Nice pictures Sotenga. I'll have to add Zero Wing, for its great dialogue ( ) and balanced gameplay.
But lets not turn this topic into a Zero Wing topic... Keep it coming!

[Sotenga]

Dire: Who else?

SFG: You're quite welcome, but don't thank me! Shmups.com has provided these screenshots for me... in fact, I'll link to their Genesis/Megadrive section right now!

http://www.classicgaming.com/shmups/..._megadrive.htm

[Cafeman]

Here is a link to a couple fan pages I put up, a couple years ago. I really enjoyed these shooters and felt the need to put something online about 'em... brace yourself for .. "Caféman's Necessary 2D"!

http://cafeman.www9.50megs.com/2dshmups.html

[Sofa King Gud]

Great stuff guys!
shmups.com is my new homepage!