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Gamerforlife wrote:

GSZX1337 wrote:So you'd like us to list games that should be promoted from Honorable Mentions to Full Blown Hidden Gems.

That's what he did in the SNES hidden gems topic, so I'm guessing it's the same here

Cool. I'll look over the article and see what I think should be promoted.

Off the top of my head: for platformers, I think that Rocket Knight Adventures should be promoted to Hidden Gem. IMO, it's in a higher league than Ristar.

Splatterhouse 2

A pre-cursor to survival horror. The control's awkward enough to feel strange but solid enough to feel responsive. Huge sprites, creative character designs, tons of gore, a variety of weapons and a killer off-kilter soundtrack.

Truxton is awesome, as are all the Genesis Toaplan shmups. My favorite is Fire Shark

Has anyone played Truxton 2? I know it only received a port to the FM-Towns...

dsheinem wrote:Has anyone played Truxton 2? I know it only received a port to the FM-Towns...

I want to. But considering the price the game commands on top of getting one of those systems? Yeesh.

PresidentLeever wrote:

GSZX1337 wrote:

PresidentLeever wrote:And they deserve better, these are some of the best MD games. Unlike the average Truxton and sluggish fighting parts in Mazin Saga...

Yes, prove your point by attacking my nominations. .

You get what you give?

Don't pull that shit. All I did was mention that your suggestions were already in the article.

In '89, sure, but why limit yourself to one year, the launch year at that.

It's the first of its kind, that's half of its charm.

dsheinem wrote:Truxton is awesome, as are all the Genesis Toaplan shmups. My favorite is Fire Shark

I don't know if all of the Toaplan games were awesome. Zero Wing wasn't very good. (At least I didn't like it very much.)

Has anyone played Truxton 2? I know it only received a port to the FM-Towns...

I played it for a little bit on MAME. It's pretty much what I expected. A more refined Truxton.

I'm wondering what the FM-Towns Marty port was like, myself. Does anyone know if the emulators are any good?

Anyway.... staying on topic:

Anyone have more recommendations?

If you have revisions/additions, please put them as a new post in this thread as I've worked through the thread up to this point.

Thanks!

My nomination would have to be for Rings of Power. It is a free roaming RPG, set in a large isometric world. The game has a ton of characters to talk to, and you must pay close attention to anyone and everything you encounter, because they might offer up a clue to where you need to go on your quest.

The game has a bit of a difficulty curve at the beginning, and the controls are not the greatest. If you can get past the first town of the game, you will probably forgive these issues, and want to continue on.

The game supports multiple ways of transportation to navigate the vast map. There are no map markers, quest journals, or any other hand holding in this game (just the way I like it). You are thrown in this open world, and it is up to you to adventure and investigate in order to finish your quest.

If you are a fan of adventure games, or western RPGs (or both), you will probably love this game. If you are more of a jRPG person, you might want to pass on this one. Anyone that has the patience to get through this entire game on their own (no guides) will probably absolutely love it. I know I did.

As far as other recommendations, I agree that Starflight is another enjoyable game. It is also a game set in a large free roaming world. The Genesis port seems to have updated graphics and gameplay. However, I believe there are a couple of bugs (pretty serious), but the game is definitely worth a look.

If you are looking for a good sci-fi SRPG, then I would have to recommend Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday. It has a real "d20 table top game" feel, and many of your choices actually matter. For example, your choices can lead to avoiding combat. But you will earn more experience with the correct decision that leads to avoiding than you would if you encounter the battle and defeat all the enemies.

Atomic Runner
Toe Jam & Earl: Panic on Funkotron (the second T&E)
Weaponlord
X-Men 2: Clone Wars

Toe Jam & Earl 2 gets a lot of flack for being so different from the original, but as a whole new experience it is high quality - lush graphics, easy to pick up and play and I find it easily appeals to just about anyone; even my brother enjoys it, and he generally hates any game pre-Dreamcast. I've never tried it in singleplayer, but it's definitely one of the top co-op games for the Genesis.

I can see why most people would be put off by Weaponlord's AI, but the same goes for Eternal Champions which is already included. In any case, even really high quality Fighters tend to be lacking in the AI department, so it is fair to rate Weaponlord based purely on the multiplayer - which will surely please most Fighter fans. The thrust-blocking allows for very intense and drawn out fights. Weaponlord is originally for SNES

X-Men 2: Clone Wars, where I'm concerned, is in the top tier of Genesis titles. I'm surprised how rarely I see it on a recommendation list. There are a variety of characters with different weapons and abilities to choose from, and generally a nice variety all round. Up there with the top action titles for the system, and a blast in co-op.


By the way, shouldn't Shinobi III, Wonder Boy in Monster World, Thunder Force IV and Disney games in general be Obvious Choices? I thought they were all pretty popular.

I don't know if this has been listed yet but I'd like to nominate "Garfield: Caught in the Act". (Yes the cartoon cat).

The story is really strange. Garfield gets sucked into his television and he has to find his way back out. It's a platforming game and his weapons change depending on what level you are playing. The levels are based off of old movies but are changed to Garfield style, i.e. Casablanca is now called "Catsablanca" and Count Dracula is now "Count Slobula". A lot of the bosses are Odie the dog from the comic strip but in different characters.

Overall, the game is easy but it's a really fun game if you like Garfield or are growing tired of the same old games.

Sonic Spinball and Sonic 3-d. Two lesser known Sonic Titles. Sonic Spinball was interesting for incorporating classic Sonic elements within the framework of a pinball game. You have to collect chaos emeralds, free animals, fight bosses, beat Robotnick. It was cool that you had some control over Sonic unlike a real pinball. You even got to actually walk around with him in some parts and it was fun being able to sometimes rescue him in the first stage when he went of the board, which you can't do in a real pinball game. Very hard game, but fun. It was cool seeing all the different sections you could access in the stages. The game is notable for featuring characters from the two Sonic cartoons as well and there's apparently a ride in Alton Towers in England called Sonic Spinball

Sonic 3-D is basically what it sounds like. It played like any other Sonic game, but with 3D looking characters and an isometric viewing angle. It's certainly not as great as Sonic 1, 2, 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, but it's not bad and is Interesting if for no other reason than to see what Sega's REAL first attempt at doing Sonic in 3D was like(since this pre-dated Sonic Adventure). Travellers Tales actually worked on this game, before they became famous for the Lego games. There was also a Sega Saturn version, which features new stuff and a number of changes. Notable, considering the Saturn really never had a new Sonic game to help the system sell. This was the next best thing

Both games show some experimention with the series, long before Sonic Adventure and all those other 3d Sonic games and they play quite a bit better than some of them did