Lord Spencer's Gaming (and other stuff) Blog

Back in the early 1990’s, I think my first console was actually the Sega Genesis. My uncle had an SNES, and my cousins had an SNES, but I had a Genesis for some reason. I only had two or three games on the console; one of them was Sonic Pinball . For some reason, I didn’t get any more games after that. Instead, I asked my parent to buy me Nintendo’s console and never looked back. Simply, having multiple family members with the same console meant we could share the same games. When I first joined Destructoid, I was in the middle of a personal quest to review all of the best SNES games that I did not play before. In essence, to review the SNES by reviewing its library. After finishing that review series, I decided I would do a similar one for the Genesis ; a console I did not give enough of a chance before. The console design was never the best, and those game pads were terrible As such, I found a list of top 100 Genesis games at Retro-Sanctuary.com and decided to review the games that ...

Now that I've completed my Genesis Reviews series (playing around 33 Genesis games), it’s time to make a top 10 list of all the Genesis games. In my opinion, any console with 10 must-play games is worth owning. That number of great games would justify the price of the console by itself (unless it’s the bloody expensive 3DO or original run PS3). That’s not to say that all games in this list are “must plays” though, but all of them are worth playing indeed. Unlike with the SNES, I didn’t play many Genesis games before. As such, nearly all of the games on this list are from my review series. Note that the list is in alphabetical order. Castlevania: Bloodlines (1994): Genre: Action Platformer Publisher: Konami; Developer: Konami. Let’s start with one of the best action games of the 16-bit era. Bloodlines is really only competing with Super Castlevania IV for that title, but it has two protagonists instead of one. While I may have exaggerated my admiration for the game in my review (...

In this report of the top 10 Genesis games according to Retro Sanctuary , we have reached the pinnacle of the Genesis's library, as evidenced by the five games which I reviewed and enjoyed. Even playing Run & Guns, which is a genre I am not typically a fan off, I managed to enjoy  Contra: Hard Corps  and  Gunstar Heroes . While for the genres I have experience with, my only contrarian point is that  Sonic 3  is not better than  Sonic 2 , while it is clear that  Phantasy Star IV is the best RPG on the system. Then there are the games I didn't review, with some being influential masterpieces such as  Herzog Zwei  and Thunder Force IV , while others such as  Ristar  being late generation wonders that I perhaps should have reviewed. My only criticism of this list is the inclusion of  Street Fighter II: Champion Edition  instead of  Super Street Fighter II , and I have something to say about that below. Surprising no o...

By the time Sonic 3 was released, the 16-bit console wars were already coming to a close. After a strong fight in the beginning, Sega quickly lost ground to Nintendo. This was especially true because of terrible business decisions such as the Genesis CD and 32X enhancements.  While Sonic 3 is a great continuation of the excellent Sonic 2 , Sega's business decisions actually hamper this game as well. For some reason, Sega butchered the game and later released an add-on (like physical DLC) to extend the game's length and add Knuckles. Even if the base Sonic 3 game is not as good as the second game (or as good as it could have been without Sega butchering it), it still is a great platformer for the system. 1: Sonic the Hedgehog 3:- Year: 1994. Genre: Platformer. Publisher: Sega. Developer: Sega (Sonic Team).

During the 16-bit console wars, the Phantasy Star series was the Genesis answer to the various excellent RPGs of the SNES, and it was fighting a mostly lonely battle on its own. Phantasy Star II was a good game but with a significantly dated design, and PSIII had great ideas, but its execution was a little off. Only with Phantasy Star IV does the Genesis have an RPG that can stand toe to toe with the SNES greats. It manages to fix most of the issues plaguing the two games before it, while also improving in all other areas. 2: Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium:- Year: 1995. Genre: JRPG. Publisher: Sega. Developer: Sega.  

Before there was Senran Kagura , before there was Dead or Alive , before Dead or Alive Beach Volleyball was even a speck of a thought, there was Cutie Suzuki no Ringside Angel. Actually, that's not exactly fair. While women's wrestling outside of the Olympic sport was specifically conceived for its titillation factor, it had the mixture of sport and realism to maybe make a game that isn't only focused on the sexual aspect. Ringside Angel , probably due to the lack of graphical ability of the time, is that game. R3: Cuties Suzuki no Ringside Angel:- Year: 1990. Genre: Wrestling. Publisher: Asmik Corporation. Developer: Copya System Ltd.  

I must confess that I wasn't a big fan of Treasure's other games on the Genesis. Alien Soldier was definitely a solid shooter, but it was too chaotic and hard to follow, and the less said about Light Crusader , the better. I am also not a big fan of the Run & Gun genre, finding it too limited and repetitive for great games to come out of it. Which is why it is doubly surprising that I managed to enjoy Gunstar Heroes so much, proving that this game is a pinnacle for both the console and the genre. 3: Gunstar Heroes:- Year: 1993. Genre: Run & Gun. Publisher: Sega. Developer: Treasure.  

Made by one of the early stars of Sega's development teams, Landstalker was Sega's answer to the Legend of Zelda . The fact that nearly the only similarity between the two is that it stars a blonde elf is a significant positive for Landstalker . For better or worse, Landstalker is not a middling Zelda clone. It confidently goes forward as its own thing, warts and all. 5: Landstalker:- Year: 1993. Genre: Action-Adventure. Publisher: Sega. Developer: Climax Entertainment.  

Contra: Hard Corps is what happens when a series well known for its arcade-style roots evolves into a full-fledged console title. This is not your simple Contra Run & Gun game; it's the basic popular formula, with some of the best production values in the Genesis library. And that's a big reason why Hard Corps may be both the best Contra game and the best Run & Gun on the system. 10: Contra: Hard Corps:- Year: 1994. Genre: Run & Gun. Publisher: Konami. Developer: Konami.  

In this report of the top 20-11 Genesis games according to Retro Sanctuary , I have reviewed four games, all of which I enjoyed, with  Ecco: The Tides of Time  and  Beyond Oasis  proving to be quite nice surprises. Other than those games, all ten games, with the possible exception of  Pulseman,  deserve to be this high on the list, but  Sonic the Hedgehog 2  obviously should have been in the first game's place here. Surprisingly, this collection of ten games contains no Shmups, while having four Platformers. More surprisingly, seven games were published by Sega, which in hindsight is a clear indicator of the console's main weaknesses when compared to the dominant SNES. Regardless of these observations, this is still a solid list of games to play. Please enjoy my report:- 20- Sonic the Hedgehog (1992): Genre: Platformer. Publisher: Sega; Developer: Sega. Few games are as defined by their main competition as Sonic the Hedgehog . Here is a game that ...