The best Sega Genesis games ever made

The great console wars of the early- to mid-90’s was waged between two titans of the industry: Sega and Nintendo. In Nintendo’s corner was the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, while Sega hit back with the Sega Mega Drive, renamed to the Genesis in North America.

Nintendo ultimately came out on top, with its fantastic library of SNES games, but that doesn’t mean that Sega didn’t fight back with a few bangers of its own. The Genesis was home to hundreds of absolutely fantastic games, and we’ve gone through every single one of them to come up with a definitive list of the best Sega Genesis games ever made.

Mega Man: The Wily Wars

The first three Mega Man games are typically associated with the NES, but that’s not actually the best way to play them. Capcom actually remade all three games and bundled them together for the Genesis, and The Wily Wars is the result. They’re fantastic remakes of already great games, complete with a total visual overhaul, improved music, a battery back-up that allows you to actually save your game, and more. There’s no slowdown, no game-breaking glitches, and there’s even an extra set of levels that lets you pick any abilities from all three games to take down brand-new bosses.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles

Just about any of the Genesis Sonic the Hedgehog games could be on this list – yes, even Sonic Spinball, it’s better than you think – but Sonic 3 & Knuckles is really just the complete package. It’s got heaps of levels, both for Sonic and for Knuckles, and most of those levels are designed incredibly well, along with a banger of a soundtrack, incredible boss fights, and so much more. It’s the best Sonic game on the Genesis, and one of the best platformers ever made.

Golden Axe

Converting arcade games to consoles was always a bit hit and miss, but side-scrolling hack-and-slash game Golden Axe was a perfect hit. There are three different characters to play as in this incredible mix of medieval high fantasy and Double Dragon-style beat-em-up gameplay. There aren’t many games like Golden Axe around anymore, so you should definitely check it out.

Phantasy Star IV

In the early 90’s, Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest were king, but those games were only on Nintendo consoles. Sega fired back with a volley of its own turn-based RPGs, but instead of focusing on medieval fantasy, Sega went with futuristic sci-fi vibes. Phantasy Star IV is the best of the series, with a much heavier focus on story, new combination techniques, and a fantastic story that honestly rivals even the best Final Fantasy games of the era.

Contra Hard Corps

Contra Hard Corps was the first game in the series to be released on a Sega platform, and honestly what a way to debut. Hard Corps features a branching storyline that has a bunch of different possible endings, four different playable characters, a new sliding mechanic, and more weapons than ever before. It can be quite a difficult game, especially when playing the Western version of the game, but it’s probably the best Contra game to date.

Castlevania Bloodlines

Fans will argue until the end of time about whether Super Castlevania IV or Castlevania: Bloodlines is the better game, but we think they’re just different approaches to the same great series. Bloodlines is faster-paced, has an absolute banger of a soundtrack from Michiru Yamane, and two playable characters that both feel very different, requiring different approaches when progressing through the game. It might not necessarily be the Castlevania you know and love, but it is a whole lot of fun.

Pulseman

If you’ve ever wondered what Game Freak was doing before it found a smash hit in Pokémon, the answer is Pulseman. Yup, the Pokémon developer made a game for the Sega Genesis, and it’s great. It’s a platform action game that’s a little bit like Mega Man, a little bit like Sonic, and a whole lot of fun. The boss fights are incredible, the soundtrack is unbelievable, and the electrifying mechanics are a lot of fun to learn and apply.

The Revenge of Shinobi

The Revenge of Shinobi is one of the earlier Genesis games, but you honestly wouldn’t know it — it’s quite a looker. Some might be put off by the Shinobi series’ slower-paced gameplay, but we think it’s a heck of a lot of fun, and The Revenge of Shinobi is among the best the series has to offer.

Ecco the Dolphin

Ecco the Dolphin draws you in with a cute artstyle and an adorable dolphin protagonist and then it goes off the dang rails. This is a game where you play as an ordinary dolphin who discovers time travel and uses it to defeat an invading army of aliens. It’s deeply weird, but it’s also kind of fun, very serene, and kinda spooky. It’s a game of multitudes, is our point, and it’s worth playing just to see the whole range of weirdness on offer.