What's the best game made by sega?

[Abu Antar]

Personal favorites include the first three Shining Force series, The Yakuza style games, and Binary Domain.

 

[Ash]

Sorry Ash, you're right. What I said prefer I don't really. Thanks for correcting me.

You're welcome!

Preferences can be incorrect or inferior. Such as popamole, luck-based games or sport, masculine women, and homosexuality

 

[Late Bloomer]

You guys have a weird obsession. Golden Axe was one of the very first games I ever played, but you ultimately align your dude with people and spam A, or spam flying kicks, and there's not much else to it. The art and music is charming, but I've no idea how one could hold it in such high regard. It plays like shit. Streets of Rage is significantly better, with greater gameplay depth & replayability. But even then I would not look at it with the same fondness some here look at Golden Axe.

Suspected infatuation with bare-chested muscle-bound blonds.

And on that note, I guess I'll say Streets of Rage 1 or 3 is my favorite SEGA game.

Lets see,

Golden Axe = A blond haired male dwarf, brown haired male human, light brown haired bikin clad female human.

Streets of Rage 1 = A blond haired human male, A black guy, an asian chick

Streets of Rage 3 = A blond haired human male, A black guy, a light brown haired girl, a tanned asian dude

I would say it's you who likes blond dudes and black dudes.

The fact this conversation exists it pitiful. This is about what is your favorite Sega game(s). You turned it into "your favorite sega game is shit and your gay".

Fuck you.

 

[Eisen]

I guess no one likes The House of the Dead

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Phantasy Star 4 and Shining Force are some of the best rpgs of all time.

If we extend it to Sega-published games then I'll add Gunstar Heroes.

 

[Falksi]

I guess no one likes The House of the Dead

Funnily enough, was playing the coin-op the other night...

 

[Falksi]

sega games are crap, they tried way too hard to outdo nintendo with graphicz and action but none of them feel like timeless classics like zelda, mario or final fantasy.

altered beast, sonic and fantasy zone II are the ones I played most

Zelda? I agree, nothing SEGA put out can touch Link To The Past. Beyond Oasis & Crusader of Centy are cool, but LTTP blows them away.

Mario? Sonic & Knuckles piss all over the first 4 Mario games. Each Mario game has it's merits, but S&K is just banging.

Final Fantasy? Phantasy Star not only blows that series away because it's an actual set of sequels, rather than just detached games, but it's actually way closer to PC style gaming too. Final Fantasy has it's merits, but Phantasy Star offers everything from next-gen style cut-scenes in Phantasy Star 4, to classic PC-style blobber dungeon-mapping in Phantasy Star 1, to boundary pushing design choices such as branching paths in Phantasy Star 3.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

When I was a kid, the arcade I used to frequent had a House of the Dead cabinet. The first person thing it had scared me. My age was still in the single digits though lol

 

[Higher Animal]

Snes games are more accessible, and thusly more timeless if you mean ease of use for new players, but genesis games are almost always more interesting and unique even if they take more time to get used to.

The Snes worship was a product of ignorance and bitterness mostly, nobody believes that snes was substantially better than the genesis who is credible.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Snes games are more accessible, and thusly more timeless if you mean ease of use for new players, but genesis games are almost always more interesting and unique even if they take more time to get used to.

The Snes worship was a product of ignorance and bitterness mostly, nobody believes that snes was substantially better than the genesis who is credible.

Yeah but there wasn't anything that came close to Super Metroid in the Genesis' library. Sega mostly used their systems to boast about how their games were better from a technical standpoint, and while that might've been true, the actual game design was better at Nintendo's side. Nintendo had better ideas I'd say. In Japan, though, people think that gaming "died" when Sega stopped being this force pushing tech fowards. So there's that.

 

[Falksi]

Snes games are more accessible, and thusly more timeless if you mean ease of use for new players, but genesis games are almost always more interesting and unique even if they take more time to get used to.

The Snes worship was a product of ignorance and bitterness mostly, nobody believes that snes was substantially better than the genesis who is credible.

Yeah but there wasn't anything that came close to Super Metroid in the Genesis' library. Sega mostly used their systems to boast about how their games were better from a technical standpoint, and while that might've been true, the actual game design was better at Nintendo's side. Nintendo had better ideas I'd say. In Japan, though, people think that gaming "died" when Sega stopped being this force pushing tech fowards. So there's that.

Super Metroid you're kinda correct about. There are games in the SEGA library which give Super Metroid a decent run for it's money, but which most gamers jut haven't heard or played, such as Pirates of Dark Water. But I agree nothing matched up to Super Metroid still.

But I totally disagree regards game design. There's not a SNES SHMUP which can touch the Thunderforce, Hellfire, or SEGA Aleste games for game design. Hell, the SNES port of Thunderforce 3 had to have it's best stage removed for casual gamers to cope with it.

The likes of Contra Hard Corps with it's branching paths and multiple playstyles is better designed than the still-excellent-but inferior Contra 3. And people talk about ideas, but which SNES Run N Gun matches Gunstar Heroes for it's ideas? Then you've Sonic & Knuckles' wild-ride stage craft, beat-em-ups like the Streets of Rage series which perfect the genre's formula, Castlevania Bloodlines which again offers more playstyles and much faster-paced play over Castlevania 4's highly-atmospheric but very ploddy play, Comix Zone going off the chart with presentational innovation whilst also incorporating adventure elements in the Beat 'Em Up formula to essentially become the early God of War template etc.

 

[Higher Animal]

Snes games are more accessible, and thusly more timeless if you mean ease of use for new players, but genesis games are almost always more interesting and unique even if they take more time to get used to.

The Snes worship was a product of ignorance and bitterness mostly, nobody believes that snes was substantially better than the genesis who is credible.

Yeah but there wasn't anything that came close to Super Metroid in the Genesis' library. Sega mostly used their systems to boast about how their games were better from a technical standpoint, and while that might've been true, the actual game design was better at Nintendo's side. Nintendo had better ideas I'd say. In Japan, though, people think that gaming "died" when Sega stopped being this force pushing tech fowards. So there's that.

I don’t mean to suggest that the snes is awful or without good ideas, and yes super Metroid is a very fine game, influential and unique in its own right. But the problem is that schoolyard banter that was at best half true cooled off from Sega fans almost within the same console generation, whereas the snes fans inflated its reputation for decades. I remember hearing in 2005-2006 about how much better the snes was than the genesis, how awful genesis games were, seeing the same dozen snes games in the top 25 games of all time list.

It all seems so provincial and bitter and ignorant now. Again, not that the snes isn’t great, but that it’s so towering and monumental when compared to anything else. It’s almost a complete fabrication to say such a thing and yet it was constantly just assumed by people who sucked at Sonic.

Now that retro gaming, roms, and re-releases are ubiquitous it all seems so childish. There are literally types of games made for the genesis that don’t exist hardly anywhere else and people want to talk about maybe the fourth or fifth best Zelda game as the pinnacle of what exactly?

 

[kangaxx]

Just talking about the Saturn (Megadrive probably harder to pick) I got hundreds of hours out of Virtua Cop 1 & 2 with light gun as a kid.

Last Bronx was underrated on the Saturn too IMO. Great fun.

Not sure I'd claim they're the "best" Sega has ever made, but they stick out for me on the Saturn.

 

[Nutmeg]

My personal favorite is MotorRaid. I still visit the arcade to play it every now and then, even if the cabinet is not in the best condition.

I love model 2 and model 3. Have you played the model 3 ambulance game? Been described as a low key horror game by e.g. this guy

 

[Nutmeg]

the actual game design was better at Nintendo's side. Nintendo had better ideas I'd say

Depends on taste.

Mega Drive games that pushed the boundaries of design at the time did so within the constraints of the single session or "arcade" format, whereas the Super Famicom's library (or rather what it's remembered for) broke the shackles altogether so to speak, making it feel more familiar to today's gamers.

You don't get so much stuff like Granada, Ex-Ranza, Herzog Zwei, Gain Ground, Elemental Master, Mercs' Original Mode outside of the Mega Drive (and to a lesser extent PC Engine -- Rondo of Blood is an exemplar of this kind of design philosophy after all). The number of practitioners of that strand of game design dwindled in the 5th generation, almost disappearing altogether today, making it, in my eyes, more interesting and valuable than the Super Famicom library's early attempts at modern gaming.

 

[Beastro]

Love that op asks for the best sega game and the first retard list like a hundred games just to flex

For me is Starflight, is not the original version but, after playing the old versions, I claim is the most beautiful and best overall. Engaging mechanics, interesting world to explore, and no hand holding. Although it looks not that great compared to the king; Star Control: The Ur-Quan Masters, but what space game doesn't.

I love the use of sound to create a sense of both openness and vulnerability as well as isolation. It's the only space game I've played where you felt alone and at risk when beyond the space station where the only real safety lay. It didn't matter if the mechanics of the game weren't there. The isolated feeling evoked getting into trouble and having no hope of rescue, like breaking your leg in the middle of the wild knowing no one knew you were out there to come save you. The station's music provided odd comfort.





The use of music, sound, lack of sound, fast cuts reinforced a sense of the unknown and lurking threat:



The Genesis was built for dark, moody games more than any other console. The way music and graphics were on it created a forboding sense in many that played to Sega's strength as the more adult console compared to the SNES:

The simple intro of Zero Tolerance was scarier than many horror games:



The closest thing to Starflight's mood was Buck Rogers:

https://youtu.be/UByqJvOrna8?t=2108

 

[Silverfish]

 

[Beastro]

Snes games are more accessible, and thusly more timeless if you mean ease of use for new players, but genesis games are almost always more interesting and unique even if they take more time to get used to.

The Snes worship was a product of ignorance and bitterness mostly, nobody believes that snes was substantially better than the genesis who is credible.

I'd rather say that both were still of an era when consoles had unique takes on gaming and provided different experiences that were all good, even bad consoles did that. Even the fifth gen consoles had their own flavour.

Compare it to today when there's really no difference between X-Box and PS games and only Nintendo has maintained their unique style, albeit at the humbling cost that they paid in the late 90s and early 2000s.

 

[GrafvonMoltke]

I was going to come in here and just say "Sonic 2" and leave, but reading through the comments I realise just how many great games SEGA made/published

 

[Falksi]

So I'm gunna drop my updated list here of both SEGA and Nintendo games which I deem for myself as "must own". This isn't an objective look at the games, just the ones which - after playing through around 500 games in their respective libraries since 2017 - I enjoyed playing, and which I will and do still replay.

I'm currently at the letter "S", which is why you'll see the odd "S" game in there, but why there are some obvious omissions too such as the Sonic & Super Mario Allstars games (I'm going through it alphabetically, but when I reach a letter I'm cycling the games by genre). There'll be the odd additional game thrown in there too which I just ended up playing for one reason or other too (e.g. one of my mates kept going on about it, so I went through it).

The list is in a rough order with my faves at the top, lesser faves down the bottom, but it will be reorganized properly when I move on to directly comparing the games in a year or two when the full playthrough is finished.

• Thunderforce 3	Megadrive
  Shining Force 2	Megadrive
  Hellfire	Megadrive
  The Legend of Zelda - A Link To The Past	SNES
  Star Control	Megadrive
  Contra Hard Corps	Megadrive
  Afterburner 2/32X/Arcade	Megadrive/32X/Arcade
  Streets of Rage 3 (Bare Knuckle 3)	Megadrive
  Actraiser	SNES
  Phantasy Star 4	Megadrive
  Contra 3	SNES
  Ghouls N Ghosts	Megadrive
  Sunset Riders	SNES/Arcade
  Atomic Runner	Megadrive/Arcade
  Streets of Rage 2	Megadrive
  The Revenge of Shinobi	Megadrive
  Golden Axe	Megadrive
  Streets of Rage	Megadrive
  Batman	Megadrive
  Castlevania Bloodlines	Megadrive
  Forgotten Worlds	Megadrive/Arcade
  F-Zero	SNES
  Flashback	Megadrive
  Smash TV	SNES
  Street Fighter 2 (Various)	Megadrive/SNES
  Super Mario World	SNES
  Dune	Megadrive/PC
  Warsong (Der Langrissa)	Megadrive
  Trouble Shooter 2/Battlemania 2	Megadrive
  Mega Turrican	Megadrive
  Blackthorne	SNES/32X
  Comix Zone	Megadrive
  MUSHA	Megadrive
  Eliminate Down	Megadrive
  The Combat Tribes	SNES
  Gley Lancer	Megadrive
  Mystic Defender	Megadrive
  Alisa Dragoon	Megadrive
  King of Demons (Majyūō)	SNES
  Biometal	SNES
  Rocket Knight Adventures	Megadrive
  Devil Crash	Megadrive
  Double Dribble	Megadrive
  Final Fantasy 5	SNES
  Flicky	Megadrive
  Elemental Master	Megadrive
  Shadowrun	Megadrive
  Langrisser 2	Megadrive
  Road Rash 3	Megadrive
  Dinos For Hire	Megadrive
  Alien 3	Megadrive
  Decap Attack/Magical Hat	Megadrive
  Mickey Mouse Castle of Illusion	Megadrive
  Buck Rogers - Countdown to Doomsday	PC/Megadrive
  Blades of Vengeance	Megadrive
  The Immortal	Megadrive
  Landstalker	Megadrive
  Lufia 2	SNES
  Final Fantasy 4	SNES
  Cadash	Arcade/Megadrive
  Spiderman & The X-Men: Arcade's Revenge	SNES/Megadrive
  Rendering Ranger R2	SNES
  Robocop Vs Terminator MD (uggghhhh, the SNES version of this is dog by comparison)	Megadrive
  Shinobi	Master System/Arcade
  Road Rash 2	Megadrive
  Evander Hollyfield Real Deal Boxing	Megadrive
  Greatest Heavyweights	Megadrive
  Batman Returns	SNES
  Pirates of Dark Water	Megadrive
  SWIV	Megadrive/SNES
  Prince of Persia	SNES/Megadrive
  Arrow Flash	Megadrive
  Midnight Resistance	Megadrive
  Desert Strike	Megadrive/PC/ (SNES version is awful)
  Super Ghouls N' Ghosts	SNES
  Wonderboy	Master System/Arcade
  Pilotwings	SNES
  McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure	Megadrive
  Mercs	Megadrive/Arcade
  Beyond Oasis/Story of Thor	Megadrive
  Kid Chameleon	Megadrive
  Goemon 2	SNES
  The Legend of The Mystical Ninja	SNES
  Gunstar Heroes (This will ultimately be far higher, it's low at the mo because my cart is broke & it crashes)	Megadrive
  Altered Beast	Megadrive/Arcade
  Super Star Wars	SNES
  Illusion of Gaia	SNES
  James Pond 2 - Robocod	Megadrive/SNES
  Parodius Da	SNES
  World of Illusion	Megadrive
  California Games	Megadrive
  Super Castlevania 4	SNES
  Zero Wing	Megadrive
  Empire of Steel	Megadrive
  Dangerous Seed	Megadrive
  Cutie Suzuki No Ringside Angel	Megadrive
  Another World	Megadrive/SNES
  Castlevania Dracula X/Vampires Kiss	SNES
  Cybernator/Assault Suit Valkan	SNES
  Aladdin	Megadrive
  Aladdin	SNES
  Ecco 2: The Tides of Time	Megadrive
  Chrono Trigger	SNES
  Final Fight Guy	SNES
  Final Fight 3	SNES
  Dick Tracy	Megadrive
  Street Racer	Megadrive
  Rock N Roll Racing	Megadrive/SNES
  The Chaos Engine/SOF	PC/Megadrive/SNES
  Quackshot	Megadrive
  Moonwalker	Megadrive
  Gynoug/Wings Of Wor	Megadrive
  Gauntlet 4	Megadrive
  Outrunners	Megadrive
  Super Aleste/Space Megaforce	SNES
  Ninja Gaiden Trilogy	SNES
  Smash Tennis	SNES
  Saturday Night Slamasters	Megadrive/SNES
  King Of Monsters 2	Arcade/SNES
  Coach K Basketball	Megadrive
  Battle Master	SNES
  Insector X	Megadrive
  Congos Caper	SNES
  Alien Storm	Megadrive
  DJ Boy	Megadrive
  Bonanza Bros	Megadrive
  Phantasy Star 3	Megadrive
  Nangoku Shounen Papuwa-kun	SNES
  Ranger X	Megadrive
  PGA Tour ET	Megadrive
  Rolling Thunder 2	Megadrive
  Street Fighter Alpha 2	SNES
  Klax	Megadrive
  John Madden 93	Megadrive
  John Madden 92	Megadrive
  Monster World IV	Megadrive
  John Madden's Football	Megadrive
  Outlander	Megadrive/SNES
  Shadowrun SNES	SNES
  Outrun	Megadrive
  Phantom 2040	Megadrive/SNES
  Magical Popn	SNES
  Fire Striker	SNES
  Bonkers	SNES

So out of the games there, 87 of my "must-owns" are SEGA Megadrive choices (with 2 additional Master System games, which are obviously playable with the MS Convertor) and 38 are SNES choices. Then there's another 14 choices which are close on both systems (there are other games on both systems of course, but if one was a clear winner then I didn't include the other). Out that 14, 10 I prefer to play on SEGA 4 on Nintendo.

So as you can see, for me SEGA comes out a clear winner at roughly a 2/1 ratio. I still think the SNES is great, a top 5 console for me for sure, but playing all these games several things became apparent about said SNES:

• It's slow. Not always, but the slowdown utterly cripples a lot of its arcade-style games. Gradius 3, Super R-Type, Back To The Future 2 etc. These games and more run in bullet-time for a larger portion of the game than they run properly. It's jarringly bad and kills some potentially fantastic games.
• Because of that slow processor, it's limited in other ways. The most telling of which is with it's beat 'em ups, where the majority of SNES games won't allow more than 3 enemies on screen at once because any more and it slows down. Compare that to the likes of Streets of Rage where you can have 8 enemies on-screen on the hardest difficulties with no problems, and the SNES just can't touch the levels of intensity which the Megadrive can.
• It's RPGs are lacking in gameplay & challenge. SMT might change that thinking somewhat, but a lot of the hyped up stuff such as Chrono Trigger & FF6 just can't touch games like Phantasy Star and Warsong when it comes to challenge and gameplay design. If you want a good comparison go play Langrisser 2 on both Megadrive & SNES (it's called Der Langrisser on SNES). The SNES has a lot of excellent story additions, but it's almost impossible to lose a troop, never mind a general, never mind a battle. The SEGA version however has a very nice, well balanced challenge.
• A lot of the SNES' best games are too easy and don't have additional difficulties. Link To The Past, Super Mario World, Chrono Trigger etc. As brilliantly designed as some of them are, their lack of challenge and difficulty options really hurts their replayability. Megadrive 1-difficulty games are usually quite challenging (Comix Zone, Contra Hard Corps, Landstalker), and don't really need anywhere to go, and games like Hellfire which you can crank up to "Yea Right" difficulty I think I will be playing for another 30 years trying to 1CC them. Addictive as fuck.
• The SNES's resolution cramps the screen up, and makes it the second-choice system for a lot of platform & action games which are on both systems, as being able to see that extra 20-ish% of the screen ahead makes a lot of games more enjoyable.

I'm expecting a lot from the SNES though with it's "S" selection as a lot of the "Super" games are to come. But I also doubt it's gonna make up the ground it's lost already either. Also, I've not even touched the SEGA CD games yet either, and with games like Snatcher, Final Fight CD, Lunar and Dark Wizard there's a lot of big hitters from the SEGA side still to come too.

 

[tommy heavenly6]

sega games are crap, they tried way too hard to outdo nintendo with graphicz and action but none of them feel like timeless classics like zelda, mario

I'll never understand adults who still get excited about Zelda and Mario games. And I'm not talking about aesthetics, it's that they're easy and braindead as shit. They stopped being fun after the novelty of their first 3D iterations wore off.

final fantasy

Phantasy Star IV, my son.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

I'll never understand adults who still get excited about Zelda and Mario games. And I'm not talking about aesthetics, it's that they're easy and braindead as shit. They stopped being fun after the novelty of their first 3D iterations wore off.

Nintendo is profiting off the fanbase that's stood with them through the years. They aren't making Mario, Pokemon or Zelda for "kids" anymore, as they did 20 years ago or so. So it's part of a tradition, Nintendo is its own world secluded from most of the gaming industry and the fact they've focused on portable machines means you can play it while commuting, which is a big deal for their primary market in Japan.

 

[Irata]

Despite the fact that I'm (very) old, I've never even seen any Sega console other than the Dreamcast so my opinion on Sega is quite limited, but I did enjoy Smilebit's games on my XBMC machine. I'd even put JSRF in my favorite games list.

 

[Vic]

I'll never understand adults who still get excited about Zelda and Mario games. And I'm not talking about aesthetics, it's that they're easy and braindead as shit. They stopped being fun after the novelty of their first 3D iterations wore off.

Nintendo is profiting off the fanbase that's stood with them through the years. They aren't making Mario, Pokemon or Zelda for "kids" anymore, as they did 20 years ago or so. So it's part of a tradition, Nintendo is its own world secluded from most of the gaming industry and the fact they've focused on portable machines means you can play it while commuting, which is a big deal for their primary market in Japan.

everything is mobile now, PCs and home consoles are dying out.

I would not be surprised if the next Playstation will be a hybrid like the switch

 

[Higher Animal]

felipepepe is big on the mobile market, but I don’t really understand it. I’ve played snake, the box, repurposed classic games and time wasters but I’m not clued into it.

My money is still long on substantial cultural changes versus new technology. But I can’t predict where things will go.