From: marms@python.cs.unm.edu (Mike Arms)
Subject: Re: WHat are 'essential' carts for Genesis?
Reply-To: sandia!marms@unmvax.unm.edu (Mike Arms)
Organization: Sandia National Laboratories
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 19:36:35 GMT

berger@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu (David Berger) writes:
>I just got a sega Genesis.  WHat are the essential carts to own,
>and could you tell me a bit about them.  WHat should they cost new?

rauser@fraser.sfu.ca (Richard John Rauser) writes:
|Some must haves for the Geni are:
|1. Sonic 2  (natch!)
|2. Castle of Illusion (I know it's old, but it's still a must have...)
|3. World of Illusion (the sequel to Castle, coming out in January
|4. Super Monaco GP II
|5. Quackshot 
|
|  Hmmm...uhhh....well....come to think of it, there aren't many others.
|Unless you're into sports, in which case...
|
|1. Joe Montana NFL Sportstalk Football '93
|2. John MAdden Football '93
|3. NHLPA Hockey '93
|4. MLBPA Sportstalk Baseball

I certainly don't consider Quackshot an "essential" Genesis game.
And who knows how good (or not) World of Illusion will turn out to be.
All we have so far is EGM-type hype about it.  None of the baseball 
games for the Genesis have been very worthwhile IMHO.

I would make this list:

Sonic 1 (and Sonic 2 if you want even more)
MUSHA - one of the best shooters out today (vertical)
Road Rash - great fun motorcycle racing game (Road Rash 2 is 2-player
  and may be better when it is released)
Streets of Rage - best beat 'em up game for Genesis (SoR2 is twice as
  big and may be better when it is released)
Kid Chameleon - a really fun platform game, very long
Castle of Illusion - great platform game
Phantasy Star 2 - one of the best RPGs for the Genesis
NHLPA Hockey '93 (or NHL Hockey if you want to save a little money)
John Madden Football '93 (or John Madden Football '92 ditto)
Dragon's Fury (or Devil's Crash MD) - great pinball game
Thunder Force III - a very good horizontal shooter (Thunder Force IV is out
  in Japan and is supposed to be great, but hasn't been brought to the US yet)
Elemental Master MD - another superb shooter by Technosoft, only out in Japan
Herzog Zwei - a great strategy game by Technosoft
Toe Jam And Earl - a cool game with lots of humor
Desert Strike - very fun helicopter combat game
Super Monaco GP 2 - very good 1st person race game

|   Guess that's about it...if you REALLY want some advice, get a Super NES.
|Once I finish Sonic 2 and World of Illusion, my Genesis will probably hit
|the road.

My advice, keep your Genesis AND buy a Super NES.  The cost of an extra
system is not that great compared to the cost of a good number of games.
Getting a SNES will provide you more opportunity to get or rent high
quality games.  Somebody said, "Life is too short for crappy games."
I agree.  Diversity is a big benefit.  There's only so many jewels for
any game system.  Sometimes the jewels only exist for one particular 
system.  By owning both, you double your availability for the cream of
the crop on both systems or take the better version of a game out on both
systems.  For example: apparently Prince of Persia for the SNES is far
better than the Sega-CD version; to date, sports games from Electronic Arts
are better on Genesis than SNES; Smash TV is very good on SNES but is poor
on Genesis; Desert Strike is very good on both systems but is a little better
on SNES.  


v089l3s3@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (JER HORWITZ) writes:
]Unfortunately, there aren't many "essential" games for the
]Genesis. Your best bet would be Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for
]action genre, Streets of Rage 2 (I'm assuming it'll be worth
]the wait) for fighting genre, and Afterburner II for 3-D
]Genre. A solid shooting game is Target Earth, it's old but great.

Jer, I strongly disagree with your recommendation of Afterburner II.
I found this to be a fairly poor game.  No need to a recommend poor game 
even if it is the best in the sparsely represented 3-D front-shooter genre.

-- 
Mike Arms
Editor of Encounter magazine
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