Rewind Gaming's Top 10 Sega Mega Drive Games!

Top 10 Sega Mega Drive Games by rewind

The Sega Mega Drive (or Genesis in the USA) was an outstanding system. Later overshadowed by the SNES, but in its early days it dominated the console gaming market, and for good reason.

Here’s our top ten Mega Drive games, based on popularity on our website. Perhaps you remember some of these?

10. Road Rash II

This motorcycle racing game was less about the racing and more about the violence. An absolute riot against your best mate in 2 player mode. Pull them off their bike using a chain weapon, watch them fly past you before smacking into a sign, then mow them down again while they struggle back to their bike.

…Why do you suppose they call him "rude boy"???

9. Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament

The 4 player capability of this game made it an instant hit. The 2 extra controller ports were cleverly included on the cartridge itself, instead of requiring an extra addon. To this day, this game in multiplayer mode stands up well against most party games.

8. Soleil

Resembling Zelda, but with its own unique and funky soundtrack, this game is not only memorable but extremely addictive. You use your "friends", a bunch of animals, to help you through this RPG "action" style game, as weapons or power ups, combining them for extra effects. The popularity of this game is probably partly due to the highly colourful and well drawn graphics. A definite hit, but quite rare too.

A talking cow? Only in Soleil…

For those of you not in the UK, you’re probably thinking "huh?". The game was known internationally as "Crusader of Centy".

7. Golden Axe

The definitive mega drive title, probably only this far down the chart due to the inclusion of this game in the mega games compilation series, meaning you can get this game cheaper and with other games too. But, the game is a classic. Not only that, but the Mega Drive itself may not have seen such popularity without it.

6. Jungle Strike

Most helicopter simulation games before this were geeky, ridiculously hard, sometimes requiring paper keyboard overlays (gunship!) and just generally not mainstream or even that much fun. The "strike" series changed all this. It took the helicopter and put it straight into a shooter action genre. The only thing we hate about this game is that the manual is about half an inch thick, and stops the game box from closing properly! What were they thinking?!

5. Flashback

Flashback has a cult following which probably explains its popularity. Using something known as "rotoscoping" for the animation, it looks slick for the time, although somewhat dated now. 

OMG! Is that a movie??? 🙂

4. Sonic The Hedgehog 2

If you ask the question "what’s better than Sonic on the Mega Drive?" then the obvious answer is "Sonic 2 on the mega drive". The multiplayer mode wasn’t outstanding, but fun for a while, but really it was the single player mode with its extreme playability and completability.

3. Shining Force II

Arguably one of the best games on the Megadrive, hence why it’s number 3 on this list. The most intriguing and addictive strategy RPG / turn based final fantasy tactics style game the Mega Drive ever saw. And far better than its predecessor, "Shining Force". Fantastic storyline too, for a Mega Drive game.

A well, a church, some trees. What more do you need from an RPG?

2. Streets of Rage

Fear me, with my glass bottle!
Everybody likes a good punch up, and quite frankly, Streets of Rage is the best place to go for an all out brawl. We won’t go into the moral issues of beating unarmed enemies to death with a drainpipe and walking away, but of course, back then it was just a game, with no blood or guts, enemies just flash and disappear.

1. Sonic The Hedgehog 1

There’s nothing like a mean hedgehog giving you a good telling off!!

Highly predictable, but you can’t argue with the outcome. Sonic is an icon, and one of the only Mega Drive game titles to still be a household name to this day. As we all know, Sonic redefined gaming from a slow "screen by screen" or casual scrolling style, to the lightning fast "almost too blurry" uncontrollable speedfest that we all know today. The player could essentially play the level as fast or as  slowly as they like, and they could take their time and pickup all the rings, or fly through the level at the speed of sound (Sonic..sound…get it?).

Best of all, Sonic kept his mouth shut. So, we were all under the temporary illusion that he was a mean hedgehog with a mean attitude. He only became "wimpy" later.

Honorary Mentions.

It wouldn’t be fair not to mention a couple more fabulous games that didn’t make the list, but we think are fabulous:

Psycho Pinball
Only the best pinball game on the Mega Drive, with its mini games, unique and well drawn tables, and bright colours!

Populous
The Icon known as populous probably doesn’t make the list because, well, frankly it was better on the Amiga, and we preferred it on the Master System too, oddly. But we shouldnt forget this game.

Light Crusader
This game was too short, and too shallow. But, while we all criticise it, we forget, that it had superb graphics, and unrivalled music and the gameplay wasn’t too shoddy either!