My 5 favourite Mega Drive games franchises – Reader’s Feature

A reader names the classic Simpsons episodes he’d most like to see in a dedicated video game, from You Only Move Twice to Deep Space Homer.

The Sega Mega Drive, also known as the Genesis, is a game console many from the ‘90s era of gaming will remember very well, with arguably the greatest line-up of games ever released in the period. Here are my five favourites.

Sonic The Hedgehog

From the very first Sonic game up to Sonic 3D, this series always brought you a platform game that was great fun to play. From playing through stages and enjoying the story, to trying to collect the Chaos Emeralds or using some of the game’s cheat menus you always got enjoyment out of the games. One cool feature of Sonic & Knuckles was being able to place an entirely different game into the cartridge and have unique special stages created. This alone would persuade you to buy used games just to play each special stage that the game would create. Adding to this, Sonic Spinball allowed both pinball and Sonic to be enjoyed in one game.

Golden Axe

This was one action adventure game that not only let you play as three characters and take on various different enemies but also allowed you to take on tough in-game bosses. Adding to this you could also ride certain creatures and attack enemies, leading to many laughs and fun being had to try to not keep yourself getting knocked off. You also had a unique ability that by collecting books you could use various magic spells on the enemies or bosses to help you. The Golden Axe series also offered two-player co-op, which was impressive at the time.

Streets Of Rage

One of the best fighting style games I have ever played. The first game allowed you the special ability to use a police car that would wipe out enemies in the entire area or do decent damage to the bosses at the end of a stage. However, in the second and third games this ability was removed and replaced with a special move that would drain your life. An upgrade was offered in the third game which allowed a combo bar to build so you could use your specials without losing energy. Also, weapons could be used with certain move-sets, something not featured in the previous games. This series also led to a fan remake which merged all three of the games into one, which fans have greatly enjoyed.

Road Rash

If there is one racing game you should try on the Mega Drive it’s most certainly the Road Rash series. In the Road Rash games you were able to use weapons on other racers and also would have the police to outrun. You could use the bike shops to upgrade your bike, as well as redo certain stages and use a password system, in the second game, so you wouldn’t lose any progress. This made the series all the more fun to play. It is still one of the best series I enjoy playing from time to time. I always use the Wild Thing 2000 bike from the second game, the password is 6THM DUUB for those who want to access it.

Strike series

Desert, Jungle, and Urban Strike were shoot ‘em-ups where you got to control a military helicopter. You had various challenges, such as keeping your fuel to a safe level, as well as managing your armour and ammo while carrying out missions and side tasks. Although the maps are not as big as they are by today’s standards the gameplay of this series, and the fun you can have, more than makes up for it. In Jungle and Urban Strike you could control other vehicles and did not have a timer, so you were not always in a rush and could explore the maps and find various supplies, MIA troops, and other hidden secrets.

By reader gaz be rotten (gamertag)

The reader’s feature does not necessary represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.