Insta-phail, since the only Nintendo exclusive period was between Dracula X and Legacy of Darkness.

The first few minutes of the game almost made me stop playing.. the game is much more kid friendly and the music is worse than in the prequels, but the platforming is still pretty good and somewhat more in depth. I never liked having to collect coins and talk to characters in this or DKC2. Unfortunately Rare seemed to like that stuff a lot and made it a major ingredient in their later games like Banjo Tooie.

Decent rpg but not quite on par with either PS1 or PS4.. Sound effects are awful, graphics are a step down from 1 lacking 3D dungeons and proper battle backgrounds, the story is rather lightweight though the beginning sets a pretty cool atmosphere. Then of course there are the usual old school RPG problems like frequent random encounters (extremely frequent in this case), having to level up all the time, and poor menu systems (spells are shortened to 3 letters )

they better bring over monster world iv!

I got bored pretty quickly with this game. The music is great, but graphics are a bit hit and miss, characters and their dialogues are bland.. and there's too much dungeon crawling instead of adventuring. Also the bosses are way too easy.

Not the best version, but it's still a blast to play.

Forgot to add that some weapons are overpowered (metal razors?) while others are useless (leaf shield).

Wow finally. This is among the best, most atmospheric of the classic MM games though not as polished gameplay-wise as entries 3 and 5. There's a lot of trial & error, slowdown and IIRC you can get stuck in the last part of the game and have to restart if you're not careful with your ammo. The soundtrack is pretty much flawless though.

Fun 2-player action with 8-bit mechanics and average graphics. The cutscenes are a nice touch, sometimes very funny

But the soundtrack won't impress unless you happen to love jazz fusion and old james bond music.

This game is awfully repetitive and insanely hard. I much prefer the Aleste games (MUSHA, Power Strike 2, Super Aleste) that built on the same concept.

Decent SF2 clone, the CD version is better.

Sure, it has some depth but you have to be extremely careful not to get your ass kicked in most of the levels so it's not as enjoyable unless you cheat. The music is pretty awful too.

A promising first entry in a great series.

That's awesome. I believe the SNES version had a slight advantage though, with more game modes and 4-player mode.

Great puzzler with 5-player mode and new gameplay elements that make it more intense.

crappy collect em up game with poor control. The soundtrack is very nice though.

The technical enemy and level design is better, but graphically they are a step down from both the prequels. The soundtrack is also worse and sound effects aren't as satisying as in the SOR or FF games.

Not much different? They ruined the level design entirely in this one, repetitive areas, difficulty curve goes up and down, illogical puzzles.. etc. It's a mess.

I loved SMW2 but this looks bland, and even more kiddy. I'll pass.

Hey SH2 is better than this. Because it's actually playable.
This was one of the first games I got for the MD back then and I think I played it like 5 times total. I played all kinds of crap like Taz Mania back then but couldn't stand this, so it had to be really bad.

looks very generic but I guess Ill try it out.

I was a bit disappointed by this game after the excellent Sonic 2. It was shorter, the gameplay was slower and more exploration oriented and the music was much worse. Combined with S&K it's pretty rockin' though.

Gfx and audio are almost 8-bt quality but the gameplay is pretty good. Me and my bud got stuck on those electrical traps though, it gets frustrating fast.

One of my childhood favs, music and voices are pretty much classic and there is a surprising amount of variety in the gameplay.
Only got one complaint - the controls are quite stiff after you transform making it nearly impossible to dodge some attacks.

"Though Sega had been the first hardware manufacturer to release a 16-bit machine with the Mega Drive/Genesis, that company's role as primarily a creator of arcade games had in and of itself limited the scope of much of the early releases for the system, most of which were ports of already-famous coin-ops by Sega's famous design studios, primarily Yu Suzuki's AM2."

Actually I think that's what sold the system early on. What limited it was the lack of third party support to make new quality titles, Sega were nearly on their own in the first year or so.

"Maybe more importantly, its early games remain perhaps the first than can be enjoyed today without nostalgia tainting one's impression of their actual quality, the experience of playing them often as magical as when the games were first released;"

Wat are you basing this on? I mean people still play and love Tetris and it keeps getting new fans.

^Yuzo Koshiro tried to do something orchestral and ambient sounding, which was obviously very hard to accomplish on the genesis. I like the ost, but it doesn't really fit the pace of the game.

I thought the graphics were way ahead of LoZ:ALTTP technically, but the art direction isn't as interesting.

Cannon Fodder on console played OK, but it was impossible to beat the game:P

Well it's not a bad game, but you might as well play a flash clone or get it on the cell phone instead.

Great game, though I used to like it better before playing the Mcdonalds Treasure Land game which is just like a prequel to Dynamite Headdy, except of course for the license. Lots of weird characters and innovative game design, but with a bit less polish to it.. So if you like this one, check that out as well.

Trivia: The japanese version actually had a story in it so it makes more sense, and the somewhat generic-looking robot bosses in the western versions were originally a giant girl doll and two devilish geisha twins.

I'd say the non-battle graphics do look ugly, very 8-bitish and the palette coices are poor most of the time.
Also the AI really stinks, and you'll have to play it at least once to know which characters are worth going for. Still it's an addictive game with some great music.

Yes. Best pinball sim evarr!

Pretty cool game.. They might as well've named it Air Bonk instead though ^^

Not that it matters here but Heroes of the Lance was also released for the Master System.. and unfortunately I bought it back in the day Well the cover was great.

The soundtrack is very nice though!

^you need to finish it. Maybe the emulation is choppy, I dunno. Last time I played it it was super smooth but it's not fast paced like Sonic. It has very varied gameplay with lots of small puzzles and secrets to find.

You don't just stretch your arms to kill enemies, you knock them out with your head.

zero personality, corny plot and mediocre level design with a gimmick that feels rushed. The sound fx is way too loud comp. to the music.

Excellent game! Very atmospheric, immersive and definitely an improvement on the original, not just in difficulty but in the variety of the missions as well.

Why would anyone write this off because you're playing a dolphin when it's the sequel to a great, unique game which also stars a dolphin as the main character? A more likely reason would be the frustrating (but short) first level.

On a side note, I feel it has a similar atmosphere to Super Metroid, except this feels even more alien because of the underwater setting and story.

Seeing as most platformers on the MD aren't worth bothering with, this is well above average.

So they finally came huh, well this one isn't the best but its the beginning of something very very good ^^
Shame about the slowdown..

Yeah, well the rail shooters have been around since after burner and the like so it's not really "new".

Now this is better! I'd switch aero blasters for super aleste/space megaforce or MUSHA though.. too many horizontals in this list

Star Fox is most definitely a shooter.

Addams Family is utter tosh and Wonder Boy whoops Adventure Island.
The Lost Vikings is a Puzzle game.

If you really want a good game of golf you could do much better with something more recent.

It's pretty fun actually. I still like Rambo 3 (MD) better though.

"The play control is good. I think people are also overlooking the fact that it is also the source of one of the major aspects of future Zelda titles, which is learning new fighting techniques."

Innovation doesn't equal entertainment. I'm actually surprised they didnt make you "learn" how to jump..

The play control is bad. It's like you're always walking on ice, and the jump control is very unforgiving.

The downward thrust breaks the game.

Sure, it's worth it if you grew up with it.

It also had better music.
Wow, it's just a great improvement over the original game!

Or Jason from the movie?

@ham - Yes, I've owned this game for over 10 years.. so actually I know about skate's double-tapping!

@yoshi - it needs a run, period.

If you like this game, I recommend checking out the fan made remake of it for the PC:
http://www.bombergames.net/sorr_e.htm

And fan made doesn't mean crappy in this case! It's like a best of from the whole series with updated gfx/sound.

"Zelda II really seperates the wimps from the good players of Zelda games. Zelda II is hated for the same reason many old school games and shmups are: it is hard and action orientated."

No, but I guess it does tell you something about a person's intelligence. The game is not very hard overall. It starts out tough, and death mountain is frustrating because of the Darias, but the stronger you get, the easier it is and the supposedly challenging sword fights that make up most of the combat are easily avoided by doing jump attacks. Once you get fairy and thunder, just abuse the hell out of it and you'll finish this pretty fast. Of course, you'll have to struggle with not knowing where to go half the time, and towns people who act like cryptic pieces of a walkthrough.. among other things.

3/5 is a slightly generous, but fair score considering the time of release for the game.