Topic: Retro recommendations thread

I got a genesis model 3.What games dose everyone recommend? I already got Sonic 2.

A lot, even if you have a Wii and/or a readily-accessible collection. I'll divvy it up by genre, with a quip about each:

Action/Platformers

• Alisia Dragoon - hard as balls, but very rewarding if you get in a good run.
• Castle of Illusions + World of Illusions - Two very good, if a little overly-easygoing platformers. World has co-op
• Castlevania: Bloodlines - Arguably the best classic CV
• El Viento - Alisia Dragoon 1.5
• High Seas Havoc - An obscure game about a pirate who wanted to be Sonic the Hedgehog...but then realized that was dumb and decided to be a good platformer instead
• Ranger X - You can control a giant, solar-powered mech and its motorcycle at the same time
• Rocket Knight Adventure - Get. It. Sell a kidney if you have to. You'll thank youself later
• Sparkster - Rocket Knight's overpriced half-sister
• Strider - You are a cyborg Ninja that everyone wants to kill with extreme prejudice. Not for the faint of heart, or easily motion-sick
• Valis 3 - Like Alisia or El Viento, but less overly-difficult and with 250% more anime

Shooters

• Gaiares - An R-Type-style shmup where you gain power-ups by finishing off your opponents with your drone-thing
• Thunderforce III - My personal favorite genny Shmup
• Lightning Force - second-favorite
• Elemental Master - This one was pretty different, more like a top-down Lords of Thunder
• Truxton - It has a really good soundtrack that you will get to hear for ~30 seconds before you Gameover
• Contra: Hard Corps - Dangit, Konami! Why do you always hog all the good games, those are the ones you're supposed to sell- oh right, you don't do that anymore...

RPG/Strategy

• Traysia - One of only two JRPGs for the Genesis I can honestly recommend...besides Phantasy Star IV, obviously
• Ys III: Wanders of Ys - It's like Zelda II with better dungeons and less obtuse puzzles, and a slightly better translation...as well as a huge sprite for the player character, and the game is 90% dungeons
• Shadowrun - A CRPG-style action RPG made specificially for the Genesis, with cyberpunk-meets-high-fantasy themes
• Warsong - It's Advanced Wars meets Fire Emblem. There. Done. All you need to know
• Gemfire - Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Middle-Earth Edition. Only get it if you can find a copy with the 54-page manual. Trust me, you'll need it

...There are Other Genres?

• Road Rash 1/2/3 - I don't know the differences between the three, but if you like old-school racing games, and you like kicking people off their bikes while they're still moving at over 80 mph, then please play these games instead of ever leaving your home again
• NBA Jam: Tournament Edition - you can slam dunk from the half-court while playing as Michael Jordan, and set the hoop and/or ball on fire from the sheer intensity of your own awesomeness. Make sure you bring a friend, though. The AI players are cheap as heck...
• Herzog Zwei - This one is very...unique. I recommend looking up videos for it, first...assuming you can even find a working copy for less than $50. Because it's definitely not worth that much...
• Target: Earth - This one is also different, and extremely difficult to get a handle on. Mostly because of its controls. Again, I recommend doing some research first, but at least this one is easy to get for a low price

...And that's all I got for now. Unless you don't have a Wii and/or access to any of the Sega Genesis collections out there. In which case, I have at least 50 more to add to this list. At least. Probably a lot more.

@CanisWolfred Thanks I check on them. I have a wii but give me a full list so I can put them down. I am in to platformers,RPG's and racing games but I can use some new ideas.

Alrighty then:

Action/Platformer

• Revenge of Shinobi/Shadow Dancer/Shinobi III - Basically, the whole Shinobi series is worth a look if you like some tough Ninja action
• Vectorman 1 & 2 - The first one is better, but both of them are pretty good. I recommend playing on Easy so you can explore the levels more
• Sonic 3 + Sonic & Knuckles - The best Sonic games
• Ghouls 'n' Ghosts - You can finally aim upwards
• Mega Turrican - an oft-overlooked Run & Gun. It's got a lot more platforming to it than Contra, so I'm putting it here
• Wonderboy in Monster World/Monster World IV - Two games that I'm absolutely certain inspired the Shantae series, especially Monster World IV
• Ristar - see: Rocket Knight Adventures. Minus the Kidney part. This should only cost you $8 at most
• Sonic 3D Blast - I'm not usually a fan of isometric platforming, but I liked this one once I got used to it. At the very least, it was quite easily the most faithful adaption from 2D to 3D that Sonic had gotten for over two decades...take that for what you will...
• Dynamite Headdy - Yes
• Decap Attack - Not to be confused with Dynamite Headdy. Still good in its own right, though
• Pulseman - A platformer from Gamefreak. It's kind of in the same vein as High Seas Havoc and Rocket Knight Adventures. It's also an import title, so it'll cost you an extra dollar for the privilege of enjoying this glorious game
• Ecco: Tides of Time - Unlike its predecessor, it's not the worst platforming-adventure game ever created!

Shooter

• Gunstar Heroes/Alien Soldier - Treasure
• Gley Lancer - A pretty decent shmup with a wealth of options for increased playability. It's also not overly difficult!
• M.U.S.H.A. - This one, however, is still overly difficult. But also quite easily the...third best shmup on the Genesis. And on the Wii, it'll only cost you about...5% of what it usually retails for on eBay? Maybe 4%?
• Super Fantasy Zone - This one's kinda trippy

RPG/Strategy

• Beyond Oasis - Okay, this is more in the vein of Zelda, but it's basically the only good Zelda-like Action/Adventure game on the Genesis, so I'm not making a separate category just for that
• Phantasy Star IV - The best RPG on the system
• Shining Force 1/2 - Two very charming and easy-to-grasp strategy RPGs. Pre-battle is more like a standard RPG, which liked, and wish more games not named Disgaea would imitate
• Shining in the Darkness - First-person RPG that's technically a precursor to Shining Force. It has the best graphucs of any dungeon crawler ever...which isn't saying much, in retrospect. The entire genre refuses to acknowledge that "animation" is more than just a still image shaking around a bit

Racing

• Outrun - was this on the Wii VC? It should be
• Super Hang-On - The VC version has tilt controls

Beat 'em Ups (A New Challenger Appears!!)

• Streets of Rage 1/2/3 - I personally liked 2 the most, but the first one was fine, too. The third one felt a little stiff for some reason, but otherwise, I still consider it a great beat 'em up in a genre I don't usually enjoy
• Comix Zone - This game is hard as balls, but at the same time, it's the only beat 'em up designed with singleplayer in mind. The presentation is also a sight to behold
• Golden Axe 1/2/3 - I actually preferred the third game the most. I thought the first game was barebones, and the second was a little too stiff. The third one was just right, IMO. But everyone seems to have different opinions on which of the 3 are best
• Alien Storm - An arcade port that still tries to hsard to munch your quarters. It's a really good time with a friend, though, and it has a more variety in its gameplay styles than I expected

^That's mostly off the top of my head, honestly. I also forgot about all the licensed games for the Genesis that'll never get a re-release (well, besides the Illusion games), but I'll save those for another post (unless someone else wants to jump in, and maybe come up with ones I missed, or give some second opinions since I didn't go into a lot of detail for the most part). This is all my fingers can muster at the moment.

@CanisWolfred Would mega man game work on it

I've never played that version, and I've heard...mixed things about it. At the very least, I'd find it hard to recommend unless you can find it for less than $15. I know I haven't. :/

@CanisWolfred you really know your sega titles. If you have any often looked over master system game to recommend I would appreciate it.

I'm not very familiar with the master system. I thought about getting a converter last year, but then I ran into monetary issues...though, I could at least mention a few I was looking at:

• Zillion
• Miracle Warriors
• Govellius
• Wonderboy III: Dragon's Trap
• Phantasy Star
• Golden Axe Warrior
• Fantasy Zone

...Those are the obvious subjects. Maybe I'll throw in Shinobi while I'm at it. At the very least, I kept seeing those games when I was thinking of picking up that converter. I used to know of more back in 2010, but it's been forever since I even thought about a Master System game, and obviously I haven't played any that weren't included with a collection. Except Miracle Warriors, which I emulated about 8 months ago...

On the TMNT genesis games are they good or not and what about ristar

Hyperstone Heist on the Megadrive is very good. Tournament Fighters on the other hand is a big steaming pile, go for the SNES version.

Anyone got some good shm'up recommendations for the 6th & 7th Gen home consoles; and any portables? (Not including Dreamcast though).

I know there are tonnes of amazing ones on the PS1, Saturn and Dreamcast but I either lack the platform or the titles are hard to come by or very expensive. Also I know there we'll be an argument about whether this consistitutes "retro".

Playing Gradius V recently has really reignited my love for the genre.

@FX102A
Not sure if a side scroller shmup is what you're into, but I really enjoy Einhander on PS1. Ikaruga is also available on GC, but I hear it can be expensive.

There is an Ultimate Shooting Collection on Wii. Those are just a few that come to mind.

@retropunky I'm cool with side scrollers, in fact some of my faves are side scrollers like UN Squadron, Gradius V, R-Type Delta and Gaia Seed.

I have Einhander and Ikaruga but never heard of this Wii Shooting Collection. May have to look into it though sounds like it may have forgone a PAL release.

@FX102A
R-Type games are some of my favorites. But I'm now intrigued by Gradius V. I need to get Ikaruga at some point though.

I couldn't think of anything on portables atm.

@andrew20 Ristar is a gem of a game. It's made by the same team that made Sonic the Hedgehog so graphically it looks like a Sonic game. However eits slower paced then Sonic. Still it's a great game. Its a must have for the Genesis.

@retropunky Best bet for portables is PS1 classics on the Vita. Unfortunately R-Types and R-Type Delta are not Vita compatible. Gaia Seed and Shienryu however are great.

If you have a Japanese PSN account though the PC Engine selection is brilliant with the likes of Super Star Soldier, Soldier Blade and several others.

Gradius V is amazing and currently on sale on EU PSN at £3.99. A bit tougher than other games in the title but makes up in that you don't loose all your power ups after you loose a life.

Price of Ikaruga on the Cube has shot up; so glad I found it back in GAME (of all places) when it first game out by chance like a day after reading it's Gamespot review by chance.

@FX102A
Not sure if Gradius V is available for PS4, and I don't own a PS3. But I wouldn't mind looking for the disc version.

Yeah, the cheapest I've seen recently is $30 for Ikaruga, disc only though. Maybe I'll nab one but the complete set is always nice. It's a highly recommended game.

It's been awhile that I've taken on some good old shmups!

Ok so hopefully I can summon @the_shpydar for some retro buying advice but I will gladly take all other advice.

I am looking to add to my Dreamcast collection and sadly around where I live my local retro game store got bought out by obviously someone looking to get rich off of retro games, seriously he wants $120 for a complete Shenmue it's not even sealed but that's a rant for another time. And sadly I usually work on the weekends so not to much Flea Market Madness for me. So other then ebay what other reputable sites can I go to for retro games? Either shops, or private sales or something of that nature. I am just not having luck.

@Tasuki
There's an online auction site for goodwill called shopgoodwill. I was surprised to see some good games there. It's random you find something in particular you're looking for though.

@retropunky Yep that's usually one place I go to but lately unless I want sports games they have been a bust. The fact also that they only do bidding not buy it now makes getting good games from them expensive. Although I did score a copy of Shenmue from them for a good price.