Sega Genesis Game Opininion Summaries - Work In Progress

[A Black Falcon]

Jasmine: I can't believe he would lie about who he is with magic to try and woo me. Can you believe that?
Cinderella & Ariel: Shhhuuut uuuup...

Haha... you're right, aren't you. Definitely opposites there. :)

Anyway, I've been trying to get more Genesis classics, and it's been surprising to find out just how many so-called "multiplatform" games were actually completely different between SNES and Genesis.

That's how it often was back then, yes, particularly for games from Japan. You didn't know that? Well, if you weren't playing both systems it's understandable I guess.

I LOVE Aladdin on SNES, but I've seen a lot about the Genesis version, and now feel obligated to pick that one up. It's odd to me that Lion King never got a Capcom release (Lion King being my favorite Disney movie from that era), but at least with that one you're comparing the same basic game between consoles. (I prefer the SNES one, I just prefer the MIDI style music over the digital SFX.) It's become clear I'll need to pick up both the SNES and Genesis Rocket Knight games as well. (I've got the first Genesis one, and it's good.)

Heh... my experience with Aladdin is kind of the opposite of what you say here -- I have no memory of ever playing SNES Aladdin in the '90s, while I played the Genesis version a fair number of times and liked it a lot. I did eventually get SNES Aladdin sometime in the later '00s, but only played a few levels of it before quitting. I like the Genesis game more. I haven't really gone back to SNES Aladdin much since, either...

I have to agree with you that Sonic 3 & Knuckles is the best of the Sonic games. Many prefer Sonic 2, and I can't fault that, because it is a very solid game (which thanks to S&K has the same 3 characters to pick from as Sonic 3), but Sonic 3's got my favorite bonus level design, and some of my favorite level mechanics. I will concede that a few of Sonic 2's levels simply have some of the best "speed run" designs though (such as the oil plant). There's also the small matter of the additional moves each character has. Mainly, Tails can actually fly.

Between Sonic 2 and Sonic 3, I have gone back and forth over time. At one point I decided that Sonic 2 & Knuckles was my favorite Sonic game, for instance... :) But yeah, now I like S3&K the most. It is the largest of the Genesis Sonic games, and the only one with saving, and it's also the first one I owned -- I got the PC version of S3&K sometime in the late '90s. Both games are really great, but 3&K does have some advantages over 2. I do like 2 more than Sonic 3 or Sonic & Knuckles as standalone games, though. Those two are better combined than either one is on its own.

Sonic 1, well, it's a classic, and a decent platformer, but that game's level design gets in the way of it's own "speed" premise, constantly forcing you to slow down to a crawl for large sections of every single level.

This is a fairly common opinion, but I think Sonic 1 is still a fantastic game. Yeah, the sequels are even better, but Sonic 1 holds up really well, I still love it! I don't mind the slower stages... well, the above-water slower stages. The water level is the worst part of Sonic 1 for me, it's not that fun. The later games' water levels aren't all better, either... but apart from that Sonic 1 is really good. Yes, they were still working out what worked in a Sonic game and would not again try one with segments as slow as the second world of Sonic 1, but that's part of what makes the game interesting. It's different from the other games, and I like world 2, block-pushing and all.

As for Lion King, I have that one for SNES, Game Boy, and Game Gear. I've disliked the game since the mid '90s because I got the GB version back then and its controls are ... not good. Good graphics, great music, bad and frustrating controls and subpar gameplay, that's GB Lion King. Oh, between those three versions, the GB version is like a downscaled version of the SNES game, in that it has different levels (fitting the different hardware) but the same basic concepts in levels that were brought over, but some of the levels in the GG game are much more different. It's also obnoxiously difficult -- no continues or saving allowed. That's no fun. I think it is still inspired by the SNES/Genesis game, but it's even farther from it than the GB game is, I think. Or maybe not, later in, I didn't get too far... The Lion King on any platform is probably below average gameplay-wise, they just look really nice.

Have you tried Scooby Doo Mystery on Genesis? I understand that game's a surprisingly good Lucasarts style adventure game, although without mouse support so you're dragging that cursor around using a d-pad (which, as I can attest to from the NES game Nightshade, is pretty tedious, but workable on a slow paced game like that so long as the rest of the design is good). The SNES game is a more traditional platformer and isn't nearly as good. That's a shame, considering the SNES mouse existed and all it should have been the other way around.

I haven't played Scooby-Doo for genesis, apart from maybe in an emulator once. It is a game I've been interested in getting for a long time now, but it's uncommon and/or a bit overpriced in the few times I've seen it, so I haven't gotten it. I definitely would like to pick it up; I like adventure games and Scooby-Doo, and like the N64 and GBC Scooby-Doo adventure games that most people seem to dislike, so I probably would find it interesting.

I do have the SNES Scooby-Doo game, got it not that long ago (this year I think?), but that's just an average platformer for the most part. It's alright, but I actually like those N64 and GBC Scooby-Doo adventure games more.