Top 5 Mega Drive Games

Day 4

Time to reveal the second place. But before that, let's check out the poll.

Tetris or Columns?
Tetris [ 1 ]
Columns [ 1 ]
Bob the Builder's Can you fix it Puzzle Game [ 0 ]

Well, that's a nice result since both of these games are nice puzzle games. I still prefer Columns, though. Now let's get started.



#2: Sonic and Knuckles (Sonic Team)


No, I'm not placing Sonic and Knuckles here for its gameplay. I'm placing it for the revolutionary technology it introduced- the lock-on technology.


But what is the lock-on technology? Basically, you insert one of the other Sonic games' catridge (Sonic 1, Sonic 2, and Sonic 3) over Sonic and Knuckles' catridge. Then, you'll be able to enjoy a whole new game. Let's check these out.


Locking on Sonic 3 with Sonic and Knuckles will create Sonic 3 and Knuckles, which is the best 2D Sonic game in my opinion. I'll quote the things I liked about Sonic 3 and Knuckles from the S3&K/Sonic CD matchup thread.

The Bosses wrote:I seriously can't name a bad boss in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, except for that one boss in Lava Reef Zone Act 2. The rest of them had nice attack patterns, and it was fun to beat them. Also, the final boss(es) are really challenging, especially that Super Sonic Doomsday Zone fight.

Special Stage wrote:Sonic 3 and Knuckles had a special stage where you had to collect all the blue spheres while controlling your character by only left or right. However, hitting even one red sphere meant failure, and there are some hazards to make you bump into red spheres.  I never really had that much control problems in Sonic 3 & Knuckles' bonus stages. I generally found all the Blue Spheres stages very fun. Plus, I really like the fact that the speed of the special stage increases as you collect the blue spheres. It feels very frantic and it mixes well with the Blue Spheres stages, making them so fun.

Exploration/Gameplay wrote:In Sonic 3 & Knuckles, the levels are much huger than the other classic Sonic games, that exploring the levels themselves can be classified as exploration. Also, you need to find the ways to the special stages by searching the warp rings in the levels. The characters often got different paths, adding to the depth of the exploration.

I think I made my point. Next!


Locking on Sonic 2 with Sonic and Knuckles will create Knuckles in Sonic 2. While it seems like just a character change of Sonic 2, having Knuckles as the main character of Sonic 2 actually changes the gameplay quite a lot. Due to Knuckles' gliding ability, you can find hidden areas in the zones easier. Also, due to Knuckles' poor jumping ability, some of the bosses got harder, so you would need to think of a new strategy for them.


Finally, Locking on Sonic 1 with Sonic and Knuckles will create a game which is full of the Blue Sphere stages. (Sonic 3's Special Stages) As I mentioned before, I really love these stages. Locking on any other Megadrive game would create a randomized one-stage Blue Sphere stage as well, which I also liked. This is one of the only endless video games I could ever find.

However, while Sonic and Knuckles is a masterpiece, there's one game which stands above it. I want you to guess which Megadrive game will get the first place. Remember, Earthworm Jim/Shining Force/Columns/Sonic the Hedgehog games aren't able to get first.

Day 4 Over.

I love Sonic 3 and Knuckles. I have no idea what #1 is, I can't predict your choices very well.

I thought Game would be number 1 and I also really liked that game

Final Day
It's time for the final round! Let's check out the first place today.
And the stupid Internet Explorer crashed while I was trying to post this the first time. Now I get to write this all over again.. (sigh)


NUMBER 1: Bare Knuckle 3 (Sega)


Yeah, my favorite Megadrive game is Bare Knuckle 3, which is known as Streets of Rage 3 in the countries other than Japan. I'll explain why I picked the Japanese version over SoR3 later on.


The earlier Streets of Rage/Bare Knuckle games were already fantastic. They involved nice gameplay and great levels. They were the proof that the Mega Drive was great for action games.


But Bare Knuckle 3 improved a lot over the already good previous games. The first improvement is the story. Unlike the other beat-em-ups, this game has a great dark plot that would captivate the players. Heck, the main point of this game is trying to stop the war! The cutscenes that appear between levels tell the story well. There are even bad endings that does a fantastic job of telling you that you failed.


The gameplay of Bare Knuckle 3 is swift as well, thanks to the nice controls. While the previous games only made you able to use three action buttons (A,B,C), Bare Knuckle 3 made you able to use all six action buttons. (Including X,Y,Z) Enabling you to use more buttons made you able to do more complicated actions with relative ease.


The levels are amazing as well. The levels are pretty long and detailed, which is one good point. Also, the levels had nice moments, like when you get chased by a bulldozer, where you have to save the General, or where you have to fight on a railroad. Those things made Bare Knuckle 3 much more unique than other beat-em-ups. (Ex: Final Fight)


But why did I pick the Japanese version instead of the overseas version (Streets of Rage 3)? It's because SoR3 had so much censored stuff. Some of the enemies and the bosses even got kicked out for this! The story was drastically changed as well, and that could be a problem, since the new story had some plot holes that made the story hard to understand. Also, the game was much harder than Bare Knuckle III. Heck, the Super Hard mode of Bare Knuckle III was just Hard mode in Streets of Rage 3. Also, the enemies gave you much more damage on SoR3.

The people who only played SoR3 won't get to know this game's greatness. This is one of the worse occasions of localizations..

Anyways, these amazing points makes Bare Knuckle 3 my favorite Megadrive game. Actually, Sonic and Knuckles used to be my favorite just a year ago. But Bare Knuckle 3 was great enough to beat Sonic and Knuckles. Thanks for reading this countdown, and we will return with better talks later on. Thank you!

Talk Over.

NEXT
The Sega Talk isn't over yet. We will take a look at Alex Kidd in the next talk, who used to be Sega's mascot. We will take three days of checking out all of his games.

Tip: Don't use Internet Explorer. XD

I thought I'd never even heard of that game, until I looked at the bottom and realized it was the other regions' version of Streets of Rage III. (I'd never played it so I wouldn't be able to tell the difference, lol) It looks good.

I never played that game but, it looks good and maybe I will give it a try some day.

I beat one of the Alex Kid games a few years ago so I can't wait for the talk about his games.