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Areala Asks: The Worst Genesis Game (20160723)


Areala

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A few iterations back, I asked readers to identify their personal candidate for worst SNES game. Well, I can't come up with anything better this week, so we're just going to try again with a different system. I want your personal pick for worst Genesis/Mega Drive title.

 

As with the SNES one, it doesn't have to be objectively bad. I'm more interested in your personal experience and reason you loathe a particular game more than just saying, "Oh, it's gotta be 'Shaq Fu' because everyone hates that game, right?" :)

 

Ponder, reflect, and write. We shall see who hated what and why!

 

*huggles*
Areala

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Hey, I actually rather liked Shaq Fu, I even owned it!

 

This is a tough one for me. I was the only kid I knew with a Genesis (there MIGHT have been one other kid I grew up with? Memory is fuzzy here.), so I didn't really play a whole lot of Genesis games that I didn't like. Actually, I can come up with two.

 

-Weapon Lord (Weaponlord?), a fighting game that, if I recall correctly, came out in 1995. You know what else came out in 1995, the week after we had my birthday party weekend? Mortal Kombat 3. Was REALLY looking forward to playing MK3 for my birthday, but it wasn't out yet, so we rented Weaponlord. Granted, it was a pretty solid game in all honesty, but the expectation was already set. I hear it's one of the most complex fighting games that was made back then though, and apparently holds up pretty well...

 

-Primal Rage. LOVED this game in the arcades. It's 1994, barely a year after Jurassic Park came out, and here we are playing a fighting game at the height of their popularity, starring dinosaurs. Dinosaurs that, I might add, eat the spectators, and on top of it all, the arcade machine has the biggest screen I've ever played a game on. This is probably my new favorite arcade game... then I play it on the Genesis. Sprites are about half the size, the sound is muddy, as are the graphics. Disappointing, as ports go.

 

Fortunately, both Primal Rage and MK3 got really good PS1 releases. :)

 

Really looking forward to hearing what the rest of you come up with, as my Genesis years were typically good ones. You know, I could say that for whatever reason, X-men games were all pretty awful, considering the premise and the quality of the cartoon. That's probably the best example that is also objectively bad.

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This is a tough one for me. I was the only kid I knew with a Genesis (there MIGHT have been one other kid I grew up with? Memory is fuzzy here.), so I didn't really play a whole lot of Genesis games that I didn't like. Actually, I can come up with two.

 

This is why I can't contribute.  I never owned a Genesis as a kid.  So I never got stuck with some POS that I got as a birthday present or that I picked out myself just because "the box art looked cool" which, despite being complete garbage, I was forced to play over and over just because I didn't own anything else.  Coming to a system as an adult, you can avoid all of that and cherry-pick the best games to play.  If you DO happen to load up a stinker, no big deal, you toss it aside after a minute or two and never think of it again. 

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This is why I can't contribute.  I never owned a Genesis as a kid.

 

I'm kind of in the same boat. While I did own a Genesis as a kid, it was never my favorite system. I always played the NES, and then the SNES, far more. Though I did adore the Genesis for Sonic, Toejam and Earl, King's Bounty and Starflight, it wasn't something that I really played a lot with any regularity.

 

As such, it wasn't the system I usually bought or even rented games for. This helped me to avoid pretty much all the games that were notorious for sucking. So, looking back at what games I actually did own, I'd have to say that maybe Super Thunderblade was my worst. I don't even remember if it was a particularly poor game - I don't remember it being god-awful or anything - but it was the game I played and liked the least. It came with the system when I bought it from a friend of mine so it was just kind of a "whatever" title.

 

Fun fact: After another friend of mine completed Final Fantasy for the NES I asked if he'd sell it to me. After just a bit of effort I got him to trade it to me for Super Thunderblade plus five bucks. A few years later he would go on to tell me that it was the worst deal he'd ever made, lol.

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Mine is a game I was so excited to finally get, because I had played the original on the Mac and loved the idea. Sadly, the Genesis port left a considerable amount to be desired, despite being in colour. I'm talking about none other than "Dark Castle".

 

On the Mac, it was an adorably fun little adventure game where you did a little platforming, some puzzle solving, and light combat as you set out to defeat the dreaded Black Knight.

 

On the Genesis, literally everything that could go wrong did (all but the soundtrack...the Genesis sound chip does surprisingly well with the classical music via synthesizers it has to work with). The difficulty is obscene, the controls are awful, and the distance you can fall without dying is far too short. The dizzying mechanic if you fall just a bit too far but not far enough to die is, in and of itself, evil, especially in rooms where there are moving platforms. A single mis-timed jump will result in the ground falling out from under you as you stumble around like you've just slugged back a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster.

 

Fortunately I didn't pick this game up until I was much older, and I only paid (I think) $1 for it despite it having the box and manual. That right there should have been a tip-off, but...oh well. Live and learn. :)

 

*huggles*
Areala

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like the majority here, i did not have a Genesis growing up. But, my best friend did, and we played it quite a bit. He also had a 32x and a Sega-CD (and YES, we totally made the Sega CDX!) Here's what i can remember playing at his place (in no particular order, but with thoughts given):

 

Golden Axe. not sure if he had the 6-pak cartridge or a stand alone Golden Axe, but this is the game we played the most. still love it. i always equate this game with the Genesis because of so many good afternoons, right after getting out of school for the day.

 

Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic 2, Sonic & Knuckles. all classics, of course. Sonic 2 was my favorite until the debut of Knuckles, who i immediately supported.

 

Virtua Fighter. not sure which #, or if this was the 32x version or not. this is definitely not a very good fighting game, although it was hyped as the first 3d fighter. i remember we both got pretty bored by it because we were used to MK2 and SF2, but we amused ourselves by trying to force the other to fall out of the ring. whatever it takes, right?

 

some boxing game where you could create your own boxer. i wanna say it was Ready 2 Rumble but i may be mistaken there. he had created a fighter named Icicle who was completely blue. we didn't play this one much because he always kicked my ass at it.

 

Comix Zone. oh man, this game is so friggin' difficult, but a lot of fun. i'm a big comics fan, so the animation and frame-by-frame setup was so cool to see. when i bought a Genesis a year or two back, this was one of the first games i sought out.

 

and then there was Lethal Enforcers. it sounds awesome, it's based off an arcade game, what could go wrong? the answer: everything. we actively tried to convince ourselves that it was a good game, but it just wasn't happening. it's a shooter game, made for use with those plastic guns. but we didn't have those. so you scrolled around the screen with the d-pad and used a or b to shoot. it was tedious, and stupid, and might have been ok with a Zapper, but just no. So maybe technically not a terrible game, but my experience with it definitely was.

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Twiztor, perhaps you are thinking of Evander Holyfield's Real Deal Boxing? I really enjoyed that game growing up. Honestly, something about boxing games in general, they just have a good balance as far as sports games go. EHRDB had the fun option of create a character long before most games came around to it, and you could give the boxers green, blue, or various other shades of skin tone.

 

Areala, Dark Castle was quite the turd. AVGN even featured it in one episode.

 

Which leads me to a related point. How many Genesis games have an AVGN episode? Dark Castle and Back to the Future 3? BTTF might have just been a side note on the Cinemassacre channel though.

 

 

I'll add to the list though. The two Jurassic Park games were kinda crap, but to be fair, I don't think I've ever played a good JP game.

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I'll add to the list though. The two Jurassic Park games were kinda crap, but to be fair, I don't think I've ever played a good JP game.

Jurassic Park: Warpath on the PS1 is awesome. JP Operation: Genesis on PS2 and Xbox is a kick-ass sim, and JP: Park Builder for the GBA is most excellent. In addition, I dig the Jurassic Park game that Telltale Games did on PS3/360 a few years ago.

 

Also, um, I earned the Platinum trophy in Lego Jurassic World...so... :)

 

*huggles*

Areala

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I never understood how guys checked their HP level without a convenient rack tattoo. What, do you see numbers projected on the inside of your eyelids or something? This system made total sense to me.

 

HOW DO MEN WORK?! :)

 

*huggles*
Areala

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I never understood how guys checked their HP level without a convenient rack tattoo. What, do you see numbers projected on the inside of your eyelids or something? This system made total sense to me.

 

HOW DO MEN WORK?! :)

 

*huggles*

Areala

The method is the same, but we have to stare at boobs on OTHER people. Ours don't have very good texture mapping, they look all hairy and you know, not as awesome. :P

 

On topic, I didn't realize there were so many JP games. I did pick up the Telltale JP game though, it did look entertaining, and I do enjoy their other games.

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Twiztor, perhaps you are thinking of Evander Holyfield's Real Deal Boxing? I really enjoyed that game growing up. Honestly, something about boxing games in general, they just have a good balance as far as sports games go. EHRDB had the fun option of create a character long before most games came around to it, and you could give the boxers green, blue, or various other shades of skin tone.

 

very possible!

i just image searched it, and the box/cartridge don't look familiar at all, but the gameplay stills definitely ring some bells. this very likely is what i remember. thanks for clearing that up!

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Sure thing bud. That was one of my favorite games growing up. It has a rather nasty habit of giving you a loss on your career character any time the power is interrupted during a fight. Rage quitters? Not gonna get too far in that game. Power goes out in the middle of a bout? You just chalked up a loss...

 

I can appreciate what they were going for, but man, that made a lot of time investment go down the drain if you unfairly had a loss due to power outage. Once you reached a certain point in career mode, one loss, and you weren't gonna have another shot at advancing, your career was effectively over.

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