Further Reading: Kingdom Hearts 3 Is a Disney Adventure Like No Other

This time, Mickey’ brought Donald Duck with him, and in two-player mode, the pair traverse the platform landscape together, assisting each other with ropes or standing on each other’s shoulders. It’s a more conventional experience in single-player, but remains colorful and is, by the standards of the time, exquisitely animated.

15. Dick Tracy

Dick Tracy shakes up the predictability of the Rolling Thunder/Shinobi platform shooter with a brilliantly-realized machine gun mechanic. As well as dealing with the bad guys waiting for you on your journey across each level, there are more enemies lurking in the windows and doors further in the distance. To get rid of them, you have to shoot them with an aiming reticle, a bit like TAD’s arcade machine, Cabal.

A considerable amount of focus is required to switch between these two perspectives since Dick Tracy’s vulnerable to attack from enemies in the foreground while he’s shooting those in the distance and vice versa. Couple the varied and relentless gameplay with some great, cartoonlike graphics and meaty 16-bit gunshot sound effects and you’re left with one of the best action games on the Genesis.

14. The Ooze

A kind of cross between the old arcade game Snake and an action adventure, The Ooze casts the player as an amorphous blob who’s on the hunt for 50 DNA helices that will turn him back into a human. The way the player’s gooey sprite is animated is extremely clever, considering the era the game was made in, and the character’s design means you can see at a glance how close you are to death: each hit you take reduces the size of the blob, while absorbing other blobs around the landscape will make the mass increase again. You can also spit blobs of your own goo at enemies, but again at the expense of your overall mass.

The maze-like levels offer a range of imaginative enemies to contend with as well as puzzles to solve, and while The Ooze isn’t the most attractive game on the Genesis – its graphics are green and muddy brown for the most part – it’s an endearingly sludgy, original title that still has much to offer even today.

13. Mega Turrican

Free-roaming platform shooter Turrican received a brilliant port in 1991, and like its computer counterparts, was a superbly designed and slick game in a similar vein to Metroid. Oddly, Turrican II was rebranded as Universal Soldier on the Genesis (tying it into the Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren action movie), though the quality of its gameplay was still high.

Further Reading: The Best Sega Genesis Shooters

The best game in the series had to be Mega Turrican, which did little to shake up the free-roaming, aggressive format but built on the quality of the first game’s graphics and sheer mayhem. The weapons are more satisfying to play with and devastating than ever, swinging across chasms using the character’s sci-fi rope ability feels natural and precise, and the look of the thing is really something to behold: the number of enemies and explosions Mega Turrican‘s designers have smuggled into the game is often mind-boggling.

Unfortunately, all those sprites come at a price if you’re after a physical copy from eBay – the going rate appears to be somewhere around the $50 to $70 for a cart in a box with instructions. By way of consolation, you can download Mega Turrican from the Wii Virtual Console for just a few bucks.

12. Rainbow Islands Extra

Although hardly an obscure title in gaming terms – Rainbow Islands was ported to just about every system you could think of in the ’90s – this Genesis port was, mystifyingly, never picked up for release outside of Japan. A perfectly respectable version for the Master System came out in North America and Europe in 1993, yet the Genesis edition failed to follow suit.

An exceptionally faithful rendition of the arcade original, Rainbow Islands Extra retains the bouncy, deceptively punishing action of the coin-op. Your main weapon is a rainbow, which you can throw out in front of your character to either kill enemies or use as a kind of escalator to help you reach high platforms.

A steadily-rising water level adds a layer of tension, as one slip from a platform or fading rainbow can leave you falling to your doom. With dozens of items to collect and other secrets to find, Rainbow Islands Extra is a classic entry in Taito’s ’80s cycle of unforgettable platform games.

The Genesis version comes with the Extra mode – essentially a set of remixed levels – plus it retains the original arcade theme music, which was altered in subsequent ports when its similarity to “Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz was noted as being potentially copyright infringing.

11. Road Blasters

EA’s not-dissimilar Road Rash series was better known and technically superior, but this adaptation of Atari’s action driving game is still weirdly addictive. Driving down a post-apocalyptic road to nowhere, you have to shoot oncoming vehicles and collect the fuel orbs within, all while staying on the tarmac long enough to reach the finish line before your petrol runs out.

It’s hard to pin down what makes the Genesis port of Road Blasters so effective, despite your inability to brake or accelerate. Maybe it’s thanks to the deliciously crunchy sound effects, which makes shooting enemy vehicles so satisfying. Perhaps it’s because your constantly dwindling tank of fuel constantly gives you a reason to keep shooting and collecting, shooting and collecting. Or it could just be the feeling of exhilaration you get from reaching the finish line with one tiny drop of fuel left – or the delicious agony of stopping mere inches away from victory.

10. Musha Aleste

Released in America as M.U.S.H.A, this later entry in the series from Compile is among the very best vertical shooters available for the Genesis. Its creators use its Tenryaku-era setting as a springboard for some truly inspiring creations, such as ancient Japanese temples that transform into tanks, or huge flying cannons topped with eerie Noh theatre masks.

Further Reading: 20 Games That Deserve Remakes

There’s also a great sequence where the floor gradually falls away tile by tile, revealing a gaping chasm of rock and lava beneath. It’s moments like these that make Musha Aleste worth the hefty price tag often attached to it on eBay: every single level introduces something new and visually arresting.

9. Dynamite Headdy

Japanese developer Treasure excelled itself with this adorable and typically strange platform game. You control a slightly ungainly-looking puppet hero, who storms a colorful series of levels in a quest to save his town from an evil demon king. Generic plot aside, it’s Dynamite Headdy‘s design that makes it truly special: each level speeds by at a sprint, with backgrounds designed to look as though they’re the set pieces in a demented theatrical production.

Then there’s the hero himself, whose various heads give him different powers, such as the Kirby-like ability to suck up enemies like a vacuum cleaner. Headdy may lack the outright charisma of Sonic the Hedgehog – which is perhaps why the game wasn’t a big hit, despite a global release – but Treasure’s almost supernatural ability to stretch the Genesis’ possibilities makes Dynamite Headdy one of the best games of its type on the system. With its hectic pace, dozens of mini-games, and surreal sense of humor, this is about as close as we’ll get to a 16-bit video game designed by Terry Gilliam.

8. Monster World IV

This platform adventure game deserved to be a big hit, but the timing of Monster World IV‘s release (it arrived as the Genesis was nearing the end of its life) meant that it wasn’t even released outside Japan until it was finally translated and made available on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network. Introducing a new lead character – the heroine, Asha – and a fantasy Arabian theme, Monster World IV nevertheless has the same sprawling maps and light RPG elements as its predecessor, Wonder Boy V: Monster World III.

The usual action-adventure trappings apply: you traverse the environment looking for four elemental spirits, and see off a series of area bosses in the process. Monster World IV’s main twist is Pepelogoo, a little blue sidekick who assists Asha wherever she goes. Once he’s grown to his full size, Pepelogoo can be used to hit switches far out of reach, fly Asha across wide chasms, and protect her from lava drops and other projectiles falling from above. Both characters are adorable creations, and there are some great (and sometimes quite tricky) bosses to fight, too.

A truly charming game, Monster World IV could have served as a reboot for the series, and we’d have loved more adventures featuring Asha and Pepelogoo on other systems. Instead, Monster World IV stands alone as a delightful and all-too-rare one-off.

7. Gunstar Heroes

The first title from the now legendary developer Treasure, Gunstar Heroes contains everything the studio’s fans associate with its output: a quirky sense of humor, frantic action, and graphics that push its host platform to the breaking point. On paper, Gunstar Heroes is just another run-and-gun game, but that’s a bit like saying that The Raid is just another martial arts movie.

Further Reading: The Evolution of Handheld Gaming

Treasure pitches the player headlong into one bizarre encounter after another. One minute you’re fighting a gigantic boss called Curry and Rice, the next your hurtling through a mine shaft on the top of an out-of-control cart, and the next you’re fighting bad guys on an airborne zeppelin. The running, jumping, and shooting is time-worn stuff, but Treasure injects the game with so much energy and sheer invention that it never feels anything less than fresh.

6. Contra: Hard Corps

Konami brought its long-running, consistently excellent run-and-gun series to the Genesis in 1994, and the results are spectacular. Like Castlevania: Bloodlines (see later), Hard Corpsshakes up the platform shooter gameplay with some stunning visual ideas. The first level alone brings with it the arresting sight of a giant robot silhouetted against a burning cityscape, only for the mecha to leap into the foreground and begin menacing the player with its superior firepower.

Konami really was on form at this point in its history, and Hard Corps is one of its many 16-bit masterpieces. Be warned, though – Hard Corps really does live up to its title and offers up some of the toughest challenges in any Contra game. Tune in to its brutal pace, however, and you’ll be treated to one of the very best platform shooters on any ’90s system.

5. Yu Yu Hakusho: Makyo Toitsusen

If you were into one-on-one brawlers in the ’90s, you were probably playing one of the many flavors of Street Fighter II doing the rounds at the time. If you were very, very lucky, you may have stumbled on this eminently playable fighting game, which remained almost unknown outside Japan. Based on the hit anime and manga series Yu Yu Hakusho, it’s a lightning-fast game, with combos and light/strong attacks akin to Street Fighter II, except with the ability to leap in and out of the screen to avoid attacks.

The busy, polished visuals and anarchic action make sense when you consider that Makyo Toitsusen was handled by Treasure – this being one of several underrated gems from the studio to make this list. And just to spice things up even more, Genesis owners with a multi-tap could indulge in a blistering four-player multiplayer brawl – something unheard of in fighting games at the time. Only released in Japan and Brazil, Makyo Toitsusen is the very definition of a cult item and is now highly sought after by collectors.

4. Castlevania: Bloodlines

Konami has made Castlevania games for a multitude of systems since the series began in 1986, but only one for the Sega Genesis – Bloodlines, which is arguably among the best of the 2D entries. Visually stunning by Genesis standards, Bloodlines is a fast-paced action-adventure in the ’80s and ’90s Castlevania tradition. With the power of the console’s 16-bit processor behind it, the game’s an addictive and hugely atmospheric experience, too.

Its beefed-up heroes traverse landscapes full of traps and imaginative monsters, including a gigantic wolf boss whose howl is powerful enough to shatter windows. Then there’s an Atlantis-themed stage with the action reflected in ebbing waters or a stage where you have to head up a huge, rotating tower. Considering the technical limitations of the ’90s, the imagination and ambition of Bloodlines is sometimes startling.

Further Reading: 10 Best Castlevania Games

By the standards of the Castlevania franchise, Bloodlines is one of the lesser-known entries, and increasingly difficult to get hold of in its original cartridge form. True fans of the series should go for the full-blooded Japanese release rather than the US or European versions, which were censored.

3. Comix Zone

Like several other games on this list, Comix Zone came out relatively late in the Genesis’ life, which ultimately proved to be a double-edged sword. On one hand, the timing meant that its designers were well positioned to get the most out of an aging system (just as Team Ico did with Shadow of the Colossus on the PlayStation 2), but on the other, the game came out when many players were already thinking about the next generation of consoles.

As a result, this wonderful-looking action game may have passed some people by, even though it’s one of the most enjoyable and downright novel games on the system. As the name implies, it’s about a hero fighting his way through the pages of a graphic novel – and its scrolling brawler gameplay is enriched by some brilliant flourishes, as protagonist Sketch Turner leaps and tears his way through one comic book panel after another.

Games like Batman: The Caped Crusader hadtoyed with similar ideas years earlier, but Comix Zone does things that could only be dreamt about on the ZX Spectrum, like the sequences where Sketch rips through the white space between panels to get to the next scene. Every moment of Comix Zone is full of personality and thought, from the little speech bubbles that keep the story going on the fly, to the stunning animation on even the most incidental creature, such as the little rats whose eyes glint in the darkness of a sewer.

“Man, I’m glad this panel is over,” the hero thinks aloud as he fends off another round of bad guys. With Comix Zone‘s challenge being intense yet relatively short, we can only lament that its creators couldn’t have squeezed in a few more levels or, alternatively, made a sequel or two instead.

2. Pulseman

In 1996, the then little-known Japanese developer Game Freak released Pokemon Red and Blue on the Game Boy, resulting in a multimedia, multi-million-dollar phenomenon. Before that, the studio created a string of adorable little platform and puzzle games, among them Quinty for the NES, Jerry Boy (also known as Smart Ball) for the Super Nintendo, and Pulseman for the Genesis.

In terms of attention to detail and unique touches, Pulseman is stunning. The title hero is a half human, half digital being who can enter the digital realm. Although clearly modeled after the template established by Astro Boy and Mega Man, Pulseman has his own style and personality, thanks in large part to Game Freak’s brilliant character animation. Pulseman has much of the speed and agility of Sonic, coupled with the ability to fire bolts of energy like Mega Man and a kind of boost jump akin to Sega’s Rocket Knight.

Eschewing the usual elemental themed worlds of most platform games of the time, Pulseman is instead set in distinctive electronic landscapes, futuristic cities, or behind the scenes of a TV news show. There’s even a brilliantly post-modern moment where Pulseman zaps himself into an arcade shooter called Galaxy Gang and fights across a Gradius-like curtain of stars and boulders. It’s an idea you’ll often see in modern indie games, but still felt new and daring back in 1994.

Fast, exciting, and full of surreal moments, Pulseman is a superb, often overlooked moment in Genesis gaming. It’s sad to note, in fact, that the success of the Pokemon franchise has left Game Freak either unwilling or simply unable to make another platform game like this one.

1. Alien Soldier

For some, this run-and-gun game from Treasure is the holy grail of Genesis rarities. But unlike some collectible games for the console, Alien Soldier is a masterpiece of design rather than merely a low-print-run cult oddity. Treasure yet again pushed the Genesis to its technical limit, somehow producing a game that wouldn’t have looked out of place on later systems like the Saturn. There are gigantic bosses that almost fill the screen, explosions all over the place, and an agile, brilliantly animated lead character.

In line with the studio’s irreverent approach to gaming convention, Alien Soldier‘s levels are intentionally brief, essentially fast-forwarding the ten-minute breather you’d typically get between boss battles. The result is a game where the boss battles take center stage, and it’s here that the quality of the level design comes to the fore. One boss is a giant toad that lays explosives. Another takes the form of a colossal, steam-powered ED-209 robot that fires rockets. There are a total of 31 bosses to fight against, each more curious and surprising than the last. A scene where you fight a colossal alien-helicopter hybrid on the roof of a moving train has to rank among the most spectacular boss moments in any Genesis game.