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reviews >> genesis
Sega Genesis Review Archive


written by Shaun McCracken

For those who want to know how games of the past fare, look no further to the Sega Genesis archive section right here on BlueStorm. Sure, the reviews may be shorter, but you still get the same scoring as the big reviews do, and that's really what you want to know in the end, huh? Oh, and take into consideration that the scores given here are comparable to other games on the system, not exactally what's on more powerful consoles (unless we're talking about games that score 9 or higher).

Oh, and sorry for the short list of reviews. I haven't played many Genesis games, so the list may be a bit short. Maybe more games will be added in the future.

Columns 8.25
Columns is a pretty fun and addictive puzzle game that takes it's cues from games such as Tetris and even Dr. Mario, and even adds elements of it's own. The problem, though is that there isn't that much variety, and the music really got on my nerves after 15 minutes.
Garfield: Caught In The Act 7
A by-the-numbers platformer that has Garfield go through a string of T.V. shows as stages. The game looked pretty good, but it lacked replay value. Hey, you get Garfield tap-dancing on the SEGA logo, though.
Marble Madness 7.25
The same six stages that you've played in the arcade, now on the Genesis. The visuals and sound are better, but nothing new is added.
Mortal Kombat 8
If you were willing to sacrifice the near arcade-perfect visual quality of the SNES port for the Genesis version, you were rewarded with a code that enabled all the blood and fatalities of the arcade original. It's also a sad truth that heavily violent games sell better than ones without blood and gore, at least at the time, where the Genesis version outsold the SNES version nearly 4:1.
Mortal Kombat 3 2.75
The Genesis version of MK3 is just plain bad, and it gets even worse if you still had the old 3-button game pad. The graphics were higly inferior to the SNES version, the sound was terrible, and the controls were bad. Again, if you had a 3-button controller instead of the 6-button one that was released a couple a years in the Genesis's life, the game is nearly unplayable.
Sonic 3-D Blast 8
Sonic 3-D Blast was a little too late in the Genesis's lifespan. The pre-rendered graphics were not exactally astounding (especially when comapred to Rare's SNES efforts), but by no means did it look bad. The game's biggest flaw, though, was it's perspective, which made certain platfroming elements more difficult than it had to be. On top of that, it's not exactally a fast-moving game, which is what the series is known for. This might have been nice if it came out in 1994, but in 1996, it wasn't exactally superior.
Sonic The Hedgehog 8.5
The first in what is a huge franchise for Sega. Undoubtably Sega's answer to Nintendo's Mario games, Sonic The Hedgehog went in a different direction, at least compared to other platformers at the time. I will say though, that the first game isn't exactally my favorite in the series, but it's still a pretty fun Genesis game and a certifiable classic.
Sonic The Hedgehog 2 9.5
Perhaps the best Sonic game to be released on the Genesis, and may be the best Sonic game period. Sonic 2 managed to improve a lot over the first game by adding more speed, better stage design, better music and even an extra character (though how useful was Tails?). I think the added function of being able to speed dash whenever you want was a huge improvement. I can't think of many people who didn't have this game for the Genesis.
Sonic The Hedgehog 3 8.75
Sonic 3 is a bit odd to me. The graphic design is supposed to be an upgrade, but for some reason it looks slightly worse than Sonic 2 at times. The sound is a little better than previous games, and I believe this is the only Sonic game on the Genesis that allowed you to save your progress (though any Genesis that let you save was a bit of a rarity).
Sonic And Knuckles 9
If Sonic 2 is the best Sonic game on the Genesis, this runs a fairly close second. Sonic and Knuckles was a great looking and sounding game, and allowed you to play as Knuckles in Sonic 2 or 3 by piggy-backing the original games onto the Sonic And Knuckles cart. Where did the save feature go, though?
Sonic Spinball 9
Sega's first attempt at combining one of their franchises with pinball was not a bad idea (although not as great as what they did with Pinball Of The Dead on the GBA), but Spinball tried to throw in some action based objectives to try and make it seem like a Sonic game. It's fun while it lasts, but it would have done better if it was a more true pinball game.
Sub Terrainia 8.5
Sub Terrainia is an odd shooter that kind of slipped into the Genesis lineup. It's not exactally a shooter like R-Type or Gradius, it plays a little more like Sinistar with gravity. The game also threw in puzzle objectives to complete certain stages. This is not an easy game to pass at all, and is one of the more frustrating games I've played on the system. Yet, I totally don't hate it. It's kind of an odd classic that really doesn't have much of a following.
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 3
Look at what I said about MK3 on this page, and then add "but with more characters".
Virtua Racing 7
While not as severly bastardized as the Virtua Fighter 2 port on the Genesis, Virtua Racing has it's own problems. It does look similar to the arcade game, but the Genesis really doesn't pull off polygons as well as SNES games do with the Super FX chip. Also, there's a lot of pop-up in this game. It's okay, but nothing stellar.