Must have Sega Master System games

[Outdoormongoose]

 

• Phantasy Star

 

This game made my brother and myself furious. We owned this game as kids. We were stuck for YEARS on the part where you had to ask the guy like 30 times about a ticket. We just keep thinking we missed something and gave up.

 

For me it was all about:

 

Rampage

Aztec Adventure

R Type

Rambo 3

Outrun

Alex Kidd and the Lost Stars

 

I also had the game were you turn into a wolf and hated it. Altered Beast maybe?

[Inky]

I gave upon trying Phantasy Star 2, precisely because of the dungeons not being 3D. Also, it seems to me that there was way more grinding in PS2 than there was in the first (phirst?) one.

[BassGuitari]

I just got a complete copy of R-Type yesterday. It was the one Master System game I'd been hunting for, so it was pretty serendipitous to find it in a game shop on the way to visit my mom on her birthday.

 

I'm not a Master System collector, but I do have a modest library of titles like Double Dragon, Rambo, Action Fighter, Black Belt, Alien Syndrome, Afterburner, Shinobi, and some others I enjoy quite a bit.

 

So...I kinda jumped off the deep end and picked up a loose copy of Golden Axe Warrior (guess I can't say I'm not a Master System collector anymore, eh? ). Naturally, it wasn't cheap, but I can confidently say I will get every pennys' worth of entertainment value from it.

 

As a lifelong NES fan...I'm actually tempted to say it might even be better than The Legend Of Zelda. Golden Axe Warrior essentially takes the game concept and refines it a bit--better graphics, better music, more intuitive exploration, NPCs that speak in actual sentences (some of them even useful!), bigger and more varied game world, etc. Comparing to the Zelda series, it's like it falls somewhere between the original Legend Of Zelda and A Link To The Past. Maybe comparable to Link's Awakening but with less polish. The only thing about Golden Axe Warrior that annoys me sometimes is the tile-based movement combined with the square Master System D-pad; tight movements can be much trickier to perform than they need to be.

 

It's too bad Golden Axe Warrior came out so late and is so rare now. It's an uncommon case of a rare game that's actually really freaking good. And, along with my recently acquired copy of R-Type, it's gotten me back in touch with my [admittedly small] Master System library and helped me get a newfound appreciation for it. Makes me want to check out Golvellius, too.

Edited January 29, 2019 by BassGuitari

[dj_convoy]

I actually prefer Govellius, but YMMV. I'm heavily biased towards Compile games and I grew up with it.

[4300]

Saw someone mention rescue mission above. That is a good one. Kind of like an unofficial sequel to choplifter.

[electricmastro]

[roots.genoa]

I recently got Psycho Fox because it was named very often, but I find it quite difficult to play (the fox has a lot of inertia).

[electricmastro]

3 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

I recently got Psycho Fox because it was named very often, but I find it quite difficult to play (the fox has a lot of inertia).

Yeah. Still interesting though how it came out and tried to distinguish itself from other 80s games like Metroid, at least on the back of the box, as well as coming out in a pre-Sonic world too as far as animal platformers went.

[Zoyous]

It was developed by Vic Tokai and has similar mechanics (throwing a helper/object) to one or two other of their titles, like Kid Kool for the NES and Decap Attack for the Gen/MD. I tend not to like platformers with inertia on the character, but Psycho Fox has a lot of depth if you stick with it.

[electricmastro]

Best Master System games that didn't release in the US:

 

Land of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse

 

Bubble Bobble

 

Asterix

 

Power Strike II

 

Master of Darkness

 

Ninja Gaiden

 

Lemmings

 

Donald Duck: The Lucky Dime Caper

 

Penguin Adventure

 

Desert Strike

 

Micro Machines

 

Disney's Aladdin

 

The Lion King

 

Donald Duck: Deep Duck Trouble

 

Legend of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse

 

Tecmo World Cup '93

 

Wonder Boy in Monster World

 

Streets of Rage

 

Olympic Gold: Barcelona '92

 

Gain Ground

[roadrunner]

No love for Monopoly?

Good game



 

 

[electricmastro]

Land of Illusion is a very well-made game now that I think about it more. Maybe the SMS would have been more popular if more games like this had come out early on:

 

 

[roots.genoa]

I was going to scold you again for making me buy new games but this one is not even expensive for a change!

[electricmastro]

8 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

I was going to scold you again for making me buy new games but this one is not even expensive for a change!

Ah, didn't realize that. Seems that Asterix is pretty cheap too:

 

 

[roots.genoa]

Probably but I already own that one.

[roots.genoa]

Funnily I didn't realize the Land of Illusion I was "following" on eBay was an auction, and I did less than an hour before the end of it. I bid less than 30 minutes before the end, and won. 😋

[+jgkspsx]

On 5/15/2022 at 3:08 PM, electricmastro said:

Land of Illusion is a very well-made game now that I think about it more. Maybe the SMS would have been more popular if more games like this had come out early on:

Castle of Illusion came out earlier and is arguably better, and that didn’t help… Nintendo just had a stranglehold in the US and Sega made a lot of weird decisions.

[+Gemintronic]

Phantasy Star, Miracle Warriors and Dragon Crystal

 

That being said, I have an unreasonable soft spot for Danan: The Jungle Fighter, Kung Fu Kid and Psycho Fox

[+jgkspsx]

I just got Submarine Attack, which is probably one of the last SMS games I will get. (Still looking for Danan, Psycho Fox, and most of the Wonder Boy games, though.)

 

It’s inexpensive and looks really stunning:

 

 

Amazing music too. It seems to be considered too easy, but it didn’t seem too easy for me so far.

[newtmonkey]

5 hours ago, Gemintronic said:

...Miracle Warriors...

Glad to see someone else likes this one!  I remember borrowing my older brother's SMS back in the day, and this was in his small collection of games.  It was probably shortly after the game was released, so I was just a kid, and the game seemed ridiculously complicated/difficult.  However, over many weekends, I slowly figured out what the game was all about, and ended up having a blast. I remember putting the giant paper map up on my wall and sticking push-pins into it to mark discoveries (not good for the map, not good for my wall).

 

I was actually able to get to the final dungeon but can't remember if I completed it or not.  I actually have a boxed copy of the JPN version, and it's the only SMS game I own.  I'd love to go through it again, to make sure I finish it.  Maybe after Phantasy Star II.

[roots.genoa]

9 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

Amazing music too. It seems to be considered too easy, but it didn’t seem too easy for me so far.

Too easy is not a flaw for me anyway. 😔 By the way, it's interesting several of you mentioned Danan because it's the first game I got when I started collecting again for the SMS last year. It wasn't cheap but not very expensive either (in box but not manual though). I always wanted to try it based on (only) one review I read back in the days, but it doesn't seem very well known (like most SMS exclusives I guess). I played until the first boss and it seems really nice. Not sure I could beat it without cheating though.

[Zoyous]

The only thing I didn't like about Danan is how the theme music keeps restarting when you enter a new area. Someone on SMS Power posted a patch that fixes that.

 

Submarine Attack has really cool artwork, and nice multi-directional scrolling. I wonder if it might have been an influence on Irem's coin-op In the Hunt, which came out the following year - another submarine game with amazing graphics!

[roots.genoa]

Just got Land of Illusion today while it only shipped yesterday! It didn't come from far actually but still, it's quite unusual for a SMS box sized package. 🤯

That being said, maybe I should have bought the Game Gear version instead, because I don't have much more room for Master System games and it's more convenient to play games on my Pocket (especially since it has savestates). 😅 I guess I already have a few SMS games that exist on Game Gear too, but in my defense I bought most of them before I got the Pocket.

Edited Wednesday at 08:25 PM by roots.genoa

[electricmastro]

Apparently one of the most favorable James Pond games is James Pond on Master System. I think it definitely turned out to be a charming version, at least: