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[kg333]

Shining Force and Shining Force 2 are considered the pinnacle of RPGs for the Genesis, although they were never my cup of tea.  Highly recommended to try them, though.  I was personally a fan of Wonder Boy in Monster World, but I have no idea how well it's received/known by others, since I picked it up as a bargain bin purchase.

KG

[Vattic]

From what I've read, SNES Shadowrun varies considerably from Genesis Shadowrun.  So try both if you haven't already.

The SNES game is odd to say the least. I enjoyed it for the most part but wouldn't consider it a shining example of game design. I must try the Sega Genesis one.

[beorn080]

Where the Genesis shadowrun had excellent gameplay and a middling story, SNES shadowrun has an excellent story and middling gameplay. Honestly, SNES shadowrun feels like a computer game shoehorned into an SNES cartridge.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Speaking of games with an unexpected amount of depth, try Star Ocean on the SNES. If you manage to avoid the bugs it comes supplied with, it can be a surprisingly good RPG.

And the Genesis Shadowrun is probably the best RPG on the platform. It combines the usual RPG quest drivel with a great storyline and very fun missions, including those in cyberspace. My favorite discovery was the infinite money bug though, even if I'm not sure it'll reproduce on emulators.

Spoiler: The bug, don't open if you don't want to be tempted (click to show/hide)

You basically have to have a high trade skill (if one exists - all of this is IIRC, since it was so long ago), and good relations with whatever group owns the black market in the far western district (forgot its name). At some point in the game, you'll be able to run a few quests for this group, the reward for success ultimately being a 50% discount at said black market. The bug? The game doesn't track the purchase cost of the items you buy this way. So, if your trade skill allows you to sell back items at ~70% their purchase price, and lowers the purchase price to ~70% of the original, with your new discount you're buying at ~35% the original price, and sell back at the same ~70% as usual, for net gain of almost as much as the item costs you. The most advanced armor in the shop costs... 10K nuyen, I think, with the discounted price of about 5K. Suffice to say, money is not a problem after that point.

[beorn080]

Speaking of games with an unexpected amount of depth, try Star Ocean on the SNES. If you manage to avoid the bugs it comes supplied with, it can be a surprisingly good RPG.

And the Genesis Shadowrun is probably the best RPG on the platform. It combines the usual RPG quest drivel with a great storyline and very fun missions, including those in cyberspace. My favorite discovery was the infinite money bug though, even if I'm not sure it'll reproduce on emulators.

Spoiler: The bug, don't open if you don't want to be tempted (click to show/hide)

You basically have to have a high trade skill (if one exists - all of this is IIRC, since it was so long ago), and good relations with whatever group owns the black market in the far western district (forgot its name). At some point in the game, you'll be able to run a few quests for this group, the reward for success ultimately being a 50% discount at said black market. The bug? The game doesn't track the purchase cost of the items you buy this way. So, if your trade skill allows you to sell back items at ~70% their purchase price, and lowers the purchase price to ~70% of the original, with your new discount you're buying at ~35% the original price, and sell back at the same ~70% as usual, for net gain of almost as much as the item costs you. The most advanced armor in the shop costs... 10K nuyen, I think, with the discounted price of about 5K. Suffice to say, money is not a problem after that point.

The only issue with that is if you chose that side, you lose the ability to choose the other. While infinite money is indeed tempting, the other side offers cheaper cyberware for all runners, the best magic item in the game, and the best armor in the game. So it's a toss up. Still need Karma too.

[Duke 2.0]

 If you can grab the fan translation of the Japanese version of Tales of Phantasia you'll be subject to some hilarious bits of dialogue.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Well, it's a tradeoff, and I really only found it by chance. On my first successful playthrough, no less. (though, in retrospect, largely successful because of the bug and all the purhaseables it entailed).

[Astral]

Third on Phantasy Star 4; best game on the Genesis to me. At least, the one that took up a good majority of my time as a child.

*looks at an old bookshelf full of genesis game boxes*

Phantasy Star 3 wasn't too bad either. I got both of them at approximately the same time so I much preferred 4 over 3, but I went back and loved finding some of the ties between the two, great storyline overall.

I was mostly a Genesis kid growing up; here's my little list: Truxton was a pretty good vertical-scrolling shooter. Marble Madness was... well, maddening at some points, because you had limited lives and no continue/save point system (interesting game nonetheless). James Pond 1 and 2, while being two different games, are both fairly good, with lots of humor injected; nowhere near as much as Bubsy Bobcat, Sega's own internal competitor to Sonic. Terminator 2 (T2 on the box) was a good version of the "House of the Dead"-esque arcade shooter games, where you control the cursor and blow things up. Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Coolspot, Toejam and Earl, and Kid Chameleon are all classics that (in my eye) have stood the test of time, considering how long ago they were made. Earthworm Jim is still the best game ever. EVER.

It's fairly old now, but the game Panzer Dragoon Saga for the Sega Saturn was (and still, to an extent, is) my most favorite RPG of all time.

Heir of Zendor is a fairly obscure title for the Saturn that I remember as being a pretty good turn based airship combat game, for as little as I liked turn based games at the time.

Goldeneye/Perfect Dark for N64 set the bar for FPS's today; nothing like a return to the classics (and seeing that FPS's really haven't progressed past a system with 4MB of RAM)

[Sean Mirrsen]

If we're starting to just recommend classic console games, let me procure my long list of favorites.

NES:
Apart from the usual, Over Horizon and Shatterhand were my most favorite games. The first is the most impressive scrolling shmup you'll see on the platform, with art and music being a fine match even for Genesis and SNES titles. The second is simply a very interesting platformer, with an odd "satellite" system that gives it a certain degree of strategy.

Genesis:
Haunting Starring Polterguy - a fun "adventure" game with you trying to scare a family of snobs out of their home(s). The sheer amount of different things you can use for scaring is quite impressive.
Zero Tolerance - finest FPS on the platform. Would give Doom a run for its money if it came with mouse control.
Comix Zone - Very unique and punishingly difficult (to me it was, at least) story-driven platformer. Very nice graphics.
Rock'n'Roll Racing - deserves a second mention. The best game in the "combat racing" genre.
Herzog Zwei - a unique take on real-time strategy, and also one of the first RTSes ever. Plays a little like Advance Wars, if your CO was a transforming fighter/mecha and ordering your units to move costed money.

Genesis also has a few games available on the PC - for example, Syndicate, Dune II and Cannon Fodder.

For the SNES, most of the games I like were already mentioned. I'd like to mention Donkey Kong Country again though. Both first and second games were incredibly good platformers.

[lordcooper]

The Bards Tale for Amstrad 464.

[Vattic]

Looking through many of the Genesis games suggested I realise there was more cross console support than I remember. of those mentioned Rock'n'Roll Racing, the Bubsy series, Syndicate, Cannon Fodder, Terminator 2(NES), Earthworm Jim, and Coolspot were on both SNES and Genesis.

On the topic of cross platform games: it's worth checking which release was considered better or checking both yourself. Some games were arcade ports and often the arcade versions were much better. SNES versions tended to have more colour depth and are generally better sounding, both for hardware reasons, while the Genesis' advantages I can't remember(anyone?). Don't get me wrong I played and enjoyed both so I'm not trying to start a console war.

Toejam and Earl deserves mentioning again as it was basically the first rouge-like I ever played. Very original rouge-like to boot.

[loose nut]

The Tactics Ogre games are quite good, but I always loved the original Ogre Battle for the SNES. One of the interesting mechanics is that crushing much weaker foes is interpreted as bullying, and makes characters more evil.

[Dakk]

I prefer the ogre battle series to tactics ogre. The original is so awesome and even has multiple endings. Try Ogre Battle for the snes, its a glorious unique little game, altough you might wanna look up a guide because it has tons of hidden stuff you have to either search for or stumble upon by luck during skimirshes

[Astral]

SNES versions tended to have more colour depth and are generally better sounding, both for hardware reasons, while the Genesis' advantages I can't remember(anyone?). Don't get me wrong I played and enjoyed both so I'm not trying to start a console war.

Generally the Genesis versions had smoother scrolling and a generally faster gameplay for most titles. Hardware wise, its speed was touted over the "slower" SNES games, which didn't have quite as many platformers, but many more superior RPGs. Also, the SNES versions tended to be more indepth than their Genesis counterparts, but that's not counting direct ports (mostly just hardware differences). The Genesis also tended to have more MA titles, with more pixel blood/gore/etc. Just my observation.

[Itnetlolor]

Zillion, Maze Hunter 3-D, Spy Vs. Spy, and Gangster Town were some great games on the Sega Master System.