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Sega Genesis

84 games on the shelf. See them all on the shelf.

THE SEGA GENESIS LIBRARY GOES DEEPER

My thread from X, as posted.

Every console has the same six games people name, and then a whole library underneath that nobody talks about. The Genesis turns 37 today in North America and it has one of the deepest catalog of games any system from that era has. No Sonic. No Streets of Rage. No Mortal Kombat. Everyone played those. Here's the 10 you should play this weekend.🧵
August 14, 2026View on X
Krusty's Super Fun House

1Krusty's Super Fun House

A Simpsons puzzle game where you herd rats through a building, which is the last thing anyone wanted out of a Simpsons license in 1992. That's why it got passed over. It's a legitimately good puzzle platformer and it gets hard fast.

August 14, 2026View on X

Tick

2The Tick

Based on the animated series, and it plays nothing like a cartoon tie-in. It's a heavy, slow, mean brawler where you feel every hit, and it came out in 1994 while the show was still on. Most people who loved the cartoon never knew the game existed.

August 14, 2026View on X

Stargate

3Stargate

Acclaim put out a movie tie-in a full year after the movie left theaters, which is how you kill a game. It's a solid run and gun with real level variety and it deserved better than the release window it got.

August 14, 2026View on X

Wolverine: Adamantium Rage

4Wolverine: Adamantium Rage

The Genesis version and the SNES version are two completely different games made by different teams, and almost everyone with an opinion on this one is talking about the SNES one. The Genesis game is the better of the two. It's obtuse and it does not hold your hand, and the soundtrack is worth the cartridge on its own.

August 14, 2026View on X

Boogerman: A Pick and Flick Adventure

5Boogerman: A Pick and Flick Adventure

A 1994 platformer where you attack with boogers and farts, and it controls better than it has any right to. Interplay put real animation and a real soundtrack behind a joke premise. People saw the premise, assumed it was garbage, and never picked it up.

August 14, 2026View on X

Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf

6The Strike Trilogy

Desert Strike, Jungle Strike, Urban Strike Everybody played Desert Strike and stopped there. Jungle Strike is the better game, with ground vehicles, bigger missions, and a difficulty curve that respects you. Urban Strike went further and put you on foot inside buildings. EA was making some of the strongest original work on this console and two thirds of it went unplayed.

August 14, 2026View on XDesert Strike: Return to the GulfJungle StrikeUrban Strike

Batman: Revenge of the Joker

7Batman: Revenge of the Joker

Sunsoft published two completely different Batman games and both are hard to find now. The NES version gets all the attention because of what it sells for. The Genesis one barely gets mentioned at all. Ringler Studios built this port with Tommy Tallarico arranging the music, which on this console means it sounds heavier than it has any business sounding.

August 14, 2026View on X

X-Men 2: Clone Wars

8X-Men 2: Clone Wars

The best licensed action game on the Genesis, and most people never got to it because the first one had that level where it makes you hit the reset button on the console. Six characters that genuinely play differently. Sega put this out in 1995, when everyone had already looked past the machine.

August 14, 2026View on X

RoboCop versus The Terminator

9RoboCop versus The Terminator

The SNES version got cut apart. This one didn't. It's more violent than almost anything else on the console, Mark Miller did the soundtrack, and it's hard enough that most people who owned it in 1993 never saw the end of it.

August 14, 2026View on X

Adventures of Batman & Robin

10The Adventures of Batman & Robin

The best looking game on the Sega Genesis and it isn't close. Clockwork Tortoise pulled effects out of this hardware in 1995 that nobody thought were in there, with a Jesper Kyd soundtrack running under all of it. It's also brutally difficult, which is exactly why it never found the audience it earned. If you play one game off this list, play this one.

August 14, 2026View on X

That's the ten. Not a ranking and not a best of. The games that got buried under the ones everybody names. Thirty seven years in and the library is deeper than the same six games people keep repeating.
August 14, 2026View on X

ALSO ON THE SHELF · 63 GAMES

Leaving out the games my thread names as the ones everybody played (“No Sonic. No Streets of Rage. No Mortal Kombat.”) and the ten above.

Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends
Altered Beast
American Gladiators
Arcade Classics
Barkley Shut Up and Jam!
Barkley Shut Up and Jam! 2
Batman Forever
Batman Returns
Batman: The Video Game
Bill Walsh College Football
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Bugs Bunny in Double Trouble
Bulls vs Lakers and the NBA Playoffs
Captain America and the Avengers
Cliffhanger
Cool Spot
Demolition Man
Dynamite Duke
Earthworm Jim
ESPN Baseball Tonight
ESPN Sunday Night NFL
ESWAT: City Under Siege
F-117 Night Storm
Flashback: The Quest for Identity
Golden Axe II
HardBall '95
HardBall III
James Bond 007: The Duel
Judge Dredd
Jungle Book
Jurassic Park
Justice League Task Force
Madden NFL '95
Monopoly
Ms. Pac-Man
NBA Showdown 94
NFL Football '94 Starring Joe Montana
NFL Quarterback Club 96
NFL Sports Talk Football '93 Starring Joe Montana
Pebble Beach Golf Links
Pink Goes to Hollywood
Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure
R.B.I. Baseball 3
Ren & Stimpy Show Presents: Stimpy's Invention
Spider-Man & Venom: Maximum Carnage [Black Cart]
Spider-Man / X-Men: Arcade's Revenge
Sports Talk Baseball
Spot Goes To Hollywood
Street Fighter II': Special Champion Edition
Superman
Sylvester and Tweety in Cagey Capers
T2: The Arcade Game
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters [Cardboard Box]
Terminator
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Hidden Treasure
Tommy Lasorda Baseball
Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego?
World Series Baseball
World Series Baseball '95
WWF Super WrestleMania
X-Men

Left out: Sonic Spinball, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 [Not for Resale], Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Streets of Rage, Streets of Rage 2, Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 3, Mortal Kombat II.