Jaw dropping...

[Team Andromeda]

Just thought of a technically amazing shooter that I'm surprised nobody has mentioned yet. Panorama Cotton on the Mega Drive. Absolutely amazing !! Far more enjoyable than the sad Dreamcast attempt

Yakumo

I still think Tunder Force 4 was pushing the MD harder. The DC version of Cotton wasn't that bad, though you did need the Arcade stick to play it tidy.

Sonic 2 was a technical mavrvel too. Fastest game I think I've ever seen. Plus it doubled the MD standard Resolution for the 2 player split screen

[anephric]

Slowdown a-plenty-plenty though in Sonic 2 splitcreen - but it was impressive (as were/are the into-the-screen pseudo 3d bonuses). More impressive than Sonic 3, anyhoo, imho.

I'm still impressed when I whack JVC Star Wars games into my SNES (not from a playability angle, mind) but admittedly it's more impressive when the MD does faux Mode 7 (a la Sonic 3) because it's all coding...

[Commander Marklar]

Playability wise though it is lacking a certain something, especially the side scrolling levels.

I'm the opposite way around, I think the vertical levels are fairly weak overall. Snoic 2's split screen was fantastic at the time, it had a bit of extra help too, didn't it? Some chip or other? I remember some problems getting the emulator's working due to some undocumented features...

It worked really well though, nice stretch-o-vision and full on levels. Makes you wonder why on Sonic 3 was such a piss poor game

[Team Andromeda]

I'm the opposite way around, I think the vertical levels are fairly weak overall. Snoic 2's split screen was fantastic at the time, it had a bit of extra help too, didn't it? Some chip or other? I remember some problems getting the emulator's working due to some undocumented features...

It worked really well though, nice stretch-o-vision and full on levels. Makes you wonder why on Sonic 3 was such a piss poor game

From what I read from the old STI/SonicTeam it was all done on a bog Standard cart (no extra chips ).

I could never really get into Sonic 3. They tried to play Mario at his own game, and really came up short. And took alot of the speed away form the series in a sad effort to add depth to Sonic 3.

Sonic CD got it so right. Still the best Sonic game there's been

[phillai]

Can I add Actraiser to this list?

To date, nothing has touched me more than this Actraiser 'Star Wars' alike soundtrack - And it's even more amazing when you consider that this was actually a launch title for the Super Famicom... I make that about 13 years ago!

Don't believe me? Knock this game up now and play it and tell me that you're not impressed with the music... I would say you're a liar!

[Resonance]

Sonic 2 was amazing. The best thing to do was to play it 2 player with the teleport items then play race to the exit (ignoring all of the other criteria like get the most rings etc). What was great is that you would jump on a box then postion yourself over a set of spike or a hole just before the teleport. This is some of the best multiplayer fun I have had ever and Sega never noticed that they had such a winning 2 player game on their hands
'cause the messed it up in Sonic 3.

[carbon boy]

Sonic 2 was amazing. The best thing to do was to play it 2 player with the teleport items then play race to the exit (ignoring all of the other criteria like get the most rings etc). What was great is that you would jump on a box then postion yourself over a set of spike or a hole just before the teleport. This is some of the best multiplayer fun I have had ever and Sega never noticed that they had such a winning 2 player game on their hands
'cause the messed it up in Sonic 3.

Totally agree I had some of my best gaming moments racing against friends with this title.

The speed on the single player mode was almost too much to keep up with, I swear I had Sonic off the screen after certain loops and spins on the second level. It was more luck than skill that I ever got him through

[Commander Marklar]

After playing a fair bit of Gunstar Heroes, I have to say that is isn't that good a game. Looks great, sounds great but it is well boring!

[Duddyroar]

While I will agree Gunstar Heroes has lost some of it's luster over the past decade, you can't call it boring! The screen is dripping with action, there's loads of sprites being chucked around and the speed never lets up. The levels has plenty of bosses to keep things interesting.

[Wild_Cat]

carbon boy: it is indeed possible to get Sonic off the screen. You can do it quite easily in Chemical Plant Zone, but it's nothing compared to the fastest sections of Metropolis Zone: Sonic often stays off-screen for 5 seconds or more (and that's without using Super Sonic).

This game was atrociously fast.

[Commander Marklar]

Best thing about the off screen thing is how it still pans and scrolls around the path you have taken, kind of emphasising the super-sonic speed

[t-dog]

Can I add Actraiser to this list?

To date, nothing has touched me more than this Actraiser 'Star Wars' alike soundtrack - And it's even more amazing when you consider that this was actually a launch title for the Super Famicom... I make that about 13 years ago!

Don't believe me? Knock this game up now and play it and tell me that you're not impressed with the music... I would say you're a liar!

I totally agree.
It was the first time i heard the work of Yuzo Koshiro, he's truly an amazing composer. The baroque-ish music suits the rpg/sim parts of the game perfectly, as does the dramatic music in the sidescrolling bits.

He has also composed the music for streets of rage/bare knuckles 1+2 for MD, and also Super Adventure Island for snes,amongst other games. Although the latter mentioned is a horrible wonderboy clone thing, it's probably worth playing for the music alone.

atm I think NCL in-house productions contain the best music.

t-dog

[Duddyroar]

Yuzo Koshiro also did the music for Bare Knuckle/SOR 3, but it's mostly awful. Dunno what he was trying to do with that, to be honest.

[Mad Gear]

Yeah he seemed to go off on a tangent and try something different, which sadly didn't work.

I just think he was trying to do too much with the MD's sound chip.

[MD]

A lot of people keep saying the music on Bare Knuckle III isn't as good as the first two Bare Knuckles games and I keep asking why they feel this? Most of the tracks in the Bare Knuckle games are basically Chip music versions of existing dance/techno tracks, listen hard and you can quite clearly hear Shamens - Move any Mountain.

The music sounds different as he has left the housey techno tunes in the first two game and has gone for more a Gabber / Trance style which I quite like, Tracks 7, 9, 13 and 14 are faves of mine.

Also listen to it on a Wondermega with the sound set to Game and the effects knob turned to 3/4th and some of the effects he does sound much more 3D like.