Last week we celebrated Sega’s greatest videogames console with Marc Jowett’s look back at the history of the beloved Mega Drive. Today, we present six of the finest Mega Drive games available on Antstream Arcade in this special Sega Super Six.
Earthworm Jim
First, it’s that crazy annelid Earthworm Jim and his quest to rescue the comely Princess-What’s-Her-Name. Having freakishly donned a high-tech super space cyber suit, Jim negotiates a wacky planet Earth full of strange creatures such as Evil the Cat, Psy-Crow and Professor Monkey For A Head. Created by Shiny Entertainment from an original concept by Doug TenNapel, Earthworm Jim is a bonkers platform game full of humour and manic action. Regularly featuring in top Mega Drive game lists, Mean Machines said in 1994 that Earthworm Jim was ‘One of the most beautiful and playable platform games to ever land on the shores of Mega Drive gaming.’
Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe
The original Speedball introduced the concept of a fast-paced, violent, futuristic sport where taking out the opposition is as important as scoring a goal. Developed by renowned 16-bit team, The Bitmap Brothers, Speedball 2 ramps up the mayhem to extreme levels. An opposition player in your way? Just bundle them to the ground! Does their goalkeeper keep saving your shots? Shove him, then shoot! Drawing from various components of the real-life sports of handball and ice hockey, Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe is a frantic sport where pain is the aim of the game – preferably for the other team!
Tanglewood
Time for a more recent Mega Drive gem with Big Evil Corporation’s puzzle platform game from 2018. The young fox-like creature Nymn is lost in the woods and must overcome many dangers to make it through the night. Nymn is a nimble sort of fellow, able to run, jump and manipulate objects within their world. Pushing one of the mysterious Fuzzls into its nest grants Nymn special powers which are necessary to solve many of Tanglewood’s mysteries. Cute and colourful, Tanglewood is a beautiful experience that Retro Gamer magazine called ‘an attractive and enjoyable platformer’.
Gaiares
The Sega Mega Drive is renowned for its shoot-em-ups, and we are proud to present the awesome rock-hard shooter Gaiares as the fourth game in this Sega Super Six. Developed by Telenet and released in 1990, Gaiares is a Sega Mega Drive exclusive, inspired by arcade games such as Konami’s Gradius and Irem’s R-Type. Scrolling horizontally, the player charges across the screen in their starfighter, armed with lasers and the TOZ system, an experimental device that steals enemy weaponry when thrown forward. This unique mechanic ensures Gaiares occupies legendary status, but beware: this shoot-‘em-up is not for the faint-hearted!
[image] gaiares
Mega Lo Mania
Sensible Software had an excellent reputation in the early Nineties, and this strategy god game is just one of its many fantastic and innovative releases. Take control of one of four gods and command your troops on your personal patch of land with the overall aim destruction of the other gods, thus securing domination over the entire world in the process. Met with universal acclaim upon release, Mega Lo Mania was the first major real-time strategy game to incorporate a technology tree, giving it an unprecedented level of depth for the time, especially for a cartridge-based system.
We conclude this Sega super six with a Mega Drive technical marvel. Hostile aliens have taken over the orbital space station, Europe-1. As part of a crack team of elite soldiers, it’s your mission to eliminate the critters and deactivate the station’s damaged reactor core. Following on from the phenomenal success of id’s Doom, Zero Tolerance is a bloody and violent first-person shooter, a genre previously thought unattainable on the Sega Mega Drive. It’s also one of the moodiest games you’ll play on Antstream Arcade and a worthy final addition to this special super six dedicated to the joint-best 16-bit console of all time.
Don’t agree with our Sega Mega Drive Super Six? Then head over to the Antstream Arcade Discord to tell us what we should have included instead:.
