The Sega Master System Games and Appreciation Thread

[Melf]

While trying to find the name of SOA's interim president in 1989, I stumbled across this pearl of wisdom from SegaBase:

In a move that would be worthy of Sega itself about a decade later, Tonka left most of the solid titles overseas and marketed (for the most part) cheesy arcade junk instead. There was little real gaming experience to be had in Tonka's offerings for the SMS, again save for some notable exceptions, whereas the NES library was replete with excellent choices for whatever kind of gaming experience you wanted.

That's just plain wrong. Some of the best MS games came out under Tonka. Phantasy Star, Kenseiden, Ys, Wonder Boy 3: Dragon's Trap, Thunderblade, Shinobi, Golvelius, all the 3D games...

[NeoZeedeater]

Wow! I played it for the first time within the last few years myself and couldn't for the life of me figure out why people recommend it.

You seem to say that about every SMS game, though. I don't recall you liking anything on the system. It seems more like a generalized dislike.

Why I think Golvellius is good:

- Action-adventures need worlds I want to explore and this does that. It has a variety of landscapes. It had a larger variety of enemies and bosses than any game in its genre when it came out. A lot of action-adventure games back then had drab, repetitive backgrounds, even Compile's other game, The Guardian Legend (which I like but mostly for the shooter parts).

- The detail, character designs, and soundtrack are excellent. It has plenty of personality. It nicely shows off the system's colour capabilities and has aged really well visually.

- I like the feel of the combat, the way the enemies spark when you hit them with your sword.

I'm not seeing what the game is lacking. Password saves suck but in 1988 they were still considered acceptable for console games. Many modern gamers might find the game cryptic, difficult, and bare bones for story but I don't consider those flaws, just traits of its era. It's designed to let you explore and discover secrets for yourself.

[Brianvgplayer]

I got Maze Hunter 3D recently. I like it so far. It's one game you really must see in 3D. Videos don't do it justice. I was not expecting an overhead game to have such an impressive use of 3D. Has some nice FM too.

[Joust Williams]

Yeah, I really liked MH3D.

[Low]

Maze Hunter on 3DS plz M2.

[Melf]

Oh shit, that would be PERFECT.

[sedition]

I liked Golvellius when it came out.

[Fe 26]

Thinking about getting into porting game gear games to the master system.

Mzo's first post is kind of spot on. While looking for games to order, I'm getting the same feeling I get when looking at the Wii library. So many phoned in ugly garbage games. I guess that is to be expected with gaming being so new at the time, and developers coming from more primitive systems, and sega not forcing quality like nintendo did, but holy shit.

[Melf]

and sega not forcing quality like nintendo did

[Mzo]

It was basically Sega making as many games as they could for their system. Nintendo had developers by the balls.