Eurogamer: "Three, if De La Soul are to be believed, is the magic number. It certainly seems to be true of a lot of NES era games. Super Mario Bros. blossomed in its third outing. Mega Man 3, which is just up there, also found the groove of the series. And, lo, here be Castlevania's third effort - and true to form it's a game that expands its fairly humble origins into the form we know today."
In the 16-bit era, game devs and composers could finally change the type of tones used in the music, simulating a wider array of instruments and creating a whole lot of great soundtracks in the process.
It wasn’t easy picking out the best of the best because there were so many great ones. Even middle-of-the-road soundtracks seemed to deserve a bump if the game was just that damn good, and so many from that era are that damn good!
Here's the Ghetto Gamer list of top 20 soundtracks from the 16-bit era.
Whether on the Famicom or NES, Castlevania III is an 8-bit masterpiece.
I disagree.
Having beaten the first 3 Castlevania games I think part 3 is easily the worst. Part 1 isn't that hard and a good, fun challenge throughout, until you reach Death & Dracula. :D Castlevania II is a masterpiece and was far ahead of its time; in fact many action / adventure hybrids today follow Castlevania II's formula. Castlevania III is just Castlevania I with the difficulty increased to the point of being ridiculously cheap. Also, the graphics of Castlevania II, and I'm tempted to say the graphics of Castlevania I, are better than those of Castlevania III.
Totally disagree with your disagree. 3 is better than 2. I understand where you are coming from with the Metroidvania standpoint of it being used today. But 3 was just overall better. 2 wasn't even reviewed as well as 3 when it came out. Still doesn't today. 3 was sloppy in that you didn't know where to go, when to go and had to search every nick and cranny to find something. And when you found it, you had to figure out what to do with that item and at what time. Or ask someone else in the neighborhood who was also playing it too as there were no guides back then. It lacked direction even if it allowed you to walk around aimlessly. Games don't need hand holding. But it needed something as it was not like Metroid exploring. It was worse trying to copy that style. 3 led to a better game with 4 being a forward adventure. All areas were new. It's like saying Zelda 2 was better than 1 or 3. Nope. It was okay. But not better than those either.
3 was a forward adventure with different paths to increase replayability. Metroidvania games like 2 while okay, do a lot of back tracking over the same areas. Which allows the developer to get away with the same assets being reused but can lead to a game being boring seeing the same stuff. That's not always enjoyable. That's being cheap.
It's good developers fixed the Metroidvania confusion of games like Castlevania 2. Because although I beat it then, it was irritating to get through. It's not a masterpiece.
The Sega Genesis is a tad underappreciated. This site has already posted about how this console was great for the RPG genre despite the SNES getting more glory. However, that was not the only genre that flourished on the Genesis/Mega Drive.
Shining Force is on my long list of game series should be revived. Same with console Phantasy Star
Shining Force 1, 2 and 3 were awesome, the third one can only be played with emulation along with the translation project because of Episode 2 and 3 that were only released in JP. But I agree, I don't know why SEGA don't revive this franchise, tactics games are very well accepted these days.
I didn't know that about the third one. After the success of the last Fire Emblem, I can't imagine why we don't get more tactics RPGs out there. I'd even take a tactics ogre at this point
YES
i love shining force. i need a bundle with all the games in it.
but the mobile game is coming soon anyways :)
I'm sorry but I feel the list has been made by a person checking his own backlog catalog.
Mortal Kombat 2? missing half of the sounds and animation from the arcade.
And can we say Super dark soul difficulty when we say Earthworm Jim 2
Here's my pick for still holding up and fun
- Shinobi Shadow Dancer, not too tough nor too easy with a good arcade challenge 1 hour long to complete.
- Gunstar Heroes
- Nhl 94
- Thunder Force 3
Great lost with lots of memories. A reboot of the Shadowrun game and Shining Force would keep me entertained and busy for a long time.
-Soleil
-Sonic 2, 3 and knuckles, pinball
-that one x-men game i always forget its name
-that one fighting game that has different characters (a fishmen, an assassin lady, a private detective from the 70s etc)
-shining force 2
-dynamite heady (probably the best looking genesis game, imo)
-wonderboy in monster world
those are the ones that come to mind ha.
Sega CD version is so much better though.. I had both versions back in the 90's
