The 15 Most Impressive Sega Genesis / Mega Drive 3D Games

[@BitsBeats]

Honorable mentions to POV level in Toy Story, Cyber Cop and Dick Vitale's "Awesome, Baby!" College Hoops

[@BenyoSid]

👍✌👌

[@CleetusVanDamme530]

How'd you miss Panorama Cotton? I was blown away seeing this running on the Mega Drive.

[@Tortasdepeptobismol]

sonic 3d blast

[@Zephirot080]

Surprised that you didn't include F-22 on this list. Still, pretty solid

[@davejay6855]

Why is Star Cruiser portrayed as looking like Star Fox here when in reality the actual gameplay looks nothing like this and more like a crappy first person grocery store shopping cart game?

[@ophidianmind333]

It's nice to see Zero Tolerance on the list, it's a really underrated game on the Genesis and it is impressive to see an FPS play as well as it does on the console. The Adventures of Batman & Robin is another nice addition, both the visuals and Jesper Kyd's techno meets electro-industrial soundtrack are some of the best on the System. Though don't get too caught up in the audio and visual presentation in this one, the game is very retro hard and will require a lot of focus to make it through to the end.

[@777Eliyahu]

Zero Tolerance has the unique distinction of being maybe the only 16bit FPS actually worth playing, very cool design

[@JohnCharb87]

Grew up with the Genesis. All I can say it had charm. People may rave about this or that on Snes, but I grow nostalgic when I see lists like this. Other games that blew me away were the Treasure Games including Dynamite Heady and Gunstar Heroes. Not to mention the Streets of Rage games have some of the finest music of an era if not all time.

[@mrlaidback83]

I had both consoles as a kid and I can confidently say that while I liked the SNES, I definitely loved the Sega Genesis a whole lot more.

[@rustymixer2886]

Amen

[@worsethanhitlerpt.2539]

PANORAMA COTTON should be #1 on this list esp. since it didnt use an FX chip

[@GabrielWhitaker-iw2hj]

I grew up with the Sega Genesis flash back. Which is not good. Buy it let me play old games while people my age had ps4 and Xbox. So of course I got a Sega Genesis and hoping to get more games for it.

[@sKraat528]

Grandma got a genesis for my brother and I when we were like 5 and 8 lol. Was blown away- had seen Nintendo and it was already cool, but genesis was like 🤯 Check out f-15 strike eagle ii. Overclock the 68000 with your emulator by 200%, and it becomes a crazy fun flight simulator 😮 (already a good sim, stall mechanics etc, but the overclock smooths the framerate a ton)

[@gabochip4703]

Sega Genesis always surprise me about his techinical limits. Thanks for give us these amazing games!!! I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS!!!

[@lilwyvern4]

Holy Crap, Star Cruiser! That game looks almost identical to Star Fox, three years earlier and without a coprocessor! What other sorts of eldritch technical wizardry can this system do?

[@jasonblalock4429]

That was actually just the intro to Star Cruiser. The actual game is an on-foot first-person action/adventure. It actually attempted to do a real polygonal world, rather than Wolf3D style fake 3D... but at a pretty low framerate, so the results are mixed.

[@protocetid]

Gasega68k is straight up recreating Star Fox on the base system, he absolutely nailed the music too. It’s so close to the original soundtrack it doesn’t sound like a typical Genesis/MD.

[@Laenthal]

The very first thing Red Zone proudly shows is the list of technologies they used for it.

[@justrok79]

I use to play the hell out of Zero Tolerance. Definitely an underappreciated title.

[@cireza_]

Good selection but I think Panorama Cotton should have been mentioned. Cyber Cop was interesting as well, and recently the homebrew scene received an incredible port of Wolfenstein. Dungeon & Dragons had first person dungeons with a smooth scrolling as well. All worth mentioning in such a video, in my opinion.

[@bitwize]

Of course Virtua Racing should top the list. The SVP effectively doing polygon rasterization and then DMAing each frame into Genesis pattern memory. Oh, and it could smoke even the Super FX2, too.

[@captainernest95]

Genesis is damn impressive having pixel 2D turns into pixel 3D, along with SNES and something else that I don't know of

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

No Panorama Cotton? It's far more ambitious than Vectorman. I'd also include the Wolfenstein homebrew and the ResQ bonus stages. Also, unlike many early "sprite scaling" engines on the Sega Genesis, Road Rash is the real thing.

[@sloppynyuszi]

I know it’s sacrilegious, but panorama cotton is over rated. It’s choppy and hard to play and not fun. And it’s really an example of why forward scrolling games can’t be pushed too much. Burning Force I think is the best example of this type of game working. It’s not as ambitious, but considering it’s a 4mbit game from 1989, it’s way impressive. And it’s very clean and more fun. I agree with road rash, that’s legit trackside Sprite scaling. The frame rate is a bit low though, so you have to fall off the bike and walk to it to actually see that it’s not 3 frames of sprite swaps like most forward scrolling games. Wolf 3D is impressive, but I think homebrew and demos are it’s separate thing. Like G-Zero is cool to show mode 7 on the mega drive, but it’s not the same. Also the new games released recently like Piers Solar that has a mode 7 map and unreleased games like Wacky Races that had a wireframe track to bring Mario kart gameplay to mega drive. I think the Sonic 2 pipe bonus stage was missed, and though speed racer not being a mode 7 game on the mega drive the smooth scrolling textured road was pretty cool no other race implemented. Overall it’s a good list here

[@CleetusVanDamme530]

@@sloppynyuszi not to sound like a jerk, but I don't think whether someone enjoyed the game or not is the point here.

[@worsethanhitlerpt.2539]

@@sloppynyuszi Panorama Cotton is not overrated no way. It plays well for all its choppiness and the game changes directions/ transitions to different backgrounds while youre playing- sometimes you even control the directional changes I dont know what the fuck your saying. The music and sound are undeniably dope

[@TheZmusicGroup]

@@sloppynyuszi I think you didn't try enough with Panorama Cotton. It's tons of fun and incredibly polished, one of my all time favs on the system. By no means overrated, it's both a technical and a gameplay marvel. It definitely should have been included in the list.

[@zendher]

And dont forget Skitchin!!

[@EweToobUsername]

Toy Story needed to be on this list. The platforming levels felt like rendered 3D backgrounds, the FPS inside the claw machine was amazing, and then there was the driving level that apparently used polygon models for the house and texture-mapped road. People don’t give the 68k the respect it deserves since it was doing all the accelerated stuff from the SNES in hardware, and then some.

[@virtuaspeedone]

Vectorman blew me away when I was a kid. Thanks for the nostalgia trip 😂

[@xenobytek9583]

Nice, you have picked all I can remember. I just want add the Billiard/Snooker game: Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker. Thats has a smooth 3D engine for the game.

[@jacktayloor]

Great list and video! Subbed!👍

[@MJbulls23airJs]

I would add Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles and ExoSquad as well.

[@mattheuscarvalho8422]

As curiosidades desse canal são demais! Não sei porque não tem milhares de inscritos.

[@megamanzero3486]

This is a pretty good list!

[@philipharris706]

I had the Sega Channel growing up so I played alot of these games. Great nostalgia!!!

[@truttlebear7999]

I remember seeing Race Driving in the arcades. I had no idea it was on the Genesis. That's so awesome!

[@soulreaver1983]

Absolutely outstanding awesome awesome as always thanks dude 👍 👌 😎🤘

[@kubabonga]

I still have my genesis with the box and manuals and the guarantee made in japan, bought it in 1994 200u$s, still working!! I love it

[@robernolli4264]

Virtua Racing lml great cartrige, awesome memories 💓

[@Fluffybutterpants]

I always thought Ranger X and Dynamite Headdy both had some neat "3D" effects.

[@renzoaraujocanepa]

Ranger X is a supreme game!

[@worsethanhitlerpt.2539]

Ranger X looked amazing but the 3D stuff was all "implied" -- it was just 2D shit that somewhat looked 3D

[@renzoaraujocanepa]

@@worsethanhitlerpt.2539 SEGA does what Nintendon't.

[@casekocsk]

No Gunstar Heroes? It also has some of nice pseudo 3d effect... but the most amazing is that it can handle tons of objects and effects in the screen without a dip in frame rate.

[@Fubiou]

I can't believe that veryone forgets about Domark's Formula One, it's impressive and with the unbelievable framerate in the actual console

[@michaelwhitacre8499]

I LOVE playing Zero Tolerance co-op over system link 👍

[@Sinn0100]

The Sega Genesis was a powerhouse especially in 1989, when I got mine. What made the Sega Genesis so incredible was how it was built and why...which wound up serving Sega far greater than they likely suspected. The Mega Drive or Genesis was built very much like the best arcade cabinets of the day as most cabs were utilizing a Motorola 68K 16-bit/32-bit microprocessor and a Zilog Z-80 8-bit co-processor just like the Sega Genesis. It's no mistake the mighty Neo Geo AES/MVS is powered by the exact same processor and co-processor combo as the Genesis/Mega Drive albeit at a higher clockrate with loads of specialized chips. Originally the Genesis was designed with a Zilog Z-80 8-bit co-processor for backwards compatibility with the Master System and to assist with music. What Sega's 16-bit (it's also a 32-bit machine) console lacked was the ability to scale, rotate, zoom, and morph sprites through hardware like the Snes's Mode 7. What development teams were able to do was utilize everyone of these tricks through software and most of that was possible because of Sega's little Z-80 microprocessor that gave it just a little bit of extra headroom. What's funny is the simple Zilog Z-80 co-processor in the Genesis has a higher clockrate than the Snes's Ricoh main processor. The only place Sega really messed up on was the 64 color pallet limitation. Thankfully, many developers found ways around that as well easily giving us more than 128 colors per screen on some games. Seriously, the Genesis was so damned forward thinking that it is powerful enough to run games like Mortal Kombat almost arcade perfect including the sound. Speaking of 3d games go look up Wolfenstein 3D for the Genesis and let it blow your mind. The fan fix for SF2SC is also something too behold. It not only runs flawlessly but the game absolutely smokes SF2T for the Snes in every single regard and all of this on bone stock hardware. Another great video my friend! This channel is fastly becoming one of my favorite channels of all times. ;)

[@nostalgiadude]

There are also modded versions of Mortal Kombat and Sunset Riders for Genesis that make them look and play just like arcade originals

[@Sinn0100]

@@nostalgiadude Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Street Fighter Championship Edition, and so on. Oh and don't forget an incredible port of Wolf 3d.

[@nostalgiadude]

@@Sinn0100 Wolf3D port is my favourite. Also there's giant amount of new games for genesis

[@ticenits1926]

Scaling and rotational effects was never possible on the Genesis, what you see are just visual tricks meant to emulate the effect, but they all have limitations into how far they can produce the effect. Genesis was a great entry into the 16-bit era, but the SNES simply hit it out of the park in every area that counts.

[@Sinn0100]

@@ticenits1926 Incorrect, sort of....the Sega Genesis can do every effect the Snes can do through software. There were quite a few retail games that feature fast moving polygons (for their time), rotation, scaling, and sprite warping (look up Red Zone right now to see it). Now, with indy developers investing incredible amounts of time into Sega's 16-bit machine we're seeing things that are beyond even what I thought was possible and serves as vindication for what the Genesis can do. For example a fully playable version of Wolfenstein 3d that has a buttery smooth frame rate and includes every chapter/level in the PC original. Street Fighter 2 (both games) with arcade perfect sound and better colors than the Snes. Not to mention F-Zero running on a Genesis and a free moving freaking Star Fox. Mortal Kombat that is almost arcade perfect itself and all of it on bone stock hardware. You my friend are very wrong about the Sega Genesis... Sone retail games with effects said impossible on the Genesis... 1. Red Zone (it does everything) 2. Thunder Force IV (scaling) 3. Read Rash (scaling) 5. Panorama Cotton (scaling) 6. Kawasaki Super Bike Challenge (all) 7. Hard Driven 1+2 (everything) 8. Contra Hard Corps (effects) 9. Dynamite Heady (scaling+more) 10. Gunstar Heroes (scaling+more) Not one of these had helper chips and were released during the Sega Genesis's lifespan. I can list so much more but Klonoa Remake is calling my name.

[@harrihaffi2713]

Red zone looks like a cool game!

[@adayinforever]

How are yall gonna forget Sonic 3D Blast. It's literally in the name.

[@eyokfla]

Woooooow! I never heard about star cruiser. Very Ahead of his time.

[@mohameddhiajebali9836]

i love this type of lists ! keep it up !!

[@aliceinmansonland448]

Heh, them Ballz had Boobs! Vectorman was my favorite, sadly I couldn't beat it without cheat codes. I used to play it on my friggin Sega Nomad!

[@meziembamara4004]

Contra Hard Corps ( aka *Contra Hardcore* - the P is silent ) has loads of 3 D models. Boss 2 has a 3 D Run on the highway battle.

[@purplehaze2342]

I love the theme music for starcruiser

[@tdata545]

No Sonic 1 love? Since those background elements were pretty great. BUT that Number 1 was definitely earned,

[@meziembamara4004]

What about *Blockout* ? It's literally a 3 D Tetris.

[@biggy940]

Buen vídeo. ¿Has hecho uno sobre los juegos indie modernos lanzados para MD y SNES?

[@sKraat528]

I had that f-15 strike eagle ii when I was a kid, and my uncle even bought a second genesis, modified it with overclock to get a smooth framrate on that sim in particular. Blew our minds. Now you can do that with just about any genesis emulator

[@bluenothing720]

Loved this!

[@Bashento]

Wow thats impressive effects in Jurassic park!

[@armorbearer9702]

(5:30) You are right. _The Adventures of Batman & Robin_ Is a beautiful spectacle. The batsuit level has a truly mesmerizing background that captures Gotham's unique aesthetic.

[@renzoaraujocanepa]

Where's the Jungle Strike series and the Super Monaco GP II?

[@evilblader7]

De todo lo que pusiste solo conocía virtual racing. Sere sincera, soy bastante ignorante en el catálogo de SEGA, de hecho mi primer contacto con esta consola no fue la mejor, aparte nunca me gustó la música de SEGA, pero con el tiempo he ido interesandome y ver este despliegue de 3D es algo totalmente nuevo para mí. Al menos Race driven de SEGA es un poco más jugable que el de super Nintendo, el de SNES es terrible, esa cosa ni jugarse puede D: 1:07 ese parece Star Fox 🦊 D:

[@joetanjm]

That was games 30 years ago imagine what they will be like in 30 years time.

[@low_e_music]

The music for M1 Abrams Battle Tank sounds like the beginning of Diamondhead's "Am I Evil?".

[@AskDrannik]

Which itself was inspired by Gustav Holst's "Mars, the Bringer of War"

[@2URLex]

No Sonic 3D Blast?

[@chrisredfield8548]

Should've just been called '15 Sega Genesis / Mega Drive 3D Games'

[@svetozarrasa6635]

Hey, hey, hey, what about The LawnmowerMan??? Virtual reality is pretty wel in this game!

[@svetozarrasa6635]

Hey, hey, hey, what about The LawnmowerMan??? Virtual reality is pretty well in this game!

[@Hello-hz7gj]

Cool video

[@petrk2603]

Virtua Racing with super 3D cpu kicking everyone's ass at the time, and Kawasaki Superbike along with F1 (which you didn't add) are also great and fast games. Still, there are very few true vector 3D games on the megadrive. It's a shame that there haven't been conversions of games from the Amiga or ST such as Frontier, No second prize, Zeewolf, Simulcra, Hunter and many others.

[@mode7scaling3]

this system was a MUST have for arcade freaks like me. monster hits like strider, double dragon, and so many more (golden axe, choplifter) came to this system in pure arcade form although not perfect ports. much better than the garbage the NES got (the double dragon port was awful)

[@vonvoyage14]

Imagine having just these titles and showing it off to your friend with an SNES

[@doublebass1985]

Hey that M1 Abrams game song sounds exactly like Am I Evil? Metallica did a cover of it I believe it was Diamondhead that originally did the song.

[@misterdoctorprofessorpatrick]

of course you gotta include Vectorman

[@Chuck-Morris]

What a... Glorious.. Rendition of "Holst's - The Sun"...... @2:40 😬😅😂🎶

[@gabyroman100]

f1 championship too

[@noaht2005]

I had no idea Ballz was on the MD; it looks even worse

[@loohole81]

Virtua Racing, Duke Nukem 3D, Star Cruiser, Zero Tolerance, Vectorman, Bloodshot and Adventures of Batman & Robin are all worthy of a play today. The others...their gameplay can be very rough or just trash, hahhahaha Ballz is pretty much Ballz hahahaa. Still it was awesome what the Megadrive was able to do, Nintendon't hahahaa that old chestnut.

[@michaeldellarippa4168]

The wonders of hidden gems.

[@Lucas-gg9yb]

Looking at this what nintendo made with starfox on snes was kinda little comparing both.

[@ax222k]

у меня в детстве из всех этих игр были - Zero Tolerance, M1 Abrams Battle Tank, Vectorman, Bloodshot и Лост Ворлд Джурасик парк помню долго в неё играли

[@rafaelantonio6765]

i cant believe my eyes on that dinossaur effect

[@rodrigosilva-rf7li]

f22 interceptor was missing. Flying low, a 3D view appeared, in the best race drivin or virtual Racing style.

[@alivenumber5]

I had no idea there were this many first person shooters for the Genesis. I would have been all over those as a kid had I known they existed.

[@RonaldDorsinator]

*Sega shoulda made all their games look like these games*

[@miaouew]

Lost World better be on this list...

[@jhonthestampede]

Amazing!! But some games you listed as Vectorman and ADV Batman&Robin are not really 3D. They used a f%cking parallax effects though.

[@joesefjoestar7741]

No Ranger X ?

[@aririu7787]

Ótima lista .

[@intel386DX]

5:03 Kawasaki super bike is the best looking 3D game of them all and not only this but it runs fantastic! All other 3D games are choppy as hell

[@whopoder]

Um melhor que o outro!

[@HexenStar]

Duke Nukem 3D...THIS version??? Impressive? LMAO Now that's some next level shit, - either of trolling or plain incompetence.

[@drakonolus7922]

Where is F1 ( Formula 1 )? this should be present.

[@fiftyshadesofurban]

2:02 Wtf is this Ballerina fighter? LOL

[@djslavatv]

5:39 Wow!

[@МихаилАлексеев-ч1м]

The Super Shinobi II is also impressive.

[@alejandromanjarrez1563]

where is cotton?😢

[@cristhiandeoliveira9708]

sega was beast!!!

[@OGM_OriginalGameMusic]

Holy shit lost world reallllly surprised me!

[@orlandoturbo6431]

To think the Japanese pick the PC Engine over the Mega Drive what were they thinking.

[@cireza_]

PC-Engine was a great system as well, with a very unique identity, and the CD add-on allowed for incredible games. It had a charm of its own.

[@orlandoturbo6431]

@@cireza_ Mega Drive have better games and they are still making games for Mega Drive (Sega Genesis) in 2022

[@wizzgamer]

Yeah but Mega Drive has some great games on it's CD add-on too 😅​@@cireza_

[@RavenMobile]

Really impressive how smooth Virtua Racing was! Almost all these games have really slow framerates in 3D, but that one had solid FPS. Edit: Upon watching more, Kawasaki Super Bike is also smooth. Looks like it might be using the same engine, as well.

[@hopetagulos]

F-22 Interceptor?

[@daniel_lucio]

The best IMHO

[@AmethystSpeaks]

Not sure Red Zone counts as 3D. Contra even did the same thing on NES.

[@aleksavasic2612]

Well I can count this as 3D. If you ask someone who is a Mega Drive fan who did some research, they would say that it's 2D, but if you ask a random person, they will say that it's 3D.

[@honkhonkler7732]

F-15 Strike Eagle would have been awesome if it played like a game and not a slide show.

[@Encore2017]

I think the genisis was 32 bit but Sega kept ir a secret

[@bluenomad73]

Panorama Cotton.

[@swafflemanish]

Wtf...that jurassic park game looked like a Playstation game.

[@JONATHANMAZZINI]

4:20 como fizeram red zone?

[@LexMalin]

Also MiG-29

[@CoolStevie]

Where is Comix zone?

[@amonster8mymother]

Can yoy play megadrive gsmes on genesis?

[@AlexDeivid]

On the PC screen this games looks awful but on CRT It’s beatiful, I have played this games on Sega Nomad and the small screen make this games even looks better.

[@shizuoka1139]

3D Sega Genesis = 0,5 fps

[@BlueEyedVibeChecker]

True, but it didn't need a Super FX chip to do it.

[@yuvraj01]

Thinking about it, we can only imagine how much the cost was in R & D for the SVP 2 chip (or whatever it was called for Virtua Racing...) and yet as soon as it was implemented it was abandoned....why not just stick with developing it for the 32x instead of a pointless Genesis port......this version of the game is along-side Virtua Fighter 2 for the Genesis ....ANOTHER pointless project ....time and effort for what?

[@jasonblalock4429]

Sega at that time was very confused, and its American and Japanese branches were often trying to go in totally opposite directions. Sadly, that sort of thing is why the company continued to falter for the rest of the 90s.

[@diegopuertas7099]

Faltó el Corporation

[@Encore2017]

Sole of these look 32bit

[@zahsuper408]

Большинство случаев - это псевдо 3D. Надо было тогда уж и 3D Sonic вставить.

[@brianerbes7766]

Half of these games are 2D faking 3D