this is just the mega drive / genesis general thread now right? right?!? gotta have one anyway, so. i’m appropriating this as one now LET’S GO
i finished my landstalker playthrough a few days ago:
still one of my favorite games ever. the first voice you hear is Kat’s! so if you want to hear her voice tune in haha <3
I just want to point out that The Hybrid Front is a hard sci-fi turn-based wargame before I post this 
hybrid front’s ost fucking slaps
Shining in the Darkness playthrough being uploaded now:
not done with the game yet and i have hours more footage to upload that’s already recorded hehe
we talked about this in discord but landstalker has some of the best dungeon design of any game i’ve played. it does ask you to respect it and it doesn’t always respect you. it’s good though. it’s lack of “respect” for your time forms a higher form of respect for the player by the end of the game, in my estimation
it’s mischevious and likes to troll the player but goes only just far enough that if you perservere you will eventually triumph despite your initial reaction needing to be “oh what the heck game really?” for it all to land just right
hehe get it LAND
god landstalker is the best
WOW the ending to enduro racer is incredible
Hey there are two new ports to the megadrive this year with Darius Next and Mad Stalker.
wait what?
It’s the port of Darius from the Megadrive Mini getting a physical release.
Looks like it’s being marketed by the boutique small print run shops as “Darius Extra”, which isn’t helpful as there are a few other versions of that game with the same name but I think this is the only Darius Extra getting a Gen/MD cart release. It’s also getting some…extras…on top of what the Mini version had but no doubt it will be dumped soon.
i continue to play through Shining in the Darkness. what an interesting game, gee whiz. it’s sort of a blobber-style dungeon crawler with jrpg fusions. think dragon quest meets wizardry (by way of phantasy star i). it’s very slow and deliberate and every bit (get it lol) of this 1 megabyte game is pressed into the service of its charm. it’s a collaboration between proto-Camelot (Shining Force, Golden Sun) and Climax (Landstalker, Runabout) and fans of both companies’ later games will find much to enjoy here. i should probably actually write something longer about this game, it’s too good for this crappy paragraph
this is a fantastic sonic hack
http://info.sonicretro.org/Bunnie_Rabbot_in_Sonic_the_Hedgehog
she has freakin jet boots and a robot arm and plays entirely differently to sonic
i’m playing through tons of sonic hacks because there’s a giant folder of them that came with the rompack i put on my mega everdrive. y’all… there’s a lot of great sonic hacks lol. it is kind of intense
edit:
playing sonic erazor now
https://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_ERaZor
this is interesting. tons of work went into this. it’s sort of kaizo but not unapproachable. there’s a freakin tutorial lol
this is still ongoing, just finished another multi-hour session tonight and there’s still a ways to go. this game feels endless!
here’s a quick list of some stand-out Sonic ROMhacks as someone who has played a lot of them:
Sonic Megamix - requires SEGA-CD. It’s not a Sonic CD romhack, it’s a Sonic 1 one. Might actually be playable without the SEGA-CD, actually? It was a huge community project that got canned, so the hack is incomplete but it is incredibly high quality. Features Sonic, Shadow, Mighty, Tails and Knuckles and each has an expanded moveset of their own.
Sonic 1 Published by EA - a joke ROMhack, I won’t spoil more than that
Sonic 1 Point & Click Edition - Sonic 1 but you can play it with the Mega Drive mouse add-on and the mouse functionality is honestly incredible. You can interact with almost anything with the cursor.
SNOLF - Sonic golfing. There’s also SNOLF 3 & KNOLF which is based on Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Metal Sonic Rebooted - high quality hack in which you play as Metal Sonic on all new levels and somewhat new bosses, might as well be a new game altogether
Lose Tails or Else - Sonic 2 except you have 30 seconds to despawn or kill your partner Tails or else you die. Once you meet that requirement you instantly go to the next level. This means that it’s really fast-paced and you can finish the whole thing in a few minutes.
Yoshi in Sonic 2 - Yoshi from Yoshi’s Island in Sonic 2 with all of his mechanics intact. Instead of Baby Mario you have Baby Sonic. Rings act as your timer for when Baby Sonic is in danger.
Sonic 1 Omochao Edition - It’s Sonic 1 but Omochao from Sonic Adventure 2 is there to help you
Sonic 2 Retro Remix - Very high-quality. Levels are designed like Sonic levels, but they also have Super Mario 64-style objectives for you to clear so you can get Emeralds (SM64 Stars) to unlock other levels. Some Emeralds require exploring the level to find them hidden in there, while others are time and score attack based - very good score system. Sonic has an expanded moveset that is explored in interesting ways
Sonic Classic Heroes - You play as Sonic, Tails and Knuckles at the same time going through the entirety of Sonic 1 and 2 in the same game, featuring both Special Stages in every level
Pana der Hejhog - Small high quality romhack. Features new level gimmicks, a new boss, and double the frames of animation, before Sonic Mania went and did that.
Sonic VR - A bunch of small laser-focused technical challenges. More Super Meat Boy-esque than Kaizo-esque.
An Ordinary Sonic Romhack - A totally normal non-cursed version of Sonic 1
I could list more but those are the only ones that I’m completely sure about recommending, other ones would require me to go play them to remember what they were about or whether they really are good or not.
Sonic Megamix never sat right with me when they changed the background of Springyard to say MOVE BITCH.
This is definitely hypocrticial but I don’t need cursing and slurs in my ecoterrorist animal game for children.
i played this extremely unsuspecting and it was Good
sonic 2xl is a lot of fun. the rings are onion rings and make sonic fatter. if he gets too fat, he can’t run anymore and you lose a life. but you can also lose weight by running.
gosh dang it shining in the darkness, why are you like this.
i’m getting close to the end, it seems. i’ve rescued the princess and i’m on the 5th and final floor of the labyrinth now. i’ve got some backtracking to do now since i have all the keys and can open the cell doors on earlier levels, but i’m not sure i’m up for the tedium of retracing all those steps. i am still getting bodied on the floor i’m on so i probably need to grind some more.
it will be SO satisfying to finish this thing. i feel like i’ve been working on it forever at this point lol