Sega Genesis Top Picks???

Egg Shen wrote: I'll disagree and say Toejam & Earl still holds up very well, but I'll add the caveat that it really only shines with two players

The main problem I have with Toejam & Earl is that they put a lot of work on designing enemies that can all be avoided by walking around them from afar. Walking around trying not to interact with anything is not very fun.

Some recommendations:

- Castlevania: Bloodlines is the best platormer in the series.
- Contra Hard Corps is amazing. However you are almost surely not good enough at video games to play it.
- Truxton is a very hard game and I actually prefer the easier Megadrive port over the original.
- Micro Machines Turbo Tournament 96. Great unrealistic top-down racer, the best of the series. Not actually great as a multiplayer game, but single player it's very good and very tricky.

Phantasy star IV would have been my first recommendation. The damn game retailed for $80 at release. The most expensive genesis game ever.

Battletoads is great fun, if you can find it.

Space Ghost wrote: Josh - what are you using for your retro gaming setup? I've been thinking about doing this too -- would like to know what works.

I'm using the original consoles. SNES and N64 were easy to set up. The only one people tend to have a problem with is the NES. The original "front loader" had two composite cable outlets, the second "top loader" model only had coaxial. Modern TVs are apparently not coming equipped with coaxial connections. To make this all the more tricky, working front loaders seem to be in short supply. There's a wealth of info on how to replace the 72 pin connector in the front loader and you can pick up a new connector for $10 off Amazon. Not a guaranteed fix, but it's worth a shot. My front loader was giving me a lot of grief so I settled on the top loader and am fortunate enough to have a HDTV with coaxial capabilities.

If you decide to go the route of a "clone" machine, I'd recommend the RetroTrio or RetroDuo over any of the Retron devices. The Retron5 was supposed to be the be-all-end-all of retro consoles, but still has a good share of compatibility issues. The latest version of the RetroDuo (version 3,IIRC) will play some of the titles notorious for not working such as Castlevania III. Battletoads on NES is still a no go though. I think there's a graphic hiccup on the SNES Mario Kart, but it's still very playable. Imports by and large don't work with it, but being in the US, I'm sure that's not much of an issue for you.

Just to be clear, that's the RetroDuo. I never had a Genesis so the RetroTrio didn't interest me as much. That being said, I don't see why the Trio wouldn't have the same compatibility as the machine before it.