On a global level, 2020 will be remembered as the year of the corona quarantine, BUT, on a nerdy personal level, I will probably remember it as the year that I got back into playing retro video games (which, admittedly, is directly connected to the corona quarantine, so, I suppose, covid still takes the overall 2020 crown).

It all started simply enough, with me getting a Sega Mini to hook up to the first proper TV I’d owned for well over a decade (after winning a 50-inch flatscreen at the local pub’s pre-corona Super Bowl party). Before long, I’d discover that it was possible to hack my Sega Mini to add any old video game from any old video game system from the pre-2000s, which led to me writing blog posts about how I hacked my Sega Mini, which involved me playing and sampling hundreds and hundreds of retro games and forming personal ‘yay’ or ‘nay’ opinions on all of them. Eventually, that led to me discovering that I could also play all these retro video game roms right on my old 2009 iMac (where I could convert those ‘yay’ or ‘nay’ opinions into 5-starred ratings and organize my now massive retro video game collection much easier than on my hacked Sega Mini, a Mini that I have since re-hacked and passed on to my mini nieces).

On top of that, my website analytics began revealing that some of my most visited pages were my blog posts about retro video games (despite me mostly being a “music blog”), and most of those visits were coming from google’rs. So I figured that since I also did a lot of searching for “best sega games” or “most underrated sega games” or “best sega games that are still worth playing today” or “hidden gem Sega Genesis games” myself, I should put together some console specific lists of my favourite titles to play. Because SEO, innit?

Please keep in mind that this list is not really in a strict ‘ranked order’ and it is definitely not an attempt at creating a “best Sega games ever” list (so prepare to adjust your “how could you not include ___?!” outrage appropriately)— this is just a list of games that I still find personally enjoyable playing as an elder millennial in the 2020s + the games that I find myself reaching for most often. It should be noted that I don’t really care much for button-mashing fighting games or turn-based strategy RPG games (no matter how ‘critically acclaimed’ they are on the Youtubes & Reddits by more serious gamers).

It is also worth noting that there are some games in my ‘Top SNES Games’ list that are also available on the Sega Genesis and are worth checking (but I did not include them because I knew they were already featured in my SNES list, and vice versa) + there are also some games that are on my ‘Top Sega CD Games’ list that are also available on the Genesis/Mega Drive (but are not featured in my list because the better version to play is probably on the Sega CD + it also creates a spot to shout out games that aren’t featured elsewhere).

Because there’s a lot of games out there.

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And now that we’ve got all the explainers & disclaimers out of the way… here are the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive games that my subjective millennial brain still finds engaging enough to play in whatever year it is now:

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Ok, that’s it for my personal “HIGH 54” Top Sega Genesis / Mega Drive Games That Are Still Fun To Play Now list — I know that there may be some classic titles that seem crazy not to have included, BUT, again, this is not meant to be a ‘Top 54 All-Time Best Ever’ list and it’s also not meant to be your list. Besides, reading another list that just confirms what’s on every other ‘best of’ list is a bit boring and pointless, especially if you’re looking for games that might not be top of mind (and especially when you consider how all this stuff is individually subjective & doesn’t really matter beyond the enjoyment that comes from thinking/talking about your own experience & finding temporary moments of connection/agreement/discovery with others).

So, on that note, here’s FORTY-ONE more Genesis / Mega Drive games (the cover art is linked to Youtube gameplay) that are of the kind of quality that have them constantly circling just outside my personally subjective “HIGH 54” list looking for an opening (and for fans of math, yes, that does make this a list of 95 Sega Genesis / Mega Drive Games That Are Still Fun To Play Now):

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And while we’re listing things, here’s my other lists of retro video games that are still fun playing today… if you happen to be looking for more than just Genesis / Mega Drive games to check out (and if you think you might have some crossover tastes in retro games with me):

Finally, please feel warmly encouraged to hit up the comments below if there’s any games that I left off that would definitely be on your ‘Fave Genesis / Mega Drive Games’ list (whatever number you cap your list off at, whichever factors you consider more), as I’ve been known to make tweaks to my lists when a new ‘old game’ starts making a stronger case for more of my limited attention span.

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JEREMY / @HI54LOFI

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