It may not be the most original platformer of all time but what it lacks in originality it more than makes up for in charm and well designed playability.

A classic puzzle game, everybody probably already knows about Lemmings anyway, so I don't really need to write anything do I?

Take Street Fighter and add weapons and animal helpers and you pretty much get Samurai Showdown, probably my favourite SNK fighting game.

By the release of this iteration of Micro Machine's Codemasters had really had the time to craft their gameplay to perfection, the levels were more colouful and varied and the multiplayer was even more excellent than ever, an essential purchase.

After the abomination that was the Bubsy series Sunsoft really did a turn around and released this, great gameplay and level designs, loads of originality and a main character who was actually pretty decent.

Mega Lo Mania is easily one of the best and most fun real time strategies for the Mega Drive, it plays a bit like Populous. I like the way that the game progresses through time as you reach new levels.

Sequel to the great Shining in the Darkness, SF was more of a strategy game than the previous dungeon crawler, and this worked much better, and ended up being the route that the series would end up taking for future releases.

Gaeares is yet another great shmup on the Mega Drive (there were so many) and it has a fantastic concept all of it's own where you clamp onto your enemies to steal there abilities and power yourself up.

I absolutely could'nt believe my eyes when I first saw this game, it took graphics and presentation to the next level, and underneath it all was some perfectly honed gameplay, if it had been a little bit harder it probably would've reached higher on the list but it's just over too fast.

Strider is a classic, plain and simple, there's just something about it's atmosphere and music that makes it timeless, the control system was a little rigid but anyone who took the time to really learn the game found deep and fullfilling gameplay.

Great little top down shooter that has you playing as a witch. A well judged learning curve and great boss designs are some of it's strengths.

Splatterhouse 3 is one of those games that couldn't of been done justice on any other console at the time, it needed the horror and blood to add to the chilling atmosphere. The gameplay had been much refined over it's predeccesors, and the multiple story paths really added depth.

Ocean were a pretty awful company by the 16-bit era all things considered, but one series of games always proved that there was still some talent there, and that was the Addams Family games, this one was like a cross between Mario and Metroid, which worked really well.

An interesting vertical scrolling shooter which has you playing on foot (instead of the usual spaceship) this means that environmental hazards play a larger part than most games of the genre, the gameplay is a class act throughout and theres some above average presentation with nice cutscenes too.

A ground greaking sim which sees you playing the part of a god, and who doesn't want to fell like they have that sort of power?

I think that James Pond II may of been the pinacle of the European style exploration based platformers of the time, it just seemed to click, this coupled with the styling which was also first rate and endearing helped create an enduring classic that's still popular today.

One of the truely timeless multiplayer video games ever made, don't let the tiny graphics fool you either, somehow they manage to fit a horde of charm and personality into every worm. Gameplay is simple, but elegantly executed.

Beat-em-up with the very interesting idea of having the action taking place over frames comic book style, as a beat-em-up the game is very polished, but not only that the items, puzzles and nice running narrative help to add a level of depth.

The developers went for a much more linear platforming style to the second game in the series, and I feel that it helps to make the game a bit more accessible, everything that made the 1st game great is still there too.

Haters seem to only associate the MD with Sonic, they'll moan about "lack of depth" and so forth, conveniently forgetting that Sega have more than one classic series at their disposal anyway, and you could hardly criticise the Shinobi series as lacking in depth, with it's precision based gameplay versatile moves and selectable specials. In my opinion Shinobi is just as important as the more famous hedgehog in defining the Mega Drive.