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Reviews Archive
         
         
    Contra: Hard Corps/Probotector    
 
10
The greatest Contra game of all time bar none. Hard Corps distills everything great about the series and takes everything as far as it can go, tons of amazing set pieces one after another, many of the best sections of previous games revisited and improved upon, awesome music, branching path ways increasing longevity, a proper narrative, expanded and improved weapon system, multiple characters which all play differently, the list of excellent aspects goes on and on. A warning to the weak though, This game does require a little perseverance, and starting out can be a bit daunting, but if its too much for you then you probably shouldn't be playing Contra games in the first place to be honest.   Contra Hard Corps
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9
Herzog Zwei   Herzog Zwei
  Narrowly beat out Dune 2 as the best Strategy game on the system, mainly due to it's uniqueness, and more importantly it's excellent multiplayer, for those who like their strategy games to be fast and furious.
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8
Shining Force 2   Shining Force 2
  A big improvement over the first (which was no mean feat) with great music, a refined engine with pretty well balanced strategy and an obvious amount of care and attention lavished on it during development that really shows.
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7
Ristar   Ristar
  Ristar is kind of like a cross between Bionic Commando and Sonic the Hedgehog, it contains tons of charm, some of the best graphics for the system, inspired boss fights and a very impressive variety of interesting level designs.
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6
Thunder Force IV/Lightening Force   Thunder Force IV
  Quite simply amazing action, amazing graphics, amazing music, some of the most impressively fantastic set-pieces one after another, all of this helps to create quite possibly the most awesome 16-bit Shmup out there for the time period.
 
 
 
5
Landstalker   Landstalker
  It's nice to have a change once in a while so I'm glad Landstalker's developers went for an Isometric view, it works really well in the genre and the whole world of this action RPG feels a lot more solid and unique than many of its competition.
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4
Street Fighter II Champion Edition   Street Fighter 2 on Genesis
  Street Fighter 2 has to be one of the most important and influential games ever made, it pretty much made fighting games what they are today. The graphics are a little grainy here, but the game play is as good as ever, and there's certainly just something very right about using the Mega Drive six button pad to play it with.
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3
Gunstar Heroes   Gunstar Heroes
  The first time I saw Gunstar Heroes I couldn't believe my eyes, never before had I imagined that the MD could pull this level of action going on with such impressive graphics and a simultaneous 2-player! It's definitely a must have Mega Drive classic, and probably the biggest reason why Treasure are held in such high regard.
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2
Phantasy Star IV   Phantasy Star IV
  The best RPG on the system with its great storyline, much improved presentation, and far higher level of accessibility, PSIV was a huge leap forward from its excellent predecessors, it also stood as a welcome return to the series' roots after the big departure that PSIII had taken.
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1
Sonic the Hedgehog 3   Sonic 3 and Knuckles
  Bigger and better than all those that came before it Sonic 3 heralded larger and more interesting levels that seamlessly joined on to each other, an improved co-op where Tails could actually do something useful, a proper running narrative, the ability to save, loads of set-pieces, completely re-designed graphics and more depth than ever with it's different paths, it's as though Sonic Team had really looked at their previous games and spent a long time improving on every aspect they felt lacking, quite simply one of the greatest games ever made, make sure you play it as intended with Sonic and Knuckles attached too.
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Enjoy the article? Why not check out our Top 100 Sega Saturn Games list as well
   
         
 
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