easymode

I see Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Sonic, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy all the time, but there were so many interesting games on the SNES, Genesis/MD, TG16, etc. that get basically no coverage. So, let me know what your hidden gems are. I'll start it off.

One of my favorite multiplayer games on the SNES is Metal Warriors... but it almost never gets talked about as a multiplayer game... and that's a damned tragedy.

The regular game is a side-scroller... kinda medium-paced... difficult:


The gimick that makes it awesome: you pilot these giant mechs and you can get out any time then get into a new mech. It's fun in single player, but multiplayer is ridiculous. You'll be almost dead, but if you can manage to get away/jump out of your mech then hop into a new mech... well, tables turned. We had so many insane moments where one of our mechs was literally on fire... then we'd manage to escape... or sometimes, we'd get out of the mech only to get instantly crushed by another player in their mech. There was much screaming.

If you have friends over, play this.

Puggsy is a weird and interesting game for the Sega Genesis and Sega CD. It's rarely discussed and people are usually quite critical of the game, but I think it's fun and different. I really like the sprites too!

I have not yet played Ranger X for Sega Genesis but it has some of the best parallax scrolling I've ever seen and the game's mechanics are cool, given my current understanding of them.

As a fighting game-head I've only recently unearthed the fan edit for Asuka 120 Burning Fest, Limit Over. Need to convince my friends to play this when we're drinking together.

oh I love that game @ward ! I use to play it a lot with my brothers on our first PC. Very fun times.

A game for me that fits into the hidden gems is Zero Tolerance, a FPS for the sega genesis:

Used to see those types of games only in PC and the PS1 I was just amaze that something like this was even posible on the Genesis.
Also it had a mulltiplayer mode but you needed 2 consoles and 2 tvs, so I never got to try it out :P

I wish we could all get together and play local multiplayer... those were the days. Ever get into a fist fight over Metal Warriors? lol.
@Grafo
Zero Tolerance looks crazy. I didn't even know the Genesis could do that. I never owned one, so I missed out on a few games. I might try emulating that one.

ward wrote: Feb 27th, '26, 03:46 I wish we could all get together and play local multiplayer... those were the days. Ever get into a fist fight over Metal Warriors? lol.
@Grafo

haahahha no... but almost :P
and yeah local multiplayer always hit different, even with more modern games nothing a lan party neither :biggrin:

Not sure if it's a hidden gem, but I've never met someone that knew what I was talking about.
ActRaiser is an SNES game where you play as God, watching over and protecting a village of people and helping them banish monster dungeons.

In the city-sim portion of the game, the people will come to you with requests and items, you can help them build their town, clear paths to dungeons through the use of thunder and earthquakes, and fend off monsters.
Banishing the monster dungeons happens through action-platforming levels, complete with a boss at the end that you have to defeat.

I don't think ActRaiser is a perfect game; the platforming levels can feel pretty clunky, while the city-sim aspect gets a bit repetitive at times. But I think it's a really neat concept and the ideas mesh together very well when paired with the story and theming of the game.

ActRaiser 2 unfortunately dropped the city-sim aspect and only focused on the action platformer aspects, although it seems like they put a lot of love into it. I still need to give it a try at some point.

bumbervevo wrote: Feb 27th, '26, 09:31 Not sure if it's a hidden gem, but I've never met someone that knew what I was talking about.
ActRaiser is an SNES game where you play as God, watching over and protecting a village of people and helping them banish monster dungeons.

I love Actraiser. I'd put it pretty high on my list of, 'favorite SNES games.' I totally agree that each individual piece can be a bit clunky (and the ending battle is bs), but it's one of those games that you get really into for a few days and don't even really know why. It's a mood. The music, the themes, the style, the movement, etc. Oh, and that soundtrack:

https://lambda.vgmtreasurechest.com/sou ... llmore.mp3

I'm not sure if everyone here knows, but I made a video on this a while back:


I'm really curious about the new game, but I keep missing the sales and don't know if I want to spend $30 on it or not. It's also not on GOG, which annoys me.

Anyone played that?

If you like ActRaiser try Terranigma - it's one of my favorite game of all time.
Both games are developed by Quintet.

Control_Denied wrote: Feb 28th, '26, 10:55 If you like ActRaiser try Terranigma - it's one of my favorite game of all time.
Both games are developed by Quintet.

Weird, I thought Terranigma was turn-based JRPG style and never really looked into it. I think I was confusing it with Bahamut Lagoon and I have no idea why. I am going to put this onto my wii since I have it hooked up with a CRT and SNES controller... looks awesome.