The From A to Z series lets our editors go back and take a look at games from past generations that are classics, overlooked gems, or just titles they remember fondly. The idea behind this is to pick five games from each letter of the alphabet, once a week to showcase. This delivers 26 weeks and 130 games to talk about. Hopefully it sparks some conversation, and of course plenty of memories.
The third in our series focuses on Sega’s Mega Drive (Genesis in the US).
Let’s continue with the letter “M”.
Mega Bomberman
Also known as Bomberman ’94, this game marked the appearance of the Bomberman franchise on the Mega Drive. Supporting up to four players, Mega Bomberman was quite the party game back in the day. The objective was just to blow up your friends (and everything else) by placing bombs across the battlefield. A bright, energetic game with plenty of action, power-ups, and single-player action. But multiplayer was where it was at.
Mickey Mania
This game was easy enough and, as a platformer, wasn’t mind-blowingly original. However, as a fan of Castle of Illusion, I really enjoyed this later Mickey Mouse game. It had great graphics and each level was based on old Mickey Mouse cartoons by Disney, which gave it an impressive visual flair.
Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament
Oh, the fun that was had. There was a time when, having precisely memorised each turn and obstacle, I could probably have made it through the first couple of races blindfolded, such was the amount of time I put into Micro Machines 2. Micro Machines’ core gameplay – top-down toy car racing over domestic settings such as table tops and gardens – managed to strike a perfect balance; one that inspired both utter joy and absolute rage within seconds of each other. Playing with friends was always a special kind of carnage.
Mortal Kombat/Mortal Kombat 2
Speaking of carnage, Mortal Kombat is another beloved game that courted its fair share of controversy thanks to its brutal style. All that blood and those fatalities…very corrupting, apparently. Mortal Kombat is personally my favourite fighting franchise of all time. When it came to compiling this list, I had a hard time picking between these two…so I decided not to. While one never forgets their first time (the code to turn the blood ‘on’ is forever etched in my memory), Mortal Kombat’s second iteration provided across the board improvement and is really where my obsession with this franchise went into overdrive.
Tune in next week for the next collection of titles.
YouTube Credits:
Sonic8000
World of Longplays
Amy Rose
