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Phantasy Star. Hands down.
When I was 6, I spent an entire year completing this game. I had about an hour of playtime every day and no access to any walkthroughs or guides. Also I didn’t speak a word of English. It’s one of my favorite childhood memories.
Same.
I think I got the most play time out of R-Type. Honorable mentions, Ghostbusters, Bomber Raid, Rambo, Space Harrier.
God, Ghostbusters. I never understood the map screen in that game, but it was so much fun to upgrade ECTO-1 and drive around catching ghosts.
I can’t really say that Ghostbusters for the Master System was a GOOD game lol. I agree though, that map twisted my brain trying to understand the perspective the buildings were drawn in. I also only played the game with a money cheat so I could afford stuff. I think I beat the game a few times, the part at the end of having to time running past the Marshmallow Man sucked.
In the map screen you are drawing your route, that’s why you still need to drive afterwards. You can draw a quick route to quickly get to the building or you can wander around to catch some ghosts with your vacuum.
This game is a blatant… homage to OG Legend of Zelda. But IMHO it does almost everything better.
The game begins with
LinkKelesis entering a cavern where an old woman tells him to take a sword - and some boots because our boy can’t even dress himself.After that, you know the drill. Top-down action rpg mode, slaying monsters, leveling up, finding secrets and better equipment.
Where it improves on the original LoZ is that the Master System was more powerful than the original NES, so the graphics here are brighter and more detailed and the audio is crisper.
The structure of the world is more linear than LoZ - but that means it’s a lot harder to get lost. Also, as you unlock gear and powers you can backtrack to discover new secrets in old locations.
The game’s characters vary wildly in tone from angry old ladies berating you for lacking the funds to shop to meandering fairies commenting on snow cones.
I replay Golvellius every few years on whatever the handheld platform dujour is. …I think it’s about time to give out a spin on the steam deck again.
Anyway. If you like that classic Zelda vibe, give Golvellius a spin. It’s seriously one of the best games I played on the old Master System.
Self-replying to add a couple other classics that aren’t already in the thread:
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Penguin Land: A Mr-Driller-like puzzler where you are trying to carefully bring an egg safely to the end of the level - but it can only fall one block distance without breaking. Also, there are polar bears you can crush with boulders.
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Zillion: This game has no business being as good as it is. Side scrolling adventure game where you are tasked with rescuing your captured spy-buddies. You have to loot secret codes from the bodies of fallen enemies, use them to unlock laser doors and progress further into the enemy base. It uses exceptionally large and detailed sprites for the time and is a surprisingly “mature” game for the Era. (Not meaning nudity, just that it is more interesting to someone auth the patience to map out a base and write down secret codes)
Skip the sequel, however. Zillion 2 sucked. a lot.
Is Zillion a game that makes use of the phaser?
No - but it is the game based on the anime that inspired the phaser design! Er, more directly both the phaser and the Zillion game were based on an anime named Zillion.
The Master System phaser was such a slick design. Perhaps not as iconic as Nintendo’s blaster, but I think it’s much cooler looking.
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Great game, terrible password system.
True, true… yet still more reliable than LoZ’s “hold the reset button and hope” method of saving the game…
…master system sonic is best sonic…
Fantasy Zone, Wonder Boy, Sonic (1), Alex Kidd, Hook, Alien Storm
Fantasy Zone, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Hang On, Ghostbusters, and Ghost House. The Master System had some real bangers.
Shinobi and choplifter were my favorites.
Double Dragon with 2 players was awesome!
this was my first video game ever
Hangon, shinobi and rampage were what I played the most.
My favorites on the SMS were Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap and My Hero. I never did finish My Hero. It’s a very hard game but I still found it to be a lot of fun.
Asterix
Choplifter
Hang-On
Time Soldiers
I’m just commenting here because I have a stack of Master System ROMs, but no idea which ones were worth trying out.
Thanks for all the suggestions! I’ll be back later to judge each of them.
Wonder Boy 3: the Dragon’s Trap, a simple “Metroidvania” style platformer with fun action and enemy design. No deep story, but one of my all-time favorite game soundtracks
I play Phantasy Star 2 or 3 times a year. There’s other games I like a lot (like Wonder Boy) but Phantasy Star is best. I even have a Phantasy Star arm sleeve tattoo.
I’ve been trying phantasy star but keep getting wrecked by the dudes near the water. They clap my ass in a few hits. The version I have doesn’t have saves 🥲
