Players who subscribe to Switch Online know that it comes with a wide variety of retro games from past Nintendo consoles such as the NES and SNES. If they opt to spend more for the Expansion Pass, they get access to games that appeared on additional hardware, including the Sega Genesis. But that hardware library was extensive, and only some of its best games are available on Nintendo’s service. Here are 10 essential Genesis games still missing from Switch Online, which we hope will make an appearance there soon.
10
Boogerman: A Pick and Flick Adventure
Released: Nov. 18, 1994
For a brief time there, Interplay was riding high on a brief series of personality-driven game releases. One of the wilder ones of the bunch was Boogerman: A Pick and Flick Adventure, which featured a comic superhero type who subdues his enemies with burps, farts, and boogers. The game relied heavily on gross-out humor, but featured competent platforming action to go with it, as well as vividly drawn characters who sold the joke. If you can look past the humor, you’ll find a solid experience that spans more than 20 levels, complete with puzzles and bosses. Nintendo made the game available on Virtual Console in 2008, but it hasn’t been seen since.
9
Championship Pro-Am
Released: 1992
Championship Pro-Am is an enhanced remake of R.C. Pro-Am, which found wide success as an NES franchise. It adds a few nice touches, including improved visuals and six cars racing at once, instead of the usual four. Even with additional drivers on the track, a top-three finish is necessary. The letters players collect on the track no longer spell “Nintendo,” either. Player high scores are also saved, which wasn’t true of the NES original. Microsoft and Rare included the standard two versions of R.C. Pro-Am as part of 2015’s Rare Replay compilation, but Championship Pro-Am didn’t make the cut and some retro fans who might enjoy it don’t even realize it exists. Switch Online could fix that.
8
Ecco: The Tides of Time
Released: Aug. 25, 1994
Ecco: The Tides of Time is the second game in the Ecco the Dolphin series. It keeps the story from the first game going, and makes the sort of additions one would expect from a sequel. One change is a new power-up, Pulsar, which lets Ecco unleash sonar attacks. It is joined by Metasphere, which allows Ecco to change into a different animal. The game also features scavenger hunts, which encourage players to explore the far corners of each sprawling stage. Although it’s sometimes a little too easy to get lost in the environments, fans of the brave dolphin are unlikely to mind, and would surely welcome more underwater adventures on Switch Online. With a remaster on the way, maybe right now is even the perfect time.
7
Forgotten Worlds
Released: Nov. 17, 1989
Capcom originally made Forgotten Worlds as an arcade shooter featuring nine stages. The Genesis port was handled by Sega and lost two of those stages. It added long-range weapons to make up for them, as well as a convenient auto-fire feature. The control scheme also needed some tweaking, which it received; the A and C buttons now let the player rotate to face enemies approaching from the left or right. The Genesis version of the game arrived on Virtual Console in 2008. But after the Wii Shop Channel shuttered in 2019, you won’t find that version available to experience on Nintendo hardware now unless you have an old Wii kicking around.
6
General Chaos
Released: Jan. 13, 1994
Developed by Game Refuge, General Chaos was exclusive to the Genesis platform. It’s perhaps the best Genesis strategy title that isn’t the tragically forgotten Shining Force 2, and pits two armies against each other across 50 different battlefields. In a surprising but welcome twist, it also allows head-to-head and cooperative play for up to four players. As the cover art suggested, the game had a keen sense of humor, reflected in vibrant and zany visuals that complemented the deep strategy action. Action is viewed from an isometric perspective, which makes it easy to enjoy the carnage as the cartoon characters attack with guns, rocket launchers, grenades, flamethrowers, and blasters. Fans at the time remember the game fondly, but it hasn’t made any recent appearances and is due for a comeback.
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5
Phelios
Released: July 20, 1990
Originally a 1989 arcade game from Namco, Phelios released on Genesis in 1990 and reached Europe in 1991. It is a vertically-scrolling shooter featuring Apollo, the Greek sun god, who rides Pegasus through the skies on a mission to rescue Artemis from the titan, Typhon. Players mash a button to fire weaker shots, or hold it down to charge a more powerful shot that enemies might actually fear. Unlike many games of the era, it’s possible to sustain a few hits without crashing and burning, but collision with walls or bosses remains a horrible idea. If you want to play the game now, you’ll have to stick to the arcade version. It is available on Switch and other platforms as part of Hamster’s retro Arcade Archives series (which is popular enough that it has even included titles from Nintendo on occasion). It’s just not the same, though.
4
Splatterhouse 2
Released: Aug. 4, 1992
Developed by Now Production for Namco, Splatterhouse 2 is a brawler that follows up the 1988 arcade game, Splatterhouse. In that game, recurring hero Rick failed to save his girlfriend from a grim fate. At the start of the sequel, he learns he may still be able to save her by venturing into a hidden house, and so he’ll fight his way through eight new stages while relying on his fists, feet, and an assortment of weapons. The English version also features a password save system. The game was made available on Virtual Console, so an appearance on Switch Online shouldn’t be all that difficult. It also appeared on the Genesis Mini 2, suggesting interest remains fairly high. But so far, the Switch Online library has had to do without it.
3
Ranger-X
Released: May 27, 1993
Ranger-X, which was developed by Gau Entertainment, which eventually became Nex Entertainment (Time Crisis 3), is one of those games that made people want to buy hardware. It featured gorgeous environments that rank among the finest the Genesis library ever featured, but was designed to utilize a 6-button controller that didn’t come standard with most Genesis consoles. Players controlled the heroic Ranger X, who piloted an exoskeleton as he battled Rahuna forces seeking to enslave his people. His pack allows brief periods of flight, but overheats if he relies on it too heavily. There also are an assortment of weapons capable of firing in numerous directions, resulting in an unconventional, dynamic experience fans remember to this day. They would surely love to enjoy it again as part of the Switch Online lineup.
2
Super Skidmarks
Released: 1995
Super Skidmarks was a racing game developed by Acid Software and originally released in 1995 for the Amiga. Codemasters (Micro Machines) published a Genesis version that never left Europe. It included an adapter to allow six-player action, ensuring plenty of mayhem as wheeled cows and other miniature vehicles zipped around detailed tracks. It’s an odd little game, the second in a short-lived series that wound down in 1998 with the release of Ultimate Super Skidmarks (also on the Amiga). An appearance on Switch Online would let players young and old discover the joy of racing cows (assuming they aren’t already tired of that activity after playing dozens of hours of Mario Kart World).
1
ClayFighter
Released: Dec. 1994
In the ‘90s, Street Fighter 2 shared the fighting game throne with the violent and bloody Mortal Kombat. Developers working within the fighting game space had to find a unique angle if they wanted to compete against those behemoths. Interplay settled on one that was clay. The characters in ClayFighter are a rowdy bunch, including a menacing snowman who essentially became the franchise mascot, an Elvis impersonator, a scarecrow with a pumpkin head, and a circus strongman, among others. The game includes violence and combos, just like you might expect from a premier fighter, but also a healthy dose of juvenile humor to balance things out. The ambitious Genesis port played best with a six-button controller, and marked the last time the series would appear on Sega hardware, but we don’t hold that against it. All the games in the series have made appearances on Nintendo platforms, including a Virtual Console release for the Genesis version. It’s high time someone brought Bad Mr. Frosty out of retirement, so the series can be remembered once again for something besides an expensive instruction manual.
