With no real news to report in the gaming world currently, I thought I’d take this opportunity to honor one of the consoles that’s been with me ever since I can remember: the 16-bit Sega Genesis.
I remember the Christmas when my older brother, Mike, opened his Sega Genesis from our parents well. I remember him tearing off the paper and then excitedly jumping up and begging our parents to allow him to be excused so that he could run downstairs and start hooking it up.
The version of the Genesis that Mike got came packaged with Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic and Miles AKA Tails. That game claimed many hours of my childhood. Mike would always make me be Tails when we played two player, and most of the time he won. Over the years I got better and better at the game, and today he refuses to play against me for fear of losing.
Another great game on the Genesis is the original Mortal Kombat. This is another one Mike typically beat me at, but it didn’t stop me from loving it. This was my first experience with a fighting game, and my introduction to the genre, and what a great one it was. At the time, the craziest thing I’d ever seen in a video game were the fatality moves Mike would mash a button combo to achieve. Today there are obviously far more graphic and explicit games, but at the time this game was quite scandalous. You even had to enter a code when the code screen before the title screen was up to get blood to show during your game. Still to this day, there is nothing cooler in a fighting game than hearing Scorpion say, “GET OVER HERE!” as he pulls in his victim from across the screen.
This system offered so many other great games: Earthworm Jim, Ms. Pac Man, Aladdin, Golden Axe, Combat Cars, the original Sonic and Sonic Spinball, and many more.
Today, the Genesis belongs to me, and it sits proudly on top of my entertainment center in my room, still hooked up, ready to power up and send me back into all those amazing worlds from my past.
You can play a wide range of Genesis games online today via SEGA’s official website.
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