The Sega Master System was released in 1985 in Japan as the Mark III and later came to the US in 1986 and Europe in 1987. Its contemporary was the Nintendo Entertainment System (or NES as you may know it). It's also ridiculously popular in Brazil.
Anyway, here are some bangers you should definitely play.
Land of Illusion
Asterix (the first one)
Aladdin
Sonic the Hedgehog
Ninja Gaiden
Kenseiden
Wonder Boy III: the Dragon's Trap
Masters of Combat
Power Strike II
Golvellius: Valley of Doom
"If you see me, please just walk on by, walk on by
Forget my name and I'll forget it too."
yes extremely do play wonder boy ||| the dragon's trap!
also try out "Psycho Fox", it has a cute fox! :3 thats pretty much all of the ones i know of LOL
master system is a little bit of a blind spot to me funnily enough. love the mega drive but we didnt have a master system. i should try some more master system games
yes extremely do play wonder boy ||| the dragon's trap!
also try out "Psycho Fox", it has a cute fox! :3 thats pretty much all of the ones i know of LOL
master system is a little bit of a blind spot to me funnily enough. love the mega drive but we didnt have a master system. i should try some more master system games
I'm not a fan of Psycho Fox, but the games I recommended are all very good and if you ever wanted to get into the Master System, you should totally try them.
"If you see me, please just walk on by, walk on by
Forget my name and I'll forget it too."
Having access to a Power Base Converter growing up let me get access to a pretty good set of games growing up including Dragon's Trap.
Weirdly the one I have the most fondness for growing up was OG Wonder Boy. Always liked that port in particular. Something about the way it feels just sits well with me.
Would like to shout out the Master System's port of Lemmings for no other reason than they went absolutely nuts on the music, it's one of the best OSTs on the system and probably the best sounding Lemmings port:
Ivy-IV wrote: Fri Jul 11, 2025 10:46 pm
Would like to shout out the Master System's port of Lemmings for no other reason than they went absolutely nuts on the music, it's one of the best OSTs on the system and probably the best sounding Lemmings port:
Considering how often games botch the OST on the Master System, this is really impressive.
"If you see me, please just walk on by, walk on by
Forget my name and I'll forget it too."
I recently played the SMS Jurassic Park and I was surprised that it's a completely unique game in the franchise. Well it's the same as the Game Gear, but that's how SMS goes.
Oddly the only difference between SMS and GG is SMS uses an Alan Grant sprite and GG uses.... I dunno who that is supposed to be.
We had a SMS growning up with a few games, including the ones that used the 3D shutter glasses! Trouble is, I don't have any depth perception so I didn't understand what was supposed to be special about them.
Trysdyn wrote: Sat Jul 12, 2025 6:59 pm
I recently played the SMS Jurassic Park and I was surprised that it's a completely unique game in the franchise. Well it's the same as the Game Gear, but that's how SMS goes.
Oddly the only difference between SMS and GG is SMS uses an Alan Grant sprite and GG uses.... I dunno who that is supposed to be.
It's kind of a one-sitting game but it's neat.
That's one of my go-to games. Aladdin is also a unique version (well, "GG Unique") and pretty competent.
"If you see me, please just walk on by, walk on by
Forget my name and I'll forget it too."
The Master System!! It lives up to its name, hehe. Well, it never quite got its chance to shine as it could have thanks to Nintendo's stranglehold, but that didn't stop it from exceeding expectations.
It's got a bunch of funky peripherals too, like the 3D glasses! Which I have! Bulky, but fascinating to play in action. Maze Hunter and Missile Defense make excellent use of them, and don't worry if you want to check out the former today without a CRT or the 3D glasses, as it has an excellent port on the 3DS!
It also had an FM addon in Japan! (well, the Mark III which the Master System is the same as with some slight design reorganisation.) A fair number of games have FM audio capability with this addon, such as Shinobi, Wonder Boy II and III, and (though it was removed from the Western version) Phantasy Star! It's subjective whether it's better than the basic PSG or not, and it depends on the game, but it's certainly neat to have the variety, and some games do really show it off, such as Fantasy Zone II, Ys: Vanished Omens and R-Type
It's also the one proper games console where PAL regions have bragging rights too heheheh, since it continued to be sold and supported here well into the '90s, whereas in the US it was discontinued in 1991 and in Japan in 1989! :3
My favourite games for it are probably Psycho Fox, Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Phantasy Star, and Sonic Chaos (nicer to play than the Game Gear version)! And yeah, Power Strike II is great, really punches above its weight heheh! There's also some other fun, less well-known games for it like Penguin Land, Pit-Pot, Rescue Mission and the overlooked Ninja Gaiden game it has!
Here's my Master System and collection! (Those aren't the original 3D glasses, but those are also notorious for breaking haha, so it's probably for the best)
What happens next may shock you.
