One of my first ideas on Twitch, shamelessly stolen from the RetroPals, is to rank a bunch of games by playing them for 10 minutes. As I kept doing this, I did change the rules, increasing the time to 15 minutes, then changing that to at least 15 minutes as the 15 minute limit was unfair to the RPGs. I didn't even get to really play Breath of Fire, if I remember correctly! I originally did this with Nintendo Switch Online's NES library, and then I kept going from there, ranking the SNES library, ranking the NES and SNES Minis, to even ranking that Namco Museum collection on the Switch.

Tonight, in honor of the release of the Genesis Mini 2, I decided to revive this idea. If you want to watch the VOD, it's right here. I plan on doing this every Thursday at 4 PM Pacific. I'm playing the games in alphabetical order, though I decided to pick a different game for my first choice. I'm sure it's the first choice a lot of people will go to, really. More after the break.

<- n/a 🦔 Part 2 ->


Sonic CD

Have I played it before? While I never had a Sega CD, I did get to play the 90s Windows port of this game. Most of my plays of this game was through the modern Xbox 360 and PC ports.

Sonic CD is right between Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 in quality for me. I never was a big fan of the abstract maze-like levels compared to the environments of 2 and 3, it can be frustrating to have an attempt at time travel end when Sonic hits a wall, and, having played this game to completion before, that final boss is such a disappointment. It gave us Metal Sonic and Amy Rose, it has that amazing animated intro, the special stages are a neat tech demo for the Sega CD's scaling capabilities, and, best of all, it doesn't have Marble Zone.

The Mini 2 has both the US version and the EU version, and the latter has the Japanese soundtrack. I know there's a few people that go against the grain and prefer the American soundtrack, whether it be by nostalgia or not have a particular liking for Japanese dance music. While I am not one of those people, I will say this: when I look at this game, I think of Sonic Boom. It is out of nostalgia, but still. I did think about the game running at PAL speeds, though; I did not check out the EU version to find that out for myself.

Is this a game I'm willing to go back to? Of course, though I may just play the newer PC version.


After Burner II

Have I played it before? Not this particular version, but I have played the arcade version on MAME with a flight stick I bought from a garage sale, I played the 3DS version, and I even played the nearly arcade perfect 32X version.

This is one of those arcade games that really took advantage of Super Scaler technology that had to be ported to a system that doesn't really support sprite scaling. Having experienced Space Harrier II on the original Genesis Mini, I was not looking forward to playing this one. Thankfully, this ended up being better than the original Space Harrier II. It's actually really impressive how close this is to the original arcade considering this isn't enhanced like the version of Space Harrier II that's on the Mini 2.

As for the game itself, it's pretty good. Dodging enemy fire, dodging planes following your tail, and that satisfying "fire" whenever you lock onto an enemy. One thing that did weird me out is how they handled the controls. I did not realize for a while that A actually speeds up your plane, and that the plane just constantly fires the vulcan. They did not have much of a choice, as there were only three buttons on Genesis controllers at the time, but it was something I had to get used to.

Is it a game I'm willing to go back to? Probably not, though I know there's slightly more to this game than what I have played.


Alien Solider

Have I played it before? Well...

I was really looking forward to this one. This is a game by the legendary Treasure. Ikaruga, Gunstar Heroes, Radiant Silvergun, Guardian Heroes, Bangai-O Spirits, Dynamite Heady, all amazing games. However, I actually didn't get into this one before, and I think this might have been one of those games where I played it only to get my ass handed to me by the first boss. It was not until this stream where I really tried to get into this game's mechanics. It seems pretty impenetrable at first, but try after try, I eventually managed to beat that boss. Then again, it probably helped that I decided to set the difficulty to Supereasy from the default setting of Superhard. Those are the only two difficulties, by the way.

One weakness of my original idea for 10 Minute Rankings was that I often did not feel like I played enough of the game. Sure enough, out of all the games I've played, this is the one I could not put down. Each boss is so unique and interesting that I wanted to see what was next, and the more I played, the more I got used to zooming around, hanging on the ceiling, and, of course, finding out which weapon worked best for each boss. I have to make a massive shoutout to EpsilonEagle95, who has given me quite a few good tips throughout my short little look into the game. This is part of the reason why I stream: it's good to get some insight from someone who knows what they are doing.

Is it a game I'm... Don't even need to finish that question, this is the biggest yes of the night. I may do a stream just for this game someday, along with all the other Treasure games.


Atomic Runner

Have I played it before? Never.

Data East is pretty well known for having current owners that aren't too picky about what services or mini consoles to put their games on. Nintendo Switch Online? Yup. Evercade? Yup. The Zeebo, the little known Brazil-exclusive console that lasted about five seconds? Bring on the Data East games! Not on that list of things with Data East in them? The original Genesis Mini. The Mini 2 has two of them.

This is a very interesting run n gun, in the most literal sense as Chelnov, the titular Atomic Runner, can't stop running. It feels less like Contra and more like a horizontal shmup. I also love how you can just bounce on the enemies, too; I don't normally expect that from games that don't star Italian plumbers. I was even getting used to using the mechanic of shooting in circles by jumping until I later found out you can turn around to shoot with the C button. Kind of reminded me of Deathsmiles, and anything that reminds me of elements of Deathsmiles that aren't that tagline they used for the US Xbox 360 version is good to me. Also, that backwards run cycle? Nice.

Is it a game I'm willing to go back to? да. (Yes.)


Bonanza Bros.

Have I played it before? I think I played it on the Genesis collection on the PS2, or it was on one of those early plug-n-play Genesis consoles back in the days of Jakks Pacific. It does seem very familiar to me.

"Play as someone stealing a bunch of loot...to test out their security systems!" Yeah, I'm sure that's the plot. I was never good at stealth sections in a 3D game, and it turns out I'm not that good at stealth in 2D, either. Good thing the gun that stuns enemies has infinite ammo. The very unique art style does add to the charm, along with being able to squish enemies by opening doors or using machines. It's alright.

The way the top half of the screen is just the other Bonanza Brother with a sign does remind me that this does seem like a game that would be better with two players. That's going to be a weakness of my rankings; I'm only playing these from a single player perspective. I can imagine the fun of being able to steal the other player's loot.

Is it a game I'm willing to go back to? Probably not unless I can get that second player.


That's it for this week. The next game will be Clayfighter. Hooray.

Ranking So Far

  1. Alien Soldier
  2. Sonic CD
  3. Atomic Runner
  4. Bonanza Bros.
  5. After Burner II

<- n/a 🦔 Part 2 ->


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