The 10 Mega Drive Games with the Best Graphics

Mega Drive could never compete with Super Nintendo in certain graphical aspects. The Sega console could normally display 64 simultaneous colors from a palette of 512, compared to 256 from a palette of 32,768 on its rival. 

There was also no equivalent to Mode 7 for rotating and scaling an entire background, and the console could display fewer background layers.

In exchange, it could handle more sprites and do it faster than the SNES, in addition to having a higher horizontal screen resolution.

Its best developers learned to turn those limitations into techniques: dithering that blended together on a CRT television, independent scrolling on different lines of the image, characters and enemies built from multiple sprites, and the use of its fast CPU to keep the action moving at great speed.  

You know, what Nintendon’t.

And they pulled it off many times. In this article, I bring you the ten best examples, along with five honorable mentions.

Considerations

This ranking does not measure which game was most revolutionary at its launch, but rather, as in the case of the 10 Super Nintendo games with the best graphics, I have valued above all how it looks the game in motion, that is: 

• The size and definition of the sprites.
• The quality of the animation.
• The artistic design.
• The effects.
• The number of elements.
• The fluidity.
• The ability to build a coherent world. 

That is why technically very different games appear and other technical wonders are left out.

Also We must avoid confusing technical complexity with better graphics. It's not the same.

Therefore, The Adventures of Batman & Robin It contains more special effects than much of this list – it is undoubtedly one of the technical ceilings of the console – but it does not always know how to take advantage of them on screen.  

Or Panorama Cotton, that achieves extraordinary scaling through software, without it really mattering too much.  

A technical showcase may be admirable and involve a great deal of skill and work, but that does not automatically give it one of the console’s ten best-looking games.

Here they are.

10. Ecco: The Tides of Time

Developed by Novotrade and published by Sega in 1994.

The two Ecco games were special. Anyone who put one of their cartridges into a Mega Drive—or even a Game Gear—and spent five minutes playing knew it.

While most Mega Drive games tried to grab your attention with speed and explosions, Ecco: The Tides of Time and its prequel did something different and more difficult: bring a plausible seabed closer to our nineties televisions and turn it into a beautiful and at the same time strange and threatening place.

Ecco moves with exceptional fluidity. He accelerates, turns, leaps out of the water and emits sonar, blending beautifully into the accomplished and highly varied environments. 

In addition, the plants move, the animals and enemies occupy different depths and the sprites are the best on the console.

On the other hand, the large empty spaces reinforce an atmosphere that goes from the contemplation of a seabed to science fiction almost without you realizing it, in a very successful transition, but difficult to explain in words. Stay with what it was one of those games that caused sensations very different from the usual ones. A bit like the Journey on PS3, to give you a more current reference in case you have played it.

The sequel is brighter and more varied than the first Ecco the Dolphin. It adds transformations, larger creatures, futuristic settings and pseudo-3D stages in which the dolphin races towards the horizon through rings. Although these sections are not always perfectly smooth, they were astonishing, even more so on a console without native scaling.

The first game made a bigger impact because it introduced this unprecedented universe. However, The Tides of Time It offers more defined backgrounds, more effects and greater variety without losing the disturbing atmosphere of the original.

Is it worth playing today? 

Yes, with reservations, because its underwater world is still fascinating, but its labyrinths and difficulty require more patience than any current game.

9. Vectorman

Developed by BlueSky Software and published by Sega in 1995.

It was Sega's response to Donkey Kong Country on the SNES. It uses the same pre-rendered graphics technique and applies it to a robot made of rendered spheres that can move independently.

Is the result just as good? Honestly, no. The DKC trilogy had everything—graphics, gameplay, sound and charisma—and although Vectorman is by no means a bad game, it feels like the budget alternative.

That does not mean that it was a marvel in Mega Drive, especially if we talk about lighting. Gun flashes alter the protagonist's appearance, some levels gradually turn him into a silhouette, and industrial backgrounds use backlighting and shadows to create depth.

The second installment introduced better animated insects, more natural colors and a greater variety of environments, but lost part of the industrial identity and the surprising light treatment of the original.

Is it worth playing today? 

With reservations. It is a good game and a graphical showcase, but the Mega Drive has more entertaining platformers.

8. Aladdin

Developed by Virgin Games and published by Sega in 1993.

Before Earthworm Jim, David Perry and several of his future Shiny collaborators demonstrated that a cartoon character could retain his personality inside a cartridge. 

Disney artists created original animations that were later digitized, colored, and adapted to the limitations of Mega Drive.

Aladdin is not limited to running, jumping and attacking like most platform protagonists of the time. His body transmits elasticity, stretches, loses balance and adopts exaggerated poses. 

Enemy guards take each hit as they would in the movie, and even a basic action like throwing an apple contains more frames of movement than it needed.

Speaking of other Disney adaptations, Mickey Mania would later surpass it in variety, parallax and effects that imitate rotations, while The Lion King would offer more naturalistic backgrounds and excellent animal animation. Yet neither captures the look of a Disney film as successfully in a platformer that remains agile and playable today.  

Is it worth playing today? 

Yes, because its animations retain all their personality and its design is still great. A great platformer of the time.

7. Comix Zone

Developed by Sega Technical Institute and published by Sega in 1995.

One of the most surprising and different games of the time.

It tries to fit the panels of a comic inside a cartridge—and it certainly succeeds.

Comix zone is a beat 'em up in which its protagonist, Sketch Turner, jumps between panels, breaks their margins, tears off fragments of the paper and listens to how the enemies respond with speech bubbles.

This is breaking the fourth wall.

The idea determines the graphics. Each screen must function as a playable scenario and as a drawn page. The use of black outlines, intense colors and hatching fits with the cheap printing of a 90s comic and, at the same time, disguises the color restrictions of the console.

Additionally, Sketch is one of the best animated human characters in Mega Drive. His different blows, his poses and actions surpass other myths such as Streets of Rage 2.

As of today, there is no other game that looks like this one.

Is it worth playing today? 

Yes, with reservations, because its vignette world remains unique and surprising, although its difficulty and some combat decisions are frustrating.

6. Earthworm Jim 2

Developed by Shiny Entertainment and published by Playmates Interactive in 1995.

It was on the Super Nintendo listing and is on the Mega Drive listing. That's how good the graphics were in this game.

There were differences between the two versions: the SNES had the larger color palette, while the Mega Drive version made up for it with better animation and a higher resolution.

Beyond this, what was said then applies here: Shiny used his system Animotion to transfer traditional drawings to consoles. The protagonist has numerous animations, performs poses, reactions and transitions, unnecessary to play, but great from the visual level.  

The second installment adds transformations, the mucus parachute, completely different movements and phases that change mechanics over and over again.

Here it should be said that Earthworm Jim 2 leaves out another wonderful graphic representative of the console: Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure. This is another action platformer from the same school of great characters and careful animations. Harry moves great, but Earthworm Jim 2 edges it out because its animation looks like a cartoon brought to life.

Is it worth playing today? 

With nuances: it is a good platformer and its animation and humor remain unique, although its difficulty and somewhat rigid control only recommend it for lovers of the genre.

5. The Story of Thor

Developed by Ancient and published by Sega between 1994 and 1995, depending on the territory.

The Story of Thor –Beyond Oasis in North America – visually it is more similar to a beat 'em up than a role-playing game. Avoiding the usual problem of 16-bit role-playing games in which tiny characters repeat three movements on more or less beautiful and more or less elaborate backgrounds.

Ali, the protagonist, is big, not at all rigid and capable of chaining punches, kicks, jumps and attacks with weapons. The enemies are also large and well animated and the bosses, especially the snake and dragon, raise the bar above average in top-down adventures.

Finally, the settings are varied and attractive: beaches, palaces, caves and forests full of small details.

In short, it is an outstanding visual package: the best-looking action RPG on this console, and perhaps on any 16-bit system.

By the way, its sequel –The Story of Thor 2 (also called The Legend of Oasis in North America—raises the bar even further, but it is a Sega Saturn game, made for the company’s 32-bit console.

Is it worth playing today? 

Totally, because its combat, animation and world continue to be attractive, although the adventure could explain some systems better. It has a fast pace and a game that you will not take long to finish.

4. Gunstar Heroes

Developed by Treasure and published by Sega in 1993.

Mega Drive's best game is also one of the most graphically surprising.

Treasure, a great and innovative 2D developer, did not need a rotation chip or an added processor to fill the screen with enemies, explosions and structures that look three-dimensional. 

He thought up and developed clever solutions like building many characters using independent sprites and moving each piece as part of an articulated figure.

Seven Force is the best example: a boss made up of blocks that takes on seven different forms during the fight. It does not use huge sprites, but a system of pieces that rotate and change position, transforming into a soldier, tiger, bird or weapon.

The rest of the game maintains that graphic level, with platforms that rotate, tunnels that simulate depth, a multitude of enemies and simultaneous explosions and huge, deformable ships and bosses that you have not seen in other games before.

Subsequently, The Adventures of Batman & Robin would later take this game as a model and add even more parallax, scaling and rotation. However, its smaller characters and less distinctive art direction make it a slightly less impressive technical and visual package, although it is still worth seeing.

Is it worth playing today? 

Yes, absolutely. It's not Metal Slug graphically because the console doesn't give it, but it continues to be one of the best cooperative run and gun games in history.

3. Sonic 3 & Knuckles

Developed by Sega Technical Institute, with the Japanese team led by Yuji Naka and Hirokazu Yasuhara, and published by Sega on two cartridges during 1994.

We face the podium with one of the most surprising works in the system. And the cartridge Sonic & Knuckles It had a top slot that allowed you to place the other cartridges in the series on top to obtain new features, such as playing with Knuckles in Sonic 2 and other bonus phases in Sonic The Hedgehog.

Here I talk to you about the combination of Sonic & Knuckles with Sonic 3. Both games were conceived as a single adventure, although they were published separately due to scheduling and capacity issues.

It is the graphic culmination of the original two-dimensional Sonic. It maintains the speed of its predecessors, but adds larger stages, redesigned protagonists, huge bosses, and an extraordinary amount of stage animations.

Angel Island starts out as a bright jungle and ends up on fire. Hydrocity mixes water, simulated transparencies and very fast movements. IceCap uses snow and large slopes. Sandopolis changes the light, raises storms and fills the ruins with ghosts.

The levels are no longer abstract circuits, but have a spatial and narrative continuity that previous installments lacked: Robotnik destroys the place and then the characters fall towards the next area or the landscape transforms during the game. The phases are more connected.

Graphically, the backgrounds use multiple layers and line scrolling to produce depth even as Sonic races across the screen.

No previous Sonic combines so much color, variety, speed and detail in scenarios

Is it worth playing today? 

Yes. Its speed, design and variety retain all their energy, especially when both halves are played as a single work. As a pure platformer, though, Sonic 2 may still have the edge. The excellent and more modern Sonic Mania is also worth a try.

2. Thunder Force IV

Developed and published by Technosoft in 1992.

Thunder Force IV It is, for many, the best shoot'em up of the 16-bit generation. Because it has everything. And it shows how good Sega's console CPU was at handling sprites.

Its 1992 release date is almost as surprising as its graphics. Many games on this list needed the Mega Drive’s final commercial years to master the hardware; Technosoft produced one of its greatest showcases remarkably early.

The key word is ambition. To do big and different things.

For starters, the ship can move vertically within horizontal levels much higher than the screen. That is, as you ascend, new stripes of the scenery appear, while clouds, mountains, oceans and structures move at different speeds. The stage extends above, below, in front and behind the playable plane.

There are layers of the aforementioned clouds, but also of water, lava, storms, ruins or, of course, futuristic and industrial machinery. It is the best parallax of the Mega Drive.

As for the enemies, there are bosses that take up a good part of the screen and move very smoothly. Yes, when the screen fills up some slowdown may appear, but most of the time this does not happen and, in fact, if you see the game in motion you will surely think that it is not being played on a Mega Drive but on an arcade, for sheer power.

Is it worth playing today? 

Absolutely. It remains an extraordinary shoot ’em up, and its speed still makes the stages feel enormous. It can stand alongside any game of its generation.

1. Alien Soldier

Developed by Treasure and published by Sega in 1995.

Of course, another game from Treasure takes first place.

If Gunstar Heroes was the studio’s introduction, Alien Soldier was his declaration of intent. Hideyuki Suganami designed an adventure specifically aimed at the most experienced Mega Drive players and focused most of its content on boss fights.

That structure allowed enormous amounts of memory and work to be devoted to individual characters. Epsilon, the avian protagonist, is large, detailed and contains numerous animations for running, flying, shooting, gliding, changing direction or teleporting. 

And he faces robots, mechanical animals, monsters, vehicles and figures that take up much of the screen.

The bosses stand out for more than their size—and some of them are enormous. As in Gunstar Heroes, they are built from separate pieces, change shape and perform a huge range of perfectly animated movements.

Finally, comment that the backgrounds, being secondary here, maintain a good level of detail.

Why do I consider it number one?

Sonic 3 & Knuckles It's faster and builds more colorful and varied worlds. Thunder Force IV shows more enemies on screen in larger settings and Comix Zone It has a more original artistic direction.

However, Alien Soldier tops the list because, without being the absolute best in any one of those areas, it combines detail, scale, fluidity, speed, animation and enemy design like no other game. As a complete package, it is the console’s graphical peak.

Is it worth playing today? 

Yes, because its boss fight pacing, control and speed continue to be exceptional, although it requires learning systems and patterns that are unusual today.

Five honorable mentions

Apart from the ten already broken down, there are five games that have been very close to sneaking into the top. Let's talk a little about them.

Virtua Racing

Developed by Sega AM2 and published by Sega in 1994.

The only polygonal game on the list, which makes sense: it was the console’s only truly noteworthy fully polygonal title. There were a few others, but they were light-years behind this one.

This is the 16-bit adaptation of Sega’s arcade game of the same name, which ran on vastly more powerful hardware, especially when it came to 3D.

To make this possible, the (huge) cartridge incorporated the Sega Virtua Processor, a processor responsible for helping generate three-dimensional graphics. It was the only Mega Drive commercial game to use it, mainly because it made the product enormously expensive.

Yes, the circuits are simple, the cars are angular, the sets are almost empty and the FPS and lower resolution take away the smoothness of the arcade. But, but, but… it's Virtua Racing in your living room, totally recognizable and with surprising speed and playability. 

Much better than what the competition offered with the Stunt Race FX from SNES.

Is it worth playing today? 

Not generally. The arcade original and ports for more powerful consoles offer better experiences, although the cartridge remains a historic technical achievement.

Flink

Developed by Psygnosis and published in Europe by Psygnosis in 1994.

One of my personal favorites on the console: a game that looked more like an SNES title than a Mega Drive one.

That is because Flink and his enemies are large, detailed, expressive and have a European illustration look. Artists carefully distribute the 64 simultaneous colors available on the console and use patterns to create other colors.

The settings are not far behind: forests, caves and villages are full of leaves, branches, stones, clouds, simulated gradients and small textures. Psygnosis uses dithering so skillfully that the colors appear to blend together, especially when viewed on a CRT television, which is what they were designed for.

It is left out of the top because the movement is less fluid than the drawing. The control, the difficulty and certain points of animation do not reach the naturalness of Ristar or Aladdin. 

Still, few cartridges demonstrate better use of the Mega Drive's limited palette.

Is it worth playing today? 

Yes, with reservations. I personally love it and it remains beautiful, although its pacing and difficulty are not as polished as its art direction.

Flashback

Developed by Delphine Software and published on Mega Drive by U.S. Gold in 1993.

One of those games that moves its genre forward.

In this case, the rotoscoping technique popularized by the previous Prince of Persia to show us a Conrad who runs, brakes, rolls, jumps, draws, grabs an edge and climbs in a totally realistic way. Nothing to do with the movements and animations of the usual platforms.

The backgrounds are more static than those in the main ranking, but they build a mature science-fiction universe with admirable visual economy. 

The jungle of Titan, the streets of New Washington, and the TV game show use clean compositions, shadows, and muted colors to remind Blade Runner, , Total Recall or classic science fiction covers.

It is a game that, if you enjoy this genre, provokes unique sensations.

Is it worth playing today? 

Yes, as long as you have time and like difficult games. Because you will repeat the same movements over and over again until you master them. Its atmosphere and animation are still magnificent, but the control is particular.

Ristar

Developed by Sega and published in 1995.

The most beautiful game outside the top ten. And yet it has cost me a lot to include it ahead of others like Pulseman or Dynamite Headdy. 

I put it in because Each planet is very different from the rest and features its own color palette, enemies and stage animations.. Furthermore, the protagonist is exceptionally animated: he stretches his arms, pushes himself, bounces and constantly changes his expressions.

Dynamite Headdy contains more technically amazing effects and bosses, while Pulseman uses geometric backgrounds and electricity with greater daring. Ristar surpasses them as a set for coherence, art direction and color.  

Is it worth playing today? 

Yes, because its animation, control and variety still work and its visual style has barely aged, although it is aimed at a children's audience.

Ranger-X

Developed by Gau Entertainment and published by Sega in 1993.

Another game that, if they don't tell you, looks like it's from SNES. 

Because despite the color limitation of Mega Drive, Ranger-X seems to use many more. Gau combines hatching, shadows, contrasts and palette changes to create skies, buildings and machines with a very unusual chromatic richness.

The animation is good, the environments have numerous layers, and the robot can fight on foot, fly and combine with different vehicles, all within a coherent universe almost on the level of Super Metroid.

Is it worth playing today? 

With nuances. Try it and if the controls don't put you off, enjoy it thoroughly.

Conclusion: Mega Drive did not need to look like Super Nintendo

Mega Drive's best graphics didn't come from trying to exactly reproduce the strengths of its competitor, but rather its greatest achievements came from understanding what it could do differently.

Even when “inspired” by the competition, as in the renders of Vectorman, it found a solution suited to the console’s speed and the way it handled sprites.  

Details to highlight:

• Technosoft turned parallax into art. 
• Treasure built amazing creatures with independent parts. 
• Sega used speed to bring more life to the levels as Sonic ran through them. 
• Shiny and Virgin brought traditional animation to games. 
• Novotrade created an underwater atmosphere with silences, voids and exquisite design. 
• Sega AM2 even introduced a processor inside Virtua Racing to bring a polygonal arcade to a cartridge.

These 10 + 5 examples made their artistic decisions far exceed the limitations of the machine.

And, seen today, the truth is that they have aged very well. Much better than more technically complex games.

If you liked the article, I invite you to read these others on similar topics, because I think you will like them:

• the 10 Super Nintendo games with the best graphics
• The 10 Neo Geo games with the best graphics.
• What did retro video games really look like?