Top 10 Sega Genesis Multiplayer Games

Starting off our list is a familiar side-scrolling beat ‘em up featuring the turtle dudes with attitude. The game has the Turtles stopping Shredder from shrinking Manhattan. You and a friend play as two of the four heroes as you go through several levels beating the crap out of Shredder’s evil henchmen. This game was considered to be Sega’s version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time. Hyperstone Heist shares many similarities with the SNES version like the music, character animation, and gameplay but retains its uniqueness with its storyline and visuals thanks to the utilization of the Genesis’ processor.

Sega has been known for being the home for many great sports titles and the Madden series was definitely included in that number. The Genesis ports started with John Madden Football in 1990, and ended with Madden NFL ’97. Up until Madden ’94 the Madden games lacked the NFL and NFLPA licenses to use actual NFL teams and players in their games. ’94 and beyond continued the series with licensed teams along with the introduction of certain features like player creation and ’96 and salary caps in ’97. With each title came an improvement from the previous entry but still retained the same versus gameplay Madden fans expected from the 16-bit games.

Remember when Conan the Barbarian was really popular? The late 80’s and early 90’s couldn’t get enough of high fantasy medieval epics and this game was no exception. You play as one of three heroes, all with different playing styles. You can play by yourself or with another player, as you fight through several levels and bonus stages beating up enemies with your weapons or mountable beasts. You can even cast magic spells to defeat enemies which come in handy in a pinch. The game can come off as a bit corny due to its dated character designs but it’s still a fun classic.

Who knew blood, gore, and violence was the recipe for a fun game? We all know about this infamous series and how its first game hidden “Blood Code” made the game a system seller, and while Mortal Kombat 2 is one of the finest titles in the series its Genesis port was atrocious. Enter Mortal Kombat 3 which brought over the Babalities and Friendships as well along with the introduction of Animalities, where characters turn into beasts or animals to kill their opponents. It was a fun and challenging game but made the unforgivable mistake of leaving out characters like Reptile and Scorpion. Good thing they fixed that in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.

They may not be the most visually appealing characters but they are one of the most beloved duos in gaming history. ToeJam and his bro, big rappin’ Earl, crash landed on Earth and needs to collect the pieces of their spaceship to get back home. It is a pretty unique setup that’s perfect for a dungeon crawler game. You go through levels as you and a friend look for the missing spaceship piece and then for the exit. It is a goofy Roguelike game set to the tune of a funky hip-hop beat. All dungeon crawlers should be set to the song from the game.

Boomshakala! A tight basketball sim with swift gameplay, NBA Jam was, is, and will always be one of the best sports games ever. You get to play as some of NBA’s top players from the ‘93-‘94 roster on their respective licensed teams. Unlike traditional basketball games, this game lets you play two-on-two matches on a horizontal court for three minutes per quarter. Having multiplayer functionality, you can play against another player or on the same team against the CPU players. Either guaranteed a challenge. But c’mon, we only played this game for the insane dunks and the calls from the enthusiastic announcer.

Back in Sega’s console days you can pretty much count on a great game for its super speedy mascot and this game sure was one of them. Sonic 3 picks up after the events of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the first game in the series to introduce Tails, Sonic’s two-tailed flying fox friend. It was an interesting feature that was carried into Sonic 3 but this time the co-op is more involved. Tails could now carry Sonic to higher places to access ways to advance the level or find secrets. But when working together got old you could race each other in the competitive 2-player modes.

And yeah, this game was totally hardcore. Carrying on from Contra III: Alien Wars, Hard Corps introduces 4 new playable characters, each with their own unique abilities. The game still features the same run and gun gameplay, but now the players can carry 4 different weapons at the same time. It also included level branching, where players now have the ability to play different stages based of the decisions they’ve made at key moments of the game. This gives the game some weighty replay value. That is if you were good enough to beat the game the first time around.

This popular hockey game is actually the third installment in the NHL series and the second game to have licensed teams from the National Hockey League. It was, however, the first game in the series to feature the famous hockey play, the one-timer, where players can shoot the puck at the goal off of a pass. Like most sports games, this game allows two players to play on the same team or against one another. Even then, EA made sure that it’s sports games had a realistic flare to them and NHL was a game that brought the heat of ice hockey to home consoles.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few Honorable Mentions:

“World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck” (1992)

“Air Buster” (1991)

“Battletoads” (1991)

“Street Fighter II': Champion Edition” (1993)

The Streets of Rage series has some of the most memorable games that even today’s players still enjoy. The second installment in the series was arguably the best one to ever hit the Genesis. You get to pick from four brawlers: Axel, Blaze, Skate, and Max, each, of which, have their own stats and abilities. You and another player would go through levels kicking ass and taking names. With its distinctive characters, pulsating soundtrack, and deadly enemies it truly is no surprise that this game would come up on the topic of best anything for Sega Genesis.

Do you agree with our list? Which Multiplayer game for the Genesis do you think deserves to be mentioned? For more exciting top tens published everyday, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.