Having missed #MegaDriveMay, I'm kicking off #GenesisJune with the only three JP Mega Drive releases I have, which are also some of my most beloved STGs of the era.

Wolfteam's GRANADA, Toaplan's HELLFIRE, and Tecnosoft's THUNDER FORCE III. ❤️

Ahh heck I forgot to do #megadrivemay this year lol

RT @buzz_clik@twitter.com

Gynoug AKA Wings of Wor is a neat lil horizontal shmup with a cool fantasy aesthetic and a few graphical tricks up its sleeve. My only gripe is that the levels maybe go on a bit too long, but on the whole it's a quality time.

#MegaDriveMonday #Sega

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/buzz_clik/status/1531148765586808832

Well I guess that about sums up #MegaDriveMay for me. Thanks for putting up with me as I made these batch posts on the middle of the night, and thanks to @dark1x@twitter.com for putting the hashtag on my timeline in the first place lol.

Wrapping up #MegaDriveMay is Xenocrisis. A modern almost roguelite (emphasis on lite) take on the Smash TV formula. It's really cool! I love the sound design. I want to try the other ports eventually but ithink @necrosofty@twitter.com's suggestion of the Genesis port was the right call tbh.

#MegaDriveMay Old Towers is a game I read about on the @InsertCredit@twitter.com forums! It's a kinetic, flowing puzzle game that feels like a DS, XBLA, or maybe even Flash game I would have loved. I kind of can't believe it's running on my Genesis!

My last "official" cart for #MegaDriveMay is beloved classic Thunder Force II. I love this game cause it always felt like an interesting evolution of Namco's design from Bosconian.

#MegaDriveMay I never played a ton of Yu Suzuki's Sword of Vermillion, but the multiple-camera-perspective exploration and combat seemed really cool and unique!

#MegaDriveMay can't forget the extra tall EA carts with their mysterious yellow tabs! I never quite got the hang of these NHL games lol but Lotus II rules.

#MegaDriveMay every conversion of Strider is weird and different in their own ways and I love them all.

The next best thing when you don't have Streets of Rage 3, is Streets of Rage 2! #MegaDriveMay

Steel Empire! Secretly one of the coolest STGs on the Genesis imo. #MegaDriveMay

not sure how this got here #MegaDriveMay

#MegaDriveMay Rocket Knight Adventures is one of the first games that really started getting me excited about the Genesis. Konami in their prime! Super creative design, technically very impressive, S-Tier soundtrack, and fun as heck to play.

With Ristar I'm caught back up with #MegaDriveMay. Ristar is, imo, one of the best and most creative platformers ever made. It easily sits up there with Treasure's entries of the era. It came out super late in the Genesis' lifespan and is all the better for it. Just delightful. https://t.co/Aq8Wbv1ZbK

Up next for #MegaDriveMay is Rainjerks, aka Ranger X! A fantastically ambitious game with a steep learning curve and convoluted controls, but once you get the hang of it it's a blast. Truly the Gunvalkyrie of its day. 🙏

Next up for #MegaDriveMay is one of the only sprite-scaling racers from the 2D era that I think has held up pretty well, OutRun 2019! Every car has a jet fighter afterburner like the Tim Burton batmobile and goes over 600MPH, this game is beautifully stupid, I love it.

Catching up on #MegaDriveMay with NBA Jam! It may not be the Tournament Edition but at least it plays music during the game, which is more than I can say for the SNES port. Also check out this burned-in rental brand on the back lol.

#MegaDriveMay Midnight Resistance is a cool early Contra-like run n gun. My favorite thing about it is that it looks like a kinda-janky overambitious NES game a la Strider, but with Genesis horsepower. I haven't gotten too far, but I'd still feel comfortable recommending it.

HERE WE GOOOOOOOO #MegaDriveMay technically the "first" Treasure game (developed in tandem with Gunstar Heroes), McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure is one of the best and most creative 2D platformers ever made imo. Infinitely better than the license deserves lol.

#MegaDriveMay At some point I picked up a copy of the Lion King for my daughter, and while the pixel art is incredible and it feels pretty good, it's ruthlessly difficult lol.