Master System

Master System - After Burner:

Aleste/Power Strike: One of Compile's earliest shooters, but still a good one. This later spawned many sequels such as M.U.S.H.A./Musha Aleste.

Alex Kidd in Miracle World: Sega's answer to Mario before Sonic came out. This platformer involves punching, finding and riding magical items, and boss battles of rock, paper, scissors.

Aztec Adventure:

Baku Baku Animals: This is a strange puzzle game that came out on different systems. The concept revolves around feeding animals food, which helps you beat the other player somehow. This version retains the same action as its prettier and fancier cousins, despite cutscenes looking grainy.

Black Belt/Hokuto no Ken: Go around punching people in stages and go one-on-one with bosses. After beating a boss, you finish it off with a super cool cinematic attack. There are a few differences between the two versions. Cosmetic and licensing differences aside, the biggest change is the soundtrack. Play whichever version you like, they're both cool.

Bubble Bobble: You're a dragon, you shoot bubbles out of your mouth which trap enemies. Stomp on bubbled enemies to turn them into food or items. This makes perfect fucking sense.

Columns: Match different blocks that come down in different groups. You get more points from chain combos. Pretty good if you want a break from Tetris or some other puzzler.

Deep Duck Trouble: Uncle Scrooge has inflated like a balloon due to a curse and it's up to Donald to help him out. You get to choose the order of the areas you go to. The gameplay has been changed to play more like Castle of Illusion (with some minor differences). However, like Lucky Dime Caper, it's still hard and still good.

Double Dragon: The classic beat'em up is ported to the Master System with favorable results. It's one of the best ports made, allows 2 players, and more enemies on-screen than the NES version. The control's a tiny bit different, but easy to re-master. This supports FM music, but both versions of the tunes sound pretty good.

Dragon Crystal: A graphical roguelike that's good for roguelike beginners to try out. Stages are randomly generated and all actions take up "turns". Items and food are essential to your survival, so seek them out. You are followed by a dragon critter, It doesn't do much except grow and take up the space behind you, but this helps prevent back-attacks.

Fantasy Zone:

Fantasy Zone 2:

Forgotten Worlds:

Gain Ground:

Ghouls n' Ghosts: Another port of the tough as nails original, but this version is unique. You can find certain doors which give you a choice of armor. Helmets boost your magic, armor increases the number of hits you can take, and boots increase your running speed (but do NOT effect jumping). As always, you have to beat it twice for the real ending.

Golden Axe Warrior: An extremely Zelda-like game. This features elements and characters from Golden Axe as well, but you can only use Ax-Battler. It's actually pretty good, despite highly resembling its inspiration.

Golvellius- Valley of Doom: This game features elements that would be seen in The Guardian Legend. There are 3 different types of areas to play through: platformer, exploration, and auto-scroll. These areas depend on what kind of location you are in. Each has different restrictions and advantages. This game has FM music support and sounds great with it.

Lord of the Sword: A HARD platformer/adventure that resembles Zelda II and Faxanadu only without the RPG stat elements and concentrating more on the ass-kicking. Although this game is abit linear, you can side-track for better weapons. Protip: This game also has FM music support and its great soundtrack is even better if you have the option available.

Lucky Dime Caper: Donald Duck's nephews have been kidnapped and its up to him to hammer, stomp, and toss plates a variety of enemies and bosses to get them back. In addition to globetrotting, Donald's also racing against the in-stage clock (which lowers pretty fast). The Mickey games are good for beginners, but the Donald games require some real skill.

Mickey Mouse: Castle of Illusion: A rather easy platformer. The later levels get significantly tougher though. There are a few differences between this and the 16-bit version, but both are enjoyable games. This is a good choice for a child or someone new to games or platformers to play, partially due to its strange, colorful worlds and cute music.

Mickey Mouse: Land of Illusion: This game is notably harder and longer than Castle of Illusion. There are also magical items which let you get to normally unaccessible areas as well. You can also return to previous areas. It's suped-up difficulty makes it tough for beginners to get into, but it's perfect for anyone with prior gaming experience.

Phantasy Star (J translated or U): The first game made of the Phantasy Star franchise. A classic RPG with cool psuedo-3D maze dungeons. Features a mixture of sci-fi and medieval fantasy themes that works quite well. Impressive for its time due to its great graphics, music, and story and it still holds up today. It's a bit on the hard side though. Protip: Get the Japanese version and apply the re-translation patch for a less compressed story and better music. The FM music seriously blows away the alternative.

Power Strike 2:

Rainbow Islands:

R-Type:

Sagaia:

Shinobi:

Solomon's Key:

Sonic the Hedgehog:

Sonic the Hedgehog 2:

Sonic Chaos:

Space Harrier:

Spellcaster:

Wonderboy 3: The Dragon's Trap: Although this game has FM support, I advise you DON'T use it, as the music sounds better without.

Ys:

Zillion: A Metroid-esque game that has stealth, leveling up, characters with different stats, but most importantly, finding secret items. This is needed to beat the game, as nearly everything you do needs hidden codes. Bring a pencil and pad, because they're randomly generated. You can't save either. Despite that, it's damn good, but it's better if you have someway to save state mid-game.

- Game Gear - Alien Syndrome (GG version): Features differences from the original Alien Syndrome.

Coca-Cola Kid: An obscure platformer done by the team who made most 8-bit Sonic games. This kid has a fuckton of moves, including, but not limited to: kicking, wall-jumping, charge-dashing, disc throwing, and sliding. Collect Coca-Cola coins to get extra stuff after certain stages. If you like Sonic and Megaman X style action, consider checking this out. There is a translation patch for the ROM, but the story still won't make sense...

Crystal Warriors:

Defenders of Oasis: An arabic-themed RPG that's damn tough. Your party features a prince, a captain's son, a thief, but most importantly a Genie. The genie is not only important plot-wise, but is your ONLY magic caster. He learns spells by reading ancient writings and you increase his stats by pimping his lamp with exotic luxuries. This game's looks are quite impressive for its hardware, and its desert-themed soundtrack is catchy. If you're up for the challenge, try it out.

Dynamite Headdy:

GG Aleste

GG Shinobi 1: Red must save his fellow Shinobi, who have been brainwashed by evil. After being saved, you'll find that each has their own weapon, ninjutsu, and skill. These are great for finding extra power-ups in levels. These different skills and the boss set up slightly resembles Megaman X. The last stage is huge, and requires all Shinobi skills.

GG Shinobi 2: More of the first, but difficulty has become more balanced. Stages are bigger, and you must also find orbs hidden within stages (which allows you to revisit them). Protip: Some of the Shinobi have been modified since the first entry, so you'll have to get used to their new skills. This also has a huge last stage like the first game had.

Gunstar Heroes: A slightly different version of the 16-bit original. There's no multiplayer and Black's stage is absent, but you use a giant robot instead of the ship-flying section. Almost as good as the 16-bit version, as it's a damn fine port, but it's also a bit harder at times.

Psychic World (GG version): A hardass platformer.

Phantasy Star Adventure: Similar to the Phantasy Star II entries, this is a point-and click adventure game, except with menus. You explore different areas, and find different things to use in said areas. There are also some battles with enemies, except they are done with dice. It's worth a shot if you're a fan of old-school genres like this.

Phantasy Star Gaiden (Translated from Japanese): A more traditional RPG. This is a sequel of sorts to the first Phantasy Star.

Royal Stone: Sequel to Crystal Warriors. This plays about same, so even if you don't know Japanese, it isn't hard to figure out.

Ristar: 8-bit Version of the 16-bit classic. There are differences in level design, but the gameplay is spot on.

Shining Force Gaiden: The sequel to Shining Force 1. The town sections are streamlined into menus, and any exploration must be done mid-battle. This story concentrates on the children and relatives of SF1 and Guardiana's new enemies. Only in Japanese, but both this and SFG2 (the one below) are on Shining Force CD, which is English with a few extras.

Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya: The only SFG that made it to English. The sequel to SFG1. Plays just like the first, but concentrates on Nick's kingdom and its struggles.

Shining Force: Final Conflict: This game fills some plot holes between Shining Force 1 and 2. It plays like the other SFGs, but features battle locations, music, and a few characters from Shining Force 2. Bosses are pretty much all new though. Only in Japanese, but a FULL translation patch is available for the ROM.

Sonic Triple Trouble: Perhaps the most fast paced 8-bit Sonic entries. Tails gets access to a submarine in the underwater zone. This features Nack/Fang, an adversary you must fight to get Chaos Emeralds, in addition to Robotnik's other bosses at the end of Zones.

Sylvan Tale: A nature themed Zelda-like Action-Adventure that takes some elements from Dragon's Trap (in that you transform into different animals and take advantage of their different traits to progress). Only in Japanese, but a near complete translation patch is available for the ROM.

Tails Adventure: A platformer/action-RPG hybrid starring Tails from Sonic. You use gadgets (up to 4) to explore areas, fight enemies and bosses, and find more gadgets. This uses passwords, although on some collections you can opt for a "save state".