Sega Power's Top 211 Sega Master System Games of All Time (Part 2: #175 - #151)

#175: Ninja Gaiden

53% “Looking for an excellent fighting/platform game? Well, keep looking. This doesn't cut the mustard. The sprites are too small, the gameplay's lacking and it's dead tough.”

#174: Ayrton Senna's Super Monaco GP II

53% “Although most of the improvements are good, Sega have somehow managed to get rid of the most important thing – speed. And in a racing game, that's just suicide.”

#173: Jurassic Park

54% “A repeat of the Game Gear version. Great graphics, plenty of dinos, but what little gameplay it possesses is pretty facile.”

#172: Scramble Spirits

54% “Scramble Spirits is a decent conversion of a tame coin-op. A much-needed fix for zapping junkies, but could have been much better.”

#171: Super Smash TV

54% “Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. This isn't really good enough, is it? It's fast, sure, but it's also dull after only two minutes' play and very, very hard. Thumbs down!”

#170: Tom & Jerry: The Movie

54% “At first, you think you're in for another Lucky Dime Caper. Unfortunately, Tom & Jerry has all the right gloss, but none of the gameplay. A real disappointment.”

#169: Alex Kidd: High Tech World

55% “An unusual and enjoyable mix of platform shoot ‘em up and arcade adventure, which is too tough for younger Sega players and too short for experienced die-hard gamesters.”

#168: The Cyber Shinobi

55% “Well, they've messed this one up. The Shinobi type games are very populare and this one's been long-awaited. If more time had been spent polishing off the gameplay and how you control and move your character things would have been vastly improved. As it stands, it's disappointing.”

#167: G-LOC Air Battle

55% “This is like a poor man's After Burner. It's got a couple of new features but nothing to write home about. The coin-op may have been excellent, but this version just brings home the fact that the Master System can't really hope to handle a coin-op that relies on super-fast graphics. Average.”

#166: PGA Tour Golf

55% “A reasonable conversion, but it's been badly let down by poor programming and a lack of proper research. A real disappointment considering PGA Tour's former gaming glories.”

#165:Rampart

55% “There are some nice ideas in Rampart and it no doubt makes an excellent arcade game, but there's just not enough meat on these bones to make it a worthy buy on the Master System. Perhaps a Rampart 2 could provide Sega Power with the challenge we're looking for?”

#164: R.C. Grand Prix

55% “A clever racing game that has loads of potential, but blows it. You may fancy some no-frills high-speed racing, but take a look before blowing any precious pocket money.”

#163: Joe Montana Football

56% “You won't find me playing this very often. It's much more suited to the American market where gameplay flaws can be overlooked simply because the populous know the real game so well that they don't have to worry about what's happening in the game. Even fans of the sport should try it out first.”

#162: Alien Syndrome

57% “If shootin' and searchin' are your thing, Alien Syndrome could be right up your spacelane. If you can put up with some quibbles, it should keep your fire-button finger in practice – but don't expect coin-op thrills from this one.”

#161: Casino Games

57% “A nicely implemented compilation of games which suffers slightly from a lack of variety. It's strange that there's a pinball machine, but no roulette wheel. Best suited to the occasional gambling fan, or as a break from mindless blasting.”

#160: RoboCop 3

57% “Something of a typical movie license. The sequel to the sequel ad infinitum. It just lacks any kind of soul. Compare with the likes of Jungle Book on 8-bit and weep.”

#159: Spider-Man vs. the Kingpin

57% “Spider-Man could have been a lot better. It's similar to a load of other games except this time you're a guy in a funny suit. It's not awful – but there could have been more effort on the programming side and while the extras add variety, they can't improve the fundamentally boring gameplay.”

#158: Super Tennis

57% “A ho-hum sports sim. OK for a quick knock around, but its many faults soon start to niggle. If you're desperate for a tennis game, get the far superior Tennis Ace – you won't regret it.”

#157: Wonder Boy in Monster World

57% “The little blonde haireo is back – and this time he's on the Master System (again). Still, lots of bods like the guy, so why shouldn't they get a new game with him as the star?”

#156: Ghostbusters

58% “A decent conversion of an old and simplistic game, with average graphics and a very dodgy soundtrack. Despite all the faults, it still manages to grab the attention to an extent and provide an entertaining game – for a few weeks.”

#155: Predator 2

58% “A regular child of Averageville, Predator 2 is so unspectacular it hurts. Fun for a short while – it's definitely no disgrace – but not really anything to fax home about.”

#154: Strider 2

58% “It looks fabulous, but Strider 2 is so irritating and unforgiving to play that you'll probably give up well before the end. Why not try the original instead. It's much better.”

#153: Alien Storm

59% “Alien Storm has a large contingent of very nasty aliens, but that's about all there is to it. There may be three different game styles, but none of ‘em are particularly exciting. And while the graphics are attractive, they're not that well animated. Overall, this is average Master System stuff.”

#152: Star Wars

59% “A reasonable platform type adventure, but don't be suckered by the Star Wars license, it doesn't make much difference. Would-be Han Solos will be disappointed by this one.”

#151: Quartet

60% “A classic case of bad pacing that ruins what could otherwise have been a classic. It's not a disaster at all, but when you look at it and play it for a while, you'll see it has all the ingredients to make it one of the greats, but the potential of the game hasn't been realized.”