First NON SONIC Sega Game You Played?

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

I have to clarify “non Sonic” because I know the thread would otherwise be flooded with them. We have dedicated Sonic threads, and I’d like to keep that over there. This is for everything else. It’s all fair game.

For me, it was actually an arcade game. It was this exact Super Monkey Ball machine.

I remember being very bad at it, but it was one of the only games at Chuck E. Cheese that I played for its gameplay and not for the tickets. The big track ball was this giant ball filled with glitter, and the levels emphasized matching speed with handling like the best Monkey Ball levels. The bananas on the side were made of foam, and I remember them being kind of scuffed up after a while because of all the little kids running around.
Good memories with this machine. Years later I recognized Monkey Ball after I got into Sonic and was amazed that the same company that made my hyperfixation at the time was also the same company behind that monkey game I’d played when I was very little.

And overtime I just played more and more and more of their games, falling in love with new ones, and I’m still on that journey to this day.

 

[Swagmata]

Do we count ristar ?

 

[norunove]

For me it was on the OG sega genesis as a Kid, I'm not all that sure of which one i played first but other than sonic it's between Golden axe and Revenge of Shinobi, both are banger games

 

[Xdqwerty Xdqwerty]

Phantasy Star Zero and Iron Man 2

 

[Tonberry]

Not sure actually. I'll say Super Monkey Ball because a friend had it on Gamecube and I was obsessed with it. Used to come to his home and beg for us to play it even though he didn't like it nearly as much as I did lol.

 

[RageBurner]

For me, probably the SMS version of ESWAT.

 

[fake-kun]

Phantasy Star for the Sega Master System.

 

[jon2]

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

Do we count ristar ?

HECK YEAH WE DO!
Shoutouts to Ristar, one of the prettiest games I’ve ever played.

Post automatically merged: Apr 23, 2025

 

[Faust03]

 

[RustySK]

I didn't grow up with any of the Sega consoles, so I've been playing catch-up with their entire back catalogue for years now and man that company released some absolute bangers!

I know I keep bringing this one up, but I'm just gonna hope it's not annoying yet - I adore the Shining Force series (both as a whole and SF3 in particular), absolutely fantastic TRPGs with a super unique interpretation of what a TRPG should be compared to their competitors. Great stuff.

Another banger that isn't getting the credit it deserves that comes to mind would be Landstalker - really, really good top-down Action Adventure with, again, a super unique style to it.

(I just realized that you might have specifically meant first-party titles - apologies for the misunderstanding if so!)

 

[UnDubious]

I can't remember exactly, but we (my brother & I) had a Genesis when I was a kid and we always rented beat-'em-ups on the weekends, so Streets of Rage 1 & 2 were definitely among the first Sega games we played a lot.

 

[MegaDrive1987]

For me it was Streets Of Rage on Christmas Day 1993 when I got my Mega Drive. I got it with Sonic 2 and Mega Games 2 (Streets Of Rage, Golden Axe and The Revenge Of Shinobi) and after playing Sonic 2 for a bit I tried SOR for the first time.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

For me it was Streets Of Rage on Christmas Day 1993 when I got my Mega Drive. I got it with Sonic 2 and Mega Games 2 (Streets Of Rage, Golden Axe and The Revenge Of Shinobi) and after playing Sonic 2 for a bit I tried SOR for the first time.

Oh my god. That sounds incredible. Some of the best early-midlife first party titles for the console right there.

 

[jankusanagi jankusanagi]

It was probably Streets of Rage on the MegaDrive (Genesis), but it might have been Alex Kidd on the Master System...

 

[MegaDrive1987]

Oh my god. That sounds incredible. Some of the best early-midlife first party titles for the console right there.

Yeah I got a nice selection of games to start me off when I think back now.

 

[MasterEn]

phantasy star online episode 1 and 2.

 

[NotReallyHere]

Either Altered Beast or Shinobi in the arcade. Not sure which, as our local pizza joint had both! Really can't remember which one I put a quarter into first

 

[bjork]

Zaxxon. Please let there be someone older who chimes in and says Periscope or something

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

Don't remember which it would be, it'd be either:

-Ristar (played it using school computers, made it to the World 5 boss before graduating middle school)
-Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed (played the iOS version however long ago, 100% it before deleting it)
-After Burner II (played it online at one point)
-Popful Mail (Sega CD version when SEGA and Falcom collabed, so it technically counts. I was into RPGs by then and wanted to see obscure ones. Popful Mail was my go to but I hadn't completed it due to you know, Working Designs)
-Dynamite Headdy (also pulls a blank)

All would've been in the 2010s in my middle school years, in between the gap of 11-14 years old (2012-2015)

 

[UnDubious]

Zaxxon. Please let there be someone older who chimes in and says Periscope or something

I played Deep Scan for a good 20-30 minutes once just to rake up enough extra credits to beat Die Hard Arcade on my friend's Saturn once, so that might be the oldest Sega game I played (Deep Scan is from 1979)... but it wasn't the first.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

To share another memory, the first experience I had with dedicated SEGA consoles wasn’t even really a console. Nor SEGA. I’m ashamed to admit, my family was duped into getting me those awful ATGames plug and plays when I was a kid. But, even with the horrible sound and the terrible controller that used INFARED TO PLAY VIDEO GAMES (it was horrible, and playing multiplayer was impossible because you’d interrupt each other’s controller signals), I still was able to fall in love with Alex Kidd, Altered Beast, Shinobi III, Ristar, Columns, Comix Zone, and a few other games that I would play.

I actually remember, a few years later, being excited to come home from camp because my parents had agreed to get me an actual controller for the system, and I was excited to finally play these games I loved with a controller that actually functioned. It’s a testament to the appeal of these games that I was still able to fall in love with them despite all of that horribleness being in the way.

 

[Viviana Santos]

I played this game way back in 2014 along with Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, these three games were the first SEGA games I ever played.

 

[DanVzare]

Honestly... probably Phantasy Star 2. It's hard to say for sure.

Funnily enough, I think the first Sega game I played was a demo for Sonic 3 and Knuckles for PC. So I find it hilarious that the person who made the thread had to clarify that we're supposed to talk about the first NON-Sonic game, because for almost all of us, our first Sega game was definitely a Sonic game.

But I digress. I'm pretty sure it was Phantasy Star 2. I still have a soft spot for the game as a result of it. Although I find the game too difficult to get beyond the first proper dungeon, even to this day.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

phantasy star online episode 1 and 2.

Bad ass. I’ve heard tell of the Phantasy Star Online fandom. Some of the coolest people around tend to come from there, at least from what I’ve seen!