Mega Drive shoot-'em-up games

Mega Drive games by Genre: Action 473 pages Adventure 27 pages Compilation 80 pages Educational 11 pages Fighting 22 pages Misc. 27 pages Puzzle 56 pages RPG 42 pages Racing 43 pages Shooting 119 pages Simulation 84 pages Sport 229 pages Table 66 pages

During its early years, the Sega Mega Drive was touted as bringing the "arcade experience" to the households. Coincidentially, during the late 1980s and early 1990s, game developers like Compile (Aleste, among others), Konami (Gradius and its spinoffs), and Toaplan (most of its catalogue) had initiated an industry-wide shoot-'em-up game craze, taking advantage of the then powerful arcade hardware to create action packed shooters with little slowdown. As expected, the Mega Drive was far from being spared from arcade-style shoot-'em-ups — 1990 for example, saw very little else from third-parties!

The Mega Drive would continue receiving shoot-'em-ups throughout its lifespan. Whereas its main rival, the Super Nintendo could cover many game genres, its weaker processor meant that shoot-'em-ups were often slow and laggy in nature, making the Mega Drive the preferred console of choice for this genre (though Japan's dismissal of the system reduced activity). Though the shoot-'em-up craze would die in the west thanks to the release of games such as Doom, it would continue to shine in Japan, and the Sega Saturn's superior 2D capabilities would become the console of choice for shoot-'em-up fans in the next generation, too.

Note that the Mega Drive's few 3D FPSs did not see release in Japan, however those that were released on other consoles in Japan were put under this category, therefore Mega Drive FPSs are put here too as per our genre rules.