Sega CD's top five games

5. Eternal Champions: Challenge From the Dark Side

By far the most ambitious fighting game on the console, it also turned out to be one of the last titles to be released for Sega CD. Not only in Europe but also in the US, it was a polished version of the Mega Drive release. The game was filled to the brim with everything a little kid thirsted for. Extreme violence, brutal endings and a general feeling that this was really meant for adult eyes, which of course meant we spent countless hours playing it, and when we weren't performing overkills on each other in front of the TV, we were recreating the game's brutal moves in the garden. Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side was spectacular for its time and is undoubtedly one of the coolest and perhaps most underrated games on the console.

4. Final Fight CD

The classic arcade game was something yours truly had already spent plenty of time with on the Super Nintendo. But as much as I loved that game, there's not a second of doubt that the Sega CD version was the ultimate and most accomplished. Everything that a 10-year-old me thought he knew about Final Fight flew out the window. Much sharper graphics, bigger characters that dominated the screen and audio and soundtracks that completely floored you. Never before had Hagar, Cody and Guy sounded so good. But what really made the Sega CD version the definitive one was the ability to play with two players simultaneously. A complete game changer that made me never touch the limited version for the Super Nintendo again. Sega does what Nintendon't!

3. Sonic CD

The cheeky blue little hedgehog arrived on the CD format with a bang. I specifically remember how incredibly impressive the (by today's standards) extremely decompressed intro was. We sat there dumbfounded with our mouths wide open, because we had just witnessed the future. Then and there, in that second, Super Nintendo felt hopelessly out of date. Cassettes? Who needs that when CD already exists and was so clearly the next big thing? Sonic CD was also everything we could dream of and so much more. Bigger, faster, better and, not least, better sounding. Being able to travel in time was an indescribable feeling and the tracks felt like they would never end. Epic was just the first name and Sonic CD is without a doubt one of the best games on the console, but also one of the best Sonic experiences that money can buy.

2. Lunar: The Silver Story

I have to say that my relationship with Japanese role-playing games is complex and complicated. They can be loud, unnecessarily complicated, and more often than not, have a cultural threshold that makes parts of them difficult to understand or absorb on a personal level. But every now and then, you stumble upon a gem, an adventure so gripping that it feels like coming home. The feeling is hard to explain, but Lunar: The Silver Story is one of those games in the genre that not only gave me that exact feeling, but one that I've returned to, time and time again, and always with a smile on my face. Alex's adventure and his quest for the title of Dragonmaster, to follow in the footsteps of his hero, it is a journey that is etched into my heart and which, thanks to its incredible animated interludes, came to life in a way that was completely new for the time. A fantastic, emotional adventure with deep relationships between the characters makes Lunar: The Silver Story by far the best role-playing game on the console and (in my opinion) one of the best in the genre ever.

1. Snatcher

For me, the console's best game by far is also one I never got the chance to play at the time. But the fact is that Hideo Kojima's dystopian adventure looks even more brilliant today than when it was released. Snatcher is dark and grown-up in a way that makes it hard to believe the game is actually more than 30-years-old. The cyberpunk thriller borrows outrageously from Blade Runner, but what does that matter when the deep narrative and atmosphere are this good? The Sega CD version is (unsurprisingly) very expensive to get hold of these days, but thankfully there are now other and much easier ways to experience the absolute best game on Sega CD. Incredible pixel art, an engaging and exciting story, gritty violence and an atmosphere to die for. Snatcher has everything you could want from an adventure game and so much more.