ALL 273 US/PAL Sega Master System Games RANKED BY THE CRITICS from WORST to FIRST

This is by far the most comprehensive, in-depth list of every SMS game I've ever seen. While I haven't played much of the SMS, the one game I did play (and beat) is Ninja Gaiden on there. Definitely a fun installment! A lot of games here that I want to try out myself and want to play! TC, this is easily your best video to date (it is up there with your TC Show episodes), and you can tell how much the SMS meant to you to compile this superb compendium. Excellent video man!

I did a Top-50 Master System list a few years ago where I carefully tried to rank the games.

1. Phantasy Star
2. Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap
3. Shinobi
4. Golden Axe Warrior
5. Alex Kidd in Shinobi World
6. Golvellius: Valley of Doom
7. Wonder Boy in Monster Land
8. Ys: The Vanished Omens
9. Sonic The Hedgehog
10. Streets of Rage
11. Ghouls’N Ghosts
12. Asterix
13. Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa
14. The Lucky Dime Caper starring Donald Duck
15. Deep Duck Trouble Starring Donald Duck
16: Land of Illusion
17. Desert Strike
18. Bubble Bobble
19. Gauntlet
20. Miracle Warriors: Seal of the Dark Lord
21. Master of Darkness
22. Power Strike 2
23. Aladdin
24. Zillion
25. Krusty's Fun House
26: R-Type
27: Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar
28: The Newzealand Story
29: Golfamania
30. Wonder Boy in Monster World
31. Star Wars
32. Alien Syndrome
33. Alex Kidd in Miracle World
34. Ninja Gaiden
35. Psycho Fox
36. Double Dragon
37. Kung Fu Kid
38. Space Harrier
39. Sonic Chaos
40. Choplifter
41. Rastan
42. Secret Command
43. Road Rash
44. King's Quest: Quest for the Crown
45. Penguin Land
46. Sensible Soccer
47. James Pond 2: Codename Robocod
48. Out Run
49. Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
50. Great Volleyball

I beat a few of these games, Y’s, Phantasy Star, and Miracle Warriors to name just a few. That’s when I was a serious gamer… (A kid with free time!😅)

Amazing library analysis, I wish there was no music in background, it is annoying when overlapping with the clip music. For some games I also would have preferred the original music rather than the FM music.. but I must probably be the only one preferring it to FM!

Wow, who would have thought aggregate scores from 40 year old magazines would have led to such irrational rankings. Desert Strike on the master system was a completely forgettable stripped down port of the Genesis version. I’ve never seen it on any top 10 lists from this century. And the original Alex Kidd is iconic but is only marginally better than Alf, both abysmal. Here are the greats, in my somewhat informed opinion (no inferior ports here):

Dragon’s Trap, Land of Illusion, Phantasy Star, Golden Axe Warrior, Master of Darkness, Psycho Fox, Alex Kidd in Shinobi World. All gold.

Great video mate. So many memories. Alex Kidd was mind blowing. I'm not sure if Australia got every one of these games. I recall playing a lot of games with the basic covers as they were often much cheaper and more readily available. Good times

I had to mute this guy and just watch the video for the games. It is like he is using 2015+ games as a standard and not what the games were in their time. So just here to see the all the games.

I can’t agree that R Type is a better game than Phantasy Star

Double Dragon is waaay higher ranked than 124.

amazing video, clearly you've put a lot of work on it! But if I can give you a suggestion, please remove the background music when playing the music/sounds of the games, because this way it's pretty painful to listen how they were overlapping all the time :D

Phantasy Star,Golvellius and Ghostbusters for me

Wonderboy 3 is number 7? Buddy you and me are gonna have to have a few hits to sought this out.

Ecco the dolphin at 12 seriously 🤮

How can Alex Kidd in miracle world be above Wonderboy in monster land? Cmon pal

Wonderboy in monster land was was way too low at 21 that definitely belongs in the top 5, have you ever played it properly and got far?

Ghost house I totally forgot about that game.

Strider was awesome on the mega drive.

I hope Wonderboy in monster land is up there.

It's Amazing how a lot SMS games look like early Genesis releases. Visually it was way ahead of the NES, the colors just popped off the screen. It's crazy to think that it was an 8 bit system. Thanks for the video. I appreciate the hard work and dedication you put behind your content. Awesome stuff.

I enjoyed this entire video. Your narration was good and on the whole I agreed with most of the suggestions but some feedback, the background music gets in the way of the video game music and is a constant drone.

This is a great and comprehensive list. The analysis of Teddy Boy and others games are spot on. Sometimes I’ve felt you thought some games should be higher (like Black Belt) and others should be lower. But you’re following the critics grades, so it is understandable. I do think Desert Strike shouldn’t have be number one (that belongs to Phantasy Star), and only in top twenty, but it’s my opinion.
And, while I do like the game, The Last Crusade has a terrible gameplay. It shouldn’t be that high.

No way Astron Warrior is easy. No way. Your ship explodes in a first hit.

Critics were crazy harsh at the time! I didn't even know that games were still being made for it at the time of mortal Kombat and Jurassic Park

I remember, years ago, playing Hang On for so long that the score stopped being displayed as numbers and were instead displayed as characters.

Wonderboy 3 is for me the best game ever on Sega Master System.
Good story, good game play, control is perfect, it had everything any player wanted. Really wondering why it isn't ranked number 1. 😮😮😮😮😮

Great video, really enjoyed it. But the one thing I would say is that ur choice to play an overall music thru the whole vid makes it less enjoyable, because this is a video game vid afterall so we'd like to hear each n every games shown here their original music n sound regardless of how short each game clip is shown. So I think to have another song(music) that plays during every game clip overshadowing that game's music and sound is a bad idea. Anyhoo....just my opinion...thanks again n keep up the good work.

Alex Kidd in Miracle World was the long magical adventure. best game I think

There is like 800 game on it

Back to the Future III (THE Movie) isn't crap bro, your own opinions aren't facts bud. And your not funny at all

Alex Kidd in Miracle World was always my favorite - I would have ranked Cloud Master a bit higher. Also, Snail Maze - although a simple game still brings back some great memories. And although Astro Warrior is a quick game - I found it pretty challenging. Fun to go back down memory lane and hear the music again (esp from Parlour Games, Alex Kidd and the Lost Stars, and Quartet). Thanks for putting this together!

It's too bad some of the best games on the system have technically superior versions on the Genesis. It makes it hard for anyone who didn't grow up on it to love it. Shout out to Brazil for keeping it relevant for so long. A lot of those games probably wouldn't have received ports if the Master System didn't dominate that one particular region.

Astro Warrior should be higher better than others ahead of it on here

Why do I feel like some games are missing here? Good list

Back in 93 there was this store I found called Toy Liquidators they had hundreds of Master System titles for 10 dollars. I found probably about 20 titles that I would never find anywhere else because they where from Brazil. So I definitely lucked out. And I know so because I had so much trouble finding a virility of titles in normal stores back then. 🍻

Some of your comments on the games are laughable. 😂😂 Clearly never played most of the games yourself lol.

I also had a master system as a child. But all my friends had an NES. I was a bit envious of Mario and Megaman etc. and especially because I could not trade games.

F-16 Fighting Falcon should be the worst of the worst. Not saying Alf is a good game (it's not), but Alf is a hell of a lot better than F-16 Fighting Falcon. Literally any game is better than F-16 Fighting Falcon (which is freaking abysmal). Also, My Hero should be the 2nd worst (that game is freaking HORRIBLE. Even Alf is better than My Hero).

I disagree about the forgetable bit, that Snail Maze tune lives on in my head to this day, nothing can shift it (I've tried & failed)

Wao, I can't believe that number 1. I own it and, yeah, it's a very good game.

Loved the Master System except for the stock controller and the stock sound chip. Phantasy Star 1 still the best 8-Bit grinder JRPG.

Great video, thank you for the trip down memory lane! Just pointing out that the Olympic Gold footage shown is from the Genesis version. The MS one had only three lanes on the 100 m dash.

had the feeling you did not know the library and had a short opinion based on first 2 minutes/gfx of every game...

then you have the background music while playing psg game music... it was a torture to watch.... this video is useless despite all your efforts put into it.

I am terribly sorry man as i skipped that intro part, also it is clear in your title "RANKED BY THE CRITICS", even that i could not see. 🤦‍♂
As for the back then reviews on various magazines i believe many of them were biased.
Everything had to do with the relationship of the magazine with the gaming company (Sega or Nintendo).
There are many examples from bad games that were praised.

R-Type, Alien Syndrome, Desert Strike, King's Quest, and Shinobi were my favorites by far. My brothers and cousins all hated King's Quest, Alien Syndrome, and Desert Strike for some reason, which I never understood. Maybe because I could play them for hours and they had to wait forever for their 'turns' LOL. Anyhow, awesome list/video, brought back a lot of childhood memories for me.

Excellent video, a lot of work was put into this. Being a little nitpicky, the footage for Olympic Gold is from the Mega Drive version, and for Marksman/Trap Shooting is from Safari Hunt (which was part of this compilation in some regions, built-in in others). Also, hadn't realized before how many SMS games are Brazilian exclusives.

I forgot about some these! Great memories. Well done on the list. Interestingly, Rambo: First Blood Part 2 was released in the UK as Secret Commando. I loved it.

Psycho Fox 82nd ??? Out Run so low? Seriously?

The Snail Game was actually awesome. Spent hours, days, months on it.