Sega is one of the most iconic gaming companies ever. Having released a plethora of quality games ever since the 1970s and boasting amazing franchises like Sonic, Yakuza, Monkey Ball, House of the Dead, and more, Sega’s catalog is legendary. Even after exiting the hardware business after the Dreamcast failed, they continued making fantastic games in the console space.
Outside of that, Sega is also one of the best arcade game developers and has made some of the most influential arcade games ever. For a title to count, it only needs to be developed by an internal team at Sega, and Atlas games will not be included.
10 Let’s Go Jungle!: Lost On The Island Of Spice
If arcades weren’t around you in the mid to late 2000s, you might never have heard of this game before. Let’s Go Jungle is not only a great light gun shooter but incredibly influential for the genre.
The game was unique for the time in that instead of a few enemies on screen for you to dispatch, hordes of enemies would come on mass, forcing you to react quickly and shoot accordingly.
Bosses had multiple weak spots that you had to destroy in a timed sequence, often being tense. Co-op play also has a unique feature where if both shots are at the same spot, you will do additional damage, kind of like crossing the streams in Ghostbusters.
All three of these features worked great and were copied countless times in other arcade games.
9 Jet Set Radio
A Sega franchise that still has a large cult following is Jet Set Radio, and it’s easy to see why. The first game is oozing with style from its cel-shaded graphics, amazing music, and time capsule feel with the anti-establishment themes.
The elevator pitch for Jet Set Radio would be what if Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater was an actual platformer with levels?
You must spray graffiti on various places on the stage, but getting to them can be tricky. You have to execute various tricks not for raising the score, although there is a ranking system, but to actually get to other places.
Jet Set Radio is currently available on Steam and is a must-buy as it’s one of the best platformers of the 2000s.
8 Super Monkey Ball 2
Certain games benefit so much from the controller they’re designed to use with it. Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat is truly special with the DK Bongos.
On the same console, Super Monkey Ball 2 is so good because of the GameCube controller. The Analog Stick offered is the best and most precise in history, making Monkey Ball 2 all the more fun and rewarding to play.
A study even discovered that surgeons who played Monkey Ball 2 before an operation consistently performed better, and that’s due to how precise that Analog Stick is. Even outside the core experience, the party games are a total blast with friends.
Monkey Ball 2 is one of the best but also the hardest GameCube games of all time.
7 House Of The Dead 2
The question of what’s the best House of the Dead game is tough. House of the Dead 4 is one of the best light gun shooters of the new millennium with its impressive graphics for 2005, great music, awesome levels, and nice fan service, but the best has to go to the classic second installment.
The nostalgia factor, great gameplay, and so bad it’s good dialogue make it one of those titles that truly take you back to the past. You just feel good playing it, and it’s an excellent rail shooter too.
Thankfully this game has been ported to many other platforms, which can’t be said about certain other titles in the series.
6 Virtua Fighter 5
Virtua Fighter is one of the most underrated fighting game series of all time. Created by Yu Suzuki, its fighting gameplay still holds up with its crisp and quick movement.
The fifth installment launching in 2006, was the best entry yet, and probably the best early seventh-generation fighting game.
Playing it today is still rather refreshing because many newer fighters are slower than the genre typically was in the mid-2000s. Games like Dead or Alive and Virtua Fighter were extremely fast-paced, and that’s something not in many fighters today.
It’s a bit of a shame there’s still no sequel after all this time, as the series definitely deserves one.
5 Sonic The Hedgehog 2
The best 2D entry into the Sonic franchise is still Sonic 2. Even with Sonic Mania out, the pacing and quality stream of levels is the most effective here.
This game is such a good sequel that it made Sonic 1 look incredibly dull in comparison. The way Sonic moves the screen so incredibly quickly is much better executed here than in the previous title and really showed what the Genesis could do.
Sonic 2 also introduced the beloved half-pipe, which is still the series’s most popular type of bonus stage. This is a retro game that still holds up, plus it’s been ported countless times, so it shouldn’t be difficult getting your hands on it.
4 Sonic Generations
While Sonic 2 is the best 2D game in the series, Generations is the best 3D one. A great anniversary title with plenty of fan service, the levels on offer here are the cream of the crop in the series and, frankly, some of the best levels for any 3D platformer.
It’s so fun to play, and with leaderboards still active, you can replay stages over and over again to beat your best time. The game perfectly shows off what Sonic is all about with levels made for speedrunning, and it is also the best game to play if you want to get into the series.
3 F-Zero GX
F-Zero GX is a Nintendo-owned game but was actually developed by the same internal Sega team that made Super Monkey Ball 1 and 2. The game lives up to that pedigree and arguably exceeds it.
Like Monkey Ball, it’s hard as nails but plays amazingly. The fast movement, along with the crisp controls, make this game truly special.
F-Zero is a Nintendo franchise many want back, but how do you top a game like this? Frankly, it’s understandable why this was the final home console F-Zero title, as there’s virtually nothing to improve on in a follow-up.
It’s ironic that the best game in the series wasn’t even made by Nintendo but by their former competitor.
2 Yakuza 0
For a long time, Yakuza had a nice cult following in the West but wasn’t really a big gaming IP there. Several titles didn’t even release in the region, but everything changed after the release of Yakuza 0.
With the best combat system in the series yet, a rich and gripping story, and a great cast of characters, this game was a total blast for everyone that played it.
This is the title that made Yakuza a household name in the West, and it’s easy to see why. Even people who are picking up the game recently are still finding it refreshing compared to other modern triple-A titles and having the most fun experience in a long time.
1 Yakuza 5
One of the Yakuza games the West initially missed is Yakuza 5, and it’s sad. The fifth entry is the magnum opus, the GTA San Andreas of the franchise.
Like San Andreas is Rockstar’s finest work, the same applies to Yakuza 5. With five characters and five total locations, this is still the biggest Yakuza game to date.
None of it feels bloated or half-baked, and each area and each side game has the same excellent level of quality that Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio delivers. If you played the Yakuza games in the West prior to 0, you’d legitimately be angry that the game didn’t release here quicker because it’s that good.
