First party games by Sega?

[Obiwanshinobi]

I'm not trying to compile any book of ultimate statements. With Capcom, for instance, their last gen output is dearest to me, but if I was more into 1vs1 fighters and side-scrolling beat 'em ups, as well as Mega Man, I'd probably value their 8- and 16-bit output higher.
Sega, now. They developed some remarkable devices back in the day (MD/Genny technically challenged, if not quite defeated, PC Engine at least) but games?
I'm under impression they really "clicked" as game developer around the time they ditched DC and started developing for other companies' hardware. Now, I'm not sure every dev repsonsible for following games was owned by Sega while working on the game I mention, but the ties between companies at the time seem fairy strong.
Super Monkey Ball 1&2 and F-Zero GX for the 'Cube. I assume the coin-op iterations were decent as well. No idea about the subsequent home iterations, but neither was developed by Amusement Vision.
Shinobi - come to think of it, the earlier iterations just might have been up my alley, but the original on MAME never wowed me. The PS2 one, however, is one of THE action games of that period to me. Not sure about Kunoichi/Nightshade, but I'm gonna try it out.
Well, I admit that Super Monkey Ball Jr. seemed as good SMB port as possible on the GBA (a bit like Doom), but the handheld devices of today clearly offer some room for improvement and it was only "supervised by" Amusement Vision.
Blood Will Tell well, Sega merely published it, but possibly also funded the development... for the PS2, which is far from flexing the muscles they used to be known of.
Wikipedia apparently doesn't offer any list of post-2001 games developed by Sega, but I suppose I'd like quite a few more. I used to like Rez (still kinda like it) on the PS2 (but originally developed for the DC), although my shooty likings moved into more arcade-y territories since then.

The bottomline is, in my experience exceptionally good games from Sega came in time when the cool bros around kept badmouthing them for "giving up on the competition". So, my question for them cool bros would be: what really, outandstingly good games Sega developed (or funded the development of) before 2001? I know the Virtua Fighter series is all sorts of seminal, but I'm not into the genre. Gun games? Not into the genre either (but Wii keeps changing it). Virtual-On? Well, THAT's where i would agree. Obviously not everyone's cup of tea, but one of the first proper polygonal games to me. Shame about the Saturn port, but same goes for car games by Sega released in the nineties. The former being another genre that, on consoles, took off during the last gen to me. High framerate being such a big part of equation there.
I could go on, but must leave the computer for now. If this post seems messy, chances are I'll clarify it sooner.

[louisg]

F-Zero GX is excellent, but Monkey Ball was mostly developed targeting Naomi hardware when the DC was still around (remember, it came out for GC not long after the DC kicked the bucket). I think Sega was at their strongest actually throughout the 90s, but they generally shined more when it came to the arcade than consoles IMO.

For post-DC games, I also really like Ghost Squad. OutRun 2 also seems quite good, but I never got to spend much time with it. And if you see Planet Harriers, that's not too shabby. I played it at Dave K's a little.

Sega games which I think are really good that they made before 2001 are:
Crazy Taxi, VO and VO:OT, HOTD 1 & 2 & Typing, OutRun (+ turbo, + OutRunners), Space Harrier, Galaxy Force 2, Super Hang-On, Daytona USA, Sega Rally, Virtua Fighter 2 (spent the most time w/ that one), Shinobi 3, Shadow Dancer (Genesis), Sonic 1 and CD, Ristar, Die Hard Arcade (still one of my favorite beat 'em ups!), Monaco GP (the 1979 one.. yeah I think I'm the only one ), F355 Challenge, Fantasy Zone 1 & 2, Golden Axe 1 and 2 (arcade only, not the home ports-- GA1 was one of the first one-button-combo brawlers ever, if not the first-- not that this is necessarily an improvement!), I feel like RadMobile never got its fair shake (you need to play it in the cabinet, it's like an arcade Test Drive), Virtua Cop 1 & 2, Jet Grind Radio, Virtua Tennis, Flicky, Panzer Dragoon 1 and Zwei, their fishing games are actually quite fun (surprisingly), and I'll throw in Zaxxon just because it was a big screaming deal back in 1982 or whenever.

And if you can find a machine of it, Sky Target is also fun. Do NOT play the horrible Saturn port though. It's not quite Afterburner Climax, but it's decent.

Notice that many of these are genre-defining games.. no small feat. I'd say their output post-DC dropped off a little, yeah.

[Ganelon]

Let me get this straight: you're asking which pre-2001 games Sega developed are any good? I've never heard this question asked before, although I've frequently heard of the reverse: "which post-2001 games Sega developed are any good?" If the former is indeed the question, then you're bound to get a lot of answers even beyond what louisg mentioned.

[Ed Oscuro]

what really, outandstingly good games Sega developed (or funded the development of) before 2001?

I don't know what to say, man.

[Friendly]

what really, outandstingly good games Sega developed (or funded the development of) before 2001?

Joke-post or one of the most ignorant video game related things I've read in a long time.

[Obiwanshinobi]

If there's some understanding left between me and you lot (I know many of former "Sega boys" have grown up and moved on) here's the question in a nutshell: "what games developed by Sega are not only remembered fondly but played every now and then by the kind of people who keep playing old games?" Something that's been bothering me for a while (I for one played Panzer Dragoon Zwei recently, and it was okay, but Omega Boost was still better).
"Genre-defining" is not always the same as "ageing well" I'm afraid.
Most of my exposition to Sega's output was through emulation in recent years. Two games I remember from the actual arcade are: Die Hard Arcade (not looking good enough to lure me at the time) and Virtua Cop (displayed on a plasma - or was it an LCD? - screen which made it look ugly, although I liked to watch it played by other people). Capcom, Namco and SNK cabs seemed more prevalent around.

F-Zero GX is excellent, but Monkey Ball was mostly developed targeting Naomi hardware when the DC was still around (remember, it came out for GC not long after the DC kicked the bucket).

Both, reportedly, share the engine and the 'Cube versions (not exactly ports if you are meticulous) are seemingly platformy, loud & bassy. There's something festive about both (maybe the sense of relief after Sega quitted the armaments race), and both share some similarities in single player modes (such as limited continues). Sheer difficulty, for console games, was outstanding at the time (on the PS2 Twisted Metal: Black had such mercilessly TOUGH single player, but I can't think of much else). Shinobi (2002) seemed just as "hardcore" to me, if not as graphically polished. There's indeed something about F-Zero GX that reminds me of that Shinobi game, namely the fast platforming (some tracks). Like the sort of stuff they wanted to do with NiGHTS and 3D Sonic games, but done WELL at last.
Maybe, just maybe San Francisco Rush 2049 is something along those lines. Hydro Thunder is, if you ask me. Neither by Sega, though.
Compared to the aforementioned ones, what Mario Kart Wii (for example) lacks is equally challenging single player. You can drive very fast and there is some platforming for you to perform, but it remains a party game, whereas SMB & F-Zero GX are so much more.
Come to think of it, I should probably give SSX 3 another go.

[stryc9]

The Sega of today is a shadow of it's former self, I think that's pretty much common knowledge.

Same with Capcom, although I see you dislike fighters so their nineties output (CPS2, 3) would be irrelevant to you.

All I can say is Sega's 16 (Megadrive and Sega 16 board) and 32 bit output (model 2 and Saturn) shames the stuff they bring to the table today, and last gen for that matter.

Absolutely shames it.

I think most of their Genesis stuff hasn't aged a day to be honest. The games still play great, just pure playability. The games are actually interesting.

I'll give you Super Monkey Ball though

[Koa Zo]

Just a few that are timeless, off the top of my head:

Zaxxon, Wonderboy III, Fantasy Zone, Hang-On, Out Run, the Shinobi games, Daytona USA, Castle of Illusion, Phantasy Star series, Shining series, Sonic series, Crying, and a whole slew of other games they funded and published.

Edit: ok, I see Louisg covered all this already.
And i also wanted to mention Rad Mobile, but left it off as the chances of someone getting to play it in the sit down cabinet are pretty slim. The progression from Turbo, and Monaco GP, to Out Run, to Power Drift, to Rad Mobile, to Virtua Racing, to Daytona USA was something that can never be repeated or appreciated by those who didnt live it. The development of the cabinets and everything about the games ~ the force feedback wheel in Out Run, the big subwoofer behind your seat in the deluxe Virtua Racing sit down cab, the wiper and headlights buttons on Rad Mobile... those games are phenomenal.

[Bee Cool]

This is either a joke thread or the dude is on drugs.

[Drum]

There are a few things you need to know about Sega:

A) A lot of their stuff is 'of its time' because they were in general either A) highly reactionary or B) cutting edge. In the 80s we got ninjas, ferraris and fighter jets, in the 90s we got anthropomorphs with attitude, Comix Zone and a surprisingly high number of games with vague 'eco' themes, in the 00s we got stuff like Rez/JSR. Sega always kind of embodied the zeitgeist and was always looking outwards to other mediums and their competitors for inspiration. Not a thing wrong with that, but yeah. Some of their stuff has aged shockingly well for the kinds of games they were (Outrun has no business being remotely enjoyable these days ... but it actually is remotely enjoyable)
B) They had a pretty high output rate, so you ought to take that into account when doing direct game-to-game comparisons with other companies unless those other companies operated the same way. Broadly speaking I don't think their very best stuff compares very favourably with the very best stuff of their competitors at any particular time, but their overall output generally does.

In my view, they were generally a better publisher/platform provider than a developer (but they were still a great developer).
I really like their 16-bit art - Mickey Mouse, Altered Beast, Sonic, Golden Axe, Shinobi II/III, Bio-Haxzard Battle ... good stuff.
When I think of creative game mechanics, I generally don't think of Sega - that's more the domain of Taito, Atari (before the crash), Nintendo, Namco (in the 80s - Namco fell off hard in the 90s and beyond). They did them and did them well, to be sure, but that often wasn't the focus.

Imma make a list of good games you may not be as familiar and some notable achievements:
Borderline: Digging before Dig Dug
Tac/Scan (Gremlin): A ton of cool ideas. Easier to just fire up MAME and find out/remind yourself. I guess it could be argued that Gremlin wasn't 'properly' part of Sega, but they were wholly owned afaik.
Doki Doki Penguin Land: Fun puzzle/platformer with a cool escort hook.
Teddy Boy Blues: Cleverly designed platform shooter.
Buck Rogers Planet of Zoom: Best of their 80s rail shooters imnsho. All of their subsequent sprite-scalers actually have less sophisticated gameplay, somehow - even Galaxy Force. Of course it didn't do everything better but ...
Astro Blaster: Another Gremlin joint. Cool aspects like slowing down time and the secret bonus system make this awesome and underappreciated. If the cabinet in Shenmue hadn't been broken it might have redeemed that game a little.
Borench: Kind of a predecessor to Chu Chu Rocket.

My favourite Sega games: The 16 bit Sonics (I like 2/3,S&K more than SMB3/World last time I checked, but they have some unfortunate flaws), Revenge of Death Adder, Revenge of Shinobi, Teddy Boy Blues, Nights, Bio-Hazard Battle, Quackshot, Phantasy Star IV, Super Monkey Ball, F-Zero GX.
The published-by list is a lot longer and includes stuff like Gunstar Heroes, Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Columns, Dynamite Headdy, their 80s arcade stuff with Alpha Denshi/Coreland etc. etc.
I hate: Space Harrier (WAKE UP SHEEPLE!!!!111)
I like but enjoy taking shots at because it's obscenely overrated: Streets of Rage series.
To play: Dragon Force, Valkyria Chronicles, Crusader of Centy, Gunvalkyrie, Shinobi PS2, earlier Phantasy Star games, Planet Harrier, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Yakuza series (that's a lot of games, particularly recently - I been slacking).

[BryanM]

neva4get the ninja's ultimate nemesis



the redneck-with-a-knife.

[louisg]

I hate: Space Harrier (WAKE UP SHEEPLE!!!!111)
I like but enjoy taking shots at because it's obscenely overrated: Streets of Rage series.

Space Harrier is a bit too simple, but I think it deserves mention not only for its insane art direction, but for being inventive at the time. It wears thin pretty quick though. Later chase view shooters improved on it a lot.

Yeah, I think SoR is mad overrated. I was a bit let down by it at the time, and I don't think it's held up all that well. Especially the later entries in the series, polish aside.

And i also wanted to mention Rad Mobile, but left it off as the chances of someone getting to play it in the sit down cabinet are pretty slim. The progression from Turbo, and Monaco GP, to Out Run, to Power Drift, to Rad Mobile, to Virtua Racing, to Daytona USA was something that can never be repeated or appreciated by those who didnt live it.

I completely agree. And I love Rad Mobile. I don't think that these games have aged badly, to be honest. Maybe something like Space Harrier and Afterburner did, but many are every bit as playable as when they came out. OutRun I see was mentioned above as being strangely enjoyable. It's an incredibly simple game-- just dodge-the-blob racing-- but it's done so well that it's held up OK. But I think that goes for a lot of these games.

I really don't know how someone who grew up with modern games would approach some of these older ones. Personally, I prefer a lot of the older games. But most aren't great for spending 40 hours with-- they're more "quick blast" type arcade games. But I think some of the later games like Daytona or Sega Rally have depth of control comparable to what's expected these days. There's a lot to do in those just figuring out how to deal with the physics.

"what games developed by Sega are not only remembered fondly but played every now and then by the kind of people who keep playing old games?" Something that's been bothering me for a while (I for one played Panzer Dragoon Zwei recently, and it was okay, but Omega Boost was still better).
"Genre-defining" is not always the same as "ageing well" I'm afraid.

Yeah. I'd rank Panzer Dragoon Zwei as "OK". It's not amazing, but it's fun every now and then. Most games I mentioned I feel hold up quite well-- this is why I didn't mention games like Afterburner or Thunder Blade. Those were amazing at the time. Even Afterburner is still jaw-dropping in terms of speed an action. But they're not good *games*. But the rest of them? I think they're still pretty good!

Die Hard Arcade is an ugly game, but I think gameplay-wise it's one of the better brawlers. Virtua Cop on the other hand is a bit hard to enjoy now. It's very competent, but too simple.

[Ganelon]

"what games developed by Sega are not only remembered fondly but played every now and then by the kind of people who keep playing old games?"

What genres are you looking at then? You don't like fighting games so that eliminates Virtua Fighter 2, one of the seminal fighting games that's still fun to this day. I'm glad you agree with Virtual On, since it's the original 1-on-1 mecha fighter that inspired the past few year's biggest hits in JP arcades (the Gundam Vs. games). Beat-em-ups are out so Bare Knuckle II and III, some of the greatest examples in the non-combo-based variation of the genre, Don't count (on a tangent, I think BKII is rated right where it should be and BKIII is probably underrated; they present all the colorful visuals, entrancing music, smooth control, variety, and urban atmosphere that its fans wanted with none of the juggling and gimmicks found in later arcade beat-em-ups). Sidescrollers are apparently out so we clearly can't point to any of the Sonic games that have been re-released countless times due to their popularity or any of Treasure's sponsored MD sidescrollers.

I didn't quite what you mentioned about "car games" but if you're into racing, Sega made most of the best arcade racing games during the 80s and 90s from OutRun to Power Drift to OutRunners to Virtua Racing to Daytona USA to Sega Rally Championship to Sega Touring Car Championship to Sega Super GT to Sega Rally 2 to Daytona USA 2. There are even more variants in there as well as motorcycle and F1 racers. Sega was basically to racers what Capcom was to 2D fighters. Those are all still considered among the most fun arcade racing games around (the Super Scaler games too because they play differently than modern real 3D racers).

If you're into Shinobi, the Super Shinobi duo are generally considered the best in ninja action for fluid controls and exciting action.

If you're into puzzle games, Puyo Puyo was sponsored by Sega and is still one of the most milked puzzle franchises around.

If you're into RPGs, Phantasy Star, Shining Force, and Landstalker are classics in the traditional RPG, SRPG, and ARPG genres respectively for MD. Thor, Dark Wizard, Dragon Force, and Eternal Arcadia also enjoyed plenty of acclaim.

And if you like odd hybrid games, NiGHTS isn't mentioned as much now but did receive a bunch of praise at the time for being one of the SS's must haves (although I never personally found its pseudo-action-trick-racing mechanics very entertaining). Shenmue is another much-hyped hybrid game that I never found quite as enjoyable as others made it out to be.

There's plenty more, but if you're not into the genres Sega excelled at or primarily prefer 3D action, then sure, Sega pre-2001 may not be your cup of tea. Similarly, if you don't like fighters, beat-em-ups, and Mega Man games, but accepted that Biohazard was good, then you could also wonder whether Capcom made any good games during the same pre-2001 time period. Mention 3 genres to ignore and accept 2 series as given, and it seems you could make the same "what have they done?" claim for just about any video game company.

[Marc]

Space Harrier is awesome. Wonderful art, simple yet addictive gameplay. I'd like to know how many have 1cc'd this 'simple' game.

OuRun I love to this very day, just the combination of bright sunny visuals, cool tunes, and varied and interesting stage design means that it plays far better than any racing game from 1986 has any right to these days. OutRunners is the superior game no doubt, but OutRun holds more memories for me.

The original Virtua Cop is a fantastic game to play for score, really tense and one of my favourites to this day.

It's fair to say that Sega basically defined the racing genre throughout the late 80's and 90's, and I can't recall a title that wasn't, at the very least, excellent.

[dannnnn]

Compared to the aforementioned ones, what Mario Kart Wii (for example) lacks is equally challenging single player. You can drive very fast and there is some platforming for you to perform, but it remains a party game, whereas SMB & F-Zero GX are so much more.

Well there's online for a start, but if you want a challenge, play time trials. The MK series has a strong TT community, they're much more than just 'party games' IMO.

[Ed Oscuro]

If there's some understanding left between me and you lot (I know many of former "Sega boys" have grown up and moved on) here's the question in a nutshell: "what games developed by Sega are not only remembered fondly but played every now and then by the kind of people who keep playing old games?" Something that's been bothering me for a while (I for one played Panzer Dragoon Zwei recently, and it was okay, but Omega Boost was still better).

I thought that was what you meant, but honestly, a question like this ought to precipitate some digging and experimenting on your part. But we should certainly be open to offering suggestions.

First, though, a funny thing - I was almost seriously considering a thread along the lines of "why do half of Namco's / Konami's shooters suck terribly?" (I'm not even sure you can carve a big exception for Konami's Gradius series, since there are a number of flubs even there, although thankfully few). So I had to wonder if it was hypocrisy on my part to act surprised by the thread.

I agree with what Drum said - Sega released a fair number of technological marvels but also a fair number of very by-the-numbers games. I enjoy the "Puzzle and Action" games a bit, but they're not groundbreaking or especially well done (for the most part).

On top of what else has been mentioned, Sega "fixed up" a fair number of games when porting to their Mega Drive - you can't say this of Ghouls 'n' Ghosts, but I've read that some people feel Strider's climbing is improved.

Other random games worth mentioning -

Arabian Fight - Not a brawler expert by any stretch of the imagination, but it doesn't look completely terrible. Of course the Golden Axe series is generally high-quality; even if you're mostly allergic to the genre this is still pretty playable.

Bullet - twin-stick FD1094 encrypted CPU game, seems to be working in MAME (not sure if it crashes a few levels in like it used to)

Crack Down, Gain Ground - two legendary games in my opinion

Thunder Blade - doesn't seem totally awful, and has some shooter sections.

The racers are pretty good, and I rather like A.B. Cop if you want to mix up the formula.

Action games - there's Desert Breaker - by coincidence, a similar top-down format to Desert Assault. I admit that the earlier Mercs excels beyond these, though.

[GaijinPunch]

I'm with you on Crackdown & Gainground, Ed. I own the former... the latter is a fucking pricey board. :-/ Bullet is apparently fixed now. Never tried it though... want to.

My favs list

Space Harrier
Alien Syndrome
Shinobi (moreso than Cannon Dancer)
Quartet
Power Drift
Fantasy Zone
Golden Axe

That only names a few.
On the console side, really liked a lot of old SMS games, and
Phantasy Star
JSR/JSRF
Panzer Dragoon

[Op Intensify]

Space Harrier is a bit too simple, but I think it deserves mention not only for its insane art direction, but for being inventive at the time. It wears thin pretty quick though. Later chase view shooters improved on it a lot.

I would say Space Harrier wears thin a lot later than After Burner, which is a glorified carnival ride. Harrier has far more enemy and stage variety.

Streets of Rage 1 is pretty much a reskinning of Golden Axe, except even simpler. Music aside, it was rendered obsolete by the sequels.

Gain Ground is a favorite of mine. I like the very deliberate pace and element of strategy in character selection (though, the viking guy is the best choice in three out of four situations). The Genesis version is preferable for its extra stages.

The first two Panzer Dragoon games are short with limited replay value, but stand as absolutely amazing experiences the first time through.

Arabian Fight is awful. It was clearly made as a tech demo more than anything, but the scaling as you walk top to bottom doesn't even look right. Still, amazing graphics for the time. Sega was truly a bold pioneer of arcade technology, as Virtua Fighter 1 and G.LOC R360 testify.

[stryc9]

Streets of Rage 1 is pretty much a reskinning of Golden Axe, except even simpler.

Oh yeah, so how is it simpler, exactly? Taking into account the differences in enemy AI, which is the bread and butter of a side scrolling beat 'em up, SOR1 provides a much more unpredictable challenge, at least on the higher difficulties (particularly in 2 player, where the computer has a tendency to go a little nuts. Actually it seems harder to beat in multiplayer than alone). It is for this reason SOR1 remains interesting to beat today, whereas GA a lot less so IMO.

Music aside, it was rendered obsolete by the sequels.

I've already tackled this one in the Genesis thread. I'm at the point now where I think they all pretty much come out even, each has it's own strengths and weaknesses, but SOR1 is definitely unique enough amongst the trilogy to warrant continued play. It is certainly the least 'cheap' in the series when it comes to avoiding all attacks, something I don't think is possible with the sequels, and I tend to hold that particular trait in high regard, especially within this genre.

[Mero]

BK1/SOR1 is definitely the hardest to clear out of the three, furthest I can get is stage 6

[Op Intensify]

Oh yeah, so how is it simpler, exactly?

- No running/dash attacks
- No variation in "bomb" attack, it's that same police car every time with every character
- No mountable creatures
- Items in containers instead of skittish gnomes
- No "bonus stage"
- Less variety in level design overall, even if stages are more interesting to look at
- Only one aerial attack for everyone
- Gilius has completely unique (and abusable) back attack with no SoR1 equivalent

I didn't say Golden Axe was better balanced though.

It's extremely difficult, but you can totally avoid every attack in the SoR sequels. There are tricks to lock down most of the bosses and 3 has the vertical dodge roll.

[stryc9]

- No running/dash attacks

True that.

- No variation in "bomb" attack, it's that same police car every time with every character

This too.

- No mountable creatures

No, you're quite right about that as well.

- Items in containers instead of skittish gnomes

The gnomes rock up at times where there are no enemies on screen, even outside the bonus levels IIRC, so there is no strategy to using or keeping aside pickups whilst juggling enemies like there is in SOR1. This is a big part of the depth, IMO.

- No "bonus stage"

Ummm, no there isn't. But the amount of depth this adds is debatable anyway. It's not like those little bastards are hard to hit, afterall.

- Less variety in level design overall, even if stages are more interesting to look at

If the level design in shooters is the enemy placement (at least in verts), then the level design in a scrolling beat 'em up would be the hordes of thugs that appear in different flavours and volumes throughout the level. This is where SOR1 eats GA alive - there are many more situational combinations in SOR1 that demand you bait and change up strategies accordingly. This is huge.

- Only one aerial attack for everyone

Maybe, but what about the team attacks in SOR? and the most important factor, the ability to control crowds with directional throws by chucking a thug into a bunch of his mates, ala Final Fight, aka the game that SOR kinda 'ripped off', the one generally accepted to have beaten out Golden Axe in the arcades in terms of complexity?

- Gilius has completely unique (and abusable) back attack with no SoR1 equivalent

Isn't that a good thing?

It's extremely difficult, but you can totally avoid every attack in the SoR sequels. There are tricks to lock down most of the bosses and 3 has the vertical dodge roll.

I'll have to check some vids.

It's been good nerding out with you

[Zaarock]

This thread is making me want to start up Afterburner Climax again.. great fun to play for score + the gameplay and presentation is certainly good enough to keep you hooked on the XBLA/PSN port. Underappreciated game IMO.

[louisg]

There's Hot Rod, too. It's hard to find, but it was really fun in the arcades. Of course, I haven't seen a machine of it for 25 years Lots of clones though.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Another game I remember from the arcade - SCUD Race (a.k.a. Sega Super GT). My buddy used to play it, but I never wanted to drive a sport car (or any car, actually), which seemed what it was about to me. That said, it looked great and it's no coincidence that when console and computer games reached its performance and speed (last gen, that is, when 60 fps became normal in console car games), I developed something of a soft spot for the racers, vehicular combat games and the likes this fast, colourful and smooth.

Many interesting recomendations above, especially Gain Ground (I intend to try out the PS2 remake one of these days).
I forgot about Comix Zone - my favourite sidescroller developed by Sega.
Shining Force is fabulous - among "many characters" jRPGs known to me only the Suikoden series did that so well - but from what I know it was merely published by Sega, as was Landstalker. Climax developed both.

A Sega game that not only plays well but graphically impressed me on Saturn (looks way more impressive on a CRT in RGB glory than on YouTube vids) - Baku Baku Animal (a.k.a Baku Baku). Up there with Pulstar in the "pre-rendered 2D done right" realm at its time.

Well there's online for a start, but if you want a challenge, play time trials. The MK series has a strong TT community, they're much more than just 'party games' IMO.

I find the ghost chasing quite challenging (if not fully utilising the game's features, obviously) and I don't think there's anything terribly wrong with the gameplay. It's just that fighting the A.I. always feels like a substitute. Wasn't the case with Jak X (dare I say it) and quite a few other racers similarily "unserious".
Heck, Excite Truck neither even runs at 60 fps nor it's got any multiplayer mode (has it?), but it's beefy enough for my money. MK Wii just makes me think I should either get to know more people out there, or convert somebody I already know to it.

[Leandro]

SOR series has the best clinch game I've seen in a beat'em up... The "jump to enemy's back" mechanic in SOR was a brilliant addition to the copied FF grab formula... Not only it's useful in avoiding punks while holding a bastard, the backbreaker is extremely satisfying to see, even to this day. SOR2 expanded on that, with several variations of clinch strikes and throws... Max is the most awesome beatem up grappler, and Skate despite being a pixie has a legendary clinch game.

[Ruldra]

Max is the most awesome beatem up grappler

I never managed to get the hang of Max and always thought he was the worst character of the cast...until I saw this video.