General Chaos (Sega Mega Drive)
One of the best local, offline multiplayer experiences ever
The whole reason I have a room full of video games is because I love playing them… Especially game I can share with friends.
General Chaos has showed up on a few recommendation lists, and it looked good enough but this one of those games that doesn’t really liven up until you swap out those COM players for actual players. General Chaos is the whole reason I even knew the multitap for the Sega Mega Drive existed and offers one of the best local, offline multiplayer experiences ever.
This game plays like an isometric strategy game, which is already pretty rare among the 16-bit consoles (usually these titles were reserved for the PC gamers), but General Chaos has nice bright, easily discernible graphics and frantic, arcade action making it very suitable for the Mega Drive. The game only requires you to use 3 buttons, but the on-field power-ups, optional side-missions and different squad formations mean the strategy comes more from positioning your squad than learning complex button configurations.
General Chaos comes from a development group called Game Refuge Inc. which consisted of developers from Bally/Midway (who also worked on Xenophobe and Rampage). General Chaos is the first game from Game Refuge Inc., quirky, original and very humorous.
I’m not sure what constitutes as a hidden gem, but for me, General Chaos is one of the best multi-player games on the system. I grew up with a Sega Mega Drive, I thought I had a pretty good understanding of its in’s and out’s… Then someone suggested General Chaos. It’s an original game that’s heaps of fun to play and if you value an awesome multiplayer experience this game could be totally worth adding to your collection.
At the time of writing, I don’t know of any Mega Drive compilation that includes General Chaos and I don’t know of any Virtual Console release (though there was a failed Kickstarter to develop a spiritual successor (Link to Engadget article)). This contributes to the reason I feel General Chaos is a hidden gem, because if you missed it the first time there’s a slim chance you’ve had the ability to play it since.