What are your favorite SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive games?

It's no secret that the Genesis is my favorite system, but I was curious to see what everyone else's favorite games for it were. Initially, I was going to make this a ranking thread, but for me, it quickly became too nonsensical because of how many games that I like. If any of you want to rank your favorites though, feel free to do so.

These are my favorites:

• Streets of Rage 1-3
• Sonic 1-3 & Knuckles
• Gunstar Heroes
• Alien Soldier
• Castlevania: Bloodlines
• Contra: Hard Corps
• MUSHA
• Battle Mania: Daiginjou
• Thunder Force III-IV
• Gley Lancer
• The Revenge of Shinobi
• Shinobi III: The Return of the Ninja Master
• Shinobi: Shadow Dancer
• Ranger X
• Ristar
• Herzog Zwei
• Comix Zone
• Mega Turrican
• Batman
• X-Men 1-2
• Spider-Man: Maximum Carnage
• Two Crude Dudes
• Rocket Knight Adventures I-II
• Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition
• Steel Empire
• Whip Rush
• Twinkle Tale
• Crusader of Centy
• Mutant League Hockey
• Mutant League Football
• Joe Montana Football
• Bill Walsh College Football ‘95
• Verytex
• Monster World IV
• Outrun
• After Burner II
• Road Rash I-III
• Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
• Elemental Master
• Pulseman
• Dynamite Heady
• Panorama Cotton
• Sub-Terrania
• Alisia Dragoon
• Beyond Oasis
• Grind Stormer
• Strider
• Mega Man: The Wily Wars

There are a lot more games for the Genesis that I would classify as good, like the Phantasy Star and Shining Force games, but these are the ones that I play/played the most.

I haven't played a lot so bare that in mind

Golden Axe

Streets of rage 1 and 2

Mortal Kombat

Revenge of shinobi

Sonic 1, 2, 3

Moonwalker

Lion King

Aladdin

Earthworm Jim

Sonic 2 and 3 & Knuckles
Streets of Rage 2
Golden Axe II
Road Rash II (I haven't played the others)

Earthworm Jim. One of the few games I preferred playing on Genesis over SNES.

There's too much to think about. I always want to tell a story or explain why...and then the list long and it will take too much time.

Some games not mentioned would be the TMNT: Hyerstone Heist, General Chaos, Bomberman, and Battletoads.

General Chaos was one of those games that got a lot of play time--one of the best multiplayer games from the era, imo. Battletoads has some great music.

I've got to mention Landstalker. I never owned a genesis. There was one in the house I grew up in. It is one of the games I that really sucked me in.

***Just trying to think about a list is difficult as I don't even remember the names of all the games. This is back when store rentals were around and getting a few games a week was basic common practice.

@Renegade_Fury: I was a big Sega fan in the late 80s and early 90s, and with great haste sold my NES and TG-16 to fund my Genesis purchase. There were a ton of games for the system that I loved at the time, but if I had to whittle down my list to three must have games, I'd probably go with...

• Streets of Rage - I always preferred the original to the sequels for some reason. The music, the deceptively "deep" fighting game play, Blaze... a true classic.
• Sonic the Hedgehog - Again I had a preference for the original, perhaps due to nostalgia. The slower pace as compared to the later entries in the series was a factor as well. Another Genesis game with superior music.
• Golden Axe - Was a big fan of the arcade version, and the Genesis port certainly didn't disappoint me at the time. Weird, fun, more great music, and gnome abuse. What more could one ask for?

And while not technically Genesis games, I'd like to include my top three Sega-CD games in this list as well. I'd picked up the Sega-CD on day one, was a big fan, and expected big things from the add-on. We all know how that panned out, but I enjoyed it tremendously nonetheless.

• Final Fight CD - IMO this was the finest Sega-CD game available. Until 2009 with the release of 'Final Fight:Double Impact' on X360 and PS3, 'Final Fight CD' was the best home port of this arcade classic. Awesome remixed music and unbeatable co-op gameplay.
• Lunar: The Silver Star - More great music, decent animated cuts cenes, and solid gameplay. This is probably the best JRPG available on the Genesis/CD in my humble opinion.
• Dark Wizard - Really cool tactical RPG in the vein of Shining Force. Sunk countless hours into this one, fantastic game!

@thecouchpotater: I am also a big fan of the SEGA CD as well, and I agree there are a lot of terrific titles for it. My top 3 games for it would be Sonic CD (Sonic's my favorite platformer series), Robo Aleste (I love the Aleste games, and especially MUSHA), and Android Assault (it's just a very bad ass shmup with a rocking soundtrack). I also have Final Fight CD for it, and while I agree it's one of the best versions of it, I'll just say that I'd rather play any of the Streets of Rage games over it. :)

@Renegade_Fury: I think you already made much of the list for me, you may have just about all the games I have and thensome. xD I'd probably just add stuff like Snatcher, Dungeon Explorer, and Popful Mail to the SCD side. I dig Bari-Arm/Android Assault's soundtrack too (especially the intro and final stage.) So glad it's on the disc itself rather than needing to hunt another OST.

Vectorman

Comix Zone

Sonic 2

Streets of Rage 2

Toxic Crusaders

You posted a lot of mine already. Some others are:
Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
Humans
Kid Chameleon
Phantasy Star IV
Rolling Thunder 2-3
Shining Force I-II
Sonic Spinball
Super Hang-On
Virtual Pinball
Wiz n' Liz

I really enjoyed the Sega megadrive version of the Snow Brothers. It was a great arcade translation. But my cartridge died. I would love to find another copy.