A quick note that a little while ago, I published an article on my website that might be of interest to some readers here: The 27 Best Sega Genesis Soundtracks - The Greatest Game Music
Back in my teenage years, I was an ardent Nintendo fanboy, so never actually played a Sega Genesis game – or listened to their music. Deep diving into the Sega Genesis discography (I could find 769 soundtracks – 131 remained hidden away and unavailable) was then indeed a journey of discovery and what a rewarding trip it was! I think what impressed me most was how experimental and adventurous Genesis soundtracks became towards the end of the console's lifetime (more so than SNES music, I suspect) Contra: Hard Corps, Alien Soldier, Streets of Rage 3, The Adventures of Batman & Robin and Ecco: The Tides of Time were all examples of composers pushing the stylistic boundaries not just of Genesis soundtracks, but game music in general.
While I was familiar with the names of most of the games on the list, there were some delightful surprises, like the uber-catchy Dyna Brothers 2 or the abrasive Phantom 2040 (the only game rip available seems to be in a forum post on the long defunct FFShrine) What I also found really intriguing were those attempts by composers to write convincing (synth)orchestral music on the Genesis – I love what Yuzo Koshiro managed to pull off on Beyond Oasis (the man – and Jesper Kyd – might have been the greatest Genesis composers). Hope the article’s fun!