Herzog Zwei GENESIS

Herzog Zwei is Technosoft’s 1989 Genesis title, widely credited as one of the earliest real-time strategy games on any platform, predating the genre-defining PC titles that came to dominate real-time strategy years later. You pilot a transforming mech that switches between a fast flying jet and a ground-combat robot, directing a limited set of ground units to capture bases across a two-player split-map battlefield.

Its direct player-controlled unit alongside indirect command of AI-directed forces was an unusual hybrid approach for the era, closer to a real-time tactics game than the base-building economy management that later defined the RTS genre. Its two-player simultaneous versus mode, playable via split-screen, made it one of the earliest console games to attempt real-time strategic combat between two human opponents.