Pirates! is an already good game for the PC, and the game was ported to the NES where in my opinion was very mediocre, but it took advantage of the NES very well. Seeing as it got ported the NES, I'd think that it could've been ported to the SMS or the Genesis seeing as it isn't owned by Nintendo. And it did get ported into one of the best ports that I've played in ages. Pirates! Gold is a brilliant improvement of Pirates! for the computer.
The game's plot basically is for you to become a successful pirate, find valuable treasure, hunt down notorious pirates, or find your missing sister. In the beginning of the game you have choices of choosing the country where you belong, you can make alliances with either The French, The Dutch, The English, or the Spanish. These alliances are important so you can enter villages and countries without being attacked by them. The game also has different plots for the different time periods you choose. For instance, one time period the Spanish might be in war with the English, another time period could have the French in war with the Dutch.
A thing I like about this game is the multiple options you can do, you don't have to pillage ships, you can ask the ships for news in different countries you don't also have to pillage the town but you can make freindships with the governor in a certain village and learn secrets about where things are. Also an important thing in the game is the skills, you can have one skill that you're really good at something. For example, if you pick swordfighting as your skill you can be really good at swordfighting, if you pick charm & medicine you can cure yourself from sickness and flirt with woman who might marry you and let you take a share of gold from the governor, another skill is sailing which helps you out at ship battling.
The game's graphics are really colorful and are superb for the Genesis era, the music does some really good pirate tunes, they aren't the best but they do their job well.
In total, Pirates! Gold is an excellent port which can make you play for weeks and months to see the different combination's you do as you pirate. It could be considered to be one of the best and one of the most underrated games for the Sega Genesis (Mega Drive for you foreigners :P)