First one sounds like Crime City. Second one.. Rastan Saga 2? Haha..
Yeah, good guess ! It's totally Crime City. I had forgotten about the Cabal-esque levels too.
This one is a lot more vague in my head so I'm not even sure we can guess what it is. But it's not Blades of Vengeance. When I say Rastan clone it's more for the side scrolling thing, I have fuzzy memories of jungle and more modern characters, like some Indiana Jones. But at the same tim I can't rule out the possibility that there were swords.
But really I think forest, pulpy adventurer and easy as piss game that you had no problem to finish the first time around. Genesis for sure.
I think we can forget about this one as after a quick google Genesis search, everything was side scroller and nearly all games had forest levels ^_^ I would really have to dig deep into the catalog to find the game.
Another one which would be way more easy to find I think : one of the first Genesis games ! Side-scroller (heh), mystic tone with spirits and energy balls etc. The main character (a female ?) is wearing purple garments.