Genesis or Super Nintendo?

[CZroe]

not sure what that has to do with anything. no one is talking about you getting recommendations of anything.

Yes we are. Check the OP again. If you wanted to know which gaming platform was "better" for GAMES then you would ask a GAMER. If you were only interested in which platform is the better platform for sports games then you are not truly interested in which is the superior platform beyond sports games.

we're talking about you saying that people who only play 1 genre of games (and it has to be a specific genre specifically sports, and it can't be arcade sports, only "realistic" sports) is not considered a gamer, which is pretty whack. it's just a silly point of view to have.

Sounds like you need to read what I said again.

I've never thought their opinions on which was a better VIDEO GAME console to be valid from that perspective. Who cares which you think is better when all you want to play is Madden, FIFA, or NHL?

 

[poofyhairguy]

Don't forget Earthworm Jim.

I had that on SNES. Really fun game.

 

[Ichinisan]

not sure what that has to do with anything. no one is talking about you getting recommendations of anything.

we're talking about you saying that people who only play 1 genre of games (and it has to be a specific genre specifically sports, and it can't be arcade sports, only "realistic" sports) is not considered a gamer, which is pretty whack. it's just a silly point of view to have.

Well, I wouldn't say everyone who does some personal landscaping is a landscaper. I wouldn't say someone who occasionally plays baseball recreationally is a baseball player. Especially if he only joins in with friends or family and doesn't suggest/organize the baseball outings. If it was something you loved to do and you did lots of it, yeah.

 

[CZroe]

I had that on SNES.

SNES version may have been missing a level but it had better music, colors, and special effects. There was a lens flare effect in the first level that was missing even in the Sega CD Special Edition. There was also a cool ripple effect on the foreground in one of the underwater stages (may have affected the background too; I don't recall). I never hear these mentioned in comparisons.

 

[poofyhairguy]

SNES version may have been missing a level but it had better music, colors, and special effects. There was a lens flare effect in the first level that was missing even in the Sega CD Special Edition. There was also a cool ripple effect on the foreground in one of the underwater stages (may have affected the background too; I don't recall). I never hear these mentioned in comparisons.

The sound effects were much much better too. I remember that back then when I played the fanboy. Big part of the appeal of the game.

My favorite SNES game was Mario Kart. The best was Chrono Trigger or Mario World 2 IMHO.

 

[Lil Frier]

Oh, I'm serious. Would you consider a "[Genre spoof] Movie" or Adam Sandler movie fan a "movie buff?"

If their interest in video games does not extend beyond sports video games then their interest is in sports and, by extension, sports video games. If they are not interested in the rest of what gaming has to offer then I am not interested in their opinion about which platform is better.

Have fun with Bulls Versus Blazers or whatever. I'll play NBA Jam (a sports game that embraced gaming).

Except being a fan of movies and being a "movie buff," aren't the same thing. I wouldn't call someone who only gets drunk and plays Madden with his bros an eSports legend, but I wouldn't say he doesn't like video games because he likes the wrong ones. Being a professional/hardcore fan of something isn't the same as being a casual fan. I don't do Heroic raiding in WoW, but that doesn't mean I don't play WoW.

 

[CZroe]

Except being a fan of movies and being a "movie buff," aren't the same thing. I wouldn't call someone who only gets drunk and plays Madden with his bros an eSports legend, but I wouldn't say he doesn't like video games because he likes the wrong ones. Being a professional/hardcore fan of something isn't the same as being a casual fan. I don't do Heroic raiding in WoW, but that doesn't mean I don't play WoW.

Ugh. Why are you even going down that rabbit hole? There is no reason to abstract it any further:

I've encountered many of those "I only play sports games and XXXXXXX is the best console" "gamers" during the 16-bit console wars so they did exist. If you only play sports games then your opinion about which console is the best for sports games is irrelevant to someone who isn't similarly interested in sports games. It really is that simple.

It doesn't matter how much you love Madden, you aren't going to convince someone who doesn't like Madden that Genesis is the best "because... MADDEN!" Are you seriously saying that I should listen to such a person's opinion you even though I have no interest in those games?

If you wanted to weigh in on the "Genesis or Super Nintendo?" decision for a gamer who does not enjoy football games, don't butt in and tell that gamer that Genesis is the best because it has the best football games.

Also, don't tell that gamer about how much you love "video games" when you only like sports games. In that scenario, your scope is far too limited for that term. Be honest: You like sports games. You're a sports gamer. Don't pretend that your interest in gaming is more broad than it is. I will call you out on it if you have no interest beyond sports sim games. It's every bit as limited as only enjoying video board games, and there are a lot of those too. Playing a ton of Monopoly on Nintendo doesn't make you a "gamer" any more than playing Electric Football or Electronic Battleship physical table top board games did.

 

[purbeast0]

Sounds like you need to read what I said again.

uummmmm.... here is the rest of your post you conveniently left out...

I consider fans of most sports video games just sports fans and not video game fans. I've never thought their opinions on which was a better VIDEO GAME console to be valid from that perspective. Who cares which you think is better when all you want to play is Madden, FIFA, or NHL? Now, arcade-style sports games are different, of course (NBA Jam, Punch-Out!!, etc).

only like sports games, you can't be a video game fan?

check!

but if you like sports games that aren't "real" and are "arcade" you can be a video game fan?

check!

anyways, this has gone on long enough. your special rules are just that ... yours.

 

[Exophase]

Interesting how the choice is so overwhelmingly clear in hindsight. Why was this choice so notoriously divisive back in the day?

Many Genesis owners back then just couldn't see it.

It was a heated competition in America during the hay day of both systems. But SNES had much stronger output by the end in 1995-1996. In 1995 SNES had Breath of Fire 2, Donkey Kong Country 2, Yoshi's Island, Mega Man 7, Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, and Mega Man X2. In 1996 it had Donkey Kong Country 3, Kirby Super Star, Super Mario RPG, Mega Man X3, and Lufia II. What did Genesis have in 1995-1996? The Vectorman games and Comix Zone that's pretty much it.

In 1994 Sega was pushing 32X (huge mistake) and getting ready for Saturn and that really took them out of the running. That's not to say they were really in the running for a bunch of genres (Phantasy Star, Shining Force, and Landstalker were great for the RPG/SRPG and action/adventure/Zelda-like genres but were just too little), but it did at least have a lot of good platform games. After that all they really had was better sports games, or so everyone says, I haven't played much more than Madden.

And I don't know how much of a difference this makes, but at least further separated SNES in my mind, and that's the Japanese games which only saw fan translations after the system was done with. Also, Terranigma, which had an official English translation but didn't see a North American release. Genesis was competitive for a while in America but it was never close in Japan, so it's not surprising that it got a lot fewer good Japanese exclusive games and less focus in the genres most popular in Japan.

 

[Sulaco]

If all you cared about was the latest Madden and other football games and you tried to convince me that those were the reasons that the Genesis was the best gaming platform, are you seriously saying that I should listen to you even though I have no interest in those games?

Wow.

I wouldn't care if you call it the best sports gaming platform, but don't pretend that your love of football makes it the better platform for my love of video games.

And to answer your question: You should at least play SOMETHING original to the world of video games before you consider yourself a gamer. You can't just play Video Wheel of Fortune or Electronic Trivial Pursuit or Virtual Scrabble or Video Electronic Virtual Battleship and call yourself a gamer. Someone who only plays Tetris is a Tetris player. Someone who only plays Call of Duty is a Call of Duty fan. They simply aren't "gamers" no matter how much they want to apply our word to themselves.

Ok, this is getting kind of stupid.

Your singling out of sports gamers and the sports genre is silly. Honestly, if a person is only interested in ONE genre, and its a genre I happen to not care for, their recommendation doesn't mean dick. That has nothing to do with sports, it has everything to do with them having incredibly narrow interests that don't match my own. Therefore, their input, to me, is mostly meaningless. That's...kind of common sense.

But does that make them any less of a "gamer" than someone who only cares about shooters? Or RPGs? Or platformers? If I was to say, "I only really care about JRPGs, and the SNES was by FAR superior for that, so it's a superior console!", how it that any different than the sports gamer claiming the Genesis is superior because of its superior sports titles?

Your argument seems to be misdirected at sports gamers when in reality it should be directed more towards people who only play one kind of game.

And even then, who is anyone to declare "you're not a real gamer" for that? Come off it. You can say they have very narrow interests, but then what is the magical number and accepted kinds of genres required to attain coveted "true gamer" status?

 

[HeXen]

Genre wise, Sega had some great sports, shmups and possibly racers. Snes had amazing beat'em ups, hack n slash, fighters and platformers.
Sega had a long period around 1992-93 where they were just shoveling out some utter crap. Like Sega owners had choices like Fighting Masters where Snes owners had SF2.

 

[Ichinisan]

Sega's marketing gave the impression that Eternal Champions with the Sega Activator would be a big hit. I don't know anyone that had that game.

I borrowed my friend's Genesis 2 while he borrowed my SNES some time in 1995. I couldn't believe he and his older brother were playing the hell out of Super Mario World instead of Donkey Kong Country. I guess they hadn't had their fill of SMW yet and it was still far more appealing than the newer DKC game.

I played through his Rocket Knight Adventures game and absolutely loved it. In all the time he had that game, he didn't like it enough to bother playing past the first level or so.

Some time later, I became very good friends with another kid who had a Genesis with a ton of games. Played through Sonic & Knuckles for both endings.

He went on about his 2 favorite Genesis games that he never found: Chakan the Forever Man (spelling?) and Mutant League Football.

 

[HeXen]

Sega's marketing gave the impression that Eternal Champions with the Sega Activator would be a big hit. I don't know anyone that had that game.

I borrowed my friend's Genesis 2 while he borrowed my SNES some time in 1995. I couldn't believe he and his older brother were playing the hell out of Super Mario World instead of Donkey Kong Country. I guess they hadn't had their fill of SMW yet and it was still far more appealing than the newer DKC game.

I played through his Rocket Knight Adventures game and absolutely loved it. In all the time he had that game, he didn't like it enough to bother playing past the first level or so.

Some time later, I became very good friends with another kid who had a Genesis with a ton of games. Played through Sonic & Knuckles for both endings.

He went on about his 2 favorite Genesis games that he never found: Chakan the Forever Man (spelling?) and Mutant League Football.

I had Eternal Champions on the SegaCD. I liked the artwork but it was no SF2. I didn't get a Sega CD until around late 1994 or 95 I think in which case I had to buy a new model Genesis because I actually traded off my Sega Genesis for an SNES around 1993 or maybe it was 92, with a friend who complained he was bored with it's games....what a sucker. I had the time of my life playing SMW, SF2, Starfox...etc. Plus I was a huge Beat'em up fan so Capcom's Final Fight series, Knights of the Round..etc was a glorious upgrade over Streets of Rage and Golden Axe.

Problem for gaming in my area back then was the fact that most of the retail stores just didn't carry very many games. With many being difficult to find so i just rented a lot.

 

[shortylickens]

SNES.

MUCH better selection of RPG's. Better platformers. I dont think I ever saw anything like Zelda or Metroid on the Genesis.
Nor SimCity or Populous.


I have to admit that I was impressed with the SegaCD add-on, but the Playstation proved it was better to just go pure disc and have one small console.

 

[Ichinisan]

I don't think I ever saw anything on Sega CD or 32x that impressed me. Certainly nothing that would convince me to pay more than $20 for the add-on. In fact, I thought everything looked horrible or just the same as the 16-bit games, except for some awful-looking FMV. Why was Sewer Shark the pack-in title for so many years? Did anyone actually like that game?

 

[shortylickens]

The very first Farmville-genre game was Harvest Moon released on the SNES in 1996.

Oh, thats the other reason I like SNES more.
Nintendo and its partners were willing to take bigger risks with unusual games, like Harvest Moon, Pilotwings, Starfox, Populous, Simcity, Air strike Patrol, ActRaiser, Aerobiz, Alien3, Faceball 2000 (very first FPS many of us ever played) and a crapload of others.

Look at the list:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Super_Nintendo_Entertainment_System_games

Not every title on there was good, and not all of the good ones were very popular, but Nintendo was much more willing to experiment with new ideas than Sega. And that tradition carries to this day (with the exception of milking the Pokemon franchise to death).

 

[CZroe]

All this talk of the SNES for beat'em ups: Genesis had Altered Beast. Wise fwom your gwave!

 

[CZroe]

...That has nothing to do with sports, it has everything to do with them having incredibly narrow interests that don't match my own. Therefore, their input, to me, is mostly meaningless. That's...kind of common sense...

Except that they repeatedly label themselves "gamers" to HIDE their narrow interest. I would have no problem if they called themselves "sports gamers," but at that time we had a new influx of players that were only interested in sports games and they routinely tried to convince others that their opinion on which console was better had merit beyond sports games. They did this by presenting themselves as "gamers" instead of players that only care about sports games.

If you do not have a broad enough interest, do not imply one with a broad label. That's all.

 

[futurefields]

SNES.

Greatest console ever.

Pure gaming.

 

[cmdrdredd]

At one point the Genesis owned the market making up more than 50% of total video game revenue in 1993 I believe it was.

I had both and really liked both equally. I remember playing Streets Of rage quite a bit on Genesis along with Toe Jam & Earl, Sonic, Ecco the Dolphin, Shinobi, Road Rash, Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, and Flashback(I thought it was better on Genesis myself).

On SNES I played Super Mario World(who didn't?), Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat 2 (even though people say it was technically inferior I thought it looked better), Donky Kong Country, Contra 3 Alien Wars, Super Double Dragon, Pilotwings, NBA Jam, F-Zero, Star Fox, Killer Instinct. I really wasn't into Super Metroid, Zelda, or RPGS. I wanted fast action, fighting etc. Wasn't much into story driven games at the time either.

All this talk of the SNES for beat'em ups: Genesis had Altered Beast. Wise fwom your gwave!

That was the game packed in with my Genesis I got for Christmas. Still as far as beat'em ups go, Super Double Dragon and Streets of Rage are my tops. Maybe TMNT Turtles in Time gets a nod.

 

[Ichinisan]

On SNES I played ... Mortal Kombat 2 (even though people say it was technically inferior I thought it looked better), ...

What?! One of my friends with the Genesis had MK2 and another friend had it for SNES. The SNES version was *very* clearly superior in graphics, sound, and control.

My Genesis friend thought it was funny to troll me and pretend to be ignorant on this point, repeatedly saying the Genesis version looked better.

Genesis version:

- Limited color palette had ugly color banding.

- Character shadows were just circles.

- Buzzing low-fidelity music.

- Standard controller did not have enough action buttons.
...

These "people" who "say" the SNES version was "technically inferior" must have been trolling you the way my friend did.

 

[CZroe]

What?! One of my friends with the Genesis had MK2 and another friend had it for SNES. The SNES version was *very* clearly superior in graphics, sound, and control.

My Genesis friend thought it was funny to troll me and pretend to be ignorant on this point, repeatedly saying the Genesis version looked better.

Genesis version:

- Limited color palette had ugly color banding.

- Character shadows were just circles.

- Buzzing low-fidelity music.

- Standard controller did not have enough action buttons.
...

These "people" who "say" the SNES version was "technically inferior" must have been trolling you the way my friend did.

I also recall that character names were spoken on the SNES and not on the Genesis (character select screen and end of match). The title menu was just white text on the Genesis but it was stylized text surrounded by graphics on the SNES. Sub menus were on entirely different screens with new graphics on the SNES where the Genesis just did it all right there on the title with the same white text. It's almost like it was an early beta or something because there's no reason it couldn't do what the SNES version did.

I know Mortal Kombat 3 on SNES had a 3D effect on the floor (every pixel row scrolled in parallax) that the Genesis did not have, which is weird because they both did it in MK II. I recall something similar in MKII like an extra background layer I one of the backgrounds or something for the SNES version.

 

[mmntech]

I don't think I ever saw anything on Sega CD or 32x that impressed me. Certainly nothing that would convince me to pay more than $20 for the add-on. In fact, I thought everything looked horrible or just the same as the 16-bit games, except for some awful-looking FMV. Why was Sewer Shark the pack-in title for so many years? Did anyone actually like that game?

The Sega CD did have some good games for it. Sonic CD, Popful Mail, the Lunar series. It may not have been a huge success but it certainly influenced later systems.

At the time, the industry figured that interactive movies were the wave of the future. Which led to the flood of low budget FMV games chock full of regrettable acting. The Sega CD was only slightly faster than the Genesis. It had a better colour pallet and could handle Mode 7 style graphics. Though it wasn't powerful enough to make a noticeable difference. The best games tended to use the extra storage for high quality audio and voice over.

The 32X, as the story goes, was literally drawn up on a cocktail napkin at E3 1994. Sega was worried the Saturn wouldn't launch on schedule. They also wanted a cheaper entry level 32-bit device. The addon was based on Saturn hardware, all be it clocked lower and missing the GPUs.

It had some good games. Both Afterburner and Space Harrier were near perfect ports. Virtual Fighter and Virtual Racing were also some of the best versions of those games to grace a console. Knuckles Chaotix was a weird but decent enough Sonic Spinoff. Star Wars Arcade was also fairly true to its arcade counterpart, though vastly overshadowed by X-Wing and TIE Fighter on the PC.

The 32X failed because it was a classic case of Sega not really thinking things through. It was fairly expensive for a peripheral, and the far superior Saturn and PlayStation were only months away. This it attracted few customers and even fewer developers.

 

[cmdrdredd]

What?! One of my friends with the Genesis had MK2 and another friend had it for SNES. The SNES version was *very* clearly superior in graphics, sound, and control.

My Genesis friend thought it was funny to troll me and pretend to be ignorant on this point, repeatedly saying the Genesis version looked better.

Genesis version:

- Limited color palette had ugly color banding.

- Character shadows were just circles.

- Buzzing low-fidelity music.

- Standard controller did not have enough action buttons.
...

These "people" who "say" the SNES version was "technically inferior" must have been trolling you the way my friend did.

Surprising as it may seem a fighting game's technical superiority isn't graphics, it's the game play itself. A lot of the combos from the arcade are missing from the SNES game but intact for the genesis.

 

[CZroe]

The Sega CD did have some good games for it. Sonic CD, Popful Mail, the Lunar series. It may not have been a huge success but it certainly influenced later systems.



At the time, the industry figured that interactive movies were the wave of the future. Which led to the flood of low budget FMV games chock full of regrettable acting. The Sega CD was only slightly faster than the Genesis. It had a better colour pallet and could handle Mode 7 style graphics. Though it wasn't powerful enough to make a noticeable difference. The best games tended to use the extra storage for high quality audio and voice over.



The 32X, as the story goes, was literally drawn up on a cocktail napkin at E3 1994. Sega was worried the Saturn wouldn't launch on schedule. They also wanted a cheaper entry level 32-bit device. The addon was based on Saturn hardware, all be it clocked lower and missing the GPUs.



It had some good games. Both Afterburner and Space Harrier were near perfect ports. Virtual Fighter and Virtual Racing were also some of the best versions of those games to grace a console. Knuckles Chaotix was a weird but decent enough Sonic Spinoff. Star Wars Arcade was also fairly true to its arcade counterpart, though vastly overshadowed by X-Wing and TIE Fighter on the PC.



The 32X failed because it was a classic case of Sega not really thinking things through. It was fairly expensive for a peripheral, and the far superior Saturn and PlayStation were only months away. This it attracted few customers and even fewer developers.

Have you actually played Knuckles: Chaotix?! It is irredeemably bad. The music is terrible. The gameplay is terrible. The characters are terrible. It has NO redeeming value what-so-ever.

I can pop it in and play it today if I wanted to but you'd have to pay me. No one has to pay me to play DKC or Megaman X or Sonic & Knuckles. Chaotix is a failure.

I have all of those games for 32X but I don't think anyone wanted authentic arcade ports of Star Wars Arcade or After Burner badly enough for them to matter. Besides, I can play an emulated Star Wars Arcade in perfect quality with original vector graphics on my GameCube (Rogue Squadron III: Rogue Leader Bonus Disc). SW Arcade on 32X had inauthentic shaded polys.