The Sega Genesis.
Throughout the late eighties to mid nineteen nineties, Sega and
Nintendo competed neck to neck with each other in the first ever
console wars. Children's playgrounds everywhere had children arguing
over which was the superior console. To 16 bits graphics and blast
processing. From Mario to Sonic. Exclusive after exclusive. When a
game was ported to both systems there was a noticeable difference in
quality. Never before have two game companies been so close to each
other in sales with world wide popularity, with Nintendo just barely
coming out on top. In case you were wondering, I'm Sega through and
through.
Like all things gaming
related, I was introduced to the Sega Genesis through my brother. He
got the Model 2 that came out in 1994 so I know he got it somewhere
around that time frame. I think he sold the NES in order to have
money for it. I liked the black color schemes and how it contrasted
with the gray and white of the Nintendo consoles at the time. While
it doesn't seem like a big deal now, the controller had three
buttons. I only played a NES up to that point so having one extra
button was incredible! The six-buttoned one that came out later blew
my fucking mind!
So many
games, so little time!
There were
six games I played all the time as a kid: Battletoads & Double
Dragon, Street Fighter II, X-Men 2 Clone Wars (still the best X-Men
game ever made), Cyborg Justice, Mortal Kombat II, and Doom thanks
to the 32X attachment. There were so many great 2D side- scrollers
back then. Battletoads & Double Dragon was action packed and
comical bringing the best of both worlds into one game. X-Men 2 was
everything an X-Men fan could ever dream of in an X-Men game. Cyborg
Justice let you build and play your own robots with a friend in
classic 2D side scrolling action, or a fun versus mode. Street
Fighter II and MKII were some of the best fighting games around, and
back then Doom was so scary and intense to play, and even today it's
still one of the best games the FPS genre has to offer.
These
weren't the only Genesis games I played either. I played a lot more
where that came from. Often I hear, “SNES had better exclusives,”
but I disagree. The SNES had better exclusives to you. Genesis
had plenty of great exclusives to offer players: Sonic, Streets of
Rage, Comix Zone, Road Rash, Shining Force, Golden Axe, Phantasy
Star, and not to mention the two exclusives I mentioned already in
X-Men 2 and Cyborg Justice. Let's not forget that the Aladdin game
for Genesis was a lot different from the SNES counterpart. Don't get
me wrong, I like the SNES, it had a lot of great games for it.
Nintendo was fortunate that a lot of the best entries to their
popular franchises came out in this era, but this idea that one is
heads over shoulders better than the other is just absurd. It was a
close race for a reason.
Shoryuken!
Oops, wrong game.
Now,
I'm sure somebody is going, “Fair enough, Tori, but you can't deny
that when it came to multiplatforms, the Genesis suffered.” In
some areas, yes, in other areas, no. What the Genesis lacked in
power, it made up for speed. Blast Processing wasn't just a marketing
gimmick, it was a fact. Don't worry, I'll have links and everything
at the bottom. I know how this works.
While
games like “The Next Generation” was terrible on the Genesis, and
the SNES kicked its ass on music and sound, some ports like
Battletoads & Double Dragon just played more smoothly on the
Sega Genesis. There was no washed out colors, we had themes for the
bosses, a better hit detection, and none of the problems that the
SNES version had. I'll gladly trade music in favor of all the things
the Genesis port gives us even now. There's no absolute worst or best
on either side of the field, it's give and take depending on what
you're looking for.
“But
you have to admit that the 32X and Sega CD were HORRIBLE additions!”
said the imaginary SNES fan who exists in my mind.
I can admit
it's not very flattering.
I
didn't have a problem with the 32X. It was a good, cheaper
alternative to play games like Doom. I'm sure it had some shitty
games on it that nobody liked, but that can be said for every single
gaming system in existence. We never had a Sega CD either so I can't
really comment on it, but I do know that the Sega CD was the reason
Nintendo freaked out and tried working with both Sony and Philips
which backfired on them twice and led to the birth of the Sony
PlayStation, so Sega definitely had the right idea.
Like a lot
of things after the Genesis, the marketing for things like the Sega
CD, and their successor console in Saturn, would just be terrible.
That said, the Sega CD has some good games, too. Sonic CD, Sliphead,
Dragon's Lair, Lunar: The Silver Star, and an improved version of
the Terminator and Final Fight. Sega CD gets a bad wrap because all
people ever focus on are the extremely laughable titles that came
about from experimenting with 3D, but there's still some hidden gems
to be found if you know where to look.
Same can be
said about the 32X, you just had to know where to look. The 32X gave
us games like Virtua Racing Deluxe, Virtua Fighter, and Knuckles
Chaotix. These things might have worked had Sega marketed them
better, but unfortunately for the die hard Sega fan it just wasn't
meant to be. Even the Dreamcast couldn't save Sega in the end.
Sega Genesis was some much needed competition for Nintendo and brought out the best in both companies. I wouldn't trade my time with the console for anything. While history tips its hat to Nintendo, Sega Genesis is still every bit as popular as it was back then and its memory will never die.
Did you have a Sega
console growing up? What games did you play? What's your favorite and
least favorite things from Sega? Let it rip in the comments.
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