Sega Genesis vs. SNES: 16 bit console war!

I remember this being the first real console war, it's hard to believe it was 15+ years ago .

If you were into console gaming back in the day, i'm sure you got caught up in the battle. My question is, of the two what system did you buy, and what system do you enjoy most today?

I've always enjoyed the Genesis over the SNES personally, but then again i'm not big into RPGs.

I remember kids in school arguing over the Atari 2600 vs the Intellivision. There was also an Intellivison commercial blasting the 2600 and stating their system was superior. Console wars started way before the SNES and Genesis.

Ahh yes I forgot about that. Title fixed

As far as the 16-bit days went, I had no clear favorite. We were a Sega house, but I also managed to get an SNES because there were just too many good games to miss out on. I didn't buy a lot of games back then, being in High School and all, so I rented a lot. I'd hit up the video store on Friday and try to get a new title for each system. I did manage to buy some of the RPG's though, I remember dropping $70 hard earned dollars on Chrono Trigger and it was well worth it.

So I lean a little more towards the Genesis, but I really couldn't see choosing one over the other. They were both so awesome for their time.

I was (and always shall be to an extent) a sega fanboy - being in Europe at the time of the bit wars was an amazing time to get into the 8-bit market - as prices were cheap and the European Master System got a whole lot of support meaning new games and conversions of popular 16-bit titles.

I read all the magazines and knew all about the latest releases on the Megadrive, 32x and mega-cd, but I stayed with my Master System, enjoying the cheap (and excellent quality) games, knowing that eventually I would buy a second hand megadrive and get cheap games when the prices came down.

However, there are 2 games which pursuaded me to buy into the 16-bit era early - Street Fighter 2 Turbo and Donkey Kong Country... I - a sega fanboy - bought a SNES years before a megadrive. And to this day, I still prefer the snes to a standard MD setup. Years later I bought a megadrive1+mega cd1+32X with a load of games and had a complete blast - but most of my favourite games (bar the sonic and tresure titles) were on the add-ons not the console itself.

BAsically what I'm saying is SNES > MD and the Master System (2) was the ruler of them all, in that era, in Europe.

In my country there was NO sega market at all in the 8-bit and 16-bit days. So I had no access to the Sega market. My first encounter with a Sega was with a Saturn, and years later I bought a Dreamcast.

Later I got into Megadrive via romz... and I still prefer SNES to this day. There are some good games, but SNES overall has a better library.

Maybe it's because SNES is probably the best console ever...

I had an SNES and a good friend of mine had a Genesis. i had equal amounts of fun on each system, but owned the SNES for RPG's. Chrono Trigger was/is awsome. Back when MK came out it was all about genesis for the blood, SNES without was just lacking. otherwise i loved sega for the EA hockey games, Mutant League everything, and the sonic series. SNES for marios and RPG's. anyone else have BattleClash and the SUperScope for SNES? haha...terrible.

SNES household here, since the day it came out. We eventually picked up a Genesis (Sonic and Gunstar Heroes, pretty much), but the SNES stayed while the Genny is gone (but not Gunstar Heroes ). I can remember spending all the money I had on stuff like Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG, and Megaman X3 (64.99, woot). Yeah, lots of good memories there.

I especially remember playing Secret of Mana when it first came out...man, those were the days. I played the whole game through with my dad and my brother during one Christmas vacation. Save game is still there, over 100 hours; we did everything you could possibly do. I got to be the sprite (and imagine, I was 5 years old!), but my dad got the girl...a generous man, I'd have to say.

My first RPG conquest was FFIV (II, back when no one knew it was IV). I remember beating it in 20 or so hours, but that was a big one for me.

I watched my bro play through FFVI, and that was fantastic too. We rented it the first time and beat half the game...and we still played through it again when we eventually bought it (haha). Co-op mode is alot harder, but the coordination is great fun. Work as the team to solve dungeons (especially that friggin' Phoenix Cave - OH MY GOD, that thing was unbelievable) was awesome.

Chrono Trigger - I remember being afraid of Lavos (remember, I was really young back then), but my brother beat that one too...I should definitely go back and play that one.

Super Mario RPG was awesome too.

Secret of Evermore, anyone? Some think it's a terrible game, but I liked it quite a bit (and it was really hard, so hard as to get every game guide there was for it).

And who can forget A Link to the Past? Still one of the best (for me, it was the best, but OoT still ranks pretty high). I still feel that game is unmatched. And to think I never owned it til the GBA version came out..

Mario games abound! Super Mario World 1 and 2 = awesome, and All Stars rocked too.

Megaman games were pretty good too. I spent 65 dollars to get X2 and 7 right before the collections came out...and then I bought those too. I'm a big Megaman fanatic, I'll admit.

Man, this makes me want to get an S-Video cable so I can play through these gems. Like everyone, I do have my fair share of bad games, but the good outweighs the bad in my 50+ game collection. I never really caught on to the Genesis, really. I got a copy of Bahamut Lagoon and Seiken Densetsu 3 too...but I can't really play them, considering the language barrier. And my console has not been modified.

Good memories...

I had both, and between the two, I preferred the Genesis, but not by much. There were great games on both consoles, and some cross-platform titles were better on one than the other, but it was pretty evenly split.

snes won, better games etc. etc. end of story.

Dreamer said:

snes won, better games etc. etc. end of story.

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Umm, no. Better RPGs, perhaps. But when it came to arcade games, specifically shmups, the PC-Engine and the Mega Drive owned the living hell out of the SFC!

I purchased both consoles, but always prefered the Mega Drive, because of games like: Thunder Force III, Thunder Force IV, Strider, Streets of Rage/Bare Knuckle series, Sonic series, Gunstar Heroes, Monster World series, Herzog Zwei... etc, etc.

Oh for fuck's sake...

OK, on pure strength of library, there isn't another system that competes with SNES.

None.

Don't even start yapping...you'll make yourself look bad.

That doesn't mean the Genny/MD library is shit either. It really had a different hook.
It was more of an arcade machine than the SNES, 68000 based, bigger/more sprites, suited mostly for action games/shooters.

There's nothing like Gunstar Heroes or ThunderForce IV on SNES...

...and there's nothing like Super Mario World or ChronoTrigger on Genny.

Although there is Phantasy Star IV on MD and Super Aleste on SF...

Hell, I love them both. But I don't question the overall superiority of the SNES catalog. Doesn't mean the MD is crap though. That's the golden age y'all...love 'em both.

SNES. Super Mario Kart and Tiny Toons Wild and Wacky Sports were my faves.

The SNES had some great exclusives, as did the Genesis. But when a game came out that was available on both platforms, I always went for the Genesis version.

Remember "Genesis is what Nintendon't". Something to that effect.


GAMEFAN

remember those commercials they had? they'd show a game & have one guy say "genesis!" then some low pitched voice go "does!" and would keep repeating every game they showed until at the end of the commercial it'd say:
"genesis does what nintendon't!"

of course these commercials were in regards to how much 'better' the genesis is over the old NES... but still, good ol' sega.

68HC000 said:

But when a game came out that was available on both platforms, I always went for the Genesis version.

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Why?

The thing that always got me was the multiplatform games were almost always better on the SNES. Better graphics, better sound, and a controller with the proper amount of buttons to play...

i had both but snes ruled my area hardcore. infact i dont remember more than 4 people that even had a genesis, but absolutely everyone had an snes.

Can't we all just get along.

Nick Goracke said:

Why?

The thing that always got me was the multiplatform games were almost always better on the SNES. Better graphics, better sound, and a controller with the proper amount of buttons to play...

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I forsee continued ancient fanbois teeth gnashing.

Genny fans extol the virtues of the 6-button over the dogbone...

SNES fans mock the garbled voice samples/bad tunes....

Genny VS. SNES is really the console equivalent of Israel/Palestine.

Nick Goracke said:

Why?

The thing that always got me was the multiplatform games were almost always better on the SNES. Better graphics, better sound, and a controller with the proper amount of buttons to play...

Click to expand...

Personally, I always enjoyed the Genesis' sound chip over the SNES, and the fact that games like Mortal Kombat weren't dumbed down or censored.

I can't go without owning either systems, but the Genesis gets more playtime.

I had both systems and thought the Snes had the better titles by far. I also had a TG16 and thought that was a nice system as well. Of course I imported a lot because the quality games that came out in the USA were few and far between.

Loopz said:

I forsee continued ancient fanbois teeth gnashing.

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You've seen right through me.

68HC000 said:

Personally, I always enjoyed the Genesis' sound chip over the SNES, and the fact that games like Mortal Kombat weren't dumbed down or sensored.

I can't go without owning either systems, but the Genesis gets more playtime.

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Mortal Kombat 1, sure... but why would anyone prefer 2, 3 or Ultimate on the Genesis?

Or how about Street Fighter?

My parents bought a Genesis and they told me hell no when I asked for a SNES too. So my fondest memories back then come from the Genesis, but all my friends had a SNES so it brought me good times too, but only for a few select games.

I had both. You had too. For every RPG/Nintendo classic on SNES there was A Gunstar/Thunderforce/RangerX on the Genny.