16-Bit Console Wars (Sega Megadrive)

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Product:	Sega Megadrive
Date:	24/11/03 (347 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very fun, Better than Nintendo, at least that was my opinion, Easily found on an emulator today

Disadvantages: Not as advanced by today's standards, Plenty of games were below average even for then

This review is not intended to try and persuade or dissuade anyone into buying a Sega Megadrive, so I suppose by default it shouldn't be written. But I enjoy reminiscing about my youth, hopefully you will too if you are of a similar upbringing, this is my chance for a bit of fun. Come with me now on a trip down memory lane...

It is the very early 90s, you'll have to pretend anyway, and the Super Nintendo and the Sega Megadrive are the only consoles worth mentioning. There has never been more rivalry or outright feuding in the market; in a possibly controversial and troubling way, the consoles were capable of dividing youth into the Mario players- that's the Super Nintendo, or SNES if you were cool, and the Sonic players- that's the Megadrive, or the MD if you were a bit strange. With the dealings and cross-console liaisons between the more contemporary consoles, which are essentially trying to be more fun versions of PCs, such feuding no longer exists and parents are simply forced to buy multiple formats. This happened in the days of the Megadrive too, but only to those rich gits like Richard Salmon.

My family, at least those of us young enough to be bothered and sometimes my dad, belonged to the Sega vein. The fast-paced adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog appealed to our animal fun senses more than the more in-depth game with the plumber on the other console, and the Megadrive was clearly the superior console as it was black, the colour of Batman.

In terms of the games, and being unbiased for a moment, the Megadrive had a great many racing and beat-em-up games, such as the Mortal Kombat series, while the SNES featured more adventure games such as Zelda and, to some extent, Super Mario World. As my family were based much more on the fantastic Amiga computer - I can't say enough good words about that console but just don't get my dad started on it, it is his life - we never had many games for the Megadrive, the list is
as follows:

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Sonic the Hedgehog - the original 1991 classic, we went to lengths to obtain a replacement after the original was chewed by a baby.

Sonic 2 - the sequel which was sort of as good as the first and longer.

Sonic 3 - the game introduces some storyline and a new enemy in the form of Knuckles.

Sonic & Knuckles - You can now play as Knuckles, who's a reformed man. Being a lifelong nerd I could relate the entire storyline concerning these characters as scribed unofficially in Sonic the Comic, but this review would be far too long and rubbish. S&K was famous for its cartridge slot into which any other Megadrive game could be inserted, as long as it was Sonic 2 or 3. This feature did not catch on to other titles.

Ristar - essentially a Sonic rip-off, but he was a star with grabby arms. Nice level designs.

Animaniacs & Back to the Future part III - These were crap.

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Shortly before the introduction of the 32-bit line of consoles, most notably the Playstation as Sega had lost a lot of its coolness with the new Saturn release (it was black for a start- who liked the Batman films now?), my mum bouhgt me and my brothers a SNES which we thoroughly enjoyed. I found new delight in Mario World, a game I would not have been able to appreciate if I were younger, but that was about it. The Megadrive was still more fun.

In the present day I still prefer a good old classic game to a modern, complex one and the Megadrive doesn't disappoint. At a time of competitive yet very similar video games, Sega managed to stay one step ahead before their recent fade into obscurity. Every 'hog has his day- do you see what I did there?

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