Sega Vs. Nintendo (Sega Megadrive)

Member Name: Frankingsteins

Product:	Sega Megadrive
Date:	23/03/04 (2033 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Variety of games

Disadvantages: Dated now

It is the very early 90s, you'll have to pretend anyway as I don?t think it is anymore, 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 Entertainment System, 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 modern 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 Eldon Lee, who doesn't really exist but sounds like the people my mental picture is being based upon.

My family, at least those of us young enough to be bothered and sometimes my Dad who is quite childish anyway in that he loves the A-team a bit too much, 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. And who was ever cooler than the B-man?

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...

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. More on this in a moment.

-----ABILITY--------

The original NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) was clearly the leading brand of 8-bit console in the late 80s, however the introduction of the Megadrive - known as the Genesis in the USA - in August 1989 brought Sega's arcade game-based strength into the home market.

Nintendo's SNES was released in 1991, and presented some tough competition to the Megadrive. The internal memory of the system was twice that of all its competitors, which allowed games to be much larger - Zelda and Super Mario World being the best examples - and for later games to possess much more realistic graphics, such as Donkey Kong Country and Toy Story. This was due to the SNES possessing the ability to handle far more colours with its clever 1991 chips than the 256-colour 1989 Megadrive, but by the time this became an issue it was already time for the next wave of consoles, spearheaded by Sony's PlayStation.

Sega were very adept at jumping in with a more advanced console a couple of years too early, something they would later find to their loss with the Dreamcast. However, the Megadrive and Megadrive II - an unnecessary reworking of the original which meant it was a bit smaller and now had red buttons instead of white ones, cool - still remained the option for a lot of children and adolescents.

-----GAMES--------

Sega's strength as an arcade coin-op company led to most of their games being based around the "pick up 'n play" formula of sport and racing games, while Nintendo offered much more in the way of long-term role playing games. Nowadays, Nintendo are often seen as the company catering more towards children's tastes,with many cutesy platformers and only the occasional head-bursting gorefest, but I suppose if there was any clear distinction in the early 90s it would be that Nintendo catered more towards people of a nerdish tendency; not meant as offence to anyone, but the kind of people who will invest their time into completing Super Mario World with all 96 levels (obviously including Special Star Roads) are less likely to receive a muddy kick in the groin on a cold Sunday morning football field than someone who enjoys Sega's "NBA 1993." Which probably existed.

Although the obvious comparison was between Sonic and Mario, so let's do this 'thang.'

SONIC, THE BLUE HEDGEHOG WITH ATTITUDE:
The Sonic series were fast-paced games with great graphics that were intended to be played through in one game. No save option was present, although everyone who had it knew the level select cheat. Being a cool hedgehog with much-publicised 'attitude', something which rarely came into play on the game as he couldn't make witty put-downs but did still tap his foot impatiently when left alone, Sonic was a friendly and cute method for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans to pretend they were cool, in-between calling their father 'dude' and mother 'dudette' and eating horrible pizza from a mysteriously low-budget Turtles food company. I didn't do any of these things though, and anyone who says I did is a liar.

MARIO, THE ITALIAN PLUMBER WHO CAN JUMP DEAD HIGH:
Mario games were still being based on the slightly dated formula of the scrolling screen- a basically linear system where the action would progress from l
eft to right with no turning back. Mario 3 was the first game, still on the old Nintendo, to introduce a wider playing field as well as the much-copied map system that led Mario games into being a kind of sub-RPG. With much greater depth, these were games that rewarded the long-term player but were not so appealing to a lot of children such as myself. In hindsight, I now enjoy playing Mario games more, imagine that.

----AFTERMATH-----

Shortly before the introduction of the 32-bit line of conso
les, 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 bought 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. I suppose every 'hog' has his day (I'm referring to hedgehog there).

I learned a lot during that, thank you for reading. If you enjoyed these consoles, why not buy one from eBay? It may smell a bit like a loft or sweaty child's bedroom, but the games are often more fun than more modern equivalents.

Summary: The Sega Mega-Drive