From: v089l3s3@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (JER HORWITZ)
Newsgroups: rec.games.video
Subject: Genesis v. SNES, Sega-CD; Summary [Horwitz]
Date: 18 Dec 92 16:33:00 GMT
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

I just finished reading David Meeks "Summing up the...
issues" and wanted to toss my nickel in. (I don't like keeping
pennies in my pockets.)

It seems that David and I have similar tastes and observations in
[at least] the games he summarizes/reviews. I wasn't totally in
agreement about the Super Star Wars thing, but perhaps it's just
one of those random things where it just felt or didn't feel right
to us. That aside, I disagree with some of the conclusions he has
reached about the Genesis versus the SNES and the Sega-CD...

Part I: Sega [Genesis] v. Nintendo [Super NES]

--

I also purchased my Genesis early on; in fact, I was one of the first to
buy it when it came out. My initial impressions of the system were quite
excellent - as compared to the Nintendo of that time, the graphics were
generally quite excellent and the music was superb. The initial games
had something interesting to show - that Sega, for once, was going to
make them challenging -- Thunder Force II, Space Harrier, Tommy Lasorda
(and perhaps Soccer) were all games you had to play for a while before
you could beat them. Nintendo games, unlike previous Sega games, had
shown a tendency to be long term fun: The ultimate classics like
Metroid, Mike Tyson's Punch Out, Kid Icarus, and all those -- you could
play them again and again for hours. But that seemed like the past as I
sold my Nintendo to purchase the Genesis.

In the following year, my love for the Genesis stayed constant as a
friend and I went through the usual "Genesis v. Turbografx" battle,
which culminated in his purchase of a Genesis when NEC failed to
release good enough games for his system. The releases of Golden Axe
and the Revenge of Shinobi kept me interested and excited. I also
liked Ghostbusters, E-Swat, Thunder Force III and a bunch of other
titles, although I noticed that these games were generally exhausted
[fun-wise] after 3 or 4 days. I still enjoyed them, though, and 
laughed when Nintendo's earliest Super Mario shots hit EGM and the
rest of the mags, looking really gray and blurry, nothing to
speak of.

Then began a drought with Sega. Good games were few and far between
(this comes after the shooter wave of a few years back). Pictures
of the Super Famicom began to appear in EGM and the other mags,
and suddenly the memories of the good old days of long-term game
enjoyment hit me again. I ordered a Super Famicom, and also
Pilotwings, F-Zero, Mario, Final Fight and Actraiser. Especially
considering the date when they were purchased (Christmas 1990),
when you look at what Sega had to offer, those games smoked Sega's
release charts and bad.

In the year that followed, Sega released Sonic to counter the
(U.S.) unreleased Mario 4, and the Japanese releases for the 
Super Famicom were hardly plentiful - in fact, two golf games,
Ultraman, and the bad driving game Big Run were among them,
and not much else. Super Ghouls'n Ghosts was repeatedly delayed,
as was Super R-Type and the majority of exciting announced games.

The major turning point in my mind was the summer of 1991. When
Sega's big release was Phantasy Star 3, Super R-Type hit. Although
it had some slowdown, it was far more playable than any Sega
shooter ever released, and had the best music I'd heard since
Actraiser, which had the best music I'd ever heard.

By Christmas time, Castlevania 4 and Super Ghouls'n Ghosts,
two great games (again, especially for the time) had come out.
Sega's Christmas was Jewel Master and the like. My money was
going solidly Nintendo-bound.

But, when the Mega-CD came out in Japan, I purchased one.
I figured that Sega had been saving all their goodies for the
unit. They've released next to nothing worth owning for it,
although I've purchased a bunch of the games to try them.
TTI really had it right in their EGM "Turboman" cartoon,
Sega's releases are really nothing to shout about, especially
given (1) the release of limited-palette motion video games
long ago and (2) the fact that the unit has been on sale for
more than a year in Japan, not to mention a full year or
three in development, and they still haven't released a game
with scaling and rotation. That's just sickening.

Meanwhile, I've been playing some of the best SNES titles
around, like Street Fighter, Contra 3, Smash TV, Road 
Runner, TMNT 4, Prince of Persia, Pro QB, Amazing Tennis,
X-men, Rampart, On the Ball, Power Athlete, Space Megaforce,
Star Wars, Volleyball Twin (Japanese), Out of this World,
NCAA, Mickey Mouse, Firepower 2000 and the Blues Brothers.
In that same year, I've purchased only Thunder Force IV,
Sonic 2 and Streets of Rage 2 for the Genesis (not
including the Mega-CD games, which just came out here,
like Prince of Persia and Cobra Command).

My vote has to go to the Super NES. Nintendo's licensees
do a lot more for the system than Sega, and the games
last longer than 2 days on the average, unlike Sega's.
(TMNT 4 is easy, but excellent.)
When a programmer uses 8 megs on the SNES, he seems to
cram a lot more into it than Sega does (although
Technosoft, producer of the Thunder Force games,
really knows how to stack data!).

As for this SNES cd v. Sega-CD thing, it's totally
immaterial. As long as Sega has a CD player with the
quality of games it has now (relatively average to
low), it could matter less if their system is
out or not. They could have made the exact claim, 
"We have a CD player" one year ago, when I bought it,
but all the games they released came out afterwards
in the US as cartridges, they were so short and
bad. I'd rather wait for a good system like the SNES-CD
will undoubtably be, than purchase a Sega-CD now on
the empty promise that it will eventually have good
games.

[ -> Jer Horwitz ] [INTERnet Game Consultant]
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