Sega vs Nintendo

[The Master]

Having read the old school games thread it made me think about the old school yard battles over which was best SEGA or NINTENDO. Battle lines were drawn, blood spilt families torn apart... literally! well maybe I am been a bit to dramatic but at the time it did seem like a big deal. So now the battle is over the dust settled. Both companies are now best friends and the only competing mario and sonic do are at the olympic games. I was wondering which companies did you support and why?

Personally I liked Sega, at the time it was was the most like the arcades. Sonic was fast and Sega made games like Streets of Rage and Golden Axe. Even with the dreamcast it made cool arcade style games no other system could compete with <at least in my opinion>. Then with the end of the dreamcast.... the less said the better. Now I love Nintendo games, it seems to be the most innovative system. It has the arcade style games on its format and while I still have a soft spot for Sega games, I have to admit Nintendo games are now more fun.

[2H-Dragon]

Lol Nintendo hands down. Back then wars didn't amount to much since there was always a clear winner. Though I do somewhat remembering the wars being pretty brutal. Sega got nothing on Nintendo though. Nintendo pretty much had every genre beat down. After the SNES it might be up to debate if SEGA or Nintendo was better(though tbh the N64 was better then the DC). All I know PSX>>>N64&DC. :P

This generation was the first where the consoles actually got an equal footing. In terms of actual software sales they are all pretty equal.

[Shadow Kira01]

Since Sega made the entire Ryu ga Gotoku series, one vote for them!

[Benoit]

Originally Posted by 2H-Dragon

Lol Nintendo hands down. Back then wars didn't amount to much since there was always a clear winner.

Wrong. It wasn't that clear-cut. Sega had a large share in Europe back in the 8-bit days, while the rest of the world loved the NES. In the 16-bit days, Sega had a large share in both the US and Europe, with Nintendo always trying to catch up. After that, Sega didn't do that good, and Nintendo just survived while Sony was king.

Sega got nothing on Nintendo though. Nintendo pretty much had every genre beat down.

Maybe in the 8-bit days. The 16-bit days were quite different. Sonic was very good competition in the platformers genre, Streets of Rage was the best in the beat 'em all genre, and more. Meanwhile the SNES got some cool action games, and many RPGs.

though tbh the N64 was better then the DC

No. The N64 failed hard in most genres, especially RPGs. Its saving graces are some competent platformers, and Legend of Zelda.

[Sheba]

I'll have to say that the 16bits days were uncertain UNTIL the Street Fighter II boom. Here, SNES took a clear advantage.

[Kaioshin Sama]

I'll just do a sound chip comparison for my contribution to this thread using the power of youtube links to illustrate a point about the Super Nintendo vs. Genesis:

Super Street Fighter II - Cammy Stage Theme (Genesis)

vs.

Super Street Fighter II - Cammy Stage Theme (SNES)

The difference is clear as night and day with the Genesis barely being able to reproduce half the notes, audio channels or sound effects with it's incredibly limited GYM sound chip. I'll also say that the SNES SPC soundchip had a wicked reverb effect which to this day has not been replicated on any video game system.

To the Genesis' credit it did have one feature over the SNES which was it's ability to buffer several frames of animation and backgrounds before they would be rendered by the hardware which was what allowed for that feeling of speed and moving across the stage really fast in Sonic The Hedgehog games. That is in fact what they were actually referring to when they used the term "Blast Processing".....they just had to go and word it stupidly.

.....Alright one more comparison and that's it I promise. The SNES answer to "Blast Processing" was a little thing some people probably know about called "Mode 7" which was a pretty big breakthrough for the time in allowing the SNES hardware to rotate and scale backgrounds on the fly. The uses for this were numerous, but mostly used to simulate a 3D effect of an object moving closer to or away from the player with only a single graphic whereas the NES and Genesis would have to do it by swapping out multiple graphics on the fly which would take up additional space and not to mention looked really awkward.

[2H-Dragon]

Originally Posted by Benoit

Wrong. It wasn't that clear-cut. Sega had a large share in Europe back in the 8-bit days, while the rest of the world loved the NES. In the 16-bit days, Sega had a large share in both the US and Europe, with Nintendo always trying to catch up. After that, Sega didn't do that good, and Nintendo just survived while Sony was king.

Maybe in the 8-bit days. The 16-bit days were quite different. Sonic was very good competition in the platformers genre, Streets of Rage was the best in the beat 'em all genre, and more. Meanwhile the SNES got some cool action games, and many RPGs.

No. The N64 failed hard in most genres, especially RPGs. Its saving graces are some competent platformers, and Legend of Zelda.

But come one if we just compare the exclusives. If we look at best games evar lists. You'll probably see SNES/NES titles most of the time. While sonic was a really good games(awesome even), it had nothing on the mario games. SNES had Final Fight. :O

Yeah that the N64 was better then the DC isn't as clear cut. That's what I said, but the winner of that gen was the PSX hands down anyhow.

[Daniel E.]

It was never a battle in my corner of the world. The Sega Master system was pretty much unheard of during the NES days (I was the only kid with one in my area ) and the SNES pretty much ruled from start to finish.

The selection of games in stores was clearly dominated by Nintendo and you often had to rely on American stores to find some Genesis games.

I had a blast with all four consoles from the 8 and 16 bit days, but as far as I am concerned, Nintendo owned Sega in both eras.

Gotta hand it to Sega, though. Some of their commercials where pretty catchy.....

Genesis does what Nintendon't.

EDIT:

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that the N64 was actually more popular than the Dreamcast, which never really took off among gamers in my city; Again, games become hard to find and pretty much everybody owned a Playstation then.

[roriconfan]

I was always a Nintendo fan and to me there was no real battle either. The bleak coloured and crude violent filled games of SEGA never appealed to me. Even most of the guys around me had Game Boys and SNESs instead of Master Systems and the like. The few who did own, regreted doing so after seeing the lack in variety they had.

And anyway, if you do read the articles, SEGA was always mimicking Nintendo's fame by making counter-games. It was never leading; only following other's footsteps.

The one thing I liked in SEGA games was how they were not taking all the violence and blood out. The SNES version of Mortal Kombat sucked ass.

Anyway, SEGA lost when kept making consoles without the needed third party support. And they did it three times in a row proving how bad in public relations they were.
Nintendo also lost a lot of room by not teaming up with Sony. I feel sad saying this but I switched to Sony after the first PSX came out. I was always an RPG fan and I loved most SNES RPGs. But after N64 came out? What horshit was all that? Just a Zelda and a couple more were worthy. PSX ownes the field since then.

Even today, I prefer any other console to Wii. That thing is filled with childishly easy games for casuals. No go.

[Leo Keichi]

The battle between SEGA and Nintendo was pretty much like the one between Nintendo and Sony nowadays. Actually, in the beginning, the Playstation would be an add-on for Super Nintendo, done in collaboration by these two, but then Sony changed her mind and decided to release her own console.

Here where I live Master System was more popular then NES, actually. But the battle between SNES and Genesis (called Mega Drive here) was fierce. Personally, I prefer the SNES, because it had Donkey Kong, International Superstar Soccer, Yoshi's Island, and some other games.

But Nintendo is slightly different nowadays from what it used to be, with more casual and easy games, while Sony gets most of the RPGs and other hardcore ones.

[The Master]

Where I live County Durham UK nintendo never got a look in. It was as if it never existed... then when Golden Eye came out on the N64 it suddenly appeared in the shops. I have never thought of Nintendo as a hardcore gamers choice even in the Gamecube days. It always seems to have made casual games just look at donkey konga and the mario party series. Guess that is why I like Nintendo now after the dreamcast I became one of the casual gamers who goes out and buys party games and keeps ubisoft afloat.

[HayashiTakara]

Originally Posted by The Master

Where I live County Durham UK nintendo never got a look in. It was as if it never existed... then when Golden Eye came out on the N64 it suddenly appeared in the shops. I have never thought of Nintendo as a hardcore gamers choice even in the Gamecube days. It always seems to have made casual games just look at donkey konga and the mario party series. Guess that is why I like Nintendo now after the dreamcast I became one of the casual gamers who goes out and buys party games and keeps ubisoft afloat.

You have my condolences, you missed out on some majorly epic RPGs.

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by 2H-Dragon

Yeah that the N64 was better then the DC isn't as clear cut. That's what I said, but the winner of that gen was the PSX hands down anyhow.

Wrong generation, it was PSX vs N64 vs Saturn.

[The Master]

Very true! Thankfully I caught up with Tales of Symphonia on the Gamecube. RPGs are something which Sega never really did much of, which is a shame because the ones they did do were usually very good.

[Tornix]

Being an RPG fan, I liked Nintendo. Although nowadays I find myself playing Genesis more than SNES on emulator.

Originally Posted by Sheba

Wrong generation, it was PSX vs N64 vs Saturn.

Exactly. It was the PS2 that (sadly) killed the DC. It's one of my favorite systems, too bad it wasn't around for long. Had some solid games on it, too.

[serenade_beta]

Nintendo, without a doubt. There hasn't really be anything that really interested me about Sega... Not only that, but Pokemon, Mario, etc. Lots of games good games. Probably the most significant game company out there today.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by roriconfan

The bleak coloured and crude violent filled games of SEGA never appealed to me.

Well to get all technical again the bleak colour of Genesis games had more to do with it's limited colour pallete compared to the SNES. 512 colours to choose from and only 64 displayable at any one time via a mix of sprites and backgrounds. By constrast the SNES could choose from 32,768 possible colours and could display 1 extra background plane and about 40 more sprites at any given time which significantly bumped up the number of different colours it could display on screen as well.

Also what a lot of people don't seem to know is that Sega actually pulled ahead in sales during the very last stretch of the 16 bit console wars largely on account of the cutthroat (and misleading) advertising they used that came at the perfect time during the backwards pants Marky Mark desperately hip pop culture of the 90's. That is where they played the Genesis as the radical gnarly tubular system with attitude against the SNES which was depicted as boring and most uncool. They did this because they knew that if they went for straight up and honest hardware comparisons that the SNES would have them dead to rights, but sometimes they would even just lie about or jargon up the hardware capabilities of the Genesis, like with the infamous "Blast Processing" commercial. I won't lie however, when I was young and naive I got caught by one of their ads claiming that the Genesis was a 32 system and that the SNES was only 16 bit, which meant that while I was going to get a Super Nintendo I got a Genesis instead and would have to wait a few years before I got a hold of the SNES. Funny thing is I can't remember at all how I came to own an SNES nor what happened to it, just that I had one at some point.

Anyway point is that Sega was like the Kadokawa Shoten of the 16-bit console wars when it came to how little shame they had in using marketing gimmicks to make their way against the competition.

[Sheba]

Fighting games were the determining genre in my choice from 16 bit generation to now.

So while SNES was clearly ahead, I'd rather pick a Saturn if I could not get a hand on a PSX (which had Soul Edge, Bushido Blade, Toshinden and the first Guilty Gear). Then on the next generation, it was obviously the Dreamcast until it died out.

[roriconfan]

Originally Posted by Kaioshin Sama

Well to get all technical again the bleak colour of Genesis games had more to do with it's limited colour pallete compared to the SNES. 512 colours to choose from and only 64 displayable at any one time via a mix of sprites and backgrounds. By constrast the SNES could choose from 32,768 possible colours and could display 1 extra background plane and about 40 more sprites at any given time which significantly bumped up the number of different colours it could display on screen as well.

Also what a lot of people don't seem to know is that Sega actually pulled ahead in sales during the very last stretch of the 16 bit console wars largely on account of the cutthroat (and misleading) advertising they used that came at the perfect time during the backwards pants Marky Mark desperately hip pop culture of the 90's. That is where they played the Genesis as the radical gnarly tubular system with attitude against the SNES which was depicted as boring and most uncool. They did this because they knew that if they went for straight up and honest hardware comparisons that the SNES would have them dead to rights, but sometimes they would even just lie about or jargon up the hardware capabilities of the Genesis, like with the infamous "Blast Processing" commercial. I won't lie however, when I was young and naive I got caught by one of their ads claiming that the Genesis was a 32 system and that the SNES was only 16 bit, which meant that while I was going to get a Super Nintendo I got a Genesis instead and would have to wait a few years before I got a hold of the SNES. Funny thing is I can't remember at all how I came to own an SNES nor what happened to it, just that I had one at some point.

Anyway point is that Sega was like the Kadokawa Shoten of the 16-bit console wars when it came to how little shame they had in using marketing gimmicks to make their way against the competition.

Excelent analysis on how SEGA was not only bad at doing deals with other companies but also how they were filling us with f-ing lies too.

Lucky me I was never a victim of publicity. I prefered actual playtesting as the best way to deside. My regards to the TOYS-R-US who allowed me to play many jewels on both 16 bit consoles and clearly see the winner.

By the way, check this SEGA commercial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epGpeZWWYQo
with these N64
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADND53b8KMM
clear winner even here too

[Kid Ying]

No doubt about it: SEEEGA.

Wow, i remember when i bought my mega drive with Sonic 2, Jurassic Park and Barkley, shut up and jam... What a fun time it was.

And... Streets of rage 2 was better than Final fight. "runs"