Genesis v SNES

Jon here.

I took a bit of a break from blogging since the only thing on my mind was Operation Rainfall and Nintendo’s lack of interest in bringing core software to their fans. But I’m trying not to beat that dead horse. I’ve sent my Xenoblade letter to Reggie and plan to send one of The Last Story and Pandora’s Tower according to the schedule that Operation Rainfall came up with. And I’m comfortable ending that sentence with a preposition.

Carlos and I are planning on doing an all-SNES podcast next week. I was a Genesis kid, but not really by choice. My dad bought my brother and me a Genesis with Sonic the Hedgehog on New Years Day when I was in the third grade. I loved that Genesis and spent countless hours with the Sonic games, Streets of Rage games, Vectorman, X-Men Clone Wars, Spiderman Separation Anxiety, Earthworm Jim, NBA Jam, The Lion King, Aladdin, and Genghis Khan II: Clan of the Grey Wolf (look it up). What a fantastic system for side-scrolling beat-em-up games.

That’s not to say that I didn’t also like the SNES. On the playground, I kept in ranks as a Sega acolyte; but I always loved going over to my friend’s house and playing Super Mario World and other SNES classics. But I wasn’t back in the Nintendo camp until the N64. Looking back, I get a lot more replay value out of the SNES games. I play Mario World and Contra 3 on a weekly basis. Final Fantasy II and III (IV and VI) are two of my favorite RPG’s and two of my most prized possessions in my collection.

It’s a shame that there was such division between the Genesis and SNES fans. It was a fun rivalry, but if you only owned one system then you only got to experience half of the awesome software produced during the golden age of gaming. Both systems had their share of great platformers and mascots. The Genesis had phenomenal beat-em-ups. The SNES was the go-to system for RPG’s. Recognizable third-party franchises like Castlevania and Mega Man and the stunning first-party graphics of Donkey Kong Country and Star Fox probably put the SNES over the top – but just barely.

So, if you were compelled to choose one system, which one would it be and why?

Carlos and I will decide what day we’ll do a podcast on and probably do a live broadcast again. I’m going to ask Ryan if he’ll join us for this one since he’s pretty well-versed in SNES games as well. We’ll adopt the formula we used for the NES podcast and go through the life span of the SNES year-by-year.