Dreams Awakened Studios: June 2014

This post was originally written by me for thepalaceofwisdom.co.uk, a site I currently work on, on May 10th 2014.

You can find this editorial at its original source at:

http://www.thepalaceofwisdom.co.uk/blog/2014/05/10/retrosnesgenesis/

I wasn’t alive during what many claim to be the greatest console war, I wasn’t even in existence when Sega claimed that “Genesis does what Nintendon’t!” though commercials raging across the television screens of suburbia. I can only dream and think up what it was like in the lunch room of schools during the days of the fourth console generation, discussing the age old question. “Which is better?” Such an elementary question, isn’t it? But you have to think about the kind of answers one question could garner and the type of people it could attract to the discussion. Today we are looking at the battles raged on between the Sega Genesis (or, Mega Drive for those outside the US) and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Just what impact did these two 90′s titans have on the gaming scene today?

In America we call the state of Alaska “The Last Frontier,” but what do we mean by that? Well since it was officially the first state added since 1912, we thought of it as new land to explore, a new land to admire and a new land to develop and make our own. We also looked at its harsh conditions and noted that people had not yet scaled the entire land of it. We noticed its natural beauty that couldn’t often be found in the rest of our highly industrialized nation. We looked, and saw a Last Frontier. When will gaming’s last frontier come? No ones really sure of that yet, but one of the first frontiers, was its journey into console competition.

While the Nintendo Entertainment System sold a lot better than the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, really it almost had no competition. NES was really the first console since the Atari 2600 to be significantly successful in what can’t even be called a market. In fact one could argue that Nintendo started (or revived) the gaming market and didn’t really enter it. You’d be correct in praising its innovations and its legacy but one thing that it never really had was competition. Sure you got the Sega Master System along with the highly underrated Atari 7800 console, but these never really hit it big with consumers. In fact one could argue that Nintendo was somewhat of a monopoly in the gaming market that it revolutionized and formed to its will. One thing we all learn in Economics class back in High School… Monopolies are generally not a good thing. Was it back then? Well it didn’t seem to matter really.

Imagine if something like that were to happen today… imagine if you will that the PlayStation 4, Xbox One or even the Wii U were the only consoles in the current market. Imagine that the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and every console preceding it, lost their online capabilities and could only be played offline and with older games. Imagine just some of the policies that would be in effect if there was this sort of monopoly around today. Remember the original Xbox One’s DRM policies? Now imagine if they didn’t change them because they knew you had nowhere else to go. Imagine if they boosted their online subscription fees but you still wanted to get your game on. Imagine the market being flooded with games with in game purchases and anti-consumerist philosophies about them (more so than there already is). Imagine the entire indie market dying before our very eyes. Guess what? Like a small child on a Saturday morning cartoon, we’re calling to Superman to help save us. Never fear citizen, Console Generation 4’s console war is here to save the day!

That’s right, you heard it here folks, I think console wars are actually a good thing. Not only do they promote competition but they also make sure that the big named game companies will try their best to respect their consumers, because they know that they have other options from a gaming standpoint. Now I know generation 4 wasn’t the first generation with some competition (look back at Intellivision, Colecovision and the Atari 2600 in the 2nd generation) but I believe this is where the console wars of today have really taken influence from. I’m also not trying to downplay the ‘Master Race’ either, as at this time PC games were continuing being a success but I want to just talk consoles here. While console wars can cause brand loyalty issues, they can also help people discuss things intelligently, while also getting them more pumped up for what their favourite console does next!

Nurse I need two subjects to slice up with a bit of analysis. Subject A on the operating table would be the one that released first, the Sega Genesis. Mega Doraibu was released to Japan in 1988, then as Genesis in North America for 1989 and PAL regions in 1990 as the Mega Drive. What was revolutionary about this in the American market was that it really was the first 16 bit console to make an impact on gamers. In addition, it revolutionized (arguably for the negative) what players would look for in their games. What Sega marketed mainly was the ‘Bit’ advantage they had over their main competitor Nintendo. They often pointed out that the ageing NES only had 8 bits, while their console had a whooping 16!

While yes the graphics were superior, it was this sort of argument that got developers very focused on how their games looked rather than actually played. Kids at the time were flooded with messages about bits & graphics, and there were even marketing campaigns about how their games were faster than Nintendo’s. Sega’s marketing measures were controversial and perhaps somewhat poisonous to the industry, but overall they did prove pretty darn effective. “Genesis does what Nintendon’t!” was a huge deal back then in America, as all over the States you could hear people quoting this tagline. Genesis really started what we now know as aggressive marketing in the industry.

Look back (not even that far) at Sony’s little ad about sharing games on the PlayStation 4, that was a direct punch in the face to Microsoft’s Xbox One and its DRM pre-reversed polices. You could definitely argue that hostile marketing like this comes once in a blue moon, but notice its this that garners people’s attention over all else. Even without direct references against different consoles, you always have the fight for which console appears in a commercial with a respective game. I can’t count how many times I have heard “better on the Xbox 360” or something to that effect being played at the end of a video game commercial. Its almost as though there’s a little bit of a war between the two consoles when it comes to ads and we can thank Sega for starting that.

Genesis was a nice, sleek console that looked good on the shelves of gamers, more so than its Nintendo counterparts. The classic NES console looked a lot like a toaster oven and was complained on as being something that didn’t look hip & happening in that day in age. In addition to the marketing ploys, Sega also had a nice, sexy design that won a lot of consumers over in America as well as in Europe. Its black coloring and great aesthetics really beat out its counterparts and it really isn’t hard to see why.

While its easy to just talk about appearances when judging the Genesis and the graphic wars, when it came right down to it this was a solid console with a huge amount of solid games for it. Genesis gave the video game industry memorable classics such as Altered Beast, Ecco the Dolphin, Golden Axe, Shining Force, and the legacy ridden Sonic The Hedgehog. Also Sega had taken the Genesis and clearly marketed itself as the adult console. Letting blood show in Midway’s Mortal Kombat for example, while the NES and even the SNES struck a lot of youth as the kids console of choice. Not only was the Genesis a looks and marketing masterpiece when it came out but it also soon had a library of games that could rival Nintendo, something that hadn’t happened yet in that market. This is when game developers really had to try. Because they knew that companies like Sega and Nintendo needed to beat each other out. So if Sega seems to have all these positives, do they have what “Nintendon’t?”

All bad puns aside, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System was Nintendo’s answer to the Sega console giant. It was first released in 1990 as the Super Famicom for Japan, then followed 1991 in America and 1992 in Europe & Australia. While Sega pushed hard marketing, speed and a new blue coloured mascot, Nintendo and their pesky red-hatted plumber came punching right back with the late but significant launch of their Super Nintendo. While the SNES was about two years late to the fourth generation party, it still garnered the best sales overall and arguably had the better looks and games.

While Nintendo may not have had as hard marketing or appealing console specs like Sega did, they introduced a much more versatile controller that made it a lot easier to play their titles over that of the Genesis. Games were another thing it definitely had, sure Sega kept competing but there wasn’t a lot they could do when the SNES came bundled with a copy of one of the best games in history… Super Mario World. After the fact that Sega kept angering fans with its wasteful add-ons, Nintendo kept moving forward releasing classic after.

While there is no doubt in my mind that Genesis has one of the best libraries in the history of video gaming, it’s not going to be a surprise to most when I say that the SNES’s library was just simply better. As I mentioned previously, you had the acclaimed Super Mario World along with other titles like Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario RPG, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and just so many other fantastic titles that graced the shelves of many gamers in the early 90s. Super Nintendo Entertainment System matched the Genesis in every way and as of 2014, the SNES still leads in sales figures, at approximately 49 million units sold – compared to the Genesis’s approximately 40 million (according to respective reports from each company).

If you don’t take sales figures and games alone, consider the hardware comparison presented by Purdue University. According to the study not only does the SNES have double the RAM of the Genesis, it has double sound RAM, better audio, double simultaneous colors possible, way more general colors possible, more maximum simultaneous sprites, better maximum sprite size and better display resolution. There is simply no way to argue that the SNES did not win the console war in really any regard other than if you break down sales by just a region. Realistically, the game was already set, the match had already been won and yet there was still about in the lunch rooms of the world. I can hear the voices yelling. “Sega or Nintendo? Sega or Nintendo?” All across the playgrounds, and even the break rooms of the world, fights were broken out over the preferred console of choice for the fourth generation and that is what fascinates me overall.

While SNES is clearly the superior console for the most part (one could make a case if they preferred the games on the Genesis) and yet (even when shown the proof in the case of hardware and such), many fans of the Genesis will still back their preferred console up. Is this a bad thing? Think about the ignorance that many console war fighters have these days with their favorite consoles. Don’t you think that I would think that these testosterone filled imbeciles would learn by now to accept fact? I actually admire the survivors of the fourth generation console war who supported and continue to support Sega because of the fact that many of them did and do like the games over the hardware specs or even some of the games that the SNES had to offer. That’s what gaming is all about.

Will there be clearly better artistic and superior games on certain consoles out there? Of course. But one unique factor of the console wars is the fact that sometimes, there isn’t just one factor that influences a console of choice, but an ultimate and complex reasoning behind it all. SNES might have won the console war from a hardware and sales standpoint, but even though I would say they won it from a game standpoint as well, it really is up for debate. That’s what I most love about console wars, the fact that there is always a debate ready and waiting for someone to spark it among friends, co-workers, families and above all… anyone with a mind and a will to game.

Hook up your 16 bit consoles friends and rage on! The fouth generation console war will always not only rage on within fans of each respective console itself but also in the hearts and spirits of gamers everywhere. What about you? What’s that you’re saying? Xbox and PlayStation? The console war spirit rages on in these new contenders as well, and I can only be optimistic about what the future holds for video game console competition after the first frontiers of video game console wars have been set over 20 years ago.

- See more at: http://www.thepalaceofwisdom.co.uk/blog/2014/05/10/retrosnesgenesis/#sthash.OFybyptQ.dpuf

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