In the 16-bit era the Megadrive (Genesis) and SNES were the main console contenders. If you had to pick one which would it be?

And why? What games would you highlight? And did you own either?
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Like the Amiga and ST, I was lucky enough to own both systems and therefore have a soft spot for both. I wanted to vote both, but hate being a fence sitter, so went with the SNES.

Now I'll churn out what I've mentioned elsewhere. Sorry if you've already read my opinion before, but it seemed pointless writing it out again! So....

...owned both systems and they are both awesome! You just had to have an A500, SNES and Megadrive to get the best out of gaming back then. The systems and games felt so different, whilst many PS3 and 360 titles are carbon copies of one another. Shame the carts were hyper expensive. Still, it meant you got the best out of every game and appreciated playing each one.

Megadrive had exclusives like Super/Revenge of Shinobi (brilliant tunes and gameplay), top arcade ports like Golden Axe (near perfect port), some excellent shooters, darker more serious titles with higher resolution but fewer colours. Probably some of the best midi music of the time! The controller, graphics, sound and games all felt unique to the system and of course it was released first, so really impressed in arcade ports and style games compared to the Amiga.

In comparision to the Megadrive, the SNES had more bright colourful Nintendo style games, 256 colours, good graphics hardware and combined with Mode-7 allowed superiour visuals in many cases in comparision to the Megadrive ...... but lower resolution and a poorer CPU affected some games making them worse, completely different sound (better in my opinion) and the better controller. Also the best Street Fighter II port for its time (although the Megadrive followed up eventually in a close second), helped a lot by its native six button controller.

Super Mario World is a work of art, Mario Kart two player and F-Zero - loved them. The Mode-7 effect was brilliant for the time. I thought it worked quite well in racers - the only other option was the Lotus type scrolling road effect, which would have made F-Zero and Mario Kart much worse. Part of the appeal in those games was scraping around corners using the top shoulder buttons, which rotated the track Mode-7 style, seeking out every last bit of pace from a lap. Really felt like seat of the pants racing. Mastering Bowser and Donkey Kong also took some serious skill and practice. Of course, it was used to great effect not just in racers (which some people above thought looked bad - to be fair it does by today's standards), but in games to scale, zoom and twist levels and warp enemies. It made for some unique gaming effects only seen on the SNES.

Just thinking about the top games on each system - so hard to compare. So different in the look and feel. I still would have had to have both back in the day! But never would have given up my Amiga for either!

What I hated about both systems was running in PAL 50Hz mode - slower games, squashed screens with borders - especially bad on the SNES. On the Amiga, PAL systems were better due to greater game support and the extra resolution came in handy. Plus we could switch many games to 60Hz if required.

On the consoles of the time, 60Hz systems were just plain better. Thankfully, with modern consoles, we've left all that nonsense behind.
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I would probably chose the SNES, although I didn't have one back in time, I own both now. But it would mainly be because I guess the SNES has a lot more games than the SEGA.
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Not sure about that. From what I remember in the stores at the time the Megadrive, in the UK at least, always seemed to have more games in the stores. The Megadrive might even had seen more overall releases. However I would agree that the SNES saw more AAA releases in the end.

I also picked the SNES myself, because at the time the Megadrive felt to me like a console version of the 16 bit computers on the market, whereas the SNES felt like Nintendo really did go all out to design a pure gaming system that was not worried about the home computers around at the time. Gameplay and graphics in SNES games were also always more consistently good, whereas with the Megadrive, it was very hit and miss, again much like the home computer market.

The Megadrive did see some brilliant ports of SEGA arcade games and Sega's own games for the system. Plus quite a few great third party releases, but the SNES had something special about its feel, just like all Nintendo consoles seem to. I also think the SNES hasn't dated badly and its games are generally just as playable today.
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My choice is the SNES. You can't go wrong with games like the Donkey Kong Country series, Super Mario World, Super Mario Kart and so on. A great console with a fantastic software library.
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You just named the games I actually DON'T like
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You don't like Super Mario Kart!




lol
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Perhaps that one is not too bad, but imo all Mario games are overrated, come on, it's simple jump & run. It also really depends if you like the genre, f.ex. me, I don't.

And I also prefer the real racing games, although more arcade than simulation, than driving on strange vehicles, collecting stars (gay) and shooting with turtle shells. I have to admit though that I played Modnation Racers for a bit, and I kinda liked it, but after that session, didn't touch it again.
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Super Mario Kart really only comes into its own when played multiplayer. Very like Bomberman and many others.

Originally I wasn't a huge fan of the Mario Platforming games either, but after finally buying a SNES late in its life and playing them something suddenly clicked and I started to really enjoy them. I think you do either love them or hate them though as many people get too frustrated by the way platform games work.
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You can't say you hate the original Mario. That goes against everything in the universe.
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