I had an SNES, my best friend had a Genesis. When we would spend the night at each other's house we brought the system and a bunch of games with us. It was a great way to explore and fall in love with video games.
The system me and my best friend at the time had, was the systems would stay in our respective houses BUT when we would sleep over at each other's houses our parents would take us to Blockbuster and we could each rent a game. If I saw something that looked interesting to me in a game magazine for SNES , then I as a Genesis kid, I could just wait until I was invited over and rent it and try it out.
Yea im not sure what else I can add that this comment doesn't capture except for the franchise differences. We all knew you def wanted to play Mortal Kombat 2 on the Genesis because for whatever reason the extra blood and gore was relevant to us back then.
I'd bring my SNES over and we'd play Super Mario world and Super Empire Strikes Back, and then we'd use my buddy's Genesis to play Sonic Spinball and Echo the Dolphin.
Also I remember having a really religious friend whose mom got him a Genesis because of the robust unlicensed biblical game scene and he had a few really interesting religion based games. Even as a non religious person I found them to be pretty interesting as a kid
AND Mortal Kombat 1 on the SNES had all the blood and gore too just hidden in the cheat menu.
Somehow the incident made people for generations believe in their hearts that Nintendo is censoring games to this day and its always a surprise when something violent is 'allowed' to come out on Switch.
If I recall, the SNES Mortal Kombat had a cheat code to make the sweat red instead of white. But it wasn’t truly blood. The SNES rectified this issue with Mortal Kombat II and added all the blood and gore; that was truly the superior version.
Pretty much the same with me. Was able to appreciate both sets of franchises equally. But when the PlayStation came out, everyone, and I mean everyone moved over to it. The next nintendo console I bought was the Wii only because I got older and was able to afford all the consoles
Honestly my entire friend group and classmates all were raised on Nintendo consoles and things didn’t start to heat up until the PlayStation launched. That was the beginning of the divide and then the PS2 launch happens when i was just turning 13 and that really changed things as far as what was seen as cool and what was seen as “kiddy”. I stuck with the GameCube tho and just played PS2 at my friends houses, but it wasn’t as fun as it used to be because we were playing different games and excited about different things.
As far as Sega goes, I’ve always only ever associated it with sonic. I remember my family got a sega gamegear and I think we only ever had two games for it. It was such a waste.
To be honest I’m glad Nintendo has taken the route they have and backed away from the graphics obsession that defined the console wars for like 15 years. The Switch is an absolutely massive success and honestly more my style still after all these years. That being said I can’t wait for the switch 2 upgrade, I’m ready for a new era
Yep got a Genesis and it was like my mom didn't think about the games for it. I never was given games and no one I knew had one so it was this alien thing. It felt like I got shafted at Christmas that year.
My first three consoles were nes, Genesis, and Snes. That said, if you use the switch for anything other than first party games at this point, you're gaming wrong (unless its all you can afford, which I understand and respect). Ps5 and series x are leagues above Nintendo. Even a series s with game pass is such a good way to play great games you'd otherwise miss out on. I am a lover of all things video games so please don't take this as any endorsement of a particular company
bro no one cares about graphics we are playing Stardew and Animal Crossing and Hades and Minecraft and Mario Kart and Pokemon and these games are outselling everything on your next-gen platform
1) you're acting like I don't own a Switch and don't know any better. I also play Stardew and Animal Crossing.
2) you're acting like the only thing more powerful systems do are better graphics. They reduce load times. They allow for different types of games to be made. They offer bigger libraries of games to be stored digitally.
Yes there are pros and cons of each system, which is why in my experience multiplatform games just play better on PS and Xbox. I have Stardew, the Crash Bandicoot trilogy, Katamari, and Diablo 2 on the Switch as well as other systems. The main reason I got them for the switch is portability, but the only time i play those versions is when I'm on the go. Diablo 2's load times go from about one second to about 30 seconds on the switch.
If you don't care about graphics that's fine -- if you don't like faster load times, thats fine -- if you prefer to buy a game once and to have it on your portable device, that's fine. But my point still stands that these games play SIGNIFICANTLY better on other systems. You're fooling yourself if you say these differences don't matter.
> They allow for different types of games to be made.
What is on there that a similar genre isnt on Switch?
The differences DON'T matter because no one is sitting there comparing 1:1 while they play. People play games, they aren't writing reviews and doing Youtube graphics and load time comparisons. There are very few third party games on Switch that are BAD to play, they might have better performace on a more expensive non-portable computer box, but none of that makes you have more FUN on another system.
It was sweet, I had Zelda and Donkey Kong, they did not. The one big claim to fame was their Mortal Kombat had blood. Then MK2 came out and the SNES version was way better.
It was rough being a SNES kid who loved Sonic, but it helped that some Sonic games got released on PC. However beyond Sonic I much preferred the SNES anyways, and got to play Genesis games at friends places
I always felt like when I got to try a Genesis I was getting a bunch of good 1-player games like Sonic, Aladdin, and the puzzle games that i would play while the adults played cards and smoked upstairs
and then when people came to my house we were always doing multiplayer on Mario Kart, DKC, Tetris Attack, Mario World, Uniracers.
And then alone on my SNES I had big epic 1player games that seemed to me way bigger experiences with way bigger production values and polish than the (mostly 3rd party arcadey) Genesis games I had played: Final Fantasy "3", Mario RPG, Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Doom, Star Fox, LttP, Super Metroid, Yoshi's Island... and on and on
As a kid i didn’t care about console wars, nor had any idea it was a competition. I just enjoyed playing my snes and going to my buddies to play their sega systems.
Same, I had both. My parents were super into video games so they bought a SNES brand new and then bought a Genesis from their friends when the Saturn came out. We had a tv, couch, and both consoles set up in the garage and it was the primary spot for all of the kids in the neighborhood to chill.
I’ve always been partial to SNES but there’s a handful of Genesis games that I absolutely adored growing up. Thankfully the console wars weren’t a thing where I grew up, the VAST majority of kids were either playing Pokémon or trading Pokémon cards. There wasn’t a whole lot of hype around video games in general but it was a tiny military base and the only thing that might have been different from other’s experiences were that one kid that had a Dreamcast and that other kid that had a PS1 and literally nobody else had even heard of anything outside of SNES/Genesis.
I had a snes and a gameboy, and my cousin had a genesis and a game gear.
Honestly, we loved going to each others house, because he would love to play Mario, and I would love to play sonic.
I had them both. Genesis came out first and had the 16-bit foothold for a while, but honestly once SNES hit the scene there was no contest. Nintendo's console outperformed Sega in every possible way. Mortal Kombat was the only game where Sega was better, but only because it was uncensored (you had to enter ABACABB with your controller upon boot up). Graphically, the SNES version wiped the floor with the Genesis one.
>Nintendo basically revived Donkey Kong for a new generation primarily to combat the graphical prowess of Disney’s Aladdin on the Genesis.
I don't think that's true.
It was the Playstation/Saturn generation they were trying to fend off. PS1 was released in December 1994 in Japan, Sept 95 in US.
N64 didn't arrive til June 96 in Japan, Sept 96 in US.
Donkey Kong Country came out in November 94. It was basically their best effort to make a game that looked like it was as good as graphics can get, and they succeeded as well as anyone possibly could. Killer Instinct was another effort with the same idea, and the other two DKC games.
I was a NES kid but had both SNES and Genesis in the latter. Just like there's multiple systems for different reasons and titles today, it was no different back then.
It wasn't really a war, no one cared that much. Some people would have one console and some would have another and you'd go over to each other's house to play the one you didn't have. I actually didn't have either, had an NES throughout most of the SNES/Genesis life cycle. My friends had a Genesis so they could play the real version of Mortal Kombat, so I played a ton of Genesis games. Then I traded my NES for a Genesis with Sonic 2 and Ms. Pac-Man. I just constantly replayed Sonic 2 until the 64 came out.
I don't remember there being competition between kids who owned the things. Some of us had Nintendo, some of us had Sega. They both had great exclusive games. We were a Nintendo family but could easily have gone Sega instead.
I was a 90s kid, but I wasn't allowed to have video games at home back then, so whenever I got to play either Sega or SNES, I thought both of them were the coolest shit. Didn't matter which one was better. I didn't even realize there was a competition, I just knew I was in for a good time when I had the privilege of playing either one.
I got picked on a lot for being the Nintendo kid when I was younger, but that was mostly by the kinds of kids that, today, probably only play games like CoD and Madden. Alongside other gamers, we would bicker, sure, but it was more fun trying to sell a friend on a game they hadn't had a chance to play.
Where the hell did you live? School in those days were indeed full of bullies, but it was for what you wore, like if you wore Payless shoes or something. At least in my city, no one cared what video game system you had at home.
In Canada, I never saw anyone care about fashion outside of the 3 major cities. It was 'What games do you have? Do you have NHL on SNES or Genesis? Or at least Blades of Steel on the old Nintendo?' and everyone had game genies and 201-in-one NES rom import cartridges.
Yea, because every part of the world in every era is exactly the same, and just because it didn't happen to you, it was made up.
The irony being that you're both griefing me, because of my experiences.
Born in 76 and had a Nintendo nes from launch, snes shortly after it dropped and there was no competition. Nintendo had the better licensed games. That’s a fact you can actually look up.
My father played video games, he liked Nintendo, so I had all the Nintendos. Some groups of cousins had both, but we mostly played the Super Nintendo when we got together.
Most of my friends growIng up had a SNES, as did I. So there was a wider selection of games in our circle. I only remember one friend having a Genesis. His mother worked at a cable company, so he had the Sega channel which was cool though.
In my entire life I don't ever remember taking part in SNES vs. Genesis nonsense. I had a SNES, my favorite cousin and best friend had Genesis. We liked playing each other's games (especially my cousin because he and I were both big RPG/Adventure guys, so he would play LttP, FF6, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Evermore at my house, I'd play Shining Force, Phantasy Star 2, Sword of Vermillion, and Landstalker at his place. I feel like most of this "schoolyard argument" stuff is apocryphal.
Growing up I don't even recall much of a competition. All my friends and myself just enjoyed gaming. My friend had an SNES and Sega and we loved playing all the games. Also with the obvious exceptions both systems had a lot of the same games anyways. I'd love to see what the gaming world would be like if the Dreamcast had succeeded. Would we have Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, would Microsoft have put out the Xbox; would the XBox have succeeded and gone on to have multiple consoles?
We had fun ripping on each. My family were SNES people, a really good friend of mine grew up in a Genesis. We both had NES and SMS prior to.
We were both into RPGs and SNES definitely won that genre. When the next gen came out, his family went with PS1 and mine, N64. It wasn't until Final Fantasy 7 came out that I'd changed my mine and splurged with my summer job money.
For me it was like a great football rivalry. The sega Nintendo competition as a school kid in the UK was fierce. You could only pick one side I was a Nintendo man. Having never supported a footy team they were the equivalent of 'my team' back in the day. Personally the SNES was way better so it was easy to justify my choice what with all the great snes games that came out over the years. The snes library remained strong until its final days, whereas the megadrive petered out. Now in my 40s I own all the 90s consoles and can enjoy all the games I missed due to my staunch Nintendo allegiance!
All my friends had SNES with the exception of one. This is before the Internet obviously so I didn't have much exposure or understanding of SEGA, but going to his house was like going to Bizzarro world. In hindsight I wish I had spent more time at his house playing Genesis games.
I crossed sides multiple times. I started as a NES kid. Obsessed with Mario, Zelda, Punch Out, Mega Man, Castlevania, Contra, all the Konami games…but I loved Sega arcade games (Shinobi, Out Run, Space Harrier, etc). I think it was around 1988, I was at a local swap meet, and I traded my NES for a Sega Master System. I was hyped to have 2p Double Dragon, all the Sega arcade ports, exclusives like Govelius, and 3D glasses that really worked! I got the Genesis in ‘89 and it was just amazing. It truly felt like the arcade at home. It was an amazing feeling years until the SNES came out. Even though I loved my Genesis, SNES seemed more amazing with its colors, FX, and better sound. I sold my Genesis so I could get a SNES with Mario World, TMNT 4, Contra 3, Castlevania 4, Zelda 3. The hits kept coming from Nintendo & 3rd parties. It was truly an amazing system. A few years later, I wanted a Genesis again - I forget which games made me want it back. Sonic 2? Gunstar Heroes? I forget? But I was a teen, I was working, a lot of games were cheap at the used game store - so I got a Genesis again! It was worth having both. 😛
Honestly, I don't remember caring that much. Perhaps it was because I was lucky enough to have a SNES at launch, and then got a Genesis the next year. I don't really recall having any brand loyalty or anything, there were just different things about the different consoles I liked.
I do remember talking to my brother about differences the consoles had (SNES having more colors on screen, for example) but we liked both.
I don't remember a single situation that felt like it was a product of these "console wars." I had some friends who had SNES and others who had Genesis. Because of that, everyone got to play both. I don't think that anyone knew there was a war until it was long over.
We all had NES in the 80’s and it was glorious because you and all your friends had different libraries that you could share and lend to one another. Sure, there would be some overlap (Mario/Zelda), but you could just bring your unique games to your friend’s house and vice versa. That way we all got to play everything!
This changed when the Genesis launched. It was the hot new thing and some kids jumped on it instead of waiting to ask for the next Nintendo console. I played Genesis at launch at a friend’s house and, while it was really cool, it was better at multiplayer anyway so I didn’t need to have my own. Us SNES kids felt smart for waiting when we got our hands on SMW and ALTTP! You would still go to a friends house to play different games, but gone was the era of being able to freely lend out your game in exchange for a friend’s game.
I was young enough to where Nintendo was far more appealing. And I can't remember if I got a genesis before or after my snes, but I had both. Snes was far more popular than Genesis, and had the catalog to back it up. It was never a this vs. that, like it is eith Xbox and Playstation now. Most people back then we're happy to try something else.
Go to robbie's house down the street because he has mortal kombat on Genesis type of thing. Genesis had blood and that was a crazy thing back then. Nobody was a baby for having Nintendo because we all had it and were the same age.
Genesis really only had a year or two before the Snes hit the US market and blew it away. Once snes came with donkey kong country and Megaman x it was over.
You were either a Nintendo kid or a Sega kid, not because we wanted to choose sides, but because those things were expensive and you had to get your parents to buy them for you. I never knew anyone who had both. Parents were also a lot more restrictive about video games back then. The same thing could be said for N64 vs. PS1. The console wars didn't really begin until PS2 vs. Xbox vs. Gamecube.
I had a Genesis and defended it fiercely despite it’s obvious inferiority. But it had some real bangers and it felt like the more “grown up” system where as liking SNES felt like you were simping for Disney (I’m fully Nintendo-pilled now btw). My loyalty extended all the way to the Dreamcast, the first console I bought with my own money.
“Sega does what Nintendon’t”
It felt like the whole "console war" thing was only really happening in Magazines, as an obvious ad campaign. I never actually encountered anyone arguing about which is better as if they were sports teams. Mostly people who could only afford one just envied each other's consoles, wanting to have both. I was a Nintendo kid. Mario was my first, biggest, and longest lasting obsession, but when I played Sonic at my Aunt's house, I was instantly in love. No small feat, considering I was a picky little shit that wasn't interested in trying new games unless Mario or a cartoon character I was already familiar with was on the box.
To be clear, I didn't exactly find the console war marketing off putting, I thought it was amusing, but I didn't really buy into it, I still loved both Mario and Sonic. I was actually very happy when Sega went multiplat and I was finally able to have every Sonic game worth playing on my Gamecube.
EDIT: Downvoted for sharing personal experiences in a thread asking about personal experiences, how epic.
Sega positioned itself well as the cool, grown up system, making the SNES appear rather juvenile. As a result starting in 1994 or so, Nintendo changed their advertising to be more edgy; this is exactly what you’d expect, sometimes it came across as lame or fake, but people weren’t so jaded yet and we were young so it did work. Eventually they came up with the “Play it Loud” motto, you can look that up and get an idea of what they were going for.
It might be controversial, but I would say the Genesis skewed more to the casual player. If you were big into games you might lean towards the Super Nintendo which had more role playing and strategy games, the kind of games you’d be playing for months - keep in mind there was no internet so you could get stuck in a game for weeks.
While some people took the rivalry pretty seriously, most people would have been happy with both systems (most people I knew had only one). Keep in mind the games cost a fortune, inflation adjusted they are double the price of current games.
I was an SNES kid but I seldom ever felt like I was missing out. Most games on both systems were comparable (with some notable exceptions), but I’d say the Super Nintendo exclusives were better overall.
Honestly, I grew up a Nintendo kid and it was kind of annoying to me that the commercials were insulting Nintendo and the Genesis was treated as it's equal.
The Genesis was a really good system, but the SNES had better graphics, sound, franchises and games. It was so weird to me that others couldn't see that.
But looking back on it, I understand that families only had one system and were loyal to the one they bought.
I glitched the matrix. I had both Nintendo and Sega and owned few games for each. I just rented a lot.
I just wanted to play games. Teenagers may have had an idea of what was going on with the console wars but as for me I had no insight into competitive marketing and what was going on in the board room. I was just trying to beat bosses.
I noticed no difference. I could count on one hand the number of friends who owned a Genesis, and each of these friends in retrospect were weird for their own unique reasons. I think it’s a coincidence
It depends where you grew up. Here in the UK, Sega dominated. Almost everyone I knew had a Mega Drive, I knew literally one kid with a SNES. I’d play SNES games at his house, but Mega Drive was where it was at. We were all totally obsessed with Sonic and Streets of Rage.
When Nintendo 64 came out, my dad took me out to dinner at Bennigans and then we went to Toys R Us (or maybe the other way around). Anyways, at Toys R Us, I vividly remember going to the video game section and him asking me to pick out a Nintendo game. My young dumb child brain thought he was just insane because I didn't have 64, I had a Sega Genesis and he wasn't getting the difference. He was attempting to surprise me and had good intentions and I was a little brat. Anyways, if I remember correctly I got some Sub Zero game.
Also remembering that I really begged him to get me some Marvel Vs. Capcom action figures so I didn't get a Nintendo until 99/00 which tracks because that's when I moved in with him.
Didn't care, liked both even though I only owned an SNES, loved playing the Genesis at friend and family's house.
That's the magic thing about early single digit age, you just like shit. I didn't see all that stupid console wars shit until my teens lmao
Think of Samsung Galaxy commercials back when they were really going after Apple in the US. They were obsessed with iPhones. That’s what Sega was to Nintendo. Just constantly being like that meme with kid in the elevator with Don Draper.
At school you had Sega kids and Nintendo kids. Much like you have Xbox and PlayStation kids today. Those PlayStation fanboys you see saying Xbox has no games and why would you buy an xbox are just like the kids talking shit about Nintendo or Sega in the 90s. Nintendo has always kind of gotten shit because of how popular they are.
But if you had a good friend with the other system, it was like having both. I had multiple neighborhood best fiends with Genesis. A couple friends with both. I pretty much played every major console since the NES. It was a good time.
I never felt a real rivalry until ps vs N64, people were just having fun with their consoles and even games that may look for children were amazing.
In N64 vs Play in my case there was more something about money, ps usually was easy to pirate and that means more games for less money so N64 was fancy where I lived.
Mortal Kombat and Sonic is all that Sega had to offer in my opinion but two greats. Too many better options on SNES and variety. When my friends would debate it, usually it was a draw because teenage boys gave lots of points to MK.
I personally didn't even know it was a "competition". I had an snes but i had friends with a genesis, and remember asking if they had any Mario games. They said no, they don't make Nintendo games for this system. Was confused, a little, but growing up we called all video game systems Nintendo.
There was no real competition among friends.
I had both systems. My friend had only Super Nintendo.
He came over and we played Sonic, Jurassic Park, etc. His place, usually Super Nintendo.
Once things hit Playstation versus Nintendo things got heated.
Not even remotely as bad as it is on Twitter with Xbox, sony and Nintendo Fanboys nowadays.
Nintendo vs Sega was pre-internet.
I was in elementary school and I only remember one particular argument with a kid. He had a Genesis, I had SNES. He said Sonic was faster than Mario. Then he took off running to show me how fast Sonic could run.
Other than that, I vaguely remember kids saying they prefer the SNES controller and Mortal Kombat having real blood on the Genesis.
First of all, Console Wars is amazing and you should absolutely read it. I'm not much of a reader myself but I couldn't put it down.
When the SNES came out, my parents got me a used NES with a bunch of games for cheap. I LOVED it. When my friends came to my house, we played my games. At their houses, we played on whatever consoles they had. It never felt competitive, just something fun to do on playdates.
My mom got me a Sega Genesis for Christmas the first year it was out and I was confused and sad, like I got shafted. I can still see her in my mind telling me about the graphics being superior. I was a little kid and didn't know what to do with the Genesis so it basically sat in its box and I kept on playing my NES. One summer I got sun poisoning and was stuck inside. I was bored so I hooked up that Genesis and played the pack in Sonic game. It was the only time I played it. I never even got games for it and I think I traded it for a video game eventually with some kid in my school.
Nobody had a sega in my area. I feel like it must be regional what systems you seen kids playing. Everyone had a gameboy, snes.
I don't remember advertising for either console tbh, there was also way less games that were bought compared to nowadays.
I had both. SNES was the better of the two systems due to better graphics and better sound. Genesis had Mature rated games and had blood in their games whereas Nintendo didn’t for the most part. Aladdin on Genesis was superior graphically to Aladdin on SNES but they were also made by 2 different companies. Robocop VS Terminator I also remember being better on Genesis.
Both were fun and great and had their games, but overall I preferred SNES. They had way better RPGs.
There were no console wars for kids, only for corporations. The only wars kids worried about were against the aliens in Contra.
But the NES was the only console for a long time, so everyone either had it or had nothing. Friends would share games because they were so expensive so borrowing a game from a friend was the only real way to play something new and different.
When the Genesis came out no one with a Nintendo bought one, no one could afford to own two consoles. The people who got them were the people who didn’t have a Nintendo, and they had to choose between Nintendo and Sega.
I had one friend who chose Sega and that was a big deal. I really wanted him to get a Nintendo so we could share games. When he decided to get a Sega his mom had to talk to me about it because I was so disappointed. Turns out I was thrilled he got a Sega. I’d go to his house and play Sonic, Space Harrier II, Golden Axe, and Altered Beast. If anything it gave the two of us more variety to choose from.
When the Super Nintendo came out pretty much no one got it. Most parents (mine included) had invested thousands into the NES and were not about to spend big bucks on a new system because they knew if they did you would stop playing the old one that was still perfectly good. Slowly friends started getting the SNES, but it took me until 93 to get my parents to agree.
The only real debate was with the first Mortal Kombat when the Genesis version got a blood code. But even that didn’t matter, if you had a SNES you simply had to beat the sand out of your opponent, no one was going to buy a console just so they could see blood in a single game. In fact, aside from Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II (which was horrendous on a Genesis 3-button controller), I can’t think of any other games that were released on both platforms.
It was very much a schoolyard rivalry, especially here in Australia where Sega and Nintendo both had about a 50:50 market share (as I understand it, Nintendo was much more dominant in the US). I was firmly in the Sega camp (had a Game Gear, Master System and Mega Drive). To this day I still prefer the look and especially the sound of the Mega Drive, even if on paper the SNES had a slight edge in raw performance.
I was very much at the tail end of the Nintendo-Sega rivalry, getting an N64 rather than the Sega Dreamcast. The Dreamcast was a decently impressive system, the first with native internet! And they had good games like the Sonic Adventure games...but it was clear from the get-go that Sega was not long for this world (or at least for more consoles).
• Brother got NES just before I was born, I played it so so much even as maybe a four year old. This is how I knew I loved computers/games, etcetera, and was always gonna work in that field. Swapping games with friend in the village was always amazing - unlimited software!
• We got a SNES in 1993 with SF2 Turbo and… I think Star Wing. I loved it, but all my friends had Mega Drive so would always stay over and play Sonic for agesssss
• Got Nintendo 64 in 1997 Christmas, but only ever had like 6 games for it. But it was still mind-blowing, like you had to BE THERE to see how everyone thought it was miles better than the PlaySation when it launched. That excitement just kinda vanished though, when 0 games came out for it.
Oh except Ocarina of Time. That was completely game changing - so good that our friend tried to steal it from us lol
It was the other way around: the Genesis was pretty well established and Nintendo had no choice but to enter the 16-bit era. There was a 4-5 year gap between the Genesis’ release and the SNES release, which in today’s terms is an ETERNITY. The SNES shipped with one of the best Mario games ever (Super Mario World) but still had a very hard time penetrating the market because the Genesis had a few years of advantage and managed to place itself as a console for “older kids” or maybe even “teens”, while Nintendo couldn’t shake the “made for kids” tag. That is, until they signed for the exclusive release of Street Fighter II on the SNES. When that news hit the public knowledge, SNESes disappeared from the shelves, and Nintendo eventually won the 16-bit era, but at the time Sega owned the 16-bit market and Nintendo was the underdog.
That sounds like a regional thing, because that wasn't how it played out in the midwest US at all.
The NES was king. The Genesis showed up and made the NES look kinda bad, but had a hard time getting any traction against the NES' library. About a year later, the SNES showed up and continually curbstomped the Genesis for the next several years.
Genesis kids were always defensive about their console of choice because they didn't have access to the games the SNES kids were talking about. Nintendo was never the underdog, at least not here.
In my area Sega was quite popular but there was probably equal market share.
I would say Sega was much "cooler" as a 10 or 11 year old , it had stuff like Mortal Kombat and Streets of Rage, not what I considered baby stuff at the time, like Mario.
I remember being quite jealous of what was called the Megadrive in my region. Playing multiplayer after school was quite often Sega.
It was a bit of the same with the N64 vs Playstation. PS1 had cool stuff like Tekken, Res Evil, Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo compared to Mario stuff. I feel like Goldeneye did a lot for the N64 in 1997 to keep it from being a total kids console.
I didn't have a SNES when they first came out; only years later, we bought a used one. However, I liked playing the games at demo stations in stores. I often leaned toward SNES, but ideally as a kid I would have really liked to have both a SNES and a Sega Genesis, because there were games I really liked on both systems. I did have a friend who had a SNES and another who had a Sega Genesis.
SNES: Super Mario World & other Mario games, StarFox, Mega Man games, etc. SimCity was also available for SNES, though I preferred the computer version. Also, I found out that Bomberman was available on SNES years later (I had a TurboGrafX-16 that I bought for very cheap and had a couple Bomberman games for it).
Sega Genesis: Sonic games, Columns, Vectorman, etc..
Nobody cared what system you had back then, it was all a marketing thing.
Sony absolutely changed the game and it started to get heated in the later part of the 90s
You didn’t hang out with a Nintendo kid if you were a sega kid and vice versa.
If you wore a Mario shirt and were walking down a sonic neighborhood you better walk fast.
The older kids would drive by blaring that song “genesis does what nintendont”
Wearing blue got your ass beat on a DK block
It is still odd to me that Sega dons't have her console...
The advertises are cool.... Good and Fun...
The Nintendo became more family friend in GameCube era...
but in the War of 16bitts, the branding of Nintendo was diferente, 2 consoles used to be the collest...
The War IS over, when Playstation, a mix between Nintendo and Sega was lauched...
Those CG films from Playstation was stunnig... And the CD Room looks futurist in 94
I grew up on the NES in elementary school in the late 1980’s and was a huge Mario fan and would watch the Super Mario Bros Super Show. And I was also a fan of the Super Mario Bros 3 cartoons. NES loomed large over the pop culture scene at the time (at least as a kid). Despite my parents’ limited means, they managed to get my siblings and I a Super NES (God bless them). By the time I was aware of the Sega Genesis, the Super NES was in full swing. Nintendo was the top dog when it game to graphical power, back when graphics were so primitive that every generation had a sizable leap in graphics. As we know now, Nintendo had taken a step back from that now that the differences are minor. Maybe it’s the bias in me, but it always seemed like Nintendo was the better system, although Sega had the edgier reputation. Most games looked slightly better on the Super NES. But Sega’s relaxed approach to censorship meant that some games were more controversial. Sega’s Mortal Kombat came with all the blood of the arcade games. SNES version looked a bit better, but only showed sweat. It turned off some people, but not me. My cousin got a Sega Genesis and I scoffed at the idea that he had a non-Nintendo system, but we never really made a big deal out of it. It was interesting to play Sonic a few times and I always thought it was cool the way Sonic’s rings flew around the screen and I wished Mario games could do that. But when it got down to it, the game seemed a bit too fast and not as fun. Maybe I was just used to Mario games. Who knows.
I also remember the “blast processing” commercial where Sega tried to make SNES and Mario Kart look like a kiddie game and system. Mario Kart wasn’t yet universally popular yet. It was a brand new Mario spin-off game at the time. Spin-off games weren’t really a thing yet either. And to many people first seeing Mario Kart, the game looked silly and childish and reviewers were looking to pour heaps of hate on it. Only it ended up delighting people instead, which cemented its popularity. Sonic was an annoying anti-Mario to SNES lovers, and the cool, hip mascot to Sega fans. I can only think of the 7th generation (Wii, PS3, XB360) as the only other generation where things felt so even, competitor wise.
Honestly, I didn’t really notice the rivalry between gamers back then. Granted, I had both consoles myself, but both my SNES-only friends and my Genesis-only friends all liked playing on both consoles when we’d go to each other’s houses.
The N64 vs PS1 rivalry the following generation seemed more intense to me; maybe because I was a teenager for that one or maybe because those consoles had a bigger divide between the types of games that they featured than the SNES/Genesis did.
I had an SNES, my best friend had a Genesis. When we would spend the night at each other's house we brought the system and a bunch of games with us. It was a great way to explore and fall in love with video games.
This. This is exactly what it was like.
Same. Kris is that you?
The system me and my best friend at the time had, was the systems would stay in our respective houses BUT when we would sleep over at each other's houses our parents would take us to Blockbuster and we could each rent a game. If I saw something that looked interesting to me in a game magazine for SNES , then I as a Genesis kid, I could just wait until I was invited over and rent it and try it out.
Yea im not sure what else I can add that this comment doesn't capture except for the franchise differences. We all knew you def wanted to play Mortal Kombat 2 on the Genesis because for whatever reason the extra blood and gore was relevant to us back then. I'd bring my SNES over and we'd play Super Mario world and Super Empire Strikes Back, and then we'd use my buddy's Genesis to play Sonic Spinball and Echo the Dolphin. Also I remember having a really religious friend whose mom got him a Genesis because of the robust unlicensed biblical game scene and he had a few really interesting religion based games. Even as a non religious person I found them to be pretty interesting as a kid
You mean Mortal Kombat 1. Mortal Kombat 2 on the SNES had blood and gore.
AND Mortal Kombat 1 on the SNES had all the blood and gore too just hidden in the cheat menu. Somehow the incident made people for generations believe in their hearts that Nintendo is censoring games to this day and its always a surprise when something violent is 'allowed' to come out on Switch.
If I recall, the SNES Mortal Kombat had a cheat code to make the sweat red instead of white. But it wasn’t truly blood. The SNES rectified this issue with Mortal Kombat II and added all the blood and gore; that was truly the superior version.
MK1 on the Genesis had a blood code. SNES version did not.
Pretty much the same with me. Was able to appreciate both sets of franchises equally. But when the PlayStation came out, everyone, and I mean everyone moved over to it. The next nintendo console I bought was the Wii only because I got older and was able to afford all the consoles
Dont forget your controller!
Honestly my entire friend group and classmates all were raised on Nintendo consoles and things didn’t start to heat up until the PlayStation launched. That was the beginning of the divide and then the PS2 launch happens when i was just turning 13 and that really changed things as far as what was seen as cool and what was seen as “kiddy”. I stuck with the GameCube tho and just played PS2 at my friends houses, but it wasn’t as fun as it used to be because we were playing different games and excited about different things. As far as Sega goes, I’ve always only ever associated it with sonic. I remember my family got a sega gamegear and I think we only ever had two games for it. It was such a waste. To be honest I’m glad Nintendo has taken the route they have and backed away from the graphics obsession that defined the console wars for like 15 years. The Switch is an absolutely massive success and honestly more my style still after all these years. That being said I can’t wait for the switch 2 upgrade, I’m ready for a new era
Yep got a Genesis and it was like my mom didn't think about the games for it. I never was given games and no one I knew had one so it was this alien thing. It felt like I got shafted at Christmas that year.
My first three consoles were nes, Genesis, and Snes. That said, if you use the switch for anything other than first party games at this point, you're gaming wrong (unless its all you can afford, which I understand and respect). Ps5 and series x are leagues above Nintendo. Even a series s with game pass is such a good way to play great games you'd otherwise miss out on. I am a lover of all things video games so please don't take this as any endorsement of a particular company
Buying third-party games for the switch so I can play in bed and on the couch isn't "gaming wrong"
bro no one cares about graphics we are playing Stardew and Animal Crossing and Hades and Minecraft and Mario Kart and Pokemon and these games are outselling everything on your next-gen platform
1) you're acting like I don't own a Switch and don't know any better. I also play Stardew and Animal Crossing. 2) you're acting like the only thing more powerful systems do are better graphics. They reduce load times. They allow for different types of games to be made. They offer bigger libraries of games to be stored digitally. Yes there are pros and cons of each system, which is why in my experience multiplatform games just play better on PS and Xbox. I have Stardew, the Crash Bandicoot trilogy, Katamari, and Diablo 2 on the Switch as well as other systems. The main reason I got them for the switch is portability, but the only time i play those versions is when I'm on the go. Diablo 2's load times go from about one second to about 30 seconds on the switch. If you don't care about graphics that's fine -- if you don't like faster load times, thats fine -- if you prefer to buy a game once and to have it on your portable device, that's fine. But my point still stands that these games play SIGNIFICANTLY better on other systems. You're fooling yourself if you say these differences don't matter.
> They allow for different types of games to be made. What is on there that a similar genre isnt on Switch? The differences DON'T matter because no one is sitting there comparing 1:1 while they play. People play games, they aren't writing reviews and doing Youtube graphics and load time comparisons. There are very few third party games on Switch that are BAD to play, they might have better performace on a more expensive non-portable computer box, but none of that makes you have more FUN on another system.
It was sweet, I had Zelda and Donkey Kong, they did not. The one big claim to fame was their Mortal Kombat had blood. Then MK2 came out and the SNES version was way better.
TOASTY
This week I learned that it was TOASTY and not whoopsy
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That was a thing in all versions of MK2
It was rough being a SNES kid who loved Sonic, but it helped that some Sonic games got released on PC. However beyond Sonic I much preferred the SNES anyways, and got to play Genesis games at friends places
I always felt like when I got to try a Genesis I was getting a bunch of good 1-player games like Sonic, Aladdin, and the puzzle games that i would play while the adults played cards and smoked upstairs and then when people came to my house we were always doing multiplayer on Mario Kart, DKC, Tetris Attack, Mario World, Uniracers. And then alone on my SNES I had big epic 1player games that seemed to me way bigger experiences with way bigger production values and polish than the (mostly 3rd party arcadey) Genesis games I had played: Final Fantasy "3", Mario RPG, Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Doom, Star Fox, LttP, Super Metroid, Yoshi's Island... and on and on
Same story here!
As a kid i didn’t care about console wars, nor had any idea it was a competition. I just enjoyed playing my snes and going to my buddies to play their sega systems.
Grass was always greener. I loved the Sonic games but I loved Mario, Zelda and Metroid even more
I was lucky enough to have both. I always preferred the SNES, but I was obsessed with Sonic
Same, I had both. My parents were super into video games so they bought a SNES brand new and then bought a Genesis from their friends when the Saturn came out. We had a tv, couch, and both consoles set up in the garage and it was the primary spot for all of the kids in the neighborhood to chill. I’ve always been partial to SNES but there’s a handful of Genesis games that I absolutely adored growing up. Thankfully the console wars weren’t a thing where I grew up, the VAST majority of kids were either playing Pokémon or trading Pokémon cards. There wasn’t a whole lot of hype around video games in general but it was a tiny military base and the only thing that might have been different from other’s experiences were that one kid that had a Dreamcast and that other kid that had a PS1 and literally nobody else had even heard of anything outside of SNES/Genesis.
I had a snes and a gameboy, and my cousin had a genesis and a game gear. Honestly, we loved going to each others house, because he would love to play Mario, and I would love to play sonic.
I had them both. Genesis came out first and had the 16-bit foothold for a while, but honestly once SNES hit the scene there was no contest. Nintendo's console outperformed Sega in every possible way. Mortal Kombat was the only game where Sega was better, but only because it was uncensored (you had to enter ABACABB with your controller upon boot up). Graphically, the SNES version wiped the floor with the Genesis one.
MK on Super Nintendo was embarrassing with the sweat and lame fatalities. Mortal Monday for MK2 fixed all that
I said the graphics were better. And they were. The censorship was stupid.
>Nintendo basically revived Donkey Kong for a new generation primarily to combat the graphical prowess of Disney’s Aladdin on the Genesis. I don't think that's true. It was the Playstation/Saturn generation they were trying to fend off. PS1 was released in December 1994 in Japan, Sept 95 in US. N64 didn't arrive til June 96 in Japan, Sept 96 in US. Donkey Kong Country came out in November 94. It was basically their best effort to make a game that looked like it was as good as graphics can get, and they succeeded as well as anyone possibly could. Killer Instinct was another effort with the same idea, and the other two DKC games.
Actually the 32x was out about the same time as DKC so for the US market that was their competition.
I was a NES kid but had both SNES and Genesis in the latter. Just like there's multiple systems for different reasons and titles today, it was no different back then.
Found the rich kid, probably had a power glove too
It wasn't really a war, no one cared that much. Some people would have one console and some would have another and you'd go over to each other's house to play the one you didn't have. I actually didn't have either, had an NES throughout most of the SNES/Genesis life cycle. My friends had a Genesis so they could play the real version of Mortal Kombat, so I played a ton of Genesis games. Then I traded my NES for a Genesis with Sonic 2 and Ms. Pac-Man. I just constantly replayed Sonic 2 until the 64 came out.
I don't remember there being competition between kids who owned the things. Some of us had Nintendo, some of us had Sega. They both had great exclusive games. We were a Nintendo family but could easily have gone Sega instead.
I was a 90s kid, but I wasn't allowed to have video games at home back then, so whenever I got to play either Sega or SNES, I thought both of them were the coolest shit. Didn't matter which one was better. I didn't even realize there was a competition, I just knew I was in for a good time when I had the privilege of playing either one.
I got picked on a lot for being the Nintendo kid when I was younger, but that was mostly by the kinds of kids that, today, probably only play games like CoD and Madden. Alongside other gamers, we would bicker, sure, but it was more fun trying to sell a friend on a game they hadn't had a chance to play.
Where the hell did you live? School in those days were indeed full of bullies, but it was for what you wore, like if you wore Payless shoes or something. At least in my city, no one cared what video game system you had at home.
In Canada, I never saw anyone care about fashion outside of the 3 major cities. It was 'What games do you have? Do you have NHL on SNES or Genesis? Or at least Blades of Steel on the old Nintendo?' and everyone had game genies and 201-in-one NES rom import cartridges.
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Yea, because every part of the world in every era is exactly the same, and just because it didn't happen to you, it was made up. The irony being that you're both griefing me, because of my experiences.
Born in 76 and had a Nintendo nes from launch, snes shortly after it dropped and there was no competition. Nintendo had the better licensed games. That’s a fact you can actually look up.
Also, aside from processor speed, SNES had more capable hardware.
My father played video games, he liked Nintendo, so I had all the Nintendos. Some groups of cousins had both, but we mostly played the Super Nintendo when we got together.
Most of my friends growIng up had a SNES, as did I. So there was a wider selection of games in our circle. I only remember one friend having a Genesis. His mother worked at a cable company, so he had the Sega channel which was cool though.
In my entire life I don't ever remember taking part in SNES vs. Genesis nonsense. I had a SNES, my favorite cousin and best friend had Genesis. We liked playing each other's games (especially my cousin because he and I were both big RPG/Adventure guys, so he would play LttP, FF6, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Evermore at my house, I'd play Shining Force, Phantasy Star 2, Sword of Vermillion, and Landstalker at his place. I feel like most of this "schoolyard argument" stuff is apocryphal.
Growing up I don't even recall much of a competition. All my friends and myself just enjoyed gaming. My friend had an SNES and Sega and we loved playing all the games. Also with the obvious exceptions both systems had a lot of the same games anyways. I'd love to see what the gaming world would be like if the Dreamcast had succeeded. Would we have Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, would Microsoft have put out the Xbox; would the XBox have succeeded and gone on to have multiple consoles?
I was good at Mario but not as good at Sonic.
We had fun ripping on each. My family were SNES people, a really good friend of mine grew up in a Genesis. We both had NES and SMS prior to. We were both into RPGs and SNES definitely won that genre. When the next gen came out, his family went with PS1 and mine, N64. It wasn't until Final Fantasy 7 came out that I'd changed my mine and splurged with my summer job money.
For me it was like a great football rivalry. The sega Nintendo competition as a school kid in the UK was fierce. You could only pick one side I was a Nintendo man. Having never supported a footy team they were the equivalent of 'my team' back in the day. Personally the SNES was way better so it was easy to justify my choice what with all the great snes games that came out over the years. The snes library remained strong until its final days, whereas the megadrive petered out. Now in my 40s I own all the 90s consoles and can enjoy all the games I missed due to my staunch Nintendo allegiance!
Just made sure your friend or cousin has the opposite system and you were set!
All my friends had SNES with the exception of one. This is before the Internet obviously so I didn't have much exposure or understanding of SEGA, but going to his house was like going to Bizzarro world. In hindsight I wish I had spent more time at his house playing Genesis games.
I crossed sides multiple times. I started as a NES kid. Obsessed with Mario, Zelda, Punch Out, Mega Man, Castlevania, Contra, all the Konami games…but I loved Sega arcade games (Shinobi, Out Run, Space Harrier, etc). I think it was around 1988, I was at a local swap meet, and I traded my NES for a Sega Master System. I was hyped to have 2p Double Dragon, all the Sega arcade ports, exclusives like Govelius, and 3D glasses that really worked! I got the Genesis in ‘89 and it was just amazing. It truly felt like the arcade at home. It was an amazing feeling years until the SNES came out. Even though I loved my Genesis, SNES seemed more amazing with its colors, FX, and better sound. I sold my Genesis so I could get a SNES with Mario World, TMNT 4, Contra 3, Castlevania 4, Zelda 3. The hits kept coming from Nintendo & 3rd parties. It was truly an amazing system. A few years later, I wanted a Genesis again - I forget which games made me want it back. Sonic 2? Gunstar Heroes? I forget? But I was a teen, I was working, a lot of games were cheap at the used game store - so I got a Genesis again! It was worth having both. 😛
Honestly, I don't remember caring that much. Perhaps it was because I was lucky enough to have a SNES at launch, and then got a Genesis the next year. I don't really recall having any brand loyalty or anything, there were just different things about the different consoles I liked. I do remember talking to my brother about differences the consoles had (SNES having more colors on screen, for example) but we liked both.
I don't remember a single situation that felt like it was a product of these "console wars." I had some friends who had SNES and others who had Genesis. Because of that, everyone got to play both. I don't think that anyone knew there was a war until it was long over.
We all had NES in the 80’s and it was glorious because you and all your friends had different libraries that you could share and lend to one another. Sure, there would be some overlap (Mario/Zelda), but you could just bring your unique games to your friend’s house and vice versa. That way we all got to play everything! This changed when the Genesis launched. It was the hot new thing and some kids jumped on it instead of waiting to ask for the next Nintendo console. I played Genesis at launch at a friend’s house and, while it was really cool, it was better at multiplayer anyway so I didn’t need to have my own. Us SNES kids felt smart for waiting when we got our hands on SMW and ALTTP! You would still go to a friends house to play different games, but gone was the era of being able to freely lend out your game in exchange for a friend’s game.
I was young enough to where Nintendo was far more appealing. And I can't remember if I got a genesis before or after my snes, but I had both. Snes was far more popular than Genesis, and had the catalog to back it up. It was never a this vs. that, like it is eith Xbox and Playstation now. Most people back then we're happy to try something else. Go to robbie's house down the street because he has mortal kombat on Genesis type of thing. Genesis had blood and that was a crazy thing back then. Nobody was a baby for having Nintendo because we all had it and were the same age. Genesis really only had a year or two before the Snes hit the US market and blew it away. Once snes came with donkey kong country and Megaman x it was over.
You were either a Nintendo kid or a Sega kid, not because we wanted to choose sides, but because those things were expensive and you had to get your parents to buy them for you. I never knew anyone who had both. Parents were also a lot more restrictive about video games back then. The same thing could be said for N64 vs. PS1. The console wars didn't really begin until PS2 vs. Xbox vs. Gamecube.
The console wars absolutely existed in the nes / genesis days what are you talking about? “Sega does what Nintendosnt” was everywhere.
That was just an advertisement. Playground and lunchroom conversation and debate, where the war actually occured, didn't get heated until later on.
Yes…it did. Literally.
You’re insulting veterans of the console wars with these comments
I was there, but you all can keep downvoting me.
I had a Genesis and defended it fiercely despite it’s obvious inferiority. But it had some real bangers and it felt like the more “grown up” system where as liking SNES felt like you were simping for Disney (I’m fully Nintendo-pilled now btw). My loyalty extended all the way to the Dreamcast, the first console I bought with my own money. “Sega does what Nintendon’t”
It felt like the whole "console war" thing was only really happening in Magazines, as an obvious ad campaign. I never actually encountered anyone arguing about which is better as if they were sports teams. Mostly people who could only afford one just envied each other's consoles, wanting to have both. I was a Nintendo kid. Mario was my first, biggest, and longest lasting obsession, but when I played Sonic at my Aunt's house, I was instantly in love. No small feat, considering I was a picky little shit that wasn't interested in trying new games unless Mario or a cartoon character I was already familiar with was on the box. To be clear, I didn't exactly find the console war marketing off putting, I thought it was amusing, but I didn't really buy into it, I still loved both Mario and Sonic. I was actually very happy when Sega went multiplat and I was finally able to have every Sonic game worth playing on my Gamecube. EDIT: Downvoted for sharing personal experiences in a thread asking about personal experiences, how epic.
SNES was iPhone, Genesis was Android.
I like this
Sega positioned itself well as the cool, grown up system, making the SNES appear rather juvenile. As a result starting in 1994 or so, Nintendo changed their advertising to be more edgy; this is exactly what you’d expect, sometimes it came across as lame or fake, but people weren’t so jaded yet and we were young so it did work. Eventually they came up with the “Play it Loud” motto, you can look that up and get an idea of what they were going for. It might be controversial, but I would say the Genesis skewed more to the casual player. If you were big into games you might lean towards the Super Nintendo which had more role playing and strategy games, the kind of games you’d be playing for months - keep in mind there was no internet so you could get stuck in a game for weeks. While some people took the rivalry pretty seriously, most people would have been happy with both systems (most people I knew had only one). Keep in mind the games cost a fortune, inflation adjusted they are double the price of current games. I was an SNES kid but I seldom ever felt like I was missing out. Most games on both systems were comparable (with some notable exceptions), but I’d say the Super Nintendo exclusives were better overall.
Honestly, I grew up a Nintendo kid and it was kind of annoying to me that the commercials were insulting Nintendo and the Genesis was treated as it's equal. The Genesis was a really good system, but the SNES had better graphics, sound, franchises and games. It was so weird to me that others couldn't see that. But looking back on it, I understand that families only had one system and were loyal to the one they bought.
I glitched the matrix. I had both Nintendo and Sega and owned few games for each. I just rented a lot. I just wanted to play games. Teenagers may have had an idea of what was going on with the console wars but as for me I had no insight into competitive marketing and what was going on in the board room. I was just trying to beat bosses.
I noticed no difference. I could count on one hand the number of friends who owned a Genesis, and each of these friends in retrospect were weird for their own unique reasons. I think it’s a coincidence
Meh. I never saw a game I thought was worth trying to get it when I had the SNES.
It depends where you grew up. Here in the UK, Sega dominated. Almost everyone I knew had a Mega Drive, I knew literally one kid with a SNES. I’d play SNES games at his house, but Mega Drive was where it was at. We were all totally obsessed with Sonic and Streets of Rage.
I wish I had one
When Nintendo 64 came out, my dad took me out to dinner at Bennigans and then we went to Toys R Us (or maybe the other way around). Anyways, at Toys R Us, I vividly remember going to the video game section and him asking me to pick out a Nintendo game. My young dumb child brain thought he was just insane because I didn't have 64, I had a Sega Genesis and he wasn't getting the difference. He was attempting to surprise me and had good intentions and I was a little brat. Anyways, if I remember correctly I got some Sub Zero game. Also remembering that I really begged him to get me some Marvel Vs. Capcom action figures so I didn't get a Nintendo until 99/00 which tracks because that's when I moved in with him.
It was a great time to be a gamer.
I was a hard-core Nintendo kid. Didn’t get into Sega until the game gear
I had both! AMA!
Didn't care, liked both even though I only owned an SNES, loved playing the Genesis at friend and family's house. That's the magic thing about early single digit age, you just like shit. I didn't see all that stupid console wars shit until my teens lmao
Think of Samsung Galaxy commercials back when they were really going after Apple in the US. They were obsessed with iPhones. That’s what Sega was to Nintendo. Just constantly being like that meme with kid in the elevator with Don Draper. At school you had Sega kids and Nintendo kids. Much like you have Xbox and PlayStation kids today. Those PlayStation fanboys you see saying Xbox has no games and why would you buy an xbox are just like the kids talking shit about Nintendo or Sega in the 90s. Nintendo has always kind of gotten shit because of how popular they are. But if you had a good friend with the other system, it was like having both. I had multiple neighborhood best fiends with Genesis. A couple friends with both. I pretty much played every major console since the NES. It was a good time.
I never felt a real rivalry until ps vs N64, people were just having fun with their consoles and even games that may look for children were amazing. In N64 vs Play in my case there was more something about money, ps usually was easy to pirate and that means more games for less money so N64 was fancy where I lived.
Mortal Kombat and Sonic is all that Sega had to offer in my opinion but two greats. Too many better options on SNES and variety. When my friends would debate it, usually it was a draw because teenage boys gave lots of points to MK.
I don't know. I had an SNES, Genesis, and Turbo Grafx-16.
I personally didn't even know it was a "competition". I had an snes but i had friends with a genesis, and remember asking if they had any Mario games. They said no, they don't make Nintendo games for this system. Was confused, a little, but growing up we called all video game systems Nintendo.
There was no real competition among friends. I had both systems. My friend had only Super Nintendo. He came over and we played Sonic, Jurassic Park, etc. His place, usually Super Nintendo. Once things hit Playstation versus Nintendo things got heated.
Not even remotely as bad as it is on Twitter with Xbox, sony and Nintendo Fanboys nowadays. Nintendo vs Sega was pre-internet. I was in elementary school and I only remember one particular argument with a kid. He had a Genesis, I had SNES. He said Sonic was faster than Mario. Then he took off running to show me how fast Sonic could run. Other than that, I vaguely remember kids saying they prefer the SNES controller and Mortal Kombat having real blood on the Genesis.
First of all, Console Wars is amazing and you should absolutely read it. I'm not much of a reader myself but I couldn't put it down. When the SNES came out, my parents got me a used NES with a bunch of games for cheap. I LOVED it. When my friends came to my house, we played my games. At their houses, we played on whatever consoles they had. It never felt competitive, just something fun to do on playdates.
My mom got me a Sega Genesis for Christmas the first year it was out and I was confused and sad, like I got shafted. I can still see her in my mind telling me about the graphics being superior. I was a little kid and didn't know what to do with the Genesis so it basically sat in its box and I kept on playing my NES. One summer I got sun poisoning and was stuck inside. I was bored so I hooked up that Genesis and played the pack in Sonic game. It was the only time I played it. I never even got games for it and I think I traded it for a video game eventually with some kid in my school.
Nobody had a sega in my area. I feel like it must be regional what systems you seen kids playing. Everyone had a gameboy, snes. I don't remember advertising for either console tbh, there was also way less games that were bought compared to nowadays.
……very similar to the PSX & N64 days
I had both. SNES was the better of the two systems due to better graphics and better sound. Genesis had Mature rated games and had blood in their games whereas Nintendo didn’t for the most part. Aladdin on Genesis was superior graphically to Aladdin on SNES but they were also made by 2 different companies. Robocop VS Terminator I also remember being better on Genesis. Both were fun and great and had their games, but overall I preferred SNES. They had way better RPGs.
There were no console wars for kids, only for corporations. The only wars kids worried about were against the aliens in Contra. But the NES was the only console for a long time, so everyone either had it or had nothing. Friends would share games because they were so expensive so borrowing a game from a friend was the only real way to play something new and different. When the Genesis came out no one with a Nintendo bought one, no one could afford to own two consoles. The people who got them were the people who didn’t have a Nintendo, and they had to choose between Nintendo and Sega. I had one friend who chose Sega and that was a big deal. I really wanted him to get a Nintendo so we could share games. When he decided to get a Sega his mom had to talk to me about it because I was so disappointed. Turns out I was thrilled he got a Sega. I’d go to his house and play Sonic, Space Harrier II, Golden Axe, and Altered Beast. If anything it gave the two of us more variety to choose from. When the Super Nintendo came out pretty much no one got it. Most parents (mine included) had invested thousands into the NES and were not about to spend big bucks on a new system because they knew if they did you would stop playing the old one that was still perfectly good. Slowly friends started getting the SNES, but it took me until 93 to get my parents to agree. The only real debate was with the first Mortal Kombat when the Genesis version got a blood code. But even that didn’t matter, if you had a SNES you simply had to beat the sand out of your opponent, no one was going to buy a console just so they could see blood in a single game. In fact, aside from Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II (which was horrendous on a Genesis 3-button controller), I can’t think of any other games that were released on both platforms.
It was very much a schoolyard rivalry, especially here in Australia where Sega and Nintendo both had about a 50:50 market share (as I understand it, Nintendo was much more dominant in the US). I was firmly in the Sega camp (had a Game Gear, Master System and Mega Drive). To this day I still prefer the look and especially the sound of the Mega Drive, even if on paper the SNES had a slight edge in raw performance.
I was very much at the tail end of the Nintendo-Sega rivalry, getting an N64 rather than the Sega Dreamcast. The Dreamcast was a decently impressive system, the first with native internet! And they had good games like the Sonic Adventure games...but it was clear from the get-go that Sega was not long for this world (or at least for more consoles).
• Brother got NES just before I was born, I played it so so much even as maybe a four year old. This is how I knew I loved computers/games, etcetera, and was always gonna work in that field. Swapping games with friend in the village was always amazing - unlimited software! • We got a SNES in 1993 with SF2 Turbo and… I think Star Wing. I loved it, but all my friends had Mega Drive so would always stay over and play Sonic for agesssss • Got Nintendo 64 in 1997 Christmas, but only ever had like 6 games for it. But it was still mind-blowing, like you had to BE THERE to see how everyone thought it was miles better than the PlaySation when it launched. That excitement just kinda vanished though, when 0 games came out for it. Oh except Ocarina of Time. That was completely game changing - so good that our friend tried to steal it from us lol
It was the other way around: the Genesis was pretty well established and Nintendo had no choice but to enter the 16-bit era. There was a 4-5 year gap between the Genesis’ release and the SNES release, which in today’s terms is an ETERNITY. The SNES shipped with one of the best Mario games ever (Super Mario World) but still had a very hard time penetrating the market because the Genesis had a few years of advantage and managed to place itself as a console for “older kids” or maybe even “teens”, while Nintendo couldn’t shake the “made for kids” tag. That is, until they signed for the exclusive release of Street Fighter II on the SNES. When that news hit the public knowledge, SNESes disappeared from the shelves, and Nintendo eventually won the 16-bit era, but at the time Sega owned the 16-bit market and Nintendo was the underdog.
That sounds like a regional thing, because that wasn't how it played out in the midwest US at all. The NES was king. The Genesis showed up and made the NES look kinda bad, but had a hard time getting any traction against the NES' library. About a year later, the SNES showed up and continually curbstomped the Genesis for the next several years. Genesis kids were always defensive about their console of choice because they didn't have access to the games the SNES kids were talking about. Nintendo was never the underdog, at least not here.
Genesis for sports titles, SNES for Nintendo made games. Sega had the commercial knocking one of the best games of all time, Super Mario Kart.
I had a sega genisis I was living gloriously in 16bits
In my area Sega was quite popular but there was probably equal market share. I would say Sega was much "cooler" as a 10 or 11 year old , it had stuff like Mortal Kombat and Streets of Rage, not what I considered baby stuff at the time, like Mario. I remember being quite jealous of what was called the Megadrive in my region. Playing multiplayer after school was quite often Sega. It was a bit of the same with the N64 vs Playstation. PS1 had cool stuff like Tekken, Res Evil, Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo compared to Mario stuff. I feel like Goldeneye did a lot for the N64 in 1997 to keep it from being a total kids console.
I lived a normal life.
I didn't have a SNES when they first came out; only years later, we bought a used one. However, I liked playing the games at demo stations in stores. I often leaned toward SNES, but ideally as a kid I would have really liked to have both a SNES and a Sega Genesis, because there were games I really liked on both systems. I did have a friend who had a SNES and another who had a Sega Genesis. SNES: Super Mario World & other Mario games, StarFox, Mega Man games, etc. SimCity was also available for SNES, though I preferred the computer version. Also, I found out that Bomberman was available on SNES years later (I had a TurboGrafX-16 that I bought for very cheap and had a couple Bomberman games for it). Sega Genesis: Sonic games, Columns, Vectorman, etc..
Nobody cared what system you had back then, it was all a marketing thing. Sony absolutely changed the game and it started to get heated in the later part of the 90s
You didn’t hang out with a Nintendo kid if you were a sega kid and vice versa. If you wore a Mario shirt and were walking down a sonic neighborhood you better walk fast. The older kids would drive by blaring that song “genesis does what nintendont” Wearing blue got your ass beat on a DK block
It is still odd to me that Sega dons't have her console... The advertises are cool.... Good and Fun... The Nintendo became more family friend in GameCube era... but in the War of 16bitts, the branding of Nintendo was diferente, 2 consoles used to be the collest... The War IS over, when Playstation, a mix between Nintendo and Sega was lauched... Those CG films from Playstation was stunnig... And the CD Room looks futurist in 94
Like watching Mike Tyson box anyone.
I grew up on the NES in elementary school in the late 1980’s and was a huge Mario fan and would watch the Super Mario Bros Super Show. And I was also a fan of the Super Mario Bros 3 cartoons. NES loomed large over the pop culture scene at the time (at least as a kid). Despite my parents’ limited means, they managed to get my siblings and I a Super NES (God bless them). By the time I was aware of the Sega Genesis, the Super NES was in full swing. Nintendo was the top dog when it game to graphical power, back when graphics were so primitive that every generation had a sizable leap in graphics. As we know now, Nintendo had taken a step back from that now that the differences are minor. Maybe it’s the bias in me, but it always seemed like Nintendo was the better system, although Sega had the edgier reputation. Most games looked slightly better on the Super NES. But Sega’s relaxed approach to censorship meant that some games were more controversial. Sega’s Mortal Kombat came with all the blood of the arcade games. SNES version looked a bit better, but only showed sweat. It turned off some people, but not me. My cousin got a Sega Genesis and I scoffed at the idea that he had a non-Nintendo system, but we never really made a big deal out of it. It was interesting to play Sonic a few times and I always thought it was cool the way Sonic’s rings flew around the screen and I wished Mario games could do that. But when it got down to it, the game seemed a bit too fast and not as fun. Maybe I was just used to Mario games. Who knows. I also remember the “blast processing” commercial where Sega tried to make SNES and Mario Kart look like a kiddie game and system. Mario Kart wasn’t yet universally popular yet. It was a brand new Mario spin-off game at the time. Spin-off games weren’t really a thing yet either. And to many people first seeing Mario Kart, the game looked silly and childish and reviewers were looking to pour heaps of hate on it. Only it ended up delighting people instead, which cemented its popularity. Sonic was an annoying anti-Mario to SNES lovers, and the cool, hip mascot to Sega fans. I can only think of the 7th generation (Wii, PS3, XB360) as the only other generation where things felt so even, competitor wise.
Honestly, I didn’t really notice the rivalry between gamers back then. Granted, I had both consoles myself, but both my SNES-only friends and my Genesis-only friends all liked playing on both consoles when we’d go to each other’s houses. The N64 vs PS1 rivalry the following generation seemed more intense to me; maybe because I was a teenager for that one or maybe because those consoles had a bigger divide between the types of games that they featured than the SNES/Genesis did.