90s Nintendo or 90s Sega - who was better in your opinion?

Some people really get stressed out over other people’s game preferences. 😅

@Jag85: Even with third party I feel Nintendo was still we behind.

But it is funny how people praise Nintendo for their first party when they don't make a lot of first party games, they kinda never have, and their first party isn't that great outside of Zelda.

I think you're being too generous by saying that it was close with third parties propping up Nintendo.

@Jag85: Even with third party I feel Nintendo was still well behind.

But it is funny how people praise Nintendo for their first party when they don't make a lot of first party games, they kinda never have, and their first party isn't that great outside of Zelda.

I think you're being too generous by saying that it was close with third parties propping up Nintendo.

Tied for me. I am a BIG fan of Phantasy Star 3 and 4 as well as shining force 1 and 2. Also Lunar 1 and 2 was Sega CD along with Popful Mail, Dark Wizard, and Shining Force CD.

But then I think about 7th Saga, Secret and Mana, FF 4 and 6, Mario RPG, and Chrono Trigger, Super Metroid, and Mario World?

That is the best thing about just being into games in general I loved them all back then!

Says the guy who has tried to snipe others from the bleaches TWICE in this thread, now that's stressing out 🤭

You forgot about Lakers vs Celtics on Genesis that game rocked. To this day sport games haven’t implemented the great feature of “highlights from around the league” during halftime.

I also miss Desert Strike, and Waikiki Golf, and Pilotwings.

I miss-voted Nintendo. I thought the 90s meant Genesis vs SNES. But Sega Saturn was around then too, and that was a much greater system than SNES and specifically N64.

Sega made some wonderful software in that decade and that cannot and should not be denied. The Genesis is one of the best consoles ever to hit the market. Unfortunately, after that console it was a decline.

First of all it's "bleachers". Second of all not trying to "snipe" anyone. Saw number of games being brought up and simply said that it's not a criteria of mine for me to choose my favourites. It clearly hit a nerve with you though causing you lash out. Saw you reference it again and got a chuckle over it.

You're literally in this thread stressing over the fact that other people prefer Nintendo over Sega. The subjective nature of entertainment escapes people like you.

I suspect quite a few other voters made the same mistake, thinking it's just the SNES vs. Mega Drive/Genesis.

In the '90s, Sega also made the Saturn and Dreamcast, continued supporting the Master System, and had a vast catalogue of arcade games.

Meanwhile, Nintendo also made the N64, continued supporting the NES and Game Boy, and made the... uh, Virtual Boy.

With third-party support, Nintendo consoles had nearly as many games as Sega consoles in the '90s. It was fairly close when you combine first party and third party. But if it's just first party, then Sega games had far more quantity and variety than Nintendo games, by a wide margin in the '90s.

However, I haven't mentioned anything about quality yet. That's more subjective. That's why I only focused on quantity and variety, which are more objective.

@Archangel3371: First of all different cultures spell, and do call things differently, just like the word colour for instance, spelt color in most of NA, so stop being an arsehat (again spelt differently)

Secondly I'm having fun in this thread, but you see it as stressing, that's on your and your poor comprehension skills.

But you keep on sniping from the bleaches young man 🤭

Easily Nintendo in my opinion. I mean the results kind of speak for themselves. That's not to say SEGA didn't have some great offerings.

@last_lap: Whatever helps you sleep at night stressed one. 🤣😂

@Archangel3371: That's it? I mean like Nintendo did back then, you have little to offer 🤭

Look one of your favourite games on the SNES in Final Fight, Sega has the best version of the game between the 2 companies, Sega wins again 😁

You try and snipe without replying to anyone, and yet I'm the one stressed 🤦‍♂️ I can do this all day 🤣🤣🤣

Poor guy won't talk to me directly now, got him that stressed out with facts he doesn't know what to do 🤣

Both Genesis and SNES were awesome consoles. I had both, but I preferred Genesis. At least until Street Fighter 2 was released on SNES.

I found Sega Saturn and Dreamcast much more fun than Nintendo 64 + Gamecube.

Also let us not forget all Sega's cool arcade games from AM2 and AM3. Daytona USA, Virtua Fighter etc. etc.

They weren't known worldwide as the King of the Arcade for nuttin ya know. ;)

There have been a few companies with major screwups in the 80's and 90's. Coca-Cola comes to mind as well as Sega. Nintendo finally had a suitable opponent with the Genesis, but Sega did what a lot of people, companies, etc..., do when experiencing success: It stopped the pressure and seemingly became complacent. Then it started with the stopgap measures and from there just spiraled.

If I recieved a Genesis for Christmas I would've immediately returned it for an SNES... Mostly because Nintendo had better games on their system.

I enjoyed turbo grafix 16 more than Genesis come to think of it.

Having terribly overrated sonic games and altered beast compared to missing out on Crono trigger and super Mario world? Good lord that's the type of stuff that'll rek someone's taste in games.

@TheEroica: I can’t think of game on the SNES that I didn’t like better then a similar game for the Genesis.

- Final Fight

- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

- Super Mario World

- Yoshi’s Island

- Super Castlevania IV

- Contra III

- Chrono Trigger

- Earthbound

- Final Fantasy II and III

- Mega Man X, X2, X3

- Illusion of Gaia

- Street Fighter II

- Killer Instinct

- Sparkster

- Pilotwings

- Legend of the Mystical Ninja

- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time

- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters

- Lethal Enforcers

- Super Metroid

Probably missing a bunch of others. The SNES is such a GOAT system.

@Archangel3371: same... My neighborhood had all the consoles available to us. We played a ton of games on Genesis, snes, tg16, not to mention nes and master system. The classic games on snes are lightyears ahead of Genesis offerings.

Genesis had mortal Kom at blood... That was probably the only thing it did better. Lol.

@TheEroica: I had a Genesis as well and while I enjoyed a number of games on it when it comes to which system and who’s games that I enjoyed more it was easily the SNES and Nintendo. No contest.

Seems like you could easily come up with a list of GOAT games on both systems that would hold up. 30 years later this still can't be resolved! It was a great generation with strong reasons to own both consoles. PC Engine was cooking too if you could import. It's interesting seeing people get excited about exclusives!

Manticore FTW!

Some Genesis GOATs I enjoyed:

• Phantasy Star IV
• Shining Force 2
• Streets of Rage 1+2+3
• Virtua Racing
• Dune II
• Road Rash 1+2+3
• Gunstar Heroes
• Starflight
• Tiny Toons Buster's Hidden Treasure
• Dynamite Headdy
• Shadowrun
• Quackshot
• Street Fighter II'
• Splatterhouse 2+3
• Mercs
• Mortal Kombat
• Castle+World of Illusion
• Aladdin
• Ghouls n Ghosts
• Wonder Boy in Monster World
• Beyond Oasis
• Thunder Force IV
• Darius
• Mega Turrican
• Desert/Jungle/Urban Strike
• Mega Bomberman
• Warsong
• Shibobi 3
• Galaxy Force
• Alien Soldier
• MUSHA
• Crusader of Centy
• Strider
• Pulseman
• Sonic 1+2+3+Knuckles
• Rocket Knight Adventures
• Contra Hard Corps
• Castlevania Bloodlines
• Sid Meyer's Pirates! Gold

And if you liked sports then you owned a Genesis of course!

The topic is '90s Sega vs. '90s Nintendo, not SNES vs. Mega Drive. Either way, Sega had an answer to each of those in the '90s:

- Final Fight, TMNT Turtles in Time - Streets of Rage trilogy is better. Sega CD had best version of Final Fight.

- Zelda ALTTP, Illusion of Gaia, Mystical Ninja - Mega Drive had Soleil, Landstalker and Beyond Oasis.

- Super Mario World, Yoshi’s Island - I had way more fun with Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

- Super Castlevania IV - Mega Drive had Castlevania: Bloodlines. Saturn had Castlevania SOTN.

- Contra III - Mega Drive had Contra: Hard Corps. And Gunstar Heroes is better.

- CT, Earthbound, FFII & III - Sega consoles had Phantasy Star, Shining, Lunar, Sakura Wars and Grandia.

- Mega Man X, X2, X3 - Mega Drive had Mega Man: The Wily Wars.

- Street Fighter II - Mega Drive had SFII SCE and Super SFII. Saturn had Super SFII Turbo and SF Alpha 1-3.

- Killer Instinct, TMNT Tournament Fighters - Mega Drive and Saturn had better SNK fighters.

- Sparkster - Mega Drive had Ristar.

- Pilotwings - Sega was the king of arcade flight sims at the time. For example, After Burner and G-LOC.

- Lethal Enforcers - It was also on Mega Drive and Sega CD. And Sega's own Virtua Cop series is better.

- Super Metroid - Mega Drive had Monster World series. And Saturn had Castlevania SOTN, which is better.

SEGA!!!! lol

Back when the SW was actually fun. :P

@Jag85: Yep, I know all of this/that.

Both were phenomenal but Sega put out a TON of games on the Mega Drive, across a wide variety of genres. From Platformers to Beat 'em ups to RPGs. Nintendo was mostly focused on Platformers and Action games at the time.

In the mid 90's their games were just not as good anymore. Sonic Adventure 1 was fun, but it felt like a step down from the 2d sonics, virtua fighter series was rock solid, and Shenmue 1 was a legendary game. But the N64 Nintendo First Party is legendary.

With that said. I am voting for Nintendo, just because they were more consistant.

My vote would be

1. Early 90s SEGA
2. Late 90s Nintendo
3. Early 90s Nintendo
4. Late 90s SEGA

Without sufficient playing time, it would have been difficult to make a decision and a demo model at a store just wouldn't cut it. Both complemented each other quite well.

My first Genesis was the Christmas when John Madden Football was first available on it, and it was also my first game (besides the pack-in A.B.) which is surprising since I am not interested in professional sports in the least. Comparing that console with the readily available and super popular NES was a no brainer. Maybe if the SNES came before the Genesis I would have stuck with one rather than both.

That's interesting for someone who prefers PC because Genesis got a lot of PC ports and games from western developers

When it comes to terribly overrated you should ALWAYS mention the Mario games first, now they are just plain slow and boring, its ok if you think Sonic is overrated, it just means they were to fast for you and if your reflexes were slow back then well i'd hate to see them now.

Chrono Trigger, meh, Sega had Shining Force 1 & 2, Phantasy Star 2, 3 & 4, Landstalker, Soleil, Story of Thor to name a few, and at least Sega made them, Nintendo could only make shitty platformers. How much of the Mega Drive have you actually played?

Its funny because these type of threads bring out the Nintendo fanboys, especially the ones who claim not to be ones now lol.

@Jag85: Mate, you're wasting your time with arch as he's the biggest Nintendo fanboy on this board.

@last_lap: dude, you just wrote, "chrono trigger meh"... How can your points be taken serious?

@last_lap: I loved Chrono Trigger and FF games on the SNES, but those weren't by Nintendo. It's possible that some people feel strongly about the SNES because of the exclusivity deals that were in place making games only available on that platform.

Still I feel like there were enough games on both to make people happy if you take into account third party games.

No doubt someone can be happy with either, it's just that Sega were better through the 90's as Nintendo's first party paled in comparison to Sega's, that's not fanboy speak that's just factual.

And that's really funny because, if you ask anyone today, they will say Nintendo's first party is the best, whereas I think it's just fanboy nonsense as Nintendo makes games in not every genre, and they never have.

@TheEroica: Take those rose-tinted glasses off mate.

@last_lap: I dunno after the rereleases from Wii U it's been a lot of sequels and remakes, and some letdowns like Brother Ship and for me Odyssey (more of a Kirby game in Mario clothes). Hopefully Switch 2 will have a better first party library.

@girlusocrazy: Exactly, Nintendo's first party has ALWAYS been lacking since they started in the gaming business, and yet people will go but, but, Mario, and to that I say, yes look at Mario and how whored out of a character he is because Nintendo have no ideas left.

@last_lap: Well I wouldn't go that far! People loved BotW. Aren't you playing it? How is it so far?

@girlusocrazy: Zelda is by far Nintendo's best franchise. Yes I'm playing BotW atm. It's a good game, but it has some issues also, but I'll reserve my judgement until I finish it or tire of it.

While you might not go that far, I certainly will. Nintendo tends to stay in a lane with its games, and rarely venture outside that.

If you want platformers then Nintendo are your go to. But for racing games, shooters, sports, fighting games you pass on Nintendo. But when they do make the odd game in those genres, well they have Mario in them 🤦‍♂️

Yes!

Dam, why can't you'all have fun with the great games both offer?

It's not going to kill you to play Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario Brothers_

@TheEroica: I'm with you on the turbographic 16. The color pallet was made it look so good. Genesis games was dark and colors didn't pop.

Bloody wolf, bonks, legendary axe, cadash, ninja spirit and more. We should be talking about who had the best games lmao. Also the most expensive to retro gaming today lol.

@Maroxad: While you are on point, I grew up with the Mega Drive as did most 16-bit gamers but the SNES had a higher quality library. The Mega Drive could have been better if Sega's corporate side didn't stink for dumping all that money. Most Genesis fans will readily admit that the SNES is a great system, but sadly, there are still some SNES fans who insist that the Genesis sucked. I personally don't believe that for a sec and I was a fan of both Sega/Nintendo during the 90s.

And this part of the post goes towards @last_lap. I don't think (or rather anyone here who loves gaming regardless where it comes from) The Genesis is a bad console at all back in the 90s. In fact, I think both SNES and Genesis have a lot to offer to gamers, and unlike some other console wars, their libraries are also fairly distinct from each other. (this is a big part of why this debate still continues today) However, SNES does have one fairly major advantage that puts it over the top in my book, which is that the total number of games for SNES is about double the total number of games for Genesis. While there can be some debate about the quality ratio on each console, it's clearly not twice as high for Genesis, which is ultimately going to give SNES a bit of an edge in terms of the number of good games and beyond after the N64. So again, I love both Sega and Nintendo, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a slight bias toward the Genesis due to the impact it had on my gaming life. But when Sony came into the fray with the PS1, I was mostly a Sony guy at the time. Gaming has been my life long passion.

That depends on where you live.

In europe, the many SNES games did not get localized. You still got the classics like Super Metroid and Super Mario World. But there was no Earthbound, Final Fantasy, and many other titles. Especially jRPGs.

Of course, the Super Nintendo still had a phenomenal library even in europe. But it was weaker than it was in the US, and especially Japan.

On that note, the complaints about Sonic being too fast for game's resolution did not really apply to europe that much. In fact, until Sonic Adventure, I pretty much just saw the whole Sonic being fast as some kind of marketing gimmick. His speed was on par with Mario holding the B button.

So, there needs to be a MASSIVE asterisk in your post, the bolded part, because part of it is true while another is false, and one part needs more context.

Let's start with total games, yes there was 1,757 games released on the SNES compared to 1,039 on the Genesis, so while what you said is true when you dig deeper out of those 1,757 only 717 were released in America, so less than 50% of the total amount of SNES games, that's astonishingly bad. Notice how I said Genesis and not Mega Drive, well as it was only called Genesis in NA it means Sega had more games for you to play, t was the same scenario in Europe, Australia etc, back then Nintendo kinda only gave a crap about the Japanese market whereas Sega was going for worldwide.

In the end Sega released more first party and had better games in your country and every other country, a win for Sega.

Sega Retro has a more complete list of Mega Drive games... adding up to 1,324 games in total. Compared to the 1,757 SNES games, the Mega Drive only has 30% less games than the SNES. When you also consider the fact that most SNES games never even released outside Japan whereas most Mega Drive games did, it's safe to say the Mega Drive had more games in Western markets.

But again, this thread is about Sega vs. Nintendo throughout the '90s, not just the 16-bit console war. In that regard, it's worth reposting this again from the previous page:

I was a Sega dude all the way from Genesis to Dreamcast, even though I enjoyed some of Nintendo's games back then. They had such a diverse lineup of stuff

@BenjaminBanklin: That's surprising, I thought you were a cow through & through.

So you had good gaming taste at one point, what happened?

Pretty sure most cows and lemmings here were either a Sega or Nintendo fan at some point in the '90s, before becoming Sony or Microsoft fans.