Do You Have Any Unpopular Gaming Opinions?

[Tanooki]

If you gave me a choice between the SNES and the Genesis sound chip, I'd choose SNES every time, but that doesn't mean there wasn't some spectacular stuff on the Genny. I'd miss Streets of Rage the most, and it's one of those soundtracks that's so good, even the remixes of the tunes typically don't sound as good as the original source material.

You're right about Shining Force, it did a surprisingly good job of getting an orchestral sound out of the Genny.

That's my sentiment. Either the Genesis really wasn't as capable, or the developers were just lazy fools with it (which I tend to believe to a point) but I know that YM chip from the similar stuff of the 80s arcade era could do better. The Genesis may have been stuck with a synth chip but as you pointed out Streets of Rage, also Castlevania and a few others really do stand out on their own as incredible pieces of generated ear candy for the Genesis. But in the end, again, as long as you didn't get lazy developers using really low quality generic sound samples, the stuff that SNES could pop out at near (33khz) CD sound quality could be insane. Not just the symphony stuff in games I've noted (Act Raiser, FF titles) but there were other games where it's just buttery smooth excellence you wouldn't think would come from a cart when someone put some good focus on the audio. Even then it was rare to find a game where sound samples of voices weren't easy to understand while much on the Genesis were muffled nearly as bad as old 8bit samples hiding in NES games. In the end you just had to play to the strength of the audio chip, whatever the generation back then.

[marurun]

the stuff that SNES could pop out at near (33khz) CD sound quality could be insane.

Except that the sound chip was chronically memory starved, meaning it was often using low quality samples, thus the heavy reverb and filtering. Those effects were, as often as not, used to "smooth" over the low quality digital samples. 64k is not a lot of space for audio programming and your entire sample set.

[arcadifvid]

Street Fighter X Tekken is the best fighting game Capcom has made since Capcom vs SNK 2.

Everywhere I go, people shit on SFxT, but I honestly felt that it was amazing. At least SFV is copying it as stealthily as they can, but it still isn't near as fun.

agreed on this actually. especially after the balance update, SFxT was actually great when you're into it.

[Sarge]

Was that reverb locked in? If memory serves, the low-pass filter was, at the very least.

(EDIT: Looked it up, echo wasn't always on, it has an enable. I should have known that just from hearing things, but whatevs.)

I still don't think it's particularly close between the two. I was just reminded that, despite how terrible some electric guitars sound on SNES, it could still do it very well, as evidenced by Rock 'N' Roll Racing. That's good stuff there.

I don't know that lazy is the right characterization for the Genesis soundchip. It was just really, really hard to get amazing sound out of it. I think of it a little bit like programming for the Saturn. You could do some amazing stuff with it, but it took a lot of effort, time, and skill, plus knowing the ins-and-outs of the architecture. The SNES chip was, in some ways, like the PSX, easier to pull most stuff off overall, but it could be bested in certain areas by talented devs familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of the platform.

Of course, the SNES chip could also produce amazing stuff, but a lot of devs took shortcuts there, too. I mean, listen to the SNES version of Wanderers from Ys. No question that could have sounded a ton better, but they just threw something together and called it a day.

[Exhuminator]

I for one loved the vacuum cleaners through a distortion pedal thrash of Mega Man X.

I agree with those who said the SNES and Genesis excelled at different types of music. Both systems had their aural strengths and weaknesses with neither being the clear victor overall.

[Sarge]

Even though it's obviously not "better", I absolutely love the sound of the NES soundchip. There's some fantastic stuff there, and it also gives me a chance to post the Silver Surfer OST. BGM1 is amazing.

EDIT: Swapped link, other one seemed a bit tinny. Gotta have dat bass.

[Tanooki]

Sarge I agree, and I think I said the SNES had it's ups and downs too with either people who tried and corner cutters and Ys3 is a great example of not trying.

RnR Racing was a good choice of another, especially the guitar samples. DOOM which gets dumped on has some nice music too. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 2EA01FF656

I know I said it before, but for those who care try out ActRaiser if you're not familiar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRkCKC5 ... FA04484F92
Full OST there, but SkyPalace has some amazing large pipe organ music that blew me away in the day, but then later in the listing 16 Sacrifices is the music discovery which is a sampled copy of old symphony music, and the track just after Peaceful World has a good blend too along with some pipe music. Stuff like this or even those beats in the original DKC cart weren't things you'd expect from the Genesis. You just play to the systems audio chip strengths is all and avoid the worst of it, or learn to do it right (like RnR Racing with the guitar.)

[deathsled]

Earthbound is a terrible game.

[ElkinFencer10]

Earthbound is a terrible game.

HERETIC

[Ack]

Earthbound is a very dated game.