Unpopular opinion time (even tho this isn't the "Unpopular Video Game Opinion" thread): Sonic is better than Mario and the N64 is complete trash that I'd have a hard time listing 10 good games for. I didn't have to do too much thinking about my SMS list, but for the N64? Paper Mario, Smash Bros, Mario Kart, Hybrid Heaven and that's about it. (I also didn't buy one at launch but I suspect I still would have been disappointed if I had. I was a grown man so rose-tinted glasses wouldn't have appeared over my eyes, either.)pook99 wrote:@president leever:
I completely disagree that the quality of the top master system titles rival that of the nes, lets forget about quantity for a minute, obviously the more popular system will have more, but the quality of the top master system games are completely overshadowed by the quality of the nes titles.
There is no platformer on the master system even close to as good as Super Mario 1, let alone mario 2 and 3, no action game as good as the mega man or contra series, no action rpg as good as zelda, I could keep going but you get the idea.
Even the best master system games are often praised as lesser versions of similar nes games, just look at this thread and you see things like, ninja gaiden is great, not as good as the nes games or play golden axe warrior, its close to zelda, but not as good. Phantasy star may be an exception and I think a strong case can be made for dragons trap as well but outside of those 2 its not even close
@mobiusclimber: I, and every person on this thread, are including european releases so I don't think its unfair to knock the system for not having 10 good games. The N64 has less than 300 North American releases and I don't think anyone would have a problem naming 10 great games for that system, the fact that some on this thread, myself included, have trouble even getting to 10 speaks to the general quality of that system.
As for an SMB-killer on the Master System? Tough since SMB and in particular 3 are considered the pinnacle of platform gaming (not by me, tho). But I'd say Psycho Fox, the two later Wonder Boy games and even Asterix give Mario a run for his money. I suspect one of the Alex Kidd games is probably also just as good, but I haven't played the later titles so no idea. (Shinobi and High Tech World are supposed to be excellent, but I didn't own them when I was collecting for the SMS and I don't still have a collection so ...) Phantasy Star I would say is probably on par with DW3, but I would also point out that it seems to have been an influence on later Final Fantasies. When did FF start blending in sci-fi? Anyway, this is a long way to get to saying that I think the SMS, while not as great a system as the Genesis, is still a terrific rival to the NES and has a lot of games that should be played by anyone who enjoys early NES titles because there really is a lot to love here. Maybe they're all a bit rough around the edges. That's because this was mostly new territory at the time. Kind of like 3D was to the N64, but the SMS handled the new graphical capabilities just fine.
