Sega's contribution to videogames are incredibly underrated

[Erik_Twice]

Really, the more I know about their games, the more important I realize they were. It's not just Space Harrier and Sega Tetris, many of their key games were incredibly innovative and pushed games foward a great measure. But Sega doesn't get any recognition.

Really, you only hear about Nintendo. Nintendo created Zelda, Nintendo had Donkey Kong, Nintendo this and that. All you really hear about Sega is Sonic and Outrun at best. Perhaps some nostalgic comments about the Dreamcast and how it had an internet connection but that's it. It's not serious praise like Nintendo gets.

It reminds me of Disney and other animation studios. Sure, Warner and Tex Avery's MGM shorts are beloved but at the end of the day Critics and Historians gloss over the, and only praise Disney, who apparently was single-handedly responsible for all advances of the field. And, of course, always best at it, with no other studios ever coming close.


Any thoughts on the issue?

[isiolia]

Any thoughts on the issue?

Well, generally speaking, I think you'd need to be more specific - or, at least, that the topic would be served by examining more the process or merits by which a game or piece of hardware is recognized/revered or not.

To me, Sega's contributions aren't exactly underrated. Things they did were recognized at the time. Their old releases are still remembered, still held up as solid entries for their genres, sold in compilation form on various modern consoles, and so on.

Instead of comparing them to Nintendo, and their peerless hype machine, compare them to other companies making a lot of arcade or arcade style games at the time. Compare them to other past console makers. At least in terms of mainstream recognition, Sega probably does better than average.

[Gamerforlife]

People don't talk about Sega because they are not around anymore, at least not in the hardware sense. However, there is no denying their pop culture penetration. EVERYONE knows about Sega, casual gamer or hardcore. It makes no difference. Sonic alone is a cultural icon. I'd imagine most people have at least heard of the Sega Genesis as well

I wouldn't be the expert on how influential their actual games are, but Sega is a permanent and well known part of our pop culture

[RyaNtheSlayA]

People know the Sega name but not the Sega game. They maybe think of Sonic and Outrun as said in the OP, but you never hear anybody talk about how amazing Ristar or Vectorman was. Or Virtua Fighter 2 and Virtua Racing.

[BoringSupreez]

1. Sega is not underrated here on Racketboy, not at all. Tons of Sega fans here.

2. People outside the retro gaming community don't tend to give Sega a lot of credit mainly because Sega isn't in the console business anymore, so their systems have sorta fallen out of the public consciousness, unlike Nintendo's stuff.

[Hatta]

Sega had a long history before making their own consoles too. I have a SEGA Star Trek game for my Commodore. I have SEGA Carnival for my Colecovision.

[flamepanther]

A lot of the credit Nintendo gets isn't just for still being around, but for inventing things and starting trends that would still be around today even if Nintendo wasn't. Sega's accomplishments are by no means small, but for the most part they're brilliant examples of either something that was done before by someone else, or that were original but haven't continued to be a major influence. If we look at something Nintendo "borrowed" from elsewhere--Balloon Fight, for example--we can see that it doesn't continue to get much attention.

The controllers Sega used were mostly based on controllers invented by Nintendo. Sonic, Alex Kidd, and Wonder Boy are all awesome, but they wouldn't be around if it hadn't been for Mario. Streets of Rage deserves all of the praise it still gets today, but it was built on the shoulders of Double Dragon and Final Fight. Space Harrier was years ahead of its time, but where is its legacy today? It may not seem fair that Sega doesn't get more attention than they do, when they've made so many of the finest games and gadgets that have ever been made or ever will be--but the reasons do make some sense.

[eSPy]

if talking about hardware and new ideas, sega was very much the polar opposite to nintendo. while nintendo generally goes for the lower cost "good enough" route, sega tended to focus on the bleeding edge often to their detriment. You can see this in the numerous highly expensive arcade machines they released as well as their constant upgrading and market splitting in the home market.

Many of the innovations that sega helped to pioneer like on-line gameplay and downloadable content have only recently begun to have a dominance in the market.

[D.D.D.]

I really miss the R-360 arcade unit. Playing anything on that was some kick-ass fun times!

[Soldier Blue]

Sega invented Super Smash Bros. gameplay!



Keriotosse was released 1 year before smash bros!