Graphics style. SNES Vs. Genesis. Which do you prefer?

[Rurouni_Fencer]

Genesis vs Snes...

::sigh:: Ah, this brings me back...

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

The SNES has far more colors, and why wouldn't it? After all the machine came out several years later and after a much more lengthy R&D cycle than the Genesis which beat it to market by a substantial margin. That having been said the SNES suffers from frequent slowdown and has been the culprit of many a "Frame-rate headache" due to it's frequent dips in speed thanks to the much slower CPU than that of the Genesis. As it stands the SNES is at it's very best performance point is typically a machine for slower paced games and text-heavy RPG's instead of fast and hard hitting action titles with lots of stuff onscreen.

The Genesis may have had less colors, but the faster CPU and larger amount of RAM allowed for it to display more onscreen at one time and deliver faster and frankly more rewarding gameplay in the arcade style which was THE genre to be at that time. Yes, it's not going to look as fancy as the SNES at times, but the Genesis was at it's core the last of the old guard of game consoles. Built out of mostly off the shelf parts which would make for a powerful machine that was cost effective to build yet powerful enough to impress and garner staying power for the lifetime of it's generation.

In the end there really isn't a fair way to decide between the two. While they may be machines from the same generation of consoles internally they're completely different beasts from rival eras.

That all having been said I chose the Genesis for the same reasons others have mentioned. I prefer a sharp stylistic game/graphics/picture with lots of details, crazy, awesome, funky blends of colors and the faster arcade-like gameplay over the slow more docile approach taken in the majority of SNES titles.


P.S.-Because it's already come up, I prefer the Genny for sound mainly because I'm a synthesizer nut. I love the sound of that YM2612+PSG Live and in action over the SNES's overly digital and artificial sounding pre-written sample based synthesis.

Also, while there are some amazing compositions and at times awesome music the SNES's SPC chip sound is NOT video game music. The SPC chip was actually designed for use inside of receivers and set-top boxes for the decoding and playback, or DSP/effects handling of incoming audio, NOT to make music. The only reason Nintendo used it was based on the fact that there was a production deadline and Kutaragi/Sony's contract offered them a large supply of slightly modified SPC's for use in the SNES immediately, and in time to save face for the SNES's Japanese launch. Not to mention the horrible aftereffects of making music with the SPC resulting in a dull constant echo present in the audio of nearly all games on the SNES.

Like I said before though, while there are a lot of great tunes on the SNES the large majority of them ended up sounding stale, artificial and outdated long before the system's retirement/demise thanks to the usage of sound hardware that was far outside of it's designed territory.

[Jrecee]

Somehow I always forget Sonic CD still ran on regular genesis hardware. That game just seems to have a crapload of colors attacking your eyes at once.

Did FMV games on the Sega CD have to be compressed into the 64 colors at once limit? Or did it somehow use the combined sega cd and genesis to remove that color limit for video.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Somehow I always forget Sonic CD still ran on regular genesis hardware. That game just seems to have a crapload of colors attacking your eyes at once.

Did FMV games on the Sega CD have to be compressed into the 64 colors at once limit? Or did it somehow use the combined sega cd and genesis to remove that color limit for video.

Sonic CD used the same style of color expansion through blends and screen refreshes as Sonic 2 and most other later Genesis titles did thanks to how it runs on Genesis hardware for the graphical side of things.

The only true Genesis/SegaCD hardware combo game released to use more colors was Eternal Champions as far as I know.

(Note that I'm not including Sega CD/32X combo games for obvious reasons.)

[benderx]

I got something that beats both SNES and Genesis at the same time 'Real ARCADE machines.' TNMT, Final Fight, Street fighter 2 (etc) always looked ten times better than the consoles. So Nintendo lied about TMNT on the NES looking better than the Arcade version. Sega was always making Arcade/system machines every few years until there consoles were ready to launch in stores. SNES Final fight and others did have trouble adding more characters on screen. Final fight is pretty short game compared to street of rage 2. Arcades are always dam powerful only because they are computer games from inside. I do see why my brother got me the sega genesis only because it was like having home arcade system.

That poll should add Arcades, it would make an easy win between both consoles.

[Original_Name]

That poll should add Arcades, it would make an easy win between both consoles.

Laaaaaaame. We're geeks, man -- we can't make this easy! Seeking out other people who have fascinations with the same hyper-niche things as we do, then finding ways to divide ourselves within that faction is just what we do. Genesis or DIE, although I completely respect your well-reasoned opinion.

[Luke]

For "style" I say Genesis.

For "colors" I'd say snes.

[Octopod]

Genesis

[kgcarini]

I have always enjoyed the speed and gritty look of Genesis games.

[Hobie-wan]

For everyone talking about speed, yes the Gen had a faster processor, but people that were better programmers could still wring better things our of the systems. On the SNES, compare the slowdown fest (but still fun) Gradius III with Space Megaforce/Super Aleste. Of course Gunstar Heroes and Ranger X did amazing things that people couldn't believe a Gen could do too.