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Fragems wrote:Remembered reading a article comparing SNES to Gen a few months back in game informer. here is a link it's not quite the same as the magazine but they have a 45 minute video with comparisons that I just started watching and it seems pretty good.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/ ... nesis.aspx

I just ordered a copy of that issue off ebay to help with this list.

Ziggy says Hook is better on the SNES, but what does everyone else think? And why didn't I play this game as a kid?

o.pwuaioc wrote:Ziggy says Hook is better on the SNES, but what does everyone else think? And why didn't I play this game as a kid?

I agree, Hook on the SNES is fantastic. I think it just slipped under everyone's radar; I didn't play it until about five years ago. If you're looking for recommendations though, add my hat to the ring for this one.

Ack wrote:

o.pwuaioc wrote:Ziggy says Hook is better on the SNES, but what does everyone else think? And why didn't I play this game as a kid?

I agree, Hook on the SNES is fantastic. I think it just slipped under everyone's radar; I didn't play it until about five years ago. If you're looking for recommendations though, add my hat to the ring for this one.

Hook on the SNES is a fantastic game!

The Genesis port has dull colors. The music was really made for the SNES sampling capabilities, and it's amazing, but that didn't translate well to the Genesis port. So the Genesis port ends up being much inferior to the SNES port.

There's a Sega CD port which has CD audio ripped straight from the soundtrack of the movie, voice overs for the the few cutscenes that exist, and a few FMV clips from the movie. On paper, this sounds like the best port. But it's definitely not.

Sure, having the movie soundtrack in the game is awesome, and I do love John Williams' score for Hook. But the original music that's in the SNES game fit the levels, which the movie soundtrack doesn't. The movie soundtrack wasn't made for the game, so it doesn't work well most of the time. For example, there's some really quite parts because of the dynamic range and it doesn't loop well at all. The SNES version does have some tunes from the movie, although reproduced with the SNES' capabilities (which sounds great). Some levels have music from the movie and some have original tunes, but all of the tunes are fantastic! The ones made for the game blend really well with John Williams' score.

As for the voice overs... they are so horrible! Very cringe worthy! The FMVs are very short and look like shit so they're hardly worth it.

So yeah, stick with the SNES version for Hook.

Ziggy587 wrote:

Ack wrote:

o.pwuaioc wrote:Ziggy says Hook is better on the SNES, but what does everyone else think? And why didn't I play this game as a kid?

I agree, Hook on the SNES is fantastic. I think it just slipped under everyone's radar; I didn't play it until about five years ago. If you're looking for recommendations though, add my hat to the ring for this one.

Hook on the SNES is a fantastic game!

The Genesis port has dull colors. The music was really made for the SNES sampling capabilities, and it's amazing, but that didn't translate well to the Genesis port. So the Genesis port ends up being much inferior to the SNES port.

I watched a few compare videos, and here is my impression. Maybe you can help steer me correctly:

The Genesis colors looked way better, except that Pan is in brown for some reason. He should definitely be wearing green, but I thought the colors were more vivid. Likewise, the SNES version's music sounds very muted in videos I've seen compared to the Genesis version. However, I wouldn't call some of the louder parts of the songs on the Genny pleasant to listen to. No idea if it's just the video or like that in the actual game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSxBvyn1exA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTbZh9MX76Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw3FzBEkOnI

I want a mix of the music, somewhere in the middle, but I guess I'd lean toward the SNES on it.

OK, so in regards to the first YouTube link you posted. All in the first level: The Genesis colors definitely look less vibrant to me than the SNES version. The HUD is duller and has less colors than in the Genesis version. Look at the leaves on the trees throughout the first level, they're darker in the Genesis version and more vibrant on the SNES. And look at the background during the Rufio fight at the end of the first level (6:48 is a good still frame). The background is darker, the log that they're on looks way less vibrant. Rufio himself might seem more vibrant, but this is actually not a good thing. In the Genesis version he has light blue clothes, but in the SNES he has black clothes (like he does in the movie). Look at the water that you swim through toward the beginning of the first level, it's proper translucent in the SNES but dithering fake transparency in the Genesis version. Also note that in the SNES version once Pan reaches Tink and flies to the next part of the stage it changes to winter then briefly autumn then back into spring/summer (which mimics a the movie). The season change is completely missing in the Genesis version. The Genesis version is also missing the rain that can randomly pass through in the SNES version. At the end of each level, in the SNES version the screen dims (minus the HUD) and the score is overlayed on top of it. On the Genesis version at the end of the level the screen goes black (still with the HUD remaining) for the score tally.

14:03 is another good still frame to look at (still the first link). Again, the water is proper translucent on the SNES, and you can see the clouds through the water on the Genesis. The clouds themselves look better on the SNES than they do on the Genesis. The sky color might be a brighter shade of blue on the Genesis, but I think it looks better on hte SNES. More natural, like a real sky color and not a cartoon representation of sky, and the clouds definitely help to make it look like a more natural sky. Then 14:05, look at the cherries, definitely more vibrant on the SNES. Then let it play just a few seconds more and look at the boss fight. I think the colors of the boss sprite on the SNES looks better. When you hit the boss on the SNES version the sprite flashes. On the Genesis when you hit the boss the background flashes but not the boss sprite. Which thing flashes might be a whatever kind of thing, but it seems like the sprite should flash and not that background. Maybe this was a limitation of the Genesis hardware when it was ported? Don't know why else they would change it.

As for the music, it definitely sounds better with the SNES' sampling than the Genesis chip tunes. Maybe it comes down to which sound chip you prefer, but I bet if you had a non-90's gamer listen to both they would say the SNES sounds better. I think the Genesis version might be missing certain parts in the music too. And I guess there's not enough channels because it looks like a track will mute to play a sound effect at times.

edit: I just spotted checked the music from the third link and the Genesis version is definitely inferior to the SNES version. I think they got lazy when the ported it or had a tight schedule to do it in, but some of the tunes aren't arranged the same way. And it's not just a preference to which sound chip you fancy, the SNES version is better. It has a sweeping orchestral feeling to it that the Genesis sound chip (even as bad ass as it is) cannot replicate.

Anyway, now that you got the gist of the game with the SNES and Genesis versions, check out the Sega CD version and tell me I'm not crazy. Clearly they were like "Oh, it's on CD so lets do movie score, voice overs and FMV" but didn't really care how it fit in there. So they got some crappy FMVs, horrible voice acting, and shoved the movie score in where it didn't belong. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPgMcP3sY2Y

I didn't know this topic existed!

I have one: Pitfall: the Mayan Adventure
https://segaretro.org/Pitfall:_The_Mayan_Adventure
It has ports for Snes, Genesis, 32x, and Sega CD.
The only version that doesn't have significant flaws, and is actually worth playing is the Sega CD version.
All the others suffer from slowdown and bad controls. Amazingly, the Sega CD port is far better with good control, music, parallax scrolling, frame rate, and animation. It includes more levels later in the game as well. Highly recommended if you like platformers.

On the topic itself, YouTuber Retro Core has a series called Battle of the Ports where he regularly compares every port of a game, comparing all aspects as he plays through a portion of each port and then playing a video wall of every port at the same time.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... M75P-ko9Yd

Controller aside fighting games were almost always better on the snes, with the original mortal kombat being an exception. Besides the blood, the genesis port just plays a lot smoother .

Pit fighter was also better on genesis but was such a bad game on both systems it doesnt really matter

All versions of street fighter were better on SNES, as was mortal kombat 2, Tmnt tournament fighter, and the snk ports. The snes tended to have much better graphics and sound and since these games only had 2 characters on screen you wouldn't get slowdown that may give genesis ports an edge in some other genres like schmups for example

No mention of Samurai Shodown? For shame.
It rocks on Sega CD and Genesis IMHO. The SNES port was passable, but lacked the sprite size and impact needed for that game. No joke, it was one of the reasons I got a Genesis even in the late 90's.

Also, Fatal Fury 2 is more playable on Genesis for simplified controls (even if it is less true to arcade; most desparation moves only needed 1 button press in Genesis instead of 2...it makes a huge difference for me).

@Anapan
Great, one of the few Sega CD games (of interest) that I passed on because I could always get a cart version!
Very interesting to hear that it plays better though.
Still, I'm not dropping $30+ for the game. Maybe I can get someone to trade for it.

I felt like the Genesis ports of SF2 suffered mostly from the fact that they weren't able to use as many colors as the SNES, weren't able to process audio at the same sampling rate, and also were hurt by Capcom's desire to stay in Nintendo's good graces (until the N64 happened and it became profitable to ditch Nintendo after Squaresoft led the charge with FF7).

And I'm new. Hello! See my introduction post for a primer on moi.

You guys don't have a discord?