When do you think Sega was at it's most Creative?

[TheRev]

I love Sega, I think in my 3 or so weeks here (maybe more?) I've made it clear I love Sega. Granted I'm not a blind sega fanboy who worships every bit of hardware and software they put out. Frankly looking back at Sega's History they're a company that struggled to find their identity and never really locked down on who they were. Even now as a shadow of what they used to be Sega STILL has no idea who they are.

From their Super Scaler Technology in Outrun, After Burner, Space Harrier which still amazes me some 25 years later. To their Genesis output of unique games, To games like Nights and Burning Rangers, Panzer Dragoon, Clockwork Knight on the Saturn and their
beloved Dreamcast games like Shenmue and Jet Set Radio. Sega knew how to take risks and see what worked and what didn't and made their games edgier than what Nintendo was offering at the time.

I've asked this on Assember and on the Sega Saturn UK forum with no real consensus. So it boils down to your own opinion.

When do you think Sega was at it's most creative? Pre Genesis Era, Genesis, Era, Saturn Era, Dreamcast Era.

[AppleQueso]

I always thought Sega had quite a bit of identity. From the 80s arcade era up until even now, most Sega developed games seem to have a distinct "Sega" vibe...

I'm gonna say Dreamcast. Sega really was pushing a lot of new ideas, and in terms of output they exited the console business with a bang.

[o.pwuaioc]

[TheRev]

Scrooge McDuck can shove that and his Lucky Dime up his ass.

He's just bitter there was never a Genesis Duck Tales game and nobody bought the NES Duck Tales 2.

[pierrot]

It's really hard for me to say. The Genesis period had a lot of great output from Sega, but i think they're mostly platformers. So, probably either pre-Genesis or Dreamcast. Pre-Genesis was a pretty revolutionary time for the industry, and while most of their efforts were eclipsed by Nintendo, I think Sega had some of their greatest innovation during the period after the crash.

Dreamcast probably takes it, though. I think partly due to the 'lack of 3rd party support,' Sega, and their second party development houses just went nuts. There was more variety in games from Sega's brand alone than most 'failed' consoles get in their entire life-cycle. Shenmue has become blase in comparison to modern gaming's extrapolations of its mechanics, but I think there's little overstating its revolutionary impact on console gaming (for better or for worse) and there's still little, if anything, like Jet Set Radio, Space Channel 5, Chu Chu Rocket and many others.

[#Red#]

when they made a urinal into an arcade machine

[o.pwuaioc]

Scrooge McDuck can shove that and his Lucky Dime up his ass.

He's just bitter there was never a Genesis Duck Tales game and nobody bought the NES Duck Tales 2.

Joking, of course. Sega had great creativity in three different epochs: early arcade days and Dreamcast, its last-ditch effort to shine. The times in-between feel somewhat derivative (even if they did shine while being derivative, like with Golden Axe Warrior).

[Arbitern1]

when they made a urinal into an arcade machine

This

[8bit]

Hands down it was the dreamcast imho. They went all out with creative games during that time.

Jet Grind Radio, Crazy Taxi, Shenmue, Skies of Arcadia, Space Channel 5 and sequels to Saturn classics were all really great!

[TheRev]

Sega took the Wii Concept to a whole new level with that urinal machine.