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I was wondering how other folks here felt about the Genesis until it was bundled with Sonic for $150. Despite it being heavily marketed as the system that surpassed the Nintendo, I don't recall being excited about it until late 1991 (with Sonic, Streets of Rage, NHL, Road Rash, ToeJam & Earl). Mostly because I was so preoccupied with so many great NES games and looking forward to the Super Nintendo.
But what about you? Did you spend $189.99 for that 16-bit power? Or did you stick to your grey box?
And for those who weren't around then, would you have rather bought the new console and a couple of games, or use that money to get even more titles for your NES?

For reference, here are titles that were esteemed from the release of the Genesis to the Sonic pack-in.

Genesis:
Ghouls 'n Ghosts
Revenge of Shinobi
Golden Axe
Phantasy Star II
Herzog Zwei
Super Monaco GP
Thunder Force III
Madden NFL
Castle of Illusion
Strider
MUSHA
Gaiares

Nintendo Entertainment System:
Duck Tales
Batman
River City Ransom
Super Mario Bros. 3
Super C
Ninja Gaiden II
Crystalis
Final Fantasy
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turles II: The Arcade Game
Dr. Mario
Castlevania III
Mega Man 3
Tecmo Super Bowl
Vice: Project Doom
Battletoads
Gun-Nac

I was a Nintendo kid through this whole period. Mega Man was life. And when the Super Nintendo came along, I ended up favoring that too. I actually didn't own my own Genesis until a few years ago.

I relied on my brother's friend to get my 16-bit fix. It worked out well, we were mutual friends and traded NES carts, but the NES was still king because of the awesome game selection. It got weird when I was dating said friend's sister, and then broke up with her, but then my brother formed a band with him, and I still got to play his Genesis games, despite at that time owning a Sega CD, and later a Saturn. My bro's friend still has an epic collection of Genesis carts.
Edit: Oh yeah, Mega Man, and Mario. Sonic is still cooler, but nobody questioned if you could play Sonic. Can you beat Air Man? Can you beat Shadow Man? Have you gotten past "Big World" in Mario 3?
No question about the hardware.

...I started gaming w/an Atari 7800 and had to rely on family and friends to get my NES fix. When Christmas of '89 rolled around and my parents offered me a shot at a Genesis I jumped on it. I wasn't well versed on the NES games that weren't Mario and everything Sega was offering was light years better than my 7800. Games like Moonwalker, ESWAT, Castle of Illusion, and Columns kept me occupied enough. Being able to rent games from Blockbuster also let me check out a bunch of the early Genesis releases too.

My earliest memory of the Genesis was Sonic the Hedgehog, so I would say that is the game that made me take the plunge, much in the same way that Super Mario Bros. (along with Double Dragon) made me get the NES.

Sonic and Mario are truly the greatest of all franchises as far as Nintendo/Sega is concerned. Fitting that Sonic is arguably the first great video game movie, and the upcoming Super Mario movie looks like it may raise that bar even higher

The console that got me into retro gaming was a Genesis. I got it from my brother's friend around 2009. I've sung the praises of blast processing ever since.

Syndicate wrote:...I started gaming w/an Atari 7800 and had to rely on family and friends to get my NES fix. When Christmas of '89 rolled around and my parents offered me a shot at a Genesis I jumped on it. I wasn't well versed on the NES games that weren't Mario and everything Sega was offering was light years better than my 7800. Games like Moonwalker, ESWAT, Castle of Illusion, and Columns kept me occupied enough. Being able to rent games from Blockbuster also let me check out a bunch of the early Genesis releases too.

This is the exact same experience I had...the Genesis was the first console I owned that my friends actually were excited to play

dsheinem wrote:

Syndicate wrote:...I started gaming w/an Atari 7800 and had to rely on family and friends to get my NES fix. When Christmas of '89 rolled around and my parents offered me a shot at a Genesis I jumped on it. I wasn't well versed on the NES games that weren't Mario and everything Sega was offering was light years better than my 7800. Games like Moonwalker, ESWAT, Castle of Illusion, and Columns kept me occupied enough. Being able to rent games from Blockbuster also let me check out a bunch of the early Genesis releases too.

This is the exact same experience I had...the Genesis was the first console I owned that my friends actually were excited to play

My household also only had an Atari still during these early years, but friends and neighbors kept me occupied on both the NES and the Genesis. I was fairly torn between them, but I distinctly remember enjoying Zelda, Mario, and Duckhunt more than Golden Axe (though I did like the latter). My next console would be a Genesis, and I got Sonic and Ecco with it before Sonic was a pack-in title (pretty sure). Right around the same time, though, my sister got a Super Nintendo, so that complicated the preferences. And then by 1992, the NES was forgotten.

Crazy how just 3 years after SMB3 kids would barely think about it, but these days, I couldn't even tell you what came out 6 years ago, let alone 3.

Nintendo forever

I got a TI-99/4A in 1989. It had been my uncle's.

We didn't get an NES until Christmas of 1992. A surprising number of kids in my school were just getting or still playing NES up through about 1995.

I never especially wanted a Genesis, partly because I didn't (and still don't) like the controller, but also mainly because it didn't seem to make financial sense. I could buy a lot of NES games for the price of a Genesis.

*EDIT week's later: It belonged to my uncle. I did not have two uncles somewho merge to form a home computer.