What did Genesis do better than SNES?

[wiggyx]

Genesis has higher horizontal resolution, actually, and even supports an interlaced video mode (though I think Sonic 2 was the only game to use it). And generally, I'd opt for the smoother gameplay. I wonder what Gradius III would have been like on the Genesis.

As best I can find, the SNES could display up to 512×478 interlaced and 512×239 in progressive scan.

The Genesis did 320×448 interlaced and wasn't capable of progressive scan.

I'm looking at wiki. Are you looking somewhere else?


Besides, neither really means much in terms of sprite size and quantity, and there are very few SNES games that make use of the progressive scan option (IIRC).


I agree with you (and the others) about shmups. I'd way prefer slowdown-less gameplay over color layering, mode 7 effects, etc. Slowdown is like the worst thing possible in a shooter. Just ruins your rhythm. I never played sports games, but I imagine the same would hold true for most folks.


"Better" or more sophisticated graphics are great, but history has proven that it's not the the most important feature with regards to selling units. The PS2 was technically the "weakest" console of the 6th generation (save for the poor DC), but it outsold the competition by a massive margin. It's all about the games, and in the 16-bit era, exclusive titles were plentiful. You had to seriously consider what games you liked, or thought you would like before buying a console. And back then, try before you buy wasn't nearly as easy as it is today.

I recall many friends literally selling their current 16-bit console to buy the other when a certain game dropped. I had at least a few friends sell their SNES when Sonic came out, and other that did the inverse for Street Fighter. I was really fortunate in that I had a SNES and my younger sister had a Genesis (for all the sweet Disney games).


Which brings me back to the OP's Q. Disney games were kick-ass on the Genesis. Some I liked slightly better on the SNES, like Aladdin, but if I had to pick one console for that type of game, it would be the Genesis hands down. Quackshot and Castle of Illusion were just plain awesome.

[NeoZeedeater]

The Genesis has a larger number of quality Western-developed games, both in ports of computer games and in original content.

[djshok]

It would be silly to dispute the objective differences in processors between the two consoles, but I dispute the use of those sorts of multiplatform releases as supposed proof of one console's technical superiority over another. In many cases, it's not surprising to discover that the superior version happens to be for the console that was the lead platform during development; a project that begins its life being built for Genesis hardware may suffer when that same project is moved to the SNES and vice versa. A developer's programming experience with multiple platforms and appropriateness of project scope relative to the hardware makes a big difference here, I think. For instance, an indentical-in-design multiplatform release that plays slower on Genesis is B.O.B., that's in addition to the differences in colour palette and audio that one would expect.

While it is true that different developers were responsible for making versions of the same game for the SNES and Genesis (and sometimes one side would be much better than the other) I don't think Max Carnage started as a Genesis title. If anything I'd be more inclined to believe that it was a simultaneous release/development from the start. That aside though, a lot of the SNES exclusive brawlers, ie: Knights of Round, Captain Commando, Final Fight 2 & 3 etc... run very slowly compared to similar brawlers on the Genny. This isn't to say that KoR and CC are bad games, they're both decent, but they do slow down and flicker a lot. While even the most hardware resource intense Genesis brawlers Ie: Streets of Rage 3 hardly slow down at all.

As for B.O.B yes you're right, it is slower on the Genesis. The difference in palette is because that's a thing that the SNES does better

[davidbrit2]

As best I can find, the SNES could display up to 512×478 interlaced and 512×239 in progressive scan.

The Genesis did 320×448 interlaced and wasn't capable of progressive scan.

Most Genesis games seem to run at 320x224, with Sonic 2 being the lone example of interlaced mode. I've never seen an SNES game run at anything but 256x224. If you know of any, I'd be interested in checking them out.

I think it boils down to this: Genesis was better for lots of motion and finer details, and SNES for color depth and in audio fidelity. That's probably (partly) the reason why the Genesis had the sports and shooter markets, and SNES had RPGs. Platformers were mostly a tossup, not depending too heavily on either strength.

[Ryudo]

Blast Processing always was Marketing thing but a fun one back in the day when we were kids and would argue with our friends

[SparTonberry]

Some SNES games used the higher resolution mode, but only for menus (Secret of Mana) and some Japanese RPGs only used high-res mode on the text window scanlines (Madara 2, G.O.D, Rudra no Hihou).
I don't know if any games that ran the entire game in high-res. I'd suspect it'd be a bit slower. Plus it also would display the entire tilemap on screen, not giving it any buffer room for drawing parts of the level map before it is scrolled on screen (which was a problem on the NES). Hence slower performance as the game code would probably have to manually shift everything on the screen over and out.

[old_skoolin_jim]

Shooters and Brawlers. The Genesis had a better processor so the games ran faster with less slowdown and flickering. The SNES had more detailed graphics, but that became something of a disadvantage when combined with the weaker processor; the games just ran even slower. Play something like Spider-Man and Venom Maximum Carnage on both systems and you'll see what I'm talking about. The games themselves are identical, but the SNES one plays like you're underwater.

Agree with this. This also applies to WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game. SNES was horribly slow, and was missing two characters to boot. Samurai Shodown also had all the characters (and scaling too, I think), but didn't play as well.
Genesis was ultimately batter at fast-paced action games, as they could really deliver a better sense of speed.

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

The 7.67 MHz processor created faster games. That's pretty much the main advantage.

Yes, "blast processing" is not the name of an actual feature inside. Calling it out as a a marketing gimmick does not mean you instantly win the argument . I had both systems at the time, and the speed difference was very evident, even before I saw advertising about it.

Sega also had a ton of arcade franchises to pull from at the time, so the Genesis got a lot of arcade quality, exclusive games. Not as graphical as most SNES games, but a heck of a lot of fun.

[Ryudo]

Back in the day when consoles truly offered something different.

You wanted sports and more action oriented games and arcade ports? SEGA
You wanted Platformers & RPG's? Nintendo

[Gameguy]

Yes, "blast processing" is not the name of an actual feature inside. Calling it out as a a marketing gimmick does not mean you instantly win the argument . I had both systems at the time, and the speed difference was very evident, even before I saw advertising about it.

Blast processing was referring to DMA(Direct Memory Access). Other systems used it too, but the Genesis actually did it better than the SNES.

http://trixter.oldskool.org/2008/12/...rocessing-101/

[Yago]

In my opinion Earthworm Jim one of my favorite platform games was better on the Genesis than the SNES. Probably the best part about Genesis is I could use the controller on my Atari 2600. Brilliant!

[o.pwuaioc]

WWF Royal Rumble for the Genesis had Papa Shango, who didn't appear on the SNES version.

[FrankSerpico]

The WWF had a pattern of doing weird stuff with the rosters like that in their games at the time. The SNES version of Rumble had Ric Flair and Tatanka while the Genesis version didn't.

[madman77]

The 7.67 MHz processor created faster games. That's pretty much the main advantage.

Comparing the clock speed of two entirely different CPU architectures is not apples to apples. The topic of the 68000 vs 65816 has already been beaten to death.

[Drixxel]

While it is true that different developers were responsible for making versions of the same game for the SNES and Genesis (and sometimes one side would be much better than the other) I don't think Max Carnage started as a Genesis title. If anything I'd be more inclined to believe that it was a simultaneous release/development from the start. That aside though, a lot of the SNES exclusive brawlers, ie: Knights of Round, Captain Commando, Final Fight 2 & 3 etc... run very slowly compared to similar brawlers on the Genny. This isn't to say that KoR and CC are bad games, they're both decent, but they do slow down and flicker a lot. While even the most hardware resource intense Genesis brawlers Ie: Streets of Rage 3 hardly slow down at all.

As for B.O.B yes you're right, it is slower on the Genesis. The difference in palette is because that's a thing that the SNES does better

Agreed on Maximum Carnage, it seems to be the result of pretty evenhanded development that probably began simultaneously for both platforms. As for performance issues of SNES beat-'em-up exclusives compared to those on the Genesis, yeah, I suppose there's more of a tendency for slowdown and flicker on the SNES side. It's not a genre that I've ever felt the SNES was especially weak at, though, and beat-'em-ups as a genre aren't typically super fast games anyway. A game such as Super Double Dragon is definitely slower compared to the likes of Streets of Rage 2, but then a game like Iron Commando runs arguably as quickly and consistently even with larger sprites.

Going back to B.O.B., which is honestly the only example of an identical multiplatform release I could think of where the Genesis version clearly runs slower than the SNES version, I'd chalk the obvious inferiority of Genesis B.O.B.'s palette more to poor colour selection than anything. It seems to me that the colour limitations of the hardware weren't that big of a deal when the matter was approached a little more thoughtfully and creatively, the Sonic games are perhaps the greatest example in the Genesis library where the number of on-screen colours is a non-issue for even the most critical of gamers.

Anyhow, pointless technical quibbles aside, I echo previous sentiments about arcade ports being a strength of the Genesis, they filled out the library from its earliest days in an awesome way. Also, who doesn't love Genesis clamshell cases? The black grid clamshells are perhaps my favourite game packaging of all-time in terms of both practicality and aesthetics.

[j_factor]

Most Genesis games seem to run at 320x224, with Sonic 2 being the lone example of interlaced mode. I've never seen an SNES game run at anything but 256x224. If you know of any, I'd be interested in checking them out.

I think it boils down to this: Genesis was better for lots of motion and finer details, and SNES for color depth and in audio fidelity. That's probably (partly) the reason why the Genesis had the sports and shooter markets, and SNES had RPGs. Platformers were mostly a tossup, not depending too heavily on either strength.

I find I tend to prefer platformers on Genesis, as the larger horizontal resolution allows you to see more. Platformers that were made exclusively for the SNES are usually fine, but multiplatform ones were cropped on SNES.

[Retrocade Fantasia]

For those saying SNES games ran slower than Genesis games did.

The Street Fighter II Turbo 10 star code would like to have a word with you!

As for what the genesis did better?

Well the SNES promised add-ons... Sega had what 3? I don't care what people say the 32x and Sega CD were AWESOME even if you needed your own power station to run all 3.

I still maintain today that the Streets of Rage was better than ANY snes beat-em-up. The Closest the SNES/SFC had was the Rushing Beat Series.

I also think Genesis games had their own personality even multiplatform games you just KNEW they were Genesis games same with the SNES. The biggest problem the genesis had was it's soundchip was ASS but that didn't stop sonic and Streets of Rage from having some of the best 16-bit OSTs of all time.

I love them both and I will pretty soon be buying a Retron 3

[Shriek of the Mutilated]

Probably the best part about Genesis is I could use the controller on my Atari 2600. Brilliant!

Yeah, this was one thing I truly loved about the Master System and the Genesis. They both used generic 9-pin connectors instead of proprietary ones, allowing for broad intercompatibility.

[swlovinist]

Agree with the speed and sports comments...Sega Generally had the edge.

As for RPGS and Platforms, I agree that SNES had some killer titles. Two I felt that were better on the Genesis were

Aladdin
Shadowrun

[thegamezmaster]

I liked the ability to play Sega Master System games on my Genesis.

[o.pwuaioc]

I liked the ability to play Sega Master System games on my Genesis.

Aw, man, you know how awesome the SNES would have been if it had backwards compatibility with the NES??

[wiggyx]

Aw, man, you know how awesome the SNES would have been if it had backwards compatibility with the NES??

It sucks, because that was actually the plan from the get-go

[davidbrit2]

Aw, man, you know how awesome the SNES would have been if it had backwards compatibility with the NES??

That would have been sweet, if only to have an S-Video NES.

(Can't the SNES actually run some NROM games in a limited capacity?)

[jb143]

Also, who doesn't love Genesis clamshell cases? The black grid clamshells are perhaps my favourite game packaging of all-time in terms of both practicality and aesthetics.

That's a good point. It's much easier to find good condition CIB genesis games than SNES games these days...and that's a big plus in my book.

[old_skoolin_jim]

In my opinion Earthworm Jim one of my favorite platform games was better on the Genesis than the SNES. Probably the best part about Genesis is I could use the controller on my Atari 2600. Brilliant!

Truth! I remember the SNES version of EWJ also had fewer voice samples, too. Although EWJ2 on SNES had that cool "warp the cows' voices at the end of a level" thing too... so I guess ultimately they even out... sort of.
Agree on the controller ports, too... They also sort of worked in my C64. They somehow disabled some of the Function keys, so I ended up having to use the legit clicky joysticks for most games, though.

WWF Royal Rumble for the Genesis had Papa Shango, who didn't appear on the SNES version.

The WWF had a pattern of doing weird stuff with the rosters like that in their games at the time. The SNES version of Rumble had Ric Flair and Tatanka while the Genesis version didn't.

That's right... I remember being astounded at how many other wrestlers the Genesis version had when playing it at a friend's house, after playing it on my brother's SNES. I used to annoy my friend by playing the song from "The Model" (I think that was his name?)... good times.