When talking consoles, a lot of talk boils down to the numbers. My first actual system was the original Nintendo system and I fell in love with it right away. Plus, what other console do you know had "blast processing," even though that was just a gimmick like all hell. No longer, after the Genesis actually came within earshot of the SNES in terms of sale, etc., was The House that Mario Built safe.Īnd in a couple of years, even though Nintendo was/is still formidable, more and more people went to non-Nintendo platforms. Finally, the console war that raged and the fact that Genesis' user base in the US was pretty high? One could argue that the Genesis, even though it lost the war, softened up Nintendo's defenses. You wanted a JRPG that wasn't Final Fantasy? You got Phantasy Star.
You want a non-mascot platformer? Toe Jam and Earl existed. Also, the Genesis had more of an eclectic gaming choice. EA tended to go to the Genesis before SNES-and that's before Madden et al became copy-and-paste bullshit (more on that soon).
There were NFL and NBA games with actual teams and players. Ok, now that I've got the fanboy out, the Genesis' sports collection was often miles ahead of what was offered on the SNES.