I and a few friends had Genesis systems back then, this is our favorite period in the system's lifespan. Playing games like Super Shinobi, Thunder Force III, Golden Axe, Ghouls n' Goblins, Gaiares, Phantasy Star II, Strider, etc. while the others still had only their 8-bit NES was mind blowing at the time!
I had an NES and wanted a Genesis when I saw it, I got one the Christmas of launch year. We were blown away by it. I think Altered Beast was a perfect launch game, it showcased the capabilities and had a good challenge. Revenge of Shinobi, Golden Axe, and Ghouls & Ghosts were on another level. I don’t think the lack of interest in the games are what failed it, it’s just that the NES was already so integrated into peoples homes it took a while to catch on. Plus by the time people took notice there were rumors that Nintendo was putting out their own 16 bit console that was gearing up to top the Genesis, so people waited. Those early adopters like me knew we had something special.
I distinctly remember the arguments in middle school lol. It started off as basically "Yeah sure, the Genesis is better...enjoy those 3 games nobody's ever heard of, we'll be playing Metal Gear this weekend." And then a couple years later the SNES came out. We all saw the writing on the wall, Genesis had just barely managed to create a mascot by the time the SNES came out and hit the ground running. Super Mario World was a launch title, Metroid, Zelda, and Castlevania weren't far around the corner.
They definitely could have padded out the arcade ports a bit more, like they did with Golden Axe's extra level, but Sega had to pay for every "Mega Power" of ROM capacity the same as Nintendo did. For a given level length, those extra colors and graphical effects on the Genesis were going to eat up more ROM space than an equivalent level on the NES. Having multiple long, elaborate level designs on an NES game would unfortunately use up the same amount of ROM as a few short levels with diverse background tiles, sprites, and parallax layering on a Genesis game.
The arcade experience and console experience where ALL diferent kinds Of bessts. Nintendo understand more quickly that consoles needed more experiences with a diferent touch when playing at home. Is not like Sega never did It otherwise, but you can consistly see that filosophy hurting the Company later on in games From The Saturn and even Dreamcast generation. Manx TT Superbike has only 2 tracks and 2 modes - arcade and Head to Head vs. Extremely barebones. Virtua Fighter 3TB on the Dreamcast has only ... What 3 or 4 modes Of game and no New content compared to the arcade. Damn, Teken 3 have Animated endings, New players, the Teken Forces beat and UP mode ... On the PS1 ... Sega have loose to Tekken 1 with a bare bones Virtua Fighter 1 on the Saturn and lose with a bare bones VF3 for Tekken Tag Tournament on the PS2, UP till this Day One Of the fan favourites.
I was so in love with my NES at the time I didn't really care about the Genesis commercials or what I saw about it in magazines . I didn't actually buy a Genesis until after I had an SNES for a while . Even then , I am not really sure why I bought it because I loved my SNES too . But I had a job and I loved Gaming. The Genesis model 2 was out by that time so I finally bought one and I rented a Sega CD . Great video as always , POJR !!!!
I think Castle of Illusion should have been the pack in game. I'm sure that would have been difficult considering that it was a licensed Disney game, but if I was Michael Katz, I would have done everything I could to make that happen. When looking at the launch lineup, it's clear that's the killer app. It also directly competes and outshines any of the Super Mario Bros games on the NES.
For all of SEGA's blunders, the Genesis was wildly successful, and in the end sold about the same amount of Genesis consoles as the SNES in North America. It actually outsold the SNES in Europe, but failed to have much on impact in Japan and Asia, where it placed a distant third to Nintendo's 16 bit console, and NEC's PC Engine.
The Master System sold even more than the MegaDrive/Genesis in Europe. It spent most of it's life as a very cheap option for kids. To be honest I think the MegaDrive benefitted from a lot of people wanting to finally move on from 8 bit computers in the early 90s that had been really popular since the early 80s, like the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. The Amiga was what a lot of people wanted but that was much more expensive than a MegaDrive in 1990
A minor point, but just like Punch-Out, Buster Douglas boxing is an arcade port (Final Blow). My favorite "unauthorized" graphic in Revenge of Shinobi is freakin' Sonny Chiba on the title screen! Guess nobody noticed until decades later.
Fun fact: When Revenge of Shinobi was brought to Wii Virtual Console, they changed the face on the title screen to resemble that of Tsuyoshi Matsuoka, a director and programmer at M2 who largely handled Virtual Console releases.
there was a span of time where the Genesis' competition was the NES, so it's interesting to see how the Genesis handled things before we saw the blue blur. great retrospective pojr!
11:35 I think not. All the great Arcade ports is what made me want a Genesis. The arcade scene was glorious back in the day, and the thought of a home console that could bring the arcade experience home faithfully was quite enticing.
One thing to keep in mind was the price. The Genesis was almost double the price of the NES at the time. I was a Sega kid so my first console was the Master System (Weird I know) and it took me forever to save up for the Genesis. Everyone wanted one but at the time the Genesis was around $189.99 and the NES was between $99 for the base console and around $129 for the Action Set. A second side note was the NES was dominant between 1985 - 1990, like 1 out of 4 US households had an NES dominant. It was a crazy time.
@oblivieon1567 Don't be hard on yourself. You call yourself weird for owning a Master System first, but in many other regions of the world, that would have been the norm! Long after America ditched the Master System, Europe, Australia and New Zealand were still getting new releases in the mid 90's!
@@FatmanCannon SNES was not a thing outside of United States and to some extent Western Europe. I never seen Master System in my country either, but it was Famicom clones > Sega Mega Drive > Sony Playstation, other consoles basically didn't exist here. Each was a direct upgrade, yes.
When I shopped for a new game console in 1990 I NEVER considered the NES. It was old news by then. I only considered the Genesis or TurboGrafx-16 and bought the Genesis due to TG16 costing more to add multiplayer TurboTap & RCA video via the TurboBooster
Tg 16 was cheap compared to genesis . Iirc it started at 149.99 vs Segas 189. It also had two free mail in games as well as packed in Keith courage. My friend got one because "everyone has a Sega so I can play that at friends".
It was only powerful for about 1 year in 1983. Even the 7800 could beat it just one year later. *cough cough* "Why the 7800 is better than the NES" *cough* He did forget to mention it's absurd expandability and sprite flexing capabilities, however.
@@allgood5140TurboGrafx-16 did not launch at $149 nor did it include two additional games via mail in. Eventually NEC would offer it at lower prices and include other incentives like free games to be more competitive but not at launch.
@@ecernosoft3096 The NES can also do the vertical scroll scaling raster effect, while the Master System cannot, due to a silly hardware flaw. That's why Rad Racer has smooth gradients on hills, and OutRun has choppy, tile increment gradients. Late in the NES life cycle, several games took advantage of this capability that the SMS lacked.
@@ostiariusalpha It’s not exactly that, It’s probably a flaw they didn’t know existed because vertical “stretching” wasn’t really something they thought of.
While Golden Axe was cool, Altered Beast was a slog. Back then every Canon the Barbarian, Red Sonja, and D&D fans would drool for Golden Axe but Altered Beast where you play as a no name guy who could transform into a different beast to fight God's enemies is just lame. Also the level design in Altered Beast aren't anything to wow at either, the levels scroll by itself, there are no obstacles to traverse and if you failed to transform before the sorcerer appeared, then the level just kept on repeating until you do and the sorcerer re-appeared to fight you in demon form.
Before Sonic, only a few games really sustained the Genesis in North America. Revenge of Shinobi, Strider, Ghouls 'n Ghosts, and (especially) Golden Axe; the rest of the game library's sales were actually kind of mediocre. Altered Beast has large numbers only by virtue of being the early pack-in title.
The first game that I saw that had "idle animation" Boulder Dash, well if you stay still for more than three clicks of the clock Rockford starts to tap his foot. He did that way before Sonic did that and even before Mickey Mouse had idle animation. By the way Boulder Dash was first released on the Atari 800.
Sega had some difficult choices early on. From the 8 games available at launch, Altered Beast would prolly be the obvious choice at the time, but I would now lean towards Space Harrier 2 as a better pack-in. I would have had native backwards compatibility for the Master System instead of using an add-on to make the older games playable so that they could have advertised two game libraries at the same time, and launched a budget line of Master System re-releases to push this, perhaps with a Genesis cart that had multiple Master System games packed on it as a secondary pack-in title. Hindsight being 20-20, the six button controller would be standard instead of a later made controller instead of the default 3 button.
9:38 you can have unlimited ninja stars (shurikans) in Revenge of Shinobi. Here’s a trick I’ve known for over 30 years in that game. Go into the options screen of the game, change the shurikans to 00 and keep the cursor selected on 00 and just wait 5-10 seconds, The 00 text will change into an infinite symbol. exit the options and start the game. You now have infinite shurikans.
I think that Sega's mistake in the 80's was thinking that people would be so enticed to their newest console because of accurate arcade ports, which was just wrong. The NES was the first console that has shown, that home consoles can offer vastly different experiences from the arcade. Porting arcade titles was slowly becoming a fruitless endeavor, since the main draw of these was the technological display of what can be done with hardware worth thousands of dollars. Meanwhile, the home console titles started to head into the territory that was not possible on the arcades: storytelling.
I think this is one of the key reasons why the SNES ultimately outsold the Genesis, because big story-focussed RPGs were the raison d'etre of the system. That plus it's more cinematic graphical and audio capabilities just made it seem a slight step ahead of the Genesis in the ways that were quickly becoming more relevant to gamers. No longer was it about how much stuff you could throw around on-screen and blow up, but rather how aesthetically gorgeous it could look, how good it could sound relative to real instruments and the more cinematic soundscapes, and how much there was to sink your teeth into and get absorbed in. But Genesis was still a powerhouse at what it was made for, that's for sure.
It was initally the big draw to the 16-bit consoles at the time though. It's also why Nintendo intially had an exclusive release of Street Fighter 2; which was the best selling third party game on the system. I had a Genesis, but wanted a SNES strictly because of that title then. Eventually, the market shifted away from the arcade for 16-bit as the systems could no longer create good enough ports in comparison.
@@chriswheatley3146 It's also easy to take emulation for granted now. Stating the obvious, but there was no MAME back then, so if you wanted to play arcade games at home, a console or computer port was the only way. I know I was super impressed with Altered Beast on the Genesis back in 1990, having played it a lot in the arcade just the previous year. Also, the Genesis version actually has parallax scrolling while the arcade doesn't (though yeah, otherwise graphics are better) I was super hyped for the Genesis as soon as it was released, so I didn't notice any big jump when Sonic became the pack-in. For me, it was a steady hype train for Sega the whole way until I got a Lynx, and then ultimately a Playstation years later!
@inceptional That's actually why Genesis sold 51% of all 16-bit software in the U.S. from October to November of 1995. After the Sega CD, 32x and Saturn releases. Yet Genesis still outsold the Snes. Nintendo was releasing atleast in the U.S. flop RPG's Earthbound, Chrono Trigger. Genesis was getting the definitive versions of Madden 96, Fifa 96, NHL 96 and NBA Live 96. Also the most revolutionary game ever at the time Vectorman.
The funny thing is if the Genesis supported a 256 color palette and 8 channels of basic sample (or even wavetable) playback (especially if _in_ _addition_ _to_ its six channels of FM synthesis) the Genesis / MegaDrive would have potentially taken the lead over the SNES, given its earlier release. And that's one thing that surprises me about the homebrew scene, there's virtually no one making games for the 32X CD -- even officially there were only 6 games -- but with the 32X CD you could have all those features and more (although multichannel sample playback would have to be executed in the software domain), including the large file sizes afforded by CD-ROM.
Beating Super Mario 3 with the same Sega of Japan who thought Super Thunderblade was a great showpiece? Good luck. They needed to be humbled, before they could be relevant. And they'll prove it again with Virtua Fighter on Saturn. And the way they sabotaged Time Warner's Virtua Racing port.
Ghouls 'n Ghosts is one of my favorite Genesis games. Somehow, I can beat Ghouls 'n Ghosts in one sitting without too much trouble... yet somehow, have never been able to beat any Sonic game on the Genesis. Bonus fact: The ill-fated Japan-only console, the SuperGrafx, was basically just a PC-Engine/TurboGrafx 16 with slightly beefed up graphics. One of the five games that supports it is Ghouls 'n Ghosts, and it looks really nice... feels really good to control.... it would be even better than the Genesis version... *if they didn't give you limited continues.*
Sonic games on genesis usually have a "hump-level" and after that they're a breeze tbh. Hell, the Disney licensed games(movie-ones-Aladdin, Lion King, and Jungle Book) really loved their hump levels...they had multiple ones haha! And they were sooo much worst than the Sonic ones imo.
Great video. Been waiting for this topic to be covered for a long time. My sister owned a genesis and i loved the games but I played my friends NES much more. Sonic really was a game changer.
I would have traveled to the future where Titan had just released their Overdrive 2 demo for Megadrive - acquired a copy of that and then traveled back to show people what Genesis is capable of
Genesis couldn't really take off without 3rd party support, Sonic, and high quality EA Sports Games It took some time to get all 3 pieces aligned They would eventually get the titles from Konami, Capcom, and other high quality 3rd party developers
The Revenge of Shinobi double jump is really only a "timing issue" when you are running via software emulation, or playing on a modern display which has high latency. This was never an issue back in 1989, when playing on original hardware and on a CRT. The controls are pretty perfect in that one.
I'll have to try it out. I used a MiSTer FPGA to play it, which is emulation. I do feel like the timing is quite strict, but I'll have to try it on real hardware to be sure.
Not true at all. I had the same problem when I beat it on the real system on a CRT. The controls are just a little janky in this game. Also there are options in retroarch to reduce latency to make it pretty much non-existent.
@@ajsingh4545 I can't speak for others, but I've been playing TROS since 1989 and never had issues with the controls. They are as tight as you'd expect. The double jumping was designed to be performed precisely at the arc of the first jump. Runahead in RetroArch can help with latency by trying to skip past any "internal latency" a game might have, but it's very game dependent, and requires a bit of trial & error. You can usually set it to a frame or two, but if you set it too high you risk introducing stuttering. There's an excellent essay, written by the very talented developer of BNES and BSNES, two very accurate emulators, where he goes into detail about how each component adds to latency. From the video buffering, VSYNC, USB controller polling, display upscaling, other display digital filters, and so on. Anyway, in just about every game you're still going to come out ahead, when it comes to latency on modern displays, with an FPGA based solution, such as MiSTer (with a direct SNAC wired controller).
@@pojrThere's also a rom hack for Revenge of Shinobi called 'Better Jumping' that brings the double jump more in line with how it is in Shinobi III. Pretty cool to check out
The only sad part for me when I got an SNES on Christmas 95 was SNES didn't have Sonic. I went with my mom to the rental store and my first game I chose to rent was True Lies, my Sister chose Mickey Mania. It was 95, I was eleven and still I remember like it was yesterday. 😍
The first two years of the Genesis were kind of rough. I got one for Christmas, and had Altered Beast and Last Battle. Neither of which really blew me away. The video store soon started renting out Genesis games, and I got to play more games as the months went by. I still had a NES back then, too, and with how dry the Genesis catalog was at the time, the NES saw more play. It really came down the kinds of games on the Genesis at the time. I wasn't much for sports, and while the arcade ports were passable, they didn't live up to what you got if you left the house and took a walk.Then I got Phantasy Star II. That's it, I knew I hadn't made a mistake in asking for the system at that point.
The only four games that blew me away were Revenge of Shinobi, Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Golden Axe, and Strider, other than those the rest were either shovelware or license garbage. Not until Sonic, Mortal Kombat, Gunstar Heroes, Ristar, and Streets of Rage launch that I really took the Sega Genesis seriously.
I don't think Katz did a terrible job with the situation Sega of Japan handed to him and he certainly knew more about the video game industry than Kalinske, but Kalinske slashing the price of the Genesis and bundling it with Sonic was absolutely the move that made all the difference. Getting high-quality American sports games developed for the console was also key. As a 10 year-old in 1989, I could not have cared less about the Genesis because the games weren't interesting, but when Sonic came around two years later, the Genesis suddenly became a lot more enticing.
I got the Genesis in Canada during a trip there and my father didn’t want to buy an extra game, luckily my mother snuck out and got Revenge of Shinobi and Golden Axe for me and while I enjoyed Shinobi the most I daresay that Golden Axe would have made WAY more sense as a pack in title; 2 players and a fairly challenging game to booth so you couldn’t beat it the first weekend
Golden Axe would be a no-brainer, it was EVERYWHERE and Sega Mega Drive port was good. People would also look for sequels if more people played it. Altered beast was so previous gen with autoscrolling and one attack instead of combos and variations like in GA.
Hey, POJR! 9:38 "In this game (Revenge of Shinobi) ou have to conserve your ninja stars..." Before you start the game, if you go to the OPTIONS menu, highlight "Shurikins", lower the quantity to ZERO and wait a few seconds, the 00 will become an Infinite sign, meaning u now will have infinite Shurikins. Enjoy!
Have I misunderstood the video or the channel is directed to USA public? I ask it because Sega/Master System/Mega Drive were HUGE in the nearly 44 countries here in Europe + Brazil and Australia, whereas Nintendo/Nes/Snes were succeful mainly in Japan and USA (two countries...)
@@SmugMatty Thanks for this. I asked because He.didn't specify the region, what lead people to take wrong.conclusions. So yes, the channel more directed to the "Nintendo- USA" public 👍
@@SmugMatty yeah Mega Drive was the only 16 bit console in Ukraine, for example. So we moved from Famiclones like Dendy and Subor to Segas, or skipped it and went with PlayStation... I don't think I played a Zelda. Like at all. Mario yes, the one Mario game. Apparently they made more. Fascinating!
The irony about Evander Holyfield was a few years after he knocked out Buster Douglas, Sega licensed Holyfield's name for two boxing games: Evander Holyfield's Real Deal Boxing and Greatest Heavyweights. Also the Buster Douglas boxing game was a port of Taito's arcade game Final Blow. Lastly, the name is Tom Kalinske, not Kalinski.
Having lived through it Segas intial lack of sales were due to two major things. Price was 189 dollars back then vs the now 99 dollar nes and Genesis wasn't as mass produced and was more limited release. The only place you could get one, near me, was toys r us. No department store carried them until late 90. We got ours when sonic was the pack in in 91. It cost 99 dollars at sam's club. Trust me a lot of people wanted the genesis. Our thing was sprite size and detail. Altered beast looked glorious. Forgotten realms was mind blowing. The games were limited but they were a lot of arcade Sega hits too.
You mentioned Evander Holyfield. Evander Holyfield's Real Deal Boxing is a fantastic game. My buddy and I played the heck out of it when it came out, and it is still my go-to Genesis game when I either play on an emulator or drag the console itself out. Of course the Sonic series games are great as well. You are right about Altered Beast. Once upon a time I only had 3 or 4 games for the Genesis, and Altered Beast was one of them. I played through it a couple of times and it sat on the shelf ever since.
Haven't tried the Evander Holyfield game, but I do have Greatest Heavyweights, which I believe is the sequel. Fantastic game that features a lot of the heavyweight champions like Ali, Frasier, Marciano, etc.
I had a Genesis at launch and was definitely a SEGA fan before Sonic. I picked up a SNES about the same time Sonic came out and as a result never got into Sonic games even to this day.
I liked your video, very nice, but seems to me that the end was cut short. Maybe a part two with more about it? Like when companies like Konami, Tengen and others started porting games bypassing Nintendo's restrictions?
My little brother’s friend had a Genesis and I remember 3 games on it: Castle of Illusion, Moonwalker, and Sonic. I particularly loved Illusion. I was a dyed-in-the-wool Nintendo fan though, and was still awaiting the release of the SNES.
The Altered Beast pack in was just fine for the initial strategy of the Genesis. Their thought pattern was definitely bring the arcade home. Even Buster Douglas Boxing was Final Blow in the arcades that they threw a celebrity tag on. The main reason I wanted the Genesis then was because I loved Altered Beast and Golden Axe in the arcades; and the Genesis could do closer arcade conversions than anyone else at the time. I don't even think if Sonic was created during the system's release it would have made a difference as they had an Alex Kidd game then.
It was sonic 3 and then Sonic and knuckles, Nintendo then released donkey Kong country and games even more advanced and took the lead back, they held it for the rest of the generation. Sega just couldn’t beat their expansion chips.
Outside of THE ONE COUNTRY SNES actually sold in, Mega Drive outsold it everywhere, I mean it's really hard not to outsell something that isn't sold... the Genesis vs SNES thing is exclusive to USA, no idea Japanese market, they had Super Famicom with tons of cool stuff but most countries had neither, it was Chinese Famicom clones then Segas and Sonys.
The Sega Genesis was the first console i owned that brought the Arcade experience home. That's why i wanted one. Arcade ports like Golden Axe, Altered Beast, Fireshark, Ghouls N'Ghosts, and Strider were Glorious back in the day. Yes, i included Altered Beast. It's a CLASSIC beat'em up.
The Mega Drive beat the Snes in the UK, and most people in the UK had a home computer like the ZX Spectrum or C64 before that rather than a NES. Master System was more popular than the NES here too, partially because of how cheap it was, and partially because they marketed the Master System II as a budget alternative to the Mega Drive.
The Sega Master System's failure was the only time it wasn't Sega's fault. Nintendo's policies with third-party publishers were not only draconian, they also strong-armed retailers from selling competing consoles - if your store sold the NES, you couldn't sell rival systems the same way. Sega also had this problem in the early years of the Genesis as well, but then they got lucky when the FTC started cracking down on Nintendo.
Sega should have released conversions of Space Harrier, Wonderboy, Hot Rod and Alien Syndrome. Those were hugely popular in the arcade and each one is way better than the dull as dishwater: Altered Beast. An enhanced version of R Type might have been a good idea too. By the time the Mega Drive came out the games I mentioned were at most just a couple of years old and still very popular.
This is where UA-camrs do my head-in. They don't mention they are talking about gaming in America, and it seems it happened throughout the world. Europe was very different where the NES was almost nonexistent and Sega was the king of consoles. Give me a Master System before a NES anyday.
Neither NES nor SNES were a thing in Central or Eastern Europe at all. But we had famiclones instead of Master System. I looked up and almost a half of all SNES/SuperFami consoles sold in USA, and like a third of remaining ones in Japan. With a bit actually made for Western Europe, rest of the world didn't HAVE it as an option. At all. But yeah, the world is America.
The Megadrive in the U.K. before Sonic was seen as this mythical creation that only serious hardcore players owned; unless they had a PC Engine already. Sonic really made it mainstream over here.
I wanted the genesis when I first viewed it in magazines back in the 80’s. I received it the first Christmas it was available and I felt at the time the grafics, sounds and the overall power was better than what I previously played with on the Nintendo. My mistake was the first title I bought was moonwalker instead of phantasy star 2. I previously played the arcade version of it, and thought it would be the same hyped experience. It wasn’t.
From failing to beat the Nes to beating the Snes. Name recognition carries a massive amount of weight. Nintendo, thought that the successful 1991 Christmas for Genesis was going to be a flash in the pan. Then the Genesis 3 peated during the prime of the 16-bit era. Led all of 94' as well until DK hit in late November.
The SG1000 had, I believe, a TMS9918A, in other words the TI-99/4A's graphics chip, which explains why its games' graphics looked so janky and... well, like a TI-99/4A. The wild bit is, all of its consoles through the Genesis had graphics chips which were extensions of the TMS9918A! So Texas Instruments exerted influence over home console and computer graphics that extended deep into the 90s!
I thought it was funny that they will still showing their "Genesis does" commercials with James Buster Douglas after he lost his title to Evander Holyfield.
Fun Fact: 2 of the early titles for the Genesis (Last Battle, Mystic Defender) were adapted from their original Japanese versions being games based on anime series at the time. In case you asked, they were Hokuto no Ken 2 & Kujaku Ou 2.
Sonic is what made me choose the Genesis. My parents said I needed to choose 1 or the other. I wasn't getting both systems. I remember trying to decide then I played Sonic at Sears when they used to have the video game section. That made me choose Sega.
I remember the Console Wars. I was team Nintendo, because there was something off about Sega, but I can't tell what was it. I simply didn't like the looks of Sega Genesis, I believe. Now I appreciate both companies, if only because Sega was a worthy opponent.
You pretty much nailed it with Sega choosing "Altered Beast" as their pack in game. Personally, I had never heard of it. I think that was the biggest reason the Genesis couldn't top Nintendo's NES with the two years it had the advantage. Come on, everyone knew "Super Mario Bros." If only like you said Sega chose "Sonic" as it's original pack in game... wow things would have changed. The graphics were so ahead of the NES is was silly... but how you use that extra power can make you, or in Michael Katz case, break you. Great video my friend. Looking forward to the next.
I knew Altered Beast from arcades but it just wasn’t very good. @Porj absolutely nails it saying this because there’s a lot of revisionist history and nostalgia types who say what a great game Altered Beast was. It really wasn’t.
@@SweetStevieAaronAltered Beast was cool when you were a little kid solely for the excitement of turning into a werewolf or dragon or whatever. But the actual gameplay is pretty dull, and the controls (especially pre-transformation) very awkward.
@@SweetStevieAaron Altered Beast set out to show off hardware with these big epic spites and effects. It was crazy at the time how it looked compared to anything else on the market. Most people didn't beat it in the arcades since they would die off by the 2nd or 3rd stage, so we had no idea it was so short till the home release. It pushed other games to go harder as a result. It was a an arcade smash hit as that's not revisionist history, but what makes a good Arcade game is not the same thnig as a good console game. It needs more layers to shine as a console title. Games start really evolving , and it didn't age as well because it's a much shallower experience than what came after. I think it would be remembered better if they gave it a true sequel on the genesis with some improvements. One of the cooler features is the beast selection code, but most people were never aware this was even a thing. I didn't find out till long after the game's release , as it lets you pick a different beast form for each stage. You can customize the game to being really easy by say picking the Dragon for each stage, or picking beast that are less effective against the bosses. (I don't think you can actually beat the stage 2 boss as a Werewolf, as it didn't well work at all when I tried.) This adds alot more replay value to the game, but it was unnoticed by many. Ultiamtely Sonic and Sonic 2 were much better pack in games than Altered beast. They were both crafted as console games, and had far deeper experiences while showing off what the genesis could do. Genesis didn't start hitting the homeruns it's remembered for really till the post sonic era of the Genesis. The number of titles I would call must played is much higher after 1991. Not say the games before 1991 were bad, but there just weren't the stuff of the Genesis would be remembered for years later.
Everyone knows Super Mario Bros. and I mean, people who never held a Nintendo. Like in many regions Nintendo wasn't a thing, but famiclones were and everybody played that one Mario game... we never had later ones, Nintendo wasn't a thing since until I guess Wii and Switch.
I was definitely a Nintendo kid. I first got the NES, and then the Super Nintendo afterwards. I eventually got a used Genesis in my 20s, but I remember playing the Genesis at my friend's house as a kid. He was big on baseball, so we always played Tommy Lasorda Baseball. Fun times!
Very Nintendo-centric. Never mentioned Genesis soundly overshadowing the North American release of PC Engine, the console that nullified any selling point the Mega Drive had in Japan. The fact that Turbografx-16 has been lost to time proves Genesis wasn't a complete misfire pre-Sonic. Since PC Engine/Turbografx and Genesis had a similar software library of arcade ports, anime-themed shmups-platformers-RPGs, and eventually a CD add-on, the early Mega Drive/Genesis seemed to be competing with PCE. Then the Genesis library shifted to mascots, fighting and sports when Super Nintendo launched and Kalinske took over at Sega of America I enjoyed the video!
Altered Beast was a very, very popular game in the arcades when the Genesis was released. It was also on demo everywhere like Target, Walmart, Sears, etc. and there was always a crowd. It was a big deal back then for that short while.
Trying to compare Mike Tyson's Punch-Out to Buster Douglas KO Boxing is pretty disingenuous and unfair, they are very different products. Punch-Out was originally two Nintendo arcade games, then a Famicom game just called Punch-Out in a gold cartridge, it did not include Mike Tyson, the final boxer was Super Macho Man. The Mike Tyson license was temporary too, MTPO would see an NES re-release a few years later called Punch-Out Featuring Mr Dream, with Mike Tyson replaced. Buster Douglas KO Boxing was just one of Sega's many bespoke licensed sports games for the Genesis. They aimed for realism, not goofy original characters with a licensed athelete slapped on top.
Buster Douglas was actually a port of Final Blow with the Buster Douglas licensing slapped on it. They aimed for arcade play. Evander Holyfield later on focused on realism.
You forgot to mention Spider Man when talking about Revenge of Shinobi when in the updated version they put in the title screen Spider with the copyright logos 1990 Marvel Entertainment Group indicating that Spider Man is a Registered Trade Mark of Marvel Entertainment.
I'm middle aged and I was there when the Sega Genesis was taking on the NES. This is for the young generation. So that they understand where our minds as gamers were back then. Because what many of these retrospective videos on retro gaming rarely explain is how popular the Arcades still were in the late 80's and 90's. The games coming out in the Arcades were leading the pack in terms of graphics and sound. It's what most of us loved at the time. At that time the Arcades were driving the gaming industry forward. For us gamers the games in the arcades were peak gaming. What most of us wanted back then was a way to play these arcade games at home. So what game console can deliver on that promise? Enter the Sega Genesis. It did arcade ports on a level that no console could touch at the time. Genesis launch titles such as Altered Beast, Space Harrier and Golden Axe to name a few would blow our young collective minds away. They looked so close to the arcades. It's what made us buy a Sega Genesis. A few years later it was the SNES with their amazing arcade home port of Street Fighter II that would again makes many of us own a Super Nintendo. The point is that arcade games are what helped make these game consoles so popular at the time and it's often forgotten or not known when younger streamers make these retrospective videos on retro gaming.
I genuinely don't think the Genesis could have been any more successful than it was at that time and relative to the competition it was up against. It faced the juggernaut that was the NES when it first released and then had to compete with the mighty SNES after that. Unless those systems magically didn't exist, there's really nowhere it was going to claw much higher sales figures from given the other systems were selling in the numbers they were and the total console market was only so big at that time. Genesis did very well given what it was up against--it most certainly couldn't have been marketed any more aggressively--but it ultimately lost in sales to the SNES, which in my personal opinion was as it should have been. The order of sales success in that generation rings perfectly true to me given all the factors involved: SNES > Genesis > PC Engine > Neo Geo.
@@pojrDefinitely nintendos monopoly was something sega couldn't over come, and that's why I like sega better, they took on the evil corp and won some battle's. 🙂
SEGA had it so bad in my state and neighborhood because no one in my neighborhood heard of Sega or the Genesis until June.23rd 1991 when the Sega Genesis came out with Sonic the Hedgehog and the stores that sold video games and systems in my neighborhood in 1989 only sold NES systems and games and the Gameboy systems and games.
I was in grade school when master system and nes came out. I had no idea what arcade games were. All I knew was nes games were fun and sega games felt very narrow.
I think one of Sega’s biggest challenges was the introduction of console generations and rivalry. Sega was pushing for people to compare the two and go out and buy new hardware which at the time wasn’t exactly an established thing. I think this is also why the WiiU failed. To non-gamers the idea of going out and buying another console after 5 or 6 years doesn’t make a lot of sense
It wasn't new, the Colecovision, Mattel, Atari was not that long ago at the time while in home computers Commodore, Atari, Apple and Tandy had fierce rivalry that was still going hot and had already went through the 8-bit/16-bit jump pushing the Amiga,Atari ST, Mac and Tandy 1000 over their older C64, Atari 800, Apple II and CoCo.
@@Psy500 Most of those were computer systems and their focus was getting people to buy a home computer. Especially around the time of the Genesis they were veering off into a different market. The generational jump for these systems were about how much they could do and, better graphics were often just a by product of it. In fact I don’t think Apple especially cared for gaming at all. Nintendo to SNES to N64 were all about this system has better graphics and makes the games you’re playing look outdated by comparison. Hence the Super Nintendo and Genesis were about making the consumer feel they were missing out by having any other hardware to play games on. This would be the trend going forward.
The Wii U also had awkward branding and a non gamer would be confused if it was just a Wii accessory or a new version of Wii. Early Wii U commercials put so much emphasis on the tablet controller I wouldn't blame anyone for thinking it was just an accessory
I was heavily indoctrinated into my NES coming off Atari and other less polished experiences. BUT and big but, I was absolutely a SEGA guy and truly miss the days of SEGA consoles.
It's so cozy watching your videos and listening to your voice 😊. Btw: I have to defend the SMS a bit; it was my first console and I love it do death! Yes Nintendo had more games and many of them are stellar. But the Master System had many charming ones too! Like the Wonder Boy series. the second and third ones are absolutely amazing and there was nothing quite like them on the NES. Other amazing titles: The Lucky Dime Caper, Deep Duck Trouble, Castle of Illusion, Land of Illusion, Sonic, Master of Darkness, Rastan, Psychic World etc.. Have you made a video about the SMS? If not; can you find it in your heart to do so?
I'm assuming during the ghouls N ghost segment you meant to say the knife not the sword as best weapon to use since the former is the one you can spam like crazy and the latter is the one you have to get up in enemies faces and doesn't do enough extra damage to make that worth the risk
People who know boxing would add that Buster did not beat Tyson, time did, and Buster happened to be there that night. Mike himself admits he prepared for it poorly to not at all, and it was his out of the ring life that truly brought the champion down and ended his record streak. So its very fitting what became of both videogames. Life imitates art, as they say. As for Sega vs Nintendo, I could have gotten a Genesis before Sonic, but I did not want one. I had not seen any games on it that I felt were next level in any way but graphics. I guess my favorite I played at other houses was Rambo III, and a weird little platformer called Shadow Blasters, but neither was more fun than half my NES collection, and I always chose new games for it over investing in Sega, until Sonic changed my mind. I don't think anything else would have done it.
When Sega released the Genesis here in the US, they pushed it as the big boy system where it's content was more mature than Nintendo. They tried the avoid the "cute and cuddly" persona that Nintendo had with Mario and other games. Sega of Japan knew they needed a Mario like character so they put out Sonic. About a year later was when I stupidly sold my Genesis to buy a Monitor for my Amiga 500. I loved the Genesis. It was a great system. It also was the last console I owned up until a friend sold me their Switch. I've mostly been a computer gamer.
As a kid I was tormented for using the term "ninja" stars. Apparently in the fifth grade the proper vernacular is "throwing" stars. (Love the content, PoJr)
People alive back in the day will remember Altered Beast was super popular. It sucks compared to games that came after but not really before or contemporary
I had a Genesis during this era. Loved Pat Riley B-Ball, Tommy Lasorda Baseball, Golden Axe, Altered Beast and many others. But, Nintendo had that one game up their sleve that pretty much put Sega on ice for a bit. How do you compete with SMB 3???? I remember getting it day one and playing it constantly. As did everyone else.
I was with Team Nintendo back in the day. But I guess what I would do to improve SEGA's console back then is expand the companies Arcade games for the console and not just make them a direct port, but something worth playing at home.
4 mbit is actually around 512 kb. a few later nes games like kirby's adventure have been about the same size, but that was around 1991-4 when 16mbit was the standard for 16bit consoles.
Grr. You didn't mention the Thunder Force Games!! Or Sagaia. Hell the early and even latter library of space ship shooters on the Genesis are always getting overlooked.
How would I have made the Genesis/Mega Drive more successful? - include sprite scaling in the console no matter what (would’ve allowed for better ports of Thunder Blade and Space Harrier!) - make the 1st party output more varied, include a better cartoon platformer than Enchanted Castle, a pick up & play racing game et al - if Nintendo’s closest allies won’t work with Sega initially, see if any 3rd parties from countries like South Korea, Australia and/or assorted European countries would like in - allow for better sound chips to included in later games, so we don’t get that metallic music we hear in certain titles That’s all I can think of for now
It's worthy to note the NES still had that exclusivity contract going at the time. While graphics and tech are very important, a console's library is probably the actual most important element for success. Without Sonic (YET!) at the time, the early Genesis was always gonna suffer against the NES
I don't know... I was in college in the early 90s during that time .. Sega was by far considered the ' "Cooler" console. Not even close . The better fighting games... Mortal Kombat on the Genesis was the one to have. . Not only because of the superior controller but because of the secret code A B A C A B B that unlocked the blood and guts ...Sonic was better than Mario .. all the sports games. Madden. NHL hockey etc ... I'm not sure how in depth of a research was done but. For a few years Sega ruled...
6:44 Make it to the end without losing? Now that's an original concept. 😁 7:13 Sega trying to one-up themselves! Cool video anyway, just nitpicking in good fun.
I think Altered Beast was a pretty weak pack in. Yeah it looked good but there were way more fun NES games available, with SMB3 around the corner. Golden Axe was a little bit after launch but that or Ghouls n Ghosts would have been way better imo.
Ghouls & Ghosts was from Capcom, though, so maybe not a good idea as a pack-in. Golden Axe was fine but short and easy to beat. That said, I can't think of a better option before the release of Revenge of Shinobi.
@zabustifu that's true. Maybe Space Harrier II? They eventually got it right with Sonic in '91, but they just didn't have that killer app, system seller pack in until then like the NES did with SMB.
As a major arcade fan then, I thought it was a good pack in. At the time, it was very close to the arcade and supported 2 player simultaneous play. Golden Axe would have definitely been the better choice, but it wasn't released yet. The great thing is when I got my Genesis, they had a promo going where you could mail away for a free second controller and a second game of your choice (outside Phantasy Star 2) with the purchase of the system. Golden Axe was one of those offerings :)
Sega had some third-party support over the first two years of the Genesis most notably with the mighty Electronic Arts which gave the Genesis its first fully-licensed sports title, Lakers vs. Celtics and the NBA Playoffs, in November 1990 and also the console debut of what would become the most enduring US football gaming franchise of all time, John Madden Football. NAMCO also released several arcade ports onto the Genesis in 1990 including Phelios and Burning Force. There were also smaller third-party publishers like Seismic Software which released the now highly-desirable M.U.S.H.A., the American title for Musha Aleste: Fullmetal Fighter Ellinor, in the United States in February 1991.
Well I mean EA basically told Sega to give them a better deal, Sega said NO, reverse engineer the Mega Drive if you want a better deal. EA DID DO THAT, then threatened to let other companies use their design unless Sega gave them a better deal, which Sega then did. Which is why a lot of EA Mega Drive games have a yellow tab on the side.
Am I the only SEGA fan who thought that Michael Katz did a good job back then? That's why I got my Genesis. Of course, I was a huge SEGA kid, even buying the SMS base model back in 1987. Although Altered Beast was pretty fun, they really needed a two-game cartridge like the original SMS. Even better would be to include the game ROM on the console, allowing future games to access all of the assets of the existing game to save memory.
I and a few friends had Genesis systems back then, this is our favorite period in the system's lifespan. Playing games like Super Shinobi, Thunder Force III, Golden Axe, Ghouls n' Goblins, Gaiares, Phantasy Star II, Strider, etc. while the others still had only their 8-bit NES was mind blowing at the time!
I had an NES and wanted a Genesis when I saw it, I got one the Christmas of launch year. We were blown away by it.
I think Altered Beast was a perfect launch game, it showcased the capabilities and had a good challenge.
Revenge of Shinobi, Golden Axe, and Ghouls & Ghosts were on another level.
I don’t think the lack of interest in the games are what failed it, it’s just that the NES was already so integrated into peoples homes it took a while to catch on. Plus by the time people took notice there were rumors that Nintendo was putting out their own 16 bit console that was gearing up to top the Genesis, so people waited.
Those early adopters like me knew we had something special.
The black grid box games were the *_best_* !!!!!!!
I distinctly remember the arguments in middle school lol. It started off as basically "Yeah sure, the Genesis is better...enjoy those 3 games nobody's ever heard of, we'll be playing Metal Gear this weekend." And then a couple years later the SNES came out. We all saw the writing on the wall, Genesis had just barely managed to create a mascot by the time the SNES came out and hit the ground running. Super Mario World was a launch title, Metroid, Zelda, and Castlevania weren't far around the corner.
Rambo 3 was awesome like an arcade version of Metal Gear!
@@adamb89Metroid was far off released in 94! I had the Genesis nearly 5 years already! I did get a SNES eventually because of MK2 and Super Metroid!
I remember as a kid being drawn into the arcade titles at home, but when I finally got to play them, they felt way too short.
They definitely could have padded out the arcade ports a bit more, like they did with Golden Axe's extra level, but Sega had to pay for every "Mega Power" of ROM capacity the same as Nintendo did. For a given level length, those extra colors and graphical effects on the Genesis were going to eat up more ROM space than an equivalent level on the NES. Having multiple long, elaborate level designs on an NES game would unfortunately use up the same amount of ROM as a few short levels with diverse background tiles, sprites, and parallax layering on a Genesis game.
The arcade experience and console experience where ALL diferent kinds Of bessts.
Nintendo understand more quickly that consoles needed more experiences with a diferent touch when playing at home.
Is not like Sega never did It otherwise, but you can consistly see that filosophy hurting the Company later on in games From The Saturn and even Dreamcast generation.
Manx TT Superbike has only 2 tracks and 2 modes - arcade and Head to Head vs. Extremely barebones.
Virtua Fighter 3TB on the Dreamcast has only ... What 3 or 4 modes Of game and no New content compared to the arcade.
Damn, Teken 3 have Animated endings, New players, the Teken Forces beat and UP mode ... On the PS1 ...
Sega have loose to Tekken 1 with a bare bones Virtua Fighter 1 on the Saturn and lose with a bare bones VF3 for Tekken Tag Tournament on the PS2, UP till this Day One Of the fan favourites.
@@taionalmeida5337 I'm just referring to the pre-Sonic era games, the Saturn and Dreamcast are a whole different kettle of fish.
That was my experience with Genesis in 1990.
Same. They were designed for arcade play. As a renter though, it was pretty great
SEGA vs Nintendo, Coke vs Pepsi, McDonalds vs Burger King, Atari vs Intellivision, etc. It’s no wonder we’re so divided today, advertising trained us!
Lol so true
God vs. Satan. Trump vs. Biden
@@guilty-of-being-right Propane vs Charcoal, VHS vs Beta, Folding vs Crumble, Stovetop vs Potatoes,.
Nintendo, Coke, Burger King, Atari
Coke vs Heroin, Valium vs Mogadon.
I was so in love with my NES at the time I didn't really care about the Genesis commercials or what I saw about it in magazines . I didn't actually buy a Genesis until after I had an SNES for a while . Even then , I am not really sure why I bought it because I loved my SNES too . But I had a job and I loved Gaming. The Genesis model 2 was out by that time so I finally bought one and I rented a Sega CD . Great video as always , POJR !!!!
I think Castle of Illusion should have been the pack in game. I'm sure that would have been difficult considering that it was a licensed Disney game, but if I was Michael Katz, I would have done everything I could to make that happen. When looking at the launch lineup, it's clear that's the killer app. It also directly competes and outshines any of the Super Mario Bros games on the NES.
Castle of Illusion is a very solid game, and would have made an excellent pack-in game before Sonic.
For all of SEGA's blunders, the Genesis was wildly successful, and in the end sold about the same amount of Genesis consoles as the SNES in North America. It actually outsold the SNES in Europe, but failed to have much on impact in Japan and Asia, where it placed a distant third to Nintendo's 16 bit console, and NEC's PC Engine.
The Master System sold even more than the MegaDrive/Genesis in Europe. It spent most of it's life as a very cheap option for kids. To be honest I think the MegaDrive benefitted from a lot of people wanting to finally move on from 8 bit computers in the early 90s that had been really popular since the early 80s, like the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. The Amiga was what a lot of people wanted but that was much more expensive than a MegaDrive in 1990
A minor point, but just like Punch-Out, Buster Douglas boxing is an arcade port (Final Blow).
My favorite "unauthorized" graphic in Revenge of Shinobi is freakin' Sonny Chiba on the title screen! Guess nobody noticed until decades later.
Yeah you're absolutely right, it was a reskin of a different game.
Fun fact: When Revenge of Shinobi was brought to Wii Virtual Console, they changed the face on the title screen to resemble that of Tsuyoshi Matsuoka, a director and programmer at M2 who largely handled Virtual Console releases.
there was a span of time where the Genesis' competition was the NES, so it's interesting to see how the Genesis handled things before we saw the blue blur. great retrospective pojr!
Thank you so much!
11:35 I think not. All the great Arcade ports is what made me want a Genesis. The arcade scene was glorious back in the day, and the thought of a home console that could bring the arcade experience home faithfully was quite enticing.
Proof that having the right game/s is more important than having better hardware
One thing to keep in mind was the price. The Genesis was almost double the price of the NES at the time. I was a Sega kid so my first console was the Master System (Weird I know) and it took me forever to save up for the Genesis. Everyone wanted one but at the time the Genesis was around $189.99 and the NES was between $99 for the base console and around $129 for the Action Set. A second side note was the NES was dominant between 1985 - 1990, like 1 out of 4 US households had an NES dominant. It was a crazy time.
Right, and maybe Kalinske's solution to drop the price helped.
@oblivieon1567 Don't be hard on yourself. You call yourself weird for owning a Master System first, but in many other regions of the world, that would have been the norm!
Long after America ditched the Master System, Europe, Australia and New Zealand were still getting new releases in the mid 90's!
@@FatmanCannon SNES was not a thing outside of United States and to some extent Western Europe. I never seen Master System in my country either, but it was Famicom clones > Sega Mega Drive > Sony Playstation, other consoles basically didn't exist here. Each was a direct upgrade, yes.
When I shopped for a new game console in 1990 I NEVER considered the NES. It was old news by then. I only considered the Genesis or TurboGrafx-16 and bought the Genesis due to TG16 costing more to add multiplayer TurboTap & RCA video via the TurboBooster
Tg 16 was cheap compared to genesis . Iirc it started at 149.99 vs Segas 189. It also had two free mail in games as well as packed in Keith courage. My friend got one because "everyone has a Sega so I can play that at friends".
It was only powerful for about 1 year in 1983. Even the 7800 could beat it just one year later. *cough cough* "Why the 7800 is better than the NES" *cough*
He did forget to mention it's absurd expandability and sprite flexing capabilities, however.
@@allgood5140TurboGrafx-16 did not launch at $149 nor did it include two additional games via mail in. Eventually NEC would offer it at lower prices and include other incentives like free games to be more competitive but not at launch.
@@ecernosoft3096 The NES can also do the vertical scroll scaling raster effect, while the Master System cannot, due to a silly hardware flaw. That's why Rad Racer has smooth gradients on hills, and OutRun has choppy, tile increment gradients. Late in the NES life cycle, several games took advantage of this capability that the SMS lacked.
@@ostiariusalpha It’s not exactly that,
It’s probably a flaw they didn’t know existed because vertical “stretching” wasn’t really something they thought of.
I got my Genesis when Sonic was the pack in title. It was such an impressive game when it came out, because nothing was that fast before then.
I wasn't a big Sonic guy, but I thought Golden Axe and Altered Beast were really cool back when they released. Cool idea for a video, Pojr!
While Golden Axe was cool, Altered Beast was a slog. Back then every Canon the Barbarian, Red Sonja, and D&D fans would drool for Golden Axe but Altered Beast where you play as a no name guy who could transform into a different beast to fight God's enemies is just lame. Also the level design in Altered Beast aren't anything to wow at either, the levels scroll by itself, there are no obstacles to traverse and if you failed to transform before the sorcerer appeared, then the level just kept on repeating until you do and the sorcerer re-appeared to fight you in demon form.
Before Sonic, only a few games really sustained the Genesis in North America. Revenge of Shinobi, Strider, Ghouls 'n Ghosts, and (especially) Golden Axe; the rest of the game library's sales were actually kind of mediocre. Altered Beast has large numbers only by virtue of being the early pack-in title.
I enjoyed Altered Beast as a rental. I miss the aesthetic of games like it.
@@caucasoidape8838 Altered Beast is the type of arcade game that really was better suited to the home rental market, rather than as an owned game.
@@VOANno, I remember Golden Axe being a HUGE hit in arcades in 89, not just medieval fantasy fans played it.
I can see myself parking Mickey Mouse behind all sorts of things and waiting for his idle animation to kick in...
The first game that I saw that had "idle animation" Boulder Dash, well if you stay still for more than three clicks of the clock Rockford starts to tap his foot.
He did that way before Sonic did that and even before Mickey Mouse had idle animation.
By the way Boulder Dash was first released on the Atari 800.
Sega had some difficult choices early on. From the 8 games available at launch, Altered Beast would prolly be the obvious choice at the time, but I would now lean towards Space Harrier 2 as a better pack-in. I would have had native backwards compatibility for the Master System instead of using an add-on to make the older games playable so that they could have advertised two game libraries at the same time, and launched a budget line of Master System re-releases to push this, perhaps with a Genesis cart that had multiple Master System games packed on it as a secondary pack-in title. Hindsight being 20-20, the six button controller would be standard instead of a later made controller instead of the default 3 button.
9:38 you can have unlimited ninja stars (shurikans) in Revenge of Shinobi. Here’s a trick I’ve known for over 30 years in that game. Go into the options screen of the game, change the shurikans to 00 and keep the cursor selected on 00 and just wait 5-10 seconds, The 00 text will change into an infinite symbol. exit the options and start the game. You now have infinite shurikans.
Big Nintendo fan as a kid but i have to say, Sega Genesis was an incredible companion and looking back its still incredible.
I think that Sega's mistake in the 80's was thinking that people would be so enticed to their newest console because of accurate arcade ports, which was just wrong. The NES was the first console that has shown, that home consoles can offer vastly different experiences from the arcade. Porting arcade titles was slowly becoming a fruitless endeavor, since the main draw of these was the technological display of what can be done with hardware worth thousands of dollars. Meanwhile, the home console titles started to head into the territory that was not possible on the arcades: storytelling.
They made the exact same mistake with the Saturn, so they did not learn their lesson.
I think this is one of the key reasons why the SNES ultimately outsold the Genesis, because big story-focussed RPGs were the raison d'etre of the system. That plus it's more cinematic graphical and audio capabilities just made it seem a slight step ahead of the Genesis in the ways that were quickly becoming more relevant to gamers. No longer was it about how much stuff you could throw around on-screen and blow up, but rather how aesthetically gorgeous it could look, how good it could sound relative to real instruments and the more cinematic soundscapes, and how much there was to sink your teeth into and get absorbed in. But Genesis was still a powerhouse at what it was made for, that's for sure.
It was initally the big draw to the 16-bit consoles at the time though. It's also why Nintendo intially had an exclusive release of Street Fighter 2; which was the best selling third party game on the system. I had a Genesis, but wanted a SNES strictly because of that title then. Eventually, the market shifted away from the arcade for 16-bit as the systems could no longer create good enough ports in comparison.
@@chriswheatley3146 It's also easy to take emulation for granted now. Stating the obvious, but there was no MAME back then, so if you wanted to play arcade games at home, a console or computer port was the only way.
I know I was super impressed with Altered Beast on the Genesis back in 1990, having played it a lot in the arcade just the previous year. Also, the Genesis version actually has parallax scrolling while the arcade doesn't (though yeah, otherwise graphics are better)
I was super hyped for the Genesis as soon as it was released, so I didn't notice any big jump when Sonic became the pack-in. For me, it was a steady hype train for Sega the whole way until I got a Lynx, and then ultimately a Playstation years later!
@inceptional That's actually why Genesis sold 51% of all 16-bit software in the U.S. from October to November of 1995. After the Sega CD, 32x and Saturn releases. Yet Genesis still outsold the Snes.
Nintendo was releasing atleast in the U.S. flop RPG's Earthbound, Chrono Trigger. Genesis was getting the definitive versions of Madden 96, Fifa 96, NHL 96 and NBA Live 96. Also the most revolutionary game ever at the time Vectorman.
The funny thing is if the Genesis supported a 256 color palette and 8 channels of basic sample (or even wavetable) playback (especially if _in_ _addition_ _to_ its six channels of FM synthesis) the Genesis / MegaDrive would have potentially taken the lead over the SNES, given its earlier release. And that's one thing that surprises me about the homebrew scene, there's virtually no one making games for the 32X CD -- even officially there were only 6 games -- but with the 32X CD you could have all those features and more (although multichannel sample playback would have to be executed in the software domain), including the large file sizes afforded by CD-ROM.
Beating Super Mario 3 with the same Sega of Japan who thought Super Thunderblade was a great showpiece?
Good luck.
They needed to be humbled, before they could be relevant. And they'll prove it again with Virtua Fighter on Saturn. And the way they sabotaged Time Warner's Virtua Racing port.
Ghouls 'n Ghosts is one of my favorite Genesis games. Somehow, I can beat Ghouls 'n Ghosts in one sitting without too much trouble... yet somehow, have never been able to beat any Sonic game on the Genesis.
Bonus fact: The ill-fated Japan-only console, the SuperGrafx, was basically just a PC-Engine/TurboGrafx 16 with slightly beefed up graphics. One of the five games that supports it is Ghouls 'n Ghosts, and it looks really nice... feels really good to control.... it would be even better than the Genesis version... *if they didn't give you limited continues.*
Sonic games on genesis usually have a "hump-level" and after that they're a breeze tbh. Hell, the Disney licensed games(movie-ones-Aladdin, Lion King, and Jungle Book) really loved their hump levels...they had multiple ones haha! And they were sooo much worst than the Sonic ones imo.
Great video. Been waiting for this topic to be covered for a long time. My sister owned a genesis and i loved the games but I played my friends NES much more. Sonic really was a game changer.
Thank you! Glad I was able to make this video, because I feel like it doesn't get talked about much.
I would have traveled to the future where Titan had just released their Overdrive 2 demo for Megadrive - acquired a copy of that and then traveled back to show people what Genesis is capable of
Genesis couldn't really take off without 3rd party support, Sonic, and high quality EA Sports Games
It took some time to get all 3 pieces aligned
They would eventually get the titles from Konami, Capcom, and other high quality 3rd party developers
The Revenge of Shinobi double jump is really only a "timing issue" when you are running via software emulation, or playing on a modern display which has high latency. This was never an issue back in 1989, when playing on original hardware and on a CRT. The controls are pretty perfect in that one.
I'll have to try it out. I used a MiSTer FPGA to play it, which is emulation. I do feel like the timing is quite strict, but I'll have to try it on real hardware to be sure.
Not true at all. I had the same problem when I beat it on the real system on a CRT. The controls are just a little janky in this game. Also there are options in retroarch to reduce latency to make it pretty much non-existent.
@@ajsingh4545 I can't speak for others, but I've been playing TROS since 1989 and never had issues with the controls. They are as tight as you'd expect. The double jumping was designed to be performed precisely at the arc of the first jump.
Runahead in RetroArch can help with latency by trying to skip past any "internal latency" a game might have, but it's very game dependent, and requires a bit of trial & error. You can usually set it to a frame or two, but if you set it too high you risk introducing stuttering. There's an excellent essay, written by the very talented developer of BNES and BSNES, two very accurate emulators, where he goes into detail about how each component adds to latency. From the video buffering, VSYNC, USB controller polling, display upscaling, other display digital filters, and so on. Anyway, in just about every game you're still going to come out ahead, when it comes to latency on modern displays, with an FPGA based solution, such as MiSTer (with a direct SNAC wired controller).
@@videogameobsession ok fair enough
@@pojrThere's also a rom hack for Revenge of Shinobi called 'Better Jumping' that brings the double jump more in line with how it is in Shinobi III. Pretty cool to check out
The only sad part for me when I got an SNES on Christmas 95 was SNES didn't have Sonic. I went with my mom to the rental store and my first game I chose to rent was True Lies, my Sister chose Mickey Mania. It was 95, I was eleven and still I remember like it was yesterday. 😍
The first two years of the Genesis were kind of rough. I got one for Christmas, and had Altered Beast and Last Battle. Neither of which really blew me away. The video store soon started renting out Genesis games, and I got to play more games as the months went by. I still had a NES back then, too, and with how dry the Genesis catalog was at the time, the NES saw more play. It really came down the kinds of games on the Genesis at the time. I wasn't much for sports, and while the arcade ports were passable, they didn't live up to what you got if you left the house and took a walk.Then I got Phantasy Star II. That's it, I knew I hadn't made a mistake in asking for the system at that point.
The only four games that blew me away were Revenge of Shinobi, Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Golden Axe, and Strider, other than those the rest were either shovelware or license garbage. Not until Sonic, Mortal Kombat, Gunstar Heroes, Ristar, and Streets of Rage launch that I really took the Sega Genesis seriously.
You missed part of the title: "...in the USA"
I don't think Katz did a terrible job with the situation Sega of Japan handed to him and he certainly knew more about the video game industry than Kalinske, but Kalinske slashing the price of the Genesis and bundling it with Sonic was absolutely the move that made all the difference. Getting high-quality American sports games developed for the console was also key. As a 10 year-old in 1989, I could not have cared less about the Genesis because the games weren't interesting, but when Sonic came around two years later, the Genesis suddenly became a lot more enticing.
I got the Genesis in Canada during a trip there and my father didn’t want to buy an extra game, luckily my mother snuck out and got Revenge of Shinobi and Golden Axe for me and while I enjoyed Shinobi the most I daresay that Golden Axe would have made WAY more sense as a pack in title; 2 players and a fairly challenging game to booth so you couldn’t beat it the first weekend
Golden Axe would be a no-brainer, it was EVERYWHERE and Sega Mega Drive port was good. People would also look for sequels if more people played it. Altered beast was so previous gen with autoscrolling and one attack instead of combos and variations like in GA.
Hey, POJR!
9:38 "In this game (Revenge of Shinobi) ou have to conserve your ninja stars..."
Before you start the game, if you go to the OPTIONS menu, highlight "Shurikins", lower the quantity to ZERO and wait a few seconds, the 00 will become an Infinite sign, meaning u now will have infinite Shurikins. Enjoy!
Indeed
Super monaco gp had one highest ratings ever
@@rustymixer2886 I used to finish SMGP back in the day but I haven't played it much after those times...
@@CarecaRetrogamer indeed
Have I misunderstood the video or the channel is directed to USA public? I ask it because Sega/Master System/Mega Drive were HUGE in the nearly 44 countries here in Europe + Brazil and Australia, whereas Nintendo/Nes/Snes were succeful mainly in Japan and USA (two countries...)
It's more focused on the USA game market where the Master System sold terribly and the Mega Drive (Genesis) didn't do too well until Sonic came out.
@@SmugMatty Thanks for this. I asked because He.didn't specify the region, what lead people to take wrong.conclusions. So yes, the channel more directed to the "Nintendo- USA" public 👍
@@SmugMatty yeah Mega Drive was the only 16 bit console in Ukraine, for example. So we moved from Famiclones like Dendy and Subor to Segas, or skipped it and went with PlayStation... I don't think I played a Zelda. Like at all. Mario yes, the one Mario game. Apparently they made more. Fascinating!
The irony about Evander Holyfield was a few years after he knocked out Buster Douglas, Sega licensed Holyfield's name for two boxing games: Evander Holyfield's Real Deal Boxing and Greatest Heavyweights.
Also the Buster Douglas boxing game was a port of Taito's arcade game Final Blow.
Lastly, the name is Tom Kalinske, not Kalinski.
Having lived through it Segas intial lack of sales were due to two major things. Price was 189 dollars back then vs the now 99 dollar nes and Genesis wasn't as mass produced and was more limited release. The only place you could get one, near me, was toys r us. No department store carried them until late 90. We got ours when sonic was the pack in in 91. It cost 99 dollars at sam's club.
Trust me a lot of people wanted the genesis. Our thing was sprite size and detail. Altered beast looked glorious. Forgotten realms was mind blowing. The games were limited but they were a lot of arcade Sega hits too.
You mentioned Evander Holyfield. Evander Holyfield's Real Deal Boxing is a fantastic game. My buddy and I played the heck out of it when it came out, and it is still my go-to Genesis game when I either play on an emulator or drag the console itself out.
Of course the Sonic series games are great as well.
You are right about Altered Beast. Once upon a time I only had 3 or 4 games for the Genesis, and Altered Beast was one of them. I played through it a couple of times and it sat on the shelf ever since.
Haven't tried the Evander Holyfield game, but I do have Greatest Heavyweights, which I believe is the sequel. Fantastic game that features a lot of the heavyweight champions like Ali, Frasier, Marciano, etc.
I had a Genesis at launch and was definitely a SEGA fan before Sonic. I picked up a SNES about the same time Sonic came out and as a result never got into Sonic games even to this day.
I liked your video, very nice, but seems to me that the end was cut short. Maybe a part two with more about it? Like when companies like Konami, Tengen and others started porting games bypassing Nintendo's restrictions?
My little brother’s friend had a Genesis and I remember 3 games on it: Castle of Illusion, Moonwalker, and Sonic. I particularly loved Illusion.
I was a dyed-in-the-wool Nintendo fan though, and was still awaiting the release of the SNES.
The Altered Beast pack in was just fine for the initial strategy of the Genesis. Their thought pattern was definitely bring the arcade home. Even Buster Douglas Boxing was Final Blow in the arcades that they threw a celebrity tag on. The main reason I wanted the Genesis then was because I loved Altered Beast and Golden Axe in the arcades; and the Genesis could do closer arcade conversions than anyone else at the time. I don't even think if Sonic was created during the system's release it would have made a difference as they had an Alex Kidd game then.
The Genesis eventually outsold the snes for a couple years. Sonic 2 was that big of a deal
It was sonic 3 and then Sonic and knuckles, Nintendo then released donkey Kong country and games even more advanced and took the lead back, they held it for the rest of the generation. Sega just couldn’t beat their expansion chips.
Outside of THE ONE COUNTRY SNES actually sold in, Mega Drive outsold it everywhere, I mean it's really hard not to outsell something that isn't sold... the Genesis vs SNES thing is exclusive to USA, no idea Japanese market, they had Super Famicom with tons of cool stuff but most countries had neither, it was Chinese Famicom clones then Segas and Sonys.
The Sega Genesis was the first console i owned that brought the Arcade experience home. That's why i wanted one. Arcade ports like Golden Axe, Altered Beast, Fireshark, Ghouls N'Ghosts, and Strider were Glorious back in the day. Yes, i included Altered Beast. It's a CLASSIC beat'em up.
Also didn't SEGA remember that 80's Nintendo commercial where they say YOU CANNOT BEAT US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it looks like Nintendo was right
You can sometimes beat them.
I still remember an Atari commercial boasting how they had superior graphics and gameplay compared to the NES when it came out. It was so cringe :D
Nice thumbnail!
Fear of the Dark is one of my favorite Maiden albums 😁
That commercial did not run in America.
@@Dwedit Hey! You're famous.
The Mega Drive beat the Snes in the UK, and most people in the UK had a home computer like the ZX Spectrum or C64 before that rather than a NES. Master System was more popular than the NES here too, partially because of how cheap it was, and partially because they marketed the Master System II as a budget alternative to the Mega Drive.
And USA 🇺🇲
I love the topics chosen for these videos. Good stuff and thank you!
What made us get the genesis was phantasy star. By the time we got it I believe 2 and 3 were out. Love the phantasy star series.
The Sega Master System's failure was the only time it wasn't Sega's fault. Nintendo's policies with third-party publishers were not only draconian, they also strong-armed retailers from selling competing consoles - if your store sold the NES, you couldn't sell rival systems the same way. Sega also had this problem in the early years of the Genesis as well, but then they got lucky when the FTC started cracking down on Nintendo.
And I hear Sony pulled this same BS that killed the Dreamcast in the early 2000's.
@@psychopathyoutubeemployees280 No, Sega killed the Dreamcast. Retailers didn't want to carry it because they were already fed up with Sega by then.
Sega should have released conversions of Space Harrier, Wonderboy, Hot Rod and Alien Syndrome. Those were hugely popular in the arcade and each one is way better than the dull as dishwater: Altered Beast. An enhanced version of R Type might have been a good idea too. By the time the Mega Drive came out the games I mentioned were at most just a couple of years old and still very popular.
This is where UA-camrs do my head-in. They don't mention they are talking about gaming in America, and it seems it happened throughout the world.
Europe was very different where the NES was almost nonexistent and Sega was the king of consoles.
Give me a Master System before a NES anyday.
Neither NES nor SNES were a thing in Central or Eastern Europe at all. But we had famiclones instead of Master System. I looked up and almost a half of all SNES/SuperFami consoles sold in USA, and like a third of remaining ones in Japan. With a bit actually made for Western Europe, rest of the world didn't HAVE it as an option. At all. But yeah, the world is America.
The Megadrive in the U.K. before Sonic was seen as this mythical creation that only serious hardcore players owned; unless they had a PC Engine already. Sonic really made it mainstream over here.
Granada was well thought of despite being appallingly hard and mediocre. A grey import in the UK of course. Few independent shops did imports.
Revenge of the Shinobi as a pack in game for the genesis would've been badass
I got that as a pack in game for my Sega Mega Drive(Christmas of 1992)...Mega Games 1, Mega Games 2, Mega Games 3....
I wanted the genesis when I first viewed it in magazines back in the 80’s. I received it the first Christmas it was available and I felt at the time the grafics, sounds and the overall power was better than what I previously played with on the Nintendo. My mistake was the first title I bought was moonwalker instead of phantasy star 2. I previously played the arcade version of it, and thought it would be the same hyped experience. It wasn’t.
From failing to beat the Nes to beating the Snes. Name recognition carries a massive amount of weight. Nintendo, thought that the successful 1991 Christmas for Genesis was going to be a flash in the pan.
Then the Genesis 3 peated during the prime of the 16-bit era. Led all of 94' as well until DK hit in late November.
Genesis was king from 1991-94 until DK Country Donkey Punched SEGA.
The SG1000 had, I believe, a TMS9918A, in other words the TI-99/4A's graphics chip, which explains why its games' graphics looked so janky and... well, like a TI-99/4A. The wild bit is, all of its consoles through the Genesis had graphics chips which were extensions of the TMS9918A! So Texas Instruments exerted influence over home console and computer graphics that extended deep into the 90s!
A little correction: the cartridges, at the beginning, had a capacity of 4 megabits (512 kbytes), not megabytes.
I think most casual people would not guess that the NES had more games released from 1990-94 in the United States than it did in the 1980s
I thought it was funny that they will still showing their "Genesis does" commercials with James Buster Douglas after he lost his title to Evander Holyfield.
Fun Fact: 2 of the early titles for the Genesis (Last Battle, Mystic Defender) were adapted from their original Japanese versions being games based on anime series at the time.
In case you asked, they were Hokuto no Ken 2 & Kujaku Ou 2.
Sonic is what made me choose the Genesis. My parents said I needed to choose 1 or the other. I wasn't getting both systems. I remember trying to decide then I played Sonic at Sears when they used to have the video game section. That made me choose Sega.
I remember the Console Wars. I was team Nintendo, because there was something off about Sega, but I can't tell what was it. I simply didn't like the looks of Sega Genesis, I believe. Now I appreciate both companies, if only because Sega was a worthy opponent.
I was always SEGA, because there was something off about Nintendo in the nearly 44 countries here in Europe where SEGA was HUGE
You pretty much nailed it with Sega choosing "Altered Beast" as their pack in game. Personally, I had never heard of it. I think that was the biggest reason the Genesis couldn't top Nintendo's NES with the two years it had the advantage. Come on, everyone knew "Super Mario Bros." If only like you said Sega chose "Sonic" as it's original pack in game... wow things would have changed. The graphics were so ahead of the NES is was silly... but how you use that extra power can make you, or in Michael Katz case, break you. Great video my friend. Looking forward to the next.
I knew Altered Beast from arcades but it just wasn’t very good. @Porj absolutely nails it saying this because there’s a lot of revisionist history and nostalgia types who say what a great game Altered Beast was. It really wasn’t.
@@SweetStevieAaronAltered Beast was cool when you were a little kid solely for the excitement of turning into a werewolf or dragon or whatever. But the actual gameplay is pretty dull, and the controls (especially pre-transformation) very awkward.
@@SweetStevieAaron Altered Beast set out to show off hardware with these big epic spites and effects. It was crazy at the time how it looked compared to anything else on the market. Most people didn't beat it in the arcades since they would die off by the 2nd or 3rd stage, so we had no idea it was so short till the home release. It pushed other games to go harder as a result. It was a an arcade smash hit as that's not revisionist history, but what makes a good Arcade game is not the same thnig as a good console game. It needs more layers to shine as a console title. Games start really evolving , and it didn't age as well because it's a much shallower experience than what came after. I think it would be remembered better if they gave it a true sequel on the genesis with some improvements.
One of the cooler features is the beast selection code, but most people were never aware this was even a thing. I didn't find out till long after the game's release , as it lets you pick a different beast form for each stage. You can customize the game to being really easy by say picking the Dragon for each stage, or picking beast that are less effective against the bosses. (I don't think you can actually beat the stage 2 boss as a Werewolf, as it didn't well work at all when I tried.) This adds alot more replay value to the game, but it was unnoticed by many.
Ultiamtely Sonic and Sonic 2 were much better pack in games than Altered beast. They were both crafted as console games, and had far deeper experiences while showing off what the genesis could do. Genesis didn't start hitting the homeruns it's remembered for really till the post sonic era of the Genesis. The number of titles I would call must played is much higher after 1991. Not say the games before 1991 were bad, but there just weren't the stuff of the Genesis would be remembered for years later.
Everyone knows Super Mario Bros. and I mean, people who never held a Nintendo. Like in many regions Nintendo wasn't a thing, but famiclones were and everybody played that one Mario game... we never had later ones, Nintendo wasn't a thing since until I guess Wii and Switch.
the good old days where we would sit around our friends house after school
pile around tv just to watch a new game
Should be noted that with Castle of Illusion, you can alternatively press down on the D-pad to defeat enemies rather than pressing C again.
I was definitely a Nintendo kid. I first got the NES, and then the Super Nintendo afterwards. I eventually got a used Genesis in my 20s, but I remember playing the Genesis at my friend's house as a kid. He was big on baseball, so we always played Tommy Lasorda Baseball. Fun times!
The NES had the ability to parallax scroll as well.
Very Nintendo-centric. Never mentioned Genesis soundly overshadowing the North American release of PC Engine, the console that nullified any selling point the Mega Drive had in Japan. The fact that Turbografx-16 has been lost to time proves Genesis wasn't a complete misfire pre-Sonic. Since PC Engine/Turbografx and Genesis had a similar software library of arcade ports, anime-themed shmups-platformers-RPGs, and eventually a CD add-on, the early Mega Drive/Genesis seemed to be competing with PCE. Then the Genesis library shifted to mascots, fighting and sports when Super Nintendo launched and Kalinske took over at Sega of America
I enjoyed the video!
Altered Beast was a very, very popular game in the arcades when the Genesis was released. It was also on demo everywhere like Target, Walmart, Sears, etc. and there was always a crowd. It was a big deal back then for that short while.
Trying to compare Mike Tyson's Punch-Out to Buster Douglas KO Boxing is pretty disingenuous and unfair, they are very different products.
Punch-Out was originally two Nintendo arcade games, then a Famicom game just called Punch-Out in a gold cartridge, it did not include Mike Tyson, the final boxer was Super Macho Man. The Mike Tyson license was temporary too, MTPO would see an NES re-release a few years later called Punch-Out Featuring Mr Dream, with Mike Tyson replaced.
Buster Douglas KO Boxing was just one of Sega's many bespoke licensed sports games for the Genesis. They aimed for realism, not goofy original characters with a licensed athelete slapped on top.
Buster Douglas was actually a port of Final Blow with the Buster Douglas licensing slapped on it. They aimed for arcade play. Evander Holyfield later on focused on realism.
You forgot to mention Spider Man when talking about Revenge of Shinobi when in the updated version they put in the title screen Spider with the copyright logos 1990 Marvel Entertainment Group indicating that Spider Man is a Registered Trade Mark of Marvel Entertainment.
I'm middle aged and I was there when the Sega Genesis was taking on the NES. This is for the young generation. So that they understand where our minds as gamers were back then. Because what many of these retrospective videos on retro gaming rarely explain is how popular the Arcades still were in the late 80's and 90's. The games coming out in the Arcades were leading the pack in terms of graphics and sound. It's what most of us loved at the time. At that time the Arcades were driving the gaming industry forward. For us gamers the games in the arcades were peak gaming. What most of us wanted back then was a way to play these arcade games at home. So what game console can deliver on that promise?
Enter the Sega Genesis. It did arcade ports on a level that no console could touch at the time. Genesis launch titles such as Altered Beast, Space Harrier and Golden Axe to name a few would blow our young collective minds away. They looked so close to the arcades. It's what made us buy a Sega Genesis. A few years later it was the SNES with their amazing arcade home port of Street Fighter II that would again makes many of us own a Super Nintendo. The point is that arcade games are what helped make these game consoles so popular at the time and it's often forgotten or not known when younger streamers make these retrospective videos on retro gaming.
I genuinely don't think the Genesis could have been any more successful than it was at that time and relative to the competition it was up against. It faced the juggernaut that was the NES when it first released and then had to compete with the mighty SNES after that. Unless those systems magically didn't exist, there's really nowhere it was going to claw much higher sales figures from given the other systems were selling in the numbers they were and the total console market was only so big at that time. Genesis did very well given what it was up against--it most certainly couldn't have been marketed any more aggressively--but it ultimately lost in sales to the SNES, which in my personal opinion was as it should have been. The order of sales success in that generation rings perfectly true to me given all the factors involved: SNES > Genesis > PC Engine > Neo Geo.
Yeah I think Nintendo's superior third party support corner Sega. There wasn't much they could have done, except for what they already did.
@@pojrDefinitely nintendos monopoly was something sega couldn't over come, and that's why I like sega better, they took on the evil corp and won some battle's. 🙂
The snes had the advantage of coming out after the nes, you seem to think the snes was their first console.
Modern genesis 🦾
Modern snes 🪦
@@Troll_On_UA-cam You are doing an incredible job giving inceptional a taste of their own medicine. Keep it up ❤
Snes no new games, you bitter troll.
SNES = 🪦
Very informative, great job!
SEGA had it so bad in my state and neighborhood because no one in my neighborhood heard of Sega or the Genesis until June.23rd 1991 when the Sega Genesis came out with Sonic the Hedgehog and the stores that sold video games and systems in my neighborhood in 1989 only sold NES systems and games and the Gameboy systems and games.
I was in grade school when master system and nes came out. I had no idea what arcade games were. All I knew was nes games were fun and sega games felt very narrow.
I think one of Sega’s biggest challenges was the introduction of console generations and rivalry.
Sega was pushing for people to compare the two and go out and buy new hardware which at the time wasn’t exactly an established thing. I think this is also why the WiiU failed. To non-gamers the idea of going out and buying another console after 5 or 6 years doesn’t make a lot of sense
It wasn't new, the Colecovision, Mattel, Atari was not that long ago at the time while in home computers Commodore, Atari, Apple and Tandy had fierce rivalry that was still going hot and had already went through the 8-bit/16-bit jump pushing the Amiga,Atari ST, Mac and Tandy 1000 over their older C64, Atari 800, Apple II and CoCo.
@@Psy500 Most of those were computer systems and their focus was getting people to buy a home computer. Especially around the time of the Genesis they were veering off into a different market. The generational jump for these systems were about how much they could do and, better graphics were often just a by product of it. In fact I don’t think Apple especially cared for gaming at all.
Nintendo to SNES to N64 were all about this system has better graphics and makes the games you’re playing look outdated by comparison. Hence the Super Nintendo and Genesis were about making the consumer feel they were missing out by having any other hardware to play games on. This would be the trend going forward.
The Wii U also had awkward branding and a non gamer would be confused if it was just a Wii accessory or a new version of Wii. Early Wii U commercials put so much emphasis on the tablet controller I wouldn't blame anyone for thinking it was just an accessory
Pretty ballsy saying the Master System didn't have a great lineup of games.
It had better hardware then the Famicon/NES in every aspect, but still lost the war. Of course it lacked good games.
He is american...The Master System was HUGE in the nearly 44 countries here in Europe...Nobody cared about "nintendo stuff"
I’ve contemplated writing an article on this. I was always fascinated with the short period the mega drive had before sonic.
Awesome video brother have a great day
I was heavily indoctrinated into my NES coming off Atari and other less polished experiences. BUT and big but, I was absolutely a SEGA guy and truly miss the days of SEGA consoles.
It's so cozy watching your videos and listening to your voice 😊.
Btw: I have to defend the SMS a bit; it was my first console and I love it do death!
Yes Nintendo had more games and many of them are stellar. But the Master System had many charming ones too! Like the Wonder Boy series. the second and third ones are absolutely amazing and there was nothing quite like them on the NES.
Other amazing titles: The Lucky Dime Caper, Deep Duck Trouble, Castle of Illusion, Land of Illusion, Sonic, Master of Darkness, Rastan, Psychic World etc..
Have you made a video about the SMS? If not; can you find it in your heart to do so?
I'm assuming during the ghouls N ghost segment you meant to say the knife not the sword as best weapon to use since the former is the one you can spam like crazy and the latter is the one you have to get up in enemies faces and doesn't do enough extra damage to make that worth the risk
People who know boxing would add that Buster did not beat Tyson, time did, and Buster happened to be there that night. Mike himself admits he prepared for it poorly to not at all, and it was his out of the ring life that truly brought the champion down and ended his record streak. So its very fitting what became of both videogames. Life imitates art, as they say.
As for Sega vs Nintendo, I could have gotten a Genesis before Sonic, but I did not want one. I had not seen any games on it that I felt were next level in any way but graphics. I guess my favorite I played at other houses was Rambo III, and a weird little platformer called Shadow Blasters, but neither was more fun than half my NES collection, and I always chose new games for it over investing in Sega, until Sonic changed my mind. I don't think anything else would have done it.
When Sega released the Genesis here in the US, they pushed it as the big boy system where it's content was more mature than Nintendo. They tried the avoid the "cute and cuddly" persona that Nintendo had with Mario and other games. Sega of Japan knew they needed a Mario like character so they put out Sonic. About a year later was when I stupidly sold my Genesis to buy a Monitor for my Amiga 500. I loved the Genesis. It was a great system. It also was the last console I owned up until a friend sold me their Switch. I've mostly been a computer gamer.
When did you start collecting and where do you find items?
As a kid I was tormented for using the term "ninja" stars. Apparently in the fifth grade the proper vernacular is "throwing" stars. (Love the content, PoJr)
People alive back in the day will remember Altered Beast was super popular. It sucks compared to games that came after but not really before or contemporary
I had a Genesis during this era. Loved Pat Riley B-Ball, Tommy Lasorda Baseball, Golden Axe, Altered Beast and many others. But, Nintendo had that one game up their sleve that pretty much put Sega on ice for a bit. How do you compete with SMB 3???? I remember getting it day one and playing it constantly. As did everyone else.
Right. Sega had nothing like SMB3.
I remember that game cost $80 in 1990, now console games are never that expensive even with inflation.
I was with Team Nintendo back in the day.
But I guess what I would do to improve SEGA's console back then is expand the companies Arcade games for the console and not just make them a direct port, but something worth playing at home.
4 mbit is actually around 512 kb. a few later nes games like kirby's adventure have been about the same size, but that was around 1991-4 when 16mbit was the standard for 16bit consoles.
Grr. You didn't mention the Thunder Force Games!! Or Sagaia. Hell the early and even latter library of space ship shooters on the Genesis are always getting overlooked.
Yeah that "Genesis DOES WHAT NINTEN'DONT" commercial came out while the NES was still the main console. 1989/1990
How would I have made the Genesis/Mega Drive more successful?
- include sprite scaling in the console no matter what (would’ve allowed for better ports of Thunder Blade and Space Harrier!)
- make the 1st party output more varied, include a better cartoon platformer than Enchanted Castle, a pick up & play racing game et al
- if Nintendo’s closest allies won’t work with Sega initially, see if any 3rd parties from countries like South Korea, Australia and/or assorted European countries would like in
- allow for better sound chips to included in later games, so we don’t get that metallic music we hear in certain titles
That’s all I can think of for now
It's worthy to note the NES still had that exclusivity contract going at the time. While graphics and tech are very important, a console's library is probably the actual most important element for success. Without Sonic (YET!) at the time, the early Genesis was always gonna suffer against the NES
No way is the sword the best weapon in Ghouls and Ghosts, and definitely not by far. Good video as always!
I meant the throwing daggers, not the big sword that Arthur doesn't throw.
@@pojr ah ok, then I agree. I had wondered if that is what you meant.
I don't know... I was in college in the early 90s during that time .. Sega was by far considered the '
"Cooler" console. Not even close . The better fighting games... Mortal Kombat on the Genesis was the one to have. . Not only because of the superior controller but because of the secret code A B A C A B B that unlocked the blood and guts ...Sonic was better than Mario .. all the sports games. Madden. NHL hockey etc ... I'm not sure how in depth of a research was done but. For a few years Sega ruled...
6:44 Make it to the end without losing? Now that's an original concept. 😁
7:13 Sega trying to one-up themselves!
Cool video anyway, just nitpicking in good fun.
I remember my dad bought a psychogenesis in 1989 just after sonic came to the consul
I think Altered Beast was a pretty weak pack in. Yeah it looked good but there were way more fun NES games available, with SMB3 around the corner. Golden Axe was a little bit after launch but that or Ghouls n Ghosts would have been way better imo.
Ghouls & Ghosts was from Capcom, though, so maybe not a good idea as a pack-in. Golden Axe was fine but short and easy to beat. That said, I can't think of a better option before the release of Revenge of Shinobi.
@zabustifu that's true. Maybe Space Harrier II? They eventually got it right with Sonic in '91, but they just didn't have that killer app, system seller pack in until then like the NES did with SMB.
As a major arcade fan then, I thought it was a good pack in. At the time, it was very close to the arcade and supported 2 player simultaneous play. Golden Axe would have definitely been the better choice, but it wasn't released yet. The great thing is when I got my Genesis, they had a promo going where you could mail away for a free second controller and a second game of your choice (outside Phantasy Star 2) with the purchase of the system. Golden Axe was one of those offerings :)
Sega had some third-party support over the first two years of the Genesis most notably with the mighty Electronic Arts which gave the Genesis its first fully-licensed sports title, Lakers vs. Celtics and the NBA Playoffs, in November 1990 and also the console debut of what would become the most enduring US football gaming franchise of all time, John Madden Football.
NAMCO also released several arcade ports onto the Genesis in 1990 including Phelios and Burning Force. There were also smaller third-party publishers like Seismic Software which released the now highly-desirable M.U.S.H.A., the American title for Musha Aleste: Fullmetal Fighter Ellinor, in the United States in February 1991.
Well I mean EA basically told Sega to give them a better deal, Sega said NO, reverse engineer the Mega Drive if you want a better deal. EA DID DO THAT, then threatened to let other companies use their design unless Sega gave them a better deal, which Sega then did. Which is why a lot of EA Mega Drive games have a yellow tab on the side.
Am I the only SEGA fan who thought that Michael Katz did a good job back then? That's why I got my Genesis. Of course, I was a huge SEGA kid, even buying the SMS base model back in 1987. Although Altered Beast was pretty fun, they really needed a two-game cartridge like the original SMS. Even better would be to include the game ROM on the console, allowing future games to access all of the assets of the existing game to save memory.