SNES vs Mega Drive: the games that decided the console war -.

In the early 1990s, the first truly great console war in gaming history raged as Mega Drive and Super Nintendo stood side by side, with each console manufacturer producing monster classics while outside developers excelled. Multi-format gaming was not something like it is today, and there were often huge differences between a Mega Drive and Super Nintendo version of the same game. In fact, they didn’t even have to be the same game, even if they were released at the same time and had the same title.

The Mega Drive led for a long time, but the Super Nintendo was steadily catching up and eventually the latter became the best-selling format and most would say Nintendo finally won the war in 16-bit. All the way to the end, however, came games that helped define the era when sometimes it was Mega Drive and Super Nintendo that won. Enough chatter. These are the titles that not only sold consoles, but also helped win the first major console war.

Mascot Wars Mario (SNES) versus Sonic the Hedgehog (Mega Drive)
Mascots were considered essential in this era, and Sega had experimented with the likes of Alex Kidd and Wonder Bow. But it was with Sonic that all the pieces fell into place. Sonic the Hedgehog was brilliant, and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was an absolute masterpiece. Mario, on the other hand, had a pretty weak Super Nintendo era. Sure, Super Mario World beat most things, but the All-Stars remake didn’t quite satisfy, and Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island felt more like a spin-off. When Sega also moved on to Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and the completely unique Sonic & Knuckles, it didn’t help that Nintendo had Mario Paint and Super Mario Kart.

Winner: Sonic the Hedgehog (Mega Drive)

The Action Adventure War The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES) vs Soleil (Mega Drive)
Nintendo loaded up early with The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and we can really end this category here. It is arguably the best game in the Zelda series, and although Sega piled on with the woefully underrated Soleil (and equally underrated Landstalker), there is no doubt who won this battle.

Winner: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Super Nintendo)

The Fighting War Street Fighter II (SNES) versus Mortal Kombat (Mega Drive)
The Mega Drive came with a controller with the same number of buttons as the NES (four), while the Super Nintendo had a controller with eight buttons. This gave Nintendo a huge advantage in the battle and later forced Sega to release a new controller with more buttons. Capcom capitalized on this when they released Street Fighter II for the Super Nintendo, making the fighting genre huge overnight. Sega didn’t really have a good answer until Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition was released (which was still no better than the Super Nintendo), but the most talked-about and acclaimed game was Mortal Kombat, which was allowed to keep all its Fatality attacks and blood, while most of it was censored for the Super Nintendo. But. Again, a simple category.

Winner: Street Fighter II (Super Nintendo)

The RPG war Final Fantasy VI (SNES) versus Phantasy Star IV (Mega Drive)
RPG fans flocked to Super Nintendo, where Enix and Square were busy with Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana. Best of all, however, was Final Fantasy VI (which was never released in Europe, but was played through imports and pirate solutions). Sega did have Phantasy Star IV, one of the strongest scifi role-playing games of the 16-bit era, but unfortunately that’s not enough.

Winner: Final Fantasy VI (Super Nintendo)

The arcade racing war F-Zero (SNES) vs Road Rash II (Mega Drive)

F-Zero charmed the pants off of us back at the premiere of the Super Nintendo. It was truly one of those games that showed that we had just entered a new generation and could therefore play something we had never seen before with spectacular Mode 7 effects. Sega, however, had Road Rash II, which mixed racing with brutal motorcycle violence and a soundtrack that made 90s hearts beat faster. F-Zero wins, of course, but not by as wide a margin as you might think.

Winner: F-Zero (Super Nintendo)

The Shooter War UN Squadron (SNES) versus Thunder Force IV (Mega Drive)
The Super Nintendo was plagued by a slower processor, which meant that very chaotic games often suffered from huge delays. We’re talking full ultra speed. Shoot ’em ups are a chaotic genre and despite great games like UN Squadron, Sega had this category down to a science. Of all the great games released, Thunder Force IV was probably the very best, looking so good in addition to brilliant gameplay that people could hardly believe their eyes.

Winner: Thunder Force IV (Mega Drive)

The Sports War International Superstar Soccer (SNES) vs NHL 94 (Mega Drive)
Sega was completely dominant in sports games for a long time. The console’s processor provided that power that was so crucial and only made the format’s games better. In addition, Sega itself made many games, while Nintendo only made a few, so they were more numerous as well. But the best was NHL 94 for the Mega Drive, and although the sports scene on the Super Nintendo came to an end with Konami’s brilliant International Superstar Soccer, Sega won this category and charmed sports fans.

Winner: NHL 94 (Mega Drive)

The licensed game War Batman Returns (SNES) vs. Aladdin (Mega Drive)
Movie licensing games were generally something people sniffed at in those days. But not when it included superheroes and Disney. On the contrary, there were many good games, with Sega itself making many of the best Disney titles. The best licensed game for the Super Nintendo was the Final Fight-inspired blockbuster Batman Returns, while the Mega Drive version of Aladdin was a very different game from the Super Nintendo and so good that it has not been forgotten to this day.

Winner: Aladdin (Mega Drive)

The puzzle war Lemmings (SNES) versus Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine (Mega Drive)
In this era, it was almost always assumed that puzzle games were portable and involved Tetris clones. However. that doesn’t have to be the case, and with Lemmings we got a game that definitely belonged on consoles and offered something completely new. Thanks to the controller design, the controls were good and the slow processor helped even in pressurized situations. Puyo clone Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine is admittedly a very good game…. but congratulations Nintendo.

Winner: Lemmings (Super Nintendo)

The Beat-em-up War Final Fight (SNES) vs Streets of Rage 2 (Mega Drive)
Capcom delivered greatness in the fighting category to Super Nintendo. But to make Final Fight work, they had to sacrifice things. The character Guy was thrown out and co-op was no longer an option. Still a masterful game, but anything arcade-like was mostly dominated by Sega and beat ’em ups were no different. Streets of Rage 2 is one of the best games in the genre ever and idly pushed everything the Super Nintendo had.

Winner: Streets of Rage 2 (Mega Drive)

The 3D War Star Wing (SNES) vs Virtua Racing (Mega Drive)
It’s easy to think of pancake board games when talking about life in 16 bits, but the fact is that both Nintendo and Sega released 3D chips that made new types of games possible. Nintendo was consistently the most successful, not only with the games, but also with the marketing of the Super FX chip, which was seen as something of a miracle. Because of this, we got Star Wing. Before the Mega Drive, we had the Sega Virtua Processor (SVP), but it was only used in one game because it was very expensive. The latter was a beast of a chip, but while it is great to see Virtua Racing on the Mega Drive and be impressed by its fluidity, it is an inferior game to Star Wing, which was also brand new rather than an arcade conversion.

Winner: Star Wing (Super Nintendo)

Graphics wars Donkey Kong Country (SNES) versus Vectorman (Mega Drive)
In 1994, Rare and Nintendo made us all go crazy. Donkey Kong Country looked surrealistically good and made the Mega Drive feel outdated. However, Sega. was not going to accept that and released Vectorman (developed by BlueSky Software) the following year. And it proved to do its job of getting the Mega Drive hot again, and was a huge success, but it’s no Donkey Kong Country, of course.

Winner: Donkey Kong Country (Super Nintendo)

Wildcard Wars Super Metroid (SNES) vs Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master (Mega Drive)
What is this category? Well, there are two games that I otherwise struggle with, but had to be included because they were so important. Super Metroid is still considered one of Samus’ finest adventures and contributed greatly to the creation of the metroidvania concept, and Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master is exactly the kind of rock-hard action game Sega was so good at. Both look great, too. The latter is one of my absolute favorites, but unfortunately, against a Samus in top form, it’s not enough.

Winner: Super Metroid (Super Nintendo)

So the final score was 8-5 in favor of Super Nintendo, which can be said to have won the generation. Do you agree with the conclusion and the winner of the different categories?