GamePro Names Five Best Console Wars
The history of video game console competitions reads much like that of New York's crime families — you see powerful leaders making bold, risky moves to snuff out their rivals and fierce, tribal alliances that breed clashes between vocal factions.
GamePro brings the past to life by selecting its five greatest console wars, disregarding the in-progress donnybrook between the Xbox 360, Wii and PlayStation 3, which is destined to crack such future lists.
The choice for No. 1 was easy: the early-1990s clash between the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. GamePro's McKinley Noble writes:
With initial sales in Japan turning up nothing, Sega USA used the success of Sonic the Hedgehog, along with an ad campaign that got more ridiculously campy as time went on, to start turning up the heat on Nintendo. Fans started digging trenches and hurling slogans at each other, while TV commercials told the public that Sega's Genesis could do "What Nintendon't". It was magical, and the war went on and on.
The story hardly scratches the surface of the Nintendo-Sega battle for youth gamer mindshare, including Sega's ridiculous "blast processing" ads. So effective were the respective marketing machines, daring you to choose a side and stick to it with ferocity, that it seemed almost sacrilegious to own or profess fandom of both. The ingrained fanboy bias grew up with a generation that refused to put away its childish things and continues to drive up the average gamer age.
As a lifelong Nintendo fanboy, only recently have I managed to separate myself from my taught, ignorant prejudices to respect the greatness of the Genesis classics. But I still hate Sonic the Hedgehog, Mario's spastic rival for the same unquantifiable reason I despise the Dallas Cowboys, and always will.
What about you, Consumerists? Which way did you swing — Nintendo or Sega?
The 5 Greatest Console Wars [GamePro]
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Comments:
I had a NES, but I played my friends' Segas all the time. It was the only way I could play Vectorman and that one comic book hero game. Well, I could play those on the demo unit at Target (which I did every time we were there), but my parents wouldn't let me stand there all day.
I loved my Sega's.
I had a Sega Master System, more powerful then the NES that was out at the time (that all my friends had)
I tried to explain how my system was more powerful then their NES, but they liked the underdog.
So then Sega Genesis came out..... which I got....
Then the Super Nintendo came out... and I then said, Hey - you like the underdog, so come and get a Sega Genesis... and of course they changed their tune saying they like the more powerful machine, Super Nintendo... Kids..... Stupid kids....
The Genesis rocked! It was a great console.
Sure, Nintendo survived and created the Wii and Sega does whatever they do now. I haven't heard a peep out of them in years.
I liked some of the Genesis games (Sonic The Hedgehog comes to mind), but Sega's constant picking on Nintendo stuck me as a dick move, so I stayed with Nintendo consoles.
There are barely enough console generations to have five wars, much less more. I apologize for nitpicking, but this article is reaching. (By the way, I owned a Genesis and a Super Nintendo, and I didn’t get the fanboy behaviour; although Mortal Kombat having blood on the Genesis was much more interesting to the teenage me.)
I have been a life long Nintendo fan girl. I do end up purchasing most consoles that come out except sony but Nintendo is the only brand I have stood in line for hours for. 18 hours in line at a wal mart to get a Wii the day before they were first released.
No mention of some of the before-their-time consoles like the Atari Jaguar or 3DO, boo. That being said...my favorite console title of all time was the very first Mario Kart. Man, laughed my butt off playing it. :)
Until I got a PS1 in 2002, I had nothing but Nintendo consoles, since the NES. On a somewhat related note, those are either some giant kittens or some tiny consoles on the top of that page.
Nintendo, but I secretly coveted my cousin's Sega.
When I was a kid in the early 90's, all my friends had Sega, Nintendo, etc. I had an Atari 2600. And an Intellivision 2. Then my parents divorced, and I got all the newest toys. But I still remember the days I grew up with pong, and my grandmother would come from her latest stop at the Salvation Army with another Atari game she bought for a buck. I had to tell her multiple times I already owned the E.T. game, and I didn't need another copy.
Any game console that doesn't require at least 5 minutes of manipulation (hitting, blowing, etc) isn't fun.
End of story.
Mario Kart and Donkey Kong on Super NES! If only I had the cables, and the games. All I have left is Super Mario Bros. :(
@tbbx: If you haven't heard a peep out of them, it's because you haven't been listening. They're a software developer now ([en.wikipedia.org]).
I had an NES and a GameBoy but nearly every week I would go to the video-game rental store and rent a Genesis and play the HELL out of Sonic 2.
Although the "Sega/Nintendo" war is kind of moot at this point. Poor Dreamcast.
I was the youngest of 3 brothers, so my oldest brother got to pick the third console we owned (first was Atari 2600, second was NES), and he picked the Sega Genesis because he thought it was more mature. I liked it, but after all the RPGs came out for the SNES, I wanted that a lot more.
Oh well. I had emulation for that, eventually. It did convince me to get the N64, Gamecube and Wii systems eventually, which irritated me since none of them really had much of an RPG game library.
My SNES from 1991 STILL WORKS! Take that XBOX 360 failure rate!
@TheWillow: You have to work for your prize! It made never being able to get past the Dam level in TMNT just that much more satisfying!
Well, here's the crutch for me - Nintendo gave us the Final Fantasy series, especially FF 2 (USA) and also Secret of Mana/Secret of Evermore. But Sega gave us Phantasy Star III, Landstalker, and Shining Force 1 and 2.
So hard to choose....
@italianscallion33: If you happen to own a N64 or GameCube, the Composite cables from either are all compatible between the SNES, N64 and GC.
@bloggerX: Yeah, what he said! My Genesis (an early-ish one bundled with Sonic 2) is still kickin 18 years later as well!
@dmuth: Sega has always been the Pepsi to Nintendo's Coke; as such, their ad campaigns have a similar "Coke sucks; drink Pepsi!" feel to them, instead of the "Drink Coke because it tastes good!" vibe I get from Nintendo.
I miss the console wars that never happened...
Dreamcast. Jaguar. The, um, Amiga thing. *sigh*
@ngoandy: *pushes up nerd glasses* Technically the Gameboy no longer dominates the handheld market because they aren't made anymore. It's the DS and the PSP now, but Nintendo definitely has Sony beat there.
I thought the SNES had the much better controller with its L and R buttons on the top.
The Genesis controller didn't make it easy to press more then two buttons at a time.
Well, I've always like them both, but to me it was always more about the game and not the system. I'm still more of a PC gamer (a somewhat dying breed these days) than anything else. Even today, if a game comes out on a console that I own and on PC, I'll always pick the PC version.
The Genesis felt like the complete opposite from the SNES, at least from my point of view as a young teenager in the early 90's.
The SNES was a wholesome, White Optimus Prime looking machine. The Genesis felt so murky and kind of filthy; like something that is played in a dimly lit smoke-filled room with a shadowy fat man standing in the doorway.
When Mortal Kombat came out for the consoles, and the Genesis version had all the blood and gore, hell literally broke loose and the console war was on.
It was a pretty fun time.
Atari 2600 vs Atari 5200.
Poor kids vs rich kids.
You ColecoVision-ers can shut yer pie holes.
Atari Vs. Intellivision!!!!
Since I dropped cable, I could use the free cable slot on the back of my TV to hook up my NES and SNES....then it will be time to party.
Could there be a danger to having four generations of consoles hooked up to one TV? ;-)
@squinko: Oh man, I remember going to Target and playing the Demo games when the PSX and N64 were all the rage. Both consoles had actually been out for a while, but still, the joy I felt when I got to play was undescribable.
I had both systems, and a turbo graphix 16. Nintendo won for me, hands down. It was the golden age of RPGs!
@ngoandy: How was Sega destroyed? They totally won* the Dreamcast vs. PS2 vs. Gamecube war.
And then won* the Dreamcast vs. Xbox360 vs. PS3 vs. Wii war a few years later.
Heck, that makes it the dominant console in the industry*.
*in my heart.
@futuresuperbowlMVPJayCutler: Sounds like you need those blinders removed, fanboy, haha
No Dreamcast wasn't bad at all but, damn, ps2 was SSSOOO much better it was a no brainer if you were looking to buy a (then) current gen console. Sony totally destroyed during those years.
@LadySiren: Mario Kart for the SNES was indeed a classic. I still have my original and play it from time to time althought I do enjoy mariokart 64 more.
@dragonfire81: Got 2 NES and 1 SNES and 1 64 that all still work like tanks. A few games went ka-put but most of them are fine too.
Although everyone seems to hate cartridges you gotta give them props for reliability.
@BathroomDuck: Agreed, I'm old school so I like the 4 button or 2 button controllers. One of the reasons I hate XBOX and love PS2/PS3, so much easier for me to just go in and not think about which button to push.
Granted if I took the time to learn the controllers I would probably be fine but SNES/NES/PS2 are just so natural feeling.
@squinko: Yeah, but in its last days, the Game Boy was still selling units, even with the DS and PSP out there (I think they were both in production). Hell, I think I have three or four Game Boys ... original, color, advance ... anyway, it was kind of like the PS2 still selling with the PS3 having been out for a while. People just liked the old Game Boys (probably didn't hurt that places were putting them on clearance either).
@mazzic1083: true. The Dreamcast should have stood up to the PlayStation fairly well, but there just weren't enough titles for it, and not enough things to do with the VMU (although I do remember the knockoff of Mattel football that you could play on it with NFL2K1, I think it was). When the PS2 came out, game over.
@coan_net:
At the end of the day, software sells hardware and not the other way around, Nintendo's iron-fisted grip on developers made it difficult for most companies to be willing to give up the NES market to take a chance on the Master System. As long as Nintendo had developers making software for their system that's what people would buy. Also, referring to the Genesis or SNES as more powerful is somewhat problematic. The Genesis had a significantly faster and more capable CPU, but the SNES had a better graphics processor.
@squinko:
The most unfortunate thing about Sega going software only is how much of their best talent left at that time (Yuji Naka, etc.) They've made a couple good games since, like the spectacular Valkyria Chronicles, but other than that most of it has been thoroughly mediocre.
Don't forget Skies of Arcadia and the Jet Grind Radio games, and the Panzer Dragoon franchise.
Oh, and can't forget the Sega CD versions of Lunar and Lunar 2, which were far better than the Playstation remakes.
By far the Genesis versus SNES and the PSX vs Saturn vs N64 are the best.
Genesis vs SNES was awesome since it was the first I was part of.
PSX vs Saturn vs N64 was great since there was a newcomer (Sony) and it totally destroyed a company (Sega). It marked the end of cartridges.
I still see the GameBoy as dominating the handheld market, so I disagree with having those other handheld battles listed.