I love the SNES and genuinely think it objectively has one of the best libraries of games of all time, but considering my personal bias, childhood experiences, and preferences, I'm still more of a Genesis kid and I don't think that will ever change. Nostalgia is a helluva drug and I love overdosing.
The SNES vs Megadrive/Genesis is one of the definitive console rivalries, up there with the PS3 and Xbox 360. I must say I'm not a giant Sega fan apart from the Dreamcast but I think the Megadrive/Genesis (my god why did it have 2 different names?) deserves recognition as being half of that iconic battle
The Saturn is, perhaps more so than any console in history, a very distinct product of its time. Unless you grew up playing Sega-made arcade games or had one at the time of its release and imported games, there is a very low chance you'll have much positive to say about it. It's just not a platform that did well in most regions and has such a scattered library. Very weird one, for sure.
I think the reason the SNES in particular is so beloved is that, despite most of the biggest titles being, as you pointed out, iterative rather than innovative, they are almost all SO incredibly well-polished and tightened up that they represent the best possible version of the sort of game they represent, unsurpassed for decades afterwards despite massive technological progress and budget inflation. A lot of the reason so many indies now ape the SNES aesthetic in particular isn't just that the games tended to look very good and the graphics aged well, it's because they are aspiring to a kind of golden age of games as fully-realized and complete products.
A massive part of it for sure. I think those who haven't played NES on genuine hardware don't see the full story when playing SNES games; it's not just the 8 extra bits and game design, it's the fact that the cartridges slot into the SNES easily, the games don't glitch out if you run too fast or randomly freeze.
A golden age in some ways but not in others but objectively speaking, I do think the SNES is superior to the N64 and Gamecube.
There are a few big exceptions but I think us in the PAL regions got the better end of the deal in old gaming. Sure the 50Hz vs 60Hz meant our games ran slightly slower and we got everything late but generally, we usually had issues in the JP and NA versions fixed before arrival.
I just learned something new while reading your article. Despite owning a few myself, I never noticed that PAL SNES cartridges don’t have end labels.
I guess it’s something I took for granted as a person who lives in the US region where all our SNES cartridges had end labels. They really make it easy to pick one out on the shelf.
Regarding why PAL carts didn’t have end labels, I’m guessing it had something to do with the shape of the carts and the machines that created the labels. Maybe it was more cost-effective no to have end labels.
The Japanese SNES (Super Famicom) is also shaped like the PAL SNES and has the same cartridges as us too. It's not the end of the world since Etsy is full of people selling books of end-labels for the entire library but it's still quite annoying.
Another well-known quirk of PAL region retro games is that because Japan and the US used 60Hz TV's while PAL used 50Hz TV's (at least until the late 90's) our games run slightly slower and are very slightly squashed to make up for it.
Not really related but retro gaming is very different here, a lot of games that are rare in the USA aren't rare here and vice versa.
The SNES rules. 17/20 feels right, although I rarely rented a SNES game back in the day that I didn't enjoy. Would I still enjoy them all today? Probably not Bubsy 2 or AAH! Real Monsters, but the majority of them hold a special place in my heart.
Great article, looking forward to (potentially) disagreeing with you on the N64!
I love the SNES and genuinely think it objectively has one of the best libraries of games of all time, but considering my personal bias, childhood experiences, and preferences, I'm still more of a Genesis kid and I don't think that will ever change. Nostalgia is a helluva drug and I love overdosing.
The SNES vs Megadrive/Genesis is one of the definitive console rivalries, up there with the PS3 and Xbox 360. I must say I'm not a giant Sega fan apart from the Dreamcast but I think the Megadrive/Genesis (my god why did it have 2 different names?) deserves recognition as being half of that iconic battle
I highly, highly recommend the Console Wars documentary if you've never seen it! It's phenomenal.
I'll give it a watch, I've not seen that one and I like a good documentary
I might do a series like this for Sega someday but I might get lynched, I think the Sega Saturn is one of the worst consoles ever
The Saturn is, perhaps more so than any console in history, a very distinct product of its time. Unless you grew up playing Sega-made arcade games or had one at the time of its release and imported games, there is a very low chance you'll have much positive to say about it. It's just not a platform that did well in most regions and has such a scattered library. Very weird one, for sure.
It's good at what it was made for, I'll give it that and admittedly there are a lot of great Saturn games I don't own... but they're all £200+ XD
I think the reason the SNES in particular is so beloved is that, despite most of the biggest titles being, as you pointed out, iterative rather than innovative, they are almost all SO incredibly well-polished and tightened up that they represent the best possible version of the sort of game they represent, unsurpassed for decades afterwards despite massive technological progress and budget inflation. A lot of the reason so many indies now ape the SNES aesthetic in particular isn't just that the games tended to look very good and the graphics aged well, it's because they are aspiring to a kind of golden age of games as fully-realized and complete products.
A massive part of it for sure. I think those who haven't played NES on genuine hardware don't see the full story when playing SNES games; it's not just the 8 extra bits and game design, it's the fact that the cartridges slot into the SNES easily, the games don't glitch out if you run too fast or randomly freeze.
A golden age in some ways but not in others but objectively speaking, I do think the SNES is superior to the N64 and Gamecube.
Good write-up on the Snezz. I also prefer the curvy PAL design. That's the iconic Snes in this part of the world.
There are a few big exceptions but I think us in the PAL regions got the better end of the deal in old gaming. Sure the 50Hz vs 60Hz meant our games ran slightly slower and we got everything late but generally, we usually had issues in the JP and NA versions fixed before arrival.
I just learned something new while reading your article. Despite owning a few myself, I never noticed that PAL SNES cartridges don’t have end labels.
I guess it’s something I took for granted as a person who lives in the US region where all our SNES cartridges had end labels. They really make it easy to pick one out on the shelf.
Regarding why PAL carts didn’t have end labels, I’m guessing it had something to do with the shape of the carts and the machines that created the labels. Maybe it was more cost-effective no to have end labels.
The Japanese SNES (Super Famicom) is also shaped like the PAL SNES and has the same cartridges as us too. It's not the end of the world since Etsy is full of people selling books of end-labels for the entire library but it's still quite annoying.
Another well-known quirk of PAL region retro games is that because Japan and the US used 60Hz TV's while PAL used 50Hz TV's (at least until the late 90's) our games run slightly slower and are very slightly squashed to make up for it.
Not really related but retro gaming is very different here, a lot of games that are rare in the USA aren't rare here and vice versa.
The SNES rules. 17/20 feels right, although I rarely rented a SNES game back in the day that I didn't enjoy. Would I still enjoy them all today? Probably not Bubsy 2 or AAH! Real Monsters, but the majority of them hold a special place in my heart.
Great article, looking forward to (potentially) disagreeing with you on the N64!
The SNES absolutely does rule, I feel it's one of the only Nintendo consoles I don't think anybody has a bad word to say about.
For me the N64 is a console of extremes, so expect some categories to have a very low ranking and others to potentially be 5 stars.
I look forward to it!