Early V.S NEW

[Blaze]

What was ur fav era in the Genesis's life span? Its early years or later years? Personaly I only started diggin Genz when Sonic 2 & SOR2 had arrived. When lookin bak, i dunno...the early years seemed kinda "empty" in my opinion. There wusnt really nothing comin out besides arcade ports, few platformers N Rpg's here n there....meh (some good classics like WBIV tho). Even the first sonic game never hooked me all dat much compared to super mario world.


92-95 were great years for Sega :D

[Joe Redifer]

The whole thing up to the cardboard box craze when Sega of America decided to begin hating their customers with a blazing, unstoppable passion.

[Iron Lizard]

I loved the early years but my favorite will always be when Sega started really sticking it to Nintendo with games like Sonic and Streets of Rage. I miss the playground arguments over Nintendo vs Sega. Them were the good ol days.

[Mr Smith]

How do you define "early" and "new"? Certainly the golden era was the early 1990's and this lasted right up to the point Sega trying to use the Mega Drive to compete with the Playstation. After Toy Story the Mega Drive was never the same again :( (chronologically speaking of course)

[Alianger]

'89-'95

[108 Stars]

2008.

[Genesis Knight]

I preferred the second half. Most of the first and second runs of games don't really appeal to me.

So I would say '93-on.

[Zebbe]

1988-2006... Eh, seriously, most of my games are from the most intense console war years, meaning 1992-1995. During that time, they were really forced to do their best when developing games.

[Vehemont]

Zebbe is right. I enjoy both "early and "new" titles.

[megabomberman]

Sonic 2 was the spark that really said the Megadrive was here to stay, I think sega really hit their peak then before peetering off a bit...

[Blaze]

How do you define "early" and "new"? Certainly the golden era was the early 1990's


yea sure but we're talkin about the Genesis here. If u look at its early days (88-91) there was mostly Sports & Arcade ports. During its second generation (92-95), more Rpg's and Quality Platformers came on the sceen.


Some Arcade fans loved its early years better (Strider, Golden Axe & more) while the Newer Sega fans were more into the whole Blast Processing mania (Ecco The Dolphin, Sonic 2 & more)

[Mel]

idk, they feel like totally different worlds but both very nice. i am fond of the older style games like ghouls and ghosts and the first sonic. the later games were still great though.

[Alianger]

Some Arcade fans loved its early years better (Strider, Golden Axe & more)

Well I liked the early stuff because of games like MUSHA, Mystic Defender, Spider-Man vs. Kingpin, Thunder Force 2-3, Herzog Zwei and Revenge of Shinobi. I never really played the arcade ports because I had played most of them on the SMS already and now I think they are pretty shallow games. Ghouls 'n Ghosts and Strider are exceptions..

[megadriveworld]

Definitely the earlier titles for me when Sega had to prove themselves and become recognised as the best console/game manufacturer. So.. the original Sonic and number 2, though all of the 2d sonics are great.. Streets of Rage and number 2. Etc.. Though of course there's some great later titles aswell.

[tomaitheous]

Definitely 89-91 were the best years. After that games/quality starting going down hill. I didn't like the new advertising/image either. It really felt insulting, I guess it was geared towards the younger crowd who bought into that whole media/image thing. The '89-91 era had a totally different feel - it was kickass and that's how I like to remember Sega.

Heh - you later gen fans can thank us first generation supports for the system getting the support it needed ;)

Also, some have mentioned playground arguments/fights. Guess I was too old to experience that. In High School, we gamers all got a long. We did talk about the 16bit wars(they weren't called that then), but we never debated which system was better. You can thank all the magazines (mostly EGM) for starting that crap. A real gamer wasn't loyal to one company/system ;)

[Damon Plus]

I'd say 88-92 are the early years, while 93-97 (or 98, or whatever) were the later years.

I think 1992 was a big change in how Sega games felt. Just look at Toe Jam and Earl 1 and 2. The first one is from 91, the second one from 93, and just look how do they feel.

1992 was a mix of "early" and "later" games. Sonic 1 (1991) has an early feel, while Sonic 2 (1992) looks more modern but still has that feeling, and Sonic 3 (1994) changed a lot in graphics, level designs and such. Same can be said about the Streets of Rage saga, and the Mickey games, coincidentally with the same release dates.

Gunstar Heroes, Aladdin, Eternal Champions, Flashback, Jurassic Park, Mortal Kombat, Rocket Knight Adventures... All examples of games released in 1993 that look totally different from games in 1991 and before.

1988-1991(Early years)->1992 (Transition year)-->1993-1997 (modern years)

[Aarzak]

You guys could've just split it into the "Pre-Sonic" and "Post-Sonic" era, as with the arrival of Sonic came the Genesis' real jump into the mainstream, the lock-out chip, the next generation of Genesis packaging (still kept the "grid" motif", but the back box-art was much more cleaner and colorful) and a bit down the road the "Sega Scream" ad campeigns and whatnot.

The obscure, "Pre-Sonic" Genesis days reeked of decidedly '80's advertising, promotion and packaging, all while the Genesis was struggling to get it's piece of the pi. Those who were brave and/or into cutting-edge hardware were the ones who ventured towards Sega's new console at the time, playing the waiting game in it's very early years and having to deal with the growing pains and products of undercard, long-forgotten third parties which were the only ones Sega could manage to scrounge up. It was 'dem arcade ports that really anchored the system back then. "Grrr, GRAPHICS, THE ARCADE AT HOME, 8 MEGA POWER, WHO NEEDS AN ARCADE MACHINE!". EGM (before the arrival of the SNES) was the most vocal Genesis supporter out there, awarding it "System of the Year" in their 1990 Video Game Buyer's Guide and of course awarding "Strider" their 1990 "Game of the Year".

Yeah, I'd say the Pre-Sonic era is much more intriguing to me and I like hearing stories and recants from that time...........and the mostly piss-poor third parties and third-party software. Despite that, those third-parties gave it an "underground" aura..or something.

The last eventful year for Genesis ('fall '95-fall '96) is also interesting, as it seems that the Genny turned full circle with barely any third-party support and spotty releases. At the time I was just beginning to play catch-up and knee deep into Genesis, but in the present the system was withering away much faster than the SNES...............should've stocked up on everything Genesis back then. I always wanted one of those Sonic 2 pack-ins.

[Alianger]

".....and the mostly piss-poor third parties and third-party software. Despite that, those third-parties gave it an "underground" aura..or something."

Hell no! The percentage of poor third party software was much higher in the later (post sonic) years of the genesis lifespan when it was flooded with platformers and licensed games.
In the early years, most stuff was made or ported by Sega (nearly all of it above average quality), and the rest of the library was made up mostly of shooters, some of them very good ones like Gaiares, MUSHA, TF2-3, Hellfire and Burning Force.. There were only a few stinkers like Insector X, Atomic Robokid and Heavy Unit.
And even if you dislike the genre there were other good, unique games like Arcus Odyssey, Wonder Boy in Monster World and Herzog Zwei.

I believe the bulk of the crap games early on were the PC ports by EA, games that just didn't work well in a console format. They got it right with Road Rash though. The other developers you could blame (Taito) fortunately didn't make many games.

[B - Mark]

My fav is the early times.

My Genesis / Mega Drive fav games are produced between 1989 - 1994 likes Sonic 1, Streets of Rage Trilogy, Golden Axe and Phantasy Star IV.

[Zebbe]

Hehe, no wonder your early era is so long and good when the last Brazilian game was released in 2002 :p.