Schoolyard split from the '90s...

[G.Silver]

I almost just exploded with nostalgia remembering the time when Mario Paint...

If I were a guy at Nintendo, I'd be pushing for a PC version of Mario Paint. As a kid, I didn't have any use for fancy paint programs like I have now, but I do wish I could have saved more than one picture at a time. Mario Paint, complete with its animation and music editors, an assortment of minigames, the funny noises all the tools made, and just a teeny bit of extra functionality, could be THE killer app for kids on PC.

Why haven't they done this?!

[Adam Adamant]

They're too busy sucking each other's tits?

[Omni Hunter]

Genesis dude. It had all I needed, Sonic, Gunstar Heroes and Sparkster.

[Ritz]

And Contra Hardcorps, Alien Soldier, Gley Lancer, Vectorman, etc.

[Kishi]

I was wonderfully oblivious back then, but these days, no matter how visually and aurally impressive a Genesis game is (Gunstar Heroes, S&K, etc.), I can't help but think of how much better it would be if it were a SNES game.

[Pepperidge]

I was always a Genesis devotee. The other children made fun of me for it. I guess I just grew up in the wrong town.

[G.Silver]

no matter how visually and aurally impressive a Genesis game is (Gunstar Heroes, S&K, etc.), I can't help but think of how much better it would be if it were a SNES game.

The SNES had the Genesis beat in music and side-to-side comparisons always seemed to favor the SNES when it came to versions of the same game, but the developers who knew what they were doing clearly got over any handicaps, I don't think most games would have looked that different. Gunstar Heroes in particular would not have happened at all, Treasure said they developed it for the MD specifically because the SNES could not have handled all the sprites and hard-coded effects.

Whenever I'm playing an SNES (or GBA) game I'm always thinking how it would look cooler with a billion layers of line scrolling. Some games did it, it's obvious that the SNES was capable of it, but I just played so many games where they didn't and they should have! (I am looking at you, Mega Man X!)

[j-man]

I don't know...in side-by-side comparison of SNES and MD versions of Sparkster I always vastly prefer the MD version. Maybe I'm biased because I grew up with it, and I regularly take the case down to masturbate into the pages of the instruction manual, but I just think the SNES sprites are too puffy and cartoony. It looks like a load of shiny, squeaky balloons walking about squeaking and other such things.

Also, if the SNES has different music to the MD version then it loses. The soundtrack to Sparkster was poetry, insofar as that is possible without being an oxymoron or a paradox. I'm too lazy to check whether it would be either, or, or neither.

[G.Silver]

The two Sparksters are completely different games though, so that isn't one that counts. I was going to mention Sparkster as a game where I like the MD soundtrack better, but it's kind of the same deal, the compositions are either entirely different (desert stage) or the particular "variant" just doesn't kick as much ass (MD's Sparkrobo stage vs SNES' Stampy Doo stage)

[Popcorn]

I remember fucking lusting after Sparkster as a kid. Never did get to play it. Was it as good as RKA?

Mario Paint, complete with its animation and music editors, an assortment of minigames, the funny noises all the tools made, and just a teeny bit of extra functionality, could be THE killer app for kids on PC.

Did you ever use a program called KidPix?

[j-man]

I remember fucking lusting after Sparkster as a kid. Never did get to play it. Was it as good as RKA?

Better.

[G.Silver]

Better.

Worse.

Did you ever use a program called KidPix?

Are you telling me that Nintendo is not the high and mighty source of all great ideas in the world?

[Kishi]

I don't think most games would have looked that different.

They would look different to the extent that they wouldn't be hindered by the Genesis's dismal color palette and bleep-bloop sound quality.

[Green Gibbon!]

They would look different to the extent that they wouldn't be hindered by the Genesis's dismal color palette and bleep-bloop sound quality.

I dunno, SNES games all had a certain "look" about them... a softer sort of look than Genesis games, like there was too much gradation or something. In alot of cases (such as Earthworm Jim), I actually think the Genesis versions look better.

It's kind of like Xbox games. It's technically supposed to be the most powerful, but why, then, does everything fucking glow? Even the most drab earthtone dirt textures (which seem to get used alot in Xbox games) are, like, luminescent. I think in most cases, the GameCube, though not as powerful, has better looking stuff.

[Kishi]

Earthworm Jim is a bad example. The Genesis version has weird vertical lines running down the screen during the Andy Asteroids stages as a result of not being able to handle the scaling effects (or whatever), and at least one of the more detailed backgrounds to be found in the SNES version was completely removed, leaving a plain back backdrop. The first time I saw a screenshot of that, I thought, "What, did they make a Game Gear version?" And of course, the grating soundtrack is in full effect.

However! I can see how people can prefer a certain style even if it's the result of technical inferiority. A lot of people complain about the graininess in PS1 games, but even when those games were current, the graininess was all part of the charm to me.

[j-man]

Worse.

DIE.

I dunno, SNES games all had a certain "look" about them... a softer sort of look than Genesis games, like there was too much gradation or something. In alot of cases (such as Earthworm Jim), I actually think the Genesis versions look better.

That's what I was trying to get at with my "balloon" comment earlier.

[Baba O'Reily]

It's kind of like Xbox games. It's technically supposed to be the most powerful, but why, then, does everything fucking glow? Even the most drab earthtone dirt textures (which seem to get used alot in Xbox games) are, like, luminescent.

I knew I wasn't crazy when I thought that the dirt in Fable was glowing!

[Nova]

I guess is one of the flaws of that console, like the anti pixelathing thing in N64 that made some games looks like crap…

Anyone here has a master system “light phaserâ€￾? That must be the most cool looking console gun ever made…

[Ancient]

I live in New Zealand.

People with Super Nintendo's were shot on sight.

[SealElement]

Whoever voted for the SNES is a total unconforming smacktard. Genesis wins.

Whoever voted SNES is also in the wrong damn forum.

[chriscaffee]

That's right. Because on this forum we take Sonic very seriously.

[Esrever]

SERIOUS BUSINESS

[Ngangbius]

Me and my brother also owned both and we came from an average middle-class family(unless my parents were hiding something behind their mundane, everyday jobs) :p

And while I do like many Genesis games such as the Sonic games, Gunstar Heroes, Phantasy Star IV, the Shining Force games, etc. I chose the SNES for 5 reasons.

1. Chrono Trigger
2. Final Fantasy II(IV back then)
3. Final Fantasy III(VI back then)
4. Secret of Mana
5. Earthbound

I guess it's obvious that I was a die-hard Squaresoft fangirl back then and I used to worship the FF series(despite only playing two titles--which one of them was heavily edited) and that they rarely did no wrong(Mystic Quest and Secret of Evermore didn't count I said as there weren't made in the Japanese studio.) Earthbound is on that list because it is my favorite game not just in the RPG genre, but in the whole 16-bit era. I mean, I really couldn't say no to a game where you can beat up New Age Hippies. XD

[Kishi]

2. Final Fantasy II(IV back then)
3. Final Fantasy III(VI back then)

I think you got it backwards, there. IV and VI were II and III back then.

[Ngangbius]

D'oh! I sure did. XD Obviously it is time for me to get some sleep. :p