What did Genesis do better than SNES?

[j_factor]

Most Genesis games seem to run at 320x224, with Sonic 2 being the lone example of interlaced mode. I've never seen an SNES game run at anything but 256x224. If you know of any, I'd be interested in checking them out.

I think it boils down to this: Genesis was better for lots of motion and finer details, and SNES for color depth and in audio fidelity. That's probably (partly) the reason why the Genesis had the sports and shooter markets, and SNES had RPGs. Platformers were mostly a tossup, not depending too heavily on either strength.

I find I tend to prefer platformers on Genesis, as the larger horizontal resolution allows you to see more. Platformers that were made exclusively for the SNES are usually fine, but multiplatform ones were cropped on SNES.

[Retrocade Fantasia]

For those saying SNES games ran slower than Genesis games did.

The Street Fighter II Turbo 10 star code would like to have a word with you!

As for what the genesis did better?

Well the SNES promised add-ons... Sega had what 3? I don't care what people say the 32x and Sega CD were AWESOME even if you needed your own power station to run all 3.

I still maintain today that the Streets of Rage was better than ANY snes beat-em-up. The Closest the SNES/SFC had was the Rushing Beat Series.

I also think Genesis games had their own personality even multiplatform games you just KNEW they were Genesis games same with the SNES. The biggest problem the genesis had was it's soundchip was ASS but that didn't stop sonic and Streets of Rage from having some of the best 16-bit OSTs of all time.

I love them both and I will pretty soon be buying a Retron 3

[Shriek of the Mutilated]

Probably the best part about Genesis is I could use the controller on my Atari 2600. Brilliant!

Yeah, this was one thing I truly loved about the Master System and the Genesis. They both used generic 9-pin connectors instead of proprietary ones, allowing for broad intercompatibility.

[swlovinist]

Agree with the speed and sports comments...Sega Generally had the edge.

As for RPGS and Platforms, I agree that SNES had some killer titles. Two I felt that were better on the Genesis were

Aladdin
Shadowrun

[thegamezmaster]

I liked the ability to play Sega Master System games on my Genesis.

[o.pwuaioc]

I liked the ability to play Sega Master System games on my Genesis.

Aw, man, you know how awesome the SNES would have been if it had backwards compatibility with the NES??

[wiggyx]

Aw, man, you know how awesome the SNES would have been if it had backwards compatibility with the NES??

It sucks, because that was actually the plan from the get-go

[davidbrit2]

Aw, man, you know how awesome the SNES would have been if it had backwards compatibility with the NES??

That would have been sweet, if only to have an S-Video NES.

(Can't the SNES actually run some NROM games in a limited capacity?)

[jb143]

Also, who doesn't love Genesis clamshell cases? The black grid clamshells are perhaps my favourite game packaging of all-time in terms of both practicality and aesthetics.

That's a good point. It's much easier to find good condition CIB genesis games than SNES games these days...and that's a big plus in my book.

[old_skoolin_jim]

In my opinion Earthworm Jim one of my favorite platform games was better on the Genesis than the SNES. Probably the best part about Genesis is I could use the controller on my Atari 2600. Brilliant!

Truth! I remember the SNES version of EWJ also had fewer voice samples, too. Although EWJ2 on SNES had that cool "warp the cows' voices at the end of a level" thing too... so I guess ultimately they even out... sort of.
Agree on the controller ports, too... They also sort of worked in my C64. They somehow disabled some of the Function keys, so I ended up having to use the legit clicky joysticks for most games, though.

WWF Royal Rumble for the Genesis had Papa Shango, who didn't appear on the SNES version.

The WWF had a pattern of doing weird stuff with the rosters like that in their games at the time. The SNES version of Rumble had Ric Flair and Tatanka while the Genesis version didn't.

That's right... I remember being astounded at how many other wrestlers the Genesis version had when playing it at a friend's house, after playing it on my brother's SNES. I used to annoy my friend by playing the song from "The Model" (I think that was his name?)... good times.

[Hep038]

Hands down sports games played better on the Genesis. After that I think most games ( Except RPG's SNES was King) were really close so it would just be personal preference.

[sheath]

For my tastes, the Genesis does Arcade Action games better than the SNES, almost universally. If the game involves a lot of explosions, fast scrolling with more than three background layers, more than three to five enemy sprites, or tons of animation, the Genesis has these genres in a very real way in library over the SNES. This is especially visible in Side or Horizontally scrolling shooters, Run n Gun games, Side Scrolling Action games and Beat-em Ups.

Somebody mentioned that the SNES has better "detail", I'd like to see that. The Genesis typically runs at 320x224 unless it's a SNES port running at 256x224, and thanks to the VDP's native cell scrolling more Genesis games feature much more diverse background scrolling "tricks" than SNES games do. The SNES' 512x224 mode was rarely used in game, as far as I know one game used the interlaced 512x448 mode early on for one game that is known for having "jumpy" graphics.

As I understand it, the Genesis is "better" with sprite objects just because it has a more flexible sprite size list than the SNES has. The SNES should technically be able to throw around just as many objects as games like Gunstar Heroes do, but the sprite size limitations make this more challenging, so developers chose not to. Similarly, more Genesis games having over five scrolling layers in the backgrounds than comparable SNES games is more due to the ease of implementing that effect thanks to the VDP handling it natively versus the SNES' H-DMA.

[Oldskool]

You have it wrong everyone. It was the High Definition Graphics!

[wiggyx]

For my tastes, the Genesis does Arcade Action games better than the SNES, almost universally. If the game involves a lot of explosions, fast scrolling with more than three background layers, more than three to five enemy sprites, or tons of animation, the Genesis has these genres in a very real way in library over the SNES. This is especially visible in Side or Horizontally scrolling shooters, Run n Gun games, Side Scrolling Action games and Beat-em Ups.

Somebody mentioned that the SNES has better "detail", I'd like to see that. The Genesis typically runs at 320x224 unless it's a SNES port running at 256x224, and thanks to the VDP's native cell scrolling more Genesis games feature much more diverse background scrolling "tricks" than SNES games do. The SNES' 512x224 mode was rarely used in game, as far as I know one game used the interlaced 512x448 mode early on for one game that is known for having "jumpy" graphics.

As I understand it, the Genesis is "better" with sprite objects just because it has a more flexible sprite size list than the SNES has. The SNES should technically be able to throw around just as many objects as games like Gunstar Heroes do, but the sprite size limitations make this more challenging, so developers chose not to. Similarly, more Genesis games having over five scrolling layers in the backgrounds than comparable SNES games is more due to the ease of implementing that effect thanks to the VDP handling it natively versus the SNES' H-DMA.

It's the other way around. The sprite size/quantity is limited for the Genesis versus the SNES.

[Razo00]

What the genesis did better? Streets of Rage 2 .

[Gameguy]

It's the other way around. The sprite size/quantity is limited for the Genesis versus the SNES.

Not according to one of the people who worked on the animation for the Earthworm Jim games.

http://www.sega-16.com/2010/03/interview-mike-dietz/

Sega-16: Which version of Earthworm Jim do you prefer, the Genesis and SNES versions? Why?

Mike Dietz: I much prefer the Genesis version over the SNES, because the SNES was more limited than the Genesis in the number of sprites you could have on screen at any one time. Since our animation compression scheme was based on each frame of each character being constructed of multiple sprites, that meant the SNES version had less frames of animation and the size of individual frames was more limited, which meant we couldn’t stretch the character as much. So we would animate the characters first for the Genesis, and then we’d have to go back and selectively remove some frames and shrink down other frames for use on the SNES. The SNES did have better color palettes, so the character and background art looked better, but as an animator I liked the Genesis better because I had more frames of animation to work with.

For me, usually any game that's both on the SNES and Genesis I seem to prefer the Genesis version as it plays better. I'm not sure what's exactly wrong with the games but I notice that something is usually off with the SNES versions. At least I noticed this when playing games like The Lion King.

[Razo00]

I'm a genesis guy, always been. I grew up playing the genesis. I've learned to love the Snes alot over the last couple of years though. Mortal Kombat II is great on the Snes, and not so great on the Genny. I prefer Earthworm Jim on the Genny. Maximum Carnage is pretty similar on both systems, might sound better on the Snes, but most Snes games sound better then Genny games anyways.

[homerhomer]

I feel the Genesis had more variety in the arcade conversion department. While not always prettier or sounding better, the Genesis had more choice. I really liked back in the day on how the Genesis get a lot of arcade games.

Games like:

Strider
Forgotten Worlds
Paperboy
Gauntlet IV
Rolling thunder II
MERCS

The SNES seemed more focused on RPG and original titles.

[sheath]

It's the other way around. The sprite size/quantity is limited for the Genesis versus the SNES.

Without derailing the thread with too much technical stuff, you are technically correct. The SNES had a higher limit to how many sprites could be displayed on screen and per scanline than the Genesis. But the SNES also had less flexible sprite size limitations combined with the lower horizontal resolution going against that limit. The Genesis' sprite size flexibility allows for more sprites of various sizes to be displayed on screen than could practically be done with the SNES in a similar game. I'm not sure why more Genesis games display more frames of animation than SNES games do, this could simply be due to the SNES audio being entirely made up of samples and that taking more ROM space.

[wiggyx]

Not according to one of the people who worked on the animation for the Earthworm Jim games.

http://www.sega-16.com/2010/03/interview-mike-dietz/

That's an interesting read, thanks.

It's nice to hear a developer's take on a multi-platform title(s). It seems like they found a crafty work-around, so to speak, which allowed them to shoehorn more frames of animation into the game. I wonder if that specific work-around/trick just didn't jive with the SNES architecture, or if that was a problem that he/they ran into with other multi-platform titles when working with the SNES (extra frames or not).

Really, I should know better than to cite tech specs as the sole measurement of the capabilities of any platform. Of course different developers will have different experiences, and different genres will may work better on one platform than another, etc. I didn't mean to throw that out there as the "end all, be all" of sprite processing capability for either system.

Without derailing the thread with too much technical stuff, you are technically correct. The SNES had a higher limit to how many sprites could be displayed on screen and per scanline than the Genesis. But the SNES also had less flexible sprite size limitations combined with the lower horizontal resolution going against that limit. The Genesis' sprite size flexibility allows for more sprites of various sizes to be displayed on screen than could practically be done with the SNES in a similar game. I'm not sure why more Genesis games display more frames of animation than SNES games do, this could simply be due to the SNES audio being entirely made up of samples and that taking more ROM space.

OK, so I don't want to derail this thread any further, but I'm curious about "sprite size limitations". Does that just refer to what you mentioned? i.e. more sprites of various sizes displayed simultaneously.


This is one of the reasons that the 16-bit consoles are my absolute fav! There's so much love and passion for them that debate is sparked almost every time someone asks a question specific to either the Genesis or SNES