What did Genesis do better than SNES?

[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.