The Great 16-bit Era Debate

**NeoZeedeater** · 30 Aug 2002, 03:29 PM

TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine, Genesis/Mega Drive, Super Nintendo/Super Famicom.

Three of the greatest systems in gaming history.

Which is your favorite and why? What is your take on the 16-bit era?

Fanboys kindly fuck off and do not post in this thread. Thank you.

This is my take on the era, by genre. And I'm including imports and CD games.

Shooters - This era overdosed on shooters so I'm not going to list them all but the Turbo wins for me here because of its awesome vertical shooters like Blazing Lazers, Super Star Soldier, and Soldier Blade. But I'm not one of those people who subscribes to the myth of the Turbo's shooter line-up destroying the Genesis'.

The Genesis has an equally good shooter supply but my favorites happen to be Turbo games. I have a hard time deciding on my favorite horizontal shooter between the Gate/Lords of Thunder games and the Thunder Force series. And MUSHA is among the best vertical shooters.

I also cringe when people say the SNES has a shitty shooter collection. Space Megaforce is my favorite 16-bit shooter and Axelay, Star Fox and R-Type 3 are pretty damn good.

Fighting - There's not much of a contest here. The SNES owns this genre. Aside from the impressive port of Street Fighter 2 CE on PC Engine, all the best versions of Street Fighter 2 came out on SNES. The Genesis versions could not compare but they did control nicely with the 6-button controller. System exclusives like Eternal Champions were mostly crap although Treasure's Yu Yu Hakusho was good.

Sports - EA's sports games were more fun on Genesis than SNES and Sega's baseball games were great. The Genesis was the choice for sports games even though I rarely played them. World Class Baseball on Turbo is fun too.

Racing - It's all about Mode 7. F-Zero and Super Mario Kart beat out the competition easily. There's not much worth mentioning on the other systems except Batman Returns on Sega CD and a very blocky but decent version of Virtua Racing on Genesis. Victory Run on TG16 is kind of cool.

Action/RPGs, Adventure, etc(whatever you want to call them) - It's a tough choice between the SNES and Genesis here. Zelda 3, Secret of Mana, Soul Blazer, and Illusion of Gaia vs Monster World series, Landstalker, Beyond Oasis and Crusader of Centy. Mostly from Zelda 3, I pick the SNES for this genre. And I'm not sure where to place Super Metroid but it's a wicked game and one of the best games of the 16-bit era.

The Turbo doesn't do much for me here. The Neutopia games are great Zelda-clones but I'm not a big Ys fan.

RPGs - Square's games make me pick the SNES here. Chrono Trigger is my favorite 16-bit RPG and Final Fantasy 3 is great. I'm still a big fan of the Phantasy Star and Lunar games though. Unfortunately, I can't give the Turbo a fair chance here since most of its RPGs were left in Japanese. I also haven't played Cosmic Fantasy 2.

Beat 'em ups - The Genesis is my beat down console of choice. I love Golden Axe, the Streets of Rage series, Comix Zone and even Alien Storm. Turtles in Time beats out Hyperstone Heist though. And I have major issues with both the SNES and Sega CD versions of Final Fight but the Sega CD wins for being more complete. The SNES has cool games like Super Double Dragon, Ninja Warriors Again and Battletoads in Battlemaniacs but it's not enough to beat the Genesis' amazing line-up. And unfortunately the Turbo is lacking in good beat 'em ups although Splatter House is nice.

Platformers - Being my favorite 2d genre, this genre is what ultimately makes me choose the Genesis as my favorite 16-bit system.

For mascot-ish platformers, all three are very impressive. The Turbo has Bonk and Son Son 2. I hear Shubibinman 3 is great too. The SNES has the Mario games(including Yoshi's Island) Sparkster, and Kirby. Sega has Sonic, Ristar, Pulseman, Rocket Knight series, and Castle of Illusion. Although I'm debating on my favorite mascot platformer(Yoshi's Island vs Sonic), the Genesis has the quantity for this genre that can't be beat.

For "serious" platformers, all three have impressive games but Genesis wins overall. The SNES has great stuff like Contra 3, ActRaiser, Hagane, and Castlevania IV. The Turbo has Ninja Spirit, the Legendary Axe series, and of course the astounding Dracula X. The Genesis has Shinobi 3, Strider, Contra Hard Corps, Gunstar Heroes, Alien Soldier, Mystic Defender, etc. And when you look past these great games, the Genesis simply has tons of good platform games left over, much more than the other systems.

And the TurboGrafx rules the pinball genre.

So that's my view of the 16-bit era. I left out a ton of games but I tried to keep this post as short as i could.

Discuss and hopefully keep the flames low.

**Zerodash** · 30 Aug 2002, 03:34 PM

16 bit was my favorite generation. I loved the genny for the Sega games. I loved the SNES for the Nintendo games. I never got to love the TG-16 until recently, however.

I would say that the SNES was the best overall- Mario, Link, Fox, Final Fantasy, SF2, Tetris Attack, Yoshi's Island, etc.

That is all I can say...

**SearchManX** · 30 Aug 2002, 03:37 PM

Sadly I've only played a little of the TG-16 in my lifetime so I'm gonna focus on the Genesis and the SNES:

I bought the SNES first for Super Mario World. SMW was amazing. Let's move on. I bought a Genesis when I couldn't resist Sonic the Hedgehog. Another true gem. Then I fell in love with almost every Nintendo title thereafter, from Super Mario Kart to Mario Paint. Then there were the serious heavyweights for the SNES that I really enjoyed: Super Metroid and The Legend of Zelda:LttP.

Meanwhile, I kept up with the Sonic series on the Genesis. Sonic & Knuckles was sadly the last great Sonic game on the system. But even though I didn't own it, I had a blast with Alien Storm and Altered Beast with my friends.

Then, for me, I started enjoying the SNES more because of exclusives like Mega Man X, Mega Man 7, the rest of the X series, Donkey Kong Country, Adventures of Batman and Robin, and Super Mario RPG.

Meanwhile, my Genesis mostly collected dust (sadly) and I never bought that many games for it afterwards. But here are some notables that I did enjoy: Vectorman, X-Men, Spider-Man, Castlevania Bloodlines, Rocket Knight Adventures, and Gunstar Heroes.

I'm sure you know what kinda taste I have by now, so if you think there's any games I shouldn't miss, let me know.

**Yoshi** · 30 Aug 2002, 03:40 PM

If I had to choose two of three and could have any hardware upgrades I want, I'd pick the Genesis/Sega CD and a PC Engine Duo. The SNES was comparable in RPGs but not close in anything else.

**BEBOPlover** · 30 Aug 2002, 03:43 PM

SearchmanX, track down a copy of Batman and Robin for the Genny. My second favorite genesis game next Gunstar. It's tough, but you'll be a better gamer for having played it.

**SearchManX** · 30 Aug 2002, 03:47 PM

Originally posted by BEBOPlover
SearchmanX, track down a copy of Batman and Robin for the Genny. My second favorite genesis game next Gunstar. It's tough, but you'll be a better gamer for having played it.

I rented it once awhile back, but it was insanely difficult. I enjoy side scrolling shooters but this game was truly insane. Contra Hard Corps is also too tough for me, I preferred the slower pace of Contra III. Anyway, I didn't really enjoy it too much because of the difficulty and I thought the SNES Batman & Robin was more accurate with the series (in terms of artwork, etc. did you see Mad Hatter? WTF was up with his face?!).