retroking1981 on 06 January 2008
| Played_Out said: Yeah, the Master System was the console of choice for cool kids all over Europe. Twice as powerful as the NES and less reliant on cutesy cartoon characters for its popularity (of course, that was why it failed and they had to create Sonic in order to compete). The Jaguar was s*** except for Alien Vs. Predator & Tempest 2000, but should still be represented. |
i think its harsh to dismiss the nes for being "reliant on cutesy cartoon characters for its popularity"
the nes was nintendos most dominate console for good reasons. it had 3rd party support to rival that of the playstations. konami backed it heavily - proboctector/contra, metal gear, castlevania and gradius + a solid line-up of sports titles such as blades of steel, track & field to name a few. all 3 double dragon games and classics from capcom such as ghosts n goblins & megaman. the console spawned more franchises than any other console probably. add to this list huge exclusives such as teenage mutant ninja turtles (yes maybe a cuesy one but still huge) and its clear to see why the 8bit battle was so one sided.
im from europe myself and although the master system was a little more popular the nes wasnt far behind. most people i know who got a master system got it because their parents didnt want to fork out the extra cash for a megadrive, after all the master system still had sonic, altered beast, shinobi, streets of rage and tons more classic megadrive games. sega was very cleaver to make versions of these games for the master system, they supported they're 'lower' system in a way that has only been done since by sony.
and owning a nes was still 'cool' - c64 and atari 2600 were still supported until the late 80s (maybe even the early 90s) in the UK, and although those systems were legendary at one point, owning one when your friends were playing punch out on the nes or sonic on the master system wasnt.
