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fallen on 05 February 2014
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Burning Typhoon said:
fallen said:
Definitely SNES imo. Basically they were "equal" imo, but the SNES had two great advantages, 256 colors onscreen vs only 64 for the Genesis. This allowed 2D art to really shine on the SNES and still look great today.

I can instantly tell the difference between a Genesis and SNES game just by the muted, somber, color pallet on the Genesis version. An example, Streetfighter on both platforms:

Here is what it would look like on Genny, a dark tone on everything



Here is the arcade version which is similar to the SNES, bright and colorful



Second thing was the SNES's superior sound chip. This really shined too.

Funny because I lived through that era, and prior to release the magazines (wasn't really internet then) talked up SNES "amazing" "Mode 7" scaling and rotation as it's big advantages over the Genesis. In practice though, it ended up not mattering much compared to the colors and sounds issues.

In that vein though I see SNES as a typical poor hardware effort from Nintendo that's seen as good. While I think the SNES is better hardware than the Genesis, I think given how much later it released, it should have been better, closer to an affordable Neo-Geo in power, instead of almost on par with Genesis.

Also the SNES shined towards the end of it's life, notably with a technical showpieces like Donky Kong Country, which was sometimes compared graphically to early Playstation 1 releases! Granted, Nintendo had a habit of including add on helper chips directly in cartridges, and may have done so for DKC I dont recall. Still.

I own both Street Fighter II: champion Edition and Super Street Fighter II on genesis.  champion Edition looks like crap.  it wasn't even fair to use that as an example because SSFII has those same stages and chracters, with far better looking sprites and sound.  we already know SNES is better, but geneis wasn't THAT terrible.  I don't even touch SFII after getting SSFII on genesis.  But, the arcade version blows both out of the water.

 

battletoads and double dragon the ultimate team is a more fair example in my opinion, but then again, the gap may be worse with that one.  Why not pick a game that pushed both consoles?  if there's a multiplat that did that?  I guess SUPER street fighter II did,  but surely NOT the one you listed.


Well you are comparing two different games there, not really fair. I dont really know all the details of whether SSF2 Genny has "far better sprites and sound" but I rather doubt it. I was more making a general point how the Genesis's lack of color pallette was a major weakness, you can go look up any Genesis screens and note the same trademark "subdued" look, that was my point. Anyways it came out earlier, so it has an excuse.