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Mandalore76 on 09 April 2021
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The_Liquid_Laser said:
Mandalore76 said:

I'd have to disagree with your moving the Genesis/Mega Drive from "Arcade Evolution" in Rol's table into "Arcade" in yours.  Games like Phantasy Star I-IV, Dragon Slayer I & II, Shining Force I & II, Shining in the Darkness, Sword of Vermillion, Surging Aura don't fit the narrative of Sega being "mostly focused on making arcade style games".  

I put the Genesis in column 1 to highlight that it was much more of an arcade console than the SNES. (And really for every generation Sega is more on the arcade side than Nintendo is.)  There were lots of arcade ports on the Genesis including quite a few by Sega.  I struggle to think of one arcade port on the SNES that was developed by Nintendo.  

On the other hand, you have a point in that Genesis is not a Neo Geo either.  Sega was making other types of games too like RPGs.  What it didn't really do so much was make "arcade evolution" games.  Either they made an arcade game or they made an RPG.  Meanwhile Super Mario World was an action platformer with an overworld and save files.  Sega wasn't really making too many games like this, "arcade evolution", but that was the focus for Nintendo.

Once Nintendo was able to get their arcade games directly into people's homes, their arcade division became more about porting Nintendo arcade type games from NES/SNES to coin-op rather than developing them the other way around.  See their VS. and Play Choice 10 coin-ops, Dr. Mario, F-Zero, etc.  Sega was more rooted in developing both coin-ops and home console games.  Sega has actively developed coin-ops from 1966 to today while their home console division came and went in less than 20 years (SG-1000 released in 1983 to the discontinuation of the Dreamcast in 2001).  But, that's not to say they didn't evolve their home console games of the time with the changing hardware.  Sonic 3 didn't have an overworld, but it did have save files.  Outside of platformers and previously mentioned RPG's, Sega developed strategy simulation games like Advanced Daisenryaku: Deutsch Dengeki Sakusen, Super Daisenryaku, The Hybrid Front, Ninja Burai Densetsu, Bahamut Senki, etc. all featuring battery backup saves.  Also, compare a Sega developed sports title like Greatest Heavyweights to an arcade ported boxing game like Punch-Out!!  Greatest Heavyweights featured a Create-a-Fighter, a Career Mode (featuring 30 fighters to box until you win the title followed by 8 title defenses against real life legendary boxers), and a battery back-up.  These are the reasons I wouldn't label the Genesis/Mega Drive as strictly an arcade system.