Mega Drive is by far the top runner up in my experience. I actually enjoyed it more than the SNES for nearly half the generation. Why? The neon darkness style in many of the early games defines the early 16-bit gen for me. I was also more impressed with Sonic the Hedgehog 1 and 2 than I was Super Mario World → world was smoother than 3, but didn't feel as sharp (just my humble opinion, I understand a lot of people like SMW more than 3, I'm not one of those). I found Sega had the juice in this era...
...until DKC, that is. SNES's peak in the mid-1990s was, IMO, the strongest Nintendo had been until the launch of the Wii and DS Lite... with maybe the exception of the year of Super Mario 3... Although, I think Pokemon/GBC/GBA fans probably had a much different experience.
I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.
