Been trying to find something to play for hours and only getting blips now and then. I come to realize that I just stopped feeling anything nostalgic for some consoles from particular generations of gaming. One of them is the Sega Genesis. The only greatest memory I’ve had of that system, was the Sega Channel, a subscription service that gave you access to numerous Genesis games in a monthly cycle. I was really one of the blessed few that got to experience that and was so happy someone made a rom dump of it only to find that it only brings me to the ATTENTION! screen when I try running it. That’s what you get when something happens to the adapter or service discontinued .etc
Anyways, I know the Genesis have had some gems and some classics. But I have a hard time really caring for most of its library and the way Sega has handled re-releasing its old games library, has really added sour to my feelings on the Genesis. Sonic, Golden Axe, Columns, Streets of Rage and repeat was all that Sega ever pitched out. Over and over, didn’t matter what generation of gaming it was. Maybe a few random titles sprinkled in and there you go. But it’s like, they didn’t bother lifting a finger to try and maybe get some of the better games that were released on that system. They didn’t get Shadowrun, which in my opinion, outclasses the SNES version just barely simply because it felt like a pure Shadowrun experience. Zombies Ate My Neighbors could have had an argument being compiled. Pirates! Gold was a stellar pirates-related RPG of its time, didn’t get compiled.
Like what the fuck, Sega? Yes we get it, never forget Sonic. Between the two big 16-bit consoles, I’ve found greater appreciation for the SNES. I mean, you could easily rank 150 banger classics off of its library compared to what Genesis’ best, I struggle to maybe get 20 or 25.
The NES.
I remember a bunch of nonsensical or just plain frustrating games where you’re lucky to get past level 1. It was fun as a kid when I was just screwing around. But SNES and Genesis felt like the beginning of the expectation that you play through the game or at least take them seriously.
A lot of it was really padding gameplay to make a game feel ‘complete’. It’s amazing how you find out some of those games only had like 4 levels or 4 stages with sub levels to each, but they had to be made to be either long or incredibly difficult on purpose.
16-Bit era really did clear a lot of that up, granted, some games did try to get by with that but we knew a little better what to avoid.