This is my Comparison and Contrast project I worked on for my English Class last year pitting the SNES and the Genesis against each other.The class was assigned to pick two products and or services and since most gamers in the class chose the standard 360 vs PS3 I decided to go old school and compare SNES and the Genesis.
                         

                                         VS.                      

               The Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis were to two big competitors of the 16-bit era during the early 90’s. Although there were other 16-bit consoles the only two that mattered were the SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) and the Sega Genesis, both of these consoles in competition brought up many arguments among fans about which one is better, which caused Sega took it upon itself to make the SNES look as bad as possible mainly by claiming that the SNES was worse than the Genesis by saying it did not have Blast Processing which turned out never to actually existed.

Music

               While both consoles had very good musical scores the SNES had more memorable and over all better scores, one reason behind that is because of one man Koji Kondo. Not only is that man the most famous video game composer of all time but he is also responsible for creating almost all of the Super Mario and Legend of Zelda music, which is an amazing feat because the Legend of Zelda Overworld theme is considered to be the best video game score of all time. While Nintendo has Koji Kondo Sega had Michael Jackson to create not only to create the music for the game Moonwalker but also to create the music for Sonic 3. (He was not credited because the game was released the same time as Michael Jackson’s scandal.)
                                                                                                             

WINNER: SNES

Controllers

               One of the most important aspects of video games is being able to play the game this is made a lot easier by using the SNES controller, the controller has a prefect button layout placing 4 buttons on the right side of the controller each button placed towards the top, bottom, left and right of the right side of the controller while the left side has the D-pad, the start and select buttons in the middle of the controller and two shoulder buttons on the top left and top right of the controller. The SNES controller was perfect compared to the genesis controller which placed 3 buttons on the right side of the controller each one right next to the other with a fourth button above the three buttons which makes using the controller awkward to use during a game that tries to use all four buttons i.e. Mortal Kombat on the SNES is easier to play because the buttons are easier to reach with your thumb and on the Genesis.

WINNER: SNES

Marketing

               The best thing the Genesis had over the SNES was Sega’s marketing mainly BLAST PROCESSING, they were able to convince people that the Genesis offered a type of processing that was not available on the SNES even though BLAST PROCESSING never existed. One of the best ways the Genesis is promoted is through the internet series “Talking Classics” where Keith Apicary (Nathan Barnett) claims that the Genesis is one of the best consoles ever made even though these videos were made long after then consoles life span he still does a good job of advertizing them.

WINNER: Genesis

Graphics

               Even though graphics are not important to the console itself it is a major selling point among gamers. While both consoles had good and bad looking games there are only a few that really stood out during the consoles life time, the SNES had Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars for its time these graphics were amazing and it was very hard for consoles to even come close to matching it, it was that good. There was also the Donkey Kong Country series even though it was a 2D platformer the level of detail the programmers put into the games was just incredible another important thing to mention was that the SNES used the SUPER FX chip to improve its graphics even more even to the point of making polygons look cool for the game Star Fox. Though the SNES had very good graphics the Genesis also had its share of good looking games for example Shinobi’s title screen looked better than some SNES games and Out of this World had the same graphic style of Star Fox even though the Genesis did not have the SUPER FX chip but overall the SNES had more games with better graphics not just the ones mentioned.

WINNER: SNES

Games

               Lastly the games library, the most important part of any console, again while both consoles had amazing titles one console just had more to offer that console is the SNES, again. The games library one the SNES was just incredible i.e. Super Mario, Super Mario RPG, Super Metroid, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Chrono Trigger, Street Fight 2, Final Fantasy III/VI and many other not to mention many of the SNES’s games are considered to be the best of their genre i.e. Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy III/VI are tied among fans to be the best RPG of all time, and Super Metroid and Legend of Zelda are considered to be the best game of all time even against today’s games. But at the same time there are some Genesis games that are better than a lot of SNES games i.e. Strider won game of the year 1990, Contra: Hard Corp is considered to be one of the best Contra games as well Castlevania: Blood Lines, is considered to be one of best Castlevania games even though both Contra and Castlevania had games on the SNES.

WINNER: SNES

Overall

               Overall: although both consoles were great the SNES just had most to offer, better musical scores, better and more innovative controllers, Better graphics for the most part, and a larger library of greater games. Even though the SNES had all this to offer the Genesis could do one thing that Nintnedo was never able to do, and that was market the console properly. and although the Genesis ads were better, overall the SNES is the better console

Winner: SNES.

P.s. I am doing the same assignment this year and I hope to compare Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI. If the teacher approves then I will be sure to post the completed assignment.