RichC2

Yeah, MK2 was better on the SNES, but when you're a kid, MK was the world and that was a huge deal.

I loved the Sega CD, it was just cool as hell when I was growing up, the 32X was a waste, though it was nice to finally get to play Doom.

mattysemo247

The 32X was my first experience with Doom. I also thought that Star Wars game was fun at the time.

fumanstan

SNES had the better version of Street Fighter II

milo bloom

Yeah, if they had just supported the 32X instead of dumping it for the Saturn they could have made something with it. I played the hell out of Doom and Star Wars on the 32X.

You know, this might have been a good time for the companies to get really serious about backwards compatibility. As a kid, whenever I would talk about a new system, there was always an inevitable question from my parents about "will it also play the old games?" And as a parent myself, I can see the appeal. Being able to play Wii games on the WiiU was a great boost, as is playing 360 games on the Xbone.

If Sega had thought to make the Neptune (http://segaretro.org/Sega_Neptune) instead of the Saturn, I wonder if they might have fared better.

John Pannozzi

I do want to note that the Saturn was actually quite popular in Japan. I want to say part of its failure in the Western market was due to the transition from 2D to 3D gameplay. The Saturn was initially planned to just do 2D games, but due to the emerging popularity of 3D games, they ended combining the early 2D-focused processor with a 3D-focused one. The result was a console that was difficult to program for (and difficult to emulate, BTW).

It's interesting that Capcom really stuck with Sega during these dark days. Alot of Capcom games released for the Saturn (Mega Man 8, the Japanese releases of some of the Marvel fighters) were superior to the PS1 versions. And they went hog wild porting their late '90s & early 2000s arcade games to the Dreamcast (due to most of these arcade games using similar technology to the DC).

The so-called "decline" of Sonic really started after Sega abandoned the console market, though it already been anticipated.
During the Saturn era, Sonic Team was focused on games like Nights Into Dreams, thus the Sonic games on the system were outsourced to other developers and were somewhat mediocre. Then, during the DC era, Sonic Adventure was hyped as Sonic Team's return to form. I guess between the two Sonic Adventure games for DC, there's a really good Sonic game (both had their pros and cons). The only other Sonic game for the poorly-receive Mario Party clone Sonic Shuffle. It was when Sega went 3rd party that the quality of Sonic games really became inconsistent (mostly due to tight deadlines).

Lastblade

Sega really messed up during the transition from 16-bit (Genesis) to 32-bit (Saturn) era. First, Sega US and Japan didn't get along and the 32X was the result of this disharmony. The Saturn's botched launch (originally announced for September '95, then announced a surprise release on E3) pissed off major retailers and 32X owners. They never recovered.

I was one of the "kids" back then that bought the Saturn in May '95 for $399 and a couple of games. Ouch.

Sonic

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I remember Revenge of Shinobi. What an incredible game at the time. Especially fighting Spider-man who morphed into Batman? Shinobi even fought Godzilla. That game will always be a classic.

I never forget the Genesis commercials and showing Shinobi flipping in the air and throwing ninja stars while I was playing Altered Beast and awaiting the Shinobi title. Good nostalgic times.

Genesis brought me so much happiness compared to Super Nes.