The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis was in production for almost 10 years, and Sega attempted to prolong its lifespan with a series of add-ons for the console. It required memorising the levels and knowing every shortcut, an early precursor to speed run challenges. While World 1-1 of Super Mario Bros is undoubtedly a masterpiece of level design, me and my friends played though Emerald Hill Zone 1 in Sonic The Hedgehog 2 far more times, as we tried to beat each other’s fastest time. Falls or mistimed jumps rarely ended in death, but instead highlighted a new way through the level – which kept the high pace of the gameplay from being interrupted. While the levels Mario made his way through required pin-point jumping accuracy, careful climbing and large-scale reptile genocide, Sonic’s levels were designed to be belted through at breakneck speeds, the hardware of the Mega Drive sometimes struggling to keep up. While Nintendo had the cuddly, mushroom-gobbling plumber Mario, Sega had Sonic, a ‘rad’ and ‘extreme’ hedgehog ‘full’ of ‘attitude’. The battle between Sega and Nintendo in the late 1980s/early 1990s was typified by the companies’ mascots. Beat that Nintendo fanboys! Battle of the mascots However, perhaps the best feature the Mega Drive/Genesis had over the SNES was that its plastic shell didn’t turn urine-yellow when left in sunlight. The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis also had Blast Processing, which was much cooler sounding than any technology found in the SNES, even if it was mainly just marketing fluff. The humor is crass and rude (very much in keeping with the publication it appeared in), but it showed that Sega was pitching this at adults as much as the cool (and naughty) kids who were sneakily reading Viz as well. School yards across the globe were split between Nintendo and Sega fans, and while the Mega Drive/Genesis didn’t beat the SNES in the end, it was a revolutionary product that was in production for almost 10 years, and is home to more than 900 games. Many console generations are defined by the rivalries between the major players, and the 16-bit era saw Sega pulling out all the stops in a bid to beat Nintendo.
Launched in Japan as the Sega Genesis way back in 1988, it fast became a fixture kids' bedrooms around the world, and now holds a very special place in the hearts of millennials everywhere. And we'll be looking for your votes on the best console of all time (starting 3PM GMT, November 8) – will the Mega Drive / Genesis make the cut? This year's show will celebrate a milestone in gaming history, the release of Computer Space, the world's first commercial arcade machine in November 1971. We're celebrating 50 Years of Games in conjunction with the Golden Joystick Awards 2021, the world's biggest public-voted games awards show.