Sega: The Good and the Bad

Sega were always known in videogaming history as the main rival to Nintendo way before the 32-Bit generation era. They are the company that tried to compete with Nintendo's 8-Bit NES with their 8-Bit Sega Master system and even though the Sega Master was not quite successful as the NES is, it was a good start which urged them to fight back with the 16-Bit Sega Genesis(known as the Sega MegaDrive outside the U.S.). The Sega Genesis was the reason Nintendo created the Super NES and so the 16-Bit war between the two had emerged creating one of the most greatest era in gaming history known as the "Golden Age Era" of videogame. While I really appreciated what Nintendo had done and how successful they are in supporting all their videogaming products and strategy in the videogame market, Sega was the other company I deeply had hope for, in fact, Sega was always the videogaming company that I believed might someday crushed Nintendo, but then again as time goes many mistakes, stress, and conflicts had occured that put the once successful company out of the console competition. I'm glad that Nintendo made it to the next generation of videogaming with their innovative new console the Wii, where visual giants Microsoft's X-Box 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 roam, but I am also truly sad to know that Sega were not there to even the odds. To not see Sega in that picture is quite sadden, but to know how they become of who they are today is a decision I might have to live on for the rest of my gaming history and I'm not going to just forget the past glories of what they've done to my gaming experience. In honor of the great gaming moments Sega had gave me, I would like to share some of those moments as well as the many downs that Sega made that I wish they could've solved before they waved that white flag into the next generations.

Sega the Beginning

We all know how the 8-Bit era went through, Sega was the first competitor to jump in the console war against Nintendo with their Sega Master system and even though they didn't had any success against the Nintendo 8-Bit juggernaut, the NES, they sure did had quite a good start. Then came the 16-Bit era where they striked back at Nintendo with their 16-Bit Sega Genesis which had become so powerful and innovative that encouraged Nintendo to jump into the 16-Bit war with the Super NES. Then the war had went on for many years without neither one backing down(well except for NEC and its Turbo Graphx-16 and Turbo Duo), Sega created a handheld of their own to even the competition against Nintendo in the portable gaming category market as well, where the Nintendo Game Boy dominated the portable with monochrome visual and low-res screen action game play, Sega Game Gear dominated the portable with bright color and wide screen action play, when consumers think about it, both companies seem to be going on the same boat, but just in different routes. At that time, Sega was indeed ready to heat up the competition, though, Nintendo was always more better in the competition, Sega did almost give them a run for their money.... Here are some moments of glory and shame about the once toughest competitor who almost dominated Nintendo.

Sega's Success

- Sega Genesis Launch: Yes, it's true, not only did Sega had a good start with their 16-Bit Sega Genesis, they also did an amazing job of launching the system and back it up with high profile titles such as Golden Axe, Altered Beast, and After Burner 2 which went on to sell so well that it had persuaded many third party publishers to finally step out of Nintendo's 8-Bit territory. The launch not only beat out Nintendo's own 8-Bit NES console in the graphics and game play category, but it also urged Nintendo to entered the 16-Bit war not to mention it got an early start of succes in the U.S. before the Super NES can catch up in the competition.

- The Debut of Sonic the Hedgehog: Sega knew Nintendo always had a mascot to show gamer's appreciation for their console, that's why they decided why not they had one too and so Sonic the Hedgehog was born. Sonic not only show the good blue color of Sega, but he also defined the weakness of what Nintendo lack in game play, speed. Truth be told, Sonic the Hedgehog was the main reason I even bought a Genesis in the first place even though I was planning to buy a Super NES thereafter. He was also the reason I respected and recognized Sega for who they are because I knew that Sega would've never made success without him more so than Alex Kidd ever did.

- Sega Master Converter and the Master Gear Adapter Offer Backward Compatibility: We all loved our 16-Bit consoles right, but what happens if we also want to play the hundreds of classics already available for the 8-Bit library, can't we just play those from the get-go in those 16-Bit systems? To both the Sega Genesis and Game Gear owners, though, this is a very important issue since both platforms offer no backward compatibility for playing existing 8-Bit titles on their hardwares but with the help of the Sega Master Converter for the Sega Genesis and the Master Gear Adapter for the Game Gear, it had finally fulfilled that demand. Now with both of those, both the Genesis and the Game Gear players can add in all those classic 8-Bit Sega Master games to the library without even owning a Master system, this is something even the mighty Nintendo didn't had for their consoles until the Nintendo Wii, which is another reason why the Genesis library outsold the Super NES in the first place.

- Sega Game Gear: I know that Sega's portable handheld, the Game Gear, might had the same design issues and backlight battery hunger as the already dead Atari Lynx not to mention the expensive high price, but unlike many portable competitors before and after its initial battle with Nintendo's Game Boy, the Game Gear itself was indeed the Game Boy's most toughest competitor in the portable handheld market at that time not to mention it had a visual feature the Game Boy didn't had until 1998 and 2003(and no, the Game Boy Light does not count as it was only released in Japan), full color game play for both day and night. To some gamers, the Game Gear might be considered a failure, but to me I think it is worthy of a success especially since because of it, the Atari Lynx as well as the Turbo Express were on their way out the window. Another mention is that even though Game Gear supports ended in 1997, many portables that were released after its demise had design inspired by its popular layout with their portable being horizontal align with the directional pad and the action buttons neatly spread out and the screen in the center for comfort play, such portables that used the Game Gear design layout are SNK Neo Geo Pocket and Neo Geo Pocket Color, Tiger Game.com and Game.com Pro, Nokia N-Gage and N-Gage QD, Tapwave Zodiac and Zodiac II, Tiger Telematic's Gizmondo, the imported Korean portable GamePark 32, Sony's PSP, and even Nintendo's very own Game Boy Advance, and Game Boy Micro handheld.

- Bringing Mortal Kombat Home: We all remembered Midway's Mortal Kombat as the first arcade fighting game that dripped its first blood on screen and used gores that were so intense it almost create an uproar in the high court of the U.S. The arcade version of this gory game was massive and gruesome as well as fun and entertaining to the mature players everywhere, but to the elders of children it almost became a nightmare. When it's time to port this monstrous title to home consoles, many complaints were heard often from worried parents and critics alike to encouraged game licensers to get rid of the intense blood violence and gores of the arcade version so that the home versions could be play out clean, solving the problem of children having nightmare. To Nintendo, those complaints were fulfilled, replacing the blood violence with sweats and the gory fatalities with just brutal beating or dust roasting instead of the more blood bursting of the arcade, but to Sega, hiding the goods of the arcade features was simple, all they got to do is just locked it securely via a secret code and just let the game go. At first, both home versions turn out exactly the same, though the Super NES had the graphics cleaner and no blood were shown, but then again as the year goes by when the mature players finally found a way to unlocked the code in the Sega Genesis version, the arcade features were then restored and the blood could fly again and the best part is, it's only exclusive in the Sega Genesis version and not the Super NES which was 100% guaranteed censored. This moment in gaming is what made Sega Genesis so hot and the Super NES so not since the Genesis version of MK sold more copies than the censored Super NES version. It was also the moment when gamers finally recognized Sega as the more hardcore gaming company and Nintendo as the more kiddy kind.

- The Released of the Sega Genesis Nomad: Okay this can be both a success and a mistake on Sega's part so I'll just include one in both categories. For the success part, this was the most intense 16-Bit handheld portable there ever was even more so than NEC Turbo Express, where else can you play great arcade hit titles like Street of Rage and Ultimate MK3 or great exclusive titles like Vectorman 1 & 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2, & 3 on a handheld portable you can take anywhere anytime away from your television. Sure, we all can play Super Metroid and Chrono Trigger on a big screen t.v. with one of the greatest system ever made, but can we take them with us wherever we go and play it whenever we want. The Sega Genesis Nomad had fulfilled these wishes offering us the freedom to play our favorite 16-Bit titles on the go without sacrificing any features of the console, best of all players can even hook the portable to a television set to play full screen against a friend acting as a real Genesis console itself. For the mistake part, see the same paragraph about the Sega Genesis Nomad below.

- The Launch of the Sega Dreamcast: Well, I had to say, the Sega Dreamcast launch was indeed the best launch ever made by Sega. Not only did the system made an impact with an affordable price tag with multiplayer option already set and offering online playabilities out of the box, but with over eighteen massive launch titles up for the taking, it's definitely pave the way for the future. Having to select from a list of must play titles such as Sonic Adventure, House of the Dead 2, Virtua Fighter 3tb, Mortal Kombat Gold, Hydro Thunder, NFL 2K2, WWF Attitudes, Skies of Arcadia, Sting's Evolution, Power Stone, Soul Calibur, Blue Stinger, ChuChu Rocket!, Resident Evil: Code Veronica and many more...on day one are dreams already cast on the die hard gamers everywhere, just how good can it get? Unfortunately, what came after this is another story.

- Sonic Goes Portable Once Again: Even though the Sega Gamer Gear and Genesis Nomad are long overdue, Sonic still haven't lose any of his portable moments and as time went on, Sonic had starred in multiple portable adventure for multiple different portable platforms such as his first start in Sonic the Hedgehog's Pocket Adventure for SNK's Neo Geo Pocket Color, his first ever monochrome side scrolling adventure in Sonic Jam for Tiger's Game.com, his first ever debut on his rival competitor's portable in Sonic Advance for Nintendo Game Boy Advance as well as spanned many successful sequels following that, an N-Gage port, as well as a fast paced side scroller of Sonic Rush for the Nintendo DS, and a foot race style adventure, Sonic Rivals for Sony PSP. To say that Sonic had lost his portable cool is untrue, but the same won't be for his consoles outing though.

Sega's Mistakes

- Craving for Upgraded Add-ons: No matter how the Sega Genesis start and how fast its processor can go, there's no hiding the fact that it still was a low grade system that could display only 64 color palettes and can only offer midi quality sounds which is why Sega created the add-ons. Both the Sega 32X and Sega CD were created to handle two features which the Genesis deeply lack. The Sega 32X was released to give it better graphics for its 32-Bit games and the Sega CD was released to give the Genesis the best sounds it can offered not to mention the use of full motion pictures. Though at first, they were great ideas and the hardware worked perfectly well with the Sega Genesis, the bad thing though are that they offered nothing to the existing games and only offered a few games of their own not to mention they are way too expensive to afford as extra add-ons. Compare them to the Super Game Boy enhancer for the Super NES which is cheaper and had a bigger library of games, consumers often look at these add-ons as nothing but failures. Also until the Sega Saturn was released, consumer got confused in the shuffle with the many hardwares Sega sell which urged them to stick with the competitor instead. I for one loved the idea of both the Sega CD and Sega 32X, but I also don't want to spend huge bucks buying the add-ons just for playing the same games that which for one thing plays similiar to the cheap ones already available. This is the moment in gaming that began to hurt Sega' reputation and it's starting to get worst from there.

- The Released of the Sega Genesis Nomad: Okay this can be both a success and a mistake on Sega's part so I'll just include one in both categories. For the mistake part, Sega didn't fix the same issue that plague the Game Gear like low battery durability, so gamers who want a long portability experience with their Genesis Nomad will have to sit near a power outlet more so than they can play freely, the design was also too bulky, and there were no way to turn off the backlight to save battery power. The portable itself was also way too expensive for the average gamers to afford especially when it was released near the Sega Genesis lifespan, not to mention it is non-compatible with all the existing Sega Genesis add-ons like the Sega CD, Sega 32X, and Sega Master Converter. For the success part see the same paragraph about the Sega Genesis Nomad above.

- Sega Saturn Early Launch: Now this is a completely different start from the Sega Genesis and Sega Dreamcast launch, before the beginning of the 32-Bit videogaming war between both the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation, Sega was very strict of its Sega Saturn release date which was to be launch in September of 1995 and many game developers as well as consumers knew that, but despite after hearing Sony's E3 announcement that the PlayStation launch price would be one hundred dollars cheaper than their three hundred dollars Sega Saturn, Sega decided to launch their Saturn in July, a few months early than their usual schedule launch plan. The reason for the early launch was to get ahead of the competition and start sale increase before Sony. Due to this early launch, many launch titles originally schedule to be released were not ready for the early launch and many developers had rush unfinished titles to just had a game to test the Saturn until the competition starts. Sega themselves also did nothing but just porting a few hit titles(Virtua Cop, Virtua Fighter, MLB Baseball, etc.) from their arcade division for the early launch which to consumers are very limited and unsatisfying. Because of this early launch, Sony actually got the better start-up in the 32-Bit war and the better supports from third party publishers than the Saturn ever did.

- The Cancellation of Sonic X-Treme: Sometime during the early runs of the Sega Saturn, Sega had announced that a Sonic title by the name of Sonic X-Treme is in the making, it would be the first Sonic title to be in 3D and use full polygonal design as will as detail render graphics similiar to the later Nintendo's Super Mario 64 title and would be soon released for the Sega Saturn in time for the Christmas holiday. As soon as the announcement went through, many delays were made one after another, Sega had too many conflicts issue with both Sega of America and Sega of Japan regarding the game and the game itself was still in the early stages. By the time the year flew by and the holiday season is near, the title was still unfinished and Sega themselves believed that the game would not be completed in time for the holiday so they decided to port a Saturn version of the 16-Bit Sonic title, Sonic 3D Blast as a substitute to make up for the cancellation of the game. It was later known to the consumers that Sega cancelled the game due to a lack of developing time and conflicts between developers Sega Technical Institute and Sonic Team. With no true Sonic title for the Sega Saturn, the Saturn itself was view by the consumers as nothing more than a 32-Bit joke, even with the released of a Sonic spin-off title by the name of Sonic R as well as a Sonic compilation, Sonic Jam(a collection of the 2D Sega Genesis Sonic titles), weren't enough to save the Saturn from the bargain bin and Sega from succeeding.

- The PlayStation 2 Launch: I know this is the launch of the PS2, so many of you were thinking what does this had to do with Sega, will for one thing, it's because of the PS2 that the Sega Dreamcast didn't last as long as it should have. While the Sega Dreamcast had a good launch line-up and full online capabilities out of the box as well as good multiplaying option on some games as well as a true Sonic title at launch unlike the Saturn, the PS2 on the other hand got one main feature that the Dreamcast lack and that feature is backward compatibility. While the PS2 launch with only a handful of new games, with backward compatibility in effect, the PS2 would also be able to play the thousands of already available PSOne titles from the get-go which is a big blow to the many Dreamcast owners since they only had eighteen titles to choose at launch compare to PS2 owners who could choose from the launch list as well as the many that are already out there.

- Camelot Say Good-Bye To Sega: Remember a strategy RPG title by the name of Shining Force III which was released for the Sega Saturn. Back in the 32-Bit era, Camelot Software Planning were still developing three different disc scenarios for the Saturn at the time and they need more developing time to complete all three discs. Unfortunately, they did finished one of the three discs the first year through and made worldwide release of that disc, but the other two were still in development, and as time went on when Sega ended supports for the Saturn and began production on the Dreamcast, the other two disc scenario wasn't quite met on schedule as Camelot had plan and later blamed Sega for the failure of bringing the other two Shining Force III scenario games to the U.S. This change of support then made Camelot ended their relationship with Sega and begin a partnership with Sega's rival Nintendo in developing a new epic RPG series, Golden Sun, for Nintendo's new GBA handheld.

- Shen Mue 2 Worldwide Released, Dreamcast Out, X-Box In: At what looks like a long wait had finally turn into a disastrous nightmare or worse. Many Sega fans who deeply anticipated for the upcoming Shen Mue sequel of the popular Sega Dreamcast game later got a big blow to their face by Sega themselves. Sega of America had finally announced that Shen Mue 2, the acclaim sequel to the wildly popular Dreamcast RPG beat 'em up adventure game which was already released for the Sega Dreamcast in Japan was cancelled here in the U.S. and the U.S. release of the game was chosen to be an X-Box exclusive title. This news as gamers put it had forever made fans lose interest in Sega despite that after hearing this news, most Sega fans turn their attention to the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube instead.

- Bleem! Lost Its Emulation Support: Almost everybody who ever own a Dreamcast might know who Bleem! are. Bleem! is the name for those emulator maker for making PSOne compatible emulator for the PC and Sega Dreamcast in letting player play hot emulated PSOne titles on those two systems. Unfortunately for them, at first it was a good try since they did indeed emulated a few good titles such as Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo 2, Spyro the Dragon, and Symptom Filters, but then again they also faced legal actions from Sony regarding the emulation rights and later got a big blow to their face when they file for bankruptcy and later goes out of business unable to meet the goal Dreamcast fans had hope for their console. I know this had nothing to do with Sega, but indeed it did had a big impact on the Sega Dreamcast which at the time is nearing its last breathe.

- Sega Goes Third Party: Finally, the biggest announcement and disappointment to all Sega fans everywhere, this is the news that every Sega fans don't want to hear. Sega had finally waved in the white flag stating that they are no longer supporting the Sega Dreamcast or had any future console successor in the planning and are now planning to start supports of just releasing good software titles for the new competing systems instead. Even though, Dreamcast supports had ended, some few software titles were still released for it until 2003, though that doesn't feel like the support fans want, soon Sega fans just abandoned the Dreamcast altogether and later went with the new generation systems instead.

Sega's Future

After many great success as well as mistakes Sega had been through, it's finally come to realize that Sega is no longer the console maker we all remember them to be and the decision to become third party publishers might be a good start for their future since they will no longer have to be so stress about consoles anymore. With too many focus on console, Sega lack production time on software and their development on Sonic X-Treme is an example of this well as with too many focus on next generation hardware, Sega also lack communication with second party developers and the conflict with Camelot Software Planning's Shining Force III trilogy package proved this. Also with the lack of backward compatibility and early start on the console competition made Sega a prime example of rush hardware production with problematic issues since the later competitors that arrived already solved what Sega lack, both the PS2 and X-Box are examples of these. As much as I know and love about Sega, what I have to say is that they did try their all in bringing us the best in gaming the last few generations ago and with their new future focusing only on softwares, the question now goes which one of the three competitors this generation will follow in their footsteps or worst which one will actually become the next Sega of the new generation? It looks like it'll be another generation of repeated flaws once again, at least this time, Sega is not here to get all the blame.