Super NES: Nintendo 16-Bit Answer To the Sega Genesis and Turbo Graphx-16

I know that in this new generation with the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii now on store shelves everywhere and the X-Box 360 still fighting to gain market leader, there were at least a few features that these new generation consoles had which originated before their successful console launch. In the early years of the 1990s, Sega had entered the videogame market with there Sega Master game console to challenge Nintendo's successful NES game console, but by that time Nintendo had already claimed a big financial part of the videogame market which urged Sega to retreat back to square one.

A few years later, Sega along with NEC then shift ahead of Nintendo by introducing their new 16-Bit consoles, the 16-Bit Sega Genesis and the Turbo Graphx-16 videogame consoles. Their system had persuaded third party publishers to flipped away from Nintendo's 8-Bit juggernaut, the NES, and began releasing exclusive titles for their systems. This change of history had began starting to hurt Nintendo's NES sales until Nintendo later backfired by releasing their ultimate Super NES 16-Bit console in 1991 to countered the Sega Genesis and Turbo Graphx-16.

The Super NES brought Nintendo's popular franchises into the 16-Bit world with Mario, Zelda, and Metroid looking stunning and better than what Sega and NEC had offered until Sega later created a mascot game franchise called "Sonic the Hedgehog" to counter Nintrendo's Mario and their other franchises to stay on top, but NEC didn't do the same and later dropped down to the third position of the videogame market due to a lack of successful sale of its Turbo Graphx-16 console, it later returned with its more powerful Turbo Duo CD console, but did not do anything successful and NEC later file for bankruptcy and the Turbo Graphx-16 and Turbo Duo as we know are dead.

Videogamers then turn on to the Super NES and Sega Genesis and the rivalry between two of the biggest videogame giants began creating one of the most greatest era in videogame history known as the "Golden Age" era of videogames. Later in the years, Sega started releasing some expensive add-ons like the Sega CD, and the Sega 32X to upgrade its low grade Sega Genesis, but that doesn't seem to bring any success to the table. Nintendo later released a cool peripheral known as the Super Game Boy to allowed their portable Game Boy games to be played on the Super NES with a cheaper price, it had become an instant success. Nintendo also released successful new franchises such as the Donkey Kong Country series, the Killer Instinct arcade fighting game, and the addictive Tetris Attack puzzle game.

There are also games that returned from the NES to bring success to the system to beat out the Sega Genesis for good. While Sega released a truck load of sports and racing games for its Sega Genesis, Nintendo started licensing developers to released new RPGs such as Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG, the Breath of Fire series, Lufia, the Final Fantasy series, Secret of Mana series, as well as new platform games such as Aero the Acrobat and Bubsy to adventure games like Legend of the Mystical Ninja and the Super Star Wars Trilogy series to fighting games like Mortal Kombat II, Street Fighter Alpha 2, and Fatal Fury Special to shooting games like Star Fox to puzzle games like Bomberman IV and Tetris Attack to great Disney animated adventures like the Lion King and Aladdin to racing games like Super Mario Kart and F-Zero to beat 'em up games like Super Double Dragon and the Final Fight series. Despite all of these and the fact that the Super NES can also play the growing library of portable Game Boy games with the Super Game Boy, had upgraded its gaming library to the max at a price too affordable and playable as compare to the Sega Genesis and its expensive add-ons which did nothing to improve its sales and instead confused consumer with them.

What is the Super NES?

The Super NES is Nintendo's second videogame consoles, it is a 16-Bit videogame machine that can also play 3D and 2D style games. It uses cartridge as its main game format just like its competitors at the time. The systems processing speed is average at best and can't compare to the rapid speed of the Sega Genesis, but its graphics powerhouse is quite large at about 256 colors compare to the Sega Genesis 64 colors palette. Despite this, Super NES games often look better when compare to its Sega Genesis version of the same game such as the Street Fighter II and Earthworm Jim titles. The Super NES had a top loading cartridge drive as compare to its predecessor, the NES, which uses a side loading drive which often cause start up problems.

The Super NES also house three buttons which can now be push to up or down instead of pressing it down and release making it easier to start game. The returning start up buttons are the POWER and RESET buttons which can be use to load and reload games and the new EJECT button which help pop the cartridge out when not in play. The system itself also had a loading cover to help covered the top loading cartridge drive so that dusk won't be able to get in. The later Super NES model dropped the EJECT button in able to aim for a cheaper price but it is still just like the original.

Unlike most systems of its era that crave for better upgrades like graphics and sounds which can be done with add-ons like the Sega Genesis 32X or Sega CD or by putting graphical and sound chips directly inside the hardware like the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation, the Super NES itself had done this a different way, instead of installing the upgraded chips on the system, Nintendo decided to installed them directly inside the game cartridge themselves for the specific game that needs it which make the end result turn out better. This strategy had solved the problem of preventing customers from buying expensive add-ons and upgraded hardware because everything they need is already there. Mostly gamers rather play Donkey Kong Country not just because it had superior realistic graphics, but it also plays better and had better musical score too and yet you don't have to pay much to get all the upgrade as long as you had your Super NES, now compare that to the Sega Genesis which had Mortal Kombat II, a version which had good gameplays but the worse graphics, to play the better version you had to buy an expensive $299 Sega CD add-on for the Sega Genesis in able to fully get the same enjoyment of what the Super NES version already offered.

Another great mention about the Super NES, and yes, this is a very important part of all Nintendo brand products, this is something that the new generation platforms of today often not look at, its durability. Yes it's true, the Super NES is the longest lasting videogame system to ever grace videogame console today, no matter how many times it breaks or crumble, it will still works as if you bought it from its launch. I first bought my Super NES in 1992 a year after its launch and yes I still have the system today in its original condition for this new generation, it sits next to my new Nintendo Wii which I just bought this last November and near my Nintendo 64 and GameCube which I hardly play much anymore. My Super NES still works mighty fine and all the games I had for it still rocks even when the new games of today are coming. Compare the Super NES durability to the Sega Genesis and many other game systems from the past like the Sega Saturn, the PSOne, the Jaguar, and the 3D0, where are they now, they are all in the trash or maybe in the dumpster somewhere.

I also hardly can't believed that all of its game cartridges can also last as long as the system too, my rare Chrono Trigger game I bought way back in 1996 still works today even though the game label is being torn to bits and the game often got accidently dropped a few times over, but it still works as if it was bought yesterday, compare that to my friend who bought Final Fantasy Chronicles in 2000 which also included Chrono Trigger for his PSOne. That game was great despite it had load times and all as well as Final Fantasy IV, but I also can't believe that his disc is broken three weeks after the guy bought it which I guess he accidently dropped it somewhere which he wasted twenty bucks on, not to mention he re-bought it again for the same price and guess what it broked again three years later, that's the problem with undurable stuff.

How does it control?

The Super NES not only had a great feature to it, but it also had one unique controller design that makes the system unique in a way. The controller that was made for the Super NES was designed to look much like a dog bone shape kind of controller, unlike the rectangular toy shape of the NES or any of its competitor's controllers before it. The Super NES controller is the first controller to had more than two or three buttons. The controller had the returning directional cross pad from the NES along with the usual SELECT and START buttons for pausing and selecting options in some games, it also brought back the B and A buttons for action play, but this time on top of those they also introduced the Y and X buttons which can be use for accessing maps or for using certain features in some games like accessing weapons or using shortcuts to a command. As adding the two new buttons weren't enough, Nintendo also included two shoulder buttons on each side of the controller making it the first controller to had these buttons for in-game usage. Usually the L and R buttons are used for minor features like drifting vehicles to turn in racing games like F-Zero, viewing the rear view mirror in Super Mario Kart, use to escape battles in Final Fantasy VI and more.....

One game category that I think fall from this are the fighting games which this kind of control layout isn't comfortable with, but that's not really a big issue to deal with as there are many other third party controllers that already handles that. This controller layout not only helped deal with gameplay and such, but it is also one of the best controller layout in history that it was repeated by many future consoles from other competitors generation after generation, such examples are the PSOne and PS2 Dual Shock 1 and 2 controllers, the N64 controller even though the Y and X buttons are nowhere to be found, those yellow C buttons are layout the same as the original Super NES cross style buttons, the Dreamcast controller, the X-Box giant S controller, the GameCube controller even though the buttons were not aligned like the original cross shape it use to be the letters that are engraved in those buttons are the same as the Super NES original, the X-Box 360 controller, not to mention the Nintendo Wii's classic Virtual Console controller, and the new PS3 SIXAXIS controller all having the same layout as the Super NES controller, but added a few new features and more shoulder buttons to differentiate them from each other. When you look at all of them now, you'll know how serious Super NES they wanted to be when they created those layouts. Almost every competitors this generation wanted to have the same success as the once superior Super NES console and the many familiar controller layout and features proved this.

How's the Game Library?

Now this is the one key reason for the Super NES success in the 16-Bit videogame generation war. This system had a full generation of triple As titles that are sprinkling with great replay values, some even had game plays and features that surpassed games of today. To start, the Super NES had games from almost every categories such as adventure games(the Super Star Wars trilogy, Demon's Crest), fighting games(Street Fighter II: Turbo Hyper Fighting Edition, Mortal Kombat II), racing games(F-Zero , Super Mario Kart), action games(Super Metroid, Mega Man X series) beat 'em up games(Final Fight series, Super Double Dragon), platform games(Donkey Kong Country trilogy, Super Mario World), arcade games(Mr. Do!, Frogger), puzzles games(Bust-A-Move, Tetris Attack), tactics and strategy games(Ogre Battle, Tactics Ogre), sports games(Madden NFL, NBA Jam), shooting games(Star Fox, Gradius III), first person shooter games (Doom, Wolfenstein 3D), games that are based from hot movies and cartoons(The Lion King, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), games that are based on novel(The Lord of the Ring: The Fellowships of the Ring), games based on luck(Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortunes), wrestling games(WWF Raw, WWF Royal Rumbe), compilation games(Super Mario All-Stars, Ninja Gaiden Trilogy), creation and education games(Mario Paint, Sim City), and best of all the RPGs(Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy, Super Mario RPG, and more...), the Super NES is all about RPGs and it's that category that made this one system raise to success. When you think about it, this system got it all not to mention when you add in all those Super Game Boy enhanced games and all legacy Game Boy titles from 1989 beginning with Tetris to 2001 ending with Dragon Warrior Monster 2 for the Game Boy Color and you got yourself a huge list of games available for play.

Final Thoughts:

In Conclusion, the Super NES is the ultimate gaming champion of the 16-Bit generation war due it having the best hardware design, the best controller layout, and the best library of games. To simply ignore its existence of this gaming machine is too good to bypass and many of its glory titles had made a returned to the 32-Bit handheld Game Boy Advance, but still not every titles will make a comeback and it's only a matter of time when all of these titles from this great system can be download via the Virtual Console for the Nintendo Wii. For those of you who still had their Super NES lying around, I encourage you to go out and play the greatest games ever made to your desire because playing them now is better than waiting for them showing up for download on the Wii's Virtual Console.

For the many that had the Wii, I also encourage you to download some of the best Super NES games to play with, but I had to warned you that not every games from the Super NES past will return so just enjoyed what's there or you can wait if that's what you want, for PS3 and X-Box 360 owners you're out of luck, perhaps Gears of War or Resistance: Fall of Man is what you need at least for now and look at the bright side they are what new generation gaming are for. Anyways the Super NES is not entirely dead, if you're a die hard retro fans of past games you can find one cheap at ebay or at any local pawn shops in your neighborhood if you're lucky enough and you can always buy Super NES games online or at ebay. Remember that these new generation system wouldn't even had great success either with their controller layout or their games if not for this one system in gaming history.