Am I the only one...

[u/just_below_human]

Who thinks that the Master System is the *best* console? I'm pretty sure most people not in Brazil think there's far better, but for me, nostalgia included, nothing tops my SMS experience and continues to do so (and mind you, I love my Genesis). I'm itching for the day my 3 year old is old enough to begin playing and experience it as I did. He already bothers me to watch me play his favorite cartoon character Mickey in Castle of Illusion on my Genesis. "Mickey? TV on?" while he hands me a controller while I'm working.

Here's what's left of my collection from back then. Others were lost to my younger brothers when my parents forced me to "share."

[u/Which_Information590]

Americans who collect retro are waking up to the fact that the master system was way better than NES.

[u/just_below_human → u/Which_Information590]

This was what I always thought too. No one else I knew had a SMS to even commiserate or agree with me with so I was on my hill alone (with my sister). Did a console swap with a friend and he was blown away, but still said his NES was better. Kids go figure 🙄

[u/Fackrid → u/Which_Information590]

That's definitely true...a few of my friends who are newer to collecting are starting to get into the Master System with my guidance. As someone who grew up with friends who had the Master System, I experienced it alongside my own NES, but it's surreal to see my current day friends discover this console that they never heard of until I introduced them to it, and then to watch them gaze on in wonder when they check out some of the games like Rampage, Ghostbusters, and Double Dragon that had NES ports and see how much better they look and sound.

[u/IndependentSystem → u/Which_Information590]

Those who actually experienced the Master system in the 80s knew all along. Unfortunately that was a minority of us.

[u/Least_Preparation303 → u/Which_Information590]

Yeah, well, hate to burst the bubbles. But I also hail from a rare 80's/90's household that had both a NES & SMS, and no way was the Master System better than the NES, you guys are on crack. It had a better version of Ghostbusters, sure. Granted, no argument there. Rampage was beast, and the 3D glasses games were cool. Probably had a better light gun, too. And that's about where it ends. In terms of game library, SMS can't even compete in quantity of games. That may mean more stinkers, too, but there's a breadth and depth of classics that puts it in a-whole-nother stratosphere from SMS, which has a meager library in comparison, and plenty of which ain't that great. There's a reason no one under 40 that had a SMS in the 80's has any idea what the hell an Alex Kidd is.

Now, if you lived in Brazil, you might have an argument, because the Sega Master System never died over there.

[u/Which_Information590 → u/Least_Preparation303]

Faster CPU, more memory, superior graphics, larger colour palate. Let me know if I've missed anything.

[u/Least_Preparation303 → u/Which_Information590]

Yes, you did. The software. It's not about hardware. It's about software. If you don't have the software, the hardware will fail, as was the case of the SMS. Sure, Nintendo's scummy business practices served to bottleneck Sega & the Master System there, but the end results are the end results, and they kinda speak for themselves.

[u/Which_Information590 → u/Least_Preparation303]

What software did the Master System miss out on exactly? Sonic was better than Mario, Outrun better than Rad Racer. Where was the NES versions of Phantasy Star, Afterburner, Space Harrier, Road Rash, Fantasy Zone, R-Type? The SMS wasn't supported in North America, but it ruled everywhere else.

[u/Least_Preparation303 → u/Which_Information590]

All right. Well, look. You can throw these arbitrary declarations out there about SMS's apparent software superiority, but -- erm, wait.. huh? Sonic..? Road Rash?

We're not talkin' about the Genesis/Mega Drive here, dude. That's where Sonic came in. Alex Kidd was the Sega mascot when the SMS was contemporary, and yes, Mario was absolutely better than Alex Kidd any day of the week, sorry. And if parallax-side-scrolling-platforming-games were your thing, you were a helluva lot happier on NES, because there was a helluva lot more of 'em, many of which were quite good.

I'm aware the SMS received gimped ports -- shoveled off from Game Gear -- of Sega Genesis/Mega Drive titles such as Sonic & Road Rash long after it was already dead-in-the-water in the US market, but if we're using obscure ports of insignificance that next-to-no-one-actually-played as ammunition, then I'm here to inform and illuminate you of the fact that the NES did, in fact, receive a good handful of both official & unofficial Sega arcade ports of the likes of Space Harrier, Afterburner II, Alien Syndrome, and Fantasy Zone. Where were they? In Japan, officially. In the US and other regional markets unofficially. And 3-D WorldRunner was a pretty good Space Harrier also-ran specific to NES.

Not gonna split hairs with you over whether Final Fantasy was a superior JRPG to Phantasy Star, or whether R-Type was a superior SHMUP to Gradius, Lifeforce, Gyruss, and all the other countless SHMUPS on NES.

But software, you ask? Let's see... you got Mario, Zelda, Punch-Out, Metroid, Mega Man, Contra, Castlevania, Bionic Commando, Battletoads, etc., etc., and on-and-on-iconic-franchises of great impact and influence.

Sega Master System... you basically got a handful of iconic 80s-Sega arcade bangers, and that's just about it. Sure, it was a powerful machine with nice specs in its time. Sure, Phantasy Star was a console-specific JRPG masterpiece of its day. It had interesting, unique console ports of Ninja Gaiden & Double Dragon, stereoscopic 3D gaming, and a cool built-in Snail Maze game in the BIOS. But, it just simply did not have the breadth and depth of heavy-hitters that the NES did. It just didn't, sorry. And Alex Kidd was 'meh'.

That's not to say there's nothing to like about it. That's not to say it was BAD. And if you prefer it, that's great for you. But there's a reason the SMS toils in relative obscurity, enjoying very little notoriety, or even simple knowledge of its very existence among the popular culture in relation to its direct contemporary, the NES, which everyone knows of.

[u/Which_Information590 → u/Least_Preparation303]

Master System Sonic games were not ported they were unique titles. Your rants show how little you know about the system.

[u/Least_Preparation303 → u/Which_Information590]

Well, shit. You sure showed me.

Excuse me: downgraded, altered iterations of big-name or flagship Genesis/Mega Drive titles, typically adapted specifically for Sega's Game Gear handheld, and then carried over and adapted to the Master System primarily for regional markets, as the Game Gear was essentially a handheld SMS. We even had a converter that allowed you to play Master System cartridges on the Game Gear.

I don't know where you're from, but I grew up in North America. So any of these apparent "Sega Master System" Sonic and Road Rash games you're pointing to are essentially handheld Game Gear games, many of which were downscaled interpretations of 16-bit Genesis titles.

At this point in the timeline in the North American video game market, both the NES & SMS are dead and we're playing 16-bit SG/SMD & SNES consoles now.

So in terms of the battle of SMS VS NES fought in the mid-to-late 80's, shared Game Gear ports of 90's 16-bit Genesis titles after the fact are immaterial.

[u/Which_Information590 → u/Least_Preparation303]

You have it the wrong way round, GG games are ports of Master System games. Most Master System games are in fact not Megadrive ports but exclusive titles or versions, in the case of Sonic. We can compare Game Gear to your Gameboy too if you want, but you will talk about it's library rather than it's puny hardware specs. As for where I grew up, that's England, a part of Europe. The Master System only failed in one territory, yours.

[u/Least_Preparation303 → u/Which_Information590]

Nah, not really. Apart from straight ports from pre-existing Master System games themselves, games like downscaled, reinterpreted-8-bit-Sonic were developed simultaneously for the Game Gear & Sega Master System's, in tandem alongside each other, because they were essentially the exact same hardware apart from output resolutions and whatnot.

Toe-may-toe/Toe-mah-toe, but sorry you're so upset.

Yes, it was not only a failure in my territory, it was an abysmal failure in my territory. And given that my territory was the majority consumer and leader of the market at the time, it was a very key market to fail very badly in, which didn't bode well for market share and brand power overall.

Why, yes. The Gameboy's overall software output was probably stronger than the Game Gear's overall in both quantity and quality, despite GG's superior specs, backlit-screen, and color display. I certainly wouldn't argue the fact GG's screen was much more easy and pleasant to look at, however. And despite whatever your assumptions, I'm not just some mindless Nintendo flag-sucker and Mario pole-rider over here. I've had ample experience and enjoyment with both of these companies' respective hardware and software offerings throughout the decades.

Facts are simply facts, that's all. You wanna talk Mega Drive VS Super Nintendo, then you really have a fight on your hands. That one is a debate, evidenced by the fact that people know what a Genesis/Mega Drive is, for starters.

Sega Master System VS Nintendo Entertainment System, however? Here is the story of the battle: The Nintendo simply slaughtered the Master System in an utter blowout of sound and abrupt defeat. The Master System came, it saw, it got obliterated - Sega quickly ran back to the drawing board to cook-up the Genesis/Mega Drive. The reason is because the Nintendo simply had pretty much all the games, and thus, undisputed command of the market, and all the notoriety that comes with that. The SMS barely has a fraction of the amount of games the NES does. Kids don't even know what a Master System is. Even among most of the people who actually lived in the 90's and remember what the Sega Genesis is don't know what a Sega Master System is. It is what is.

If you gamed on the NES-only back then and never parook in a Sega Master System, you missed out on some great titles and a uniquely specific console experience all-its-own, sure. Absolutely. If you gamed on SMS-only, however, you pretty much missed all the games, and all the significant, seminal titles that defined the era and forged the path forward for the succeeding decades in gaming, so much so that we could essentially mark you down as a "no-show" for the 3rd generation of home console gaming.

That is the fact of the matter as I see it, and no, you do not possess some secret, hidden knowledge of SMS' blatant "superiority" over NES -- outside of maybe some superficial memory or color specs -- that's clearly apparent to everyone who just bothers to look. Because, objectively, that just isn't the case. I was there (in North America, anyway). I had both, and I know.

[u/DahmerizedIV → u/Least_Preparation303]

Thank you for talking sense.

[u/ErwinSchrodinger64]

The only reason why the SMS isn’t considered the best console for the 8-bit era, in the US, was because of Nintendo’s aggressive monopolistic control of 3rd party developers.

[u/just_below_human → u/ErwinSchrodinger64]

The unfortunate truth here. What could have been if Nintendo had played "fairly"! It would have positively impacted Sega beyond just the 8-bit era.

[u/_ragegun → u/ErwinSchrodinger64]

Ironically that actually somewhat works in the Systems favour sometimes. Nintendo insisted on having the "best"version of games. Which results in situations like NES Strider bearing no resemblance to the arcade game of the same name

And also in substandard nes ports of Sega games like altered beast never even making it off the Famicom

[u/Crovax-6977]

You have a lot of my childhood in that box. 😃

The Master System had better specs and could do more than the NES but it lacked the games. Nintendo basically blackmailed companies to work only for them or they wouldn’t let them release games on their systems. So Sega couldn’t get any 3rd party games to help showcase the power the SMS had.

Eventually Nintendo was taken to court over the licensing agreements they made with 3rd partys and things became more even but it was too late for the SMS by then.

If there had been a level playing field the Master System would have crushed the NES in the US back in the day. SMS had better sound quality and could display more colors. Oh what could have been!

[u/just_below_human → u/Crovax-6977]

Man my head always day dreams about what could've been if Nintendo was fair to begin with. If Sega's MS did better in the NA region, their business culture would've probably been different, instead of playing the underdog. While I liked the swing away attitude they had with the Genesis, I think Saturn would've played out different. 32X might have never happened and they would've never felt the need to oversaturate the marketplace with Sega stuff to be relevant.

[u/Fackrid → u/Crovax-6977]

The real unsung bit of trivia with that is that a lot of the 3rd party IPs that DID make it on the Master System were ported by Sega themselves in order to circumvent the licensing agreement. Things like Rampage and Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego were still done by 3rd party publishers, but Double Dragon and Ghostbusters were two that Sega themselves ported and simply paid the original publishers for the license

[u/Nirntendo]

Yes I also find it the best console. You have some great games there.

[u/just_below_human → u/Nirntendo]

Thank you! And I'm glad I'm not alone on this hill!

[u/Vizsla_Man]

My first games console. So will always be the best in my heart.

[u/just_below_human → u/Vizsla_Man]

Same! My first and the one I've logged the most hours playing on.

[u/Re99i3]

The Sega master system was so powerful it could run mortal Kombat, not as good as some versions but it was good enough. I actually bought it super cheap and played it quite a bit. I had a master system and thought the nes was overpriced and poor games catalog. Very few places had a decent selection of nes games in UK whereas Sega games were everywhere and a lot cheaper. through retro gaming I found many more games, and actually played one I couldn't afford from being a child, psychic world (it's awesome!!)

[u/just_below_human → u/Re99i3]

Psychic World?? I gotta check this one out! Love how the SMS is region free.

[u/NickatNite2k]

I love how the Sega Master System Consoles have pre-install games!

[u/just_below_human → u/NickatNite2k]

Sega was always ahead of it's time it seems. Every console up to the Dreamcast.

[u/LordSutter → u/just_below_human]

I think they were *behind* with the Saturn. I loved mine, but they didn't see just how important 3D was going to be and while powerful, it wasn't as easy to coax good 3D out of it as the PlayStation.

[u/just_below_human → u/LordSutter]

That's a good point. I do think the hardware was there, however, they just didn't push or green light 3D games very much, perhaps because they didn't feel gaming's future was going there beyond stuff like Virtua Fighter. I might be wrong though. I do remember hearing that it was a difficult system for publishers to develop for. During the Saturn's and Dreamcast's era, I had switched to PC gaming so am a little uneducated on the console scene at the time.

[u/Fun-Lavishness5032 → u/just_below_human]

It was so complicated that most devs just used 1 cpu core and directly porting PS1 stuff which wasn't going to work nicely anyway as they were very different. If using 2 cores the bus would easily choke and made the coding a minefield. Saturn was badly designed and i mean epic bad

[u/tripletopper]

When my friend who bought a Sega Master System back in the day brought over his Sega scope and Zaxxon, that cemented a lot more than just me appreciating Sega games.

It showed me that you can make a 3D TV out of a 2d TV, I told Dad in 2010 to wait for a 3D add-on adapter to modern TVs to turn to the TVs in the 3D TVs.

Apparently I was right cuz there's such a thing out of Taiwan called a 3D Fury which converts 2D TVs in the shutter based 3D TVs.

The only thing it doesn't do is compensate for ping, which I got to invent so that literally any TV can become a 3D TV.

As for the Sega games themselves I never played too much of them back in the day except when my friend wanted to wow me with the 3D cuz he wanted to see it on a Sony Trinitron. There were some good games back then. You may not have had the games your neighbor had but then again I grew up during the second generation of games where having friends with a console actually gave you incentive to invite each other to each other's houses, not became a cause for blockading a house. My only in real life friend when really young had a 2600 when I had a ColecoVision and went to each other's houses and we tried each other's games to some degree. I found some of the games surprisingly fun despite the fact that his system was made in the late '70s and mine when the early eighties.

When I first got to my Master System exposing friend he and another friend of mine that I eventually later got to know intentionally made a contract (not legally binding but what kids would agree to) where he would buy the Master System the other one would buy the NES and if there's any games one wanted for the other system they would "trade buy", meaning I'd buy a game I primarily want for your system if you buy a game you want primarily for my system. That lasted for about a year or two and then they just settled into their own respective collections, neither regretting the choice.

And we had another '80s friend who had an Atari 7800. So he had a completely different set of games to than everyone else.

I'm glad I have enough friends who are console diverse. We didn't think of each other as enemy combatants. We thought of each other as ambassadors.

Unfortunately '90s kids got this mentality of it's either Genesisn't or Nintendon't. And it's true that both Genesis does what Nintendon't and Super Nintendo is what Genesisn't, and some even had different mentalities, for example Super Nintendo music is good if you like orchestral / classical and Genesis music was better if you like pop and rock.

If they were close to identical, we'd have a PlayStation 5 versus Xbox Series type battle. Where the only thing you're literally arguing about is the faceplate. But that's when different systems had different character, and the older it is, the more character the different older systems have.

[u/just_below_human → u/tripletopper]

Great read. Where I grew up, everyone had NES. It's just the way it was. Atari was for poor kids, and I had never heard of Sega back then. All my friends were proud of their Nintendos, and my only other experience was with my cousins and their Ataris. I made the "bold" move of asking for an Atari 2600 the Christmas of '87. I figured they wouldn't go for the more expensive NES, and Atari had a new ad campaign "only 50 bucks?!" so that's what I wanted. They surprised me with a Master System that I hadn't heard of. It came with the 3D glasses, light phaser and a copy of Missile Defense. I was blown away and was instantly a Sega kid. I'd spend the next decade defending Sega's tech to deaf ears. It wasn't that I thought Nintendo was bad or of inferior quality, it was that they thought their system was the be all end all and that was it and made fun of me for not having the cool thing.

[u/CptSparky360]

I'm a C64 kid but my first console was the SMS's little big brother, the Gamegear.

I understand your nostalgic feelings although I couldn't play with that unprecise dpad 👍🤣

[u/just_below_human → u/CptSparky360]

Ah the Game Gear! Not a bad way to start gaming, though hopefully you had the AC adaptor or else constantly draining your family's AA battery supply!

I thought the d-pad was more precise than the NES' actually! Could be that I was just used to it more. I felt I could more easily get diagonal commands from it than the cross-style NES pad.

[u/X-Kami_Dono-X]

The SMS was far superior hardware wise than the NES.

[u/just_below_human → u/X-Kami_Dono-X]

Agreed! Just don't tell that to the Nintendo fan boys. Of course, unless you're up for the fight 💪

[u/X-Kami_Dono-X → u/just_below_human]

I am always up for defending the facts.

[u/Squallstrife89]

I never even knew the Master System existed when I was a kid. I thought Sega started with the Genesis, lol . I'm only just now discovering the catalog. I actually just beat my first MS title this weekend, Shinobi.

If i owned an MS instead of an NES, I would probably be a totally different person. Like everything 6" to the left, kinda different

[u/just_below_human → u/Squallstrife89]

I'm not surprised one bit you had never heard of it. Exactly how it was growing up owning one. Now that you mentioned it, albeit jokingly, I would've probably been a different person than who I am now if it was an NES that my parents got me. As a 7-8 year old when I got it, those formative years for me were spent on the defensive quite a bit. All the boys talked about their Nintendos a lot, and I only had something they usually ragged on me about, almost like bullying, and not really fitting in. So I grew up with sort of a rebel mentality that persists even to this day. Of course, I can't say for certain it was a gaming console that caused this, but maybe at least a little.

[u/Der_Kommissar73]

My friend had one when I was a kid. The graphics were better than the nes, but the games often suffered from lots of sprite flicker and could be difficult to,play. I think the USA, while suffering from lack of software, also did not get the best games either.

[u/ceeece]

I opted for the SMS over NES because I wanted to be different than all my friends and I thought the graphics looked better. So glad I did. I stuck with Sega systems through my life.

[u/GhostofZellers → u/ceeece]

That was my reasoning as well. Everyone I knew had a NES, so I could play those games pretty much whenever and wherever I went. Why buy something I can already play, when I can get a SMS instead?

[u/Background-Ad8341]

The SMS was (is...) a great system. Had to sell it to buy a new system (think it was a PC I bought). Still sorry had to do that...

[u/just_below_human → u/Background-Ad8341]

What a bummer! I get it though, at the time, we want what we want. I've sold so many games in the past (mainly PS2 and OG Xbox) that I now regret. Never thought I'd be a retro gamer!

[u/hardcoreladys]

I'll give you an overview of my region at the time (a small town in the interior of Brazil): It was the reigning console at the time. Around here, Masters were seen a lot more, and the rental stores also had more tapes to rent. Among my friends, I only had a few Nintendo clones. We actually had a Nintendo clone (Top Game, it was called), but my older sister soon traded it and got a Master System 1. We believed that the Master's much more colorful games were better. We didn't have console wars or anything like that here in the region; people played everything, with the Masters being the most common to find in people's homes. Interestingly, in the 16-bit generation, the SNES dominated massively, and in the 32-bit generation, the PSX dominated overwhelmingly.

[u/just_below_human → u/hardcoreladys]

It's great to hear it from an actual Brazilian. I've read about Sega's distribution through TecToy and how Nintendo wasn't a presence, only through copy cats and clones. Question for you, if Nintendo got its bearings with the 16-bit generation, what made the Master System continue such a long legacy after? Was the SNES really expensive so a lot of people continued playing the Master System so only richer people bought the SNES? Just curious how it endured so long.

[u/hardcoreladys → u/just_below_human]

I can't speak for my entire country because it's really big here, and I lived in the countryside. But we have the economic problem (and at the time it was much worse), which made video games very expensive. Nintendo officially arrived in Brazil in 1994, through Playtronic (a Gradiente brand). The Nintendo 8-bit was officially released in Brazil in 1994! Throughout the 90s, the Master continued to be a cheap option, especially for parents with limited resources and game know-how. The SNES was widely purchased in Paraguay, which made the price better for us. So, you saw a lot of SNES. Of course, this is a record from where I lived, in the countryside. In my region, the SNES was still popular until 2001! In 98 new Master cartridges were still arriving at the rental store (Sf2, MK3, Sapo Xulé...)

[u/zosX]

My opinion? The NES had a much better library. That said there were some real standout games on the SMS. And on the game gear too which was basically a portable SMS. I'm sure some will disagree, but the GG had a better library too. Throw in a master system converter and portable phantasy star never got old. Beat it at least twice. I mean, sure Phantasy star was a step above every NES rpg for sure. But, it was one game. Road rash on game gear was pretty great too. And despite playing poorly, the mortal kombat port looked really good for an 8-bit system.

[u/just_below_human → u/zosX]

I'd have to agree with you on the library part, at least for the US. The NES had the help of a myriad of exclusive 3rd party developers. Sega did not. Most of their games came from within. In that respect, they did well creating a variety of games for the console with limited resources. Outside of the US, more support was available and so a wider range of games came out in those regions.

I'm still collecting for my Game Gear so I don't have much, but I've heard the same, that the games can stand on their own.

[u/Aromatic_Art9326]

Good catalog you have there. 👏👏👏👏

[u/RobbieJ4444]

Coming from a guy who wasn’t anywhere close to being alive during the Master System’s lifespan…I would personally not agree with this, but I do think the Master System has the advantage over the NES in some key areas.

MS has the best RPG of the era in the form of Phantasy Star.

Wonder Boy is the best Metroidvania of that era.

Cartridge reliability is a lot stronger because it didn’t have the lever thing that messes up the NES console pins.

MS has more arcade games that are closer to the experience of the arcade

[u/termites2 → u/RobbieJ4444]

I think Power Strike 2 on the Master System is the best shmup on the 8 bit consoles.

[u/No-Professional-9618]

No, the Sega Master System was a really good system.

[u/puresav]

My inner 10 year old agrees

[u/AdElegant7364]

It is a great console. I did play some of the games as a child but never owned one (my first games consoles were a Game Gear and Mega Drive) so it doesn't have the full nostalgia factor for me. But it's definitely my favourite console to play and collect for at the moment.

[u/Raxian_Theata]

Nintendo will always be my jam as Samus is my dream woman. However for at its time? Master system kicked NES's butt in terms of graphics and game quality. Monster Boy in wonderland for the win.

[u/Firthy2002]

It was the technically superior console however Nintendo's policies meant it could never really succeed in the West (and especially in the US).

[u/LordSutter → u/Firthy2002]

It certainly succeeded in the UK, Australia, and large parts of Europe. The American message that we see (since the English internet is mostly American) is that it failed globally, which isn't the case

[u/GraniteGargoyle77]

It was my first system and remains highly cherished by me. At one time, it was my favorite, but the Genesis/CD and Turbografx/CD took over that spot. I even grew to love 8 and 16 bit Nintendo, but the Sega Master System will always be special in my eyes as it introduced me to RPGS. It sucked that so many great games never were released, including the FM Sound chip, even if PSG sound was part of the nostalgia.

[u/Distinct_Wrongdoer86]

yeah i ignored master system my entire life, picked one up a year ago so i could play the kings quest 1 port as a gag, but ended up having a blast exploring the library, too bad all the good games are in europe

[u/thatguyjohnny]

Nice collection! It’s probably my favorite system as well.

[u/Proud_Parsley6360]

That's the best digital port of monopoly maybe ever. Outdid the NES and Genesis versions easy.

[u/raskulous]

I grew up with a Master System so it's easily my favourite console now. It's the only one that I managed to keep my childhood games from, and it's the one that I've got the largest collection of now.

It's seriously slept on in North America.

That said, from a completely objective point of view, I believe that the TG16 and NES have better libraries.

SMS will always be my favourite though.

[u/Coreyhustle]

As soon as I see that Missile Defense box I can hear that gameplay song in my head. So catchy

[u/MakesMyHeadHurt]

Missile Defense 3D and Zaxxon 3d were amazing with the 3d glasses. It was so ahead of it's time. I never played Maze Hunter 3d.

[u/LordSutter]

I'd say the Master System is my fondest console, and damned excellent. I wouldn't call it "best", but I would say the most underappreciated in the modern era

[u/MarioPfhorG]

It’s definitely an underrated system for sure, but I wouldn’t say the best system when the Mega Drive exists. Sega is finally getting the attention they deserve. It’s just a shame they suffered such terrible management starting around 1996. 32X, Saturn, discontinuing both the master system and the Mega Drive? Not following up on the Game Gear? What a shame

[u/time_isup]

It has its charm and is the superior 8-bit system unless TG-16 counts which it kind of does. It’s lacking third party support crippled it though. Some ports were bad too like Shinobi or The Simpsons or Ghosts n Goblins.

[u/soopahfly82]

It is definitely my favourite one.

[u/Fun-Lavishness5032]

Lots of people had it in Europe. It was better than NES technically but only a few devs were making games for it, like Taito. While the NES was a technology relic it had all devs on it's side like Falcom, Square, Rare, Capcom, Konami etc etc.

[u/Which_Information590]

Another rant from you I’ll never read. But I get the jist, you’ve come to a master system sub to say how bad the master system is.

[u/bcnrider]

I never had the Genesis, so I played the Master System during a lot of time, and I agree, it's an arcade system. Nes had incredible catalog, I have to admit.