RF Generation Message Board

Which has the better version of Populous; SNES or GEN?

Which has the better version of Aerobiz/Aerobiz Supersonic; SNES or GEN?

Krusty's Funhouse; SNES or GEN?

Flashback; SNES or GEN?

If anyone is wondering, I think Thunder Force III on GEN is light years better than it's SNES clone, Thunder Spirits.

Krusty's Fun House is best on the NES ;)

? That ol' NES fanboy nature coming out. ;) Besides the unnecessary graphic/sound upgrade, the SNES version offers more Simpsons characters.

I prefer the SNES versions on all the above, though its really a soundchip preference when it comes to games like Aerobiz and Populous. To be fair to Thunder Spirits on SNES, it was a port of Thunder Force AC, which was a retooled Thunder Force III. So, its twice removed from the source. I do agree TFIII is a better version.

Ys III on SNES

YS III on Genesis

Tough one for me, I first played it on Turbo Duo, which had AWESOME music and TERRIBLE scrolling. But the SNES uses a much brighter color palette, making it seem more anime-ish. The Genny's muted colors are probably more appropriate to the game, seeing as how much of it takes place underground and such.

Well from one LIer to another, I can say that Krusty's Funhouse is better on SNES. I noticed in the introduce yourself thread you said you are from LI. Cool!

I have the following games on both systems from what I remember (I'm moving right now so all of my collection is boxed up so there's probably more):
Maximum Carnage
Seperation Anxiety
Home Alone 1 & 2
Captain America and The Avengers

I'm with Crabby on this. NES has the best version of Krusty's Fun House.

Honestly not trying to be contrary here, but what makes the NES Krusty's Funhouse preferable?  After playing all three, it feels that while the differences are certainly superfluous, the SNES version has more character sprites and more cartoony graphics.  None of the releases push any technical limitations, and the gameplay is identical.  Is it just an NES system preference, or am I missing something else?

@slackur: It's a NES preference. That 8-bit aesthetic gets me every time.

Its a combination of the aesthetic and controller for me.

@Slackur - I was not aware of Thunder Force AC, thanks for the info!
@SlasherNES - Hello fellow LIer! Suffolk or Nassau?

I find that SMS generally beats NES in dual port games and SNES usually beats GEN.

Here's a few more I can add....

- Ghostbusters is much better on SMS.
- Fantasy Zone is a GREAT game on SMS and an abomination on NES.
- Double Dragon is very debatable. I guess I'll take the easy way out. If you're flying solo, go NES. If you have a buddy to play with, go SMS

Suffolk and I agree about Ghostbusters on SMS over NES any day! Even Double Dragon I thought was a little better on SMS, although the NES has a classic feel to it and still an awesome game!

Agreed, Ghostbusters SMS is better.  Double Dragon is... a toss-up for me.  I do like the SMS Co-op, but the flicker is much worse and the game feels less fluid to me.  I think the best version is the reworked GBA version.

Fantasy Zone on SMS is also win, as is the underrated Fantasy Zone: The Maze exclusive.

The rule of thumb is that the original version of a game is usually the best. However it is hard to tell which is the original version in some games and sometimes the "port" is better than the original. Take Krusty's Fun House, that was originally an Amiga game under a different name then it became licensed to a Simpsons game so in that case the Genesis and SNES versions are closer than the NES/Master System/Game Gear versions.

Games that did appear on the SMS were usually better than the NES since many of those ports were done by Tengen and were glitchy/different than the SMS. Ghostbusters was actually an Atari home computer/C64 game before ported to the NES and the SMS, the SMS is one of the best versions even though the sound sample was dropped. For 16 bit consoles, it is harder:

Mickey Mania was better on the Genesis (even better on the Sega CD/PS1 versions) than on the SNES due to that the SNES versions has cut stages, music in the wrong places, dodgy collision detection well worser than the others and decompression (load) times on a cartridge.

California Games is better on the Master System (and on other systems, even the C64 original) than the Genesis version due to that an event got removed on the MD [Flying Disc] and the music is in different places and even replaced. Louie Louie became a custom song and the Adam West Batman/60s style song on the BMX race is different. It might be due to the cartridge size or that Hungarian Novotrade did the Genesis version while Sega did the Master System version.

Earthworm Jim is better on the Genesis (Sega CD too) than the SNES due to an extra stage, no censorship regarding a boss and it is the original version. The graphics are better looking on the SNES though.

Top Gear 2 is better on the SNES and not due to the sound but also the Genesis port is a lazy port.

Battletoads and Double Dragon is a weird one, people usually prefer the SNES one in taste tests however many people don't realise that it was a NES game first then got ported to the Genesis keeping the music in the right places [even though the SNES version has better guitar sounds] plus it is more faithful to the NES original and finally the SNES version that has a different animation style, zooming effects. Personally I think the SNES version was rushed since Rare was working on the Arcade Battletoads and Donkey Kong Country at the time.

I also know that Flashback and Another World are better on the Genesis due to that they are closer to the Amiga originals. In fact many Amiga games were better on the Genesis than on the SNES (even though in terms of sound, the SNES version is closer to the Amiga version only more muffled) due to the same processor used and MD controllers can be used in the Amiga (in fact FIFA 94 can use one since it was a Genesis port).

Non-EA American developed games are usually better on the SNES due to that the fact that the graphics look better and that the sounds are better due to the fact that they quickly and lazily ported to the Genesis with worse colours, keeping the lower resolution (instead of 320x240) and using the awful GEMS sound engine that I think only a few composers did anything decent on it. The Genesis could do good sound, it's just that sound engine and a couple of others (Sound Images and EA is hit and miss to people) give it a bad name. Want good sound? Most of the Japanese composers and Matt Furniss are good examples. Koei games are also better on the SNES except the sound isn't as bad. Even then there are plenty of games that are same game, different game on both consoles.

In those days, there were many arcade ports and consoles/computers wanted the game so this is a different case depending on the publisher and even the game:

The PC-Engine got better ports of some games compared to the Mega Drive/Genesis (e.g. Cadash, Bonanza Bros [training stage and bonus stages were removed of the Genesis port]). In terms of fighting games, it is mixed and more of personal opinion.

NES is a funny one since many had to be altered to cope with the limitations so they ended up being different games sometimes. In terms of NES vs. SMS Double Dragon, the SMS version is closer to the arcade version due to the 2 player mode and the stages are there but simplified however it has dodgy collision detection and the elbow move that was unstoppable in the arcade version is mostly gone. The NES version is only single player and less enemies due to avoiding flicker and the stages are there but different however it is more closer to the arcade version in collision detection. Both versions actually use the same sprites for some of the things. To be honest, Double Dragon 1 didn't get a good port at all with the closest being the Genesis version and even then that is still a far cry of a port due to that it played quicker than it did, even though the arcade version had bad slowdown. Double Dragon Advance is a remake that has the arcade stages plus more but is still the best one and one of the few good Double Dragon games around.

Logically the Neo Geo AES are pretty much the MVS version in most cases maybe with extra settings and possibly a touch of censorship depending on game. However in terms of ports it usually goes, Neo Geo -> PC Engine ->>>> Genesis/SNES. Both the Genesis ports and the SNES ports have their problems. Samurai Shodown has small sprites in the SNES version, while the MD version is missing Earthquake but more closer in terms of size when compared to the Neo Geo original (still smaller but not as much). Fatal Fury MD is missing two fighters (Billy Kane and some other man) and the bonus stages, while the SNES version has loading times. World Heroes is a poor port handled by a couple of Americans on the Genesis version that is missing lots of music and even then in the wrong places, the bald hair touch, slowdown, the cutscenes [the only one that kept in was one still frame of Dr. Brown], the SNES version is censored at least in the European version regarding Brocken.

At the 16-bit era, the Sharp X68000 versions are very close to the original arcade version however they were very expensive and Japan only.

For the PS2/Gamecube/Xbox era, the Gamecube and the Xbox versions were much better than the PS2 version since not only they provided better graphics but also ran better as well. Of course, when it came to Gamecube and Xbox, they are very close to the point of struggling which is better. It really depends on if anything got cut out on the NGC version due to the smaller filesize however one Madden game and R: Racing were better on the Gamecube, the latter having Pac-Man Vs. included. For me, its very hard to play a PS2 game now for the slowdown and bland graphics for some games (plus some of the best games got remade on to PS3, leaving only the arcade ports, the cheap shovelware, the quirky Japanese games, GT 3/Concept/4 and the Getaway series, possibly Zone of the Enders series as well) but no problems with the Gamecube (and Wii as well) and the Xbox versions.

In more moderner times between PS3 and 360, the 360 version is usually slightly better on the frame rate (excluding stuff like Bayonetta where the PS3 port is much worse compared to the original 360 version), however PS3 usually has better sound and if a game uses cutscenes, the cutscenes are in better video quality to take advantage of the Blu-ray disc (e.g. Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Rising Revengance). Wii U versions are usually in between PS3 and 360 but can be worse. For Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, the PS3 version and the PC are the only systems that display the game in its native resolution compared to the 360 and Wii U versions where it is less than HD however the Wii U version of Need for Speed: Most Wanted has better graphics than the PS3/360 versions but it did come out later.

I'm all about Spiderman 2 on the Gamecube over the other 2 consoles. Controller just felt made for that game.

Good read Furnessly, I can tell you've really thought about this. I'll also throw in that the Mega-CD SNK ports were really cool apart from load times. Way better than their MegaDrive counterparts.

Best question is what did you grow up with? As chances are that is what you'll prefer. I favour the MD sound chip over the SNES in most case growing up with it. But I prefer the even more limited C64 SID chip above both in many cases.

This is a game I was curious about. Your whole post is very informative. I'm in the process of (re)collecting some SNES, NES, SMS, and GEN games, but I'm starting to think I should explore more of the lesser known systems. I've never played NEO GEO, I've only played TG-16 once at a demo in a store, I didn't know PC-Engine was TG-16 until just now, and I've never ever heard of Amiga until 2 months ago. I need to expand.

I always preferred some of the Disney-licensed games (like Aladdin) on Genesis as opposed to thier SNES counterparts. The controls always felt tighter to me. But that's probably just me.

I'll agree that most SNES games had better music compared to Genesis, but the Genesis sound chip was pretty difficult to program for. Japanese composers like Yuzo Koshiro could really make the Genesis sing, though.

The best version of Mortal Kombat, that I've played to me anyway, is hands down the Sega CD / Mega CD version. No censored blood, and no blood codes even required, the game was pretty accurate right from the get-go. Sega consoles always had a history of handling 2D fighting games quite well, one of the few exceptions to that rule being the weapons fighter Samurai Spirits (Samurai Showdown) - most people who've played it agree that the 3DO version was closest to being near-arcade perfect at the time.

If you're a big fan of the Valis series of platformer games developed by the now-defunct Telenet, the TurboGrafx-CD and PC-Engine versions are the way to go. Way better than any of their Genesis (Valis, Syd of Valis, Valis III) or SNES (Super Valis IV) counterparts, which tended to be butchered, watered-down ports of the excellent CD games. Valis was originally on the MSX computer (yes, it's THAT old), and was also ported to the Famicom cartridge system and also showed up on the Sharp X68000 computer. So while North America got Valis II and Valis III on the TG-CD in addition to the Genesis and SNES ports, the better remake of Valis and Valis IV stayed in Japan on the PC-Engine CD. It's still sad that today only Valis I and II are available on the Japanese PSN only, but Valis III and Valis IV (arguably the two best Valis game) are still stuck in limbo.

Yuzo Koshiro did Act Raiser. I've turned on Act Raiser and just left it on the Sky Palace theme while doing chores around my house. As for Sega, I'm not sure who did Phantasy Star II off the top of my head, but for my money it's the best soundtrack in video game history.

I've never played Valis, but it is on my list of Genesis games I want to get my hands on. Maybe I'll investigate the TurboGrafx-CD versions if I can get that console. Thanks!

Wasn't the big difference in sound due to the MegaDrive having a 80's analogue sound chip vs the SNES 90's digital sound chip, or something like that?

Flashback on the MD/gen  - just played the first level on both of them, the MD version sounds better and plays faster - it feels a bit sluggish on the snes

Shaq-Fu on SNES
Shaq-Fu on Genesis

You're probably best off playing this on a computer... but if you're dead set on a console version, I'm going to say Genesis because I've heard it actually supports the Mega Mouse, while the SNES version doesn't have mouse support.

--Zero

I'd like to preface this by saying all my choices are based on nostalgia:

Which has the better version of Populous; SNES or GEN?  - SNES. While I've played both as well as the PC version, my Cool Aunt gave it to me (along with Inindo and a ton of other "crappy" SNES and NES games) and I jammed on this for hours

Krusty's Funhouse; SNES or GEN? - Between the two I'd say SNES, however, I'd like to point out that the NES version is a ton of fun in its own right

Flashback; SNES or GEN? Genesis hands down.  This game on anything other than a Genesis three button has never felt right to me.


It's funny, but a lot of Sega Genesis games sound like PC games from the early 90's to me (I'm thinking specifically of Commander Keen 4).  While the Genesis seemed to have a more metallic sound to many of its titles, I certainly don't like on over the other, but rather the fact that they are both distinct and different.