THIS THIS THIS FUCKING THIS. As Clive correctly pointed out, Australian gamers of the era knew that the Master System / MegaDrive were the consoles of choice and only smelly losers owned a NES. The freaking Atari 2600 was more respectable than the NES here. It really was the red headed step child of gaming systems.
But God forbid you tell anyone in America that.
I really think we in Australia had a unique viewpoint of the gaming world, given half our media came from England and half from the US - we got to see two completely independent gaming ecosystems grow during the 80s and slowly merge during the '90s.
But yeah, retro gaming in America JUST means the NES, and I think that's really sad.
I would probably have 500 times my current traffic if I devoted
Blow The Cartridge to NES games, but I don't. Nothing but comics about obscure C64 / Amiga / Master System games!
Do you know there were two comic characters, both called Dennis The Menace, created IN THE SAME WEEK back in the 50s, completely independently of each other, one in the UK and one in the US? That's pretty cool.
Also, yes, Golden Axe did make it to the Master System, and it was only one player, but it was still neat. Plus there was that Master System-exclusive spin off game.