Support NeoGAF

[RAIDEN1]

The demo footage of Batman Returns the Konami classic for the SNES over 30 years later only now ported to the Genesis, why Konami decided not to go "like-for-like" back then and port both of the games as the same we may never know, impressive effort to say the least by the team that was behind this... but can only imagine had they released this on the Sega CD combined with the driving stages, it would have been THE definitive version above all...

 

[thefool]

I really liked the game gear Batman Returns. And the music was so good.

 

[mansoor1980]

superb port , audio esp voices are really well done

 

[IAmRei]

dang, one of the best game i ever played, although I'm played NES version, and SNES, Batman Return is like one of the culprit for why I like Batman.

 

[ManaByte]

why Konami decided not to go "like-for-like" back then and port both of the games as the same we may never know

Back then Konami still had an ounce of pride in their games. The Genesis had a lower color palette than the SNES (64 colors vs 256) and a vastly inferior audio chip. So their Genesis games would always look and sound worse than their SNES ones, which made "like-for-like" ports rare. Even Hyperstone Heist, which is really just the SNES Turtles in Time, was given a different title because the Genesis version is a big downgrade over the original.

 

[kindaGoth]

The co-op has you both playing as Batman?

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

Sega does what Nintendid.

I like these efforts on old games.

 

[Seider]

Back then Konami still had an ounce of pride in their games. The Genesis had a lower color palette than the SNES (64 colors vs 256) and a vastly inferior audio chip. So their Genesis games would always look and sound worse than their SNES ones, which made "like-for-like" ports rare. Even Hyperstone Heist, which is really just the SNES Turtles in Time, was given a different title because the Genesis version is a big downgrade over the original.

But Megadrive resolution (320x224) is far better than the Snes one (256x224) as it shows a lot more in screen. In a lot of games like the two Earthworm Jims you see a lot more in screen on Megadrive than on Snes.

So, both system had its good and bad things... but remember, Megadrive was launched in 1988 and Snes in 1990, two years later.

 

[cireza]

Back then Konami still had an ounce of pride in their games. The Genesis had a lower color palette than the SNES (64 colors vs 256) and a vastly inferior audio chip. So their Genesis games would always look and sound worse than their SNES ones, which made "like-for-like" ports rare. Even Hyperstone Heist, which is really just the SNES Turtles in Time, was given a different title because the Genesis version is a big downgrade over the original.

First of all, the MegaDrive game was by SEGA of America, not Konami.

Secondly, Konami were almost systematically allocating smaller ROM sizes to the MegaDrive. Hyperstone Heist plays, looks and sounds better than the SNES game, stages are longer with several scenes. However there are fewer bosses.

Tiny Toons, despite the ridiculous rom size, looks absolutely stunning. Rocket Knight Adventures shits on the Sparkster games visually speaking. And Castlevania looks perfectly fine, as well as playing much better than the two SNES games. Contra Hard Corps is another huge winner, plays like a dream. These games have MegaDrive written all over them. They run butter smooth, use the larger resolution etc...

Vastly inferior audio chip ? Seriously. They are two totally different things.

Also, don't forget that there was a strong history of Nintendo locking third parties to their consoles, and Konami only arrived on MegaDrive in 1993.

 

[ManaByte]

Hyperstone Heist plays, looks and sounds better than the SNES game

No it doesn’t.

 

[Fat Frog]

Are there more than 3 enemies on screen (Snes version) ?

 

[winjer]

That looks really good.
And the music and voices are top notch for the Mega Drive.

 

[Fat Frog]

No it doesn’t.

Sound is subjective but graphics are not:
Genesis

Snes

Even if i had a soft spot for the Snes version as a kid (OMG there is jurassic stage !!!!), as adults, it's cristal clear that the Gen version has more advanced graphics.

30 games will be released on the genesis in 2025 by the way.
War will never end

 

[Delt31]

Sound is subjective but graphics are not:
Genesis

Snes

Even if i had a soft spot for the Snes version as a kid (OMG there is jurassic stage !!!!), as adults, it's cristal clear that the Gen version has more advanced graphics.

30 games will be released on the genesis in 2025 by the way.
War will never end

I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not -I think you’re serious so I’m posting this.

SNES version looks much better in the screenshot comparison. SNES in general is the better looking version when the two were released for both. It’s pretty crystal clear in your own pics. Models, color, clarity - just look at the model for Leo.

Ok maybe you’re just being sarcastic so if so, you got me!

 

[RAIDEN1]

Fair point with the SNES having a bigger pool of colours etc, but I am assuming this Batman Returns port isn't using any Super FX like chip to run on the Genesis, this is stock Genesis hardware that is running it...so it was capable of handling the SNES version from the get-go..

 

[dcx4610]

Honestly, that was my favorite part of the SNES/Genesis era was getting different ports by different studios or just completely different games all together. I had both systems but I was more of a Nintendo kid so I'd usually buy the SNES version but then rent the Genesis version. And in some cases, they were good and different enough to own both versions. I guess it's better to have a consistent experience today but I still kinda miss it.

 

[Chuck Berry]

First of all, the MegaDrive game was by SEGA of America, not Konami.

Secondly, Konami were almost systematically allocating smaller ROM sizes to the MegaDrive. Hyperstone Heist plays, looks and sounds better than the SNES game, stages are longer with several scenes. However there are fewer bosses.

Tiny Toons, despite the ridiculous rom size, looks absolutely stunning. Rocket Knight Adventures shits on the Sparkster games visually speaking. And Castlevania looks perfectly fine, as well as playing much better than the two SNES games. Contra Hard Corps is another huge winner, plays like a dream. These games have MegaDrive written all over them. They run butter smooth, use the larger resolution etc...

Vastly inferior audio chip ? Seriously. They are two totally different things.

Also, don't forget that there was a strong history of Nintendo locking third parties to their consoles, and Konami only arrived on MegaDrive in 1993.

What about Sunsetriders

 

[cireza]

What about Sunsetriders

ROM is half the size on MegaDrive. That's only 512 KB. What can you hope to achieve with such a tiny ROM ? It was heavily constrained from the very beginning of development.

 

[cireza]

Sound is subjective but graphics are not

On top of it, this is a straight SNES to MD port, with updated gameplay/visuals/sound. Same as Street Fighter II etc... All these games include the technical limitations of the SNES on top of adding the limitations of the MD.

If it was a native MegaDrive game, it would have been much more impressive. Better resolution, more enemies etc... What we usually got with BTAs on MegaDrive, that were vastly superior to games in the same genre on SNES.

I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not -I think you’re serious so I’m posting this.

SNES version looks much better in the screenshot comparison. SNES in general is the better looking version when the two were released for both. It’s pretty crystal clear in your own pics. Models, color, clarity - just look at the model for Leo.

Ok maybe you’re just being sarcastic so if so, you got me!

Difference are barely existent and I had to look in detail at the sprite work to check this, but you can tell on the basis of these blurry screenshots ?

Left : SNES
Right : MegaDrive

They fixed a wrong perspective on MegaDrive, the left leg looks much better by being shorter. But this is anecdotal. Slightly higher sprite on MegaDrive, using one more 8 pixels tile it seems. Otherwise, these are almost the same models, MegaDrive displaying higher contrast, which gave better results on CRT.

SNES :

The Spriters Resource - Full Sheet View - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4: Turtles in Time - Leonardo

Full view of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4: Turtles in Time - Leonardo.

www.spriters-resource.com

Much better contrast on MegaDrive :

The Spriters Resource - Full Sheet View - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist - Leonardo

Full view of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist - Leonardo.

www.spriters-resource.com

 

[skyfinch]

Damn, that looks good.

The one game I really wish someone would tackle is Smash T.V. Genesis version is so bad.

 

[Fat Frog]

I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not -I think you’re serious so I’m posting this.

SNES version looks much better in the screenshot comparison. SNES in general is the better looking version when the two were released for both. It’s pretty crystal clear in your own pics. Models, color, clarity - just look at the model for Leo.

Ok maybe you’re just being sarcastic so if so, you got me!

I'll help you. Look at the wall...
The clarity/blur is just the bad quality of the genesis screenshot lol.

 

[ManaByte]

Sound is subjective but graphics are not:
Genesis

Snes

Even if i had a soft spot for the Snes version as a kid (OMG there is jurassic stage !!!!), as adults, it's cristal clear that the Gen version has more advanced graphics.

30 games will be released on the genesis in 2025 by the way.
War will never end

SNES game looks better.

 

[SirTerry-T]

Back then Konami still had an ounce of pride in their games. The Genesis had a lower color palette than the SNES (64 colors vs 256) and a vastly inferior audio chip. So their Genesis games would always look and sound worse than their SNES ones, which made "like-for-like" ports rare. Even Hyperstone Heist, which is really just the SNES Turtles in Time, was given a different title because the Genesis version is a big downgrade over the original.

"Vastly inferior audio chip"


To arms, my Sega Brethren!

 

[tkscz]

Sound is subjective but graphics are not:
Genesis

Snes

Even if i had a soft spot for the Snes version as a kid (OMG there is jurassic stage !!!!), as adults, it's cristal clear that the Gen version has more advanced graphics.

30 games will be released on the genesis in 2025 by the way.
War will never end

Would be better if you got screenshots of similar areas like the first level. The SNES's sewer level is an auto-scroller so it's in motion.

That said, this turned into an SNES vs Genesis thread rather quickly. Soon someone will claim the Genesis could do actual rotation and the SNES could do transparency on the sprite layer (neither console could do those things).

 

[CamHostage]

Huh, I totally forgot that there already was a Batman Returns game on MegaDrive (not sure I've ever seen it played, actually.) I knew there was the MegaCD driving game, but the regular Gen version is more a platformer, kind of like what a follow-up to the original Genesis Batman game might have been.

 

[RAIDEN1]

Huh, I totally forgot that there already was a Batman Returns game on MegaDrive (not sure I've ever seen it played, actually.) I knew there was the MegaCD driving game, but the regular Gen version is more a platformer, kind of like what a follow-up to the original Genesis Batman game might have been.

Yeah but this version looks plain bad with the sort of grainy purple hue look, (unless they were trying to throwback to the 60s version of Batman) this version looks nowhere near as good as Konami's effort

 

[RoboFu]

Did you know that the genesis didn't really have any helper cart tech like the snes had. I can only think of one game that used a different type of cart which was super street fighter 2. Which just added bank switching.

On the opposite side everyone knows the genesis claim blast processing because the genesis cpu was 7 mhz compared to the snes 3. But the sa1 cart for the she's added a 10 mhz version of the snes cpu.

 

[cireza]

Yeah but this version looks plain bad with the sort of grainy purple hue look, (unless they were trying to throwback to the 60s version of Batman) this version looks nowhere near as good as Konami's effort

It was undoubtedly a pretty bad game.

 

[polybius80]

The co-op has you both playing as Batman?

well, the michael jackson game for arcade allows you to play co-op with 3 michael jackson

 

[RAIDEN1]

well, the michael jackson game for arcade allows you to play co-op with 3 michael jackson

Find that a bit weird though, after all there is only ONE batman, but then I guess it may have taken too much work to incorporate Robin, and he wasn't in the 1992 movie either..

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Two Batman??

 

[polybius80]

an amazing work, they even use the extra resolution to add detail not present in the snes, they have the parallax floor and 2 players co-op, the sound is amazing and even add voice sounds and sound very clear

 

[polybius80]

Find that a bit weird though, after all there is only ONE batman, but then I guess it may have taken too much work to incorporate Robin, and he wasn't in the 1992 movie either..

yes, they cannot add a second character lore wise but since its a videogame they can pretend there is no 2 batmans like michael jackson or the first halo game

 

[kazuyamishima]

For some reason, just like the Aladdin game, I preferred the Sega Genesis version of Batman Returns compared to the SNES one.

 

[RetroAV]

For some reason, just like the Aladdin game, I preferred the Sega Genesis version of Batman Returns compared to the SNES one.

I used to hate the Genesis version of Batman Returns when it first came out. I was comparing it to the SNES version, which looked and sounded so much better. But now that I've gone back and played it again decades later, I have no doubt that the Genesis version is the better game! The mechanics, level design, strategy, and engagement are all better. The SNES version is extremely repetitive and a bore in comparison.

 

[Gp1]

My memory could be playing tricks on me here, but I think the water in TMNT TiT has some of those cool SNES tricks on the sewer level too.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Graphically looks fine, all things considering since Genesis had fewer colours. The music is god awful. Wow. The voices are decent though. UI looks better being smaller and it looks harder as there's more enemies.

For those of you who never played the old SNES game, it was shit. Looked and sounded awesome. And I think the bosses were big too. Konami also added in some photo-capped cut scenes to try to make it like a movie. Sounds great, but the game itself was the most repetitive Final Fight kind of game I ever played. Batman had hardly any moves and almost all the enemies you fight are the same handful of evil clowns (skinny guy, fat guy, flame guy).

 

[Fat Frog]

Are there more than 3 enemies on screen (Snes version) ?

Snes : Batman Pandemic Returns

 

[nkarafo]

Hyperstone Heist plays, looks and sounds better than the SNES game

What am i reading?

 

[winjer]