Which was Sega 's best console?

Sega 's best console?

  • Total voters
    347
Dreamcast was truly ahead of it's time. It has the best, most iconic IP imo, e.g. Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi, Skies of Arcadia, Phantasy Star Online, Shenmue, Sonic Adventure etc etc. Then there's the tons of awesome 3rd party like Marvel vs Capcom 2, Soul Calibur, Dead or Alive 2, Hydro Thunder, Resident Evil Code Veronica, Power Stone, D2, NFL2K/NBA2K etc etc.

Lastly they had really cool innovations with the VMU and ability to play online.

If I was stranded on an Island I'd take the best of the best for Dreamcast over any other SEGA console easily.
 
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BlackTron said:
Dreamcast was NOT the "same thing" as other consoles when it came out. It was a quantum leap in video games that hasn't been replicated since.
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What was special about the Dreamcast at launch that no other console at the time had?
 
Geometric-Crusher said:
What was special about the Dreamcast at launch that no other console at the time had?
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When DC came out, the most advanced consoles available were PS1 and Nintendo 64. Let that sink in, lol

edit: Since you obviously didn't live through this period. I suspect you never played any of these consoles, and think you know what the games were like from watching youtube videos of PS1 and N64 games running in PC emulators.
 
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I voted Dreamcast.

I grew to love the Megadrive. I was an SNES kid so while I recognize all the advantage it has over it, I just love the Nintendo machine more.

On the other hand, if I knew that the dreamcast existed back then, while I already got my N64 for my 10 years, I know I would've wanted it instead. It was so ahead of its time, and still to this day, I can't see any weakness it really had except its hardware being surpassed by the other 6th gen consoles, but the difference wasn't as abysmall as PS1/Saturn/N64 vs Dreamcast.
 
SEGAvangelist said:
True SEGA fans know it's the SEGA Saturn.
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HST-0014 is sleek.
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It is strange to have Sega Genesis, Sega CD, and Sega 32x as separate entities considering they form the one and only TOWER OF POWER!!!
SEGA_20Genesis_201_20CD_201_2032x_20front_7758f2c6-8d7d-467b-8442-4b7c678b1aea.jpg

The base console is still home to many amazing games.
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Langrisser%20Hikari%202%20(GS).gif
asha-monster-world-iv.gif

*Beyond Oasis, Langrisser II, Monster World IV

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gunstar-heroes-dnopls.gif
archery-quackshot-pav-creations.gif

*Earthworm Jim, Gunstar Heroes, QuackShot

Alien_Storm_(Arcade)_21.gif
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A8C74EAEBE26C138AE71891839F9FC6C90D71760

*Alien Storm, Urban Strike, Zero Tolerance
 
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REDRZA MWS said:
Duke nukem was brilliant. I think a lot of Saturn owners thought they'd get more games and 3rd party support.
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That's the irony of that console. The Saturn had more games (over 1000) and more 3rd party support than the Genesis. Look at Capcom... On the Genesis, Capcom ports were good but reprogrammed by Sega.
On the Saturn, Capcom fighters were absolutely out of control, it was H Bomb. (X Men, Vampire Savior, Street Fighter Alpha 3...same for SNK. No more Takara ports, welcome in house madness like KOF 95,96,97, Real Bout Special.

The console also had more 3rd party support than the N64 (Saturn's library is 3 times bigger).

The problem was Sega.(They didn't localized most of their gems and ditched the Saturn for the Dreamcast too early)
 
I forgot Sega made consoles and I'm not going to pick which is their best console, Sega fanboys got too comfortable and Sonic wondered on other consoles.
 
Emedan said:
Gun to my head - MegaDrive. Compared to Nintendos condoles back then tho they all kinda second rate crap.. yeah I said it.
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When you include Japanese titles, Saturn had a better library of games than N64. And had more games in different genres overall.
That's a truth fact. Yeah, I said it.
 
I'll put one in for the Saturn although I voted Genesis. Genesis objectively had a better library and came out at a time when the stuff it was doing seemed magical. Hung on for way too long.

The launch of the Saturn is one of the most tragic stories in all of video games. I'm not going to recount it here, but it had a ton of firsts. First analog controller. First removable storage. First completely CD-based console. I know it was built primarily for side scrollers, but it did 3D well enough so that stuff like Nights and Daytona and Virtua fighter and panzer dragoon were awesome. I bought it before I bought a PlayStation or a Nintendo 64 2 years after everything was already out.
 
Genesis/SegaCD followed by Master System and/or Saturn

The SEGA I loved died with the Saturn

Dreamcast was prob the worst..... I hated games like Crazy Taxi, JSR and Sonic Adventure

Dreamcast was basically the blueprint for modern gaming but I hate modern gaming so meh
 
All of them were pretty sweet, each for its time, but of course the last couple are the closest to modern sensibilities, if not pioneered some of those, while still having a treasure trove of worthy exclusives each, often newly discovered to this day for many of us thanks to fan translations, leaks & such.​
 
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Pasta la Vista said:
When you include Japanese titles, Saturn had a better library of games than N64. And had more games in different genres overall.
That's a truth fact. Yeah, I said it.
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Well 6 year old me wouldn't really care much about Japanese exclusive games he couldn't play against bangers like SM64, Mario Kart or Star Fox.
 
Saturn is my favorite Sega console.
About it I love that it's kind a strange timewarp of what would have happen at that fundamental turning point if console manufacturers decided that the new tech would be better put to use to make games sprite based games but prettier/more complex than what we had with SNES instead of pushing for the new frontier of polygonal graphics.
Of course some of the best games on Saturn a "3D" games but it's evident that the philoshophy behind the console was 'sprite-first' while for N64 was 'polygon-first' or even better '3D worlds-first'.

If I had to rank the top 3 would be:
1) Saturn
2) Mega Drive
3) Dreamcast
 
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Plies said:
The Saturn (SoJ) killed Sega.
The Dreamcast was simply Sega 's last gasp of air. 🍥
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What killed Sega's console division (consumer division in the graph below) was a long stretch of failures, bad decisions and lack of competitiveness toward Nintendo and PlayStation that started in the late part of the Mega Drive lifespan, just after the sudden spike in profitability around 1991-1992.
That spike was soon after followed by a collapse in profitability and losses before the the start of the Saturn era and continued with deeper losses when they tried to desperately keep up with Nintendo and PlayStation.
The only reason why it isn't immediately obvious that Sega's console business started the negative swing in the latter part of the MD era is because the other two arcade divisions were keeping afloat the company thus Sega as a whole was in black but that could only be a short term stopgap due to the combination of worsening losses in the console division and worsening conditions of the arcade market.

Sega operating profits split by division:


3oIcRIx.jpeg


Sega operating profits as a whole (including the direct rivals):
ktelHod.jpeg
 
It is really close between Genesis Saturn and Dreamcast.
For the 2 years it was around the Dreamcast had like 20+ amazing games. Very small but dense in quality run of games.
Genesis was around forever, has some all time greats but also has a ton of dog shit games.

I voted for Saturn because it needs more love. Guardian Heroes and Panzer Dragoon Zwei and Dragon Force are all in my top 50 of all time. Amazing Arcade ports, best 2D fighting game console ever made. Lots of good RPGs. If you include Japanese only releases I think Saturn definitively wins out overall.
 
Parazels said:
I would have voted for Dreamcast if it had two analog sticks. But one stick was a joke even in 1998.
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Not many games were even being developed with the idea of using dual analog control back then. Even though Sony released the dual shock first in 97 there weren't any games actually using it until PS2. DC launched in '99 but the system/controller and games were being developed 2-3 years before.
 
ShirAhava said:
Dreamcast was basically the blueprint for modern gaming but I hate modern gaming so meh
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Except that was Sony and PS1/PS2 that defined the current state of gaming. SEGA died because they were still making the fun, colorful games like they had always been making.
 
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Hollowpoint5557 said:
Game Gear.

When I showed up to school with that bad boy it was the shit. Fucking Sonic the Hedghog 2, Dr Robotniks Mean Bean Machine, and Shinobi were the shit with beautiful colours, amazing music, and a backlight. This is when the competition was the original 2 colour Gameboy. My friends and I couldn't believe what we were witnessing. The Genesis and Dreamcast get their flowers all the time, the Game Gear is a massively overlooked system.
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I never owned any Sega System, but from those i tried only the Game Gear left a positive lasting impression. The portability was shite due to the insane battery demand, but with a wired connection it was a device ahead of the time.
 
Gambit2483 said:
Not many games were even being developed with the idea of using dual analog control back then. Even though Sony released the dual shock first in 97 there weren't any games actually using it until PS2. DC launched in '99 but the system/controller and games were being developed 2-3 years before.
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People usually praise Nintendo for a single analog stick, but somehow underappreciate the double anal-
og sticks from Sony.
 
Parazels said:
What's your favorite number of sticks?
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2 sticks, as we all know, is the ideal number that has been settled on for the bog standard controller design after much evolution.

But in 1998, it hadn't evolved there yet. The only dual analog controller was the dual shock which wasn't packed with the system. Meaning anyone who added analog control on PSX counted on you to buy an extra accessory to use it. We had games like MGS that were not designed for dual analog control, but would offer you smoother control than a dpad if you had one.

It wasn't obvious that it was the direction controls were heading as the console and games were being developed years prior. There wasn't a single customer alive who saw the DC controller and said "where's the second stick?", not one. Maybe they asked why it looked like a spaceship though.

Of course maybe in hindsight we can say, it would have been a good idea for DC to have dual analog. But anyone who was around back then knows that has absolutely nothing to do with why DC failed, or made it a "joke" in 1998.

On the other hand, it was both very foreseeable that using carts in 64 could be an issue and also was a major factor in what hurt the system. So that was just blatant hubris. Lack of extra stick on DC was neither. You are taking 20 years of normalcy and applying it to a different time when the idea of that normalcy was being formed and solidified.
 
Parazels said:
It was in later revisions.
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Correct, but not in 1998.

This is somewhat like saying "I would have voted Genesis, but it didn't have shoulder buttons." At the time of SNES vs Genesis, the lack of shoulder buttons didn't jump out at anyone and probably did not affect any purchasing decisions. Even though we now know shoulder buttons became standard kit and omitting them would be a "joke".
 
BlackTron said:
Correct, but not in 1998.

This is somewhat like saying "I would have voted Genesis, but it didn't have shoulder buttons." At the time of SNES vs Genesis, the lack of shoulder buttons didn't jump out at anyone and probably did not affect any purchasing decisions. Even though we now know shoulder buttons became standard kit and omitting them would be a "joke".
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I mentioned the stick, but it wasn't the only problem. The whole Dreamcast gamepad was terrible from head to toe!
 
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Parazels said:
I mentioned the stick, but it wasn't the only problem. The whole Dreamcast gamepad was terrible from head to toe!
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Honestly, the only terrible thing about it is that it looked weird and the cable came out the bottom (to accommodate the VMU slots). Mind you, I didn't think it looked bad, but I get why people were turned off from it. It had analog triggers and a hall stick. The buttons were certainly many times better than the dogshit buttons on Series.
 
BlackTron said:
Honestly, the only terrible thing about it is that it looked weird and the cable came out the bottom (to accommodate the VMU slots). Mind you, I didn't think it looked bad, but I get why people were turned off from it. It had analog triggers and a hall stick. The buttons were certainly many times better than the dogshit buttons on Series.
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Everything was phenomenally terrible. Bulky shape, hard buttons, hard triggers, uncomfortable slippery stick etc.
 
cireza said:
Except that was Sony and PS1/PS2 that defined the current state of gaming. SEGA died because they were still making the fun, colorful games like they had always been making.
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which ones? Manx TT, Crazy Taxi and VF 2?
 
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My heart tells me it's the Dreamcast. But it only had 18 months here in the West, it was a fire that burnt out fast. So in reality it's the Mega Drive. Amazing console that just kept on giving, and it had a great variety of genres with support from all kinds of third parties.
 
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cireza said:
Except that was Sony and PS1/PS2 that defined the current state of gaming. SEGA died because they were still making the fun, colorful games like they had always been making.
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Sega's Shenmue, Phantasy Star Online, and NBA 2K1 on Dreamcast were way ahead of the curve.
 
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