Console 1 - Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)

A Basic SNES System.

Released: US - 1991
Bit: 16

    I know up to this point I have only made blogs about the games found on the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), but I decided to take a small break from that, and discuss my favorite game system of all time, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
    I was never aware of the so called console wars, as they have been called by various groups, but I did know growing up that you were either a Nintedo kid, or a Sega kid. Simply put, you either owned a Sega Genesis, or a Nintendo. I had heard about debates as to what system was superior, but I myself had never engaged in any such debate, as all my friends were Nintendo kids. As such we engaged in a regular
diet of all the classic Nintendo games that were associated with the NES.
    Some history is required at this point, in order to put things in to perspective. Sega was the first to release a 16-bit system in to U.S. households in 1989. This system was called the Sega Genesis. The Genesis was released a full 2 years ahead of Nintendo's 1991 16-bit Super Nintendo System. This means that Sega
Kids had 2 years of thumbing their nose at Nintendo Kids for having an inferior gaming system. (Technically there was another 16-bit system released in 1989 called the Turbo Grafx 16, but I will be damned if I knew of anyone who owned it. I do not recall it being included in any video game dialogue as a kid. As such, I will not mention it again.) In fact I do remember seeing the advertisements for Sega Genesis systems with the taunting words, "Sega Genesis does, what Nintendon't".

The famous Genesis Ad

 This was the first time I was acutely aware of the war between the 2 systems. My friend Ben, a Nintendo Kid by all means, had a friend who was a Sega Kid named Mark, who I only knew by name. I sometimes heard Ben talking about going to Mark's house to play
Sonic (Sonic The Hedgehog) on his Genesis system. It's funny how life operates. Mark, the Sega Kid, would later become my first college roommate. Imagine that, a Nintendo Kid, and a Sega Kid rooming together in college. But I digress. 

     Rumors began circulating about Nintendo's anticipated response to Sega's 16 -bit console. While I didn't subscribe to Nintendo Power Magazine, I heard rumors about advertisements in said magazine that declared Ninendo's plans to release a 16-bit console that would once again level the playing field. It really wasn't until
sometime in Jr. High or High School that I began to hear more about it from my friend Ben. He had gotten a Super Nintendo, and was raving about playing games like Street Fighter on it. To this point I had really only played Street Fighter at the 7-11 by my middle school on the arcade cabinet. I wasn't very good at it, and was mostly a button-masher when it came to playing most arcade games.
    My first experience playing the Super Nintendo had to then be Street Fighter. I do not recall playing anything else for the first few months. I am sure there were other games, but Street Fighter tournaments at Ben's house were weekend regulars. Yeah we eventually bagan playing other SNES games like Sim City and Super Star Wars, but it was quite some time later.
    I didn't get my own SNES until years later. In fact I think the first Super Nintendo I bought was used, and was sometime between graduating from high school in 1995, and beginning college at Utah State later that same year. It may have actually been sometime after my first year in college, after I had come home for the summer to work, but I do not recall. I do remember playing Super Star Wars, and Sim City on my own system, and I remember going to the local video rental store in Logan my 2nd year there and renting all sorts of SNES games for the weekend, and playing them.
    To this very day, the Super Nintendo remains my favorite gaming console. It had such a great library of games, and the controls were awesome. The graphics allowed for most games to be done in an amazing way. The Super Star Wars series, for example, fully utilized the power of the Super Nintendo's graphics and sound to produce some awesome games.
    I am hoping to start mixing in a few SNES games in to my blogging rants here shortly. I will remain faithful to the original NES system, and it's games, but I need to balance out the two systems I experienced the most amount of time with.