When do you think Sega was at it's most creative?

Treasure sure did make alot of goodies for Sega. But we digress.

 

x

 

SEGA made the best Arcade racers, no matter which generation you look at. Daytona USA, Scud Race, SEGA Race TV, 18 wheeler, Crazy Taxi, Virtua Racing, SEGA GT the list goes on... Certainly that's sealed for me, SEGA were very creative with racers/driving games.

I also loved SEGA's fighting games, Fighting Vipers, Virtua Fighter, Fighters Megamix, Sonic the Fighters etc. I'd staple my sack to the wall for a Fighting Vipers 3

 

Sega team AM7/team shinobi were the developers for those games

Games developed as AM7 / Team Shinobi

• Alex Kidd series
• Phantasy Star series
• Shinobi series
• Golden Axe series (home series)
• Alien Storm (home version)
• Streets of Rage series
• Sakura Wars series
• Deep Fear

**
and ya fighting vipers 3.... would be sweet!

 

1991-2001

In those 10 years Sega alone showed more creativity and innovation than the entire industry in the next 10 years

It had peaks, like from 1992 to 1994, late 95 to late 96, and 1998 to 2000, but overall there was always something amazing on the pipeline

These days? I don't know if theres a total lack of motivation or there really is nothing left in that company

What?

 

They went from being Sega, making far and away more new games than any other company, to trying to be like Nintendo or Capcom after 1992. I'm not saying the games were bad, they were just not new material like Sega should be known for. Obviously not all games were sequels or unoriginal, but most were. Sega also quite uncharacteristically started depending on mainstay 3rd parties a lot more from '93-'95.

 

^ I see what is meant. 1991 brought Sonic 1. 1992 brought Sonic 2. 1994 brought Sonic 3 as well as the rest of the game in Sonic and Knuckles lock on cart. All 3 (technically as many as 5) of these games had similar game play save for abilities and monitors. Only original games after Sonic 1 in that line was Sonic Spinball and maybe 3D Blast (Flickie's Island for you outside USA). I don't include Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine since there's thousands of games a lot like that one. It be a rip off...

 

x

 

I feel like SEGA were at their pinnacle when they released Shenmue. They released tons of amazing software prior to that, but I think they were at their absolute peak when they released Shenmue in terms of what they were capable of producing creatively. Yu Suzuki was really important for the growth of the company overall. And stuff.

 

Mega Drive/Genny days, the sheer amount of harware variation and accesories was mind boggling the advertising was catchy and for a while it paid off.

The games on the Saturn and Dreamcast though I think are a bit more creative, though, uhh yeah, hardware is Genny and games is SS and DC.

 

I also think the Mega drive / Genesis era was when they were the most creative with the way they tried to prolong the life of their console with the Sega CD and 32x add ons. Its just a shame they didn't support these consoles as much. As some of the later games would of been arcade perfect and such especially with the sega CD 32x games.

 

It's hard to say that Sega was ever lacking in the creativity department. I have to say i'm partial to the oddballs out -- Saturn and Game Gear.

 

About creativity I'd definitely say the SMS era, '86-'89.

They pumped out all the hardware and 99% of the US/JP market software by themselves. They not only pumped out games that covered most genres but even blazed the trail for a few innovative ones (Miracle Warriors, Phantasy Star, etc).

It's easy to throw off on the SMS software, especially in comparison to the monolith of NES/FC titles. Looking at it from the perspective that virtually everything on the system was covered by one publisher is crazy.

 

Everybody looks at the NES library as a whole as though it popped out of nowhere as soon as the system launched and they compare that to the Master System library in the US without regard to when the Genesis took over. Look at any individual NES publisher for any year and they will fall short in effort and creativity to Sega.

Well I say that, but it seems that those loyal to popular brands can't see quality in Sega's games no matter what.

 

Exactly. There's really no comparison when you look at the entire catalog of releases by Sega on the SMS vesus the entire catalog of any single company that published/developed for the NES. (Ok, maybe not Sachen or Rare, but that's another story).

If forced to choose, I'd choose a SMS with Sega's entire catalog of releases versus a NES with Nintendo's catalog, and possibly ditto that with the 16-bit machines.

 

The Master System was my first console ever in fact...


Still have the picture but not the system

As much as I loved the games I had for it... they're all rotting in a land fill.

and I regret that not.

I do however regret all my SNES and NES stuff is.

There's just something off about Master System games. I will say this the port of Rampage it got that sega did not do was AWESOME.

I will also still say the Master System Double Dragon was the better of the Double Dragon Ports until the Genesis version.

 

I always preffered the Master System port of Castle of Illusion, it wasn't as pretty but I just thought it was a more fun game to play. The Mega Drive version reminded me of an old Amiga game like James Pond or something, never really liked it.

 

For me, it's Yu Suzuki's arcade period from 1985 to 1995
With crazy arcade cabinet like Space harrier, Galaxy Force II and... the R-360
Revolutionnary games, creation of the 3D arcade games with virtua racing and then virtua fighter.

 

Right from the beginning all the way until the death of the Dreamcast. Sega were really creative with their early Arcade output and with SG1000 games (look at Girls Garden for instance), but that era is largely over looked. The Saturn is probably their weakest era for me, but that has more to do with the 32bit console generation not really being capable enough for developers to make the 3D games they wanted to, hence no Saturn Sonic game.

 

Sonic R is what? Chop Liver?