I never owned a Sega system growing up and I never really understood the appeal of many of the Sega games. My youth was in the 90's at a time when Sonic vs. Mario had already shifted to Sony vs. Nintendo. I saw Sonic games here and there but my first console was N64 so I never really had to make that 16 bit pick. I'm sure I would have chosen Nintendo, though. My wife grew up on the opposite track. The only console she owned for many years was a Genesis, and later a PlayStation that she was still playing when we met in 2006.
The games that my wife mostly played were The Lion King and Rayman. I never really could get into Rayman as a kid because I couldn't get on with the GBC version. Nowadays I love both games. My wife was and is a seriously skilled gamer. Any time she doubts her abilities I remind her that she 100%'d Rayman, a mega-impressive feat. I mean it took me years playing Rayman on and off with her to 100% it, even using the 99 lives code, and platformers are my favorite genre.
Anyway. I was lucky to receive a Sega Genesis from my wife for Christmas in 2016. I can't believe that was nearly five years ago. I remember it like it was yesterday. We were on a trip down to the Gulf Coast of Alabama, staying in an AirBNB with a lush view of flora, fauna and sea. When I close my eyes I can just transport myself back to the feeling of that sea breeze, and the coziness of the house we were staying in. I think about that trip a lot. I got my wife the Wind Waker amiibos and they proudly stood on the mantle in the living room. We watched Japanese dramas and MasterChef Australia. And we played some seriously special games. Alongside the Genesis was a copy of The Lion King. And Castle of Illusion, too.
At first I wasn't sure if there was a TV in that house we could play the system on. There was an old small CRT in a closet that seemed to only handle Genesis in black and white. We managed to hook it up to the main LCD TV and it looked surprisingly good. We made our way through The Lion King and we'd leave the system on for hours to not lose mid-level progress. Those levels get incredibly tough and there were times we had other plans and had to pull ourselves away from that screen. It's tough because the game is addictively fun and well-designed, the soundtrack is a surprisingly excellent rendition of the film's score, and the graphics to me are astounding for their time. Eventually, we beat it, with my wife defeating Scar, as we'd alternated levels the whole way through. It was a real triumph, especially since she'd tried for years to beat it. Those Disney games had an almost arcade-like difficulty as we now know they were relatively short games with the difficulty acting as a way to ensure value by lengthening the playthrough time.
We also ended up playing Ori as our second game for that trip. That's now one of my all-time favorites so it was just an especially excellent gaming holiday season that year.
Anyway, I really loved that first experience with Sega Genesis. We've since played through some other games including Aladdin (the animation is honestly amazing) and most recently World of Illusion at the beginning of this year. There are some others I plan to play too, some of which are sitting on Wii VC (for example, Beyond Oasis), some in our TV stand (Rocket Knight Adventures) and some I'm hoping to obtain in the future (Quackshot). The 8bitdo controller is awesome, too.
(And here I am only just now understanding that's a pun on 'crack shot.')
So, yeah, I love the Sega Genesis, it represents a lost gaming era for me, a comfy nostalgic gaming paradise and time machine to an alternate happier youth unwrapping Christmas presents with the kid who would become my wife.
My next Sega milestone plan is to try a Sonic game for real. I played some Advance as a kid but never really got into it, same with an Adventure demo or a demo for its sequel, and same with a Lost World demo. I was reading about the Sonic 3 OST earlier this year though and I'd really like to try the Xbox 360 version, and Sonic Mania and BC Generations have caught my eye, too.
Thanks to anyone who made.it through this lengthy post. It felt good to share this story with you all. And thank you
@Tailzo for another wonderful thread. I never knew what the Pico was, so it was fascinating to look that up.
