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The Super Nintendo Essays: The Original Console War

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The Super Nintendo Essays is a series of posts detailing my history with and passion for the SNES. It had a profound effect on my life as a gamer, and I wanted to share some of my most memorable stories about it with you!

In a world with no internet message boards or YouTube comments to defend your side, the battle between the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis was – and may forever be – the fiercest console war of them all. Unlike modern times where the differences between consoles are minimal at best, these were two wildly different platforms in virtually every way, from console architecture, to controller design, to marketing. Heck, even third party games sharing the same name were oftentimes completely different builds between the two.

I was there for pretty much all of it. And in hindsight, console wars were always dumb.

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Super Monkey Ball 2: Sakura Edition Can Roll Off a Cliff

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The first Super Monkey Ball caught everyone by surprise when it was ported to the Gamecube from the arcade. This evolution of Marble Madness was simple to learn, hard to master and featured a fun to play campaign mode and mini games. Thanks to the success of that first game, Super Monkey Ball has grown into a profitable franchise for Sega. However, the steady flow of sales has not led to a steady improvement in quality. In fact, I would go as far as saying that none of the Monkey Ball games since the original have surpassed the quality of the first. Some of the entries in the series are flat-out bad.

Prior to my impulsive purchase of Sakura Edition on the iPad, I had been burned twice by Super Monkey Ball sequels. I caved on the iPad version because I was still starved for new iPad-specific games and it was on sale for $5. Is this the game that brings the series back into top form?
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When Die Hard Fans Go Wrong

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I normally pay no mind to video game related petitions. They’re usually stupid demands made by and supported by equally stupid gamers. But I couldn’t help but discuss this recent petition related to Sonic 4. To be fair, not everyone in the petition is in support of it, and some people are there just to make fun of them like I’m about to.

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