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[64bitmodels]

Fortunately they redid everything for Rondo of Blood which has defined the art style since.

I think the sprites by themself look good, but when you compare them to bloodlines and rondo they're definitely very lacking on the animation front. everything looks incredibly choppy and stiff in comparison to how smooth those other games looked.

in general i think the Konami games on Genesis don't really get enough recognition, the majority of them are frankly superior to their SNES counterparts (cough cough Contra hard corps cough cough)

 

[VGEsoterica]

I think the sprites by themself look good, but when you compare them to bloodlines and rondo they're definitely very lacking on the animation front. everything looks incredibly choppy and stiff in comparison to how smooth those other games looked.

in general i think the Konami games on Genesis don't really get enough recognition, the majority of them are frankly superior to their SNES counterparts (cough cough Contra hard corps cough cough)

Very true. Genesis games in generally didn’t get the same credit that SNES stuff did sometimes

 

[Rran]

SCIV is absolutely a cakewalk. It provides practically zero push back of any kind until you get to the castle.

When I was a kid, Stage 3 (the waterfall) demolished me time and time again, and still gives me a little trouble nowadays even though I've played through the game a dozen times. Stage 4 can be pretty rough as well with the moving floors.

The most recent time I played through SCIV, I used a password to access Hard Mode from the get-go, and it was a solid challenge. Lots of game overs.

I honestly don't see how this game is any easier than the average SNES classic. SNES games in general are more manageable than their NES counterparts, so I don't get why SCIV is the one that's always called out about it. The game has plenty of challenging parts to it.

 

[kunonabi]

When I was a kid, Stage 3 (the waterfall) demolished me time and time again, and still gives me a little trouble nowadays even though I've played through the game a dozen times. Stage 4 can be pretty rough as well with the moving floors.

The most recent time I played through SCIV, I used a password to access Hard Mode from the get-go, and it was a solid challenge. Lots of game overs.

I honestly don't see how this game is any easier than the average SNES classic. SNES games in general are more manageable than their NES counterparts, so I don't get why SCIV is the one that's always called out about it. The game has plenty of challenging parts to it.

Except it really doesn't. A lot of SNES games are easier than their NES precursors but the drop isn't nearly as extreme as it was for CVIV. The level design is just so pedestrian because it puts the effects before everything else and the enemies are far too restrained to make up for it.

 

[Generic]

Castlevania IV isn't easier, the NES Castlevania games just had clunky controls paired with cheap enemy and bosses. IV fixed that nonsense.

 

[Kurt]

Do find super castlevania 4 still the best of all. Each castlevania had good music, but sc4 take this to a next level like super metroid. Its how the art and music set you in some atmosphere like no other castlevania does

Besides that the level design is much less repeative then those castlevania rpg games (which are also realy good). The gameplay is also a lot more controllable then prev castlevania games. I had not the same feeling with this with dracula x (played both snes and pc engine)

 

[VGEsoterica]

Do find super castlevania 4 still the best of all. Each castlevania had good music, but sc4 take this to a next level like super metroid. Its how the art and music set you in some atmosphere like no other castlevania does

Besides that the level design is much less repeative then those castlevania rpg games (which are also realy good). The gameplay is also a lot more controllable then prev castlevania games. I had not the same feeling with this with dracula x (played both snes and pc engine)

I’d say control wise IV and Rondo are equal to me. Richters backflip is clutch

 

[cartman414]

IMO Rondo is the best traditional entry and SotN is the best Metroidvania. Which is the best of these two? I can’t decide haha

I preferred the Sorrow games to Symphony, even though the latter created the Metroidvania fork.

 

[cartman414]

I guess the franchise forked with DK'94 and DKC.

One half (DK'94 branch) iterated on the classic gameplay, but with increasingly puzzle-focused elements. This leads into the "Mario vs Donkey Kong" era, the minis, etc--all of which comes directly from the gameplay style of DK'94.

The other half (DKC) turns it into a Mario-like platformer, but more difficulty and so on.

I'm actually quite fond of puzzle-style Donkey Kong.

What I mean is that DK '94 was the more inventive game of the two. DKC 1 was a Mario World clone with then earth-shattering pre-rendered CG-style sprites. I find it a little hypocritical that people fine with Donkey Kong switching identities, while Adventure of Link gets bashed for being an outlier in the Zelda series (regardless of its own merits/flaws/potential), but that's just me.

It took DKC 2 to bring the sub-series into its own.

Sorry about that.

Do find super castlevania 4 still the best of all. Each castlevania had good music, but sc4 take this to a next level like super metroid. Its how the art and music set you in some atmosphere like no other castlevania does

Besides that the level design is much less repeative then those castlevania rpg games (which are also realy good). The gameplay is also a lot more controllable then prev castlevania games. I had not the same feeling with this with dracula x (played both snes and pc engine)

The controls in the original games were part of the design, and the enemies/hazards were designed around them. The problem with Super CV 4 was that only a handful of the enemies were designed with the 8-way whip in mind. And the problem with the reduced resistance from enemy threats is that the pacing remains the same, making a huge part of the game slow and uneventful. At least other games not known for their challenge like Mega Man X have better pacing.

 

[Soodanim]

Nice to see another one of these up, I always enjoy them.

Very true. Genesis games in generally didn’t get the same credit that SNES stuff did sometimes

I'll always take the opportunity to say how good Rocket Knight Adventures is. It was the game that seared the name Konami into my mind, and when games like MGS came along years later my attitude was "It's Konami, they made RKA so of course it's good".

Shame how things went a decade or two later.

 

[SpiceRacz]

Aside from the obvious answers, Gradius 3 was amazing at the time (despite the slowdown issues).

 

[AngelMuffin]

Iconic AF

Crank up at that stage 8 Catacombs music.

 

[wondermega]

The lead-up to SNES was an exciting time. My "golden years" were definitely growing up with the NES and then "graduating" to the Genesis. At the time, especially in that first couple of years, it felt absolutely incredible to have such a console at home playing games that looked like that. Mind you NES was still host to a lot of the best-playing games one could get their hands on and with the memory mapping chips they were still always improving by leaps and bounds (Batman: Return of the Joker looked like it was basically a 16-bit game, it was insane!) but Genesis really was providing a step closer to the arcade which didn't feel accessible otherwise (also TurboGrafx-16, but no one really cared about that console.. except me, sadly)..

Anyway when the mags finally started drip-feeding pics of launch window SNES games, it felt like a storm was coming. Basically, just like Genesis but EVEN BETTER. Pics of Mario World with the HUGE Bullet Bill, pics of F-Zero with the arcade-scaling track, pics of Ghouls n Ghosts with much sharper colors and details than we'd seen years earlier on Genesis.. and of course Nintendo was FINALLY getting an R-Type game, which seemed to be the missing crown jewel that the other systems had (to whatever degree) but was missing in the NES catalog. And of course Final Fight with those massive sprites!

Anyway SNES launch came and went and that first year or two was pretty legendary, with all the games already mentioned in this thread. In hindsight the Genesis did a pretty good job stacking up to it at the time - I am pretty sure they timed the release of the original Sonic the Hedgehog game right around that console launch, which did a really nice job of making Super Mario World (nice as it was) feel a bit stale on arrival. I grabbed (or rented) many of the other games I mentioned out of the gate, and they were all pretty stellar looking and sounded - Contra, Castlevania, Zelda 3, Star Wars, Mega Man X etc. But to be honest, though they were all great titles, I do feel like "the extra color palette, Mode 7 effect, crazy audio chip etc" were all very nice, but not enough to get me to pack up and forget my Genesis yet. And all those games, while they were really cool, they did feel like they were a bit rushed to get out for the launch and help show off he system (totally understandable) - but there was something about so many of those early titles that, in hindsight, didn't just allow them to wipe the slate clean with what their predecessors had done.

All these years later, I find myself replaying Mario or SMB3 rather than Super Mario World. Contra 1 or 2 (usually 1) on NES over Contra 3 on SNES. Castlevania 1 or 3 over the SNES version. Same with Ghouls n Ghosts (Genesis, not NES! Haha), even Zelda. Sure, none of those games "present" as well as their successors, but I think they were all a bit more dialed in, in some ways. Maybe it's just the nostalgia is greater for me, from when those games were new and exciting, versus when the upgrades came out and I was a little older and though they certainly looked and sounded "better," started feeling a bit stale, less special. But that is also sort of how I appreciate games as I get older anyway. I'll happily sit down with a simple game with very low-rent presentation nowadays so long as the mechanics, rhythm, etc is super-tight.

 

[VGEsoterica]

The lead-up to SNES was an exciting time. My "golden years" were definitely growing up with the NES and then "graduating" to the Genesis. At the time, especially in that first couple of years, it felt absolutely incredible to have such a console at home playing games that looked like that. Mind you NES was still host to a lot of the best-playing games one could get their hands on and with the memory mapping chips they were still always improving by leaps and bounds (Batman: Return of the Joker looked like it was basically a 16-bit game, it was insane!) but Genesis really was providing a step closer to the arcade which didn't feel accessible otherwise (also TurboGrafx-16, but no one really cared about that console.. except me, sadly)..

Anyway when the mags finally started drip-feeding pics of launch window SNES games, it felt like a storm was coming. Basically, just like Genesis but EVEN BETTER. Pics of Mario World with the HUGE Bullet Bill, pics of F-Zero with the arcade-scaling track, pics of Ghouls n Ghosts with much sharper colors and details than we'd seen years earlier on Genesis.. and of course Nintendo was FINALLY getting an R-Type game, which seemed to be the missing crown jewel that the other systems had (to whatever degree) but was missing in the NES catalog. And of course Final Fight with those massive sprites!

Anyway SNES launch came and went and that first year or two was pretty legendary, with all the games already mentioned in this thread. In hindsight the Genesis did a pretty good job stacking up to it at the time - I am pretty sure they timed the release of the original Sonic the Hedgehog game right around that console launch, which did a really nice job of making Super Mario World (nice as it was) feel a bit stale on arrival. I grabbed (or rented) many of the other games I mentioned out of the gate, and they were all pretty stellar looking and sounded - Contra, Castlevania, Zelda 3, Star Wars, Mega Man X etc. But to be honest, though they were all great titles, I do feel like "the extra color palette, Mode 7 effect, crazy audio chip etc" were all very nice, but not enough to get me to pack up and forget my Genesis yet. And all those games, while they were really cool, they did feel like they were a bit rushed to get out for the launch and help show off he system (totally understandable) - but there was something about so many of those early titles that, in hindsight, didn't just allow them to wipe the slate clean with what their predecessors had done.

All these years later, I find myself replaying Mario or SMB3 rather than Super Mario World. Contra 1 or 2 (usually 1) on NES over Contra 3 on SNES. Castlevania 1 or 3 over the SNES version. Same with Ghouls n Ghosts (Genesis, not NES! Haha), even Zelda. Sure, none of those games "present" as well as their successors, but I think they were all a bit more dialed in, in some ways. Maybe it's just the nostalgia is greater for me, from when those games were new and exciting, versus when the upgrades came out and I was a little older and though they certainly looked and sounded "better," started feeling a bit stale, less special. But that is also sort of how I appreciate games as I get older anyway. I'll happily sit down with a simple game with very low-rent presentation nowadays so long as the mechanics, rhythm, etc is super-tight.

The 16/32 bit era was just legendary it feels

 

[NeptuneCL]

Super Castlevania IV is an absolutely gem. It´s soundtrack is simply...., perfect!

 

[Trunx81]

You guys came from the NES - I only had a C64 at home. The first time I saw snes graphics was so mind blowing
The rain in Zelda. The big sprites in SF2. The parallax scrolling in Tiny Toons. Another world opened on that day.

Also, I support the DK94 is better than DKC take.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Very true. Genesis games in generally didn’t get the same credit that SNES stuff did sometimes

I liked the SNES games more. I had Hard Corps and Bloodlines and thought they were cheesy. For Genesis games they had great effects, but the dull colours and quirkiness (Contra Hard Corps was like a comedy game with weird bosses and that shopping cart boss and monkey fun ending). The audio was clearly better in the SNES games.

 

[cartman414]

The lead-up to SNES was an exciting time. My "golden years" were definitely growing up with the NES and then "graduating" to the Genesis. At the time, especially in that first couple of years, it felt absolutely incredible to have such a console at home playing games that looked like that. Mind you NES was still host to a lot of the best-playing games one could get their hands on and with the memory mapping chips they were still always improving by leaps and bounds (Batman: Return of the Joker looked like it was basically a 16-bit game, it was insane!) but Genesis really was providing a step closer to the arcade which didn't feel accessible otherwise (also TurboGrafx-16, but no one really cared about that console.. except me, sadly)..

Anyway when the mags finally started drip-feeding pics of launch window SNES games, it felt like a storm was coming. Basically, just like Genesis but EVEN BETTER. Pics of Mario World with the HUGE Bullet Bill, pics of F-Zero with the arcade-scaling track, pics of Ghouls n Ghosts with much sharper colors and details than we'd seen years earlier on Genesis.. and of course Nintendo was FINALLY getting an R-Type game, which seemed to be the missing crown jewel that the other systems had (to whatever degree) but was missing in the NES catalog. And of course Final Fight with those massive sprites!

Anyway SNES launch came and went and that first year or two was pretty legendary, with all the games already mentioned in this thread. In hindsight the Genesis did a pretty good job stacking up to it at the time - I am pretty sure they timed the release of the original Sonic the Hedgehog game right around that console launch, which did a really nice job of making Super Mario World (nice as it was) feel a bit stale on arrival. I grabbed (or rented) many of the other games I mentioned out of the gate, and they were all pretty stellar looking and sounded - Contra, Castlevania, Zelda 3, Star Wars, Mega Man X etc. But to be honest, though they were all great titles, I do feel like "the extra color palette, Mode 7 effect, crazy audio chip etc" were all very nice, but not enough to get me to pack up and forget my Genesis yet. And all those games, while they were really cool, they did feel like they were a bit rushed to get out for the launch and help show off he system (totally understandable) - but there was something about so many of those early titles that, in hindsight, didn't just allow them to wipe the slate clean with what their predecessors had done.

All these years later, I find myself replaying Mario or SMB3 rather than Super Mario World. Contra 1 or 2 (usually 1) on NES over Contra 3 on SNES. Castlevania 1 or 3 over the SNES version. Same with Ghouls n Ghosts (Genesis, not NES! Haha), even Zelda. Sure, none of those games "present" as well as their successors, but I think they were all a bit more dialed in, in some ways. Maybe it's just the nostalgia is greater for me, from when those games were new and exciting, versus when the upgrades came out and I was a little older and though they certainly looked and sounded "better," started feeling a bit stale, less special. But that is also sort of how I appreciate games as I get older anyway. I'll happily sit down with a simple game with very low-rent presentation nowadays so long as the mechanics, rhythm, etc is super-tight.

I think during the first year of SNES the devs were figuring things out. Zelda: LttP could be considered the first to not go overkill on the "tech demo" stuff while also actually upping the scale.

I agree with more than a few cases about earlier/slightly more technically modest games being superior. In addition to Mario 3 eclipsing World and Castlevania 3 eclipsing 4 in my book, I've also held both NES/Famicom Life Force and just about any version of Gradius II (Famicom, PCE CD, etc.) superior to the slowdown and bloat of Gradius III. That said, Super Metroid is an exponential leap from the first Metroid.

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

I still think Super Mario World was stunning, and incredible. The improved graphics, parallax scrolling etc were one thing, but the scale was even more amazing. All those interlocking world maps at last, hidden pathways everywhere taking the "secret hunting" side of Mario further than on the NES (Star Road!), etc.

Fantastic mechanics, too. There's a reason so many people made custom maps and mods for that game more than any other Mario platformer over the years. It perfected the formula.

 

[Hardensoul]

one day I will beat Super Ghouls n Ghosts both loops. I swear...(I wont)

I was so determine to beat Super Ghouls n Ghost, I didn’t know about the 2nd loop! I stayed up all night, paused for couple hours in morning to sleep woke up beat it and they it goes through credit and says you gotta do it again! Played through to raft part again and I gave up

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

I still think Super Mario World was stunning, and incredible. The improved graphics, parallax scrolling etc were one thing, but the scale was even more amazing. All those interlocking world maps at last, hidden pathways everywhere taking the "secret hunting" side of Mario further than on the NES (Star Road!), etc.

Fantastic mechanics, too. There's a reason so many people made custom maps and mods for that game more than any other Mario platformer over the years. It perfected the formula.

Super Mario World manages to simultaneously expand the concept of SMB3's maps, while cutting out all the superfluous stuff like Toad's house and the extra items and costumes. The map is now way more open and full of secrets, and the bonus rounds are better integrated into the stages themselves. You can keep one extra item at hand, but just the one vs all the junk you can hoard in SMB3.

SMB3 was Nintendo playing around with tools. Most levels are bitesized, over before they've really begun, with some of them straying dangerously into what later became Kaizo territory. Most of the game's ideas are left undercooked. The game feels more like a Mario Maker level collection. It wasn't even conceived to be played as a whole, hence the otherwise foolish decision to not feature a save function when Nintendo themselves introduced it in NES games.

Compare this to SMW's perfectly fleshed-out stages, its incredible balance, the amazing simplicity of its core mechanics. SMW does much more with much less than SMB3. It's a nearly perfect game.