10 Best Next-Gen Reveals In Gaming History
9. Genesis Does What Nintendon't!
Sega called out their compettion by name and shamed them via advertising. While the Master System might have come before, The Genesis, or the Mega Drive, is where Sega established their identity as a company fit to dethrone Nintendo.
Sports games have often been used as a good tech demo for what a console is capable of, and by showing all the colors and detail that could come out of the 16-bit processor. It looked better, brighter, more realistic, than anything Nintendo could ever be capable of.
While early adopters of Sega's most successful console didn't yet have Sonic to fall back on, what they did have was a selection of celebrity endorsed sports-action and ports of games like Altered Beast and Strider, which were as close to their arcade versions as home consoles could ever get.
Unwittingly, by flaunting the technical specs of the Genesis, Sega would start one of the most notorious arms races in home entertainment history.
Still though, the industry needed that competitive push forward. Anyone that was coaxed into buying a Genesis by Sega's cocky marketing knew that the gaming was about to enter a new generation, the era of more realistic graphics and immaculate pixel art, the era of 16-bit.