All-time Favorite Sega system?

I know we're all big fans of the Genesis here, but when it comes to consoles overall, what's your favorite console by the greatest video game console maker to exist?

Personally, mine is the Saturn. The Genesis had some awesome titles sure, but Saturn just had some really great games. Most of the franchises suffered (See Sonic, Streets of Rage, Vectorman, etc.), but the amount of awesome sports games such as World Series Baseball II and NBA Jam T.E,

Arcade ports like Die Hard Arcade, Virtua Fighter 2, Sega Rally and Daytona USA,

The best 2D Fighters around such as Street Fighter Zero 3, X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, Samurai Shodown IV, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter,

And on top of it all, the excellent unreleased niche classics and RPGs such as NiGHTS, Burning Rangers, the Panzer Dragoon series, Guardian Heroes, Shining Force III, to name a few, make it my favorite system.

Not to mention all four Sonic games for Genesis ported to the Saturn, as well as one of my personal favorites Sonic R.

So how about it, what's your favorite SEGA system?

Iam gonna pick the Master System since it has Phantasy Star.

Dream Cost all the way. It had fighters that were so great, 2 of the fighters are still in the top 3 best fighters ever made to this day, now that says a lot(especially with all the fighters made since then).

Plus there was other great things, like one of the best Sonic games(SA2).

To Devon: aren't all the PS games on the Genesis as well, there is no reason why anyone should be picking the SMS, I don't even know why It's in the list(should've listed Sega CD instead).

Aww no love for the Genesis?

I'm afraid I can't choose between Dreamcast and Genesis. I will probably commit Seppuku to preserve my honor so I don't have to choose.

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Originally Posted by Zoltor

Dream Cost all the way. It had fighters that were so great, 2 of the fighters are still in the top 3 best fighters ever made to this day, now that says a lot(especially with all the fighters made since then).

Plus there was other great things, like one of the best Sonic games(SA2).

To Devon: aren't all the PS games on the Genesis as well, there is no reason why anyone should be picking the SMS, I don't even know why It's in the list(should've listed Sega CD instead).

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i heard you can get the original on the genesis but it wasn't realeased in the US, eventhough i like the Genesis Phantasy Stars the original is indeed my favorite so therfore the Master System.

Does Genesis include the add-ons?

I think sega should make a 16x add-on that turns the master system into a full fledged 16 bit videogame system.

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Originally Posted by Devon

i heard you can get the original on the genesis but it wasn't realeased in the US, eventhough i like the Genesis Phantasy Stars the original is indeed my favorite so therfore the Master System.

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Oh ok.

For me, it's the Genesis Mega Drive by far.

Dreamcast and Genesis.

Genesis.
I was on the edge with making Game Gear my favorite, but nothing can top the Genny!

For me it comes down to the Saturn and the Dreamcast.

I like both of them, but when push comes to shove I have to pick the Saturn. The only things that would push me from picking the Dreamcast is:

1. Controllers. I hate the dreamcast controllers. Don't get me wrong stuff like the VMU is great, but the controller itself, I think, is terrible. My hands sit at awkward angles, it only has 6 buttons, even the saturn had 8. D-Pad is terrible. blah blah blah.

2. Short life span. With a US shelf life of 3 years, this thing hardly had the life span it needed to get some really good stuff for it. SEGA pulled the plug too early. Once the PS2 fad had passed the Dreamcast sales would have picked up.

3. Out of date before release. The Dreamcast was released out of date for the generation it was to compete with. Standards like built-in rumble, dual analog sticks, 8 buttons, broadband access, and High Density discs, didn't make it to the Dreamcast. Yes it had GD-Rom, but even the gamecubes pint sized discs supported 1.7gigs.

Don't get me wrong, the Dreamcast is a great console, but for it's generation, it was released out-of-date and personally I think the SEGA Saturn was an overall greater console. Games like Panzer Dragoon, Area 51, and Die Hard Arcade have me sold.

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Originally Posted by Xeniczone

For me it comes down to the Saturn and the Dreamcast.

I like both of them, but when push comes to shove I have to pick the Saturn. The only things that would push me from picking the Dreamcast is:

1. Controllers. I hate the dreamcast controllers. Don't get me wrong stuff like the VMU is great, but the controller itself, I think, is terrible. My hands sit at awkward angles, it only has 6 buttons, even the saturn had 8. D-Pad is terrible. blah blah blah.

2. Short life span. With a US shelf life of 3 years, this thing hardly had the life span it needed to get some really good stuff for it. SEGA pulled the plug too early. Once the PS2 fad had passed the Dreamcast sales would have picked up.

3. Out of date before release. The Dreamcast was released out of date for the generation it was to compete with. Standards like built-in rumble, dual analog sticks, 8 buttons, broadband access, and High Density discs, didn't make it to the Dreamcast. Yes it had GD-Rom, but even the gamecubes pint sized discs supported 1.7gigs.

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Umm Saturn had as short a life in the west (pretty much dead by 1997, and if not Stolar's outrageous comment nailed it -imports would be a mitigating factor for BOTH consoles -like Shenmue 2)

DC's hardware was EXTREMELY competitive for 1998, very powerful, very clean, very cost effective: pretty much the opposite of the Saturn and PS2 (sony got away with that with hype and price dumping).

GD-ROM was fine... there might have been potential for higher density discs too (CD-ROM went up to ~900 MB for example, from the 550 MB of original low density discs -that's not counting DDCDs which never caught on due to DVD).
The only problem with the format was it led Sega into a false sense of security that left the doors open to piracy once hackers figured out how to use the DC to rip discs and that the console would play games burned to CD-Rs without modification. (something they addressed much too late)

The lack of built-in rumble isn't that big a deal either: the faults wit the controller design itself were more significant and the fact that the standard VMUs only held 128 kB of data just like the PSX (even the smallest GC cards are 512 kB, like the Saturn's memory cart and DC's largest capacity VMUs; PS2 was 8 MB standard).
If they skimped on memory due to the added VMU features, I'd say the VMU was not worth it and bare bones cheap cards (512 kB minimum) should have been empolyed.

That's minor stuff though, the piracy fear was a serious problem, as was Sega's shaky market position, but more so it was Sony's initial hype which Sega seemed unwilling to risk weathering. (probably would have taken until 2002 to subside to any significant degree -and at least in hindsight, they had a damn good chance against MS and Nintendo)

Hell, a fair amount of PS2 and Xbox games were on standard CD-ROM. And GC Discs are only 1.4-1.5 GB, not 1.7. (no dual layer stuff either AFIK -which should have allowed ~2.7 GB)

1. Sega Genesis (with all it's add-ons ;))
2. Sega Dreamcast
3. Sega Saturn