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There's more than one way to interpret the question; which year was the best year to buy it, which year was the best year to play it, which year had the best releases, etc. I don't want to make more than one poll about this so just answer in whatever way is most meaningful to you.
iam going to pick 1992 since sonic 2 was out best sonic game in my own opinion, and the fact i believe by the end of 92 had a 55% share of the market and was kicking nintendos ass that year.
Definitely 1989. What would gaming have been like without Ghouls N Ghosts, Golden Axe, Forgotten Worlds, Mystic Defender, Revenge of Shinobi, and Phantasy Star II? With the flood of software in '92 and onward, I am very confident that these absolute gems of perfection were missed by most late adopters.
Probably 1994. It was the console's peak year in terms of third-party support IMO. Many of the classics from 1989-1992 could be bought at a steal by that time. Don't forget S3&K, the Genny's magnum opus.
After '94, third-party support dwindled, especially on the Japanese side, but there were still good games coming out.
the genesis was so ahead of the game in 89 it was rediculous.
Even though there are much better games for the system I really have a big crush on all of the launch games, and I dont really know why. there was just something different about them that I really love, maybe it was the "arcade at home" charm that they have which faded away through the years.
94 was the peak of the console, and by default the entire 16 bit era. But the games from 89/90 do something for me that the rest of the library doesn't.
1992 was very exciting: Sonic 2, World of Illusion, Thunder Force IV, Streets of Rage 2, Gley Lancer, Shining Force...
For me its current day. When I was a kid I just had around 20 games for the Gen and a nonworking 32x. Now I have over 100 Gen titles, plus a working Sega CD and working 32x. Honestly, I enjoy my gen more than I have in a long time.
1992. NES had a load of great games appear in 1992 aswell.
My vote is '89. If I could pick a second it would be '93.
the genny was rockin in 92 and 95 as well!!
I voted '93; it seems like there was a huge quantity and variety of good games that came out that year, and I don't think the SNES really kept up (unlike '92, which was a great year for the SNES). Though I may have some of the release dates wrong. It would be nice if there were some resource where you could view all Genesis games by their release dates.
Aside from that, it was the peak of Sega's notoriety as a company. That was the year Sonic appeared in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Wired Magazine ran an article called "Sega's Plans for World Domination." The only negative point to 1993 that I can think of is that Sonic 3 didn't make it out that year (which, as we all know, turned out to be totally worth it).
I voted 1989. Then it was new and had it's lifespan ahead of it. And that is something you cannot re-experience, so it is far superior to get cheap games a later year, or many more great games another great year. I was lucky enough to get my Mega Drive in 1994 or so. The system was still popular, new games were released and you could rent some of them. Nostalgic memories of that are a big reason it's better to get a system as early as possible.
95 had Vectorman and thus automatically wins my vote. :)
93/94/95 yielded many games that pushed the limits of the hardware. I chose the mean: 94.
I went with 95, as that was when the last great games for the Genesis came out, as well as the last big push for it with the 32X add on (of course, we all know how that turned out for them as the year came to an end.)