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RE: Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master (Sega Genesis)
I completely agree with you about Sonic. I could just never get into that series. While I always thought the character was much cooler than Mario, the Mario Bros. games were always so much better. Sonic just couldn't compare to Super Mario World.
The Super Mario franchise has been able to evolve and become so much more while the Sonic franchise has only speed to fall back on. I believe this to be a problem with Segs themselves though. Even when they branched out the character world to kart racing they found a way to screw it up. For instance, why does Sonic or the other 'fast characters' need karts? Aren't they supposed to be fast on their feet already.
Sega was their own biggest obstacle to success. They didn't know how to capitalize on it.
The Saturn should have launched with Sonic in 2D, Shinobi, an Alex Kidd game, updated versions of Ristar, Dynamite Headdy, and many others. Even only if they were graphical upgrades it would have been better than what they brought.
I don't know. While I still prefer 2D games and what you laid out would appeal to me, for the most part, when the Saturn came out the world seemed to be ready for 3D. Sony capitalized on that far better than Sega did where with the Saturn 3D was an afterthought. After the Saturn, their big problem was timing. The Dreamcast was an awesome system with some awesome games but it was awkwardly timed. The PS2 and GameCube which came out a couple years later were more powerful and rapidly overtook the Dreamcast in the marketplace. Sega didn't court 3rd party developers enough with the Saturn or Dreamcast but I don't know if the relative lack of 3rd party titles had more to do with the hardware or Sega's actions (or inaction). I know the "surprise" launch of the Saturn didn't help with launch titles...
Oh yeah, Sega was screwed as far as capitalizing on the emerging 3D market. That is why I said they should have launched the Saturn with the titles I mentioned. Those titles had a connection with gamers, much more so than say Astal or Clockwork Knight ever could. While those games were visually impressive 2D and 2.5D affairs, they simply did not have name recognition with fans. Imagine Dynamite Heady using the Clockwork Knight engine or Ristar using the Astal engine (or Clockwork Knight's engine). It would have almost blown away Sega die hard fans of the time. Especially considering Sony's stance against 2D at the time. This could have been Sega's poke in the chink of Sony's armor.
The Dreamcast was a great console but it was clearly ill advised of Sega to have launched it so quickly. They should have done the waiting game and seen what the competition were bringing to the table. Instead, they attempted to be first, as they did with the Genesis and Saturn. The only time being first helped them was with the Genesis - every other time it screwed them more than it helped.
Pushing the Saturn launch forward six months, and not telling 3rd parties, certainly made it tough for them to support Sega's console then and in the future. Again, being first hurt more than it helped.
Sega simply did not know how to capitalize on success. Just look at the titles that they brought from their back catalog onto the Saturn or Dreamcast for proof.