1991 to 1994: Sega and Nintendo

Erik Kubik, Associate Writer

March 20, 2010

Nintendo had the cute plumber everyone loved. Sega pushed its edgy mascot onto the masses. Who needs a plumber when you can have a hedgehog with an attitude?

Sega had its sports titles, its arcade games, and its uncensored games, like Mortal Kombat. The Genesis version featured blood; the SNES had sweat. Sega had the faster processor, and in the beginning of the 90s, a two-year head start on the SNES, complete with the slogan, "The others don't stack up."

Sega market research showed many teenagers would own up to owning a Genesis rather than a SNES.

Nintendo had the family-friendly image to maintain. But when it came to the games, the SNES established itself with a better graphics chip--evident in Donkey Kong Country--and epic RPGS like Earthbound, Final Fantasy, and Chrono Trigger.

Sega chose to continue to attack Nintendo with negative ads, saying, "What Nintendon't," stressing the plethora of arcade and sports titles. The Genesis featured blast processing. In terms of sales, within the first year of its release, the SNES with Mario caught up and surpassed the Genesis. The final numbers completes the story: Sega sold 29 million consoles worldwide and the SNES sold 49 million. At the end of the war, the SNES had won, but by that time Sega moved to the Sega CD and the Sega 32x.

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