Monday, July 16, 2012

They're the Same Game Right?

WRONG!  In the time of Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis it wasn't uncommon to see a game with the exact same title on both systems end up being completely different games.  These differences could range from a key feature being left out or an entirely different game genre.  The end result: the same game being preferred on one console over the other.  In this post, we'll take a look at a few of the games I remember being significantly different between consoles.

The first game we'll take a look at is Jurassic Park.  This is probably the most extreme example of  "Same title, different game" that I'll cover.  Jurassic Park on Sega Genesis was made using stop motion photography and was mainly a side scroll action game, Jurassic Park on SNES was a top down action game with some dungeon crawling aspects thrown in.  Each game was developed by a different development house, Ocean for the SNES version who developed several other games based off of movies such as Robocop and Total Recall while the Genesis version was developed by a lesser known company by  the name of Bluesky Software who developed mainly Atari games.  The SNES version of Jurassic Park was one of the first games to integrate the SNES Mouse into an action game.  It was also one of the earlier games to be mastered in surround sound which was uncommon at it's time of release.  The combination of a top down shooter and dungeon crawler with the ability to finally use your SNES Mouse (for something other than Mario Paint) made the game fun and addictive.  Ultimately, I feel like the SNES version of Jurassic Park did a better job of  providing a more enjoyable game-play experience then it's Sega counterpart. 



Next, we'll take a look at Aladdin for the Sega Genesis and SNES. The Sega Genesis version of Aladdin was developed by Virgin Games who worked directly with Disney animators to produced what ended up being the far superior of the two games.  The SNES version was released by Capcom ten days after the Sega release.  The SNES version of the game was more of a Prince of Persia style run and jump platformer while the Sega version was less about precise jumping and more about hacking and slashing your way to the end.  Both versions featured songs from the movie, but with Virgin working so closely with Disney, I feel they did a better job with putting together songs and playing them during the appropriate areas in the game.  Once you hear the music, you know exactly at what point you are in the movie.  Despite all this, I still find that the SNES version of the game is more enjoyable as I'm into that tortuous, everything wants you dead, impossible jumps, kind of game but the overall reception of the Sega version was greater.

Lastly, we take a look at the original Mortal Kombat for SNES and Sega Genesis.  This is a case where major parts of the game were stripped in one version but not from the other.  The Sega version of the game featured fully uncensored blood via the famous "ABACABB" code as well as fully uncensored Fatalities.  The SNES version, in an attempt to stay "Family Friendly" had "Sweat" come out of the character model when hit and had the violence in some of the Fatalities toned down.  As a child, I was a super Nintendo fan boy and bought the SNES version of Mortal Kombat after seeing my friend play it on his Sega Genesis...boy was I disappointed.  It's pretty clear when you're playing the controls were designed with Sega in mind as all the extra buttons on the SNES made the game more confusing then it needed to be.  Also, I don't feel like this was a rare miss for the SNES in the graphics department as I feel the Sega version's graphics were of higher quality with the "realistic" human models.

These are the three games that I'm most familiar with that have the same title, but are different between consoles. I hope you've enjoyed reading and come back for more trips down memory lane.

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