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Anubra_Khan t1_ithalap wrote

I'm going from memory as a teenager back then but I would have to say either the original Mortal Kombat or Streets of Rage 2.

It was Genesis vs SNES. It was back when there really was a console war. I was an avid gamer and had both so I often had to choose which version of a title to buy.

Streets of Rage 2 was like SNES Final Fight turned up to 11. It had hard hitting sound effects, special attacks, signature attacks, multiple characters and one of the most iconic soundtracks in gaming history. It's still dope AF even today.

Mortal Kombat started some shit when it came out. Lots of court cases and censorship discussions resulted from the violence and gore. Sega and Nintendo had to make some decisions when it came to the consoles. Nintendo went the censorship route by changing the fatalities and replacing the blood with sweat. Though it was graphically superior and I think it even sounded better, it had input delay. This was unacceptable for fighting game enthusiasts during the Golden Age of fighting games.

Sega, on the other hand, basically whipped their junk out, threw their hands up in the air and said, "What, bitches!". They kept all of the gore and fatalities. The game didn't look as good, it didn't sound as good but it played well and it maintained the spirit of the game to the best of the console's abilities. It was amazing to have that level of gore and near arcade quality right on the couch. People may not remember, but they took sooooo much heat for this approach in the court of public opinion.

It's hard to imagine now, but the possibility of censorship in video games was a major concern for us back then, especially on consoles. If Sega had caved to the pressure like Nintendo did, gaming today may be different.

So, in the era when Sega's line was "Sega does what Nintendon't", I think these 2 games did exactly that.

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