How Does Neo Geo Compare to the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis? - Retro Bird

The Neo Geo was on the market during the same time as the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis, but does that mean we should compare them? Well, regardless of whether we should or not, we will! I go over what makes the Neo Geo so different from these two gaming consoles as well as how the origins of the Neo Geo differs drastically as well.

How Does the Neo Geo Compare to the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis? - Retro Bird / Sega Genesis vs. Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis / Mega Drive / Super Famicom / SNK Neo Geo AES and MVS / Retro Video Games

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#retrobird

[RetroBirdGaming]

When I said that the "Neo Geo had some rotating abilities of its own", that is a bit misleading. The hardware could not rotate sprites, but rather each frame of animation had to be drawn individually to achieve any "rotating" effects. Also, any parallax scrolling done by the Neo Geo was achieved without any dedicated scrolling tilemap background layers and instead with large sprites (which it was powerful enough to do). Different from the traditional way of achieving parallax, but impressive nonetheless. However, it's still my personal opinion that the SNES and Genesis have more examples of fleshed out parallax scrolling that the effect has become known for. The "strobing" effect you see on screen for Neo Geo gameplay here is a bit worse than the footage of my other consoles because the Neo Geo MVS has an odd refresh rate that is slightly different from most other consoles. Games played: Pulstar (0:08), Shock Troopers (0:20), Bust-A-Move (0:37), Baseball Stars 2 (0:46), Spin Master (1:42), Hyperstone Heist (2:45), Super Mario World (3:02), Pulstar (3:14), Metal Slug (4:31), Rocket Knight Adventures (7:33), Super Mario Kart (7:52), Mark of the Wolves (8:03)

[Cakebattered]

I was in High School in 1991. You were far more likely to know someone who owned a Lamborghini Diablo than a Neo Geo AES. Minimum wage was around $3.75/hr, and Adults who were also gamers were about as rare as the Neo Geo AES itself. It was truly a mythical gaming console. Most Gen X gamers, like myself, didn't get to learn details about the actual console until YouTube.

[Ghostcharm]

Gotta say, I have been enjoying your content for about six months and really appreciate your consistent sense of humor and obvious work ethic - pumping out well researched stuff this often ain't nothing to sneeze at. Your videos are extremely relaxing to have on while playing a game/relaxing at my desk. Keep it up man!

[videogameobsession]

When I first read in EGM #9 that SNK was going to release the Neo•Geo AES in the US in 1990, I started saving up. I was 16 at the time, and worked two jobs. One of them was my own landscaping and snow removal business, so I was lucky to be able to keep up with NES, Genesis, and soon, the Neo•Geo in December 1990. I bought it for $550 (w/ 2 arcade sticks and Baseball Stars Professional) + $170 for Top Player's Golf. They threw in a free $30 memory card. Originally the AES games were dynamically priced based on their ROM size. So League Bowling (20MEG) was $120 (the lowest price), while TP Golf (62MEG) was $170 (the highest price at the time). It was awesome to be able to play the exact same quality arcade games on my TV at home. I still love playing Neo•Geo games, 30+ years later.

[PabstOban]

What can’t be understated for someone my age was that when Neo Geo hit the scene, and people started to learn about it… and the AES consoles and carts started showing up at “Boutique PC/Gaming” stores like Egg Head and Babbages… it was like having a crush on the prom Queen in your freshmen year at high school. It’s all you thought about, but never had a shot at.

Neo Geo was often the grand prize of sweepstakes type contests you’d see in magazines and comic books. Everyone wished they knew someone who owned them… but unless you lived in Ricky Schroeder neighborhood… fat chance.

I was one of those kids… grew up poor, single mom… on food stamps… wasn’t safe for me to go outside and play… so while my mom was able to scrape together to get us an Atari and a Nintendo eventually, we still discussed Neo Geo amidst the console wars.

When I got older, made my own money and could stupidly make my childhood dreams come true, I did eventually get an AES and an MVS and lots of games to go with it.

Neo Geo is an enigma that is hard to explain to anyone that didn’t grow up in that time. It was like letting Superman enter the Olympics and he competed for your country. It wasn’t fair, but you were still pumped he was winning gold in every event.

While I was a proud owner of a Sega Genesis, when I went to the arcades I would defiantly put quarters into the “Big Red” and play games like Magician Lord and Sengoku and much later… Samurai Shodown which was an amazing distraction from Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat till MK2 showed up.

I’m glad you made this video and it’s cool to find other people who eventually made their dreams come true.

[ganjagun]

Neo Geo was the Rolls Royce of gaming back in the days.

[videogameobsession]

One last thing about my experience of owning a Neo•Geo AES in 1990. One of the things I remember most, from back then, are the massive amount of super clear voice samples. I was still very much playing my NES, and had only owned the Genesis for less than a year and a half. So I went from a scratchy sounding “wise from your gwave!” voice, to a fully voiced intro and cut scenes, in NAM-1975, a very talkative caddy, in Top Player’s Golf, and an announcer (Michael Beard) in Baseball Stars, who spoke the names of every team, talked about the weather, how the teams were playing, and much more. The voice quality was plentiful, and so clear… simply amazing at the time. Partially thanks to the large ROM size, along with the nice specs of the Neo audio, allowing for near CD quality. This quality was also extended to the music instrument samples, spread across 15 channels of stereo sound as well. So when I think Neo•Geo now, I am always reminded of how blown away I was of its audio capabilities back then. That’s all.. 😃

[RetroMoments]

NEO-GEO games hold up so well today. Such a fun system to go back to play some games with friends in the evening.

[TheGamingScription]

I remember the first time I saw a Neo Geo in person in the 90s it was like a dream. I couldn't believe a home console could produce such good looking games. After only playing genesis and SNES it was just unbelievable. I never owned one but the memories of that system still sit with me today.

[FilipeAguiarCarvalho]

The fact that NeoGeo was capable of running Garou Mark of the Wolf, a game as beautiful as Street Fighter III blows my mind.

[bananonymouslastname]

I think most importantly, the Neo Geo, SNES, Genesis, and Turbografx were all worthwhile, and all did something that the others didn't. The Neo Geo put the real arcade game in your living room. SNES gave you the Square RPGS and first party Nintendo games. Genesis gave you great arcade ports and first party Sega games. Turbografx gave you the NEC and Hudson stuff, and lots of arcade ports that didn't come to the other consoles. They all gave you something unique and worthwhile.

That said, if you were around at the time, the Neo Geo AES (we usually just called it Neo Geo Gold where I was) was a freaking myth. It was any video game fan's dream to have one. I didn't know anyone that owned one, but I sure knew lots of people who claimed to know someone that did.

When I was in my early 20's in 2003, I finally got to buy my own AES, and over time have bought a little over 30 games for it. I wish I'dve bought more when they were so much cheaper, but I was super into importing japanese PS2 and Dreamcast games at the time, too. I still buy one now and then, but unless I just want to overload on fighters, I'm pretty much out of inexpensive games to buy.

I later bought an MVS cabinet as well to get some of the ridiculously unaffordable games on AES, and now can play almost the whole library on real hardware between the machines, and frankly, it still rules. Even tonight I sat down with my 7 year old son to play a game of Super Baseball 2020. My 4 year old son and I beat Blue's Journey together a few weeks ago, and my 7 year old also did Neo Bomberman, Prehistoric Isle 2, Ninja Combat, and more with me. Those games are timeless, and even kids so young notice the big, loud feel of the Neo Geo vs the other consoles... but we still play those as well, because they rule, too.

[Marc_Araujo]

It's a part of the 4th gen so hell yeah it does. The only "24-bit" console...completely legendary in its own right.

[VIRGOLEGACY]

Growing up in the 90s I could honestly say I never saw a neo geo in retail stores it used to mess me up when I’d see the games being covered in gaming magazines but never in stores nor did I know anybody who had them snes and genesis were just too popular lol

[animejoe]

The games cost $318 at my local Babbages which was INSANE to me because:
1. I could play most of the games they had for just 25 cents / 1 token each at my local arcade...
2. In terms of gameplay and overall experiences, NONE of the games were worth $300... As much as I ADORED games like Magician Lord, I felt that even $150 would have been too high for any of the Neo Geo games. $100 may have worked, but many of the games weren't even worth that in my eyes.

With the exception of League Bowling, Riding Hero, Blue's Journey, and Cyber-Lip, all of the other Neo Geo games I wanted to play became available at my favorite arcades, so that eliminated the temptation to ever want to spend a lot of money to purchase them.

Even though I REALLY wanted to get a Neo Geo when it was first released and thought about trying to save up the cash for one, fortunately, I held off and eventually did purchase a used import AES unit for a reasonable price in the early - mid 90s from one of my import shops and got the games cheaply as well.

[KarldorisLambley]

i played with a neo geo in 1992ish when I was 18. ANd it blew the megadrive and SNS waaay out the water.

[demonsty]

omfg that turbografx with a knife at the end! this is why i love your channel dude!

[colt]

We all know you're the guy that bought that banana taped to a wall art piece for $100k instead of buying that Ferrari.

[NOTLeavingLV]

Subscribed. Keep going. Don’t give up. Your content is good.

[RobsonRoverRepair]

I remember in 1991 my mates dad came back from Japan with a Neo Geo and a dozen games.

You have to understand, this was Northern Ireland in 1991, where everything was on fire, exploding or being shot at.

A single Nintendo NES was shared at our school youth club people where in awe if you had an Amiga for example. Too Chad status instantly.

I fucking exploded when I saw it, he hadn't a clue about it and was more interested in collecting those stupid football stickers.

Me and his dad regularly sat and played it until he died in 95, bringing games back from Japan.

Found out he dumped it about 6 months after his dad died. Man I was raging at him with so many good memories and we stopped speaking after that.

[Zerogata]

When I was a kid, there was a video game store in Huntington Beach, CA called Games For Less. They had the mystical Neo Geo AES on display, and it was the only place I'd ever seen one outside the arcades. One day in 2005, I decided "I'm making my own money now, I'm buying a Neo Geo!!" Many of the games are still a blast to play!