For those who're interested, I typed up a somewhat comprehensive Genesis/SNES comparison. Naturally, I'm only considering exclusives, and only considering original Genesis titles:
Platformer
Sonic 1, 2, 3, Knuckles vs. Super Mario World 1, 2, All-Stars
Rocket Knight Adventures, Sparkster vs. Sparkster
Mega Man: Wily Wars vs. Mega Man 7, X1, X2, X3, & Forte
Vectorman 1, 2 vs. Donkey Kong Country 1, 2, 3
Kid Chameleon vs. Kirby Superstar, Dreamland 3
Dynamite Headdy vs. Plok
Other Genesis notables: Ristar
Other SNES notables: --
This just about covers all the notable platformers for both systems. Surprisingly close, and frankly could go either way. The SNES Megaman library is significantly larger, though.
Action
Beyond Oasis vs. Legend of Zelda: LttP
Castlevania: Bloodlines vs. Super Castlevania IV, Dracula X
Contra: Hard Corps vs. Contra III
Mega Bomberman vs. Super Bomberman 1/2/3/4/5
Revenge of Shinobi / Shinobi 3 vs. Ninja Gaiden Trilogy, Legend of the Mystical Ninja, Hagane
Other Genesis notables: Alien Soldier, Crusader of Centy, Gunstar Heroes, Ranger-X,
Other SNES notables: Act Raiser 1/2, [BS Zelda Maps 1/2,] Claymates, Demon's Crest, Goof Troop, Indiana Jones, [LttP: Ancient Stone Tablets,] Metal Warriors, Sky Blazer, Super Metroid, Super Star Wars trilogy, Yoshi's Safari
I've put BS titles in brackets for two reasons: 1) I'm not sure we're including them, and 2) I don't know much about the Genesis network. Even still, SNES wins this one pretty handily: all of the notable Genesis action titles have comparable SNES counterparts, and the library depth is much greater.
RPG
jRPG
Phantasy Star II vs. Dragon Quest I + II
Phantasy Star IV vs. Chrono Trigger
Other Genesis notables: --
Other SNES notables: Breath of Fire, Breath of Fire II, Dragon Quest V/VI, Earthbound, Final Fantasy IV/V/VI/MQ, Lufia, Lufia II, Romancing SaGa 1/2/3, Super Mario RPG, Treasure of the Rudras
sRPG
Shining Force I / II vs. Fire Emblem 3/4/5
Other Genesis notables: --
Other SNES notables: Bahamut Lagoon, Ogre Battle, Tactics Ogre, Treasure Hunter G
aRPG
Landstalker vs. Terranigma
Other Genesis notables: --
Other SNES notables: E.V.O, Illusion of Gaia, Popful Mail, Secret of Evermore, Seiken Densetsu II/III, Soul Blazer, Star Ocean, Tales of Phantasia, Live-a-Live
PSIV and CT are juxtaposed for the simple reason that they're often considered the best RPGs on their respective systems. This is basically a clean sweep for the SNES.
Now for the genres I'm less well-read about:
Racing
Super Monaco GP vs. F-Zero, [F-Zero 2,] Super Mario Kart
That's about it for exclusives on the SNES side of things, but if I'm missing some Genesis titles, someone let me know.
Puzzle
Pretty sure this comes down to Tetris Attack / Panel de Pon vs. Columns 3, which means the SNES has an edge.
Fighter / Beat 'em Up
As far as I know, most of these are available on both consoles. Comix Zone and Golden Axe 1/2/3 put Genesis over the top, although I may be missing some notable exclusives.
Sports & Shmups
These are hardly worth going into, as the Genesis is universally considered the clear favorite here.
In conclusion, the Genesis is the clear winner in terms of sports (though they've aged badly) and shmups (still wonderful today), has an arguable lead in terms of Beat 'em Ups, and can hold its own when it comes to platformers, but has small loses in the Puzzle/Racing categories, a rather large loss in the Action department, and gets blown out in terms of RPGs.
I wonder how things would shape up when we included the Sega CD/32X? Curious to hear thoughts on this.
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Kobe XX
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