Beyond Genesis? Why Nintendo Should Consider Digging Deeper into Sega's Library

Since the Nintendo Wii's arrival, the Wii Shopping Channel has been chugging out some of the best gaming titles of yesteryear on a weekly basis. Many of those titles have come from former rival Sega, as gamers have been given the opportunity to play their old Genesis favorites. Of course, Sega didn't stay a first-party superpower because of the Genesis alone. Sega evolved just like its main competitors, Nintendo and Sony, and released newer, more powerful consoles.

Monday, April 16 saw the release of one of Sega's best titles from the late 90's. The original Virtua Fighter was an amazing fighting game that established a new universe of characters and a unique gameplay style. Rather than focus on outrageous special moves, Virtua Fighter's appeal came in shining the spotlight on more realistic fighting maneuvers. More strategy was required and gamers ate the concept up with a spoon. But while Virtua Fighter sowed the seeds for a great fighting franchise, the sequel put the series on a whole other plain. Virtua Fighter 2 not only implemented the heralded gameplay style of the original, but it also brought gamers the first 3D fighting game for a home console.

The graphics were spectacular, with each character and environment rendered in outstanding detail. While the game was amazing in itself, Virtua Fighter 2 would never have achieved the success it did without such graphical eye candy. It wouldn't have been possible without Sega's next-generation console known as the Sega Saturn, a 32-bit powerhouse that went neck and neck with the Nintendo 64 and the first Sony Playstation for video gaming superiority in the late 90's. That's why it was such a disappointment that the Virtua Fighter 2 that hit the Wii Shopping Channel on April 16 was the Sega Genesis version.