Written Opinion: the 1986-1994 Era of Gaming.

The 1986-1994 era is one of my all time favorites in gaming history. While there was some semblance of a console war prior to this era, I always thought that this age was home to some of the most brutal console battles in gaming history. While the two major players during this era were Nintendo and Sega there were still other players that entered the field but ultimately failed.

The battle between Sega and Nintendo was one of aggressive marketing. Nintendo had already made major headway in the industry, while Sega's original delving into the console wars with the Master System hadn't made a dent in Nintendo's progress. Sega needed something new, something fresh and they opted to make a leap in technology with the Sega Genesis. Sega assaulted the market with newer edgier titles, as well as arcade titles that Nintendo didn't have. Sega's strategy was to go after the teenage market of gamers, who would hopefully influence their younger siblings to hop on board. Nintendo however still were able to give them a run for their money with already established mascots and series such as Mario and The Legend of Zelda. Sega needed a mascot of it's own; enter Sonic the Hedgehog, a lean, mean, blue, speedster machine. He was the the opposite of Mario in almost every way, he was edgier with his spiked hair and stylish sneakers and helped push Sega ahead in the console race.

This is where things started to go terribly awry. Nintendo opted to stick to it's guns with making unique and fun titles while Sega attempted to secure it's position with hardware. This spelled out disaster for Sega however. With the release of the Sega CD, and then the 32x, sega was pushing out hardware that had no software that was worth purchasing, while Nintendo continued along the same track by making good, fun, and exciting original software. This was something that even to this day companies seem to not understand, and why Nintendo is so successful, it's not about how powerful your console is, it's all about the fun.