Black Tiger's post above is a bizarre,
bizarre post. I'm seriously incredibly confused about why you'd somehow think that statements about hardware power are the same as opinion about what I think of the console as a whole, but those two things are completely different, you know... but you clearly don't, with this crazy post that combines game-opinion with hardware power comparison and then insanely tries to call those two completely different, entirely unrelated things similar. That's just ridiculous, stop it.
As for those numerous quotes, here are a few comments.
-For the block of quotes at the end about hardware power, I was comparing base systems there, SNES vs. TG16 vs. Genesis. If you include addons, then the 32X is surely the most powerful system of the generation, and if you include the Neo-Geo it is of course. Versus the TG16 and Genesis the SNES only loses in CPU power, but overall hardware power of a system is about more than just CPU power. It's about overall hardware ability.
-For all of the quotes about opinion on games I like, that has nothing to do with this discussion. I could respond to all of that stuff, but it'd be a complete waste of time and would divert this thread into something it should not be about, because none of that is in any way relevant here. All I will say is that your massive anti-SNES bias shows. I love all three major platforms that gen, they're all fantastic. The TG16+TCD is certainly in my top 5 consoles ever.
-For the part about sales and Genesis games, I don't understand what you're trying to say there. The Genesis did well enough in Japan to get some software support, obviously. Not as much as the competition got, but some. Because of Japan's easier distribution costs, systems could get good software support with less hardware sales than they would need in the West.
-Shmups - what? I'm a huge Gradius series fan, and Gradius III is incredible. So are Gradius I and II on the TG16 and CD. All three are certainly among the best shmups ever. Then I said Gradius III was the best, but next time I could say Gradius I is the best; with such incredible games, it's hard to decide. As for the Genesis though, it does have lots of great shmups, but it doesn't have any from Konami...
Aside from the hypocrisy of selectively choosing when to count SNES addons as addons,
Console addons and addon chips / enhancement chips are not the same. Sure, you've proven that I've used the word "addon" for enhancement chips before, but that doesn't mean anything... even if the word 'addon' was used there, the key term is 'chip', ie, chip in a cartridge. Those chips are 'addons' in that they are additional chips in the cartridges, but they are not addons like the Sega CD because of the distribution method. I know you people claim to not care about distribution methods, but for classification it is absolutely key.
you said that Nintendo designed the SNES for addons and by releasing games with addons, it proves "complete consistency there between the design and the execution". But NEC/Hudson designing the PC Engine around NEC's CD-ROM and showing it off before it was released and then following through with releasing and supporting it, that doesn't count and is instead a tacked-on stop-gap years later?
I don't get it, why would you say that addons are 'tacked-on stopgaps'? An addon is just a hardware expansion with games that require it that is sold separately from the system it adds on to. Usually they are designed after the original system, because the base system comes first, but also usually the idea for the addon was in development from early on in the project. The 64DD was in development from before the N64's release for sure, for example, and it was originally designed to be a key part of the system. It didn't work out that way, but that was the intent. The Turbo CD is sort of like that, except the strategy actually worked. Calling something an addon is not saying anything bad about it as a system. It's just putting it into its category.