As far as capabilities, the Genesis was capable of far more than the PCE in every way except onscreen colors. People make fun of "blast processing", but it's a real thing -- it's a marketing term to signify the system's power, a power that the other systems lacked. There's a good reason that the PCE never had Ranger-X. In terms of technology, that cart puts Sapphire to shame.
You make it seem like the colors were irrelevant. To me they were more important than almost anything, so the Genesis, to this day, just looks like mud to me. We had real mud eons before video games were invented. We don't need to spend $200 on a game machine to simulate mud.
One thing that makes these sorts of stupid arguments pretty much totally irrelevant is that unlike today, where a game system and its tools are so well designed from day one that we see %90 of a machines potential within the first year of its existence, the pre-PS1 era really had a majority of underdeveloped games. Sure the Genesis is *technically* closer to a Neo Geo than it is to a PC Engine (and the SegaCD was a f*cking powerhouse, no joke), the *reality* is that you sure as f*ck would never know it by looking at the actual games. On the Genesis, for every Earthworm Jim there is a six pack with Home Alone, Death Duel, Time Killers, Beavis and Butthead, and two generic sports titles.
You know that kid who is "smart" but always gets D or worse in class? He says, "I could have gotten an A, if I was trying." Well, its bullshit because if he could have, he would have. His potential may be there, but not actually doing it is, when it all comes down to it, the same as not being able to do it. I know, I was that kid in high school. I was plenty smart enough to get As, but barely even graduated. When I eventually felt like giving a shit I went to college and graduated with a 3.7. Same f*cking kid, different day.
If all the 16-bit systems were eventually as well understood and catered to as the Neo Geo was by the end of its life, then we'd know for damn sure who had the best stuff, but the bulk of all games from that period are barely running, let alone system maximizers.
Now that these systems aren't being developed for any longer (no offense, home brew people) all that matters is whats out there to actually play, and what's out there is pretty sad on Genesis because interested and talented developers are just as important as hardware. This is why Nintendo always seems to make games that are more interesting to more people and make more money than most of the rest of the industry combined with hardware that is often times inferior to everyone else's.
If you can't use it, it isn't real.
