A machine is only as good as what you personally get out of it.
That's sort of my point. So the PCE can do real transparencies...in a tech demo...which isn't actually a game...and only on the SGX...WTF good is that?
There
are tech demos that look every bit as good for the
actual PCE, but that's besides the point. So many published PCE games
already have all kinds of worthwhile and impressive transparency and similar effects. It's just that they don't count to
you. Many of these effects look better and are more appropriate/effective than what could be done using the SNES's hardware transparency and many are impossible to pull off using SNES transparency. Because not only is SNES transparency
not the be-all and end-all generation-defining effect, it's actually very limited in what it can be effectively used for.
Same with Mode 7. Both became as much of a stigma for the SNES as killer apps. Most SNES game developments seemed to start with a quota of SNES hardware effects that the game was to be built around. Very few seemed to be designed from the ground up as a proper games, which only used hardware effects when they would compliment what was already going to be there. It wasn't long into the SNES's lifespan that while playing a SNES game, upon reaching the first hardware effect the reaction became,
"Okay, here we go with the obligatory SNES effects" 
. This kind of sentiment was even expressed in game mag coverage. The same people who have championed the SNES to this day as the sum of the 16-bit generation and refer to all 2D games ever since as having "SNES graphics".
All that SNES transparency does is tint. But it's used for so many other effects that are much more effectively rendered with "fake" techniques. In reality, when SNES games use hardware transparency to attempt an effect other than tinting, it's the SNES game's effect that is "fake". The only thing "real" about SNES transparency is how much it is SNES transparency. Hardware built-in effects are only a
method, just like when hardware renders an effect
without a dedicated built-in chip.
It's the effect itself in the end that is real.Sure Yoshi's Island had an onboard coprocessor and the PCE could have done that...but it didn't, so it doesn't do me any f*cking good. Its pointless to mention never used potential. Again, I reference the kid with the shitty report card that could have done better "if he tried".
I guess then that you view the PC Engine as a 'shitty underachiever' when it comes to graphics? Nobody here is questioning that, what many of us are saying is that the PCE already has so many games that are visually impressive to the rest of us. Equal to or greater than in some aspects and/or overall than the most impressive SNES games. Of course, the Genesis technically crushes both consoles with its 32X games, which
also run off of additional processing hardware.
I can't imagine why/how anyone would complain about fake parallax (how can you even tell?) but real transparencies are something special. They really set the mood on games like Super Metroid, Kikikaikai, and many RPGs.
I can't imagine why/how anyone would complain about "fake" transparency effects. Back in the day, my SNES loving friends called this real transpancies and scaling + rotation (mode 7):
Apparently as SNES players, "real" transpancies weren't so much more special than "fake" ones.
Something I should have said in defense of Megadrive (surprised no one brought it up yet): those scale-happy Galaxy Force II-esque games for Mega CD from Core, whatever they were called, those were pretty impressive and AFAIK way beyond SNES and obviously PCE.
There are many more impressive 3D Sega-CD games than just what Core developed. The Sega-CD has games with as nice looking or better 3D graphics than early 32-bit console games-
It doesn't matter whether you know for a fact or can tell if polygons or something specific is being used. All that matters is how it looks in the end and those Sega-CD games look better than many "real" 3D 32X, 3D0, Jaguar, PSX, Saturn, and N64 games. But in the end, how many people like playing these games over more popular genres and think that pixelly 3D games look so much better than visually impressive 2D games?
Dont believe me ? Look at Super Smash TV for proof. There are tons of enemies in that game and it has zero slowdown. It trounces the Genesis port, since the SNES's superior sound chip and color count come into play also.
Does that mean if the Genesis has two games with less slowdown plus better graphics and sound than SNES versions, that it's proof that the Genesis trounces the SNES?
In the PCE's case its only major drawback is its sound chip...Which is only a step up from what the NES could do. ...Which leads to the Genesis. Bad sound + Low color count really hurts the Geny here.
Phantasy Star 4 crushes anything that came out for PCE. Plus, it would have been impossible to port to the PCE.
PSIV is pretty overrated, as much as I love it. Shining Force, Shining Force II and Shining Force CD however, are equal to or capable of crushing almost all other 16-bit console games. Of course this is because of the actual games themselves, which could easily be replicated with enchancements and compromises on PCE & SNES.
