This rivalry could be the start of something big.
Summary pgs.240-358
In 1985, the folks at Nintendo have recently released their instant hit, Super Mario Bros., for the Nintendo Entertainment System. With merit to the booming success of the portly plumber's first adventure, the video game industry slowly began to grow popular once more. Nintendo was defending their strong streak for quite a while, until a new competitor stepped up to the plate four years later. Now, the competition began to heat up.
Sega (abbreviated form of the former name Service Games) came into the limelight with their first video game console dubbed, the "Genesis", launched in the United States on August 14, 1989. The 16-bit Genesis had twice the power of Nintendo's measly 8-bit NES, meaning that whatever the latter could do, the former could do it much better. It was capable of showing more detailed graphics, clearer and more high-quality sound, as well as simulating all sorts of fancy-looking effects to boot. Michael Katz, the president of Sega at the time, wanted to dethrone Nintendo's place in the industry and set the company name in stone. To do this, an advertising campaign had to be started, demonstrating the sheer superiority of the Genesis over the rinky-dink NES. The Sega team wanted to show that their console is better. Thus, the company's new "marketing mantra" was born."Genesis does what Nintendon't."
Of course, it should be "Genesis does what Nintendoesn't", but I doubt that marketing officials would care about proper grammar while selling a product.
Fortunately, Nintendo took this whole mud-slinging method well and still competed with all their effort. Mr. Katz's second strategy for trouncing Nintendo was to introduce a wide array of well-known games with well-known names in them. While the NES had games with... duck hunting, ice climbing, and Italian plumbers, the Genesis shelled out sports games starring professional athletes like Pat Riley, Arnold Palmer, and Joe Madden (sound familiar?).
The unveiling of Sega's secret weapon would now give the folks at Nintendo a run for their money (literal). The secret weapon in particular: a speedy little hedgehog that goes by the name of Sonic. The character, created by Yuji Naka, was designed to be Sega's iconic mascot (and still is to this very day), to rival Nintendo's Mario. Sonic's games ultimately focused on speed, running across a level, collecting rings, while traversing loops and corkscrews as if he were some sort of bipedal roller-coaster. When Sega released Sonic the Hedgehog to the public in 1991, the response was critical; everyone loved it. As expected, Nintendo became jealous of the blue rodent's fame and remained unimpressed....but Nintendo still had some tricks up their sleeve.
"After struggling for more than a year, Sega was suddenly seeing success. The fiercest competition in the history of video games was about to begin" (Kent 271).
My Reaction
The style of writing has not changed; Mr. Kent still relies on cold hard facts to justify his findings. Quotes are still scattered across the pages, but I digress. With this book being a "documentary on print", I should have expected this.
