Console Wars

The Sega Mega Drive here in Europe, aka Genesis in the US, was a fantastic machine. We used to play it for hours every day. It had no memory, so I would put it on pause the night before I went to school, and then me and my friend would cycle as fast we could after school, back to my home. My mother would then often have cleaned up my clothes and turned off the machine. DUDE, we worked for days to get to the final boss... Sometimes I just hated my mom!!

I loved Nintendo too, but the Sega just kicked ass. I bought Sonic after being with my mom to the bingo, I won $250 that day, that is like $1500 today. I bought the game for around $65 that time. That was a lot of money for a kid. If you wonder, yes my mother took the rest of the money, her ticket. I didn't care, I was high on Sonic. Man, I had many great days, weeks, month and years with Sega. What a time to grow up. Magical!

This documentary gave me so many fun flashbacks. Me and my friend, who played at my house back in the day, sat here with me and we smiled, laughed and just loved this documentary. And we had some few beers too.

Really fun watching this. And to the guy who left a review, saying that Sega really wasn't that big of a deal... Dude, I'll challenge you any day LOL.

If you ever was a gamer or are a gamer, this is a must watch!! 10/10

This documentary nicely done and awesome! entertaining and at the same time very insightful. it is produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg as well which means it's full of jokes and fun editing. highly recommended to watch, even if you've never played a videogame in your life!

As the kid gamers of the 1990s now edge closer to 40 years of age, the topic of the Nintendo/Sega console wars is an oft-covered one. Despite being based on the Console Wars book from a number of years ago, I feel like this is the third iteration of such material I've seen on various streaming platforms in the last year or two alone.

As such, your mileage may vary depending on your level of knowledge coming into the viewing experience. If this is your first go-round with the 90s console wars, it will probably rank a bit higher. If not, however, there really isn't much new here that I hadn't already read/seen elsewhere.

Probably the hallmark of this film is its unique visuals, using a 16-bit motif on numerous occasions and to nice effect. What it may lack in out and out originality it somewhat makes up for in presentation.

Overall, I enjoyed watching "Console Wars". I am 100% the target audience for this sort of thing (about 10 years old when this was all transpiring), so that certainly helps. The combination of being largely beaten to the punch by other avenues, yet looking so slick, makes me settle on a solid--not spectacular--7 stars here.

Lots of pointless pixel-arty segues (bizarrely ALL with vertical scan lines) and some interesting interviews with key '80/'90s figures in the industry. Other than that this mainly plays out like an account of Tom Kalinske's Sega marketing career.

The interviews are probably the best thing about this, all the other information is scant (no verbal mention of the Master System, 32X, Sega CD or Dreamcast at all?!?!) and no details at all about the Saturn or even pictures, just a brief mention of it at the end.

Anyone who is interested in this subject already, will already know more than is revealed in this program. As stated previously the only interesting content is the interviews with people like Howard Lincoln from Nintendo and Tom Kalinske from Sega. Otherwise you could get all the info in this show (and a lot more) just by reading the Sega and Nintendo pages on Wikipedia. I get the feeling this was not made by people who have any genuine love for the subject.

It's a pretty enteraining story about the rise and fall of Sega. A bit (16 bits??) too sentimental however. Sega games and hardware were never all that, and it's pretty obvious that they never had a chance after their cowboy marketing strategies were eventually exposed by a lack of quality titles. If they ever even had one.

To say that it was all the fault of a jealous Japanese executive is pretty cheap and I wouldn't be surprised if that golden guy from SOA blast-financed this whole thing, just to get even. :)