Sega 32X

"Sega's biggest failure"

In 1994 the 16bit era was expected to come to a close with the release of the 3D0, and Sega was looking for a way to maintain their image as a company that makes top of the line hardware that they had earned with the release of Sonic the Hedgehog for the Genesis. Due to a lack of communication between Sega of America and Sega of Japan, Sega began work on two projects to move into the 32bit generation: Sega of Japan created the Sega Saturn and Sega of America created the 32X add-on to the Sega Genesis.

The 32X was destined to fail right from the beginning for several reasons, most of which were the fault of Sega. First of all, just to clarify things, the 32X drive is not really a console – it is actually a CD drive that plugs into the cartridge slot of the Sega Genesis (it did have a pass-through slot for Genesis games, so the 32X could be left in the Genesis permanently). It used the processor of the Genesis, so despite being a 32bit system it did not offer the additional power that would have come with a brand new console, such as the Sega Saturn. As a result the 32X went ignored by many developers who favored the PlayStation and Saturn platforms, and consumers would follow the developers.

Despite the abandonment by developers and consumers after the release of the 32X, there was a lot of prerelease hype. Unfortunately Sega grossly underestimated the demand for the 32X and as a result the supply was nowhere near the level of the demand. All of these problems combined with the fact that the 32X was being sold for $150 (while much cheaper than a 32bit console, it was very expensive for an accessory) made the drive a complete failure for Sega and lead to the end of the Genesis's success.

By 1995 the 32X was discontinued in favor of the Saturn, and with such a short lifespan the library of games is extremely small, with practically no noteworthy games. Many of the games were rushed in order to be released in time for the drive's launch, and as a result many highly anticipated games were plagued with errors and graphics that were barely different than 16bit games. In fact, many games like Sonic 2 and Donkey Kong Country (for the SNES, which was yet another nail in Sega's coffin) looked better than any 32X game. A few games like Blackthrone, Kolibri, and World Series Baseball were impressive looking, but for the most part the drive did little to improve the graphics.

The 32X was capable of producing Full Motion Video, something even the Nintendo 64 could not do. However, good FMVs take effort to produce and few 32X developers were willing to put much effort into their games. The other problem is that the slow processor on the Genesis took a relatively long time to load the video. One good thing that came out of the fact that the 32X was an add-on to the Genesis was the fact that it used the same controllers, and the Genesis controllers were very good for the time.

There were a few gems like Virtua Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and Star Wars Arcade (probably the best 32X game released). Sega also released a Sonic spin-off to try and push the drive, but it couldn't compare in quality to the other 16bit Sonic games on the Genesis. A couple of Genesis games, such as Pitfall, were redone for the 32X, with noticeable improvements. The major thing that the 32X had over the Genesis and SNES was the ability to run true 3D games (in other words games using polygons to create three dimensional objects, as opposed to using 2D images to create an illusion of 3D), however bad 3D games were not an improvement over good 2D games, which could be produced on the Genesis or SNES.

Not only was the game library lacking in quality titles, the hardware was plagued with numerous problems, the least of which was ugliness. Many drives had problems connecting to the Genesis console or to the TV, and Sega ended up giving away adapters. The drive was also known to have problems reading games among other mechanical issues.

Even if the 32X had been supported by more developers who made high quality games, the drive would have still fallen behind the other 32bit consoles. The 32X relied on the Genesis's processors, which meant that by 1994 the hardware was quickly becoming outdated. Overall the 32X is Sega's biggest failure, and probably one of the worst consoles ever made, right up there with Nintendo's Virtual Boy.

Had Sega never released the 32X and promoted the Saturn instead, Sega might have ended up in a much better position. Before this mess Sega was the top console maker, having pulled slightly ahead of Nintendo. However once the 32X was released Sega's lost the name they had built up for themselves and their two follow-up consoles would basically go unnoticed by the general gaming community.

At this point 32X drives are fairly hard to find, and not really worth the time or money. If you really want to play the games there are several emulators for the PC, such as Gens, which can emulate both cartridge and CD games for the 32X, Sega CD, and Genesis.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 05/18/05, Updated 09/26/05