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Sega Visions: For Sega Video Game Players (Magazine Retrospective #1)

2,173 views · Published 27 November 2014 · 4:02 · Indexed 4 November 2026

Channel: Defunct Games · 2014 · Gaming

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Seeing the success of Nintendo Power, Sega of America decided to create their own propaganda-laced magazine. How did it compare? Find out in today's episode of 29 Magazines of Christmas.

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See these guys? They're sitting around the table talking about their favorite Nintendo Power memories. Charlie likes those funny Howard and Nester comics, while Sarah was more of a Counselor's Corner kind of girl. But poor Sam feels completely left out of the conversation. You see, instead of following the exploits of Nintendo, Sam subscribed to Sega Visions, Sega of America's bi-monthly Nintendo Power rip-off.

First released in June of 1990, Sega Visions promised a "New Generation" of magazine for anybody interested in the same kind of content found in pretty much every other magazine on the newsstand. Published six times a year, each issue ran between 60 to 150 pages and featured the usual news, reviews, previews and hints format found in other magazines of the time. While not original, this was one of the few places fans of the Genesis, Master System and Game Gear could go without being reminded that everybody loves Nintendo.

Although clearly tied to a major hardware company, Sega Visions attempted to appear objective. When they finally started publishing reviews in 1992, the magazine chose to only review third-party titles. Nintendo Power, on the other hand, had no problem giving their games high scores.

But before you give Sega too much credit, they added this disclaimer suggesting they weren't going to be very critical of the third-party titles. "Unlike the ratings published in other magazines, you won't find any embarrassingly low ratings here. By the time a game has obtained Sega's seal of quality, it has already exceeded certain minimum standards." (May/Jun 92, 46)

Oddly enough, Sega didn't exactly stick to that mantra. Between 1992 and 1994, Sega Visions gave very few games a score higher than 90%. Madden '93, Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?, Lemmings, Lakers vs. Bulls, Desert Strike and Atomic Runner were among the magazine's top rated games, with many of those receiving an 85%.

On the other hand, Double Dragon is Sega Visions' lowest scoring game, receiving a terrible 40%. This was followed by Chester Cheetah (48%), and Andre Agassi Tennis, Barcelona '92 Olympic Gold, Crash Dummies, Earnest Evans, Syd of Valis and Traysia, all 50%. The magazine's review average was 68%, which certainly doesn't say anything good about Sega's seal of quality.

In 1994, Sega decided to switch to a brand new rating system, which substituted Sonic the Hedgehog's head for the traditional stars. Although a welcome change, it ultimately led to a confusing article that explained the new ratings system by reviewing the members of the Beatles, types of sandwiches, late night talk show hosts, Rocky movies and even dinosaurs. 

Beyond reviewing games, Sega Visions also looked at Sega's many innovations. They devoted many pages to the Activator, VR Helmet, Sega CD and 32X. They were hopelessly optimistic about everything Sega did, even when it involved selling kids on this horrible Sonic the Hedgehog costume. And when they told me that "most Sega Visions readers either own a Sega CD or are about to get one," I'm not sure if they actually believed it or were just putting on a brave face.

Speaking of brave faces, Sam can finally get in on the conversation now that his friends have stopped talking about Nintendo Power and moved on to discussing how disappointing Interstellar was.

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