I've been revisiting some classic games lately, and while I love the Sega Genesis library, I can't help but find its sound chip a bit grating. There's something about the harsh, metallic tones and often scratchy quality that makes it hard to enjoy games at full volume. I know it has its fans, but compared to systems like the SNES or even some older consoles, it just seems unnecessarily rough.
Am I alone in this? Does anyone else struggle with the Genesis' audio, or is this part of its charm for you?
Yes! I have always thought that music and sound on the Genesis sounded horrendous. A few games used the hardware well and made stuff that didn't suck (Sonic the Hedgehog and Ecco just to name a few), but the vast majority of games, especially those with multiple ports, always sounded the worst on Genesis.
It seemed to do deeper, bassier techno sounds better than any kind of higher pitched sounds. IIRC, it's because the instrument types selected for their MIDI shit was just bad.