An Ode to the Sega 32X
The 32X is an ugly, fat, misshapen and tumor-esque addition to the Genesis. Yes, I know that you know this already. The Internet's been somewhat obsessed over this mushroom-shaped mistake ever since The Angry Video Game Nerd covered it in his massively popular webseries. But I'm not here to talk about why the 32X sucks, I'm here to tell why it was the best gaming console that never made it. For all intents and purposes, the 32X was a massive failure for Sega; the first of many mistakes for an ultimately doomed hardware company. Meant as a lifespan extender for the Genesis, it promised to provide awesome and totally radical 32-bit graphics and gameplay... whatever that meant. In reality, it added almost zero additional functionality to the Genesis. Its only claim to fame was its ability to run a half-assed port of Doom. An interesting feat, to be sure. Nonetheless, I love the 32X. I have a relatively small collection of 80's and 90's game consoles, and the 32X is the one that I find myself unexpectedly coming back to time and time again. I'll tell you why: it's plucky. It's the weird one. I like to equate the 32X to something like an early 90's BMW or Volvo: it may be boxy, perhaps even homely, but it's good. Real good. Like these cars, the 32X was the odd foreign duck in a world where Oldsmobiles and Windstars ran amok. The 32X reeks of untapped potential, arguably (perhaps controversially) more so than something like the Dreamcast. While a comparatively small number of games managed to find their way on the system, the majority of them were fantastic. Games like Doom, Kolibri, Star Wars Arcade, and Cosmic Carnage. Fucking Cosmic Carnage! (On a side note, we need a Cosmic Carnage reboot. Seriously, Sega. You'd make big bucks. Robot praying mantises are totally in right now.) Strangely enough, the 32X shares some system architecture cues from the similarly ill-fated Saturn. Both feature a dual-CPU design, a decision that would, on paper anyways, allow for limited 3D graphics and an improved number of onscreen 2D sprites. In reality, this setup was every programmer's nightmare. While Sega could technically say that the 32X was capable of producing better graphics than Nintendo's SuperFX chip, few games were able to fully utilize the 32X's abilities to their advantage. The 32X is an odd piece of gaming history, and and important one, at that. If you have the chance to own one, take it. Dear God, Take it. More than 20 years after its release, the 32X shines brighter than ever as a place where the oddness and freakishness of the 90's are preserved perfectly.
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