"Who would have thought the megadrive was capable of the fx this game threw at you? mental stuff. i didnt play it at the time so it's been great checkig it out this time on the VC"

The MD had a fairly powerful CPU (faster than the SNES) but suffered from worse graphic and sound capability. The SNES put out better looking games but needed help from add-on chips to help the CPU out. A game like Sonic wouldn't be possible on the SNES without "help".