Welcome bud! You can always join the Discord as that's more active now than the forums.
- SNES version runs at a different frame rate, so skating seems a little skippy, whereas Genesis is a much smoother experience.
- If you choose to play manual goalie control, SNES has a dedicated button (X button) assigned to switch to the goalie, as compared to Genesis (you have to hold down the B button to switch to goalie).
- In SNES, the team rankings are closely to their overall rating, whereas in Genesis because of something called the weight bug, which causes players lighter in weight to be able to check more effectively, the team rankings are much different.
- You can take a slapshot holding down the shoot button, then letting go, or you can quickly hit it for a "wrist shot" or a "snap shot" whichever you want to call it
- SNES has defense control, which you turn on in the menu before starting the game, which allows you to use the L and R button to switch to your left or right defensemen without needing to cycle through players like you would usually do with the B button (when you dont have the puck)
- SNES you can exit the game at anytime from the pause game menu, whereas in Genesis you have to either wait for the game to be over, or reset the emulator
- SNES game play is a little more unpredictable (shots going in that look like they have no chance, body checks succeeding are more random, lots of shots that hit the post, etc), so it seems more like an "arcade game" feel. Genesis is a little bit more predictable.
There are more mods to Genesis because of how much work had been done on the ROM in the early days for hacking. SNES wasn't as popular, and since no one has figured out a way how to reliably change the team logos and stuff like that, it doesnt have much of a hacking following. Also, there's only a few ROMs who add the hacking for the goalie button in Genesis, so you just need to read and check for those.
Each controller (SNES and Genesis) have different advantages. Just use the controller you like to use. A 6 button Genesis will work fine with a SNES emulator, and an SNES controller will work fine on Genesis emulator.