PTE62: Saturn Twenty

[Neon Ignition]

One more big gaming anniversary to talk about, this year being twenty years since Sega released their penultimate console onto the world with the Sega Saturn.

Itvwas a console which had some strong fans despite struggling against Sony's new system and received many an arcade port especially from its parent company. It's also a treasure trove of projects and stories such as the home port of Virtua Fighter 3 that was in the works, Shenmue's initial development and cancelled title Sonic Xtreme.









What are you memories of the console? It's launch? The games for the system?

[Dogg Thang]

I have so much love for the Saturn. I got it a little late, with SFA (awesome) and Panzer Dragoon Zwei (also awesome). Street Fighter Alpha was absolutely arcade perfect and I just hadn't seen that happen before. In fact, not just arcade perfect - it was better because the arranged soundtrack was fantastic.

Panzer Dragoon Zwei is one of the only games I have ever completely 100%ed. I played that to total perfection and I still adore the game to this day - the atmosphere, the music, the whole world is completely unique.

From there, I went and bought the original Panzer Dragoon and worked my way through a large bunch of the Saturn catalogue from the very average (Tunnel B1) to the amazing (Nights Into Dreams). Too many games to mention really but some highlights -

Exhumed - My favourite FPS and the Saturn version was a good bit better than the PC/PS1 version. An Egyptian-themed game that was more Metroid than Doom, beautifully 3D with big levels, plenty to explore and a rich atmosphere.

Keio Flying Squadron 2 - The move to 32-bit had everyone going 3D and I was left feeling that 2D could have done more. Better sound, better graphics and so on. Keio Flying Squadron 2 was one exception and delivered a lovely 2D platformer when everyone was going 3D.

Guardian Heroes - Mostly 2D, well 3D backgrounds. Gameplay-wise, I must admit I reckon this game was pretty average. But the look, the design and the world with branching paths sucked me in for a long time and I got a lot of play from this.

Panzer Dragoon Saga - Just a gorgeous RPG. The world, music... stunning.

And there were so many others. Story of Thor 2, Pocket Fighter, all the Capcom VS games (if you imported), Shining Wisdom, great Quake and Duke Nukem conversions, Burning Rangers, Sonic R, Gungriffon, a great version of SimCity 2000, Sega Rally... the list goes on. A wonderful system and one I bought a second one of years after just in case one died - that's how much I love it.

[replicashooter]

I bought one ages ago just to play Nights. At the time I thought it was decent but nothing special but after selling it I realized that the game was very much like Wipeout - easy to play yet hard to master but oh so satisfying when you do.

[buster_broon]

Now I've voted owned one and loved it but there are two sides to it

Owned a uk spec model from release and it was great - was working out in Northern Ireland at the time playing virtua fighter and sega rally and it made the small hours pass in quickly, even golden axe the duel was enjoyable

Years later got a JPN spec model and adored it, so many games I had never played and looking back thank to the ram cart a lot of the Capcom games were superior on the rather rather than my favourite PS1 back In the day

Favourite game back in the day was guardian heroes

Most played game is certainly sega rally

[nakamura]

I don't have a Saturn but boy are they fantastic. I would like one but you have to draw the line somewhere. If I ever finish everything I own, then i'll have a look.

[Colin]

It was a system that I could just never really take to, which is weird as on paper it should've been the more logical choice for me than the PS. I have so much love for guardian heroes it's untrue though.

[Neil]

That whole generation passed me by was so busy with work back then (briefly owned a PS1 on launch), never owned a UK machine but a few years ago picked up a white Japanese unit just to play all the shooters. Didn't feel any real love for it and sold it quite quickly, some quality games for it I'm sure and it's good to read other peoples memories but I think if you're not part of it originally then it makes it harder to love I guess.

[Kit]

Man, I'll be honest I thought the Saturn looked cool, I even kind of liked the controller, but lets be realistic it was ****; barely any good games, a complete pain in the ass to programme for, it didn't really know what it wanted to focus on - 2D or 3D so ****ed up both.

I'm sure Panza and Nights were alright games but system sellers? not in my eyes at all.

[speedlolita]

Man, I'll be honest I thought the Saturn looked cool, I even kind of liked the controller, but lets be realistic it was ****; barely any good games, a complete pain in the ass to programme for, it didn't really know what it wanted to focus on - 2D or 3D so ****ed up both.

I'm sure Panza and Nights were alright games but system sellers? not in my eyes at all.

You're playing the wrong games.

[Mr Ono]

I bought mine after the event. In the loft/garage now with a load of decent games.

[sj33]

Man, I'll be honest I thought the Saturn looked cool, I even kind of liked the controller, but lets be realistic it was ****; barely any good games, a complete pain in the ass to programme for, it didn't really know what it wanted to focus on - 2D or 3D so ****ed up both.

I'm sure Panza and Nights were alright games but system sellers? not in my eyes at all.

I'm not sure about this, to be honest. Depending on the type of games you play, it could be the perfect console. If you wanted to play arcade ports, or 2D fighters, shmups, the best games ever produced by Sega, Capcom, SNK etc., then the Saturn has plenty. I could list 50+ must own Saturn games.

I would say the issue was that it wasn't the console that the industry needed. The PlayStation had the kind of games that had become popular, games like WipEout. The Saturn represented a misreading of the industry by Sega, but it's an incredible system at what it does.

[danholo]

I got one of these several years ago. I play it rarely, and haven't been able to get many games either. The one's I want demand quite a price. It's still quite great and I don't want to sell it. I hope to play it and get more games eventually. I haven't even modded it, although I have a chip somewhere. Not that big into soldering though.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Has it really been 20 years since the Saturn made its debut? God, I feel OLD.

I never owned a Saturn, but I remember being blown away back in the day upon seeing 1:1 arcade-perfect ports of the best 2D beat-em-ups of the day like King of Fighters '95, X-Men CotA, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Street Fighter Alpha, etc. - obviously thanks to the RAM cartridge which was something of an underrated gamechanger for consoles, imho.

Would love to own an NTSC-J model if the chance presents itself someday.

[speedlolita]

Grey Saturn is one of my favourite machines ever looks wise.

The arcade ports are just one of the great strengths of the machine.

[CatCopter]

I had a pal Saturn when it was current i bought it with VF2 and i must say i think its a solid system games wise. I bought a playstation years later as i thought i was missing out and didn't really find any stand out titles.