Post any time you get ANYTHING retro 3.

[Leon Retro]

I disagree, most of the magazines and stuff I read were full of praise for the Saturn

I remember(as do people above this post] that lots of journos were very much pro-Playstation from the start[1994] and when Daytona was seen as a weak conversion compared to Ridge Racer on the PS, the knives really came out against the Saturn.

But I know there was some positivity for the Saturn from some journos, because some people did enjoy Daytona a lot, despite its issues, and games like Panzer Dragoon, Sega Rally and Nights were firm favourites with many gamers.

Sony did a great job at making the Playstation brand seem "cool & exciting", which is something a lot of journos bought into and then promoted. Journos did take sides - and many sided with the Playstation. But, like some enthusiast gamers, there were journalists who praised the Saturn and its best games.

The PlayStation by comparison has such a vast and high quality library (With the 3D era games holding up far better than the Saturn) that I always gravitate to Sony's 32bit system over Sega's.

The Playstation was far simpler to program for, so devs loved making games for it. That resulted in a huge, rich library of games. But as much as I really enjoyed - and still enjoy - the Playstation, I also really like the Saturn and its best games. Although, if you don't like 2D fighters and shooters, there aren't many great games for the system away from those.

So I can fully appreciate why gamers did and still do prefer the Playstation over the Saturn, but I personally have a lot of affection for the Saturn and still use it quite often. But I do wish it had more great games for it, as the library is a bit thin.

[Godhard]

New arrivals

Nice mate, card fighters clash is extremely addictive. Enjoy!

[Wools]

I remember(as do people above this post] that lots of journos were very much pro-Playstation from the start[1994] and when Daytona was seen as a weak conversion compared to Ridge Racer on the PS, the knives really came out against the Saturn.

Sony did a great job at making the Playstation brand seem "cool & exciting", which is something a lot of journos bought into and then promoted. Journos did take sides - and many sided with the Playstation. But, like some enthusiast gamers, there were journalists who praised the Saturn and its best games.

Or maybe it was not a bias, it was just an objective view that at the time, the PlayStation games on offer were more impressive than the Saturn? It's like Edge said in their making of article, they've been accused of bias for every single platform under the sun, but they're not!

I think it's a subjective take and it depends what you're reading and your own bias. Even when I was a kid at primary school, I never was a fan boy and although I owned a Mega Drive and loved it, I loved playing on friends SNES's and Amiga's. So I never liked Official magazines as a rule of thumb because of their 100% focus.

The truly worst for it was The Official Nintendo Magazine. Even as a kid, it was embarrassing to read, full of garbage and I remember them using words like DreamPants, GreyStation (Or was it GayStation?) and other billy bull**** rubbish. It's odd how reading bits of that magazine affected my view of Nintendo for the worse and I felt little sadness when the magazine closed down.

[Team Andromeda]

The Playstation was far simpler to program for, so devs loved making games for it

Sorry that's just a cop out and excuse . SONY had the Market share and that's the difference . If it was easy of use and tools then the likes of Cube and DC would have been the best support consoles out there , but the system that was meant to be far harder to use one the day .

Its always about market share

Although, if you don't like 2D fighters and shooters, there aren't many great games for the system away from those.

Not true at all . The only real area the Saturn suffered in compared to the PS was platform (and the fact that you had to import most of the good stuff) and 3d platform games .

[Wools]

Not true at all . The only real area the Saturn suffered in compared to the PS was platform (and the fact that you had to import most of the good stuff) and 3d platform games .

The Saturn had some stunning games but it excelled at 2D fighters and 2D shooters and the PlayStation actively attempted to stay away from those genres as Sony wanted 3D games on their system. Mis-guided of course, so that was the PlayStation's one weak point, although it did have Symphony of the Night!

Let's be honest, Leon is correct. If you don't like 2D Fighters or 2D Shooters, the Saturn is not as tempting 32bit console as the PlayStation because its catalogue of games is not as diverse. And no, I'm not saying the Saturn library is bad because Sega Rally, Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Cop, NiGHTS and Sonic Megamix are brilliant games.

[speedlolita]

I always find it amusing when people defend the Saturn.

[Team Andromeda]

Let's be honest, Leon is correct. If you don't like 2D Fighters or 2D Shooters, the Saturn is not as tempting 32bit console as the PlayStation because its catalogue of games is not as diverse

To me the Saturn was very much like the Snes Vs the MD. The MD had by far the better number of good games more western support, more of it better games also made it to the west and it had a more diverse games line up and 3rd party support , but for me the Snes gems made up for that and the same goes for the Saturn . And also the Saturn best games weren't just about Vs fighters or shooters .

Not one for lists these days but for me Exhumed is the best FPS I ever played, Decathlete the best 32 bit sports game I played, Saturn Bomberman the best version of the game fullstops, NHL 98 All Star Hockey (almost like a 3D version of EA Hockey on the MD) , Panzer Dragoon Saga the best 32 Bit RPG ever made , The best console version of Duke Nukem 3D, for me the best version of Resident Evil (and also really loved Deep Fear, Enemy Zero) , Sega Rally the best 32 bit racer imo, Gun Griffon the best mech game I played , Astal one of the most stunning looking and is lovely 2D platform, Steep Slope Sliders the best snowboarding game I've ever played, Die hard Arcade the best 3D scrolling beat them up I played and loved the likes of Stellar Assault, AMOK, Princess Crown and so on.

It wasn't all just about Vs Fighters or shooters on the Saturn; Just like the Neo Geo wasn't all about 2D Fighters or the PS didn't have a great looking or great 2D game.

[beecee]

PS didn't have a great looking or great 2D game.

SOTN was better on the PS (imo) and a stonking 2d game, but the SS was developed to be a 2D powerhorse, 3D was only really added very late in the day.

[Wools]

To me the Saturn was very much like the Snes Vs the MD. The MD had by far the better number of good games more western support, more of it better games also made it to the west and it had a more diverse games line up and 3rd party support , but for me the Snes gems made up for that and the same goes for the Saturn . And also the Saturn best games weren't just about Vs fighters or shooters .

Not one for lists these days but for me Exhumed is the best FPS I ever played, Decathlete the best 32 bit sports game I played, Saturn Bomberman the best version of the game fullstops, NHL 98 All Star Hockey (almost like a 3D version of EA Hockey on the MD) , Panzer Dragoon Saga the best 32 Bit RPG ever made , The best console version of Duke Nukem 3D, for me the best version of Resident Evil (and also really loved Deep Fear, Enemy Zero) , Sega Rally the best 32 bit racer imo, Gun Griffon the best mech game I played , Astal one of the most stunning looking and is lovely 2D platform, Steep Slope Sliders the best snowboarding game I've ever played, Die hard Arcade the best 3D scrolling beat them up I played and loved the likes of Stellar Assault, AMOK, Princess Crown and so on.

It wasn't all just about Vs Fighters or shooters on the Saturn; Just like the Neo Geo wasn't all about 2D Fighters or the PS didn't have a great looking or great 2D game.

The Saturn was not all about 2D games, I get that. But for me, the only Saturn games I cared about truly was Sega Rally, Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Cop and the mythical Panzer Dragoon Saga that I only ever had a demo of! But outside of that, the games were not to my taste or the Arcade ports I wanted like Daytona USA or Virtua Racing were not to a decent standard like Sega Rally was. Although VR was closer than the Mega Drive port!

Because a lot of the 3D games on the Saturn were not to the standard I was hoping for you look elsewhere in the library and there was not much else I was interested in so that just comes down to my personal taste.

However, on the PlayStation, the Arcade ports were to a great standard and sometimes far in excess of what you could hope for! Combined with other classics I really felt it was a killer line up. Gran Turismo 2, Die Hard Trilogy, Colin McRae Rally 2.0, Resident Evil 2, Metal Gear Solid, Tomb Raider, Tekken 3, Driver, Time Crisis, Wip3out: Special Edition, Ridge Racer Type 4, Final Fantasy VII, it was such an exhaustive and diverse line up, it really was the console I enjoyed most in that era.

Like me and Leon said, if you loved my above list, the 3D games on Saturn did not live up to what the PlayStation was offering. Outside of that, it has a well earned reputation for 2D Shooters and Fighters but if you have no fondness for that genre, the Saturn line up does feel limp.

[samanosuke]

If you don't like 2D Fighters or 2D Shooters, the Saturn is not as tempting 32bit console as the PlayStation

No true gamer can claim to not like shmups and 2D fighters. Ergo Saturn FTW.

Love these playground arguments, me

[nakamura]

No interest in Saturn shmups or fighters myself. Racing and adventure games though!

[Wools]

No true gamer can claim to not like shmups and 2D fighters. Ergo Saturn FTW.

Love these playground arguments, me

And no true gamer can claim to like games but not have completed P.N.03 on hard mode with no continues!

[Strider]

The play station was arguably the better machine but I'll take the Saturn over it every day of the week, mainly because it has all the arcade games I love playing.
Getting back into the snes at the moment, so have just picked up a few bits and bobs, which I'll post later.

[Team Andromeda]

I wanted like Daytona USA or Virtua Racing were not to a decent standard like Sega Rally was

Well before I go off topic for too long . I think more PS Arcade ports seemed better just because in most cases they were running on PS hardware . VR wasn't even done by SEGA on the Saturn and we all know Dayona USA was rushed out . I think given the vast gulf in spec's the Saturn ports of Last Bronx , Rally, VC 1 and II, VO , VF II were better that were had any right to expect really.

It never helped that most of the Saturn better games were never translated. But when developers used the VPD II and mixed that with the Saturn's 3D and 2D you did get games with amazing 3D graphics with with Zwei and RSG .

Anyway sorry, back on topic . I've just picked up this game again

[Wools]

I think more PS Arcade ports seemed better just because in most cases they were running on PS hardware . VR wasn't even done by SEGA on the Saturn and we all know Dayona USA was rushed out . I think given the vast gulf in spec's the Saturn ports of Last Bronx , Rally, VC 1 and II, VO , VF II were better that were had any right to expect really.

But they weren't running on PlayStation hardware! The Namco System 22 Arcade board was close in architecture to the PlayStation but it was still more powerful than Sony's console and required some significant port work to get games running on the little grey box.

Fair enough, the Saturn ports were better than they had any right to be (Although Sega Rally and VF2 were very faithful) but in comparison, the gap between Arcade and home felt closer on PlayStation in regards to the 3D Arcade ports.

The Saturn had it stitched up when it came to Arcade 2D ports though. With the Ram Pak included, Meta Slug and KOF '97 were lovely translations.