Retro Arena: 32-bit era consoles

[Asura]

PlayStation

1. Final Fantasy VII
2. Resident Evil 2
3. Tekken 3
4. Ridge Racer Revolution
5. Wip3out

Saturn

1. NiGHTS
2. Sega Rally
3. Virtua Fighter 2
4. Virtua Cop
5. Panzer Dragoon Zwei

N64

1. Perfect Dark
2. F-Zero X
3. Majora's Mask
4. Super Mario 64
5. Sin & Punishment

Can't really dispute any of that, though mine differs quite a bit. A difficult one for me is dividing between which games I would want to play right now and which games I loved the most at the time, as they are definitely different for the Saturn.

Couple of strange choices on here, I'll admit:

Saturn:
Virtual On
Nights/Christmas Nights
Guardian Heroes
Gungriffon
Street Fighter Alpha 2

The heyday of the Saturn coincides with my discovery of anime, thanks to a bunch of older kids at school who traded Manga VHS tapes. I had previously liked Battletech/Mechwarrior, but this introduced me to Patlabor, Macross Plus and a load of other mecha movies/shows, so naturally Virtual On and Gungriffon were a big deal for me. Nights was amazing; was one of the few games that ever caught me with the "score attack" bug (the other big one being Crazy Taxi years later) and I loved Chistmas Nights after receiving it from a retail worker as a freebie, as an impromptu Christmas gift. Then of course there's SF Alpha 2, which needs no justification.

Guardian Heroes gets in for two reasons. First is honorary, as it remains the sole Saturn title that I own. The second, though, is that it's one of my biggest gaming surprises. I got it randomly from a branch of MAKRO after returning a faulty game I wanted (Die Hard Trilogy); the shop had no other games I wanted so I picked it up. Even though it had the anime aesthetic, it was 2D, and a scrolling beat-em-up, and being an idiot young teenager, I found it a bit old-fashioned in this era of 3D gaming. Still, I tried it, and I absolutely loved it, and it remains one of my all-time favourites, especially in co-op.

Playstation:
Metal Gear Solid
Vagrant Story
Syphon Filter 2
Ridge Racer Type 4
Street Fighter Alpha 3

No FF7 as I actually played it on PC, using my Voodoo2 card! Metal Gear is obvious I guess. RRT4 might have problems but I loved it at the time, and I still think it's one of the best-looking and sounding games on the machine, with fantastic use of colour. Syphon Filter 2 gets a nostalgia hit; loved it at the time, though by today's standards it may be a bit crap. Alpha 3 isn't the best version of that game, but it was the only one I had, so there was no basis for comparison.

Vagrant Story however I believe is the best-looking game on the PS1 overall, with great gameplay and story. I toyed with Front Mission 3 for this position as I thought that was great fun (again, I had no way to compare it to the others in the series and it was my first SRPG) but there's just something special about Vagrant Story that's hard to quantify. Plus, the entire game's visuals were in real-time, like Metal Gear, which was interesting for Square and a sign of things to come.


Nintendo 64:
Super Mario 64
Zelda Ocarina of Time
WCW vs NWO Revenge
Mario Kart 64
Fighter's Destiny

Some of those need no explanation; I mainly got my N64 on the promise of Mario, because of how much CVG gushed over it, and it's still one of my favourite games. The WCW game might be an odd choice, but as a 4-player game with some beers, it's great fun; I don't quite know the lineage of it but I know that some wrestling games are reskins of Japanese titles, which I think that one was? I got MK64 early and similarly, great in 4-player, great battle mode, just great fun all-round, and it remains my favourite MK despite the fact that I think others are objectively better.

Fighter's Destiny is the strangest one though. It's a real footnote in gaming history and probably not remembered by most, but I was starved of a good fighter on N64 and I loved how it was just so unusual. I like a game which does things by-the-numbers well, but sometimes I want something weird and quirky and it's about the quirkiest fighter I've ever played.

If I had to pick one... Personal tilt is definitely the Saturn, but objectively, I think the Playstation edges it.

[dataDave]

I struggled to fill my Saturn list, really. At the time I preferred it over the PSX (by far, actually) but now everything other than Sega Rally and the Panzer Dragoon games can be played elsewhere. With the state of emulation in 2019 it's very difficult to warm towards the amount of admittedly excellent ports it had at the time.

I'll likely never again touch Perfect Dark 64 for the same reason. That XBLA remaster was a gift from God.

[Strider]

I loved this game so much. An underrated classic. In a way, games like this were a casualty to the move to 3D. It's like 2D platformer visuals went to a certain point but then stopped because focus went on 3D but Keio 2 looks and plays beautifully. It's a lot of fun.

I’ve got this turning up alongside twinkle star sprites. Really looking forward to it.

[Asura]

I struggled to fill my Saturn list, really.

I think the Saturn struggles because most of its best games are arcade ports, and even if they were arcade perfect (which they aren't, but they're certainly excellent), I believe arcade-action games (fighters, racing games) have a tendency to age faster than any other area of gaming, because many of them are based on spectacle.

[dataDave]

I think the Saturn struggles because most of its best games are arcade ports, and even if they were arcade perfect (which they aren't, but they're certainly excellent), I believe arcade-action games (fighters, racing games) have a tendency to age faster than any other area of gaming, because many of them are based on spectacle.

Don't get me wrong, I can (and do) play arcade games for years and years, and then return to them again decades later. It's just that there's not much point returning to them on the Saturn when better options are available. It's a shame because it was once my favourite console from that era.

[Strider]

Don't get me wrong, I can (and do) play arcade games for years and years, and then return to them again decades later. It's just that there's not much point returning to them on the Saturn when better options are available. It's a shame because it was once my favourite console from that era.

I feel completely different. Initially I sold a few of my rarer Saturn shooters as I had a mame cab and it felt pointless to own them. I've since found that I love sitting down with nakamura and playing through these games on my TV (particularly when my PVM was working). There are still plenty of great Saturn games that were never ported elsewhere as well and now I'm looking outside the shoot-em-up genre I'm finding loads of great games.

[Leon Retro]

Guardian Heroes gets in for two reasons. First is honorary, as it remains the sole Saturn title that I own. The second, though, is that it's one of my biggest gaming surprises.

I remember buying it in early '96 and being really surprised by how much it offered over 16-bit beat 'em ups. I loved how the developer really took advantage of the Saturn and put loads of stuff into the game.

The only thing is -- I went back to it a few years ago and didn't like it. It annoyed me how the action is so 'stop & start' and the graphics look really blocky. Maybe I was having a bad day -- so I will give it another go. I hope I was just in a bad mood.

Playstation:

RRT4 might have problems but I loved it at the time,

I remember thinking it was awesome back in the day. The graphics really impressed me. Plus I thought it felt really nice to play. So I spent loads of time with it. I was actually quite surprised when people started saying it was a dodgy game years later.

Nintendo 64:

Fighter's Destiny

Fighter's Destiny is the strangest one though. It's a real footnote in gaming history and probably not remembered by most, but I was starved of a good fighter on N64 and I loved how it was just so unusual. I like a game which does things by-the-numbers well, but sometimes I want something weird and quirky and it's about the quirkiest fighter I've ever played.

I think I played it at an importer and didn't like it. But it sounds like it's a decent game if you give it a proper chance. I will have to give it ago when I get around to buying an N64 Everdrive.

[Asura]

I think I played it in an importer and didn't like it. But it sounds like it's a decent game if you give it a proper chance. I will have to give it ago when I get around to buying an N64 Everdrive.

It's just how it was one of the few fighters which didn't just take its gameplay cues from Street Fighter II. Games are played to a number of points, and you receive points for different actions. IIRC, ring-outs are 1, knockdowns are 1, special knockdowns are 3, throw knockdowns are 1... Additionally, when you counter a move, a little bar appears onscreen (kinda like the Gears of War active reload bar), and the other player can "counter the counter" by hitting the button at the right time; this bar gets shorter and shorter the more counter-counters you do, until someone screws up.

Again, it's not good in the conventional sense. It was just very different and it always sticks in my memory for that reason.

[dataDave]

I wonder if using CD-ROM would have had a negative impact on Mario 64. I guess it would to some degree. There's no doubt that using CD would have attracted far more support for Nintendo's machine. As much as some games benefited from being on cartridge, it did put lots of publishers/devs off the machine.

They would have probably gone with CD audio instead of midi. So the first thing to go would be the real-time mixing of some of the music tracks.

The same for Banjo.

[Leon Retro]

They would have probably gone with CD audio instead of midi. So the first thing to go would be the real-time mixing of some of the music tracks.

The same for Banjo.

I guess having everything essentially in RAM is good for open environment games like Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie. Also, loading times would have appeared.

Looking back -- I think it would have been more interesting if Nintendo had opted for CD-ROM. You would have had all sorts of devs across the world pushing the Silicon Graphics hardware. Instead, you had Nintendo & RARE showing off the tech, with most of the few third-party devs producing rubbish.

[DeathAdder]

Nintendo 64

1. Wave Race
2. NCW NWO
3. Pilotwings
4. Ocarina of Time
5. Golden Eye

[Team Andromeda]

They would have probably gone with CD audio instead of midi. So the first thing to go would be the real-time mixing of some of the music tracks.

The same for Banjo.

But one had sound tools like ADX and Cybersound that allowed the mixing of samples to play back, so you could alter the music depending on player actions like in NiGHTS or with the fantastic use of ADX in Space Channel 5

[Strider]

I'm actually playing through Guardians at the moment and I think it's excellent. The graphic style won't be for everyone, but I find it really distinctive and it's exceptional in places. The combat mechanics are completely sound too, with lots of special moves to discover. I think the only things that let it down for me is you can't quickly skip over text and the difficulty really ramps up in the last few stages, it's an incredible game though and I'm so glad I never sold it in my original Saturn cull (where I lost the likes of Dragon Force, Saturn Bomberman, Shinging Force III, Shining Wisdom, Twinkle Star Sprites, KyukyoKu Tiger 2 and a few others I'm now buying back).

[Dogg Thang]

The music in Guardian Heroes is superb. For me, that was a big part of why I loved it. I know what Leon means when he says it’s blocky though - it uses sprite scaling to make the bigger enemies that doesn’t always look great. I tend to tire easily of that type of beat em up but the music, feel and the branching paths kept me playing Guardian Heroes for a long time.

[Leon Retro]

1. Wave Race

I might be crazy... but Wave Race 64 is easily in my Top 10 games of all-time. I've been playing it for over 20 years and I always enjoy going back to it. The overall design has a touch of magic that makes it so special.

it's an incredible game though and I'm so glad I never sold it in my original Saturn cull

The music in Guardian Heroes is superb.

I tend to tire easily of that type of beat em up but the music, feel and the branching paths kept me playing Guardian Heroes for a long time.

I was probably in a really negative mood the last time I played it. I'll give it a go sometime soon and see what I think. Back in the day, I rated it really highly and thought it was excellent.