Is the Sega Saturn overrated?

[pakopako]

i haven't played a lot of the "must have" games, but what i have played has kind of sucked. i am a total domestic kind of guy, and it seems much of the "must have" games are RPGs.

Just last month I was discussing possible ways the Saturn could have been salvaged with a little foresight (or hindsight if you had a time machine). Despite everything that happened around the system (such as the 32X in NA, the sudden death of the MegaDrive/Genesis, and its sudden death once the Dreamcast was announced), the console had a lot to offer. SEGA just didn't do a good job of telling people that.

There are some decent to good domestic action/platformers out there (Gex, Bug, Clockwork Knight, Astal, Earthworm Jim, Mr.Bones, Three Dirty Dwarves, Scud, et al) -- but many of these aren't exclusives not to mention the best titles tend to be, sadly, rare hoarded gems such as Burning Rangers or Keio 2 (PAL/JP). Shooters were limited to the Panzer Dragoon games, Galactic Attack, Darius Gaiden, and the even-harder-to-find In the Hunt.

Ultimately, the Saturn had a much smaller library overall due to the fact they were being shoe-horned out by their competition (and they had internal issues). Then again, I could say the same for the TG16/TCD/PCE/SCD2 (without the internal issues, as far as I know).

[AppleQueso]

Sega's entire US marketing division in those days was horrible

They practically killed the whole company with some of the dumb shit they pulled (the early launch, practically refusing to bring over any RPGs for the longest time, etc)

[equalsign]

Just remember that there are people on this forum who defend the 3DO and give their lists of games. I have Nights, Daytona, Virtual On, Die Hard Arcade, and Astal and after putting significant time into each of those I came away being pretty disappointed. In my opinion, the average retro/hardcore gamer will get a much better value out of the PS or the N64. If you fit into a couple very specific niches things will be different. The second post should have been /thread.

[Soldier Blue]

^Yeah I think people who have only played 5 games from a console shouldn't judge whether it is good or not

[flamepanther]

^Yeah I think people who have only played 5 games from a console shouldn't judge whether it is good or not

Unless it's a console that only has five games, anyway.

[Soldier Blue]

^Yeah I think people who have only played 5 games from a console shouldn't judge whether it is good or not

Unless it's a console that only has five games, anyway.

very true

[equalsign]

^Yeah I think people who have only played 5 games from a console shouldn't judge whether it is good or not

I think you misread me. I was frank with what I own and I don't think the system is worth the cost of entry unless you have niche tastes. I've played some of the other games that people have listed (like Gex, Clockwork Knight, and Virtua Fighter 2) and frankly I do not think they're even good. I have yet to play a single game on the Saturn that pulls me in like many games on the PS1 and N64 do.

[flamepanther]

It still has the best version of Mega Man 8.

[TornadoCreator]

People keep saying that the Sega Saturn is prized by import gamers who go for largely arcade shooters, the occational fighter, the Pazer Dragoon series and NiGHTS...

...am I the only person who plays the Saturn for it's local releases?

I loved Sonic Jam, easily the best ports of the original 16-bit games (better than the Mega Drive versions even as they removed glitches from Sonic 3, and the lag on Sonic 2 multiplayer).

Daytona USA was an incredible racing game, I could play that for hours, sure it may seem primitive today and it's not got a great selection of courses, but they feel so smooth and the music gets me in a gaming mood.

Crusader: No Remorse is a great action game and had a lot of suspense, another one I'd highly recommend.

Spot Goes To Hollywood is in my opinion the best isometric platformer ever made before everyone went for "true 3D". I also like Sonic 3D but I seem to be one of a small few.

Croc: Legend Of The Gobbos was a charming 3D platformer, I'd suggest this one too.

Some of the more obvious games like Saturn Bomberman and Fighters Megamix get a mention occationally but the above barely get any attention and I NEVER hear anyone praise my two favourite games on the system, games that I consider it worth buying the whole system for. They're both domestic releases in both Europe and North America. Alien Trilogy quite possibly the best FPS game of the generation, and Titan Wars (Solar Eclipse in North America), still my favourite On Rails Shooter of all time. I'll quote my last post, where I posted links to gameplay footage.

There are two games that I always feel the need to talk about when it comes to the Saturn.

The first Aliens Trilogy, an early FPS game but considering this was before both Half-Life and GoldenEye I think it's truly impressive. It's not as clean as Half-Life, but compared to say Doom it knocks the socks of it and is really suspenseful. The graphics are impressive and make GoldenEye look like it's made of scrunched up and folded tissue paper by example (early polygons uugghh). I'm not much of an FPS fan myself, but this is one I highly recommend, oh and play it with full attention and sound, it's much better that way, here's some gameplay footage...



The second is Titan Wars. This game seems to be practically unknown but it's one of the best on rails shooters I've ever played, and it's surprisingly well acted and well shot for what is essensially an FMV game. This is one of my favourite games for the system and I hope you get a chance to try it if you're collecting Saturn, however it's known in USA as Solar Eclipse. Again, here's some gameplay footage...

Am I the only person who's played these games, because it seems the only games anyone plays on their Saturn is Shmups and I honestly never play Shmups so I'm probably the strangest Saturn fan ever.

[pakopako]

It still has the best version of Mega Man 8.

That's the one with the soccer ball/football right?
Not sure how to respond to that.