Why I LOVE the SEGA Saturn so much...

[lisalover1]

I bought my Saturn for no particular reason at all, I just wanted a different system. Came with Virtua Fighter 2 and I never owned many games for it after that, few good titles here and there.

Actually, that's exactly what happened for me. I bought my Saturn for no reason, and it came with Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Cop, Mortal Combat 3, and SimCity. It was a while before I realized that I could play NiGHTS, and that's when I really started to get interested in the Saturn. What maintains it's interest to me today is it's 10-player multiplayer in Saturn Bomberman and 6-player Guardian Heroes.

[Breetai]

I have a Saturn and have a good amount of games, some supposed to be ground breaking.

I think its pretty poor compared to the PS and to a lesser extent the N64.

Also i think the controller is some hideous Megadrive pad that had tumors and miss shaped it and made it bigger.

I really wanted to love the saturn, I sunk quite a bit of money into it but I can't.

Do you hate games that aren't FPS or sports games, or do you just not know much about the Saturn? If you have the ability to get Japanese games, it's by far the best 2D system there is other than perhaps the Super Nintendo. Even then, I prefer the Saturn. Shoot 'em ups, 2D(and 3D) fighting games, platformers, puzzle games and, IMO, the best version of Bomberman.

The controller, especially the second model, is easily my favourite controller for games that don't need analogue. I really can't think of a better controller anywhere.

[d123456]

Con memory card cartridge based.

I don't see that as a major con at all.
Those few 1/3/4 MB games cannot have their save data on the cartridge, but instead on the internal memory.
internal memory should be listed as a pro since you don't need a memory card for your first bunch of games!

[silverback]

Do you hate games that aren't FPS or sports games, or do you just not know much about the Saturn? If you have the ability to get Japanese games, it's by far the best 2D system there is other than perhaps the Super Nintendo. Even then, I prefer the Saturn. Shoot 'em ups, 2D(and 3D) fighting games, platformers, puzzle games and, IMO, the best version of Bomberman.

The controller, especially the second model, is easily my favourite controller for games that don't need analogue. I really can't think of a better controller anywhere.

Very good, I love how you assume either I know nothing or you can guess what type of games I prefer to play.

Well sports sims, these are shovelware to me, the only use for them I find is they are something to throw in when I sell a console.

It seems to me that the Saturn is a fanboys dream, defend the thing to end no matter what. Its like Ford and GM and all the other ridiculous arguments. Don't think I'm some sort of sega hater, far from it, I love my dreamcast, game gear, master system and megadrive.

The fact that apparently it's a great 2D system, is that supposed to impress? The 32 bit era was all about getting away from 2D. That was the whole point, maybe you weren't born then or whatever but I was and I remember all the hype and the promises.

Also Jap games are what makes the system. Maybe I'm the only person on here that thinks the fact you have to play imported games in another language to get anything regarded as good is a very poor show indeed. So to enjoy the console I have to illegally download software and burn it or buy imported games and modify the console to suit. Well thats very poor isn't it.

The controller as I said I do not like it, it hurts my hands as well after a while, this may be down to the fact I have large hands but theres no way I can hold it in comfort and use the shoulder buttons along with the main buttons.

I also have a few games that were on both the PS and Saturn and tbh I always have found the PS version to be superior in at least one area, whether it be graphics, gameplay or controls.

[MrPopo]

I finally picked up a Saturn because the Shining Force III translation project had really picked up steam and you could see that we really could expect a finished translation in a few years. I've always loved Shining Force, so I knew that it could sell a Saturn to me. I then did some research and picked up a few other RPGs on the system: the other Shining games, PDS, Dragon Force, and Albert Odyssey. I probably won't be getting any more Saturn games simply because I have all the ones for my genre of choice.

[fast]

My cousin had one with Daytona, Virtua Fighter, and Baku Baku. I was hooked at Daytona. I bought mine a couple years later and now own 80 some odd titles for it, 16 model 2 controllers, and two working chipped systems and three broken ones that will be frankenstined together hopefully.

I usually keep one hooked up for a handful of reasons:
- It is unsual. Most of my gaming friends have a PS2, an NES/SNES/Genesis, and a modern console hooked up. But often in my office or den the Saturn is the only console hooked up.
- Excellent two player titles - both US and Japan. Many of which are the best or only version available.
- The best console Bomberman ever created - 10 player Saturn Bomberman is still unsurpassed.
- Unique games that will never be rereleased - ie Clockwork Knight, Astal, Magic Knight Rayearth, Virus, Street Fighter the Movie...

[h8b1llg8ts]

The Saturn is in my top three systems of all time. And I believe the system is more of a niche more then anything else. And what I mean by that is there are people who love it or hate it. And coming from a console gaming snob I understand.

I am and still not a full Sega fan. I came across the Saturn about 10 years ago for $40 which included NiGHTS and the analog controller. I also picked up Daytona USA, Criticom, and Bug! for the heck of it. I fell in love with NiGHTS and Daytona USA but after that it feel on the way side for a decade.

For about the last two years I have been beefing up my game collection by going through thier master list then hitting up fan sites for suggestions. That's when I came here. And thanx to all of you I'm now up to 50+ games and almost done. And for the first time I broke my rule of imports because of your suggestions. And I'll just bend that rule once because the Saturn really hits the kind of niche games that I like.

Plus, my daughter loves to play X-Men vs Street Fighter with our two fight pads.

[Flak Beard]

Even as a hardcore gamer, I was never able to really fall in love with the Saturn. I bought it twice thinking it would stick with me, but I always found it to be overhyped by my gaming peers. There are no doubt some exceptional games on the system, but the sheer volume and quality of the PS1 library makes it hard to care for me.

The argument seems to always be that the Saturn had better 2D titles, which is essentially true. On the other hand that generation was all about the move to 3D, so I'm not sure if good 2D games is really a testament to the Saturn's overall quality. Not to mention, some of the games require ram carts for full effect and that speaks about how botched the hardware was.

I'm not knocking it, but sometimes I don't get the endless gushing over the Saturn. I also don't understand the fascination with Symphony of the Night on Saturn. It's a pretty busted port.

[DCsegaDH]

The main reason I don't play Saturn that much because it requires you to mod it in order to play burned games and the greatest games on the system are super rare, which is bad when your broke as I am. I would love to get some more import games for it, I own about 7 games for it, 3 imports and 4 US. I don't really like using the Action Replay, I should get a Import Saturn when I get the money.

[omer]

Con memory card cartridge based.

I don't see that as a major con at all.
Those few 1/3/4 MB games cannot have their save data on the cartridge, but instead on the internal memory.
<b>internal memory should be listed as a pro since you don't need a memory card for your first bunch of games!</b>

I did list internal memory as a pro.


Cartridge based isnt bad, but its only 1 universal slot meaning that you can only use one accessory cartridge at a time. You can't use a RAM cartridge and a memory cartridge at the same time and you can't use a Gameshark cartridge and a memory cartridge at the same...etc... There are some exceptions like 2 in 1 deals in particular cartridges