Sega Saturn Shmup Value Buying Guide
As I’ve been revising my Rare and Valuable Game Guides, I’ve noticed 2D shooters are starting to show up more frequently on highest-priced games. Shmups are indeed a genre with diehard collectors and there’s some real rarities in the mix that are hard to pass up.
The Sega Saturn has one of my favorite Shmup libraries and its also a console with a big collector following and a wide array of game pricing. With that in mind, I wanted to provide a guide that helped shooter fans find the best shooters for the best price.
The table below shows the average pricing of both Disc-only (Loose) and Complete in Box copies along with a game quality score (the game itself and its port quality). We use a algorithm to balance these prices and game score along with other factors like if it is Multi-region (typically Japan-only vs also having a Western release) and if the Saturn is the only console version available of the game (both factors boost the game’s value score a bit). Â Also, by clicking on the name of the game, you can jump to that game’s entry in our full Saturn Shmup Library guide. Â I hope you find these scores helpful. If you have feedback on why a game is scored a certain way, I’m open to hearing suggestions. Thanks!
- Disc$ = Average sale price of loose/disc-only game
- CIB$ = Average sale price of complete game with manual and case
- Excl = Console exclusive to the Sega Saturn (includes digital re-issues on modern consoles).
- Multi = “Yes” indicates it is available in more than one region (“No” typically indicates Japan exclusive)
- Game = Game quality score from 1 to 100 (higher is better)
- Value = Value algorithm score that balances prices, game quality and exclusivity – from 1 to 100 (higher is better)
| Title | Disc$ | CIB$ | Excl | Multi | Game | Value | Shop | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Galactic Attack / Layer Section (Rayforce) | $35 | $185 | Yes | Yes | 93 | 85 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Strikers 1945 | $25 | $60 | No | No | 90 | 82 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Tempest 2000 | $25 | $42 | No | Yes | 85 | 81 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Gradius Deluxe Pack | $16 | $35 | No | No | 84 | 79 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Detana Twinbee Yahoo! Deluxe Pack | $15 | $30 | No | No | 83 | 79 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Salamander Deluxe Pack | $15 | $30 | No | No | 83 | 79 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Parodius Deluxe Pack | $30 | $40 | No | No | 84 | 77 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| DoDonPachi | $40 | $150 | No | No | 95 | 77 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Soukyugurentai | $50 | $110 | No | No | 92 | 77 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Gunbird | $40 | $90 | No | No | 89 | 77 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Batsugun | $140 | $350 | Yes | No | 97 | 74 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Thunder Force V | $30 | $80 | No | No | 83 | 73 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Kingdom Grand Prix | $100 | $120 | Yes | No | 82 | 72 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Cotton 2 | $112 | $180 | Yes | No | 85 | 71 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Game Tengoku | $33 | $110 | No | No | 84 | 71 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Thunder Force V Special Pack | $70 | $104 | No | No | 85 | 69 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Twinkle Star Sprites | $95 | $136 | No | No | 90 | 68 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Sexy Parodius | $40 | $150 | No | No | 84 | 66 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Sonic Wings Special | $40 | $80 | No | No | 77 | 66 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Darius 2 | $27 | $70 | Yes | No | 70 | 65 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Fantasy Zone | $15 | $40 | No | No | 70 | 65 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Sengoku Blade | $97 | $132 | No | No | 86 | 65 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Radiant Silvergun | $113 | $280 | No | No | 100 | 63 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| DonPachi | $46 | $109 | No | No | 74 | 59 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Cotton Boomberang | $240 | $312 | Yes | No | 85 | 59 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Darius Gaiden | $40 | $80 | No | No | 70 | 59 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Skull Fang | $43 | $64 | Yes | No | 63 | 58 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Dezaemon 2 | $25 | $35 | Yes | No | 60 | 57 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Thunder Force Gold Pack 1 | $40 | $55 | No | No | 66 | 57 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Layer Section II (Raystorm) | $32 | $53 | No | No | 64 | 56 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Guardian Force | $190 | $230 | Yes | No | 75 | 55 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Bokan to Ippatsu! Doronbo Kanpekiban | $100 | $110 | No | No | 74 | 54 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Metal Black | $78 | $125 | No | No | 72 | 53 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Blast Wind | $180 | $400 | Yes | No | 80 | 53 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| In the Hunt | $45 | $80 | No | No | 64 | 52 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Battle Garegga | $182 | $300 | No | No | 96 | 51 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Gun Frontier | $130 | $130 | No | No | 72 | 48 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| 3 Wonders | $98 | $155 | No | No | 71 | 47 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Thunder Force Gold Pack 2 | $62 | $138 | No | No | 66 | 47 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Strikers 1945 II | $86 | $104 | No | No | 65 | 47 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Hyper Duel | $300 | $490 | Yes | No | 84 | 47 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Shienryu | $80 | $284 | No | No | 80 | 46 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Sol Divide | $50 | $65 | No | No | 55 | 44 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Macross: Do You Remember Your Love | $15 | $15 | No | No | 46 | 43 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Konami Antiques MSX Collection | $44 | $70 | No | No | 53 | 42 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Cho Aniki | $27 | $60 | No | No | 50 | 42 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Gekirindan | $80 | $200 | No | No | 68 | 42 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Tukai! Slot Shooting | $10 | $20 | Yes | No | 42 | 41 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Kyuukyoku Tiger II Plus | $200 | $260 | Yes | No | 62 | 40 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Planet Joker | $20 | $30 | Yes | No | 40 | 38 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Terra Cresta 3D | $60 | $70 | No | No | 44 | 32 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Image Fight & X-Multiply | $300 | $300 | No | No | 77 | 21 | eBay | ||||||||||||
| Steam Heart’s | $165 | $220 | No | No | 48 | 12 | eBay | ||||||||||||
I hope you find this useful! Â Be sure to read the full Sega Saturn Shmup Guide for more info!
More Introductory Guides:
- Shmups 101: A Beginner’s Guide to 2D Shooters
- Games That Defined the Shmup Genre
- The Best Undiscovered Shmups
More Console-Specific Shmup Guides:
- The Sega Genesis / MegaDrive Shmups Library
- The Sony Playstation (PS1) Shmups Library
- The Sega Saturn Shmups Library
- The Sega Dreamcast Shmups Library
- The Sony Playstation 2 (PS2) Shmups Library
- The Nintendo Gamecube Shmups Library
- The Nintendo Game Boy Advance Shmups Library
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You should include in each entry if it is the American or Japanese version, there are games like Layer Section (Galactic Attack) or Darius Gaiden that have a much less expensive Japanese version. In fact, Layer Section costs 10 times less (15$ without spine card) and it has always been the poster child of “good and cheap Saturn Shmup”.
Also, you should mention spine cards, in cheap games they are not important, but having it or not means 100$+ of difference in the most expensive games, I am not strict with those, but wouldn’t want to pay top dollar for a game without spine card.
Those are valid ideas, but I kinda averaged out the values. It’s tempting to get really detailed in the tables, but I’m afraid it would clutter up the table (which already has a hard time fitting on smaller screens).
I will think about solutions to this though!
Hey there, great list! As a huge fan of the console and shmups, this list is much appreciated!
I do have a few suggestions!
I just returned from a Japan trip where we visited every game shop in the Akihabara district of Tokyo, as well as Den Den Town in Osaka. Super Potato (1 in Tokyo and 2 in Osaka), Trader, Retro Game Camp, Surugaya Specialty Store, Beep, Friends, multiple Book Offs, Retro TV Game Revival, and A-Too Nipponbashi (which had the lowest prices by far). I agree with Ivan- a lot of Japan versions of these games games are much cheaper than their US counterparts, as well as much cheaper to obtain on Japanese soil vs buying on eBay from the west (often half the prices listed!).
Maybe instead of using Multi region column, you could do multiple entries for each region it’s available in, ex: US, J, EA, etc and price accordingly- or indicate if these are retail or eBay prices.
I also agree with Ivan’s statement about the spine cards- usually about a $10 difference on sub $50 games, but you will certainly pay up for the more expensive titles. You can get a Shienryu without a spine card for under $100. I got my complete-without-spine card Darius Gaiden for about $20 and my Gunbird for about $24. It wouldn’t hurt to put another column in there for “complete with spine card!”
This brings me to another thought- I do feel as if the prices for some of these- specifically Salamander Deluxe aren’t accurate- After visiting many Japan game stores, I saw this one for no less than $45 complete, without the spine card.
All in all, this is a great guide, and your hard work shows! This is exceptionally useful to those considering making a trip to Japan- and not knowing how much to pay for certain titles. I only figured out approximate values after looking at games and prices for the two weeks I was able to stay. Feel free to contact me, I can talk about shmups all day!
Thank you for making this guide!
Thanks so much for the input!
I would love to include more detail on these, but between trying to get the work shared and the technical limitations I ran into with a table fitting more info scaling properly on different screen sizes, this was my best compromise at the moment. Maybe after I get caught up on some of my other post revisions, I can circle back to this with further price updates and added features.
In reality, that’s kinda my content technique the last decade or so — get info out there and then keep improving it over the years 🙂
As for the pricing of Japanese releases like Salamander Deluxe, I was going strictly by averages on eBay completed auctions. So, in some cases, that could bring a difference compared to Japan shops. But I will keep this in mind.
Thanks!
Very cool idea. I’m pretty much done buying Saturn games, prices being what they are now, but I enjoyed reading this article.
Unfortunately, it made me regret not buying more in the late 90s/early 00s when I had the chance!
Yeah — really though, most of the only deal time was when they were in clearance bins in the US retail scene. Granted they were still cheaper 10 years ago than now (what wasn’t), but once it was into Sega fans’ hands, it was just a gradual increase from there, for the most part. (The fragility of the US cases factor in too)