Reasons why you should have owned: The Sega Saturn

cherryghost

Hey all, new series on the games forum this week. Each week we'll be dealing with consoles of past and present, and why you think they were/are so great! Just one rule: No console wars no matter how old or new!

So first off the line, is the much overshadowed Sega Saturn.

The Sega Saturn is a 32-bit video game console that was first released on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe. The system was discontinued in North America, Europe, and Australia in 1998, and in 2000 in Japan.

While it was popular in Japan, the Saturn failed to gain a similar market share in North America and Europe against Sony's PlayStation and the Nintendo 64, its main competitors.

According to a July 2007 GamePro article, the Saturn sold 9.5 million units worldwide.

In 2009, video game website IGN chose the Saturn to be their 18th best video game console of all time, out of their list of 25.

More details here

So, why has the Sega Saturn have a close place to your heart? If you didn't have it, what impresses you the most about the console and its lifespan?

For me it was 2 reasons. I remember getting the Saturn all brand new and shiny for Christmas. Opening it up and having the novelty of using CD's to load up the games. Friggin' CD's!

NiGHTS was and still is the only reason I go back to playing the Saturn. It was epic. The Wii version spit upon its corpse, but Sega truly had some talent for the Saturn's version.

RedXIV

Never had one Keep seeing them on Adverts.ie and thinking should I take the plunge

(but really shouldn't since I bought a Dreamcast last week and I need to behave)

richymcdermott

i too never had one , at the time i owned the greatest console of all time , The MEGADRIVE :pac:

o1s1n

It should be 'Reasons why you should still own a Sega Saturn' I still play my one a lot.

It's a great console, but you really have to dip into the Japanese import library to fully appreciate it.

What impresses me most is the sheer number of amazing shumps and perfect arcade conversions. In an absolute 2d powerhouse and blows the ps1 out of the water in that department.

Also, Panzer Dragoon Saga is bloody brilliant

edit - just to note, if any of you do want to go back and recheck the Sega Saturn - don't buy a PAL one (unless you're going to mod it).

In this day and age we should all be playing our games as they were intended in 60hz. Get either a US or Japanese NTSC console. Then get an Action Replay 4M Plus 3 in 1 http://www.shopncsx.com/actionreplay4mplus-1.aspx and you'll pretty much have a machine that'll play games from any region in 60hz.

Kiith

I never had one either, but a friend did. Many an hour was spent playing Athlete Kings and Knights into Dreams. Would love to have played Panzer Dragoon Saga as well, as apparently (awaits Retrogamer) it's not too shabby :P

Sega really sucked at advertising their consoles though.

o1s1n

Kiith wrote: »

Sega really sucked at advertising their consoles though.

They had fantastic ads. Just most of them weren't really shown in this country.

This one has KKK lookalikes and everything :pac:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP3ciD4Efr0

chopperbyrne

Three simple words:

Capcom Fighting Games

nyarlothothep

Sega Rally and Virtua Cop were excellent games with incredible sountracks. Can definately spot the Pink Floyd influence in the end game music for VC nowadays. I preferred the graphical style of sega games over Playstation ones. Also Magic Carpet, Resident Evil, Shinobi X, Aliens Trilogy, Quake and Nights were awesome games aswell. I got a lot of usage out of the console, I even took it apart and put it back together again and it still works! Plus very cheesy fmv sequences are a lost art. Who can forget Albert Wesker in Res Evil wearing shades at night because he was so damn awesome? Or every fmv sequence out of Shinobi?

K.O.Kiki

Never had one, but the Japanese 6-button pad is IMHO one of the best pads EVER created.

Also you could buy this for it:


:eek:

o1s1n

I've almost bought one of them on several occasions. Usually I'm about to buy it, then see the postage price and cry.

Duggy747

Never had one, know a guy who did and had a load of games for it.

For 2D games, it was king. The fighting games were utterly fantastic and gave the Neo Geo stiff competition in the genre.

A lot of piss-poor ports really damaged the console's reputation because of Sega rushing it out the door and developer's having problems utilising the system.

Heh, I remember playing Exhumed on the thing. Hated that game.

Is1ldur

Exhumed was one of the best games on the system, in my opinion! such great atmosphere.

I still remember getting mine for Christmas with Sega Rally, Virtua Cop and a few other games. Absolutely incredible. Such a shame how it all worked out.

The greatest thing about the console was that it introduced me to Quake and Duke Nukem 3D, and thus got me interested in PC Gaming.

Nights is another game that everyone should play.

Duggy747

Is1ldur wrote: »

Exhumed was one of the best games on the system, in my opinion! such great atmosphere.

I had it for the PC before I played it on the Saturn so my dislike for it had already begun. Damn DOS games randomly crashing whenever I got into the water plus Egyptian mythology never appealed to me :pac:

Engine-wise the PC and console version were completely different.

Retr0gamer

Aw the Sega Saturn, a marvelous machine to own.

First thing is if you are getting a saturn make sure you can play japanese games. The releases in the US and europe were very poor with very few good games released on it. The japanese library is chock full of amazing games. An action replay 4 in 1 is the best way. Also get either a japanese or US console or if you have to get a PAL console get it modified for NTSC. There's no point playing the fast paced action games of the saturn when they are slowed down by the PAL console.

Another good idea is to get the console chipped. Most of the games on the saturn worth playing are very expensive so unless you are rich this is the only way to experience them.

The saturn was a pretty dreadful 3D machine. There's still some good 3D games on it but the playstation was way ahead of it. As a 2D machine however the saturn was an absolute beast.

For the games there's Sega's excellent output from it's arcade ports of Sega Rally, Virtua Fighter 2, Die Hard Arcade and Virtua Cop to original games like Nights, Shining Force 3, Panzer Dragoon Zwei and Saga and Burning Rangers, Sega really was on top of its game with the saturn.

The Saturn is also full of other original games and arcade ports that can't be played anywhere else. Radiant Silvergun, Psychic Killer Taromaru, Princess Crown, Saturn Bomberman, Soukyugurentai, Gaurdian Heroes etc. The thing about the saturn is that it's the only way to play these games and there's so many weird games on the saturn that it's great fun hunting through the catalogue and coming across a gem.

The saturn was also the best way to play Capcom and Neo Geo fighters but now it's best to stick with emulation to avoid the load times.

And yes, Panzer Dragoon Saga and Radiant Silvergun are worth owning the console for on their own.

gouche

Never had one or even played it unfortunately.
I do however have a copy of Saturn Bomberman and I have no recollection of how it came into my possession:o

Will be the first game I play should I ever get around to buying a Saturn!
Think it can support up to 10 players simultaneously with the Saturn's 5-port multitaps:eek:

Retr0gamer

gouche wrote: »

Never had one or even played it unfortunately.
I do however have a copy of Saturn Bomberman and I have no recollection of how it came into my possession:o

Will be the first game I play should I ever get around to buying a Saturn!
Think it can support up to 10 players simultaneously with the Saturn's 5-port multitaps:eek:

Yep it can which makes it the best version of bomberman. Only ever got to play 5 player though but someday I will.

7sr2z3fely84g5

Duggy747 wrote: »

A lot of piss-poor ports really damaged the console's reputation because of Sega rushing it out the door and developer's having problems utilising the system.

Heh, I remember playing Exhumed on the thing. Hated that game.

Humed wasnt too bad,this was an work of art on it-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOEmGElGbcw

Console wasnt really designed for 3D,so alot ports where "piss poor" in some cases-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_zafoVKuxk

And for bonus some material for fans-

Labotomy interview- http://www.segasaturn.co.uk/dd/interviews/ezra_dreisbach.html

Console had alot of intresting and cancelled ports,shenmue being famous,grand theft auto was stated for release but pulled at last moment,Destruction derby 2 another cancelled port-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBu3iTtGkVk

Retr0gamer

The footage of the Shenmue prototype looks spectacular. Also Virtua Fighter 2 running in it's high res mode and at a constant 60 FPS looks spectacular and really put Tekken 2 to shame.

landsleaving

I had one but sold it recetly enough due to brokeness...

Great console, but the selection of PAL games is a bit on the poor side, considering just how good the games we didn't get are. I should have bought a Japanese one, but it's pretty expensive to pick up the better games for.

Having Daytona USA, Sega Rally and Manx TT with the steeing wheel was fantastic, not quite the arcade experience of the Dreamcast, but a very close second.

I'll second the love for 2D fighters on it, Street Figter Alpha was far better on Saturn than Playstation, totally outclassed by the controller.

penev10

I recall it being 400 or 500 Irish pounds when it launched. No way I was ever affording that!:( I bought the SNES for 200 and the Megadrive for 160 a few months after their respective launches and that was a huge stretch of my teenage resources!

I was still getting life out of the SNES a year after the PS1 came out so I didn't really care at the time. Daytona and Sega Rally looked amazing though.

Retr0gamer

Daytona USA was terrible terrible conversion on the Saturn.

Sephiroth_dude

I'd definitely buy one if I could get my hands on one.

landsleaving

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Daytona USA was terrible terrible conversion on the Saturn.

I had the Championship something or other version - it was a big improvement

Retr0gamer

landsleaving wrote: »

I had the Championship something or other version - it was a big improvement

Yeah it was although the pop in was still quite bad but not as bad as the original.

Gulliver

I had Virtua Cop, Virtua Fighter 2, Tomb Raider and Sega Rally. Got so much play out of that machine - I used to play what I called "Cowboy Mode" on Virtua Cop - use both guns at once. Tomb Raider's graphics were abysmal, but I loved it and remember having a hard time adjusting to the controls on the PS1 for TR2.

Sega Rally was sooo addictive. If I even brushed a bend or tipped another car, it was a restart of that track.

Never got Nights or the analogue controller to go with it.

zero19

Have one myself with Virtua fighter and Daytona USA, xmas gift from the GF. Great machine may get more games for it.

Edit: Console here going cheap enough with a day of bidding left with cheap postage has the original box

http://cgi.ebay.ie/Sega-Saturn-Black-Console-Complete-VGC-Original-Box-/150599415536?pt=UK_VideoGames_VideoGameConsoles_VideoGameConsoles&hash=item23106cb6f0

Jazzy

retr0gaymer + panzer dragoon saga 4 eva

my mate had one of these but sold it he only had like 2 games but the appeal of a playstation and ff7 was too great for him. he had a demo disc which had some good games on it. also the ads at the time were award winning, pity it was the beginning of the end for sega in the console market... well, excluding the mega cd & 32x

Retr0gamer

So people know what they are missing out on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIKQGippsng

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuTJAHRZNSM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx5_MiEm7AU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk9IrR0EHPk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxtaX-LpvYA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5l7Fjw9KUo

(youtube footage doesn't do VF2 justice)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obPHgh1EAno

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvenZnvR-Ec

ShadowHearth

I newer even played it. I loved my sega mega drive thought!

As far as I remember it had very bad games in our local gaming "club". Ps1 was the thing I was playing..

Gunmonkey

The RPGs on the thing were fantastic: Shining The Holy Ark, Dragon Force, Shining Force 3, Panzer Dragoon Saga. Also had Guardian Heroes, my favourite game of that whole generation of consoles.

Also, Segata Sanshiro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnEoevwCaSk

Nuff said......

passingthrough

I would love to play nights again, i remember pouring hours into that trying to get bigger and longer links, would be a great edition to XBLA