Sega Saturn

readyletsgo

What's people's opinions of this system on here? Is it worth a pick up? What games are excellent for it? I might be interested in getting one, but not sure yet. It seems like a bit of a stop gap between the Megadrive and Dreamcast when I read up about it. I know Panzer Dragoon is on it, would tempt me to be sure.

Is it worth a punt?

Retr0gamer

Quite possibly the best retro game console I ever bought. If you are looking at Western releases it's very weak but the wealth of japanese releases makes if a great system for discovering amazing games you would never have heard about.

However you are looking at a bit of an investment if you want to play the saturn properly. First you need an action replay 4 in 1. Quite easy to find and it will let you play import games on a stock saturn. Next you need either a 60 Hz US or japanese saturn or else get a European saturn modded for 60 Hz. The saturn's library is chock full of arcade games and arcade type games with lots of very fast gameplay and playing them at 50 Hz is an absolute crime and just ruins the experience.

Next you need one of two things, a mod chip or very deep pockets. Unlike other consoles where most of the rare games are kind of crappy with the odd exception, a lot of the saturns exceptional must play games are very expensive. Stuff like Radiant Silvergun, Shining the Holy Ark, Taromaru, Shining Force 3, Dragon Force, Panzer Dragoon Saga etc. are all amazing games that make the saturn what it is and there's no point having a saturn if you are going to miss out on these games. They are however horribly expensive. Some games like Hyperduel, Battle Garegga, Taromaru or Cotton 2 are excellent but don't really justify the price they go for on the second hand market.

I'd actually rank the saturn as a better console than the megadrive myself and up there with the dreamcast, it doesn't have as much crazy as the DC but it has a lot more games worth playing.

the groutch

Yeah, so many great games for it.
Other good ones off the top of my head include:

Guardian Heroes, D, Nights Into Dreams, Sonic R, Baku Baku Animal, The Story of Thor 2, Fighters Megamix, Athlete Kings, Knight Warriors: Darkstalker's Revenge.

the list goes on and on.