Opinions of the Sega Saturn (and its library) (1 Viewer)

[Jason_H]

I've always been pretty heavily into retro-gaming over the years (the lovely systems I grew up with like C64, Intellivision, NES, SNES) through the systems I still have and emulators, and just recently I've gone pretty nuts snapping up old games and collecting. It's amazing how timeless some of the old games are, I've had a blast replaying Super Metroid, Castlevania IV, Contra III, etc.

One system that really seemed to pass me by though was the Sega Saturn. I actually worked at Babbage's back in the day when the Playstation and Saturn were duking it out, but the Saturn seemed to come and go relatively quickly. The fun I've had with the Dreamcast I picked up so cheap has got me curious. I've always respected Sega, and remember playing a lot of great Genesis games as well.

What are people's opinions of the system, and moreso its library of games? What are some of the stand-out titles? I've been thinking of picking up a used one to add to my collection and just seeing what I missed out on. Is it worth it?

 

[BrianB]

Great machine with a great bunch of arcade conversions, quirky Japanese titles & original Sega titles, overshadowed by the PSX technically, through marketing & by depth of catalogue.

There's some great games on the Saturn, but like the DC, it's not for everyone...

 

[Peter Manojlovich]

I bought more titles for my sega saturn than my psx or n64 . The panzer dragoon games were great. I loved the clockwork knight games, nights, the virtua fighter games, and also sega had great light-gun packages back then, with virtua cop 1 & 2.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Stellar shooters like Radiant Silvergun and Layer Section!
seven-player Death Tank Zwei!
ten-player Bomberman!
The only load-free disc-based Metal Slug

You may not have my Saturn!

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Don't forget the arcade-perfect X-Men vs Street Fighter and Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter conversions! And Daytona! (OK, DC ver is better ). Greatest Nine (with swearing Japanese announcers) the Macross: Do You Remember Love? shooter. Guardian Heroes! Burning Rangers! NiGHTS! Panzer Saga!

 

[Josh_SR]

sup peeps...

haa the saturn.... i still have mine and i would have liked to see it live longer... i think it died to the ps becouse the ps had a bigger library of games and the one game that saved its a$$ ... ff7 ... the saturn would have lived longer to if sega just came out with that instead of the 32x. in my opinion..its a good system

 

[DaveGTP]

If you like Capcom, a saturn is definitely in order. For some reason 2D fighters on Playstation were totally ass-kicked by the Saturn. Marvel vs Capcom, Xmen vs SF, etc. Also, if you have some big bucks laying around, there are titles like Panzer Dragoon Saga and Shining Force 3 pt1. I bought my Saturn for Panzer & Shining Force only to find out I cannot afford them. Also D&D Tower of Doom and Shadow of Mystara if you have never played them...import only, though, and again, not a common game. They are great side-scrolling Double Dragon-type games with more depth (by Capcom).

In addition, you can play 10-player Bomberman as previously mentioned. Guardian Heroes is another highly acclaimed game that I can't afford these days.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

For some reason 2D fighters on Playstation were totally ass-kicked by the Saturn. Marvel vs Capcom, Xmen vs SF, etc.

Not only was Saturn designed originally as a 2-D system, but it had more RAM and the ability for that RAM to be expanded through the cartridge slot. So you have the best 2-D system ever made, combined with more RAM, combined with the best controller ever made= perfection

 

[DaveGTP]

Definitely the best controller for fighting games by far. I am very fond of the Gamecube controller's ergonomics, but the button setup and tiny d-pad is less than effective for fighting games. I use a Saturn to Dreamcast adapter to use the Saturn pad on my DC. Works very well for DC games, but poorly for emus (there is some bad lag time for some reason) (you didn't hear me say anything about DC emus).

 

[Graeme Clark]

I loved the Saturn, and I too had more games for it than my PSX and N64 (probably even combined).

Virtua Fighter, Sega Rally, Virtua Cop, Bug!, Panzer Dragoons, Nights, World Series Baseball, Street Fighters etc.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Lag-free two-node gaming via modem...which will never be discontinued (you can direct-dial).

 

[Leroy]

If I could go back in time I would never ave sold my Saturn to get money for my Dreamcast (another great one which I sold for Xbox funds).

I loooooved my Saturn. I had Panzer I and II, Gaurdian Heroes, Sega Rally, Knights, Duke Nukem (hella fun over the modem) and many many more games (about 40).

I've been trying to hunt down one in good condition for a while. Knights analog controller was awesome!

 

[Sean Eldridge]

the saturn would have lived longer to if sega just came out with that instead of the 32x.

I agree. This is why I didn't buy a Saturn. Kinda felt burned. But I did enjoy my friends Saturn on many occasions.

Sean

 

[Jason_H]

Alright, you guys have got me sufficiently interested. I have been scouring Ebay looking for a good bundle to pick up.

I did like a lot of the arcade games from that time period, so that is very attractive to me. VERY interesting to hear that the D&D side scrollers are on Saturn, I really liked those game. From what little I know, it seems pretty easy to get a Saturn to play import games, is this correct?

Funny side note, the topic came up of the N64. I don't know why, but that system never did and still doesn't grab me at all and I am a pretty loyal Nintendo junkie...I own an NES, SNES, Gamecube, and GBA. I guess none of the games ever really spoke to me, I tried Goldeneye and thought it was slow and boring using that damn thumbstick when at the time I was playing Doom or Quake online. Now that I have stuff like Ocarina of Time on my Gamecube, I am even less motivated to ever pick one up. Seems like the lame duck in the Nintendo lineup.

 

[Brian Ruth]

Jason:

Sorry to be late to the party, but I really liked my Saturn system. As was mentioned, the arcade fighter games are great.

Be sure to pick up Virtua Fighter 2 and/or Fighter's Megamix (if you're a fan of the VF series -- FM was a combination of VF characters and characters from a lesser-known, more button-masher oriented series) and any of the multitude of Capcom titles out there (Street Fighter Alpha 2 sticks out in my mind as being especially good).

I also highly recommend an arcade joystick to go along with the games. I picked up an ASCII Arcade stick for about $10 bucks and it's spoiled me ever since. I'm STILL looking for an arcade stick that's as good as it was.

 

[Ray Warner]

Same here. The Saturn's a fantastic system, but you'll have to poke around to find the really good games for it.

I can absolutely say that you'll get your money's worth out of the Saturn if you're an old-school fighting game fan. As Brian pointed out, Sticks are cheap and excellent for the Saturn. I have the ASCII stick he mentioned, and I liked it so much I bought the (superior, as it turned out) Dreamcast version. I wound up with 3 Saturn sticks over the years, so if you're in dire need of one, I'll ship it to you for free. I'm not using it, may as well give it to someone who will.

But, to give you an idea, here's my Saturn collection (I'll post a picture when I can):

King of Fighters '95
King of Fighters '96
King of Fighters '97
Street Fighter Zero 2
Street Fighter Zero 3
Samurai Spirits 3
Samurai Spirits 4
Fatal Fury 3
Real Bout: Fatal Fury
Real Bout: Fatal Fury Special
X-Men vs. Capcom
Vampire Savior
Panzer Dragoon
Panzer Dragoon Saga
Shining Force III
Astal
Nights
Sonic Jam

If any of those sound like your cup 'o tea, I say go for it!

Oh yeah, Jeff mentioned this briefly, but I'll elaborate as it will become important if you're going to get one: Track down the ORIGINAL SEGA RAM CARTS! There's a lot of knockoff RAM carts, but these have a tendancy to shoot your cartridge slot to hell and gone. It's not a particularly hardy piece of equipment as it is, and 3rd party RAM packs tend to bend the connection pins out so that the Saturn can't communicate with them after a while. If you've an interest in any fighters, you're going to need one, and probably both, of the RAM expansion carts.

RPGs like Shining Force and PDS will benefit from the Memory Cartridge. The Saturn has an internal memory to store data, unlike the PSX memory cards. The battery can run out, and in used systems, it usually already has. If your Saturn seems to keep forgetting what time it is and constantly asks you to reset the internal clock, just open the port on the back and change the battery.

The three carts you'll want to pick up are:

1MB cart (red label, black cart)
4MB cart (blue label, transparent blue cart)
Memory (white label, white cart)

They're pretty easy to find on eBay, and they're absolutely necessary for almost all of the SNK fighting games. KoF '95 is the exception in that it comes with it's own proprietary RAM cart (and as a result easily the best conversion of any game for the Saturn).

I'll post pictures of this when I get home tonight, if possible. I remember it took me a while to get the hang of Saturn gaming, so if I can help someone out, I always will.

 

[Josh_SR]

how much you want for the sonic jam?

 

[Ben Seibert]

Alright, you guys have got me sufficiently interested. I have been scouring Ebay looking for a good bundle to pick up.

I'm doing the exact same thing right now, so I sure hope you don't find the one auction I'm watching

 

[Jeff Wi]

The Saturn was an awesome system, even today my copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga sits alone in a plastic display case atop my game shelf. I remember playing Daytona for hours on end trying to memorize the tracks and where to downshift. Alas, I haven't touched the system in over a year, right along with the Genesis and 3DO. All this ebay talk has lit a fire under my butt to get mine listed.

 

[Jason_H]

I'm doing the exact same thing right now, so I sure hope you don't find the one auction I'm watching

Noooooooooooooooooooooooo! I should have kept my damn mouth shut.