The Sega Saturn turns 30 today, although it's probably not that day when you're reading this and maybe not the same day in your region. By coincidence I own 30 Sega Saturn games*. I can not possibly resist writing a 30th anniversary tribute to the Sega Saturn where I briefly review these 30 arbitrary games. My Saturn collection is a mix of things I actively sought out and things I found extremely cheap in the wild. I wonder if it will be easy to tell which is which? Otherwise there is no unifying theme to these games.
* = sort of
I worked at an Electronics Boutique when the surprise launch happened. I'll defer to my previous comments. I wrote that around 20 years ago and my memories couldn't be better today.
As noted there I didn't own a Saturn until 2002. I haven't played it all that much even though I keep telling myself I will. It really is a system I want to explore. Despite ringing-up a couple hundred of them I barely tried the system when it was new. I decided that 2025 would officially be the "year of the Saturn" for me. I even picked up an HDMI upscaler for it. Someone will chastise me for not playing it on a CRT but I also have an HDMI capture gizmo to take screenshots so here we are. It also means any screenshots I take are in the "wrong" aspect ratio. I think most Saturn games look fine in this ratio but someone will be upset by it. Trust me, someone will.
Since I want to publish this on the US launch anniversary I won't get into much depth with these games. This article is a total rush job. I will, however, figure out which I want to spend more time on in the second half of the year.
Let's make sure I have this whole screenshot thing figured out...
Yeah, that screams 1995. It's perfect. The battery on my Saturn is long dead so I have to select language again:
And then date and time, which I always leave at the default value because who cares:
Now for an embarrassing confession - I didn't know that replacing the Saturn's internal battery was a trivial fix. I thought I'd have to take the case apart but there's a little door in the back where it is easily accessible. It took me 30 years to learn this. It must be in the manual that I didn't read. I even have dozens of the required batteries because they are also used in many xmas ornaments.
This is the easiest console fix of all time. Second place is shaving off some small bits of plastic to make the Super Nintendo multi-region.
Alight, HDMI capture is working, battery is working, time to fire up some games.
I most associate the Saturn with arcade ports. Sometimes you (in the general sense, not you reading this specifically) think of a game system as just being for one thing. I recall many who regarded the Sega Genesis a "sports game system", I don't agree with that but won't argue either. The Wii U is a "Zelda system" for me even though I must own at least one non-Zelda game for it. Wait, do I?
I don't think of the Saturn as only being a system for arcade ports, it's the first thing that comes to mind. It wouldn't be the worst legacy for the system if that's what it was remembered for.
Sega didn't lead the home console market in the Saturn's generation, but they still rocked the dwindling arcade scene. This gave the Saturn a solid lineup of exclusive titles. Third party developers also brought some of the best arcade games of the mid-90s to the Saturn.
Daytona USA
If you stopped people on the street and asked them to name a Sega Saturn game the most common response has to be Daytona USA. OK, let's be realistic for a second... if you did this "on the street" the most common answer would be "sonic and the hedgehog", at something like the Midwest Gaming Classic you'd hear Daytona USA a lot. Maybe not the most often, but a lot.
As an early Saturn game it has some issues. The draw distance is notoriously bad for example. That doesn't matter in 1995 though. Daytona USA is so far ahead of all the other driving games available at the time (reminder that the PlayStation with Ridge Racer is months away). This is an excellent introduction to the system and the next generation as a whole. From day one it's obvious this is a real 32-bit system and in May 1995 the future looked promising.
Mortal Kombat II
I'm trying to keep this article positive and will run into some speedbumps with that. I previously noted this isn't a good version of Mortal Kombat II.
It has some glaring load time issues that ruin the game. Everything is easy if you aren't the one doing it, I get that. The entire Mortal Kombat II arcade ROM is smaller than the available RAM on the Sega Saturn (note: don't quote me on this). So loading character animations from the CD the first time they're used doesn't compute for me. It feels like it favored a ship date over quality.
The Saturn is overall great for arcade ports, but this one doesn't cut it.
Virtua Fighter II
Going back to my "name a Sega Saturn game" speculation just a few seconds ago… Virtua Fighter II is also going to be the first or second answer. Polygonal racing and fighting games are the core Saturn experience.
I didn't get into the 3D fighting scene much. After playing way more Mortal Kombat I&II than anyone should legally be allowed to, I quit fighting games for a while. I never really got back into them. I played Virtua Fighter on the 32X a bit just out of enjoying the novelty of the 32X. The sequel on the Saturn is a significant visual upgrade. The 32X could pull off the original but there is a clear generational difference with the Saturn sequel. Mechanically these feel about the same. As I understand, the arcade original mostly improved on the first game in the graphics & framerate departments.
Sega Rally Championship
The order of these games is random or maybe "unplanned" is a better term. Otherwise Sega Rally Championship would follow Daytona USA. I naively assumed Sega Rally Championship was built on the same engine as Daytona USA. After reading up on the development history I stand corrected. Although I will continue to assume they must have at least some shared code given the similarities.
I found Sega Rally Championship more fun of these two racers. I usually prefer collision heavy racing games though. In the early days I could play Bump 'n Jump forever while barely being able to complete one lap in Pole Position. In this gaming generation, Destruction Derby is my favorite racer (it does have a racing mode after all). The later Cruisin' series, with its reckless game play, would be second place in this generation then. Is Sega Rally Championship third? It could be, I'll log another hour or two this year.
The next two entries are probably my most played Saturn games, even though neither are exclusives making me a total Saturn poser.
NBA Jam Tournament Edition
If you lived in the Chicago area in the 1990s it was impossible to not be an NBA fan. My view of 1990s basketball is therefore very biased. I remember it being an exciting sport that everyone cared about with the best players ever. If you lived in Dallas or Denver in the 1990s you probably don't remember the NBA as fondly. And I have to admit that as I write this there are at least 2-3 players in the modern NBA better than everyone featured in NBA Jam Tournament Edition (or it's very close, it's not easy to compare players 30 years apart).
NBA Jam, and this immediate follow-up, are absurdly fun games. You don't need to be a basketball fan to enjoy them, the rules of basketball don't even apply. This was designed to consume quarters and it was quite effective at that. The home version at launch cost about what 20 arcade plays would.
NBA Jam Tournament Edition was ported to everything at the time, even the Jaguar and 32X. The Saturn and PlayStation versions are nearly arcade perfect. I can't tell much of a difference between them. Maybe someone somewhere benchmarked the load times because the internet is filled will all kinds of weird obsessive stuff like that. I own several of these ports and the Saturn one is what I keep going back to.
Bust-a-Move 2
I got completely hooked on the original Bust-a-Move and have sought every sequel. Bust-a-Move 2 doesn't change the basic formula all that much so I prefer it to some of the later ones.
The only complaint is this game has the worst box art on the Saturn. It's a staple of articles about bad box art. Look away while you're opening it I guess.
Virtua Cop
I already established I'm not playing these on the "right" kind of display. I don't own a Saturn light gun anyway. It's not a genre I'm into all that much. It's fun once in a while to a play a co-op light gun game and I can get my fix at the Midwest Gaming Classic once a year.
This is a good early demo of what the Saturn is capable of. Maybe that was the intent behind porting it, showing off how much more graphically advanced this was over 16-bit light gun games.
You know what the "right" display and resolution for the Saturn is? It's the one you like playing Saturn games on. Buy a cheap upscaler and connect it to a modern TV - that's just fine. Buy an RF adapter and hook it up to an old black & white TV - that's equally fine. Finding an authentic 1997 CRT with a built-in VHS player - you know my opinion.
Rampage World Tour
I put off playing this game for a long time because I'm an idiot. I thought this was a 3D version of Rampage. I don't know why I thought that or how I made it this long without even seeing a picture or video of it. In my defense, I have played very few games released between 1996-2000 because that's when I went back to college and was also working full-time.
This is Rampage with a facelift and even zanier surroundings. It's extremely fun and I will be playing this a lot now.
This is a genre that took off in the 1990s once the necessary hardware was generally affordable. Sure, Doom I&II could run on relatively weak hardware, but most developers couldn't optimize their engine nearly as well. I can't even imagine it. So all the Doom wannabes needed a bit more than a 386 to run. The 32-bit consoles were a natural place to try building a first person shooter. The Saturn had a good assortment but, due to the limits of this article, I am only touching on a small number.
Before we look at some of these new 32-bit shooters, let's go back to the original...
Doom
This was ported to almost everything in the 1990s. Today it has been ported to almost literally everything. The Saturn port came out rather late - after the PlayStation and Jaguar versions which were both solid conversions. Expectations for the Saturn version had to be high.
This is not a good port of Doom though. I thought my memories were bad but playing it again just confirmed it. This is slow & clunky.
By total coincidence... while drafting this article a homebrew patch was released for the Saturn version of Doom that drastically improves performance.
Hexen
The port of Hexen ran a little better than Doom but is still not great.
I've tried it a few times now. It plays a little smoother but I find it harder to see what's going on. I've never finished Hexen on any system and I'd like to change that. However, it's likely to be in DOSBox when that happens.
Alien Trilogy
Alright, things are starting to look better now. Alien vs Predator on the Jaguar is often considered the best game on the console. I might go with Tempest 2000 but it doesn't matter. I was skeptical I'd like Alien Trilogy as much since it only has one play mode.
I was way off, a reoccurring theme in this article. This is an excellent first person shooter that captures the setting of the movies perfectly. I will play Alien Trilogy again. After one stage I was sold on this game.
Machine Head
I missed out on this shooter too. The controls take some practice, which is common for the first wave of 3D games, but after that this is alright. The graphics are fine, they would have been well above fine when this was new. The game itself is driving around and exploding things in the distance.
I will probably give this another try.
Robotica
Sorry, have to end on a downer... I didn't get far in Robotica. It reminds me of Iron Helix. The graphics and controls are OK. I couldn't figure out what to do. I kind of cycled through the same areas waiting for something to happen.
I'm probably playing this wrong or I needed to read the instructions. Maybe I'll give it another shot.
Over its short lifespan the Saturn was the launchpad for a few game series. Some continued beyond the Saturn while other stalled out there.
Panzer Dragoon
Like Virtua Fighter or Daytona USA, Panzer Dragoon is nearly synonymous with the Saturn. Unlike them, it didn't start as an arcade game although it sure feels like one. The play style is so similar to earlier Sega arcade games Space Harrier and Afterburner.
Despite being garbage at this game I play it often, I even bought the PlayStation 4 remake. It's not the kind of game I'd play for hours on end, a quick stage or two once in a while is enough.
Clockwork Knight 2
I was a little surprised that Clockwork Knight received a sequel. I didn't remember the original being all that popular. Or.. more that I remember it being an early discounted game. In the US it was a launch title. The surprise launch meant new Saturn owners were stuck with a tiny game collection until fall (when 3rd parties expected to ship games). So Clockwork Knight benefited from being a game that was available. Maybe those sales were enough to spawn a second title.
Clockwork Knight 2 looks good overall, maybe a little too much on the screen at one time. Well, more like too much on the screen that isn't part of the game. It's like the toy factory stage from Castle of Illusion where it's tough to discern what is a plaform (beside the other obvious similarities).
This is not for me. Clearly a good effort but I'd rather play a Donkey Kong Country game.
Bug Too
I could repeat a lot of the preamble for Clockwork Knight 2 here. Bug was not a launch title but was the only "new" game for what felt like an eternity in summer 1995. It sold alright out of just being there.
I didn't get into Bug Too either. Sorry, have to move on.
Tomb Raider
I decided to "retire" from podcasting at the end of 2024. It was just time for me. It never took off all that well but I'd be miserable if it did. Maybe I engaged in self-sabotage the whole time I was recording podcasts? Sorry, deeper than I planned to get in this article.
One of the final games I reviewed in podcast form was the original Tomb Raider on Saturn. I chose it because it's an influential game that I never got around to. I'm a fan of the Uncharted games and they must have been inspired by Tomb Raider.
The intro on the Saturn looks way better than that screenshot indicates. The cutscenes are oustanding for the time.
I struggled with the controls though. That's not a criticism at all. This genre was new and developers hadn't figured everything out yet. This is an extremely ambitious game that holds up reasonably well. I can get into a mindset where I appreciate how new this must have felt at launch.
When it comes to simulation games I am the laziest player. I put them straight into sandbox mode, or use a cheat code to the same effect, and mess around with bad ideas. Consoles are usually not the best for this genre, but the Saturn managed a couple that made the leap OK.
SimCity 2000
There's a debate that will never end about whether PCs or consoles are superior for gaming. I find it all pointless, do whatever you want. For the most-part I prefer consoles out of simplicity. There are some games that don't translate well to consoles despite the obvious heroic efforts to try.
SimCity 2000 is one of these. The Saturn port is as sophisticated as I can imagine a simulation being on the system. It's not good though. The load times are epic. The resolution makes it difficult to see what you're doing. The entire thing plays sluggish. I know this was a lot of work, I could never pull something like this off, and I wish I could say more positive things about it. If you can get past these issues it is an otherwise faithful port, you can build massive cities up to the limit of the Saturn's internal memory.
From the screenshots you can see that it also doesn't translate well to an HDMI upscaler. I won't pretend to know why this game in particular looks so bad. It's the only one of these 30 that was too distorted to play for long.
Theme Park
The conversion of Theme Park came out much better. It started as a smaller game for earlier PCs than Sim City 2000 of course. The Saturn version plays well and the controller works out for building roller coasters.
It has a sandbox mode and cheat codes to unlock everything up front. That's how I always play it, just let me start with everything. I fire this up about once a year to mess around for an hour. I doubt I'll ever try to play through a real scenario.
Collecting Sega Saturn games is an expensive hobby, I wouldn't recommend it. Like a lot of systems the most inexpensive games are sports titles. It's simply supply and demand. They sold in mass quantities when they were new. The supply of used games is therefore huge. Once the rosters were obsolete the demand disappeared. They're not bad games, it's just that their average owner only hangs on to them for a certain time. If you want to build a Saturn library, and want to focus on quantity first, then sports games are the best starting point.
World Series Baseball
I tend to prefer baseball games that are not realistic. Wii Sports or old games simply titled "Baseball" work for me. World Series Baseball is not quite an accurate recreation of the sport but isn't an arcade game either. The focus seems to be on delivering FMV-style graphics with not overly simple game play.
It comes across well enough but I don't think I'll play it again.
NBA Jam Extreme
To summarize my thoughts on NBA Jam Extreme - I think it traded graphics for game play.
It's like they wanted to make NBA Jam more next-geny and therefore more polygonal. The result is kind of a mess. It's like if you have really bad pizza all you want to do the next day is go to your favorite pizza place to atone. 2 minutes of NBA Jam Extreme has me reaching for NBA Jam TE.
I only paid $4 for this game so I don't feel ripped off. It was in the time before Goodwill discovered eBay pricing.
NFL Quarterback Club '97
Many times on this site, and in real life, I've yearned for the times when multiple companies could make licensed sports games. They weren't all great, NFL Quarterback Club '97 is OK at best. At worst there were different companies trying new ideas.
Like NBA Jam Extreme, I think NFL Quarterback Club '97 is trying to look next-geny and the resulting graphics are too choppy.
Madden '97
On the other hand, Madden '97 is more of an incremental step toward being a next-gen game. It's more realistic looking than the 16-bit versions but retains the same core style.
I think this turned out well. About once a year I get in the mood to try an old Madden game so I'll give this another go.
Andretti Racing
Yeah, I had two racing games earlier. I thought about the groupings either too much or not enough. This did not begin as an arcade title and is more of a sports simulation than the others. That's my poorly thought out justification for including it in this section.
This fits into the category of visually impressive games I'm awful at. It's not bad but I'd rather stick to more reckless driving games.
A couple of previously mentioned games are also things I actively collected. I have all the home versions of Mortal Kombat I&II for example. I also own every Doom port and other id games of that era to a lesser extent. Those are both common things people try to collect, or I imagine they are.
WWF in Your House
Of all my game collections, the most specific is video games of the Monday Night War. The linked article explains what is in scope.
I own few wrestling games outside of this list because wrestling games are usually not fun. The two major exceptions are Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game and WWF in Your House, which are essentially the same game with different rosters.
I was not watching WWF regularly, or at all, during the 1995-1996 run of In Your House events. I went back to them recently and have been enjoying them. They are goofy and tacky but all end with a quality main event. The home version is also goofy and tacky, it's an accurate reflection of the live events it was named after.
D
I will buy just about any FMV game of the 16/32-bit era and doubly so if they are horror themed. So of course I own D, even if the Saturn version is tough to see.
That's alright, you're turning the lights off when you play D. I wonder if the color palette was chosen to encourage that?
Myst
I don't even like Myst. It's a very pretty game and the soundtrack is chill. Actually playing it is not fun. It was a game that was extremely popular when I worked at Electronics Boutique and it's just a neat bit of nostalgia because of that. I remember it being a game that everyone purchased to showcase their cutting-edge CD-ROM drive. I own all the home versions, even the 3DO one. If I ever have/want to slim down my library this Myst collection will likely go.
The Saturn version of Myst looks fine. It's a little better than the 3DO version, a little worse than the PC version, and a little identical to the PlayStation version.
Minnesota Fats: Pool Legend
This was a case where I enjoyed the Genesis version of a game and decided to track down the Saturn upgrade. The biggest difference is the addition of cutscenes.
Otherwise this is roughly the same game. It's the same game modes, the computer AI is either way too easy or way too difficult, just like the original.
OK, yeah, it's a lot faster to fire-up the Genesis version. So this is a game I have for no reason other than wanting both versions.
Falcom Classics
I don't know if I'm trying to assemble a complete collection of Falcom games. I suppose if I had some stupid amount of money I would. There are some early releases that are impractical to buy. It's approaching impractical to buy their games from the late 1990s/early 2000s now too. Luckily I imported their Saturn games before the brand became just a little tiny bit popular with a niche community outside of Japan.
I don't own a Japanese Saturn and the console is region locked so these are collectables. If I ever try a Saturn emulator, or if someone like Analogue makes a Saturn clone, these will be first. These contain updated versions of early games - Dragon Slayer, Xanadu, Ys, Ys II, and Asteka. If I had a really stupid amount of money I'd figure out a way to license & translate these collections.
Legend of Heroes series
On a similar vein, getting the Saturn versions of the first three Legend of Heroes games localized is a pipe dream project. Outside of Japan only the first and third have releases - on the TurboGrafx-16 CD and PlayStation Portable respectively. The second game is effectively lost.
On the Saturn, the cast of Legend of Heroes III is given a facelift to a more sci-fi/anime look. Otherwise, as I understand, it is the same story. Legend of Heroes III is the inspiration for the modern Trails series. The initial setup of the game isn't all that different than Trails in the Sky. I think it's one that fans of the modern series would enjoy trying.
There are a few games on this list I'll try to get through over the next... who knows. Alien Trilogy is first on the list. I doubt I'll add to my Saturn collection, at least not on purpose. The library grows more expensive every year. There's always a chance I'll get lucky and find a box of cheap games at a garage sale.
If this seems like a weak tribute, I'll confess it is. The Saturn is an afterthought of its generation and I'm contributing to the problem. If I made a top ten list of games in the 5th generation it would be entirely PlayStation and Nintendo 64 titles. This is not a glowing endorsement of the Saturn.
The Saturn is far from being a bad system though. For me, it remains a good way to enjoy some mid-1990s arcade games. There will never be another time like that. Arcades were nearly gone by the end the century. The Saturn will always be a small window into the final days of arcades as people my age knew them. I can't say the same about the PlayStation or Nintendo 64 because they lack the Sega exclusives. That is the Saturn's legacy to me, and it's a pretty strong one.
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