SEGA Saturn is one of the underrated gem of fifth generation console era. In year 1994 when SEGA released the console in Japan, while it was released year later in UK and US to complete with their rivals such as Sony who bought the Playstation in the market in 1995, while Nintendo was later release their console Nintendo 64 in late 1996. SEGA Saturn has sold well in Japan, but unfortunately it failed to sell large numbers in US which causing to lose market share is due to big victory of Nintendo 64 and Sony Playstation had outsold the SEGA Saturn in console market. SEGA Saturn was known for having groundbreaking SEGA's arcade titles like Virtua Cop, SEGA Rally Championship, Daytona USA, and Virtua Fighter. It also has excellent Saturn's exclusive titles like Panzer Dragoon, Nights Into Dreams, and SEGA Worldwide Soccer have received highly positives reviews from video game critics makes the Saturn becoming memorable game console in 90's.
It's been for like long time ago that I used to have the console in 1995 or maybe 1996 just right before my brother decided to swapped it with Nintendo 64 in year 1998, but in 18 years later I just finally got Saturn back home, so I can able to play classics again. Today I decided to make my 5 reasons why I liked SEGA Saturn so much. Let's begin.
1 - Games Library
There are some of the great Saturn's games out there. It has the SEGA's best arcade titles on console systems such as Virtua Cop, The House of the Dead, SEGA Rally Championship, SEGA Manx TT Superbike, Daytona USA, Athlete Kings, Die Hard Arcade, Last Bronx, and the top-selling 3D fighting game Virtua Fighter 2 that made Saturn so great with the arcade ports especially with fantastic 2D fighting games like Street Fighter Alpha, Marvel Super Heroes and King of Fighters 95 which Capcom and SNK developers team did a much better job on the Saturn version than the PS1 port due to usage of extended RAM Cartridge which allowing to take advantage of Saturn's hardware performance. Saturn has really amazing exclusive titles like Panzer Dragoon, SEGA Worldwide Soccer 97, Nights Into Dreams, Saturn Bomberman, Guardian Heroes, and Shining Force 3 are considered to be a greatest Saturn's classics of all time. They also share a decent third party titles like Alien Trilogy, Die Hard Trilogy, Resident Evil, Wipeout, and Loaded are quite a good games for Saturn, but I think the PS1 version are slightly better for most of the third party games, but I'll give more credit to games like Powerslave, Duke Nukem 3D and Quake are considered to be a better Saturn port in my opinion.
Overall, I've enjoyed a most of the Saturn's games library.
2 - Plays both audio CDs/Video CDs
What's so cool about the SEGA Saturn is that the console is capable of playing audio CDs which you can listen to your own favourite music CDs or the original soundtrack from most of the Saturn's games on your game console. I also loved the audio menu screen where the cubes starts bouncing when the music plays and this menu does have advanced settings where you can adjust vocals, set surround, and set shuffle which is sounds cool to have it on the menu.
I'm quite surprised that Saturn can able to play with most of the Video CDs format which requires to have VCD card inserted into back of the Saturn's hardware which allows Saturn to recognising the Video CDs, so you can able to watch your favourite movies on your SEGA Saturn which is quite creative for game systems, so that was the year before the DVD format was compatible on later consoles such as PS2 and Original Xbox in early 2000's.
3 - Controllers and Accessories
I got to say the Saturn's controller is slightly much better overall than the previous controller from SEGA Genesis/Megadrive, but there are 2 controller models with different design look. The model 1 controller was kinda look cool, but I do find the design d-pad and shoulder buttons are quite clunky to play with, but I do like the size of the controller and button layouts are quite comfort to hold. I find the Model 2 controller (top screen image) is much more improved than the Model 1 is because they reduce the size of the shoulder buttons and much better d-pad design which makes it more easier for me to play the game properly. I'll say the Saturn controller is perfect for most of the action, sports and fighting games titles. I also loved the Saturn's racing wheel (middle screen image) with badass looking steering wheel design, nice buttons on front and back, and it does have adjustments heights where you can adjust the heights to suit your positions. It is perfect for some of the racing games titles like SEGA Rally Championship and SEGA Manx TT Superbike because it's much easier to control the driver more precisely than the standard controller. I got to say that the Saturn's stunner (bottom screen image) is one of the best light-gun controller ever made because I love the huge looking 80's style of light gun design and it's plays perfectly for some light-gun shooters games like Virtua Cop and The House of the Dead with precised aiming makes perfect gameplay overall. It is shame that it wouldn't work on most of the HDTV, but if you still have the good old CRT TV in your home then you are very lucky to play with light-gun controller.
4 - Game's Demo CDs
What I like about the SEGA Saturn Magazines is they offered the free demo disk which you can able to play prototype version of the game, so this sounds great idea for Saturn owners to try out the demo games before they can make decision to buy the final version of the game from the retail store. It is also included the game trailers to impress the gaming audiences to see what the game are actually like on the final version.
Demo disks are very useful for decision making whether you like to get the game or not to get the game from the store. It is also useful to send a feedback to games developer for your thoughts and opinion on demo version, so they can able to improve even more on the final version before the game's release date.
5 - Segata Sanshiro!!!
I heard Segata Sanshiro (played by Hiroshi Fujioka) is the reason to make SEGA Saturn so popular in Japan. I've started to watch this commercial video on YouTube to see why this advertisement look so awesome to watch and see a kick ass console mascot started to beat a crap out of those people who didn't own and played SEGA Saturn, so he persuaded them to play SEGA Saturn instead of going out playing baseball or having party in clubs.
He's like a Japanese version of Chuck Norris in gaming, but he's one of the greatest gaming heroes in history that made SEGA Saturn a memorable game consoles. He did a lot of cool stuff such as carrying giant console on his back, punching Saturn's buttons, dressed up as santa to scare kids, and more awesome stuff on the commercial ads.
"You must play the Sega Saturn!" - Segata Sanshiro
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