Exploring The Saturn: Part 6

Well, I guess we're at the end. Obviously, I haven't played every single Saturn game but I feel like I've managed to touch on all the big heavy-hitters. And now, I only have four final Saturn games left to check out, all of which seem to push the hardware to its absolute fullest. Did the console's run end on a high note, or did Sega get a bit too ambitious?

Panzer Dragoon Saga: How... how does this game even exist? This is a full-on 3D RPG with an open-world, with so many FMVs it needed to be four discs, and somehow, it doesn't crack under all that ambition. Even the Final Fantasy games on Playstation needed prerendered environments, everything in Panzer Dragoon Saga is 3D! This game is a technical marvel, and it's a pretty great RPG in its own right from what I've played of it.

So yeah, Saga is a pretty big genre shift for the Panzer Dragoon series, from a linear rail-shooter to an open-world RPG. Hands down the highlight of Saga for me is that overworld. Being able to fly around on your dragon without restrictions was absolutely jaw-dropping at first, and the controls are genuinely great. You can even dismount your dragon in certain parts to run around on foot, so there really is a big variety in how you move throughout the overworld. While this game is technically open-world, it is divided up into fields that you transition between, but when you put all those areas together, it's impressive just how huge this game's map is. But then we get to the combat, which is actually really sick. Visually, it's a full-on dragon battle, taking place as you fly through the air, and you can move your dragon around the enemy for a different perspective, just like in the first two games. Battles play out more like a puzzle as you need to seek out safe spots and find the enemy's weakpoints, and the bosses stand out as especially fun since they have multiple phases that can throw off your strategy. It's this weird fusion of Squaresoft's active-time system and the ring system of The Origami King that works shockingly well, and the addition of stuff like XP and class changes gives the whole system even more depth.

What really stuns me about Panzer Dragoon Saga though is just how technically impressive it is. Like, there is no reason for a Saturn game this large in scale to look and run as well as it does. Panzer Dragoon Saga takes place in a big open world, all of which is rendered in 3D in real-time. There's an FMV for pretty much every single cutscene, and while Mr Bones may have done this first, Saga is a far longer (and better) game than Mr Bones was. The framerate is impressively consistent too. I'm not enough of a junkie to tell what the exact framerate of Saga is, but I can say for sure that I didn't notice any chugs. Even more, the environment remained consistently crisp-looking throughout the time I played Saga, which is more than I can say about a certain other game in this batch. And even more, even with all of these technical miracles, the most impressive thing is that it feels like the world of Panzer Dragoon was not sacrificed in the slightest. The art direction and musical style fit perfectly alongside the first two games, and Saga's world genuinely feels like the same place as it was in those rail-shooters, just with the rails removed. 

Overall, Panzer Dragoon Saga really is a miracle of a game, a true technical marvel, and probably the furthest the Saturn could ever go without breaking itself in two. It takes the fascinating world depicted in the first two Panzer Dragoon games and expands it even more. It's a great and ambitious RPG with a stunning overworld and a very inventive battle system.

5/5 Stars

Burning Rangers: Leave it to Sonic Team to once again push the Saturn's hardware to its limits. Burning Rangers is, somehow, an honest-to-goodness 3D platformer. While pretty obviously janky and nowhere near the same level as Nights Into Dreams, the sheer ambition put into Burning Rangers makes for a very admirable game.

Burning Rangers is an action-platformer where you run around a large building saving victims, putting out fires, and defeating whichever boss caused the fire in the first place. There's a quick-dodge to get out of the way of sudden explosions, a limit meter that increases the amount of fires the less you put out, and even a full-on ranking system just like in Nights. But coolest of all, Burning Rangers built itself on a vocal navigation feature, where a navigator instructs you on where to go within these mazelike areas. What's really impressive is just how high quality and clear the voice acting is here. In an era filled with bad dubs, Sonic Team knew that a bad voice cast or bad vocal direction would flat-out break this game, and I couldn't be more glad that they put in the effort.

However, as cool as Burning Rangers is in its ambition, it does suffer from a bit of that early 3D platformer jank (and it doesn't help that this is a Sega Saturn game rather than a 64 or PS1 game). Movement feels great for the most part, but the camera really holds this game back a bit. I actually think Burning Rangers' camera was ripped straight-out of Sonic Jam because I have very similar issues. It just moves around too much, jumps are incredibly difficult because they can cause the camera to spazz out, and the entire game taking place in interior areas compared to the open Sonic World only exacerbates the issues. I also think graphics, while definitely impressive, do look like they're pushing the console a bit too much. It's hard to really explain without just showing it to you, but it felt like the environments were just gonna collapse on me at any moment. It feels like if I was playing this game on a actual Saturn (since I was using emulation), I'd spend the whole playthrough terrified that it was going to burst into flames (which is ironic considering what this game is about).

But despite my gripes, the ambition of Burning Rangers does win over some of its more poorly-aged elements. This is still a slick, fast-paced, and fun platformer with some stellar production values, even if it may be going a bit too far in pushing the Saturn's capabilities.

4/5 Stars

Sonic R: Sonic R is yet another Saturn game I've actually played before, but my opinions haven't changed about it much. I love everything about it... except for the actual gameplay.

Sonic R looks astonishing for the Saturn. From the reflections to the level terrain, it's impressive just how great this game looks. Traveler's Tales truly were wizards at the time. The soundtrack is also amazing. I've raved about it before, but Sonic R's pop tracks are catchy and endlessly listenable. The track design is great too, there may be only five tracks but they're filled to the brim with alternate routes, really capturing the spirit of Sonic. And there's so many extra modes to the point where the lack of tracks doesn't feel all that noticeable, from collecting Sonic Tokens, to finding the Chaos Emeralds, to the several varieties of time trials. However, what prevents Sonic R from being an easy favorite on the console are those awful slippery controls. I've seen some people defend R's controls by claiming that you should just steer characters as if they were cars, but first of all, they're slippery even by car standards, and second of all, maybe if you wanted the characters to control like cars, you shouldn't make them collect stuff and do precision platforming!

Sonic R is such a mess of a game. Like, I see what TT was trying to accomplish here, and I like a lot of it, but the ungodly controls only exacerbated the bizarre progression systems and ultimately make the whole thing feel unpolished. I wish Sonic R was good, I want to like it more than I do, but it just doesn't do it for me.

2/5 Stars

Radiant Silvergun: You know, I like to think I'm alright at bullet hell games. I've beaten a bunch of Touhou games, I nailed (and loved) that The End fight in Sonic Frontiers, I fared pretty well in Batsugun and Dodonpachi Resurrection, and I've pulled off some crazy grazes that surprised even myself. Radiant Silvergun humbled the hell out of me, and I loved every second of it.

Radiant Silvergun is one of the coolest games I've ever played in my life, full stop. It's a bullet hell game that gives you seven different weapons to use, all the ships and enemies are 2D sprites but the boss fights are in full 3D, also there's like 20 different bosses throughout the game, and there's a leveling up system, and there's a soundtrack by Ivalice Final Fantasy composer Hitoshi Sakamoto, and Treasure made it, and there's explosions so powerful they cause the game to lag. Seriously, the style, scale, and ambition of Radiant Silvergun is off the charts. This is Treasure at their absolute peak, just as experimental and weird as something like Guardian Heroes, but it all actually fully clicks this time. The variety of weapons gives you so much freedom in how you tackle enemies and bosses, as does the chain system. The level design is consistently inventive, and the bosses even moreso. This might genuinely be Treasure's best boss lineup and that's saying something, every single one of them is memorable, unique, and fun. From the frantic race against the Golets, to the sick-looking wireframe fight against GEDO-0, to the dramatic fight against Penta, to... literally everything about that final boss, my god.

Of course, it's not all style, because Radiant Silvergun is also ridiculously hard. Like genuinely one of the most difficult games I've ever played in my life, and it pulls no punches right from the very start. Hell, you're likely already feeling overwhelmed by all the new gameplay systems only for the second boss to start pulling off 5th Touhou boss level patterns right off the bat... and in Easy Mode for that matter! However, despite its brutal difficulty, Radiant Silvergun is ultimately a fair bullet hell game. One of the hardest in its genre, for sure, but fair nonetheless. As mentioned before, the sheer amount of weapons you have in your arsenal allow you to tackle bosses in any way you want. You even get a homing shot if you really want to play things safe. There's also Saturn Mode, a modified Story Mode that saves how much your weapons have leveled up after each death, so every time you play the game, your weapons are a bit more powerful. And on top of that, there's also a very robust options menu that with loads of difficulty and lives settings, and if you're still feeling really desperate, Arcade Mode does have an infinite continues cheat. Radiant Silvergun may be brutal, but it accomodates for every kind of player. Treasure wants you to win, it's just going to take a lot of practice and attempts.

Overall, Radiant Silvergun is astonishing. It's hands down the most inventive and experimental bullet hell game I've ever played, and yet it succeeds in pretty much everything it's trying to do. From the complex gameplay systems that encourage player expression, to the unpredictable and consistently creative level design and bosses, to the stunning visuals and score, this may very well be Treasure's magnum opus (though I haven't played Ikaruga yet so who knows) To my utter disbelief, Radiant Silvergun has surpassed Nights Into Dreams as my favorite Saturn game, and it's probably also my favorite non-Touhou bullet hell right now too. What a fantastic note to end this series off on.

5/5 Stars

Other Games I Played But Didn't Have As Much To Say About:

• Bug!/Bug Too!: Not good, just really really not good (1/5)
• Keio Flying Squadron 2: Looks stunning, the controls are a bit of a grower, but I've really become fond of this one (4/5)
• Batsugun: I love a good bullet hell game, truly blissful (5/5)
• Saturn Bomberman: Classic Bomberman at its peak (5/5)
• Sega Worldwide Soccer 97: Pretty solid for such an early football sim (4/5)
• Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge: Just a damn good fighting game with stunning spritework and one of my favorite casts in the genre (5/5)
• Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo: Great concept, great gameplay, great spritework, why the hell is Street Puzzle Mode so hard?! (3/5)
• Waku Waku 7: Waku Waku 7 is so close to being my favorite fighting game on the console, so pretty, fluid and charming... until that final boss literally slows things to a crawl. (4/5)
• Virtua Cop 2: Literally just the first game but without the charming blue skies aesthetic, the catchy music, or the Training mode. So basically, all the things I liked about VC1 aren't there. (2/5)
• Sonic 3D Blast: The better visuals, great music, and special stages are points in this game's favor, but the slippery controls still exist and make it way harder to enjoy compared to the far superior director's cut. (2/5)

So, overall, what did I think about the Saturn's library? For the most part, pretty solid. It wasn't the idealized gold mine of amazing hidden gems I was expecting at first, since there was no shortages of imperfect ports (Daytona USA, Waku Waku 7), games that just didn't do it for me (Virtua Cop, Guardian Heroes), as well as games I just thought were flat-out bad (Mr Bones, Bug!), not to mention Sonic really got the short end of the stick here. However, for every disappointment, there was at least 2-3 games I genuinely loved. From the truly great arcade ports (Virtua Fighter, Darkstalkers, Batsugun, Radiant Silvergun), to the truly stunning 2D sprite-based games (Astal, Saturn Bomberman), to Sega's great lineup of first-party originals (Nights, Panzer Dragoon, Clockwork Knight, Fighters Megamix, Burning Rangers), there was a lot to love in the Saturn's library, and I managed to find plenty of favorites here.

Part of why I love failed consoles like the Saturn is because of how much of an underdog they are. Their games are often underappreciated or even fly under the radar, the companies who make them often have to make compromises or take risks to keep them afloat, and their otherwise muted or negative reputation means that the console's highlights can pleasantly surprise you. From the crisp CD audio to its fantastic 2D capabilities to the weird shit that only Sega could ever make, the Sega Saturn is a weird, unpredictable, and wonderful little console that tried so damn hard even if all the odds were stacked against it. For that, the Saturn has my respect.

Now, to end things off, here's a list of my Top 10 Sega Saturn games:

1. Radiant Silvergun
2. Nights Into Dreams/Christmas Nights
3. Panzer Dragoon II Zwei/Saga
4. Fighters Megamix/VF2
5. Clockwork Knight 1/2
6. Daytona USA
7. Saturn Bomberman
8. Burning Rangers
9. Darkstalkers
10. Batsugun

Exploring The Saturn: Part 5

Sonic's grand return, the craziest pre-Smash crossover fighter, and two other Sega racing games. Let's see how many of them are good...

Fighters Megamix: Fighters Megamix is the big Sega AM2 crossover I never knew I wanted. It doesn't just bring together the casts of Virtua Fighter and Fighting Vipers, it goes even further.

Fighters Megamix basically works as a mixture between Virtua Fighter and Fighting Vipers. You can choose between the fighting styles of both games, and each characters's stage depends on which game series they come from (so Virtua Fighter characters have no walls, Fighting Vipers characters do). I'm not entirely sure mixing these two fighting styles really works the best, but Fighters Megamix isn't meant to be a great competitive fighting game, it's just meant to be fun. And it's incredibly fun, and very content-rich too. With a whopping 34 characters to play as, the game comes with an impressive nine different Arcade Modes, along with plenty of other great modes like Survival, the Training mode from Fighting Vipers, and even a VS Mode that allows for 1P vs COM play! Glad to see that's now a thing. But really, the highlight here is just seeing all the hidden characters that got thrown in. Bean and Bark from Sonic The Fighters, the kids versions of Akira and Sarah, the Hornet from Daytona, the tree in the AM2 logo?! You know those joke picks that Sakurai would throw into Smash like Mr Game & Watch or Duck Hunt? Well, the entire unlockable roster of Fighters Megamix is solely comprised of joke picks, and I adore it. Nothing beats fighting the goddamn Daytona car as King Of Speed plays in the background.

And that's kind of what Fighters Megamix feels like, a joke, but in a good way! I'll argue that from a purely mechanical perspective, Virtua Fighter 2 is the best AM2 fighting game on the Saturn, but Fighters Megamix is the most fun. You can tell AM2 just wanted to celebrate their achievements, and throw all of their previous characters and IPs together into a weird but endearing blend. It's all good-natured fun, which is really all a good crossover should be.

5/5 Stars

Sonic Jam: We did it! We finally got to Sonic! And after all this time, the first Sonic game to come out on the Sega Saturn was... a collection of all his Genesis games. Hey, but at least it was a pretty cool collection.

Sonic Jam goes several extra miles beyond simply porting Sonic 1-K to the Saturn, Sonic Team had greater ambitions. This collection not only includes Sonic 1-K in their original forms, but they also received Easy Modes as well as revised versions that fixed several issues with the game that Sonic Team initially had. Sonic 1 got a spin dash, several stage layouts are slightly changed, bugs were fixed, and best of all, the infamous Barrel Of Doom was removed. On top of all that, you could use Sonic & Knuckles' lock-on features on the other games, play time trials for every single act, and even play the Special Stages outside of the context of the games. This is a very content-rich and fully-featured port, and it's a real shame that Sonic Team wouldn't put all these features in their other collections. The "fixed" versions in particular are exclusive to Sonic Jam, which is especially saddening since these aren't the best ports on a technical level. Nothing unplayable, mind you, but they do suffer from some pretty rough sound issues at points. Sadly, there are better ways to play these games, and I wish the Jam versions would get touched up to rival them one day.

Of course, then there's also Sonic World, which most people remember Sonic Jam for. Most compilations have a menu where you can look at concept art, watch videos, or get behind the scenes info on your favorite games... but what if that menu was actually a 3D Sonic overworld. Yep, if we were to exclude Christmas Nights, this is the first true 3D Sonic game, and it's pretty alright. The visuals are stunning for the Sega Saturn, bright and colorful, and barely chugs a bit. There's just something about Sonic Team, they really know how to push the Saturn to its limits. I love the low-poly Saturn era Sonic look too, it's so cute. There are even some rings to collect and (surprisingly tough) missions to partake in, just to make it so the place doesn't solely feel like a glorified menu. However, Sonic World does have its issues. Sonic can feel a bit slippery upon landing which makes precision platforming annoying, the two camera options are either too close or too far away, and much of the scans that you can view look pretty crusty and hard to read. As a whole, the menus just don't look the most polished, especially in the shadow of Mega Collection's godly presentation. Still, I do admire the effort here, and the novelty of playing as 3D Saturn era Sonic is still really cool.

As a whole, Sonic Jam isn't my favorite Sonic collection. Mega Collection just feels more polished as a whole. However, the sheer amount of extra effort Sonic Team put into Jam is worth celebrating, from all the extra options and adjustments made to the games themselves, to the pretty stunning depiction of what Sonic in 3D would've looked like at the time.

4/5 Stars

Manx TT Super Bike: Manx TT Super Bike feels like a happy medium between Daytona USA and Sega Rally Championship in pretty much every way, taking the structure and vibe of the former and meshing it with the grittiness and strong port quality of the latter.

Manx TT Super Bike is yet another AM2 racing game, but this time, you're on motorcycles. It's just as fun as it sounds, Manx TT Super Bike is a blisteringly fast game, and carefully leaning to turn corners is always insanely satisfying. Unlike in Sega Rally, the tracks are actual loops again that you have to do 3-5 laps in, meaning that there's a bit more of an emphasis on learning the turns of each track. Both tracks are well-designed, and the second track even ends on a brutal hairpin turn, just as it should. Presentation-wise, Manx TT Super Bike is pretty great too, once again melding the styles of the games that came before it. The environments have the same rugged style as Sega Rally Championship, but the skies are as blue as in Daytona USA. The soundtrack is rock-heavy like in Sega Rally, but there's more energy to it, and the menus have narrators again. As far as the porting job goes, it's mostly good. The draw distance is noticeably not great, likely because of how fast the game is, but in exchange, the framerate is buttery smooth. My only real gripe here is how few tracks there are. There's still all the modes that were in the other racing ports, like Saturn Mode, reverse tracks, and time trials, but it's hard to really articulate how much of a downgrade two tracks rather than three is. Daytona USA and Sega Rally both have that one easy route for a chill race, that one brutal route if you want a challenge, and that main medium difficulty track you're likely going to spend a lot of time in. Manx TT Super Bike doesn't really have that medium difficulty track, which is a bit of a shame.

Overall, though, Manx TT Super Bike is yet another strong arcade racer. It feels great, it's satisfyingly fast, the porting job is mostly great, and the presentation is typically stellar.

4/5 Stars

Sega Touring Car Championship: This might be one of the most divisive games Sega has ever made. I'm serious here. Either it's a rewarding, realistic racer, or a twitchy, frustrating mess. Where do I fall on that spectrum? Ehh, I'm leaning towards the former... except for one issue.

Sega Touring Car Championship was Sega's attempting at making a realistic car racer, and for the most part, I think they succeeded. Touring Car is an incredibly fast game, it's easy to accidentally slam yourself into walls, but the game never feels impossible, both in AT and MT. In the case of AT, you need to know when to let go of accelerate. And in the case of MT, you need to figure out when to shift for each turn. I didn't have any issues with the controls (then again, I used a joystick), while there is a learning curve, it's a hurdle that is possible to get over. What doesn't help, however, is the lack of a map, or really any turn indicators. Both Daytona USA and Manx TT Super Bike had a map screen so that you can quickly glance over to see what kind of turn you're going to have to deal with next. Sega Touring Car Championship, on the other hand, doesn't have a map, so despite its blistering speed, it feels like turns just hit me in the face without any chance to judge how sharp it is. Where the previous racing games allow you to use the map as a reference and plan out your turn accordingly, the only way to get by in Touring Car is sheer trial-and-error.

And it's a shame that this is such a glaring issue because you can tell Sega put a lot of love into this one. There's so much content here unlike in Manx TT Super Bike. There's Arcade and Saturn modes as usual, but there's also five tracks, several unlockable modes in both sides, customizable cars, and even special tracks and events accessed by playing on a certain date. That last part really shows that Sega wanted this game to be something big, and it's a shame it was just too inaccessible for a lot of people. The presentation is stellar too. The menus are slick, the game runs incredibly smoothly and looks super detailed (seriously, I don't know how the Saturn runs this), and the soundtrack. Oh man, the soundtrack. It's such an eclectic lineup of genres, with the highlight being an honest-to-goodness eurobeat track. It's amazing.

Sega Touring Car Championship isn't a bad game. It has a huge learning curve to it, but the controls are great, and if you can get over that hurdle, there's a massive wealth of content and one of the most polished racers on the console waiting for you. It's just a shame that the lack of a map screen makes getting over that hurdle all the harder.

3/5 Stars

Okay, this was a far better lineup. Pretty much every game in here was at the very least fun. Sadly, this is also the penultimate batch. The only games I have left to try and review are Sonic R, Burning Rangers, Radiant Silvergun, and Panzer Dragoon Saga, along with all of those other games I didn't have as much to say about. Let's hope we end on a strong note.

Exploring The Saturn: Part 4

So far, my journey through the Sega Saturn's library has been pretty smooth sailing. However, this batch was a bit different. The quality in these games was all over the place, ranging from some of the coolest things the console ever did, to some of its biggest failures.

Christmas Nights: Remember demo discs? I sure don't because I wasn't born when they were at their peak, but I have always found them to be conceptually really cool. Without the internet or downloadable demos, this was the best way for people to learn about and try other video games, and they came in these neat tailor-made packages entirely for free. However, hands down the coolest demo disc ever made has to be Christmas Nights.

As I said, I've played Nights Into Dreams before, and that includes Christmas Nights. You really can't play Nights without also experiencing this version of the game, they're kind of a package deal. There's a reason the HD rerelease included a Christmas Nights mode, even if it doesn't have all the content the original Saturn version had. But what is Christmas Nights? At its core, Christmas Nights is a holiday-themed demo of Nights Into Dreams that lets you play through a winter-themed version of the game's first stage, Spring Valley. Already, this is a lot cooler than your average demo. Most demos leave the game as is, but Christmas Nights went the extra mile to completely redecorate a stage. But that's not even all, because Christmas Nights also has an entirely original rewards menu in the form of an advent calendar. Playing a round of Spring Valley lets you play a memory game, and getting matches unlocks these rewards, which range from art galleries, a music player, Time Attack and Link Attack modes, a collection of Nightopians, and best of all, the ability to play through a stage as Sonic The Hedgehog. Keep in mind, Sonic Jam nor Sonic R had come out yet. Christmas Nights was the first truly 3D Sonic game.

It's this rewards menu that gives Christmas Nights a shocking amount of replay value and content. While there is still only one level, unlocking all the rewards will take quite a while, and the sheer variety of extras really makes for one of the most jam-packed demos I've ever seen. And that's why I had to review Christmas Nights on it's own, because it's hardly even just a demo. It's basically it's own game, a fully-featured compliment to the base Nights Into Dreams game, and families got it all entirely free. To this day, this is one of the coolest things Sega has ever done.

5/5 Stars

Virtua Fighters Kids: I'm still kind of in disbelief that this is an actual game... and that it's still good.

Virtua Fighters Kids seems like a gag game, it is a gag game! It takes the VF2 cast, turns them into chibi kids, pitches up their voices, and bumps up the game speed by 20%. But despite this incredibly dumb idea, Sega was still somehow willing to improve the visuals, add content VF2 didn't have, add entirely new cheat codes, and even change the gameplay meta entirely. The upped speed isn't just a gimmick, it allows for VF Kids' gameplay to focus far more on making combos. It even comes with a full-on Combo Maker that lets you make your own combos. This makes VF Kids feel like a more accessible fighting game for newcomers, which I think is a pretty novel idea. The presentation is also polished up quite a bit, with far crisper and more expressive visuals than ever before. The menu UI leans into the game's cartoony premise, and the gameplay graphics are bright and colorful. There's even some new cheat codes to play around with, my personal favorite being the trippy first-person mode.

Look, in the grand scheme of things, VF Kids doesn't really bring anything new to the table. VF2 is still the better game here. However, VF Kids is, surprisingly enough, still a damn solid Virtua Fighter game on its own merits. It's got a lot of content, super polished visuals, and a fast-paced combo-heavy gameplay meta that actually works.

4/5 Stars

Decathlete: Minigame collections are always a fun time and you can tell Sega really tried with Decathlete. It's got a lot of their usual visual flair. However, it all depends on the minigames themselves, which unfortunately aren't the best.

Decathlete is entirely based around track-and-field, so the majority of its minigames are based around running, throwing stuff, or both. However, most of these minigames are controlled in one of two ways: Button mashing, or timing a meter. As a result, while there are 10 minigames, they all play fairly similarly. The gameplay isn't bad though, button presses are responsive and none of the games are necessarily unfair, I'm just not really a fan of button-mashers and don't think they can sustain an entire minigame collection. The modes on offer is pretty lacking too. Decathlon and Arcade are basically the same except Arcade is harder, and Practice mode just lets you play the minigames individually. It probably also doesn't help that I haven't been able to play Decathlete in multiplayer, which I assume would be it at its most fun. One thing I can say I really liked about Decathlete though are the visuals. You can tell this is a Sega arcade game, it's got a lot of that same flair and visual polish. Decathlete looks bright and colorful, and those iconic blue skies are always in view.

Overall, Decathlete's just kinda average. It's not a bad minigame collection, it's super polished and is probably a lot of fun in multiplayer, but it's held back by the minigames themselves feeling pretty samey and mechanically basic.

3/5 Stars  

Mr Bones: You know, just because a console failed doesn't necessarily mean its games are bad. The Virtual Boy has VB Wario Land, the Ouya has Towerfall, and I've been mostly positive to the majority of Saturn heavy-hitters I've played so far. That is not the case for Mr Bones.

Mr Bones is meant to be this super ambitious journey where every level is an entirely different genre. The graphics are prerendered, and there are so many FMVs that the game had to be split up into two discs. However, while I respect all the effort that went into Mr Bones, and I'm fully aware it's a cult classic... I'm so sorry, this game sucks ass. Despite going through pretty much every genre under the sun, none of the levels play well. They're all brutally hard and unfair, the controls suck, and sometimes it's unclear what you even have to do. I couldn't even get past the first level so I used a cheat code to access the level select and just check out all the stages, none of them were fun. They all sucked. It also doesn't help that the at-the-time groundbreaking visuals and FMVs have also aged horribly, robbing Mr Bones of a lot of its appeal. 

Once again, I admire the ambition that went into Mr Bones. You could feel that the developers wanted to make something truly special, but this is one of the most painful games I've ever had the displeasure of playing, and a surprising low point in what has otherwise been a pretty great library so far.

1/5 Stars

Fighting Vipers: Fighting Vipers was Sega's attempt at following up the success of Virtua Fighter with an entirely new boxing-centric 3D fighting game. Unfortunately, it couldn't quite match up to it for me, and some decisions made in the port didn't help.

Fighting Vipers plays mostly like Virtua Fighter, but there are a few changes such as walls around the arena not unlike a boxing ring you can interact with, being able to break off your opponents' armor, and of course the entirely new cast. Sadly, none of this really does much for me. Fighting Vipers' cast of characters is pretty unmemorable, the boxing ring mechanic means there's far less of those hilarious Ring Out physics that I loved in the Virtua Fighter games, and the armor mechanic rewards hitting the same part on your opponent over and over again rather than experimenting with more creative combos. The gameplay still feels fine and the visuals still look great, this is the VF engine we're talking about, but it just doesn't hit the same. It also doesn't help that Fighting Vipers's Saturn port specifically feels almost entirely ripped off of VF2 with little having changed. The majority of modes are still the same, there's still the Extra Options menu to unlock, the menu looks the same, the loading screens look the same, and it can't help but remind me of how much more I preferred Virtua Fighter 2. Even Virtua Fighter Kids didn't give me that feeling, and it's technically even more of a copy-paste. The only truly noteworthy addition Fighting Vipers made that I genuinely loved was the robust Training Mode which, to give credit where it's due, is really well-done.

Fighting Vipers is a fine fighting game but it just feels generic compared to the Virtua Fighter games. It lacks the memorable characters, its new mechanics limit those games' charm, and the general presentation of the port is nearly copy-pasted from VF2. As a result, it just feels stuck in the shadow of those more successful Sega Fighters that came before.

3/5 Stars

So yeah, this was probably the weakest lineup yet. When the best games in the batch (Christmas Nights, Virtua Fighters Kids) are just modified versions of other games, that's not a very good sign.

However, it's not all bad. While I've been sticking to reviewing mostly first-party or heavy-hitter Saturn games, I've also been checking out a bunch of third-party games like Batsugun, Darkstalkers, and Saturn Bomberman on the side, and they've been great! I'll give truncated reviews on some of the other Saturn games I played by the end of this series, but just know that it's not all bad.

But as for now, hopefully Fighters Megamix, Manx TT Super Bike, Sega Touring Car Championship, and Sonic Jam will fare a bit better in my next set of reviews.

Exploring The Saturn: Part 3

Sonic Team's first game on the Saturn, a sequel to a launch title, yet another arcade port, and Treasure making their grand debut. There's a 

NIGHTS Into Dreams: As I said in my first Exploring The Saturn post, I've played NIGHTS Into Dreams before, and yet I was perfectly content to go through it again because it's just that good. This is still my favorite Saturn game so far, and it'll probably stay that way even when I'm done with these playthroughs.

NIGHTS Into Dreams is a unique arcade game where you fly through a stage collecting these orbs to free a colored orb, which you have to bring back to the start after accumulating as many points as you can. Trust me, it sounds more exciting than this, I'm just not at all familiar with NIGHTS lore and don't really know the name of... anything you're doing. But that just makes the gameplay loop all the more original, and the fluid controls and sheer variety of ways you can get more points to end each stage with a higher rank makes for a very dynamic and replayable game. You can explore the stages for hidden areas, try to get the longest chain of orbs/stars to improve your score even more, or just plain ignore all of it to engage with the game's surprisingly complex pet simulator. Leave it to late 90s Sonic Team to be way too extra with their games, as usual. 

NIGHTS Into Dreams only has seven levels, but they're all super fun and memorable, constantly throwing new ideas, mechanics, and setpieces to keep things feeling fresh. Soft Museum is my personal favorite  The bosses are admittedly pretty jank, but none of them are really all that hard either if you know what you're doing. There's a few other extras like a VS Mode and some easy preset high scores to beat, but the majority of the replay value in NIGHTS really is just playing stages over and over again, improving your scores, engaging with the A-Life system, and ideally, getting all your ranks to A. It's just such an easy game to come back to, Sonic Team really are wizards at making games that encourage you to get better at.

But the true thing that makes NIGHTS Into Dreams so great has to be the overall aesthetic. Befitting the title, NIGHTS takes place in this surreal, colorful dream world, and it looks consistently stunning. Between my gushing for Kirby and Klonoa, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that I'm a sucker for dream worlds, and the unique art direction of NIGHTS forms a big part of its identity. It's also aged remarkably well, similarly to the Panzer Dragoon games but even moreso. And it shouldn't be much of a surprise here, but the music is great. It's so great. Tomoko Sasaki of Ristar fame and Naofumi Hataya from Sonic CD fame collaborated on the NIGHTS score and it's easily one of the most uplifting and magical video game soundtracks I've even heard, outside of the eclectic set of boss themes which range from rock to DnB to opera beats. It's fantastic.

So yeah, NIGHTS Into Dreams is a fantastic game. An addicting and one-of-a-kind arcade experience with an impeccable aesthetic and a lot of replay value. It's a truly magical game, not just the best non-Sonic game Sonic Team has made, but easily stands up with the best in that series as well. If there's any Saturn game you need to play, it's this one.

5/5 Stars

Panzer Dragoon II Zwei: Panzer Dragoon II Zwei is yet another Saturn sequel that fixes pretty much all of the original game's issues. I liked the first game well enough, but the core gameplay definitely could've used just a bit more polishing. Zwei is that polishing.

At face value, Panzer Dragoon II Zwei seems a lot like the first. You fly and shoot through seven stages, all while switching perspective to watch your back and sides from enemies. However, right from the get-go, you may notice that a big change has been made: You can actually move your dragon when you're not facing forward. This is a huge improvement that fixed my number one issue with the original game, and already makes Zwei's difficulty feel a lot more manageable. Zwei is still pretty tough, don't get me wrong, but it feels a lot more fair than its predecessor in a lot of ways, the improved controls being one of them. I also thought the difficulty curve felt a lot more natural, with the difficulty not immediatley spiking up the moment I got to the second stage. But them there's the multiple routes through most of each stage, not just a great way to add in replay value, but it also lets the player choose how difficult they want to make the game. Certain routes are harder than others, and taking the harder ones with reward you with more points to evolve your dragon.

So yeah, Panzer Dragoon II Zwei also really ups the replayability too. There's multiple routes in almost every level, dragon evolutions, as well as trying to kill 100% of the enemies in a given stage. But the most inventive addition is the Pandora's Box, which is essentially a cheat menu that slowly doles out more options as you play the game. Getting all the cheats in Pandora's Box will take quite a while, either 100%ing every stage or playing for 30 hours (unless you have Saga save data), but the sheer amount of customization, options, and hidden modes you get by the end of it is truly impressive. Sadly, Pandora's Box doesn't save your progress if you use any of the cheats, meaning you can't unlock the full thing while using any of the cheats you already got, which is a real shame. The visuals and art direction are as great as always, with the bosses being especially noteworthy for being far more varied than the ships and dragons we had in the first game. The addition of ground-based sequences also allowed for even more unique and memorable levels too. And the soundtrack is just as great, despite leaning more towards techno than the first game's orchestral score, it captures the same general vibe.

Overall, Panzer Dragoon II Zwei does exactly what a good sequel should. It improves most of the first game's flaws, keeps everything it did right, and adds a whole load of extra content and replay value to boot. I'm still not very good at it, but at least I feel like I can blame myself and not the game this time.

5/5 Stars

Sega Rally Championship: Yeah... I wasn't as big a fan of this one as I was Daytona. I'd say on a technical level, Sega Rally Championship is a big step up over its spiritual port predecessor. It runs smoother and looks far better too, but it just lacks the charm of Daytona for me.

Sega Rally Championship is a rally game more than a standard racing game, so there's a much bigger emphasis on navigating through tight turns on an open road. For me, I kinda prefer the way Daytona did things, with its more naturalistic tracks feeling more fun to drive around in compared to Rally's linear paths. I also preferred how unforgiving Daytona was in comparison, since the risk of crashing or swerving off road felt a lot higher, encouraging you to truly master the controls. But most of all, I just think the presentation is a big downgrade. Obviously, the music is a big step-down, with some good rock tunes that just don't stack up to Daytona's fast-paced and upbeat pop, but it's even just the little things. Daytona's tracks were filled to the brim with easter eggs, its menus popped with color, and there are so many charming vocal quirks like "Rolling start" or a narrator announcing the letters you pick for the name entry. Sega Rally Championship does get a point for "Game over, yeah!", but that's pretty much it.

Still, don't get me wrong, this is a perfectly solid, even great, racing game. The controls are smooth and fluid, and the difficulty curve between the tracks is still great. Once again, there's a lot of content here, even including multiplayer and a proper time trial that didn't need to be activated via a cheat code. The main mode is a Championship mode where you start in 15th place and have to try to be in 1st after three tracks, so whichever position you finish a track in gets carried over to the next one. I do really like the sense of progression there, compared to Daytona where you just pick a track and play it over and over again. And of course, I have to praise how much better the visuals are. The draw distance is way better, the framerate is so much smoother, and as a whole, the graphics just look cleaner and crisper. I may prefer Daytona as a game, but Sega Rally got the far better porting job here.

Overall, Sega Rally Championship is a solid racing game, I definitely don't dislike it, but the track design and charm just don't live up to Daytona USA for me, even if it's a far better port on a technical level. I'm still going back to Daytona for rounds, but I don't see myself doing that with this.

3.5/5 Stars

Guardian Heroes: Treasure is one of my favorite game developers solely for how out-of-the-box their games are. Crazy boss fights, nonstop action, weird genre blends, when they were making games there's no way of knowing what they'd do next. I may not like all of their games, but I sure as hell respect them.

Guardian Heroes is no different. This game tries to blend together fighting games, beat-em-ups, and RPGs. You fight waves of enemies like in a beat-em-up, but you use fighting game controls and are on a 2D plane, and you get EXP that you can use to boost your stats. It's a unique blend that can work really well at times, and the sense of satisfaction from leveling up is great. However, I'm still not entirely sold on the blend of genres Guardian Heroes is proposing, mostly because this game gets insanely hard. Fighting games are usually balanced towards one-on-one duels, and the complex moveset allows for what are essentially tactical fast-paced games of chess. However, when you're being swarmed by enemies like in a beat-em-up, it can feel way too overwhelming and almost unfair at points. The later levels especially feel like you're being swarmed nonstop. There are ways to mitigate this, however. The Easy Mode gives you 99 continues so lives are mostly not an issue, and there's an entire built-in fighting game mode if you'd rather play some one-on-one duels instead, but I kinda wish the levels were just more tailored around this new gameplay style.

But what really kept me playing Guardian Heroes is actually its presentation. Guardian Heroes' story is surprisingly well-executed. It's not super ground-breaking or anything, it really is just a chaotic MacGuffin chase, but between the likable characters, the genuinely fantastic scene direction, and the overall frantic pace, this is a fun-as-hell story that kept me hooked just to see what was going to happen next. Which is especially unpredictable since Guardian Heroes has a lot of alternate routes, that vastly vary in terms of absurdity and morality. This is a beefy game, between all the routes, leveling up each character, and the aforementioned built-in fighting game with its 30+ character roster. If you click with Guardian Heroes' gameplay, it will keep you occupied for a long time. And as I was hinting at a bit earlier, the game looks pretty great too. There's a unique blend of spritework and 3D graphics that, once again, holds up surprisingly well, allowing for both dynamic camera movements and super expressive characters.

Overall, Guardian Heroes is pretty neat. It may not really be my cup of tea, but it's an incredibly unique genre-blend with a great aesthetic and a surprisingly engaging story. Once again, it's Treasure doing what Treasure does best, being weird, unpredictable, and entirely their own.

3.5/5 Stars

This is probably my favorite batch yet. Both Nights Into Dreams and Panzer Dragoon II are two of my favorite games on the Saturn so far, and Guardian Heroes and Sega Rally Championship were good too. Let's hope the pace keeps up with DecAthlete, Mr Bones, Fighting Vipers, Virtua Fighters Kids, and Christmas Nights.

Exploring The Saturn: Part 2

I'm playing through Saturn games! I've only seen a few launch titles so far, but I've been enjoying them quite a bit. Let's see if this next batch keeps up the pace. 

Virtua Fighter 2: Virtua Fighter 2 is just Virtua Fighter but better, in like every single way. It's got more characters, more stages, more modes, and the gameplay has been even further fine-tuned.

It may not seem apparent when you're just watching gameplay, but playing Virtua Fighter 2 pretty soon after the first one felt like night-and-day. It's not even that the fundamental gameplay or movesets have changed that much, it just feels better. The only issue is that the moon-jumping is still there, but even that feels toned down a bit. VF2 is simply just a faster, more responsive game, maybe it's the framerate? Either way, I had way more fun playing through its Arcade Mode, at least with the exception of that Slow Mode Dural fight which was a big step back from the VF1 Dural fight. Otherwise, VF2 is a categorical improvement on pretty much every other level. There's way more content, from entirely new modes, to more settings, to the ability to fight the alphabet to set your high score. The visuals look nicer too, refining the look that Virtua Fighter Remix established even if it loses a bit of that simplistic charm. The soundtrack isn't quite as strong as in VF1 either, but it's still great and boasts a lot of head-bangers. As a whole, it's just Virtua Fighter... but mostly better.

That's why there really isn't much else I can say here. Aside from a few small elements, VF2 just does what the first game did but improves on almost all of it, from the tighter gameplay, to the increased content, to the better visuals. I still like the first game and feel it has its own charm, but if I was recommending a Saturn Virtua Fighter to someone, it would hands down be this one.

Still 4/5 Stars, but a slightly higher 4/5 than VF1

Clockwork Knight 2: Similarly to Virtua Fighter 2, Clockwork Knight 2 takes the first game and improves on pretty much every aspect. Interestingly enough, from what I can tell, both Clockwork Knight games were meant to be in a single package, and that initial plan really shows in this one.

Clockwork Knight 2 is structurally and gameplay-wise the same game as Clockwork Knight 1, but it's the level design, bosses, and side content that make it stand out. The levels are just as inventive as in CK1, but they're also a lot more sprawling, varied, and they put the 2.5D perspective as well as Pepper's key to much better use. There's autoscrolling horse-riding stages, an entirely vertical level where you climb up a clock tower, a world where you launch yourself to and from the background, a stage where you have to dodge waves coming towards you ala DKC Returns, it's a strong lineup here. The bosses are also more eclectic and weird, like a blues-singing toy block snake with sunglasses, a toy castle come to life, and just straight-up a piece of paper (which, by the way, is the game's hardest boss). Speaking of hard, Clockwork Knight 2 is also harder than the first game, with slightly tighter platforming and some tough bosses. But the real reason for the difficulty increase is the addition of playing cards scattered around the stages. These collectibles give you much greater reason to explore, and collecting them all will require some great time management and skilled platforming.

If those cards were all the extra content Clockwork Knight 2 had, I'd be content. It's already a big improvement on the first game's one-and-done campaign. But there's more, because there's also a Boss Rush will all the bosses from the first and second games, and it lets you play as Pepper and Ginger. It's a tough boss rush, but if you beat it, you get a code for a bunch of bizarre scribbly Warioware-esque minigames, one of which is basically just a Mario Kart clone. There's way more crazy cheat codes and secrets though, like the theater which contains every cutscene from (once again) both games as well as a few extras, the ability for a second player to play as some of the bosses, holiday-sensitive title cards, and the ability to play as Ginger in the main campaign as well. All these extra secrets and easter eggs really show how hard Sega was trying to make this IP something special, the care put into making Clockwork Knight 2 feel like the ultimate Clockwork Knight game really shows. However, all the additions from the first game and the way the menu was laid out really makes it feel like a bundle with the first and second games would've really been the definitive way to play both. And it is... kinda. There is in fact a Clockwork Knight 1 & 2 bundle, but it's only out of Japan, and it keeps both games separate rather than trying to mesh them together into the single campaign they were always meant to be. What a shame...

Update: Over a year later, I find out that the US version of Clockwork Knight 2 actually includes the entire first game hidden behind a cheat code. That's nuts! And it means that you really only need to get this game for the full Clockwork Knight experience.

Either way, Clockwork Knight 2 is a stellar platformer. It's got all the same creativity and charm as the first game, but with more varied levels and bosses, a slightly longer length and a slightly higher difficulty, and way more side content and secrets to sink your teeth into.

5/5 Stars

Astal: Astal is the last of the three big attempts at replacing Sonic, but it was also an attempt to show off how the Saturn could pull off 2D visuals. Let's just say it did one of those things way better than the other.

Astal is a fairly solid 2D platformer with some beat-em-up elements to them as well. Your character has a pretty wide array of moves, most of which can be used for both combat and platforming, as well as a bird helper with its own arsenal of commands. A second player can even control the bird itself for some asynchronous multiplayer. The level design is fairly straight-shot but each stage brings a new idea to the table, and the bosses all use the background to their advantage. So this all sounds like it makes for a pretty fantastic platformer, but, once again, the difficulty is a bit too high for my tastes. It's not even that the whole game is hard, it's just that there are some frustrating spikes scattered around, like the autoscrolling River Of Dreams, the bird-only fight in Frostbite, the utter platform hell that is The Crystal Palace, and especially the final boss. There's a lot of levels and bosses I do genuinely really love though such as The Deep Forest, Sea Of Clouds, Glacial Rift, Plains Of Destiny, and especially the fight with Geist, so it leads to a platformer that just feels a bit uneven in both quality and difficulty.

Then again, most people aren't interested in Astal for the gameplay, they're interested in it for the presentation. Because on an audiovisual level, Astal is an absolute masterpiece. The pixel art is so vibrant and stunning, the character animation is so fluid, the sprite-scaling effects used are so impressive, there's loads of little details everywhere, and the art direction itself of this crystalline world is just stunning. I've seen people call Astal one of the best-looking 2D games ever made, and I absolutely agree. It's worth playing solely for the visuals. But, of course, the soundtrack is stellar as well. Lots of Saturn games have that similar kind of sparkling CD-quality synth to it, but it fits Astal's world especially well, heightening its beauty. Tracks like Into The Darkness, River Of Dreams, and The Crystal Palace are especially noteworthy in how flat-out beautiful they are. There's really only one element of Astal's presentation that I don't like, and that's the English voice acting. Sega brought Lani Minella (of Rouge The Bat fame) to voice every character, and while she does a good job at differentiating between the cast, her line delivery is so stilted that it tarnishes what's otherwise a genuinely solid story. I highly recommend playing the Japanese version if you can, not only does the voice acting sound better but Astal has more health making the tough bits a tad more manageable.

Overall, Astal is a solid if uneven platformer elevated by its stellar presentation. Still, I'm glad I played it and even in the more frustrating bits, I felt encouraged to keep on pushing just to see what beautiful vistas I would come across next.

4/5 Stars

Virtua Cop: Virtua Cop is Sega's premiere light gun game, and you can see why. It's got all the right pieces for an arcade classic, catchy tunes, charming bright visuals, a great sense of gameplay flow. However, for the most part, it just didn't quite do it for me like Daytona and Virtua Fighter did.

Virtua Cop is a light-gun game where you play as a police officer and shoot down criminals. That's really it, and that's all you need. Each stage has a variety of unique setpieces and boss fights, and when you're in the flow, shooting down bad guys has a real rhythm to it. As far as console-based light gun games go, it's far above anything attempted for the NES and SNES in terms of its intricacy, variety, and simple sense of fun. So it feels like I should love this one, right? Well, sadly, no. Unfortunately, Virtua Cop has one big issue holding me back from truly loving it, and that's the camera. Whenever an enemy shows up, Virtua Cop zooms its camera in on them, while showing a graphic that indicates how much time you have until they shoot you. Cool concept in theory, but the problem is that this means the camera is constantly moving around the stage, and enemies may start beginning to attack before you can even get a shot at them. It feels like the camera is jerking me around, frequently causing me to miss my shots. While I admire the attempt to make Virtua Cop more accessible, the camera issues end up becoming the game's biggest frustration for me, and I wish it instead went for a static zoomed-out shot like many other light gun games.

It's a shame, though, because outside of my gameplay gripes, this is a fantastic port, easily the best one so far. No compromises were made here over the arcade version aside from the obvious graphical fidelity. The precision in gameplay is spot-on, the criminals' antics in the background of each stage is super charming, and there's a lot of extra content to give the game a bit more meat on its bones. Beating the main campaign unlocks a few bonus modes like a Mirror Mode, there's a cheat for a Ranking Mode not unlike in Virtua Fighter, and there's even a surprisingly fleshed-out Training Mode that I actually enjoyed even better than the main game. When you're just statically shooting targets, it's a lot easier to appreciate just how accurate Virtua Cop's shooting controls are. I'm also sure that this game will probably be a lot more fun and easy in multiplayer, where you can both cover each other's backs when dealing with some of the jerkier camera moments. I also, once again, have to praise the soundtrack because it's an absolute jam. Whenever the enemies pop up in time with the music is always immensely satisfying.

So overall, Virtua Cop is almost a game I love. It's probably the Saturn arcade port with the least amount of sacrifices so far, nailing the precise gameplay and charm of the original while also added a lot of extra modes and content. However, the problem here is that I just can't vibe with Virtua Cop's dynamic camera, and I feel it makes the game artifically more difficult. It's totally possible to get enjoyment out of Virtua Cop, but it's that damned camera that prevents me from thinking of it as truly great.

3/5 Stars

Overall, higher highs and lower lows. Virtua Fighter 2 and Clockwork Fighter 2 are both stellar sequels that far surpass the originals, but Astal and Virtua Cop were a bit more mixed. Still, nothing truly awful yet, and we'll see how that keeps up when I play Panzer Dragoon Zwei, Nights Into Dreams, Sega Rally Championship, and Guardian Heroes next.

Exploring The Saturn: Part 1

The Sega Saturn is one of the more infamous failed consoles. While it did decently well in Japan for a bit, the lack of Sonic games, infighting between Sega's US and Japan divisions, a rushed release, and 3D that paled in comparison to the Playstation and N64 meant it did not do well in America and was most-likely the biggest cause for Sega having to drop off of doing consoles. However, the benefit of hindsight is an interesting thing, as years later, collectors started to realize that Saturn wasn't entirely a lost cause of a console. It handled 2D games better than both the PS1 and the N64, it had loads of cult classics that were only available on the console, several iconic classics had their best (Mega Man 8) or most content-rich (Symphony Of The Night) versions on the Saturn, and once you realized just how many games were released solely in Japan, you get a console that had finally found its niche.

I've always been fascinated with underdog consoles. The Dreamcast is my second favorite console of all time behind the Wii for its many unique and original games, cohesive aesthetic, and ahead-of-its-time innovations. I still have a soft-spot for the Wii U and would even rank it over the Switch. And most notably, I wrote an entire post about how cool the Game Boy Color is. Having grown up with the Wii, I've been spending this past year or so really delving into the libraries of consoles I never got to experience (starting with handhelds like the Game Boy, Neo Geo Pocket Color, and DS before moving onto the NES and SNES) and it's been great. I discovered some new favorites (Starfy 3, Rocket Slime, Umihara Kawase), and gained more appreciation for many of the consoles themselves. But I was especially excited to check out the Saturn not just because it scratches that cult underdog niche, because almost all of its games are entirely new to me, the only ones I've played before now were Nights and Sonic R. So I wanted to document my findings as I explore the Saturn's library. The console was a failure, that can't be denied, but I want to see if its library is in fact better than people tend to give it credit for. So let's start with its launch lineup.

Virtua Fighter Remix: Virtua Fighter was the big system seller for the Saturn and it was... mixed. At the time, it was pretty widely-praised because no one had ever seen a 3D game of its caliber on a home console before, and it hard-carried the console's performance in Japan. However, people quickly realized that this port had some rough graphical issues, particularly with the lighting. When the 32X version looked better, that's an issue. So Sega quickly made a new budget version called Virtua Fighter Remix and handed it out to homes for free, which is the version I obviously went for. Remix is almost exactly the same as the original Virtua Fighter port, just with better visuals, so in terms of gameplay and content, this is still mostly what people were experiencing at launch. So what did I think?

Virtua Fighter Remix really impressed me. Being the first 2D/3D fighting game of its kind, I've often heard people say it hasn't aged the best, but aside from one particular aspect of the gameplay, I honestly couldn't really tell. For the first 3D fighting game, the developers nailed the character animations. Attacks feel weighty and movement feels natural, and right off the bat, there are so many different moves you can pull off ranging from throws to dodges to stomps. Each character has a few standard moves so that they're all on the same playing field, but they also vary a lot in terms of playstyle which keeps things both balanced and varied. I never got the impression that this is some watered-down fighting game prototype, it's a fun fighting game in its own merits with a great amount of thought put into its movement and balancing... well, except for one thing. Jumping feels off, there's no going around it. Characters jump like they're on the moon, which doesn't just stick out from the otherwise spot-on physics and animation, but also makes midair attacks feel pretty impractical for combat. This is probably the one thing about Virtua Fighter that agree hasn't aged all that gracefully, and is probably the one big knock I have towards it. Speaking of the animation, though, I have to say that I adore how Ring Outs work. Seeing characters ragdoll-physics themselves off of stages never fails to get a gleeful chuckle out of me, it's so charming.

It's always interesting to see how developers add content to arcade ports for their console releases, because most arcade games are way too short to actually be sold at full price. Namco, for example, added a Galaxian loading screen to their Ridge Racer port that, when won, would unlock more cars. Sega, on the other hand, tends to add a lot of cheat codes. Like, I've inputted in more cheat codes for these four games alone than in probably all the other games I've played combined. While on its surface, Virtua Fighter just has the standard Arcade and VS modes, some preset high scores to beat, and a few options like difficulty settings, the cheat codes range from alternate costumes to playing as the final boss Dural to a stage select that allows you to change the size of arenas (which in turn makes Ring Outs even funnier). And to think these aren't even the craziest secrets Sega packed into a game in this very launch lineup. As far as presentation goes, the Remix version looks great, with vastly improved textures and of course lighting. There'll always be a charm to the original polygonal models, but there's no denying Remix looks vastly better. And you know what else is better? The music. The original soundtrack was more FM/chiptune-heavy, but all the tracks got arranges to show off the new CD-quality audio and it sounds so good. The character themes are varied but equally energetic, the instruments sound super crisp, and it all has such a great arcade-y feel to it.

Overall, Virtua Fighter Remix is a fun fighting game! It may seem basic at first, but for the first of its kind, it nails (most of) the fundamentals surprisingly well, and has that classic Sega arcade charm to carry it even further. That first release may have been a bit rough, but I'm glad we got Remix to really bring out its fullest potential.

4/5 Stars

Daytona USA: Say it with me everyone, ROOOOOLLLLINNNNG STAAAAAAAART! 

Daytona USA is a stellar arcade game, dare I say, one of Sega's very best. Learning the controls and the tracks is incredibly satisfying, especially now that you don't need to put in a quarter every time you want to give it a go. There may be only three tracks, but they're all you need. Because the first time you play any of the tracks in Daytona USA, you will lose. It takes a while to learn the layouts and how to nail each turn, but once you do, Daytona starts to become oddly relaxing. It's effective in its replayability, even now I'm still coming back to it to play a round just for fun. And the Saturn port adds so much extra content to really make it feel like a worthy console release. There's still the Arcade Mode entirely intact, but there's also a Saturn Mode which comes with 10 extra unlockable cars, mirror mode versions of the tracks, and a Time Trial option. And that's not to mention the vast options menu that lets you modify the lap counts and difficulty, along with the many cheat codes like a super fast Maniac Mode and a karaoke mode that puts song lyrics on the bottom screen, as well as the ability to play as a horse. Not as someone riding a horse, just a horse. Why can't we get weird unlockables like this anymore?!

Keep in mind that the arcade version of Daytona USA just has 2 cars and the three tracks, so even more than with Virtua Fighter, this port adds a ridiculous amount of extra content that only encourages replaying the game. However, while content-wise this port is far superior to its arcade counterpart, it does have its downgrades, particularly in the visuals department. See, just like with Virtua Fighter, Daytona USA was rushed for release. The graphics being more low resolution is a given, it was always gonna happen, but the far weaker draw distance and worse framerate could've been fixed. I know this because just like with Virtua Fighter, we got a rerelease in the Championship Circuit Edition. Unlike Remix, however, this wasn't just a graphical upgrade. It added some more cars and modes, but it also removed the lyrics from the music tracks and altered the physics (which the original version actually got spot-on). So overall, I think I'll still stick with the original Daytona port. Sure, it looks worse but the general art direction and vibe of the game can still be felt, and I refuse to play Daytona USA without Takenobu Mitsuyoshi's iconic songs playing in the background. Speaking of which...

Daytona USA's soundtrack is perfect. It's so fun and catchy and upbeat, you have to be heartless to not feel an ounce of joy listening to these tracks. Mitsuyoshi's singing isn't the most harmonic, and the words he says aren't the clearest, but the sheer energy he puts into his songs makes up for all of that. The man's an absolute treasure and, in my eyes, he's a big reason why Daytona USA works as well as it does. The King Of Speed and Let's Go Away are the obvious highlights here, but I just need to single out Sky High for pretty much encapsulating the feel-good "blue skies" vibe that I've always loved about the Y2K era of Sega. I wonder how much this game's general aesthetic influenced Sega in general, because you can really feel its design philosophy seep into much of the Dreamcast's library. Oh right, we're talking about Saturn Daytona. Well, the good thing is that I'd actually say, while the graphics are worse, the CD-quality Saturn remixes are way better than the already great arcade originals, mostly due to the higher-quality instrumentals and the clearer, less sample-heavy vocals. 

Overall, Daytona USA is a phenomenal arcade classic, but its Saturn port is a bit mixed. On one hand, the music is far better, and the sheer amount of content added is quite frankly wild. On the other hand, the graphics and framerate are far worse. However, fundamentally, the core gameplay and aesthetic that define this game are entirely intact, so while Daytona USA for the Sega Saturn may not replace the arcade original, I think it still stands alongside it as another great way to play this great game.

4/5 Stars

Clockwork Knight: During the Saturn era, Sega suffered from a lot of infighting between its US and Japan departments, particularly over Sonic The Hedgehog. As Sonic became a massive hit in the US but not in Japan, SoJ wanted to find a replacement for the iconic blue mascot, which lead to a bunch of Sega-made platformers early on that just couldn't quite live up to it, like Bug! which is actually really not very good. Clockwork Knight, on the other hand, is actually a really fun 2D platformer that deserves more praise.

Clockwork Knight is a platformer about a wind-up toy knight named Pepper trying to save a princess. It's a simple plot, but the neat wrinkle here is that since Pepper is a toy, the entire game takes place inside of someone's house. This premise alone makes Clockwork Knight stand out, since all the stages use toys and other household items as platforms and level gimmicks, ranging from sink faucets to toy trains to hanging mobiles. Even better, Clockwork Knight goes for a 2.5D style not unlike Klonoa, with 2D sprite-based characters in a 3D world where they could interact with background elements. The game doesn't take things quite as far as Klonoa does, but this alone makes for some especially memorable and unique level gimmicks and boss fights. It really is the creativity in the visuals and level design that carried Clockwork Knight because the gameplay itself is mostly pretty simple. Pepper has few moves, and there are really only eight levels before the game comes to a close. But it's a dense eight levels, with barely a moment of boredom. Clockwork Knight throws new ideas at you constantly in an almost playlike manner, and the sheer amount of things to interact with, hidden areas, and secret exits make it surprisingly replayable. I can't tell you how many times it took to get that secret bonus in 2-2.

For the most part, Clockwork Knight is a pretty easy game. There are multiple difficulty levels, but there are really only two things that would give you grief. First is the fact that there are no checkpoints, dying starts you at the beginning of a level, though it's not too bad since levels are a bit short. Second is the bosses, which can be genuinely tricky due to their abundance of moves and phases. This is a very dynamic set of boss fights, all of which use the background in some very interesting and creative ways. They also often have a lot of opportunities where they're open to attack, so risky players can race to find ways to whittle down their health as fast as possible. As far as the presentation goes, Clockwork Knight uses pre-rendered graphics which don't entirely look the best nowadays. However, the sheer effort that went into said presentation shines even through the poorly-aged elements. The bosses have super unique designs, the level locations fully utilize the house setting, each world is intercut by a pre-rendered CGI cutscene, each stage has its own unique invincibility and goal themes, and the game ends with a full-on musical number. Speaking of which, the soundtrack is, once again, really good! It's very jazz-heavy and gives the whole game a strong sense of musical identity.

Overall, Clockwork Knight is a really inventive platformer that I had a lot of fun with. It really is the creative setting, strong level design, and top-notch bosses that made this one for me, and even if it doesn't look the best nowadays, the effort put into the game's look and sound really shows. My biggest gripe here is really just that I wish it was a bit longer, but hey, maybe that's what the sequel is for?

4/5 Stars 

Panzer Dragoon: Panzer Dragoon is one of the biggest IPs Sega introduced during the Saturn era, and probably one of the more successful too. We got a whole trilogy of these things along with the XBOX-exclusive Orta and a remake a few years ago. I went into this first one mostly just expecting a straight-forward rail shooter not unlike the SNES Star Fox, but what I got was something way more demanding and mechanically complex than I was previously expecting.

So Panzer Dragoon is a on-rails shooter where you fly atop a dragon and gun down opponents with your blaster. You have a normal shot and a homing shot if you hold down the shoot button. At first, I was a bit confused as to why the devs didn't just have the dragon breath fire at enemies, but then I discovered what Panzer Dragoon's central mechanic is. Panzer Dragoon basically has a perspective system, so enemies don't just show up in front of your character, they can show up behind or to the side of the too. Thus, you can press L and R to turn 90 degrees and shoot those enemies down. On one hand, this is a really cool system that adds a bit of complexity to an otherwise simple formula. On the other hand, this makes the game incredibly difficult. There's a radar to help you track enemies but even then, you'll be having to do a lot of multi-tasking, especially during boss fights where you'll be darting your eyes around nonstop to keep track. It also doesn't help that unless you're facing directly forward, you can't dodge, which leads to several sections where you need to precisely shoot-down the enemies' projectiles instead. Panzer Dragoon is brutal, I couldn't even get past Stage 5 even on Easy Mode. Dying restarts the stage, and you only get extra credits by killing a high-enough percentage of enemies in a stage. 

But does this high difficulty make the game bad? No, not really, because it's all learnable. On your first playthrough, you're likely to get overwhelmed trying to learn how to change perspectives. But as you keep playing, you learn the enemy layouts, get a grip on the controls, and start to improve. I even discovered that there's no cap to how fast you can shoot, so you can quickly alternate buttons to shoot almost twice as fast and make boss fights go by a bit faster. What also kept me playing even as I sucked at the game was its impeccable art direction, setpiece design, and music, and how it all comes together. Panzer Dragoon has a lot of memorable visuals, like the sand worms in Stage 2, the waterlogged city in Stage 6, and especially that long-winding cavern in Stage 4, which reminded me a lot of the equally great Stage 4 in Touhou: Ten Desires. It makes every stage stand out as memorable, which is only bolstered by its unique and otherworldly artstyle, and fantastic orchestral soundtrack. It's hard to really describe the vibes Panzer Dragoon elicits other than it being exactly what you'd imagine a world of dragons to look like. Despite this being a short, linear rail shooter, it feels like the developers had a vision for this world, and I really hope the sequels will be able to further expand on it.

So yeah, Panzer Dragoon is yet another great Saturn launch title, who knew? If I'm being objective here, I might even say that it's the best of the bunch, with fun and deceptively complex gameplay, memorable stage designs, and a stellar presentation that really comes together. However, it's also really unforgiving and challenging, and even if I think the difficulty is mostly done well, this is the only game out of these four that I just was not able to see the finish of. Panzer Dragoon is a strong first step for the series, but I think there's room for its sequel to take things even further.

4/5 Stars

So, how's the Saturn so far? Honestly, pretty good! This isn't a bad launch (as you can tell by the fact that I gave all these games 4/5 stars), there's a solid game in pretty much every genre, and they're all super replayable and charming. They have their flaws and poorly-aged elements, for sure, but there's a lot of fun to be had with these gems, and the music is uniformly phenomenal. Let's hope the console keeps this up when I check out Virtua Fighter 2, Astal, Virtua Cop, and Clockwork Knight 2.