Easily Overlooked Games on the Sega Saturn

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you guys know that I love my Saturn and I can talk all day long about the games that are often considered the system's best most top tens hell most top 25s tend to contain the same gains making many of these conversations reek of deja vu in this episode we are gonna talk about some damn good sega saturn games that don't get the attention some of the other games on the system command reasons for this very sometimes a game simply doesn't have the visual appeal many gamers prefer and sometimes it's because it gets lost in a genre so thoroughly dominated by the more popular games in it heck sometimes I don't know why a good game gets overlooked I have 10 of these kinds of games for you today so let's take a look at unwept unhonored and unsung on the sega saturn [Music] the first game on the list is zero divide the final conflict released on the Saturn in late 1997 and developed by zoom this is a continuation of the robotic fighting game series that started on the Sony Playstation the first thing you'll notice about this one is that it runs in the Saturn's high resolution mode first seen in Virtua Fighter 2 the second thing you'll pick up one is the fact that it also plays just like Virtua Fighter and I'm not talking about it place similar or remind you of Virtua Fighter I mean it plays exactly like it so much so I'm shocked Sega didn't sue the balls off these guys for lifting their gameplay so braising lee this ends up being a good thing for fans of this type of gameplay however and zero divide here is a really solid game for ik the abstract visuals also have a unique quality about them especially the robots and solid texturing used to give them detail stages often have 3d elements to them such as walls and barriers surrounding you each is crazy colored as the combatants some arenas even have parallax scrolling in the background something that works surprisingly well with 3d foregrounds gameplay aside from being a carbon copy of Virtua Fighter pits armor-clad robots against one another as each fight wears on the armor is broken away leaving your character weaker and weaker I think zero divides great as sin as the simple fact that's lost in a genre that is a mile deep with heavy hitters considered some of the best games of that generation I still think this game stands on its own however while it clearly rips off the Virtua Fighter series in regards to moves and feel the crazy art design and truly epic boss fights give it a life of its own it was only released in Japan and prices for this rarely go above the $30.00 mark I've even seen it for half that from time to time [Music] ready go [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] Mysterio the realms of lore is a turn-based strategy RPG that released early in a Saturn's life landing in Japan is rigged Lord saga in the summer of 1995 Micro Cabin developed this one the same guys behind the 3do RPG Lucien's quest in the world of Saturn RPGs Myst Arya is rarely spoken of with Titans like Shining Force 3 Panzer Dragoon saga and Dragon for soaking up all the limelight this is a shame because this game is actually quite excellent the story of this one is simple the evil war mage Bane has taken over the peaceful Kingdom of Queensland and Prince Aragon is out to stop him you'll gain new allies as the game progresses until you finally have the strength to take on Bane and win your kingdoms freedom back and rescue your mother mysterious lack of visual prowess is evident from the moment you begin a new campaign the framerate isn't smooth and it's pre-rendered sprites lack visual detail simply put it's not a very pretty game but what it lacks in visuals it more than makes up for in content and gameplay the turn-based battles are long and detailed offering salat challenge right from the very first scenario the menu system seems overwhelming at first but you quickly come to terms with your options and how to navigate them each character only starts out with a handful of magics and attacks based on their class but this quickly expands to dozens of moves that only serve to deepen it's rather impressive gameplay the enemies you face grow in complexity and challenge as well often having all the powers you do to try to stop your advancement after the game's English release in the West Sega was asked to change the name because of its similarity to the Dungeons & Dragons named Miss Stara prompting Sega to re-release missed area as blazing heroes it's the same game with just a few name changes to satisfy the new release this one is seen a slight surge in popularity in recent years but is still criminally underrated in my opinion its popularity in Japan was at least good enough for it to see a direct sequel 'lord saga 2 in late 1996 which did not get an English translation at all [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] next up is black dawn a 3d helicopter shoot-'em-up released in early 1996 by virgin interactive and developed by point of view the team behind the saturn port of mortal kombat trilogy the arcade style missions are pretty simple to understand mostly giving you tasks such as blowing stuff up or rescuing hostages despite the early polygon engine having in-your-face drawing this one otherwise looks and runs pretty good you have multiple camera options to change how it plays from first person to third person and even a bunch of controller options so you can better move around to suit your style it even supports the Saturn's mission stick peripheral the story hits all your typical counterterrorism notes with bad guys that need killing and all that that entails it reminds me of a 3d version of something like Soviet strike even down to picking up weapons and items on the battlefield this was ported from the PlayStation original and holds up remarkably well against that version of the game it's cheap too often hovering between the 15 and 30 dollar mark depending on condition and completeness it's the kind of game you sync 15 minutes into every so often and get some real enjoyment out of it if you are a fan of 2d games like choplifter this 3d take on that style of gameplay should appeal brilliantly the lost Vikings to Norse by Norse West is a 2d puzzle platformer that follows the misadventures of a group of Vikings trying desperately to get back to their ship after being inexplicably kidnapped by some dude just wanting to mess around with them each Viking has his own unique powers and abilities and you'll meet up with a werewolf and dragon who will help you on your journey gameplay here is set up so each stage has items and objectives that must be completed based on each Vikings ability this means that you need to figure out when and where to use each one to proceed for example Erik the Viking has a high jump and the ability to swim making him useful in those situations Olaf the Viking can float for a limited time and even shrink down to get into small places as you uncover more of the world with these abilities puzzles get harder and more complex challenging you to use each power in new ways the one area where this game is often criticized as its visuals and I agree with that the Saturn and PlayStation were capable of putting tons of color on screen with large and beautiful sprites yet we get some tiny pre-rendered graphics here that aren't a very big upgrade over the Super Nintendo original if any at all it was published by interplay who got beam software to do the honors who also did the Saturn port of gex I'm not sure these guys understood just how much 2d visuals a had at their fingertips because this game could have looked loads better visuals aside it's still a hell of a good playing game with tons of puzzles and replay value prices are all over the place for this one sometimes as cheap as $30 to as much as a hundred it was never released in Japan [Music] amok was an early 1997 release that was developed by lemon and published by scavenger it's a third-person mek suitor where you pilot the slam bird a highly mobile robotic death machine armed to the teeth with ways to destroy its enemies the story is some nonsense about corporate espionage and keeping feuding companies at each other's throat but it's the gameplay here that's the heart of the experience taking place on both land and underwater your missions are basically to seek out certain locations and wipe them off the face of the planet the graphics engine is driven by voxels and has a hell of a unique look about it it does make things look blocky but the trade-off is a fantastically smooth frame rate that really helps the gameplay better the difficulty level of this one can be infuriating so I do advise finding you some level codes and trying out the other stages to get away from the murky underwater stage that opens the game once you get better at combat and navigating the levels things really do become quite fun making this often overlooked Jim an essential part of the Sega Saturn library the only other platform that ever saw a version of it was on the PC [Music] track-and-field games always held a special place with me because of their incredible competition based gameplay decathlete here was internally developed by Sega's am-3 division and runs in the Saturn's high-res mode at a blistering 60 frames per second it covers various events such as the hunter meter - long jump in javelin throw 10 events and total gameplay is mostly centered on finger speed and timing rewarding those that have the best hand-eye coordination an event like the hundred meter dash a simple button mashing while something like the javelin throw takes quite a bit of timing my friends and I played this to death when it hit the Saturn in the summer of 1996 constantly challenging one another's world records and entering our names into their save files it was infuriating to have a friend's initial sitting in your records especially at the top motivating you to spend hours to remove them this kind of competitive play really drives decathletes appeal so if you have a buddy to play with you simply cannot go wrong with a game of this caliber it's called athlete kings and the PAL regions and the Japanese version features an additional character that was removed because he was considered racially insensitive there's also a Japanese x-band Edition available as well [Applause] get set [Music] [Applause] [Music] Altran the company responsible for mighty hits developed and released a robo pit for the saturn in early 1996 this one-on-one fighting game puts robots into a fully 3d arena to do combat the gameplay does take some getting used to thinks - the ability to go anywhere in the environment you want at any time changing the viewpoint of the character radically changes the feel of this games gameplay offering both third-person and first-person battles this holds up well overall to the PlayStation original visually with nice polygons models and fully 3d arenas and backgrounds the real hook of this one is the ability to build and modify your own fighters each victory gets you pieces to upgrade your creations and you'll need to fight your way through a hundred other robots they get a chance to defeat the top doll things seem to be overly simple at first basically just bludgeoning your opponents and mad button-mashing rages when the fights begin as you gain new pieces for your robots things start getting interesting and the deeper you get into the ranking system you really need to firm strategies to survive ass whippings can come fast against more skilled opposition and hit and run fighting benefits you incredibly while it's 3d combat will likely feel quaint against the stuff available today Robo kit still maintains a charm and easy to get into design that I still think is a worthy pick up it won't be thrown virtual lawn but certainly can still be a worthwhile experience especially if you have kids don't be afraid of the Japanese version of this game the vast majority of it is in English and is very easy to play [Music] the list of Capcom goodness on the Saturn extends into dozens of titles so it's no wonder that Pocket fighter gets overlooked by so many the hyper cute chibi art style likely plays a role as well but pocket fighter here is still a really good game it was released in mid 1998 late in the Saturn's life and only in Japan it supports the 4 megabyte extended RAM cartridge and is an incredibly good-looking game of loads of buried animations and great looking backgrounds outside of its visual appeal you also get some tried and true Street Fighter mechanics that have been modified and upgraded by its gem system this system can actually be daunting to newcomers confusing you as to what it means you get your normal life and super bar / other games in the series but you now have three additional bars at the bottom of the screen that correspond to your special attacks these level up into more powerful versions of your special moves as you collect gems adding to an already impressive arsenal of super attacks you also get new combos and a much easier interface than other Street Fighter games now only having buttons for one punch one kick one special and one taunt this new four button gameplay simplifies things and allows each match to be a fireworks display of specials and supers and this is pretty much the entire draw of Pocket fighter it takes some of the strategy of its bigger brothers mixes it with the wild and wonderful animations it has and gives you a game you can enjoy with anyone this is especially helpful for the younger crowds that lack the skill to compete in the more competition driven games in the series best part is pocket fighter isn't grossly expensive often selling for $30 or less it's also known as super gym fighter mini mix [Music] the loadrunner series goes back as far as my earliest memories of console gaming so I was well aware of what it was when loadrunner the legend returns was released on a Saturn in early 1996 like most people I paid it little mind there were bigger fish to fry on the Saturn which I imagine contributed to a being overlooked by so many published by Patra and developed by game arts yes I said game arts the same developer that did gun Gryphon lunar and grandia this was a new take on the classic formula of action puzzle game introducing new traps and items you could use in your quest to gain treasure the visuals here are ultra simple single screen stages that have tiny sprites and nearly no special effects to speak of I understand if the original PC game was made to run on everything but with the newer hardware of the time this could have been made to look much better what it lacks in graphical impressiveness it more than makes up for in gameplay variation and challenge there are a ton of levels in this one and they get steadily harder and more complex as things go on the object of each stage is to collect all the treasure and get to the exit without getting yourself killed you are pursued by a bunch of mini terminators that will stop at nothing to kill your ass luckily you have traps and abilities to help you escape their tireless efforts this was preceded by another game in the series lode runner extra which added over a hundred more levels for you to play this isn't going to win any awards for thrills or graphics but for fans of puzzle games you should find this one quite pleasing [Music] [Music] our last game is the Sega me deaf one challenge released in late 1995 in Japan as f1 live information in the absence of a port of the model 2 masterpiece Indy 500 this is as close as we'd get to that game and for an early Saturn racing game it's damn salat - this was released in Japan just seven months after Daytona USA and sports a superior graphics engine in every single way it's smoother has less obvious polygons draw in and vastly superior texture quality the gameplay is really good too giving you custom control over things like the aerodynamics of your car and the types of tires you use the rear view mirror helps block cars that are trying to pass you and the alternate soundtrack in the western version is quite solid there are licensed racers and tracks here to give you a more authentic experience and the arcade style gameplay is easy to come to terms with and perform well you'll need to put in some effort to be number one though with pit stops and car tuning playing a big role in your success racing game conversions are often dominated by the likes of cigarette wipe out a Need for Speed for the Saturn but f1 challenge here is more than up to the task of being a worthy addition to your library [Music] I hope you guys enjoyed my episode on Saturn games that are often overlooked I have always felt that just because a game isn't the best of the best doesn't mean it's without merit sometimes a game is good enough or different enough on its own to be worth a play when you're not knee-deep in dragons flying jesters and superheroes doing battle not everything needs to be a 10 across the board to be enjoyable there are many more games that could easily fit into this topic so a part two is definitely on the agenda feel free to hit me with your recommendations down in the comments I'm sick of Lord X thank you guys for watching and I will catch you next time [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Sega Lord X

Views: 88,315

Rating: 4.9158192 out of 5

Keywords: segalordx, sega lord x, sega saturn, sega genesis, sega dreamcast, mega drive, megadrive, game gear, 32x, mega cd, genesis, saturn, master system, sega, sega cd, import, japanese, gem, gems, hidden, zero divide, pocket fighter, capcom, black dawn, robo pit, mystaria, blazing heroes, lost vikings, amok, decathlete, lode runner, f1 challenge, review, retro games, retro gaming, reviews

Id: PACwR-q5eNA

Length: 23min 27sec (1407 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 14 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/RioFL25]

I just watched this video last night before seeing this post. I'm probably going to get pocket fighters and street fighter collection.