SEGA Saturn Mythbusting - SixtyRGB

foreign [Music] ignorance one's own lack of knowledge or information it's a word that couldn't get any simpler one that very much applies to the Sega Saturn probably the most misunderstood console in gaming history it's not hard to see where this attitude comes from it wasn't successful in the west with fewer than 350 of its games releasing in the US and pal regions in its short three-year lifespan it sold less than a combined 4 million units in those regions resulting in what's probably the lowest market share percentage of any major video game console any old YouTube video about the Saturn that you can draw out of a hat will tell you three main things about the console 1. the hardware was suddenly changed last minute to compete with the PlayStation's 3D performance making it hard to develop for two the console was an unmitigated commercial failure and three its library was lacking in compelling games with anything going on the Saturn also on PlayStation one of them is true that missing some crucial details while the others have a grain of Truth with everything surrounding it ignoring context or just being an outright lie thus I think the way most people view the system and what it's all about is unfairly skewed against it and personally I think that Saturn deserves better than that so today I want to try and properly analyze these key points we'll dive into the reasons behind the hardware design its commercial lifespan in the East and finally its expansive library of exclusives as well as multi-platform games that were at their best on the Saturn [Music] the story about the console's creation is often told like this Sega started development of project Saturn a 32-bit CD based console sometime in 1992. initially devised as a 2d system and having its design redone at the last hour in some sort of rushed and desperate attempt to match Sony's upcoming PlayStation in 3D performance specifically the two video display processor chips made its Graphics power harder to tap into and drove up the cost of manufacturing to the point that Sega literally could not make it cheaper than the PlayStation one of the many reasons attributed to its failure as it turns out none of that's really true there's evidence of magazines as early as 1993 talking about the Saturn's 3D performance over a year before its Japanese release back then before the PlayStation had even been publicly unveiled the Saturn was set to far outstrip the super effects in 3DO so that already doesn't hold too much water plus for a while the satin was cheaper than the N64 in Japan it was also cheaper than the PlayStation up front since the Saturn was bundled with Virtual Fighter for 44 800 Yen whereas the PlayStation costed 39 800 Yen but any games for it were sold separately at launch so that indicates there could have been other reasons to the infamous price gap between PlayStation and Saturn in the west I'm not sure what that could have been exactly but it's food for thought if nothing else showing that there's more to do than what many of us may have thought it could have been more expensive to cover the cost of rushing out the marketing or maybe they had to try and profiting off console sales Since There were so few games at launch it could honestly be some combination of those things but who can say for sure me meanwhile liverpool-based computer game monolith signosis have been bought by Sony earlier in the year and will reportedly not very happy with the state of the console deemed not fit for purpose by co-founder Ian Hetherington it's at this point in 1993 that cygnosis got involved with the development of the PlayStation Hardware cygnosis was publishing Dev tools for the Amiga and Atari St created by bristolian company SN systems so when Sony bought cygnosis they all of a sudden had a working relationship with a company who would go on to provide tool chains for PlayStation development compatible with standard Windows PCS Sony had originally intended games to be developed on their own unix-based news workstations which were quite expensive so SN systems made developing for the PlayStation much cheaper and easier than it would have been otherwise in fact the company is still around today and as provide Windows based tool chains for all of Sony's consoles since even double dipping with competitors let's assume mid-93 Really was a last minute for the Saturn's development cycle and that this is that fabled moment they completely changed course to compete with the PlayStation then by that logic the PlayStation had also gone through some apparently last minute Troubles of its own in reality it didn't and neither did the Saturn the truth is the hardware for Saturn had been designed with clear intent and purpose for 3D games from the start just like the PlayStation the use of two CPUs and Graphics chips with two more CPUs one for Io and another for the sound Hardware with the Saturn control unit DSP rounding things out is completely ridiculous for a game console but it makes total sense when you look at the way Sega designed their arcade Hardware Sega constructed their super scalers as well as the model series boards in such a way that the only intensive thing the CPU has to do is process game logic complex Graphics tasks like scaling rotation and Distortion of Sprites or the construction of polygons and drawing of textures are done on separate chips specialized for such tasks true the CPU still has to tell the chips what to draw but they can do so much much faster than the CPU so much so that the bump in performance provided by sega's engineering prowess was invaluable in pushing early 3D games in general let alone just in the arcades so it was only natural for Sega to pursue 3D for their 5th gen console considering their own brushes with 3 3D in the arcades it's not like Sega never saw the 3D Revolution coming far from it so if they knew how to design revolutionary hardware for revolutionary 3D games what went wrong well that's the thing they only had experience in bringing such things to the arcades let's assume for a second that the Saturn really was cheaper and easier to make than the PlayStation there's still the problem that Sega were one of the few companies to know how to properly use it sure the hardware was capable of incredible things but how many other companies aside from Sega were used to creating games in this kind of Hardware environment the answer unsurprisingly turned out to be very few Sega may have been used to creating games in this manner for close to a decade but most everyone else was not instead they favored a more conventional setup of a main and sub processor Graphics chip and one or two more for sound executing commands and batches Western developers in particular were quite vocal about how difficult it was to create games for the Saturn by this time pretty much every Western Dev had moved away from the arcades and into the Home console and PC markets they were used to a more simpler more streamlined approach which apart from being easier to develop for also didn't carry huge costs associated with designing and Manufacturing arcade boards or licensing use of another company's design so they had no reason to learn such fancy parallelization techniques which makes it clear why so few of the Saturn's games came from the west and where the big gap in the systems Library lays seventy percent of the system's 1 000 game Library never left Japan so it's easy to guess at the Japanese being the industrious lot that they are fed a bit better with sega's machine 2D was still very popular among Japanese developers so the Saturn Superior 2D performance was very enticing to those looking to create RPGs Shooters Platformers Etc utilizing its 2D prowess with some light 3D pepper throughout was often the golden ticket striking a perfect balance between game design art style and Technical demonstration while often showing more confident execution than many 3D titles on any console of the time let alone the Saturn games like radiant silvergun took this approach making a much nicer fit for the console than grafting a 3D PlayStation game onto it 2D games are easier to make especially on the Saturn where 2D just so happens to be much more doable than 3D despite not being the system's initial Focus confronting a paradigm shift like 3D game design on Hardware with strict demands wasn't exactly an enticing idea so creating a game in this manner while arguably playing it safe means that such titles from this era have aged much better than their polygonal counterparts while I'm not exactly sure where Saturn was a 2d machine comes from I'm willing to bet that the sheer volume of quality 2D titles had something to do with people's speculating as such especially considering how much more impressive polished and even playable the Saturn's 2D games normally are compared to its 3D ones [Music] given that YouTube is mostly made up of English language content it's very easy to see that very Western outlook on the industry shaping the way video games are discussed on the platform especially when it comes to the Saturn most videos that mention the Saturn in passing are usually very dismissive and quite often uninformed about the Saturn's success in Japan sega's decision to rush a western launch for the console months before it was ready was probably the worst decision the company ever made and cost them the power and U.S markets for the entirety of the generation it's day Zero the day the Titan fell May 11 1995 the first day of the very first E3 I guarantee you every 22 year old in a North America knows what a sphincter is the 20 games originally promised for the September 2nd launch was reduced to a mere six the marketing was weak and a limited number of units that shipped to a limited number of dealers ruined sega's relationship with Retail Partners however in Japan it was a little different instead of a shock launch that Sega themselves weren't even ready for the Saturn had a more conventional launch in Japan on November 22nd 1994. the launch Library wasn't the most compelling thing in the world but a port a virtual fighter albeit with some Corners cut was enough to make the console sell out quickly on launch day as with any console it would take time to build a library that would make the console worth investing in that would come to the Japanese Saturn in time since third-party support was actually pretty decent over there but we'll get to that later Sega were at the top of their game post launch so much so that the Saturn's Japanese launch was the most successful in their history before becoming their most successful console in Japan in fact the Saturn Ward if not overtake the PlayStation's market share at least hover very closely to it up until mid to late 1996. so for a good year and a half to two years the Saturn was actually close to being the number one console in the region Sony while facing an uphill battle when nonetheless gaining ground and things would change towards the end of the generation the PlayStation would Garner a more compelling Library by late 96 and when Final Fantasy VII was eventually released in early 1997 then was all over for sega's Interstellar dream even in Japan but while Sega did eventually succumb to the PlayStation's hand in the region it did hold significant victory over the N64 you may question that significance since the Saturn only sold 200 000 units more and while that's understandable the thing is unit sales doesn't Define any console's success at least not on its own in case you forgot console manufacturers sell their Hardware at a loss and then make money on selling games for the system later down the line a consult price needs to be low so consumers can easily invest in it and the games need to reach a high level of quality quantity and variety to keep those same consumers interested in buying them so then by looking at the number of games released in Japan on each platform a different story emerges treasure technosoft Hudson Atlas Capcom Konami Rising success and many more gave generous support to the console releasing a decent number of games between 1995 and 2000. a lot of these games naturally showcase the Saturn's 2D prowess quite well the Saturn had the best versions of capcom's fighting games exclusive ports of seminal Shooters like battle garaga or layer section RPGs suicide grandia Luna Etc and a healthy library of original titles made with it in mind these genres were and still are major driving forces behind Japanese game sales very few games in these genres if at all appeared on the 64 and any games that were successful on the console were either drip fed Nintendo titles or entries into series or genres that were only popular in the West even ignoring how powerful 2D games were in Japan Nintendo just launched the console too late for it to have an impact in the same way the Saturn did by the time it shambled its way onto Eastern shelves on June 23 1996 Sega and Sony had already sold consoles built up great libraries and pushed CDs into the video game mainstream for a year and a half meaning the three first party games at launched in the cartridge based system in Japan was pitiful compared to the hundreds of In-House and third-party titles that Sega and Sony already had under their belt since Nintendo were basically learning how to make 3D games as they went they experienced lots of problems with software drought requiring much more time money and Manpower for each project something they couldn't really afford considering the sheer lack of third-party developers that embraced the console especially Japanese third parties as opposed to Sega who found a 3D development a fair bit easier especially since some of their teams had already been working on 3D games for quite a while so with all this stacked against it the N64 only had 198 games released for it in Japan meaning more than half of the system's library is missing I'm not kidding you when I say that's less than the amount of games released in Japan for the 3DO all in all the Saturn's Library being close to four times that size including games you actually wanted to play was much more enticing to Japanese Gamers than the 64. that's not to say Nintendo wasn't more successful than the 3DO because it absolutely was it's just that relative to its contemporaries it didn't have much to offer so most people who bought one didn't get much out of it the Saturn would end up maintaining a much higher attach rate and market share throughout itself in the East than the N64 for the whole generation now it's not like the Saturn was overall more successful than the N64 while Nintendo losing Japan was a big hit they're distant but still commendable second place in the west kept them afloat for the generation coming out the other side bruised but largely unscathed whereas Sega was seen in Japan more as an arcade studio and didn't have much of a foothold in the Japanese Home Market until the Saturn sega's previous consoles had failed against Nintendo and even nec's offerings and prior Generations so while the certain success is great considering its odds it's perhaps a slightly Hollow Victory they'd spent all that time finally cementing themselves as a player in the Japanese console space only to lose their much more profitable Western markets markets where the PS1 and to a much less than the N64 would come to dominate make no mistake the Saturn's commercial failure in the west is what hurt them the most in the long run even its Japanese mother base in some ways I get why people don't feel bad for them after the mistakes they made not just the shock E3 launch but everything leading up to it did them no favors either particularly The Fallout from the 32x a mushroom cloud whose blast radius largely didn't reach the East since Sega of Japan more or less buried the thing on arrival but the Saturn's Eastern success while a small one that cost them their most loyal customers were sufficient to keep the company alive and flush enough with cash that they could try just one more time so yes it was a commercial failure and their domestic success wasn't enough to turn a healthy profit but it's not like it sank them immediately or unmitigated as I put it Sega was definitely the company to suffer the most throughout the fifth generation but their financial woes weren't the result of the Saturn console itself if it was it wouldn't have achieved the success that it did in Japan as fleeting as it was so you know I think the Dreamcast is what really killed Sega but it wasn't either what killed them instead was a lack of Western consumer trust caused by distribution and marketing mishaps not just from the Saturn but also from the 32x is quite public Western failure in particular you might also say that it's the ps2's Monstrous success that did it but the GameCube and Xbox would have cannibalized the dreamcast's chance regardless because their mistakes during the Saturn's life had finally caught up with them in big ways oh also something something the lack of a Mainline Sonic game on set and contributed to its failure but who cares [Music] rendering a fully 3D environment at a smooth frame rate on the Saturn is a mighty challenge the CPUs can handle display lists on their own just fine but the various compromises present in vdp1 makes drawing complex scenes entirely with polygons quite hard though I haven't really found a PlayStation port to the Saturn that runs at a horrifically dire frame rate in comparison it's still much harder to get to grips with the system's quirks just to achieve the same results as a PlayStation game which makes it surprising that Aussie developer Tantalus interactive managed a relatively convincing version of House of the Dead on the Saturn this game originated on sega's model 2 arcade board which has far more powerful 3D Hardware under its belt in the Saturn combine that with the fact that a third party did the conversion it's perhaps no surprise that this version isn't as polished as it could have been character models and textures have obviously been hit the hardest but still nonetheless possibly close to the arcade original that being said this game makes clear the kind of sacrifices that most developers made to their 3D Saturn games in order to make them run well while the presentation of the game is still mostly intact the many little flaws as a result of what could be either hardware and or developer limitations do add up the textures in particular leave a lot to be desired with some being laughably low res even for the Saturn overall it's not bad but it's definitely an example of how some things can go a bit wrong if you don't have the resources or expertise to dance around the Saturn's unconventional limitations nevertheless it's still a house of the dead at its core and it's games like this with addicting arcade gameplay flying in the face of underwhelming visuals that really Define what the system is all about an engaging addictive arcade gameplay Loop that's reason to play the game in and of itself to see the score climb and test how many people you can rescue on a stage and if nothing else this version of the game does give me a sense of national pride it's not often that you see a group of Aussie devs with enough Talent pull off a tall order such as this while House of the Dead may have been asking a bit much from both the Plucky machine and the Freshman Dev team the Saturn's best 3D games make more economical use of the Saturn's Hardware this is an in-house Port of the first entry in sega's cult classic virtual on series debuting on the model 2 in January of 96 then getting ported to the Saturn in November apart from being a fun as all gatta arcade Mech fighting game it's a good showcase for how polished the Saturn's 3D games could look granted it's not pushing the satin to its polygon limits but it doesn't exhibit many of the quirks that people usually associate with the consoles 3D games poor frame rates blocky textures chunky low poly models Etc since the environments are mainly flat floors rendered by vdp2 vdp-1 doesn't have to spend anywhere near as much time rendering every scene in punishing detail as it did on House of the Dead instead it only renders a few polygons in the environment then spends the rest of its time rendering more detailed character models without significantly reducing the frame rate then vdp2 just needs to draw the background the hard and a flat plane hey Presto you have a good looking albeit kind of sparse a 3D scene that runs well it doesn't quite stack up to the model 2 in terms of graphics and frame rate but its intended presentation is still entirely there which is what's most important at the end of the day the satin wood through such clever use of Hardware features show similarly impressive efforts sega's poured a Virtual Fighter 2 is notable for running in 480i at 60fps with character models showing more detail than many other games on the system I haven't quite gotten Virtual Fighter yet so I can't entirely speak for how it plays but it's still very good from what I hear and considering the resolution and frame rate the port job of vf2 here is nonetheless commendable approaching a level of detail closer to the arcade original than many other model 2 ports in the system if you look at any 3D game on the Saturn especially if it's support from the PlayStation it's clear that the console has its limitations as I've previously said the Saturn isn't quite as good as the PlayStation in 3D performance for a number of reasons and that's apparent in the few 3D games that appeared on both systems even though the Saturn is more powerful on paper the ease that the PlayStation brought in wrangling polygons meant that Saturn often underwhelmed in practice however there are times when a Saturn Port of a PS1 game can play shockingly close to the source material Wipeout 2097 on Saturn shown here in its Japanese edition Wipeout XL is one such game that does a remarkable job at replicating the PS1 original brought to us yet again by Tantalus concessions to texture quality and frame rate had to be made of course and while the Saturn version isn't as pleasing in motion as the PS1 original it's still close enough to feel like wipeout 2097. the controls are perhaps a tad more floaty than they should be a bit less tight and responsive but it's a small difference that you get used to relatively quickly other than that it's the same classic game just on the Saturn the only thing that's substantially lacking from the original is the licensed soundtrack with the Saturn instead getting an original set of tracks by Tim Wright or cold storage as he's also known personally I'm not too big on these tracks they're a bit too repetitive for my tastes I appreciate what it's trying to go for but it doesn't quite meet the marking execution at least for me though I've heard that some people prefer this version of the game just for the soundtrack so take that as you will but otherwise this is a big get for the Saturn and if you've been sleeping on this game like I was before this video the Saturn version is a great way to introduce yourself to it really there was only a small handful of 3D PlayStation ports in general let alone one's just as good as the original Tomb Raider was originally developed for the Saturn in mind so it's probably no surprise how close it is to the PlayStation version Resident Evil Croc and pandemonium are among the few examples of famous polygonal PlayStation titles that got satin counterparts most of the games that the two consoles shared were 2D games with the Saturn sometimes scoring Superior versions and any 3D titles on Saturn were usually made exclusively for it due to its quite unique architecture which would inflate development time and budgets so it means that lots of Studios probably didn't even have the time or money to make a PlayStation version after they'd already made one for the Saturn on the off chance that the Saturn and Playstation both got a particular 3D game then the Saturn version was usually done by a third party as was the case for Rezi which was ported by Nextech so I think that's saying the library was mainly subpar ports of PlayStation titles is not only at a service but in a way it's probably not even true since there's so few Apples to Apples comparisons you can make in the first place at least when it comes to 3D games and as we've seen the Saturn can deliver Superior 2D performance so it's not like it's 2D games or why it garnered such an unfavorable reputation for clunky PlayStation ports with poor frame rates so really I don't have the foggiest clue where this sentiment came from since so few 3D PlayStation titles appeared on the Saturn perhaps PlayStation owners just recognize a few familiar names that appeared on the Saturn some exclusives with poor frame rates that a YouTuber talked about and judge the console's whole Library based on those and whatever familiar franchises are missing whatever the case it's now clear that this isn't entirely true while a large chunk of its Library also appeared on the PlayStation many versions were Superior since most games they usually shared were 2D titles which apart from selling well in the East meant that the Saturn held its own more than it didn't even the Saturn's 3D while not a pleasant experience for most developers was breaming with potential and when you see a 3D game really show what the Saturn's made of it becomes clear it was capable of Stellar 3D performance in the right hand it's only natural that the Saturn with its powerful pixel shoving hardware and sega's arcade pedigree houses so many incredible arcade action games the Saturn had ports of cult classic Shooters batsugun battle garaga hyper Jewel sokugurentai Guardian Force and many many others that were often exclusive some 2D fighting games mainly those from SNK and Capcom took advantage of ram expansions that could plug into the cartridge Port using the extra memory on Saturn to store additional animation frames compared to what the PlayStation could with its small non-expandable memory pull animation frames are essential for a fighting game so the larger pool of Frame data made possible by the Saturn's large expandable Bank of memory meant reading your opponent is measurably easier sure this might not matter much on a low level but it's definitely a welcome addition for enthusiasts and high level players though the expandable memory also made possible some more immediately noticeable advantages for instance the Saturn version of Metal Slug it requires a one megabyte expansion cartridge utilizing it to store more of a level in memory at once meaning the game doesn't have to stop and load the rest of a level halfway through like it does on the PlayStation any games that require the RAM expander would have a version bundled with the cartridge and another without it so it's not like you were entirely left out in the cold if you didn't already have a ram cartridge when a game is programmed properly for Saturn it produces comparably similar Graphics to that of many PlayStation games in fact I'm willing to bet that had I not told you that these were the Saturn versions you probably wouldn't have noticed at least not at first glance even ignoring neat little curios like the ram expansion cartridges the Saturn in its stock configuration can go head to head with the PlayStation in more ways than not so with all the hardware talk out of the way let's talk about Ray Force also known as galactic attack or layer section as I'm going to be calling it developed by Tito as an arcade game in 1994 then ported to the Saturn by Ving in 1995 probably my favorite game for the system it's got clear influence from TOA plan's early bullet hell games such as grindstormer and batsugan as well as xevius with its Crosshair the background targeting and layer section Works a little differently though instead of dropping an endless supply of bombs that are hard to aim with due to the scrolling background hovering the reticle over an enemy will lock onto it adding it to a finite list of targets you're able to shoot you can lock onto upwards of five targets to start with expandable to a Max of 8 by collecting enough power-ups you can also lock onto some single targets multiple times so that you can unleash a more powerful laser beam onto one particular enemy or even a boss to destroy it quicker these small changes alone make the background enemies far more enjoyable to dispatch than in xavius since you no longer have to worry about precise positioning and button timing instead it allows you to switch Focus between foreground and background much more easily since all you need to blast your locked in background targets is a press of the B button which you'll need to do since apart from shooting from the background they'll often jump out of the background and into the foreground for a more full frontal assault plus these changes bring about the ability for enemies to move in more complex freeform waves that are more visually interesting it also makes possible enemies that demand a bit more positional Precision since the lock-on removes the strict amounts of precise button timing it's but one example of the game's remarkably well-balanced mechanics there is a bit of a mental stack involved especially later in the game as enemies get more aggressive but it's not impossible all you need to do is just keep your eyes open and pay attention as long as you're decently attentive there isn't much that can go wrong there isn't your own fault the only real limiting factor is your own skill which isn't something I can say about too many other Shooters where it mostly feels like luck whether or not you'll get further in the game with each attempt the first stage helps a lot with that being one of the best introductions to one of the most balanced and fair yet still rigidly challenging shooter experiences I've played it gives you ample time and space to learn how the controls and Mechanics Work experiment with what you can and can't get away with while still punishing you for getting too comfortable it's one of the few Shooters I've played where for the most part it meets you halfway this is achieved through two of its major design aspects the first being art style in the sense that there's lots of detail just about everywhere but the backgrounds are done with a soft muted palette that's easy on the eyes it's pleasing to lock out without being distractingly bright or detailed then the enemies and bullets often have more contrasted saturated appearances to make them easier to see against the background as well as provide a dash more color that the background sometimes lack this is noteworthy because art style is critical when you have such a game as this with so much happening on screen at once bullets almost filling the screen enemies in the direct path of your safe spot so you have to plan movement and attacks around Etc which is directly tied into the second and more important consideration level design apart from looking great the levels have varied set pieces in each they all have memorable moments in them which are not only cool to look at and make the world feel a bit more alive but also helps to give a more Dynamic Pace to the gameplay more importantly that difficulty more or less gives you the room to get things wrong and learn patterns without having to grind to get anywhere it gives you quick instantly satisfying feedback throughout the first couple of levels the hard part is in learning where enemies appear how they launch offensives and in turn when to attack or defend you'll put more to the test with levels three and four kicking it up a notch and then level five and onwards giving you a punishing that only gets harder as it progresses there's also that brilliant soundtrack by Ghouls and ghosts composer Tamayo kawamoto genuinely some of the most unique captivating shooter music out there that stands out above a genre filled with a myriad of rock pieces it was given a special remaster for the Saturn version where new synths were chosen and various little things were tweaked the results are in my opinion the definitive version of the soundtrack and is one of the very few CD remasters of arcade osts that enhances the original without disrupting its Soul they didn't do what the PS1 Tekken ports did baffling the awful rearrangements that were more technical showcases for Red Book audio than anything else instead Vang chose to let the original sound Direction stand with any changes having a clear purpose behind it to make it sound more Polished in ways that sound Perfectly Natural a shining example of less is more they're not a hundred percent identical to the originals in terms of Direction I mean there are some notable differences that you can just chalk up to personal preference particularly with the mixing of the chords but while I personally love the slightly warmer more Lo-Fi mid-heavy sound of the arcade version I prefer the Saturn's more reserved sound with tighter bass more high-end and excellent use of Reverb [Music] [Applause] thank you all in all it's the definitive certain package an arcade action classic that truly looks sounds and plays like the coin op with no compromises on any front in some ways it even improves on the original with the Saturn's read on music for instance and the best part depending on how you look at it is that this is an exclusive console Port it never got brought to the PlayStation it did come to PC in 97 then inexplicably to IOS and Android in the 2010s but in terms of Home consoles the Saturn is still the place that this game calls home sure on the surface it may not look like the most amazing shooter out there but a game like Leia section is much more than the sum of its parts and when taken together as a whole it's a pretty special game [Music] the Saturn also houses spectacular ports of rising's bullet hell luminaries battle garaga and sokugarentai with the former being an exclusive albeit a very late one and the later getting a slightly inferior PlayStation version garriga is a game that took the formula established by batsugan and Don parche then not only outshone its predecessors but also many successes in my opinion including dodon parche if you ask me this is the game that truly brought the bullet hell genre into its own and evolved it for the better taking everything that worked and throwing out what didn't everything from the music to the art style level design enemy behavior and bosses was just turned up to 11 in this game and it's probably the finest example of a bullet hell game from the 90s it's awesome isn't perhaps as important to the progression of the genre as garriga was and it certainly doesn't stack up in just about most aspects that really matter in a shooter level design art style music Etc but it's still nonetheless a solid shooter that's definitely worth a look in if you're a fan of the genre same goes for batsugan one of the grandfathers of bullet hell ported to the Saturn by bun Presto it's a great Port of an influential game that helped form the basis of a genre that's still around today and while it still definitely feels like a prototype of what was to come it still feels a bit ahead of its time in a way regardless of such it's still a lovely enjoyable shooter with a style and charm all its own yeah Sega were quite the creative Bunch back in the day with no shortage of ideas for original Ip and the Saturn is when they started firing on all cylinders in that respect since their new hardware allowed for all kinds of things that were previously never possible and their creative freedom was unfettered such is the case with a game like Panzer Dragoon it's a simple rail shooter where you ride a dragon through a series of levels and bosses shooting down anything that stands between you and the end goal but there's a bit more going on than your standard arcade Affair in this game the shoulder buttons on the Saturn's luscious controller swing the camera either left or right by 90 degrees allowing you to survey your surroundings you can't move while looking to the side or behind you but you can still freely aim and the game never throws too much at you at once so it never feels cheap or unbalanced it's one of those games that uses vdp2 to draw a flat plane here also showing off its ability to distort those flat planes which creates a convincing water effect for the time it's an early in-house game for the console so it's clear that the team is still learning how to get the most out of the Saturn's 3D performance evident in the low resolution of many textures or the simple bare bone scenery I mean it was a North American launch game after all but what it lacks in Pizzazz it more than makes up four in the gameplay Department providing one of the most engaging and rewarding 3D rail shooter experiences I've ever played comparing favorably to many of The genre's Darlings such as Star Fox it's a game that grabs you from the start with its unique art Direction captivating soundtrack and instant fast-paced action and then keeps its hooks into you with enough Variety in the levels to keep you on your toes this is a great game not only to introduce you to the Saturn in what it's all about but also to what Sega as a whole was about back then and the kind of incredibly endearing universes they were able to create with their in-house Talent foreign games to the home than ever during the Saturn era and it shows in the amount of games that they ported even if they were a few years old virtual racing is one such game that got a Saturn port five years after a tarcade release when it already had ports on the Mega Drive and 32x by this point but the result is arguably the definitive version of the game yes it slows down a bit here and there and yes the physics aren't the same as the original but that personally doesn't bother me since I wasn't a fan of how the original VR controlled anyway here the more slippery slidy feel of the cars is a bit more forgiving and it helps to give the game a bit more of an arcadey feel to its driving plus the amount of new content in this game that's lacking from previous versions is what makes this my favorite one it expands upon the extra tracks and car types found in the 32x version and takes that up a notch further with even more tracks and vehicle types to play with which despite all being made out of flat shaded single color polygons managed to look thematically distinct from each other it even has a career mode in which you climb up the ranks of sorts by unlocking faster vehicle types and more tracks to race on as the game progresses all in all it's the most well-rounded version of one of sega's arcade Classics which goes for the rest of the system's arcade ports as a whole [Applause] steam gear Mash by tamsoft is a relatively early title for the console being released only 10 months after the system came out it's an isometric platformer shooter kind of game with a hint of exploration to it there are blockades in each level that prevent progress and you need to look in each room to find the permanent power-ups required to destroy them in order to move on it's kind of like a scaled back version of a metroidvania game but with more of a focus on the game's shooting and platforming rather than exploration and atmosphere those permanent upgrades are limited on ammo however should the blue meter deplete you can't use them anymore until you find ammo pickups but everything's paced and designed well enough that it never really becomes much of a problem and farming doesn't take exactly long either there's also alternate firing modes as well one allows you to stand still and aim another lets you lock your aim in place while you move another shoots around you in a circle Etc allowing more versatility to the player in approaching combat situations and more leeway to the developers in creating more perilous levels without it becoming unfair you won't encounter problems like falling off the map while trying to aim at an enemy because the movement can be uncoupled from the aiming whenever you like there's also bosses which await you at the end of each level with liberal use of power-ups often encouraged to kill them faster otherwise your little peashooter won't do you much good at least if you want to finish the game while you're still young every once in a while it turns into a 2d shooter where power-ups are also advised for use since there's enemies just about everywhere basically filling the screen most of the time it's a game that's got a bit more going on than just run through and shoot everything instead employing a non-linear approach to simple platforming and Corridor shooting with compact levels to make backtracking less of a ball it's honestly a unique little game and even though it's definitely not perfect in many regards there's magic in its heart that makes it enjoyable to play nonetheless it feels like an evolution of the kind of games that were popular on the Mega Drive a simple 2D action game with some more meat on its bones to keep you engaged for hours at a time practicing it's one of the last hurrays for an era when video games were simpler more pure at heart Creations that didn't have the baggage of Blockbuster polish and cinematic stories attached to them such Market demands killed many small teams that specialized in games like this where production values were nice but not essential a time when gameplay Loop was still King tamsoft was lucky enough to survive this turbulent time for these kinds of games and they're still around today but many others were not so fortunate in fact Sega themselves largely struggled with the changing tides of the industry this is evidenced during the creation of Panzer Dragoon Saga one of the first video games to feature an almost fully voice acted content-rich story and therefore one of the first games of its kind made by the company this game also had numerous other stressors put on the team during its arduous time in development hell but the sheer scale of the game's story FMV and voice acting all combined would not have helped matters whatsoever especially given the fact that Sega were ill-equipped to tackle these kinds of elements that were becoming progressively more essential for many kinds of games to sell well let alone RPGs the Saturn was made during a much different time in sega's life during a time when they had nothing to gain and everything to lose and Sega very much did end up losing everything by the time the Satan era was over with the company collapsing in such spectacular fashion in such a short span of time it only took them seven short years to go from one of the largest players in the industry to near bankrupt and about to close their doors but despite all that the Saturn still managed to come out the other end swinging regardless it's insane to think that during the time Sega was bleeding cash more or less every day things didn't look that different to Japanese players or Western die-hard Sega fans that grew up with the Saturn the Saturn's games were plentiful in high in quality it was doing a lot of what the PlayStation did in its early years and Sega were making more graphically impressive arcade Classics than ever games that often still had fantastic home ports made of them Sega had to try so much harder to get the Japanese success they attained they hadn't really tapped into the Japanese Home Market until the Saturn so achieving success would definitely necessitate the pursuit of third party titles and creation of enticing original Ip that gave the Saturn killer apps since Sega were very flush with cash after the mega drive's Western success as well as their various victories in the arcades they could spare to empty out the coffers required for the Saturn to achieve what it did in Japan but not if the system failed in the west which it did and by the end of the generation despite their best most Valiant efforts the PlayStation would greatly overtake the Saturn in Japan before the 90s were over yet the Saturn soldiered on for a couple more years regardless still getting games made for it as late as 2 000 with capcom's final fight Revenge being the final game on the system the Saturn was discontinued in Japan around that time and combined with its earlier release meant it lasted literally twice as long in the East than it did in the West in any case it's only natural that I fell in love with the Saturn so quickly most of the games I play tend to be arcade action games from the 90s so knowing that it's probably no surprise to you what I like about the Saturn it's so great that I had a hard time writing the game's part of the script because well which fantastic game do you want to play vert natural on Tempest 2000 magic Knight Ray Earth Knights into dreams virtual copper Resident Evil Metal Slug vampire savior there is simply no end to the Saturn's wide breadth of Classics whether exclusive or not if you're a fan of 16-bit or even PlayStation games then you'll find something to love about the Sega Saturn there's just so many endearing things about this little machine and if you ask me it doesn't deserve the maligned reputation among Gamers that it seems to have these days even though it contributed to sega's most turbulent time in its existence the Saturn was just so fantastic despite that it kind of sits in this weird in-between of notoriety and obscurity it's notable because it's made by Sega one of the biggest companies in the console space that was severely crippled to the point of near Collapse by one of its final Hardware Creations but it's also obscure because barely anybody knows about the true extent of its library or even the Nuance behind why the Saturn console itself arguably didn't kill Sega people didn't buy the console because of a lack of brand loyalty and consumer trust it was a brutal consequence of a series of missteps in extenu waiting circumstances one so huge that people lost interest in the company as a whole let alone the Saturn turns out just like any piece of History the Saturn's successes and failures are multifaceted and tell a more complicated story that sadly goes largely overlooked it's an unusually cruel fate for a system that was criminally underlooked during its time to remain just about as obscure during a time when Retro Gaming is more popular than ever and Hell who knows if this video will do anything to change how people perceive the Saturn whatsoever but if this video has made even just one person curious to jump into the library having liked what they saw then I think this video will definitely have been worth it and if you're that kind of person I suggest you hop to it immediately if you're not exactly in the market for real satin Hardware I don't blame you but a fantastic multi-system emulator by the name of mednafen will do the job wonderfully it's command line only but you can fix that with the med naffy front end which makes configuring and using mednafen wonderfully straightforward I'll have links to both of these in the description medinafen recommends that the Saturn be run on a quad-core Haswell system so from about 2014 or so for best performance however both my IV Bridge ThinkPad and Linfield yes Linfield Vostro from 2012 and 2010 respectively can run almost the whole library at full speed there's still some moments of slow down here and there with some of the more demanding games like Thunder Force 5 Sega rally and Panzer Dragoon but nothing too awful and it's usually shortened infrequent enough to not bother me so basically if you have a PC made within the last 10 years or so you'll be able to run Saturn games just fine you'll need to supply your own bios and game files and how you do that is up to you but should you decide to go through with it I hope the Saturn captivates you just as much as it did me it's easily my favorite 5th gen console and its fantastic library of games made it so within a very short span of time I do enjoy the PlayStation and I am obliged to love the N64 since it was my first ever console but Saturn is the planet that I call home a planet that houses some of the most out there titles in the universe some of the most special finely crafted Retro Gaming experiences the likes of which few can replicate if you're a retro gamer I'd say you owe it to yourself to at least give the Saturn a chance Starry Skies Grand Adventure and burning rubber await you on your Journeys across planet Saturn lying in waiting for you to skim the surface and dig down into its core so what are you waiting for foreign [Music]

Channel: Sixty RGB

Views: 39,735

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Id: YVhAKctnoJo

Length: 42min 30sec (2550 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 20 2022