The Best Looking Sega Saturn Games

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] video game graphics are perhaps the most hotly debated topic in the hobby every generation even back as far as the Atari 2600 and its rivals I can remember my friends and family talking about how games looked and ran it often entails discussions about a hardware's overall capability feature set or specialization it can also be an interesting gateway to discuss the system's shortcomings the Sega Saturn is arguably one of the most interesting pieces of console technology ever produced it was a complicated design that most software engineers of the era either couldn't wrap their heads around or didn't have the time or money to try that didn't stop the system from getting some damn good looking games however and in this episode we are gonna take a look at some of the best looking Sega Saturn games whether it was artistic technical or both these are the games I personally found to really define what the Saturn was capable of there is no way I'll be able to cover every single good-looking Sega Saturn game here but I'll try and cover the stuff that truly blew me away visually I hope you guys enjoy the best-looking Sega Saturn games [Music] when it comes to 2d fighters the Saturn is absolutely splitting at the seams with great content from Capcom to SNK and everything in between there's something here for everybody and my god are some of them graphically impressive Capcom had great showings with the likes of Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter the follow-up to x-men vs. Street Fighter it used the four megabyte RAM cart to impressive effect filling the screen with well animated characters that were sometimes as big as the entire play area Capcom also would release Street Fighter 0-3 which also used a four megabyte ram cartridge this one was good enough as an arcade translation but Capcom even added some truly incredible dramatic battle options that you can't get in any other version of the game again the beautifully animated characters stood out amongst some of the best-looking 2d games of the era some of us in Kay's work would be worth mentioning as well especially Samurai Shodown for the Neo Geo version had to be cut back to run on a CD system with a pittance of RAM compared to the original cartridge but they did a fairly solid job in the process the animation color and art style here is fantastic and was a real standout in 1997 I was also really impressed with real bout fatal fury special SNK again comes through with great animation in art direction easily rivaling the stuff Capcom was doing at the time the Saturn would also see a couple of ports from its arcade Big Brother the STV Titan board that looked pretty damn good to groove on fight from Atlas has an incredibly unique look both in technical and artistic presentation it uses the RAM expansion cart to show off some pretty decent animation as well sunsoft would show off their talents with the wild Astro superstars another STV arcade port this one is fast and ultra colorful with gameplay that often keeps the entire screen full of Special Attack super moves and animation that just won't quit there is so much happening so fast in this one you often lose track where you are I could keep going easily with great looking 2d fighting games on the Saturn but I have to settle somewhere with my favorite and that just happens to be vampire Savior this one hit late in the life of the Saturn in mid-1998 it never made its way west for the machine but did materialize on the PlayStation as Darkstalkers three the Saturn version however was something special first you had the characters each with their own look in animation the variety in these animations were unreal and no two characters overlapped there were simple palette swaps just as impressive were the stages these characters fought on again each one was superbly animated and provided a visual pizazz that added tones to the atmosphere and environment the sheer amount of personality in this game that is derived from its visuals set it apart from the other stuff I just went over he uses the four megabyte RAM card and is one of the Saturn's most impressive 2d technical achievements [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] the 3d fighting genre on the Saturn would not see the sheer volume of choice that the 2d stuff would bring but that didn't mean some of these games weren't really impressive we'd see a hell of an evolution of 3d engines from Sega themselves on the Saturn we went from the launch title Virtua Fighter to the vastly improved Virtua Fighter remix to the again vastly improved Virtua Fighter 2 all within one year Virtua Fighter 2 had been a triumph of game design sporting an incredible resolution and framerate increase over the previous efforts am2 wasn't the only ones to really get their [ __ ] together on the Saturn with a m3 coming in late with last Broncs in 1997 this used the vdp2 background chip to draw arenas that looked and felt unlike anything else out at the time the depth here was a truly sad reminder of what might have been had the Saturn had a few more years of matured game development techmo would jump in with their take on the 3d fighter dead or alive in 1997 this was originally a model 2 based arcade game lovingly ported to the saturn with similar results as Virtua Fighter 2 crystal clear and smooth as butter you have to bring it up whenever best looking game discussions are happening I was also a big fan of fighters megamix it had a great collection of Sega properties and I really liked how we got both closed and caged arenas to fight in it had the same smooth and fast flow the other Sega fighters had and the sheer variety and the visuals was enough to deserve mentioning but I keep going back to Virtua Fighter 2 whenever I think of a 3d fighter that just looked ran and played like a million bucks you had to respect a.m. twos accomplishment here and it holds up really well all these years later it's my choice for the best-looking Saturn 3d fighting game [Music] the 2d actions section includes platformers and beat'em ups both of which would see a sharp decline in the Saturn's era with all the newfangled 3d polygons games popping up few people wanted more of the games that had defined the previous generation luckily the Saturn would still see really good games here but some of them easily ranking up there is the best-looking 2d graphics the console ever produced a stall was an early platformer that was full of style its unique world was brought to life with a colorful art style that utterly blew away anything that had been possible in the previous generation of machines it also had full screen scaling loads of transparencies and tons of parallax scrolling victor entertainment would take on the challenge of bringing out a sequel to KO flying squadron to the saturn not content with simply making a by-the-numbers sequel they really stepped up the visual punch here transparencies everywhere big colorful sprites and great detail in every background it's the kind of game I still fire up to show off the system whenever anyone needs a lesson on how great this Hardware could be Capcom would show up strong here as well releasing the truly impressive Dungeons & Dragons collection on the Saturn complete with the 4 megabyte RAM card support not even the frequent load times could stop you from being impressed with this game's visuals every single thing that moves in the game is animated impressively from the smallest enemy to the massive bosses this was the kind of stuff to Saturn excelled at we also got the wild card releases in between the big-name titles that showed off the 2d power of the machine liquid kids was a really nice port of the Taito arcade game and super tempo was an insane game that visually knocked her socks off but when I want to recommend a game to new Saturn owners to show off what their hardware was capable of I always fall back on treasures Guardian heroes it makes an impressive showing itself a beat'em up that zooms in and out with the axe puts tons of enemies on the screen all while special attacks and magics are popping off transparency effects all over the place it's two-player co-op Mint's you could take it all in with a friend and if you have a Saturn 6 player adapter you can fill the screen with six players all going crazy everything about this one still impresses me to this very day the color and art is fantastic the sprites big and small animated well and it's loaded with special effects that really show what the Saturn was capable of [Music] the games I lumped into the 3d action category span tons of different genres of course you have Panzer Dragoon with its beautiful world an art style a presentation I never get tired of Sonic teams nights into dreams is a great running title that had some really solid technical aspects but it was there other unique game earning Rangers that really showed us some great use of the machines architecture lots of transparency effects and light sourcing filled the game's large environments there was some trade-off with a fair bit of polygon clipping but you couldn't help but be impressed and wonder just what a burning Rangers 2 may have looked like on a more mature engine I also dug the hell out of loaded an overhead running gun dungeon crawler that put up a pile of transparencies on light sourcing itself I'd find myself shooting the walls for the hell of it just to see the special effects of the weapons bulk slash is a third-person mech action game that mixed awesome use of the Saturn's vdp2 infinite plane abilities with 2d sprites and 3d texture mapped polygons it was the kind of game that truly took advantage of all those chips in a Saturn merging everything into one great looking and running engine while there are many others I could mention I want to spotlight a game I have raved about in the past when it comes to great 3d Saturn visuals and that's Panzer Dragoon 2 it improved everything over the first game from a graphic standpoint more stuff on screen better frame rate and the scale man do things look bigger and more open and more menacing here boss battles are more dynamic and visually pleasing and that sky assault stage is just point-blank some of the best-looking graphics of that entire generation it's a package that really gave owners of the Saturn a ton of pride at its release their art style kept the cues from the first game intact wild looking machines mixed with crazy organic designs to put up a world that was strange and threatening if you don't own this one yet get on it ASAP [Applause] [Music] the RPG genre would be utterly and completely dominated by the PlayStation during the Saturn's time on the market if nothing else by sheer volume of releases but the Saturn had its own hits as well games that just weren't loaded with great gameplay characters and stories but also impressive visuals as well magic knight rayearth was a great combination of art style color and animation it was exclusive to the Saturn and the only place she could play it Dragonforce was a technical marvel thanks to its hundreds of sprites in each battle all while beautiful special attacks that were often fullscreen transparencies running back and forth between enemy generals Shining Force 3 spanned three separate episodes with three differing viewpoints and every one of them looked and ran like a champ this one mixes 2d sprites with 3d environments - some pretty nifty results I love how smooth it is and the texture work is a rare standout during the era battle animations are sprinkled with great light sourcing and transparency effects showing that the Saturn had the versatility to do these things when a developer was so inclined Grandia burst on the Saturn scene in 1997 and much like Shining Force 3 used 2d sprites against gorgeous 3d environments the amount of detail and textures and animation here make it a joy to behold even today and there is even an English translation in the works that should be coming to a Saturn near you soon when I think about the best looking 2d RPG though I have to go if the action RPG princess crown the huge and awesomely animated sprites have a distinctive art style that would become well-known for vanillaware but it all started right here with this one I simply adore the way this game is designed and presented to you and you'll find nothing else like it on the Saturn the backgrounds look really good too often having detail that puts other games to shame even among systems that would come out after the Saturn choosing a best looking 3d RPG gets a little more complicated if nothing else because so many of them would have a pretty big mix of 2d and 3d elements would I go with the technically impressive and prop up a game that uses polygons best or what I just take in the entire package of 2d 3d and art design the choice was clear after some consideration and that was Panzer Dragoon saga Panzer saga gave you an explorable world that looked like nothing else at the time a rare combination of impressive technical highlights as well as an incredible art design on everything from the environments and enemies it elevated Saturn visuals well beyond the usual plain polygon elements and gave us a truly impressive use of the machines abilities textures special effects draw in performance it all combined into one great looking game just imagine if other gains had reached their own third generation engines on this hardware much like the 2d fighter the 2d shoot-'em-up had some pretty robust representation on a Saturn she and Ryu is a vertically scrolling shooter that has impressive backgrounds and loads of enemies and animations going on all around you transparency effects often are peppered throughout the stages to add some variety and there's always some parallax scrolling happening to make you happy the super colorful Proteus games get top-end representation on the Saturn across multiple releases often called kuta mobs they have great variety and animations that keep you coming back for more hyper dual was a transforming next shooter that sported impressive parallax and line scrolling effects the backgrounds always told a story in this one from massive space battles going on all around you to huge crashing ships in the distance it never failed to blow me away that sugan would lack the finer detail of something like she and ryu but more than made up for it with the sheer volume of weapon fire on the screen in any given time no joke the screen states filled with attacks both enemy based as well as your own the backgrounds aren't too shabby either and you get some really cool wild moments in each stage layers section was an early Saturn 2d shooter that is aged exceptionally well parallax scrolling effects and great background detail are the visual highlights of this one it's pretty easy to keep going with 2d shooters that look great but the vid here would be 2 hours long if I did so instead I'll just drop what I feel is the best-looking 2d souter on the system or in this case the two best-looking shooters on the system cotton 2 and cotton boomerang these are some of the most unique looking shooters on the system they have special effects going off like a fireworks display and the scaling and rotating sprites just add to the presentation large multi-jointed bosses aren't unusual and you get copious amounts of transparencies in both the environment and weapons to remind you the Saturn was well capable of doing them these games originated on the STV Titan arcade system so the Saturn ports were a hundred percent identical and you still can't play them anywhere else [Music] [Music] shoot-'em-ups that had 3d or polygon elements weren't nearly as abundant as their 2d cousins but there were some notable titles worth discussing Tsukioka rent I was a port of the STV Titan original and while it's mainly a 2d experience it does have polygon elements here and there loads of touches like scaling enemies screen filling boss attacks and parallax scrolling highlight the great visuals here Thunder Force five showed up to represent the classic franchise with a bunch of polygon elements itself it also continues the series tradition of being a hell of a good looking game huge enemies great background effects and lots of touches like transparencies and abstract background designs really make this one one of the more unique looking games on the Saturn layer section 2 is a good-looking game itself with great looking polygons environments and set pieces the first time you see the waterfall you can't help but to appreciate it the best looking shooter on the Saturn that uses 3d elements has to be radiant Silvergun however loads of vdp2 effects make up the game's impressive backgrounds while enemies and bosses are often comprised of polygons it's fast moving and its effects are always catching your eye and making you take notice no matter how engrossed in the gameplay you are this is another one that came from the arcade STV board so again the saturn port is absolutely perfect many compare this to treasures others shoot them up Ikaruga but I think radiant Silvergun is the better game by quite a bit to see us [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] the first-person shooter was a fledgling genre during the Saturn's run especially on consoles while its presence was strongly felt by some really good games during the era the Saturn would only see a handful of them when compared to the overall library lucky for us a little company called lobotomy software burst onto the Saturn scene and really nailed a few titles that did the system proud the Saturn version of Duke Nukem 3d was glorious running at a rock-solid framerate with loads of detailed textures and great light sourcing effects they also ported the PC classic quake to the Saturn and what has to be one of the most technically impressive efforts on the hardware you are looking at a fully 3d world with fully 3d enemies and fully 3d weapons and items all running with light sourcing at a playable framerate for a system that was considered weak at 3d engines by the majority of the gaming world at the time this is nothing short of a miracle of game development even more so this one was done under budget and time constraints making you realize it could have been even better had this not been the case as good as the two previous mentioned games are it's lobotomies Mayton effort on the saturn that i still adore the most and that's powerslave it has all the elements that made duke nukem 3d a winner but here the world is even more impressive due to its exploratory design this is very much a 3d Metroid style game years before there was a 3d Metroid game the fact that these levels were designed to be explored re-explore dwith new powers and abilities and still look this damn good is truly a testament to both the versatility of the Saturn's hardware but also the mastery lobotomy had over it without powerslave the saturn landscape would have been a much colder place [Music] [Music] the racing genre really started to blossom when polygons showed up while the genre had great representation before that we began to get a better sense of visual depth and driving physics with polygons these advances started in the arcade and slowly filtered down into console releases finally settling in the Saturn's era with some truly exceptional experiences some of these didn't just play great but looked pretty damn good for the era as well Need for Speed had been a greatly expanded port of the 3do original now with improved frame rates textures and overall visual flair it was so solid it even gave the PlayStation version of the game a run for its money and in those early days that's something you rarely saw wipeout accel had been in a similar situation improving upon the original wipeout port quite a bit it showed that even some of the better-looking PlayStation games could be ported to the Saturn by third parties without sacrificing the visuals to the point of affecting the quality of the experience scorcher was a beast of a game visually fast as hell with awesome texture worked in detail it was the kind of visuals that made you wish these guys had been working with Sega to port some of their other model to arcade racers like Indy 500 sonic R wasn't my cup of tea when it came to gameplay but you still have to respect the technical side of things here great detail and special effects highlight its 3d world and exploratory gameplay Sega's second attempt at Daytona championship circuit Edition was a vastly improved engine that solved big leaps and smoothness texture detail and draw distances there were even some really good superscalar representation on a Saturn starting with the great port of outrun this was really the first time we'd see a version of this so good it actually was superior to the arcade original buttery smooth with great color and detail it's still one of my favorite versions of this game to play I also dub the power drip translation the saturn guy and never got tired of its rollercoaster style feeling these visuals give you I also appreciated the unique style of street racer extra a kart racer with a cartoon aesthetic the screen stays loaded with awesome detail that is crystal clear and extremely smooth beating even the playstation version visually when you have to pick just one though for your favorite I just had to go with Sega Rally it was a vastly improved attempt at porting a model to arcade release on the Saturn trumping the previously released Daytona USA in every single visual category it did the Saturn proud with its great smoothness and improved draw distances and the physics system made it stand out among other games at the time even side by side against the original arcade you can't help but be impressed with what was accomplished here it's Sega's magnum opus on the Saturn and a showpiece even today [Music] for the last category I wanted to go over the dedicated light gun games for the Saturn this category isn't particularly huge and honestly most of the games aren't all that great looking there's a few full motion video based games that play okay but the video is rather mediocre and while games like crypt killer and House of the Dead are quite fun they are pretty weak technical representations of their source material that pretty much leaves the Virtua cop series on the Saturn is the lone Bastion of technically impressive fun and the genre the first game was among the initial releases that showed off a.m. two's Sega graphics libraries and was a solid game visually especially when it came to on-screen action and performance but to be frank here there is virtue a cop too and then there's pretty much everything else in the genre the saturn edition of the game is much like cigarroa an impossibly close representation of the model to arcade original rock-solid performance is backed up by far more dynamic environments and set pieces like car chases and being able to choose your own routes during gameplay it's so far ahead of the other stuff here that you can't help but wish that Sega had kept this team together and had them do the House of the Dead port because you know damn well it would have turned out a lot better Virtua cop 2 is a must own game for fans of the genre and easily the best-looking gun game for the Saturn alright so there are my thoughts on the best looking games for the Sega Saturn this was an incredibly hard episode to do guys mainly because the sheer amount of stuff I wanted to mention just wasn't possible unless the video was incredibly long I had to really bullet point each genre and narrow down everything to just a handful of titles and I hope at the very least I entertained you in the process I'm sure many of you have different opinions than me and I'd love to hear what you guys think are the best looking games I'm siga Lord X thank you guys for watching and I will catch you next time [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Sega Lord X

Views: 440,843

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, best graphics, hardware, retro games, retro gaming, review, sonic, guardian heroes, dragon force, vampire savior, street fighter, sega rally, virtua fighter, radiant silvergun, soukyugurentai saturn, keio flying squadron, best games, hidden gems

Id: 4avFm83jkgo

Length: 29min 57sec (1797 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 17 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/JWK17]

Watched this episode twice already. SLX does great Saturn stuff. Love it.

[u/Merkin666]

Panzer Dragoon Zwei and Saga are tied for me.