Underappreciated Saturn Games

[Music] over the last five years or so the sega saturn has really grown in popularity particularly among collectors prices of sword and finding videos about sega's 32-bit entry have become quite commonplace on the youtube here fan projects are popping up all over the place and there are some even trying to make retail quality games with all that going on there are a ton of titles that get lost in the shuffle games that rarely get talked about are featured on their own hell even i ignore them quite a bit and i'm a dedicated sega channel in this episode we will be taking a look at games for the saturn that i feel go unappreciated while not the best games for the platform they are still well worth playing if you haven't done so we have a good mix of shoot em ups beat em ups platformers fighters and even a few adventure games thrown in for good measure i hope you guys enjoy under appreciated saturn games [Music] in september of 1996 sega salt and appaloosa interactive released three dirty dwarves for the saturn the story here is about as out there as it gets a nefarious weapons manufacturer has created four children in their lab in the hopes of them becoming super soldiers super intelligent the children concoct a plan to draw in three champions from another world to rescue them these dwarves crash in a new york city sports store load up on weapons and so the action begins this one supports one two and three players in beat em up action you have regular melee attacks long range projectiles and a few specials in there to round out your arsenal gameplay in the single player mode has you controlling all three dwarves at once the lead character is the one you attack with while the others simply follow you around you can switch to each one on the fly if you take a hit that dwarf is down for the count and must be revived to get him back into the action visually this one is loaded with some fantastic animation though the backgrounds are tame in comparison the animated cutscenes are impressive as well giving life to the story and endearing you to the characters be aware that the easy mode only allows you to play about halfway through the game before it ends so you'll need to adjust to normal to see the real ending the challenge is real too you'll really need to take your time be aware of enemy patterns and avoid the things that can end your game in a heartbeat bosses are actually pretty neat and offer a change in both perspective and how you defeat them this is a good one if you give it a chance and a game that gets overlooked far too often [Music] [Music] in december of 1996 high voltage software ported the jaguar shooter tempus 2000 to the sega saturn like the original you must battle oncoming enemies across a web-like playfield you are sort of looking down the web as the battle takes place shooting the bad guys as they make their way towards you upgrades come in the form of a few different ways to make your attack stronger and you have a screen clearing zap attack that can get you out of a jam this really is quite a bit different than anything else on the platform and if you ever wanted to try something new this is highly recommended as far as i can tell it has almost all of the content of the jaguar original and remains quite close in terms of gameplay that's 90 plus levels and a classic mode similar to the original arcade version it also has multiplayer options that cover team play and versus modes that's a lot of gameplay for one disc and it also happens to have a pretty good soundtrack to it if you've never played tempest before give this one a try on a system of so many shoot em ups it's quite easy to look past it because pictures just don't do the presentation any justice at all this one you have to see in motion to truly appreciate [Music] let's it when it comes to survival horror resident evil commands the lion's share of the attention but in 1998 sega actually took a stab at the genre with deep fear an action-adventure title that was directly inspired by capcom's masterpiece our story begins when an unidentified object crash lands in the ocean the submarine sea fox goes to investigate but upon recovery it crashes into an underwater refueling facility that's where you come in you are dispatched on a rescue mission but soon learned that the sea fox has picked up some unwanted passengers soon you are fighting for your life against creatures infesting the entire rig most of the gameplay is very similar to resident evil right down to the tank style control up moves you forward and down causes you to retreat you know how it works with these types of games unlike capcom's classic however you can draw your weapon and keep moving either to advance on your enemy or put some distance between the two of you but what really separates this from the other games is the fact that the environment is by far your greatest enemy there are rooms with no air rooms with poison gases and you must contend with both a life bar and oxygen meter the entire game this adds an element of stress that cannot be overstated you are literally running for your life not just from monsters but from the very room that you were in at the time the only real blemish on this one is that it does suffer from some awful voice acting i mean what's here makes the stuff in resident evil seem oscar worthy it was never officially released in the united states but there is a finished version of it if you know where to look [Music] [Music] polygonal platformers were not a regular genre to show up on the saturn so 1997's pandemonium by jumping jack software and crystal dynamics is something of an oddity it plays mostly from what i'd call a 2.5 d perspective though it also employs a dynamic camera that changes angles often as you play the story centers on nikki and fargus who decide to cast spells from a book that holds great power the problem is they have no clue how to stop it once they screw things up that sets them both loose on an adventure to try and undo the harmful spell you can choose to play either nicki or fargus both with their own traits nikki can double jump and fargus can attack with a cartwheel both can get power up spells to attack at distance and both can take out enemies super mario style by jumping on their heads i really like this game because it mimics the classic platformers of the 16-bit era with a 3d engine it mostly works too the gameplay is fun and the visuals actually hold up well movement is a bit fiddly but nothing you won't quickly get used to it does get pretty challenging but a password system allows you to keep your progress this was known as magical hoppers in japan where it has a completely different story as well if you enjoy classic action games this one might be for you [Music] you [Music] years ago when i first played casper i put about 60 seconds into it before i turned it off in disgust revisiting it years later with my daughter i decided to give it another chance and found a surprisingly enjoyable adventure this one doesn't rely on tons of enemies to fight instead it focuses on collecting things solving puzzles exploration and story it earns its six plus rating with very little violence that of course makes footage like this really hard to show off most of what you're going to see is casper floating around and picking items up don't let that sway you though if you enjoy adventure games with lots of exploration and puzzles this is a solid title gameplay is super simple and the visuals are solid enough to mimic the film on which it's based you action junkies won't care much for it but those of you that enjoy a slower more laid-back experience should find a lot here to enjoy [Music] at a time when polygon graphics were becoming the norm the voxel-based amok was quite different developed by lemon and published by scavenger this was originally meant to be a 32x title in 1995 but didn't hit the saturn until january of 1997. it's a third-person mech shooter that has you piloting the slam bird a vehicle capable of both land and sea based combat the story here is simple peace has finally come to the planet of a muck but some aren't happy about it your job is to go in blow stuff up and piss everybody off again that's right soldier you're the bad guy in this and it's your mission to get this war started again the biggest obstacles you're going to run into with a muk is adjusting to its graphics engine and it's unforgiving challenge once you get used to playing it it actually controls well and the performance stays solid throughout the trade-off for that great frame rate are voxels that keep things very boxy and pixelated danger is all around you as well and damage comes in fast and regular the first few times you play it you're likely to be killed and frustrated heavily but once you get a feel for the hit-and-run tactics and maneuvering your vehicle things lighten up and you can really start to enjoy the destructive nature of your mission objectives there's tons of weapons to use and nearly endless enemies to blow up it's hard and ugly but this can be quite rewarding if you give it enough time to grow on you the two-player split-screen mode is a blast as well [Music] the saturn is a shoot-'em-up fan's dream come true that makes a cutesy game like sexy parodius here quite easy to look past released only in japan in november of 1996 this was the last of the parodies shoot-em-ups but also the best you get lots of ships to choose from each with their own style of weapons as well as mission based gameplay that changes how things unfold i love the visuals of this i mean look at that color animation and the amount of stuff happening it rarely has any slowdown at all not even when a screen-sized boss is wreaking havoc on you don't let those bright pretty graphics fool you into thinking this is a pushover this game can be a serious challenge lose your power-ups at an inopportune time and you can eat multiple deaths in a row the entire package just screams quality and this has become one of my favorites on the saturn in recent years konami always knew how to make a solid shoot em up but i think they really outdid themselves here the weapon variety is superb the stages are a blast and these bosses are truly impressive other games may get covered more but don't sleep on this one it has much more to offer than meets the eye [Music] [Music] like the shoot-em-up genre fighting games have a ton of representation on the saturn you are mostly going to hear about street fighter and the versus games whenever they come up but 1997 cyberbots deserve some attention as well this mech based 2d fighter has large detailed combatants that fill the screen with destruction special attacks bombs and weapon fire can also destroy the scenery around you the gameplay is quite cool because the setup is so unique first you choose a pilot they determine how your story plays out then you choose your mech of which there are more than a dozen different models these guys determine your moveset and special attacks cyberbots is a gorgeous game and while it supports the one megabyte extended ram cartridge it does not require it and even without it it's a damn fine looking title with tons happening it's part of the armored warrior series that began as an arcade beat em up a few years prior but this one here did not see a western release outside of japan for the saturn combined with its relative obscurity in the arcade scene most people pass this one by without a second thought big mistake gameplay feels quite separate from the street fighter universe and the multiplayer is a blast it definitely fills the void if you want something different [Music] [Applause] you ever wondered what a panzer dragoon fighting game would look like well the legend of dragoon elon de rey is about as close as you can get to it released late in the saturn's life in january of 1999 it was developed by a company called cymate and was based on their original arcade stv titan version that dropped the previous year it's an aerial 3d fighter that has you doing combat while riding a dragon you have close end melee style attacks projectiles and of course special attacks as well in fact the gameplay here is pretty much just four action buttons there are two for attacks one for jump and one for your dash that makes the gameplay quite accessible for those that do not want to learn 50 moves in order to enjoy a fighting game this one is also full of loud flashy moves that often end each fight in 10 or 15 seconds much of the gameplay relies on projectiles and dash attacks for heavy damage the graphics engine is beautiful too vdp-2 handles the playfield leaving vdp-1 to only contend with the fighters they have some of the best texture work i've seen on the platform the music isn't half bad either while this doesn't have the depth of the better fighters on the saturn it does have some uniqueness that remains quite enjoyable if you enjoyed astr superstars on the saturn this one comes highly recommended you remember total eclipse on the 3do while the saturn received a very similar game called solar eclipse in october of 1995 thanks to crystal dynamics it has both third person and cockpit views to play from and features regular video segments to tell its story it very much reminds me of galaxy force ii like that game you have both space and planet level fighting to do you are constantly moving forward through enemy territory blowing anything that moves out of the sky weapon power-ups missiles shields and extra lives are procured in the field the difficulty is a bit rough at first but once you get used to the enemies and speeding up and slowing down at the right times this can be really fun the thing is not many games of its types appeared on the saturn this is a polygon engine with multiple paths and only the saturn version showed up in north america it was quickly overshadowed by games like warhawk for the playstation but this still has enough going for it to be worth a play today if the difficulty is frustrating you try some of the cheat codes for it that give you additional weapons and shields it'll boost you enough until you recognize the best way to play it if sega's classic sprite scalers were a favorite of yours this one is definitely something you should look into it was known as titan wars in europe and japan i'm deep six behind something just below mark energy transferred as the internet becomes bloated with more and more information about the systems you love finding new games to play becomes less and less likely now 20 plus years on there's just not much left that is unexplored this has actually led me to replaying games that i had not cared for or overlooked back then sometimes a crappy opening stage can turn you away from an otherwise decent game my gaming tastes have also broadened quite a bit since those days action and rpg titles didn't hold my attention for long when i was younger with the fighting and shooting genres getting all my love i couldn't stand something like casper back then but playing it now i'm able to soak up what the developers were shooting for having played the street fighter alpha and versus series to death i'm also able to appreciate cyberbots quite a bit more while most of these aren't gonna win any best game awards i think all of them have a solid enough core to appeal to those of you that appreciate putting a little time into a game to find out what they have to offer the saturn had over a thousand games released for it and it has enough big hitters to relegate the smaller titles to the forgotten bin give them a chance though i think many of you will find some of these quite enjoyable i'm singalord x thank you guys for watching and i will catch you next time [Music] you

Channel: Sega Lord X

Views: 68,961

Keywords: sega saturn, saturn, retro gaming, segalordx, sega lord x, sega genesis, sega dreamcast, mega drive, megadrive, game gear, 32x, mega cd, genesis, master system, sega, sega cd, gameplay, review, movies, retro games, video games, ps4, xbox, wii, nintendo, gamecube, n64, ps1, ps2, ps3, psp, vita, switch, atari

Id: 3q-5gFewYEM

Length: 20min 37sec (1237 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 11 2021