Sega Saturn

Console, handheld and computer games, retro and modern.
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cools
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Sega Saturn

Post by cools »

What are some good Saturn titles that fly under the radar?

I had the console back in the day, really only played the Model 2 ports. Just got another with an ODE and I'm struggling to find stuff that isn't to my taste.

Take Guardian Heroes. Nice soundtrack but the game is a mess visually and playably.

Guardian Force however, is tremendous fun and looks great.

RPGs are out, unless they are playable without following the dialogue. I may not have time to play anything more than once a fortnight, so following stories is impractical.
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Re: Sega Saturn

Post by LEGENOARYNINLIA »

Zero Divide The Final Conflict is a solid 3D fighting game with some similarities to VF3 but with some new ideas of its own. Vatlva is a nice vehicle combat game. And I have a soft spot for Shin Shinobi Den, but maybe you'll enjoy Astal more.
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Re: Sega Saturn

Post by arcnl »

shin shinobi den (shinobi-x) or powerslave are the only ones that come to mind. Most of the games that you played back in the day have better options than the saturn ports nowadays.
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Re: Sega Saturn

Post by nem »

Astal, Keio Flying Squadron 2, Super Tempo and Try Rush Deppy are worth trying if you like platformers. Admittedly, they all probably look better than they play, but I'm a sucker for graphics.

Exhumed

Dragon Force can be played in bursts

Mass Destruction, Soviet Strike are both fun

Bulk Slash

Taromaru

If you don't have a Jag and haven't already played the game or its many iterations enough, Tempest 2000

Necronomicon, Last Gladiator if you like video pinball

Surprised Steep Sloper Sliders wasn't mentioned
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Re: Sega Saturn

Post by CTN »

Wachenröder. Not much of a story to begin with. About 20? stages and completely playable without any japanese.
No stage takes longer than 1 hour. It's on the easy side of things.

Tomb Raider is still fun. :D

Mr. Bones is worth a try this time of year.
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Re: Sega Saturn

Post by markedkiller78 »

Baku Baku animal
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Re: Sega Saturn

Post by thegreathopper »

Christmas Nights and Steep Slope Sliders we’re my most played.
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Re: Sega Saturn

Post by phillv85 »

Nekketsu Oyako isn’t a bad beat ‘em up, not great though mind. Twinkle Star Sprites has a decent Saturn mode.
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Re: Sega Saturn

Post by gojira54 »

Gran chaser :fastlove:
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Re: Sega Saturn

Post by cools »

Worked through about half of the recs so far. Stand out titles:

Zero Divide (solid is the right word. Highly polished, why doesn't this appear on Saturn top lists? )
Super Tempo (gets away with awful collision detection by being easy, slow, generous with health and not having a timer. Interesting game, shame there's no translation patch)
Tempest 2000 (never played it before. Can see what all the fuss is about)
Bulk Slash (messy, not particularly pretty but after getting my head around the controls I was having a lot of fun)
The Digital Pinballs (I'd have looked at these eventually, I had been deliberately avoiding them - a good pinball game is always a time sink. They could use a wider colour palette but other than that, really good. Prefer the Gladiator one as it's less grim)
Baku Baku Animal (presentation is super dated but it's smooth to play and sounds good)

Some thoughts on others:
Shinobi. (close to being good, didn't feel like I was really in control)
Steep Slope Sliders (May have been good back in the day but it's awful now, and it has a double downside as it makes me want an Xbox for SSX3 again)
Taromaru (almost good, but it does the same thing with the main sprites being permanently scaled that Castlevania does and I can't get over it)
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Re: Sega Saturn

Post by LEGENOARYNINLIA »

Zero Divide becomes even more fun once you learn how to use the abnormal mode mechanic. By pressing up and then G, as in cancelling the jump animation, your character will be flashing for a short moment. During the flashing you can perform any moves, and as long as it's still in effect you will deal more damage. But if you get hit during the flash, you take more damage.

Also, if you move around using the E button (backwards or forwards + E is dash, down + E is sidestep towards screen, just E is sidestep away from the screen) you can cancel them into each other to move around really fast. Brilliant game. Easily my most played Saturn title for the past 10 years. And the OST is phhwoooaarr.
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Re: Sega Saturn

Post by cools »

Everything on the good so far list has a stonking soundtrack.

Try Rush Deppy has the fattest bass I've heard in a videogame. It's possibly been mastered badly, it's thumping.
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Re: Sega Saturn

Post by Dache »

Do you count Fighters Megamix under the Model 2 port banner? Just cause if not and you missed it, it's great fun and probably the best of the AM2 fighters of that gen.

Panzer Dragoon Zwei is an amazing shooter, and has a great soundtrack to carry on that theme.

NiGHTS was already mentioned (the Xmas variety anyway), however the HD ports are bad because the controls are **** and you really do need the analogue pad. Worth tracking one down as IMO it's one of the best and most addictive score attack games of all time.

I sort of want to recommend Burning Rangers, but I also can't because it's undeniably a technical mess and suuuuper rough nearly 25 years later. There isn't any other kind of game like it though and I love the anime cheese so it's a novelty.
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Re: Sega Saturn

Post by thegreathopper »

Steep Slope Sliders was all about the crazy combos in the pipe, it must look awful now though, it looked pretty rough when it came out back in 96ish…

Forgot to add SSX never really did it for me, but 1080.. Wow that was a game that once mastered was perfect, well almost.
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Re: Sega Saturn

Post by LEGENOARYNINLIA »

Dache wrote: October 25th, 2021, 5:01 pm Panzer Dragoon Zwei is an amazing shooter, and has a great soundtrack to carry on that theme.
Also the best looking game on the system. Simply amazing colours.
Emulation's nice when done well
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