Every Saturn PAL Game That Didn’t Release in North America

PAL release date: 5th of July 1996
Optimized for 50 hz?: Yes
The beloved puzzle game from British developers DMA Design, although fellow Brit dev house Clockwork Games ported it to Saturn. It released in Japan about a month later with mouse support added, those lucky gits. Sure, that’s probably because the Shuttle Mouse never officially released in a PAL country, but such technicalities didn’t need to get in the way, as we’ll see in a minute.

PAL release date: June 1997
Optimized for 50 hz?: Yes
UK firm Gremlin Interactive made this football soccer game — what? It’s got soccer in its own name, this isn’t just me being an ignorant American. Kind of a PAL exclusive, as this is very similar to the Actua Soccer that released months prior in Japan and North America, but instead of teams from around the world, it only has English Premiership teams. We’ll still count it, though.

PAL release date: 24th of March 1998 (Spain); June 1998 (elsewhere)
Optimized for 50 hz?: No
A Myst-style point-and-click adventure game that was a smash hit on PCs in Europe — not so much in North America, though, where it bombed. That success east of the Atlantic led Sega of Europe to publish a Saturn port. Works with the Shuttle Mouse, though, so what was 3D Lemmings’ excuse?

PAL release date: September 1996
Optimized for 50 hz?: No
An alien-blasting light gun shooter that didn’t support the light gun in its original incarnation in Japan — Virtua Gun support was added for the European release, as well as faster load times and improved graphics.

PAL release date: October 1996
Optimized for 50 hz?: No
This was the third time this game released on a Sega console — but the first as Darius II. It released under the name Segaia for the Master System in PAL territories as well as for the Mega Drive/Genesis in North America and Brazil.

PAL release date: 18th of September 1998
Optimized for 50 hz?: Not really
The Rieko Kodama-produced survival horror game that was the swan song for the Saturn in Europe — the final game released for the console there. Plays much better with a 3D Control Pad than a regular controller. It apparently was being worked on for North America because a 60hz version of the PAL English localization leaked onto the Internet years ago.

PAL release date: 15th of August 1996
Optimized for 50 hz?: Just the timer in time trial mode
A car combat game ported from the PlayStation to the Saturn. It released in Europe about a month before Japan, probably because it was made by British developer Reflections Interactive. Turned out a bit naff, though, with a lower framerate and shorter draw distance than the PlayStation original.

PAL release date: 15th of August 1996
Optimized for 50 hz?: A bit
A point-and-click adventure game — yet another one that was released in Japan later but with mouse support added. It takes players through a story newly written for the game by Terry Pratchett set in his novels’ universe.

PAL release date: 28th of August 1997
Optimized for 50 hz?: Just a pinch
A sequel that follows the original character introduced in the previous game. It’s just more Discworld, then, innit? I presume, so, anyway…

PAL release date: December 1996
Optimized for 50 hz?: No
A fighting game that oddly released in only three PAL countries: France, Spain and Portugal. There are two titles for this one because the French, truly the weebiest of Europeans, kept the Japanese title, spelling it in romaji. The more sensible Spanish and Portuguese changed it … to an English subtitle instead. No es tan sensato, tal vez.

PAL release date: 22nd of May 1997 (or 24th of November 1997 in Spain)
Optimized for 50 hz?: Yes
A 3D go-kart racing game that features tight tracks set in PAL locations like Germany, France, Holland, England, Brazil, Australia and Egypt … plus Japan for funsies. (Bet you didn’t know Egypt was a PAL country! No idea if this game actually released there, though.)

PAL release date: October(?) 1997
Optimized for 50 hz?: No
A point-and-click FMV adventure game featuring Tim Curry chewing the scenery as only Tim Curry can. The Saturn is the only console to get a port from the 1995 PC original.

PAL release date: December 1995
Optimized for 50 hz?: No
A puzzle game that plays somewhat like Puyo Puyo. Sunsoft kept its original Japanese name instead of tying it to an NES game that’s part of the same series whose name was changed from Hebereke to Ufouria: The Saga when it released in PAL countries in 1992. Perhaps “Ufouria’s Popoitto” was just not catchy enough.

PAL release date: December 1996
Optimized for 50 hz?: No
Another Sunsoft game, but its puzzles come in the form of a Myst-style adventure. At least they didn’t keep this one named Oracle no Houseki. Supports the Shuttle Mouse for those who imported one.

PAL release date: 18th of April 1997
Optimized for 50 hz?: No
The only rugby game on the Saturn, and being rugby, there’s no way it wouldn’t be a European exclusive. The name on the cover, Jonah Lomu, belongs to an internationally famous rugby winger from New Zealand. Supports the 6-Player Adaptor, which is neat.

PAL release date: September 1996
Optimized for 50 hz?: Mostly no — voiceovers’ timing is changed
The sequel to the Mega CD game Keio Flying Squadron, and while it switches genres from a shmup to a side-scrolling platformer, there are still some shooting segments. Upon its release, UK-based Sega Saturn Magazine reviewer Sam Hickman said it was “unlikely that most people would want to pay fifty odd quid for the pleasure” of playing Keio 2, but now it’s selling for 349 euro on eBay, so I think quite a few people would love to travel back in time and pay that fifty-odd quid.

PAL release date: 26th of July 1997
Optimized for 50 hz?: Mostly no — music’s timing is changed
SNK’s second entry in its long-running crossover fighting game series. One of the two Saturn games that requires a ROM cartridge to run — the other being Ultraman, which didn’t leave Japan. KoF ’95 is the only King of Fighters to hit a Sega console in any PAL territory, with the exception of Brazil getting KoF Dream Match 1999 on the Dreamcast.

PAL release date: 23rd of May 1997
Optimized for 50 hz?: No
Psygnosis continued to show love for Saturn fans in its home country with this mecha FPS. The FMV cutscenes that tell the story between missions are so cheesy they’re likely to make you go … well, you know.

PAL release date: May(?) 1997
Optimized for 50 hz?: No
This is the 500th entry — er, just the 20th, I suppose — in the Mega Man franchise, coming to Europe a year after its initial release in Japan. I frankly have no idea why this didn’t come out in North America, but the Americans had their revenge by getting Mega Man 8 and X4, neither of which released in PAL territories (aside from Brazil getting X4).

PAL release date: December 1996
Optimized for 50 hz?: Yes but poorly
A light-gun shooter with a nightmare-inducing art style featuring lots of googly-eyed characters. Supports the Shuttle Mouse despite it not officially existing in a PAL country. The developer of Mighty Hits, Altron, developed nearly a dozen Saturn games but only one other one came out in the West: Robo Pit.

PAL release date: November 1995
Optimized for 50 hz?: No
A compilation of the first two Parodius games, which of course are Konami shmups that lampoon their other franchises. It’s so good that my fellow Shiro, Pandamonium, made a video about it in his “Reviewing Every U.S. Saturn Game” series despite it never releasing stateside. The premiere game on the Saturn for shooting at things as a fish.

PAL release date: October 1995
Optimized for 50 hz?: Dunno! Probably!
This may not be a game, but it’s definitely a piece of software for the Saturn that released in Europe but not North America, so it’s on the list. The Photo CD Operating System allows players to view photos on a Photo CD format disc — no Video CD Card required! (The Video CD Card, aka MPEG or Movie Card, also came out in Europe about the same time but never came to North America — how lucky!) It comes with sample images of Bug, Clockwork Knight, Daytona USA, Panzer Dragoon and PAL Sega Saturn packaging for your viewing pleasure.

PAL release date: October(?) 1997
Optimized for 50 hz?: No
This isn’t just a pinball game — it’s a pinball game with a story mode that sends you across the United States (how exotic) to hone your flipper-flipping skills at tables across the country. It borrows some elements from RPGs, with items to buy, NPCs to talk to and inns to rest at.

PAL release date: 15th of May 1998
Optimized for 50 hz?: No
This is, uh, just what it says on the tin: The followup to adventure puzzler Myst. Riven is one of three Saturn games released in the West that uses four discs — the others are Enemy Zero and Panzer Dragoon Saga. It’s also another one that uses the Shuttle Mouse — these are really stacking up, it’s making 3D Lemmings and Discworld look bad.

PAL release date: September 1996
Optimized for 50 hz?: No
Test your angling prowess with this Victor Entertainment-developed piscatorial simulator. Features creamy 3D graphics of fish and not-so-creamy prerendered CGI people. Of the nine fishing games made for the Saturn, this is the only one to be released outside Japan.

PAL release date: 16th of November 1996
Optimized for 50 hz?: Yes
Cartoony party racer that uses sprites for the cars and a combination of 3D polygons and VDP2 for the tracks, which are very short, giving each race a pretty chaotic feel. Versions of this game were also released on the PC, PlayStation, SNES and Mega Drive, but the Saturn one is the best, clearly. Supports the 6-Player Adaptor, which is neat.

PAL release date: April 1997
Optimized for 50 hz?: No
A top-down action game from Core Design in which you fight enemies and solve puzzles — kinda like Linkle Liver Story, but with a spooky vibe and a very ’90s prerendered CGI art style. Sega Saturn Magazine reviewer Matt Yeo called it a “clever, ingenious little title that’s guaranteed to give you many sleepless nights.” I got that just from looking at the cover art.

PAL release date: December(?) 1997
Optimized for 50 hz?: Yes
The less said about this game the better, probably, but here goes. It’s a sidescrolling hammer-swinger with another prerendered CGI art style developed by Rage Software, of Jonah Lomu Rugby fame — what a fall from grace. The story goes that a “Doctor Moonbeam” is trying to turn the world into a sugar lump to put in his cup of tea, so the player’s construction worker has to use his hammer to destroy the doctor’s buildings. Sure, that’s all sensible.

PAL release date: 30th of May 1996
Optimized for 50 hz?: Yes
A soccer football game released only in Europe, not even Japan, featuring a license for the 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, which was held the month following this game’s release. Features suitably creamy 3D graphics for the players and the stadiums. Predecessor to Actua Soccer Club Edition, which was developed by the same team at UK-based Gremlin Interactive.

PAL release date: 6th of October 1995
Optimized for 50 hz?: Maybe?
Like the Photo CD Operating System, this is not a game, but also like the Photo CD Operating System, it’s a piece of Saturn software that definitely did not come stateside so I’m putting it on this list. While Japan got 10 different Virtua Fighter CG portrait discs, each devoted to a single character and sold separately, Europe instead got a single 22-image compilation that was given away with copies of Virtua Fighter Remix.

PAL release date: February 1996
Optimized for 50 hz?: No
Core Design’s take on golf. Got moved from the Mega CD to the 32X before settling on the Saturn (as well as the PlayStation and PC, but who cares about them). Just look at that hand-painted cover art! Spectacular. Supports the 6-Player Adaptor, which is neat.

PAL release date: sometime in 1997 (or 17th of February 1998 in Spain)
Optimized for 50 hz?: Yes
Isometric platformer that originally appeared on the Amiga in 1994. The Japanese version added extra powerups, including a running shoe that speeds up the titular Whizz, the rabbity wizard players guide through the game.

PAL release date: September 1997
Optimized for 50 hz?: Yes
The followup to Psygnosis’ futuristic combat racer Wipeout. Rich Leadbetter of Sega Saturn Magazine said it’s a much closer conversion of the PlayStation original than the Saturn port of the first Wipeout, particularly in terms of the fluidity, control and sense of speed.

PAL release date: 5th of June 1998
Optimized for 50 hz?: Yes
Our third and final PAL-exclusive football soccer game, this one developed by UK firm Silicon Dreams and published by Sega of Europe themselves … probably because the publisher of the PC and PlayStation versions, Eidos, was too cheap to do it. Speaking of being cheap, Silicon Dreams didn’t pay for the license to any real player’s name, but put all the players’ names in there anyway and hid them behind a simple cheat code. Cheeky — and legally dubious!

PAL release date: April 1998
Optimized for 50 hz?: No
Our final game on this list is Z, a real-time strategy game ported from the 1996 PC original. It pits foul-mouthed red robots in search of a good time against the party-pooper blue robots. Has excruciatingly long load times. It uses the Shuttle Mouse, despite — again — that peripheral never officially releasing in a PAL country. Take that, 3D Lemmings.