Best Of Saturn
Virtua Fighter 2 — perennially on Saturn Top 5 all-time lists, this superb arcade conversion hit in late 1995 and helped redefine what the Saturn was capable of. Very aware…
Best Of Saturn
Developed by Scarab and published by SEGA exclusively in Japan in December 1995, Godzilla: Shock on the Archipelago is a real-time strategy game. You control the Japanese defense forces and…
Best Of Saturn
The 1980s were a golden age for anime in Japan, with Super Dimension Fortress Macross standing amongst the greats with a tale of aliens attacking a futuristic Earth. The Saturn…
Best Of Saturn
A 1997 2D beat-em-up, Asuka 120% Burning Festival Limited is set at an all-girls school in Japan. Here, students represent various clubs and factions, and compete in a martial arts…
Best Of Saturn
Shmup fans are well-catered to on the Saturn, having access to fresh titles as well as compilations of past-generation games. Enter Salamander Deluxe Pack Plus: Salamander (1987), LifeForce (the 1988…
Best Of Saturn
Frequently rated amongst the Saturn’s greatest titles, 1995’s SEGA Rally Championship hit the system with a mission — to show the world that the Saturn can competently handle 3D graphics….
Review
Long-time readers may be aware that my very first foray into the original Resident Evil occurred in 2019, with no prior experience. Playing through the game as Jill Valentine, I…
Best Of Saturn
Eidos’ first foray into Saturn development, 1996’s CrimeWave is a vehicular combat game viewed from an overhead perspective. The streets of Mekeo City are overrun with crime and it’s your…
Best Of Saturn
Nowadays we take some types of games for granted as simple freeware or shareware, but in the Saturn’s heyday, they were full-fledged standalone releases. Aquazone could perhaps fall into this…
Best Of Saturn
Every legend needs a hero… and perhaps after Craig Stadler, the next biggest Saturn sports hero is Minnesota Fats himself! Minnesota Fats Pool Legend is a 1995 Data East release…
Best Of Saturn
An action-adventure with a good dose of Metroidvania sensibilities and a touch of RPG trappings, the Story of Thor 2/The Legend of Oasis landed as a 1996 sleeper hit. Join…
Best Of Saturn
1997’s Voice Fantasia is perhaps best described as a minigame-driven RPG-like hodgepodge title reliant on copious voice acting as its main draw. In the game, three crazy girls must use…
Best Of Saturn
Developed in 1997 by Daft and published by Xing, K1 Fighting Illusion is a martial arts-type game and one of three K1-based Saturn titles in Japan. Select from 12 fighters…
Best Of Saturn
Transport Tycoon is a mid-’90s PC business sim that made its way over to the Saturn in Japan. Looking very much like Sim City 2000 with its isometric viewpoint, here…
Best Of Saturn
Virtua Cop 2 kicks off our sixth year of the #BestOfSaturn series in style — and introduces our all-new Gold and Silver hashtags! Once a month we will showcase a…
Best Of Saturn
Senken Kigyouden — a.k.a. “Xian Jian Qi Xia Zhuan” in Chinese or “The Legend of Sword and Fairy” in English — is a 1999 Saturn conversion of a 1995 DOS…
Best Of Saturn
Takara’s early 1998 release of Choro Q Park finally saw the Penny Racers brand hit the Saturn after multiple entries on the PlayStation and even a Nintendo 64 game. This…
Best Of Saturn
Zero 4 Champ Doozy-J Type-R is a drag racing game with a story mode. Meet other characters, find/buy/update your car with new and improved parts, and go win those races!…
Best Of Saturn
Ever wish that Sim City 2000 was Sim City 1600? Step up to Edo City Renaissance, a town management sim set during the Edo period in Japan. Speak with important…
Best Of Saturn
A total curiosity, Hudson’s Willy Wombat materialized in mid-1997. A 3D-ish action adventure game, you control the wombat across various landscapes, collecting gems as you go. The best way to…
Best Of Saturn
Proving yet again that gaming was a far more serious affair in Japan, Densha De Go! EX, a train conductor simulator arcade conversion, hit Japanese Saturns in late 1998. Playable…
Best Of Saturn
Taito released the two-game compilation Chase HQ (1988) and Special Criminal Investigation (SCI, 1989) for Japanese Saturns in 1996. Fairly frills-free, these straightforward coin-op conversions have you chase criminal cars…
Best Of Saturn
A Christmas 1997 release in Japan, Texthoth Ludo ~Arcana Senki~ from Pai and Falcon is a 1- to 4-player board game fusing the classic Ludo game with Tarot cards. There…
Best Of Saturn
The flashy 3D graphics of Battle Arena Toshinden attracted PlayStation gamers like flies to a pile of turd… so much so, that Takara felt it wi$e to develop a Saturn…
Best Of Saturn
Guide the loveable Croc across seven islands (worlds), rescuing cute and fuzzy Gobbos from the evil clutches of Baron Dante. As one of the few true 3D platformers on Saturn,…
Best Of Saturn
Move over Gordon Ramsay, Iron Chef: Kitchen Stadium Tour has been cooking on Japanese Saturns since early 1996! Be warned, however — this isn’t really a “game.” You can do…
Best Of Saturn
We are living in the Great Saturn Renaissance… Kingdom Grand Prix, the Japan-only shmup/racing game hybrid, has been translated to English! The King has had enough of decades of conflict…
Best Of Saturn
Another long-running series that got its start on SEGA Saturn, OmiyaSoft’s Culdcept landed on Japanese consoles in late 1997. This is a strategy game done in the style of a…
Best Of Saturn
FEDA The Emblem of Justice, a 1994 Super Famicom strategy role-playing game, got the Saturn remake treatment exclusively in Japan in mid-1996. The Balformian Empire is rife with corruption and…
Best Of Saturn
Madou Monogatari (Sorcery Saga) — hidden gem? We say YES! An overhead isometric, gorgeously hand-drawn RPG whose visuals astound whether in-town, in the overworld, in dungeons, and especially in combat….
Editorial
It was never especially well highlighted outside of Eastern markets, but the humble Saturn was in fact built to handle various disc-based media over and above game and music CDs….
Best Of Saturn
Who remembers the Tamagotchi craze of the mid-’90s? Bandai wasted no time in releasing the relatively simple Tamagotchi Park on the Saturn and included a bundled pink memory cart with…
Best Of Saturn
Söldnerschild’s Ayami Kojima cover art gives strong Symphony of the Night vibes, but this SEGA and Koei collaboration is nothing the like. A strategy game set in medieval Europe that…
Best Of Saturn
If The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the Saturn ever made a baby, it might be named Cho Aniki (Big Brother). A shmup, it features homoerotic digitized man-sprites on hand-drawn…
Best Of Saturn
A mid-1995 Japan-only release based on the PC original, the psychological horror Dark Seed is a point-and-click adventure in the style of H.R. Giger. As a successful executive, you wake…