Articles by Peter Malek

Before the Budokai games, there was Dragon Ball Z: The Legend on the Saturn, an up to 3 vs. 3 fighting game featuring 2D sprites moving about in 3D worlds….

After hastily transplanting Shining Wisdom from the Genesis / MegaDrive to the Saturn, Shining the Holy Ark was Sonic Software Planning’s first all-Saturn effort. A masterful dungeon-crawler featuring colorful graphics,…

Before Metal Gear Solid, Hideo Kojima made Policenauts. Policenauts is a serious science fiction graphic adventure / visual novel – with the occasional shooting scene – that supports both the…

Sailor Moon Super S: Various Emotion is a 1996 2D vs. fighting game exclusive to Japan. Based on the uber-popular Sailor Moon anime, players fight evil by moonlight while trying…

AI Igo is the Saturn version of the popular table game Go. A 19×19 square board hosts matches, where the object is to capture more territory than the opponent. Black…

A Koei production, EMIT Vol 1 (there were 3 in total) is a visual novel meant to teach the English language to Japanese gamers. In the options menu, the text…

A popular entry of the long-running series, Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire is a Koei release. A deep management and war strategy game, this title demands…

Black/Matrix is a story-driven strategy RPG released mid-1998, set in an alternate universe where the forces of Hell successfully defeated the forces of Heaven. Full of Judeo-Christian iconography and themes,…

Sakura Taisen (Sakura Wars) is a 1996 collaboration between SEGA and Red Company. The game, dubbed a ‘dramatic adventure’, is part visual novel, part dating sim, and part strategy RPG…

The game that launched alongside the Saturn 27 years ago in the West. Representing a shift for SEGA and influencing the future of videogames as a whole, VF portrayed real…

Metal Fighter Miku is part visual novel, part QTE adventure style futu-wrestling game based on the 13-episode 1994 anime. Set in the year 2061 where wrestlers wear futuristic armor, you…

Always hovering amongst the greatest Bomberman games of all time, Saturn Bomberman doesn’t disappoint. Play through a single player story mode or step up to one of the greatest mupliplayer…

The earliest effort from what would become the legendary Vanillaware team, Atlus’ Princess Crown is an absolutely gorgeous 2D showpiece action/beat-em-up/RPG. Play as Queen Gradriel and crush the demonic forces…

The recently unearthed Saturn version of Tomb Raider 2 was actually completed back in 1997 but due to Eidos’ deal with Sony for exclusivity, was buried at the time. ‘Hardware…

One of the more unusual official Saturn ‘games’ that could be bought in North America. Developed by C-Seven, this CD cleaning kit included a soft brush, cleaning fluid, and a…

Perhaps the finest video pinball game of all time, Digital Pinball: Necronomicon offers three tables rendered in glorious high resolution, 60 fps action, amazing physics, music by John Petrucci (Dream…

The seventh episode of the Ogre Battle saga, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together is a Final Fantasy Tactics-esque SRPG set in enchanted Valeria. Fight your way through scenarios to…

Langrisser Dramatic Edition is a compilation / remake of the first two Langrisser games, originally for the Japanese MegaDrive. Strategy RPGs at heart, the player controls over 30 units of…

Another game based on a successful anime, Mobile Suit Gundam is one of several Gundam games on the Saturn. This one, released in 1995, features plenty of anime cutscenes, in-game…

A late European exclusive, Rage Software’s Trash It features… bland graphics, ugly sprites, horrendous controls, and banal gameplay. Trash various shapes and buildings and then clean up your demolition. The…

Pretty Fighter X is a remake of sorts of the SNES original, Pretty Fighter. An all-female cast of fighters square off in a fighting tournament. The game is similar to…

Bandai’s 1995 Saturn effort based on the wildly popular manga SLAM DUNK, “From TV Animation Slam Dunk: I Love Basketball” is a 1 or 2 player sports sim with a…