Released on May 11, 1995, the Saturn was Sega's follow-up to the Genesis. Sega put all of its stock into the project, essentially ending support for the 16-bit line once the Saturn was released. The system enjoyed moderate success in Japan, but fell flat with American gamers partly due to Sega's Japanese corporate leadership not allowing Sega of America to properly market the game to American consumers' unique tastes. The system was officially discontinued in 1999, having sold less than 10 million units worldwide. In death as in life, the system lived under the shadow of the Sony Playstation, and is popularly considered to be the red-headed stepchild of the 32-bit generation. This reputation is understandable considering the success of the Playstation, but as many classic gaming enthusiasts are starting to realize, the Saturn was a great system in its own right particularly when its import library is taken into account.

Daytona USA

Rating: 4.0

Developer: Sega-AM2 Publisher: Sega Genre: Arcade Racing Released: 05/11/1995

Rarity: Common Value: $

Released as a launch title on the Saturn, Daytona USA was a home port of Sega's wildly popular 1993 arcade hit of the same name. The arcade-style racer includes three tracks of increasing difficulty and the option of a stock car with either an automatic or manual transmission. The graphics are detailed and the colors really pop out, but the game does suffer from some pretty bad draw-in. While this doesn't detract from my enjoyment of the game, it will be instantly noticed by veterans of the arcade version. The game suffers a frame rate drop from 60fps in the arcade to only 20fps on the Saturn, but this is forgivable in a home console game of this age. The beginner course is predictably boring, but the two advanced courses are both well designed and fun to race on. The game can be played in original arcade mode, in which checkpoints must be reached before time runs out, or in "Saturn mode" which eliminates the time requirement to reach the checkpoints. Saturn mode also adds the option choosing one's car color, while arcade mode has only one. Additionally, the game can be played in either normal, Grand Prix, or endurance mode, which affects the number of laps per race. Cars can be damaged in the game which has an effect on performance, but this can be remedied by making a pit stop. The game also features 5 difficulty settings. The game is easily accessible to beginners at the normal setting, but the ability to ramp up the difficulty adds to the replay value for more seasoned players. Daytona USA is a fun racing game that is a must-have for any Saturn owner. The game was overshadowed by other arcade racers in the 32-bit generation, most notably the Ridge Racer series, but it is still a great game in its own right.

Daytona USA Championship Circuit Edition

Rating: 4.5

Developer: Sega-AM3 Publisher: Sega Genre: Arcade Racing Released: 11/21/1996

Rarity: Uncommon Value: $

Daytona USA Championship Circuit Edition is what the original Saturn release should have been. Sega tapped the team responsible for the nearly arcade-perfect port of Sega Rally Championship to update and re-release Daytona USA for the Saturn. This release fixes some of the graphical glitches, increased the frame rate to 30fps, and added 2 new tracks and 7 new cars. It also added a 2-player split-screen mode. The "Saturn Mode" was removed and replaced with "Time Attack" mode, in which the player races against the clock instead of other drivers. This mode is great for practicing but also presents a challenge different from normal racing. The selection of cars is a great addition, as each car has its strengths and weaknesses. This adds to the replay value as players will spend a lot more time trying to master each track with the different cars. The two new tracks, National Park Speedway and Desert City are both welcome additions, but National Park Speedway is easily the better of the two and might be my favorite track in the game. The game still includes three race modes (normal, Grand Prix, and Endurance), and the difficulty settings have been scaled back from 5 levels to a more reasonable 3. This game is definitely easier on the normal difficulty setting, and I am able to consistently place in the top three, whereas in Daytona USA I had a hard time doing so on a regular basis. Championship Circuit Edition also features an extended soundtrack, including remixes of the songs from the original game. This version supposedly fixed some of the problems with draw-in, but it still looks pretty bad to me. Still, it doesn't effect the core gameplay and really isn't a bother. This game is an upgrade in every way over its predecessor, and would have been worth paying full price for in 1996 for someone who already owned the original game. While slightly harder to find than the original, this game is still quite cheap and is a recommended purchase for any Saturn owner.

Elevator Action Returns

Rating: 4.5

Developer: Taito Publisher: Ving Genre: Action Released: 02/14/1997

Rarity: Import Value: $$$$

Game companies may have decided that Americans were no longer interested in 2D games in the 32 bit era, but in Japan 2D was still alive and well. Elevator Action Returns is an excellent example of the kind of games that we missed out on due to the 3D craze. The game distills the best that the arcade original had to offer and mixes it with an equal dose of Contra to create a more engaging action experience. The first level is very reminiscient of the original game, as you make your way down a slender building using its elevators while ducking into red-colored doors to steal enemy files. When you get to the bottom of the building, you're picked up by a friendly van and driven away. After that the game, while maintaining the same very basic gameplay elements, diversifies itself into a much more varied world. You still fight through buildings, getting around using elevators and going into the red doors to steal data, but instead of high-rise after high-rise, you fight through airports, train stations, and construction sites which are laid out in a much less linear fashion. New to the series are blue doors, which when entered will give you power-ups, items, or points and unlike the red doors, are not mandatory. You can now choose between three characters, each with their own strengths and weaknesses along with a unique standard weapon, and the enemies are much more varied, including zombies and guard dogs. Weapons at your disposal now include machine guns, rocket pistols, and grenades, along with the stock hand gun. Elevator Action Returns is a pretty pricey game for the Saturn and well worth it in my opinion, but the game is also included on the Taito Legends 2 disc that was released on the Xbox and Playstation 2 and can be picked up for next to nothing.

NHL 97

Rating: 3.0

Developer: Visual Concepts Publisher: Electronic Arts Genre: Sports/Ice Hockey Released: 10/31/1996

Rarity: Common Value: $

I've probably spent more time playing NHL 97 (albeit on the Playstation) than any other hockey game on any system. In fact, it was one of the main reasons that I finally upgraded to a Playstation from the Sega Genesis. When it came time to review the Saturn version of this game, I was worried that the game would be an inferior port, due to the Saturn's bad reputation for handling 3D games. Thankfully, this is not the case. While NHL 97 looks very bad compared to subsequent EA hockey games, for its time the game was a real leap forward from the 16-bit generation. The players are all large and fully polygonal, but the low polygon count takes away a lot of the detail. The glass over the boards looks more like a window screen, but the boards themselves are covered in advertisements which helps add to the realism of the game. Some of the proportions in the game seem off, such as the ice being too small and the nets being too narrow. The crowd noise is nearly nonexistent, making you feel like you're playing in an empty arena, but the sound effects are quite good. I especially like the sound the puck makes when it hits a post. The game has no play-by-play or color commentary (the NHL series would get that the following year), and instead has John Davidson acting as both the arena announcer and commentator, but he only shows up before and after the game and during intermissions. His comments are all done using full motion video, and due to the relatively small number of videos his comments are always vague and often out of place. Still it had a cool "wow" factor in its day. Continuing the style of the latter 16-bit games, NHL 97 is fast-paced. Skaters zip around the ice quickly and deliver hard body checks. Shots are for some reason very slow, unless you take the time to really wind up first. The games responsive controls and crisp passing make it fun to play, and I only get frustrated when my goalie lets in a softie, which unfortunately happens more often than it should. I love stat tracking, and this game offers plenty of it. Like most hockey games, it offers exhibition, full season, and playoff modes, as well as player creation, trades, free agent signings. It also includes a shootout mode which can be useful for practicing breakaway shots and manually controlling your goalie. Among the multiple camera angles available is a helmet cam which while not very useful is cool to check out in that it was not possible on the 16-bit systems. NHL 97 is easily the worst 32-bit game in EA's NHL franchise, but I would still much rather play it than any of the 16-bit iterations.

NHL All-Star Hockey '98

Rating: 2.0

Developer: Radical Entertainment Publisher: Sega Genre: Sports/Ice Hockey Released: 1997

Rarity: Common Value: $

The first time you fire this game up, you're greeted with a full motion video highlight reel of big hits and big goals from the NHL that gets you psyched to play some hockey. Unfortunately the game that follows will leave you feeling unfulfilled. All-Star Hockey allows you to play a single game, a full season with a length of the player's choice, a playoff season, or a world tournament featuring 16 national teams, and the game has both NHL and NHLPA licenses. The game settings are fully customizable, as one would expect. Everything needed for a proper hockey video game s present, but where the game fails to deliver is in the actual gameplay itself. The slow skating makes me feel like I'm playing an early 16-bit hockey game, only the animation is choppier and the frame rate is worse. The game tracks stats, but they can only be viewed after a match is over, which is annoying. The obligatory fighting is terrible. Most hockey game developers don't do a proper job of programming a decent fighting experience, so just leave it out of the game! The crowd noise is a bit too quiet, but is realistic as the crowd reacts to the action on the ice. The game does have a stadium announcer which helps add some realism, but the announcer sounds like a text-to-speech program and mispronounces a lot of the players' names. Also, by this time EA's NHL 98 had play-by-play announcing and color commentary which makes this game look even more primitive. Unfortunately, if you were a hockey fan and a Saturn owner back in 1998, you didn't have much choice, as Electronic Arts bailed on the Saturn after NHL 98. Perhaps thankfully, this was the last hockey game released for the Sega Saturn console. While far from unplayable, I found the game to be simply unenjoyable.

Sega Ages

Rating: 2.5

Developer: Sega AM-2 Publisher: Working Designs Genre: Arcade Compilation Released: 11/06/1997

Rarity: Uncommon Value: $$$

Sega Ages is an arcade compilation disc from Sega featuring 3 classic arcade titles; OutRun, Afterburner II, and Space Harrier. All three games are arcade-perfect translations and include options menus which allow you to alter the control scheme, adjust the difficulty level, and listen to music and sound effects, plus a few options specific to each game. While the games themselves are perfectly presented, the game selection is severely lacking, which I suspect is because they had intended to release additional "Sega Ages" discs as they did in Japan. Admittedly, I am not much of a fan of Space Harrier or Afterburner II, so for me OutRun is this game's saving grace. Even if that weren't the case, strip away the presentation and Afterburner II and Space Harrier are awfully similar in terms of gameplay. Sega Ages seems incomplete without the likes of Super Hang-On, Michael Jackson's Moonwalker (the arcade version, not the Genesis version), Zaxxon, Super Monaco GP, Pengo, Golden Axe, Frogger, etc. Of course, in the 32-bit generation, nickel-and-diming consumers with ultra-lean arcade collections was the name of the game with series like the Namco Collections and Arcade's Greatest Hits doing little to take advantage of the increased storage capacity of the CD-ROM, instead banking on gamers' willingness to pay full price for a paltry three classic arcade games. Equally disheartening is Sega Ages' complete lack of bonus material of any kind. One needs only to look to the "Capcom Generations" series on the Saturn, which sadly never made it to the United States, to see an arcade compilation done right. While each of those discs only contain a handful of games, the litany of bonus material make them the definitive collection of their respective games. Sega Ages would be tempting were it a common, sub-10 dollar title, but the price it commands due to its rarity make it an unattractive option for someone just looking for a retro compilation to play.

Tetris Plus

Rating: 4.0

Developer: The Tetris Company Publisher: Jaleco Genre: Puzzle Released: 09/30/1996

Rarity: Common Value: $

Tetris Plus was the only Tetris game released for the Sega Saturn in the United States, and is a port of the 1990 Japanese-only arcade game of the same name. Along with the requisite "Classic" and "Vs." modes, Tetris Plus features a "puzzle" mode (isn't the whole game a puzzle?) that is really the meat and potatoes of this release. In puzzle mode, you help the archaeologist, known only as "The Professor" navigate through ancient tombs by clearing the blocks standing in his way. It is your job to get him to the bottom of the pile (marked "GOAL") before the spiked ceiling, which descends periodically, kills him. The catch is that he will constantly climb to the top of the pile if he doesn't have a space at least two squares wide in which to wait, even if that means that he is climbing right up into the spikes and his own death. There are 4 excavation sites of 20 puzzles each, for a total of 80. In each area, the puzzles get progressively harder, but you have as many chances as you need to pass each one. The trick to completing each puzzle is to figure out which blocks need to be removed first, as simply trying to remove all of the blocks as quickly as possible is not necessarily the best strategy in every situation. Vs. mode plays similarly to the puzzle mode in that each player is racing to get the professor to the bottom of the pile first. The game adds blocks to your opponent's pile by pushing them up from underneath, which inches the professor closer to the spikes. The game also features an "edit" mode which lets you create and save your own puzzles. The game controls better than the Japanese-only "Tetris S", but it still doesn't feel as good as the older Tetris releases. I felt like I was fighting to get the blocks to move fast enough, and it took too long for each piece to be locked in place after it hit the pile. When you are racing against a descending ceiling of spikes, you obviously want to get blocks in place as quickly as possible. I don't really like the way it handles, but the first time I booted up Tetris Plus for this review I played it for about 3 hours straight, so obviously the controls aren't that bad. The puzzle mode really adds something new to the Tetris experience, and this game's polished presentation and detailed graphics give it some eye candy as well.

Tetris S

Rating: 1.5

Developer: Bullet Proof Software Publisher: Sega Genre: Puzzle Released: 12/27/1996

Rarity: Import Value: $

I grew up playing Tetris. I got a Game Boy the Christmas after it was launched and played Tetris more than any other game on that system. The Tengen version of Tetris is one of my favorite NES games, and it is a crime against humanity that Nintendo forced it off of the market. Because of my longstanding love for the game, I am always interested in checking out any new Tetris ports that I come across. Usually I'm left disappointed, and Tetris-S doesn't do anything to break that trend. This should be a great version of the classic puzzle game, but it looks a lot better than it plays. Especially when things start to speed up, you need controls that are crisp and respond quickly, but Tetris S makes me feel like I'm playing Tetris on my cell phone. The game feels unresponsive when I'm trying to manipulate the pieces, and at the same time moves too fast when I am trying to move them from one side of the screen to the other. Three game modes are included; classic mode, which is just single player Tetris, and versus modes against either the computer or a second player. The versus modes have a neat twist in that instead of just dumping garbage onto your opponent's pile, you cause their pieces to temporarily drop at a lightning-fast pace. I assume this is designed to give you a fighting chance against the sudden onslaught of puzzle pieces, but since the game's controls are so terrible, it might as well just dump garbage instead. Tetris S isn't totally unplayable, but when there are as many Tetris titles out there as there are, inferior ports like this don't need to be tolerated. Over 20 years after it was released, I'm still looking for something to take the place of Tengen Tetris.

Virtua Fighter

Rating: 3.5

Developer: Sega AM-2 Publisher: Sega Genre: Fighting Released: 05/11/1995

Rarity: Common Value: $

Virtua fighter shares many traits with another Saturn game, Daytona USA , as both a Saturn launch title and a home conversion of a 1993 hit arcade game. The two games were both hampered by Sega's pushing up the release date of the Saturn console, cutting the development cycle short. That being said, much like Daytona USA, Virtua Fighter deserves a spot on the shelf of any Saturn owner, not only for its historical significance but also because it's a good game. The game is noteworthy in the annals of video game history for being the first fully 3D arcade fighting game, which in the early 90's made it stand out against juggernaut franchises Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat. Virtua Fighter features 8 characters, and the selection screen includes such bizarre "statistics" as job, occupation, and blood type. The game has only two modes - "Arcade" and "Vs.", both of which are self-explanatory. Probably because it was rushed, the game's graphics have a low polygon count that do nothing to push the limits of the Saturn and are overly simplistic even for a launch title, but the game has a clean look and runs very smoothly. Sega took full advantage of the CD format with a stellar soundtrack, although the sound effects are nothing to get excited about. The game play appears simple at first, using only three buttons for punch, kick, and block but the game has a plethora of special moves performed using button combos. As is the case with most fighting games, this is where the true depth of the game lies. Not only does Virtua Fighter have a large number of combo moves common to all characters, there are also numerous character-specific ones as well. Aside from the lackluster visuals my only real complaint is that the controls and the game in general can sometimes feel sluggish, which appears to have been part of the game design. The game responds quickly to a simple punch or kick but special moves can be slow to execute, which I think is supposed to play into the strategy of when and when not to use them. Virtua Fighter certainly isn't the best fighting game ever made, but its simple appearance belies a fairly deep gaming experience.