I’ve had a funny old day today.
I’ve spent it mostly on here doing ArtRage paintings, on YouTube looking at old videogames, and in my head, thinking about stuff. I learned that NiGHTS into Dreams is coming to the Xbox Live Arcade on Friday, and that got me thinking about the old Sega Saturn – and what an amazing console it was. I’ve owned two in my time, one was packed off to make way for an N64 (such a bad move looking back now), and the second one was sold because I felt I never played it enough to warrant keeping it. Oh, and because we were moving into The Big House and we’d have nowhere near enough room to even think about having all my consoles set up. Jane bought me the second one for Valentines Day one year, she is so awesome. It’s weird thinking back about all those old consoles, I’d love to still own them, but they, along with all their games, take up so much space. I know I could download emulators and ROMs and play all these old games again, but there’s something special, some intangible feeling, about playing a physical copy on an actual console, something that digital copies can’t emulate.
I’ll leave talking about NiGHTS until I’ve played it again, but here are some of my favourite games for the Sega Saturn.
I know Guardian Heroes still is great – I recently completed the Xbox Live Arcade re-release. The Bubble Bobble/Rainbow Islands double pack was pretty awesome, Mum loved it. I liked Die Hard Arcade, that was like Streets of Rage in 3D. Panzer Dragoon! Why oh why don’t they re-release this series! Panzer Dragoon Orta was great, but I’d love to play Panzer Dragoon Saga again. You know, I had a look on the internet a while back to see if there was any information on rare enemies in Panzer Dragoon Saga, but I never uncovered anything. I’m sure I saw blue bird-things where there were usually red bird-things, I think it was in Uru. Then today, in my nostalgic state of mind, I was listening to the music from the Gillwing boss fight in NiGHTS, and scrolled through the “Related videos” on YouTube. There, to my utter disbelief, was a video titled “AZEL: PANZER DRAGOON RPG – Rare Enemies”. I was right – I was not dreaming or going mental. It’s always good when your sanity is unexpectedly justified. I was also convinced that the rare Music Box item did something other than just let you listen to lullabies at your camp, but I’ve not found any evidence to support my theory, despite extensive internet research.
Baku Baku Animal was a game much like Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, only instead of matching gems with power gems, you matched animals with the food that particular animal likes. I’m not sure if Earthworm Jim was on the Saturn or the Megadrive… Either way, it and it’s sequel were great. There was never a proper Sonic game on the Saturn, we had to make do with Sonic R and Sonic Jam. Sonic R was brilliant, even if it was just for the soundtrack. Everybody’s Super Sonic Racing is up there in the best Sonic tunes of all time. I can’t remember if we ever actually had the blue and pink plastic guns for Virtua Cop, but I do remember using them to shoot polygonal bad guys. Virtual On is another game I’ve recently rediscovered via Xbox Live Arcade – but I wish I hadn’t. I remember the Saturn game being amazing, but it has not aged well at all. I would rather have stuck with my memories of sitting in a full-sized 2-player arcade cabinet trying to get my head around the twin-stick controls.
Burning Rangers was amazing, but I have a curious memory of it, just like Panzer Dragoon Saga. I never did rescue all of the people. I’m pretty sure I saw the last one I needed once but missed him for whatever reason. I’m certain the levels had several variations, some being incredibly rare, just like Phantasy Star Universe. I’m sure the inhabitants of the levels were variable too, some being rarer than others. I missed a rare survivor on a rare map, nightmare. I have to mention Athlete Kings, simply because it lets me tell you how durable those Saturn controllers were. World records were broken, controllers were not. Tomb Raider was a real first. It was the first time I had heard orchestral music in a videogame, and the first time I can remember of having to go in a direction I was not familiar with. In the St. Francis’ Folly level I was bemused and intrigued that instead of climbing up a structure, you had to safely make it down to the bottom.
Fighting games were a Saturn highlight. Sega ones like Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Fighter Kids, Fighting Vipers, Last Bronx and the fucking astounding Fighters Megamix. And Street Fighter games! Oh man. Not only them but Marvel games too! X-Men; Children of the Atom, Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men vs Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter… Amazing. I chipped my Saturn simply to play most of those. And mustn’t forget to mention the Darkstalkers games. What’s my favourite of all time? It’s a toss-up between Street Fighter Alpha II Gold and Super Street Fighter IV you know.
I’m sure I’ve forgotten loads, feel free to have a go at me and my bad memory. What were your favourite Sega Saturn games?
