I love Saturn. It was my favorite and my system of choice at the time. Radiant Silvergun, Shining Force 3, Shining the Holy Ark, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Dragon Force, and many arcade classics such as Sega Rally, Daytona USA, Virtual Cops, House of the Dead, Die Hard Arcade, and X-Men vs Street Fighter.
You got some Heavy Hitters there. I grew up with the Sega Master System and the Sega Genesis, but sadly didn't get a Saturn till years after love the library. As a matter of fact I was playing some Panzer Dragoon Zwei today. I'm going through the whole series from beginning to end.
I think Sega just really dropped the ball at that time with marketing. The 32x and Saturn being on the shelves at the same time was confusing, and no Saturn sonic game??
I prefer the N64 version (yes I know about the censorship) because it came with new weapons and goodies. It was worth having even if you played the other versions.
Sonic Extreme was being planned for it. But the Dev team was having issues maintaining Sonic’s fast speed on the system without major slowdown. It was a big issue and they never figured it out after lots of delays. I’ve watched many documentaries on it. There were lots of things working against it even more then this reason. One video I saw said that by the time they figured it out it was too late and the Dreamcast was the main focus by then.
@@redstratus97 There was internal conflict between Sega of Japan and Sega of America. The US team developing Sonic Extreme was using Sonic Team's Nights into Dreams game engine without their permission, and Yuji Naka threatened to leave Sega if the US team did not stop. This caused the team to basically try and start over. The funny thing is Sonic Team had included Sonic in Christmas Nights, a free holiday release in most regions. Sonic Team would later produce Sonic Jam, a collection of prior Genesis Sonic titles, with a 3D hub world showing that a 3D Sonic was indeed possible on the Saturn. Decisions both Sega of Japan and Sega America took hindered the Saturn and crippled Sega in the long run. SoJ: -focusing more on the home market with the Saturn than the global market , sure they finally beat Nintendo there and it was their best selling home market console, but globally the N64 trounced it (not to mention PSX/PS1), and the Genesis and Master System out-sold it and the Dreamcast nearly beat it in half the time. -abandoning the 16 bit console that was still fighting the good fight against the SNES worldwide -abandoning some of their 16 bit franchises -not taking any input from SoA on the direction of the next (32 bit gen) console, ideas brought would eventually end up being their competition that generation -panic reaction to the Atari Jaguar leading to the rushed decision to make the 32x SoA: -after being given the order to contend with the Jaguar, made the final decision as the form of the 32X as an add-on, should have been either a standalone console, or not have been made at all -new management decide to not import many Japanese titles to the Saturn (among these many language heavy titles) -same management announced that the Saturn was not Sega's future, which halted a lot of games in development, pissed off devs and consumers alike, and likely denied Sega themselves of much needed funds for the upcoming generation.
@@lazarushernandez5827 spot on, and wasn't that one of the reasons EA didn't launch anything for the dreamcast? so those seeking their FIFA/NFL/NEED FOR SPEED fix essentially ruled out the dreamcast in favour of the Ps2/xbox. Shame because the saturn is not a bad console. As you say just poor infighting and bad descisions.
@@BiohazardX9 EA wanted to be the exclusive provider of sports titles on the Dreamcast, Stolar had just purchased Visual Concepts who was tasked with creating sports games ( The 2K series). With the pedigree EA sports game had, they would have easily sold well on the DC, something must have happened in the negotiations for things to end up as they did. 🤷♂️
There is one hidden SHMUP gem on the N64-legendary developer Treasure's _Sin and Punishment._ IIRC, it was the first and only game where you played primarily in "left postion", with your right thumb on the control stick and your left thumb on the D-pad. I didn't get to play it until the Wii shop years later, but it was an excellent title worthy of its developer's reputation, and very much ahead of its time. It also has a superb sequel on the Wii, _Sin and Punishment: Star Successor,_ which utilized the pointer better than any other action game on the system.
I bought my Saturn in 1996 after a month of overtime at TEXAS (now Homebase) I still have it now, boxed and working perfectly and is my favourite console. Being an underdog as a kid, but proving many wrong as the years passed as i became an adult - i have a huge soft spot for the Saturn and the WiiU. Great system, fantastic games and perfect memories of wonderful times.
This was a time when each console was demonstrably different . Each console had something to offer. However, the significance of super mario 64, zelda ocarina of time, and goldeneye are hard to ignore. Still, all 3 consoles deserve credit.
@Caleb Price indeed. I just felt it was important to make the point that once, each console was actually unique. Sega does deserve some respect for game design too. Unfortunately, they increasingly squandered it, chasing Sony and Nintendo. However, each to their own. I'm a Nintendo fan boy (if you can call a 52 year old a boy!) I do respect Sega's legacy though.
@@jamiecampbell8855 I owned a Saturn, never a 64. I didn't get a playstation till years later when I won it. haha. So I remember playing Virtua FIghter 2, Virtua Cop, Fighters Megamix, etc. But then just playing 10 minutes of Ocarina of Time or Mario 64 at a friends house....ya I can remember exactly where I was trying those games. Even now, they hold up so darn well. Saturn had a chance to be the home of FF7, and a great Sonic game. If those 2 games would have happened, it would have changed everything.
@@pfcalebBack then... Try and play those games now.. Saturn has aged like fine wine thanks to most of its library being 2D and not needing the nostalgia goggles or justify it with the classic line "At the time" lol
5th generation of consoles + 90s vibes + well exposed review + British accent= excellent content. P.D.: Nice channel and greetings from a Sega Saturn player who had a PS1 in the 90s and lost good stuff.
I remember writing Nintendo power as a teen and begging them to put xvsf on there. They graciously replied to me saying the 64 couldn’t handle 2d sprites well
The Saturn was the right console at the wrong time. But growing up, despite the little time I had with it, I always thought the Saturn had the better library. I did not like Mario 64 though so there's that lol. Plus the system seemed much cooler to me as a kid and found the 64's shortcomings way more glaring. But man the AKI wrestling games, Smash and Goldeneye will probably forever be in my fondest of memories with gaming. Really makes me miss the time when the art form filled me with so much wonder and joy.
Two awesome systems. But to be fair, a 4K limit per texture isn't as big an issue as many would have it seem - technically on N64, all developers had to do was tile more textures and switch of the anti aliasing and texture filtering... however, due to Nintendo, developers faced an uphill struggle with not only the limited memory on cartridge but they had to wrestle with broken dev kits, and heavy restrictions placed on them on how they were able to write code to suit their type of game. The N64 was designed to be flexible by SGI, they envisioned a system were the power was in the developers hands, however Nintendo saw different.
" a necessity for gracious living". I love it! Another great review, Lady Decade! I feel the Saturn is getting so much more love now than when it was current. Saturn still aimed for that being the arcade home which I think it mostly succeeded over N64, especially with fighters. I think you perfectly outlined how it outclassed N64, but just couldn't get a good foothold in the west. We didn't know what we had.
Agreed, shame Sega of America had a crappy COO in Bernie Stolar at the time, who basically banned the localization of RPGs and relegated Working Designs to a pittance when it came to E3. Had many of those RPGs came over? I'm sure the Saturn would've done far better.
I'd say it's personal preference. For me, The Saturn all day long, even at the time. I remember mates not even knowing what one was and it was fun showing them something new (PS and N64 owners). You can understand why Nintendo fans loved the n64 though.
Out of the 4 people who bought a Saturn in the west, 3 hate n64 with the force of a thousand suns, in the other hand 99% of the n64 owners didnt even know saturn existed, and probably liked the dreamcast very much 😅
Saturn owner back in the day here. We also had a PS as we needed one eventually for the quantity. Mates had N64's. They wasn't a bad console, it just felt a bit young and didn't appeal to me (not taking anything away from it as people who love Nintendo and their ips will love it). However, I really liked the star wars games on there. Goldeneye and Zelda were something different too for its time.
i remember being a kid and wanting a sega saturn more than any other console and my parents wouldn't do it, maybe they couldn't, idk, but it looked very cool to a child-aged me.
No mention that the Saturn was discontinued in the same year (1998) in both the US and Europe, but the N64 lasted until 2002 in both territories. The Saturn (Optimistically) sold about half as many units in their respective lifespans in the time that they were supported, which meant that it was rather competitive. Look, I love the Saturn, and have more games on it during its short life by more than a 2 to 1 ratio than the N64 even though the N64 lasted twice as long. The issue wasn't with the hardware on either of the systems. It was with how stupidly Sega handled everything before the system came out, as well as after its release.
Its an interesting comparison, because the Saturn might generally have the stronger library, its strengths were (RPG's excepted) in genres that ended up falling out of prominence in the era following like light gun titles, shoot 'em ups, & general arcade ports. The N64 by contrast had a smaller list of games, but ended up inventing or greatly elevating series that ended up sustaining it for a long time afterward, to the point where they became staples. Even Sega's brilliance with 2D titles occurred alongside that style's last hurrah for a long time as 3D platormer/action titles strongly innovated by the likes of Mario 64 & Zelda OoT ended up getting the spotlight. Basically the Saturn's arguably stronger quality is competing with the longer legacy of the N64.
I'd say each is better in different ways N64 for pick up and play with very little load time as well as the only platform worthy to be called a multiplayer machine p Playstation has the biggest games list and highest polygon graphics But Saturn is the absolute Goat for 2D arcade Ports Same isn't Said for the following generation which is a easy Xbox - GameCube - Dreamcast - PS2 If any game released in more then one platform get them in that order as the PS2 was the worst all around not counting exclusives
@@smg4reblooperd182 Good take, I disagree with the polygon graphics though. The heights of the N64 outclass the psx by far in that regard. Just imagining the Psx trying to run games like Turok 2, Percect Dark, Conker, Shadow Man in its N64 build, rayman 2 in its N64 build, Majoras Mask, Lylat Wars, Wave Race and so on would smoke the good old Sony system. There is nothing even slightly comparable in terms of 3D graphics on the PlayStation.
Since I love anything 2D, I would take the Saturn and its library of games over the Nintendo 64. Probably not the popular opinion. But I would play all those awesome 2D fighters and shooters more than any of 3D games the N64 had.
Yes, the Saturn. I've said it before, I am and always will be a Sega fanboy, but Sega is a good example of dire mismanagement. The internal struggle of Sega Japan and Sega USA weighs heavily on the down-fall of Sega as a console company, I love Sega hardware. They were all gems in their own right and all show their roots in the arcade and where along the best of their time. Just a shame Sega didn't know what to do with their successes...
Agree. Sega of japan being very toxic to sega of America during sega saturn basically killed sega saturn sells in usa. Them self sabotaging the new sonic game and getting it cancel which sonic was huge in the west hurt them a ton.
Great video on the Saturn from the Japanese+a few Asian perspective LD, highly appreciated. But let's add some more facts. 1) in Japan, Saturn had an advantage of a certain genre that were specifically popular among there - Dating sims and Text adventures. 2) Sega was the 1st company to introduce the rating system to Japan. Which allowed developers to make "sensitive viewership" games on the system. Sure it didn't lead to great sales but it did make the Japanese Saturn library more interesting than its rivals. 3) this topic is slightly mentioned in the vid, but if a same game was released for multiple platforms, it was usually best to play on the Saturn. Due to the fact Saturn had better 2D/Sound capability and the Saturn version was revised to have better gameplay. I could talk days about my favorite Sega console, but this is getting longer than I expected so I'll end it here for now. Again thanks for the good work!
The Research You do on this stuff is incredible. I really enjoy all your videos. Looking forward to your next one. God Bless and take care, You Rock Lady Decade!!!
I also really loved the Sega Saturn we used to play the Japanese version of X-Men vs Street Fighter with the 4MB ram cart and it was so fast and Arcade perfect
The question is like : do you prefer play like 10 all-time classics, and the rest is garbage (because let's get real, outside N64's "big games", there's nothing worth playing), or not having those all-time classics, but tons of super cool games ?
The Sega Saturn may in retrospect, have a library that can match or exceed the N64's, but the Saturn was a miserable console to own at the time in the late 90's. The System disappeared off store shelves completely in 1997, none of your friends had one so you couldn't swap games, true 3D games were rare, and the only way to continue being a Saturn gamer was to order Japanese-language imports from those sketchy phone numbers that you found on the back pages of gaming magazines - and those cost a fortune.
I find this curious, because I'm Brazilian and here it was easy to have a Saturn. Piracy was huge, so Japanese and European games were easy to get. I played a lot of X-Men vs. Street Fighter, having a Saturn was as easy as having a Playstation. I had a lot of games, about 40.
I'll say that I had lots of fighting games that I loved on N64. Mortal Kombat 4, Ultimate Mortal kombat, Clay Fighter 63 1/3, Clay Fighter Sculpter's Cut, Mace the Dark Ages, Super Smash Brothers, Xena, and War Gods to name some.
Killer Instinct is goated, but it's not holding up the entire console against Alpha 2, KOF 96, and VF2. And those are just the best games of each company. And don't even joke about OG Smash Bros. being anywhere close to the same level as golden age Capcom or SNK.
I just love the Sega Saturn better than N64. Because I love playing Sonic 1 , 2 or Virtua Fighter game and even Shadow Dancer were retro classical game are the best.
Sure, the Saturn had House of the Dead, but I've seen better art using an Etch A Sketch. The Saturn was a shmup beast. It's a shame we didn't get localization for most of them.
N64 emulated sprites with polygons, and the Saturn emulated polygons with (affine transformed) sprites. This is why it used quads, not triangles, and also why textures got warped, such as at the pavement at bottom of the screen of Daytona USA
Great video! I have to say that it was a strange but wonderful final year for the Saturn in the UK. Everyone was abandoning the system - even the guy at the shop counter encouraged me to buy a PS1 instead, but I had one anyway and desired the Panzer Dragoon games. Ah, to have a copy of Saga...epic win! Yes, the Saturn is a friggin monster of a machine with more processors than developers knew what to do with them all, but tricky to use them effectively in any case. One such story is in the Saturn port of Doom, where I understand that Jim Bagley had the right idea of utilizing the hardware to it's strengths, but id-software made a decision to place texture quality over speed. Although this has left Jim in a very awkward position to explain all of this in UA-cam comments, John Carmack would acknowledge this. If there are any Saturn homebrewers out there, it would be amazing to see Jim's original coding plan for Saturn-Doom implemented. And so the N64 can at least claim the superior port of Doom, which was practically a new game designed specifically for the system.
In hindsight I really wish I got a Saturn and a Dreamcast and kept them all these years. I had a Playstation at the time and I can play the whole library now on my modded backwards compatible PS3. Come to think of it, I do have pretty much everything that Sega made available as rereleases and ports on the PS3 but still wish I experienced the real deal on the original hardware. The Saturn was truly underated in my mind.
N64 had a handful of good titles. Saturn had way more. I had both and the PlayStation and they all had their good exclusives, but if I could only choose one of the three it would the Saturn.
Gotta say, the N64s place in history as a system of the future. it was at the forefront of game development, defining what modern games would be for years to come. But I'd say it was too quick to bury the past. There was still a lot more refinement to do with existing genres that the N64 just took a hard pass on. And that's really a shame. I never owned the Saturn. But from what I can tell, it took largely the opposite approach, with the Playstation being the middle man.
I dislike how publishers in the West suddenly acted as if sprite based games were now outdated and of 'yesterday', focusing on 3D graphic games. While this first step into 3D graphics on consoles was an important step in its evolution, sprite based games had not suddenly become irrelevant. Developers could now finally make console games which graphics and animations were on par with those in the arcades. And with the cd-rom medium there was now room for even more content. We could have had more games like those on the Sega and Nintendo 16 bit consoles of even higher quality. It even took a couple of early 3D graphics games to make publishers realize that the technology was not quite there yet for all game genres to make the transition.
Sadly, I've never played a Saturn. I didn't know anyone who had one back then. I asked for one for Christmas in 1996 but my parent's told me I already had 2 game systems(NES and Genesis) so no luck there. I got a N64 the next year and all but forgot about the Saturn.
The Saturn was such a beast it was rarely used to it's full potential, but yet it completely outclassed the N64. Hell, home computers outclassed it easily even with the primitive 3-D cards available at the time. Anyone remember the furor that UltraHLE caused? Your bog-standard Pentium II class PC with a 3dfx (D3D wrappers were soon available) running ROMs of Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time at full speed while the N64 was still current made Nintendo collectively flip the fawk out. It was unreal.
You had me angrily defending my beloved North American N64 and Ps1, I just repurchased a Ps1 last week, and never sold my N64, still got it under the TV rn... but I stopped defending... because I LOVE love 2d art, and I aaalways wanted a Saturn as a kid, but never got one :( .... until now, as a 30 something year old man. Lol. Just bought it from Japan 2 weeks ago, just got my Satiator in the mail 2 days ago, just changed the watch battery 2 minutes ago. 😊 I love your channel, you make me excited to FINALLY play Saturn. I hope I love it a much as I did my childhood Sega Genesis. 😊❤
The Saturn came along at a time when people desperately wanted 3D because it looked more next-generation. The reaction a lot of people was "is THIS the next generation?" whereas with the Playstation it was "this IS the next generation." The polygons made a difference. I got a Saturn with Gex when it came out and even my parents were unimpressed, it was just another sidescroller. Complete with the fact that I wasn't into fighters then, the purchase felt like a mistake.
The ONLY reason Saturn outsold the N64 in japan, was because any Japanese youth that WEREN'T playing a Saturn had the SH!T beat out of them by Segata Sanshiro! Even kids at Christmas time were terrified at him showing up!
I want whatever the Japanese people are smoking haha 😆 thank you as always for making top-tier content and I appreciate all of your dedicated time and efforts into making each video. I was born in 1986 and it was amazing to experience a ton of amazing times through the whole '90s decade. It was seriously the best time for gaming systems as far as with how many were out at a time every year with consistently innovative game titles. I love retro systems the most since they were all a part of my entire childhood up until being 36 now. I still play GBC and SNES regularly with emulators on my phone every day and I plan on restoring my collection of games/systems/peripherals to what I used to own growing up. Gameboy was technically my very first game system and my first game was the OG Kirby's Dreamland game. It was absolutely the best decade of my entire life so far, since everything was soo revolutionary and just kept getting better and better with how many companies there used to be and all of the really creative ideas they had at the time. 💚 💚
Was always a Big N fanboy, but the Saturn would have been my system of choice in retrospect. Thank the heavens I got on board with the Dreamcast! Praise Jeebus!
N64 had Mortal Kombat Trilogy. At the time it was the most expensive video game ever made. I paid over 100$ USD for it when it came out and I loved that game.
The controller looks more like what young me at the time was used to, coming off the SNES. I saw the N64 controller on a system set up at WalMart, and that put me off the system for good. Then I was out of gaming until sometime during the PS1’s lifetime, on a whim I went shopping and got a PS1 and a copy of MK Trilogy and I was back in.
Growing up I was always a sega kid and thought nintendo was over rated. Now I love nintendo and think that Sony is overrated.... so opinions change, but n64 was always terrible in my book outside of maybe 5 games.
Love your vids! Rather watch your reports on these classic games/consols over the many other geeky swats out there. it would seem they don't like your channel, but hey, they don't have the allure you do. :) but they do have many chips on their shoulders about your awesome content. And most probably childhood issues..ha. keep it up! Looking forward to another mario vid also btw :) tc x
Hah! Absolutely love it. What a great video and interesting presentation. Personally, never enjoyed the N64 very much, largely due to the controller and game selection. Much preferred the Playstation. It is nice to hear about the Saturn's finer qualities, since I adored the Dreamcast at my friend's house. Jet Set Radio and Soul Calbur ALONE justified the price of entry.
Agree. Saturn was better and that is particularly true today. Here’s the thing though - back in the day when the consoles were released, the N64 games were must-play games - Mario 64 and the Zelda’s. I can’t say that about the Saturn. And I can’t say that about the Saturn today honestly. But if I were to choose one to retro game on today, it would be the Saturn - the games are better and more relevant today in terms of fun to play. The n64 today? I’d say there’s maybe 5-6 games still worth playing. But Mario 64 and the Zelda’s were revolutionary experiences for the day. The Saturn just didn’t do 3d at the same standard, and in the day it was all about 3d
I agree with everything you said here, and i think there was one more thing that N64 games didn't have probably because of the lack of space in the cardridges, i'm talking about the "FMV" or "CGI" movies, they were used specially for the openings/intros, but games like Lunacy/Torico and The Mansion of Hidden Souls had lots of them, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil 1, etc, i recently found out that the fan community made a version of RE2 for the N64 with the CGI, but the sound quality and framerate is pretty inferior from other consoles like PS1, Dreamcast or Gamecube, obviously🤔
I think the real question is: Ignoring the limitations of the hardware, Would you go for a a handful of Legendary N64 games OR play explore Saturn's mostly solid library titles ranging from Good to Mythical? I find myself exploring the Saturn. The N64 diehards baffle me a bit as many of the franchises they love have evolved and continued into the modern day whereas the Saturn's Legacy is only now being touched upon. If It's Nostalgia then they've certainly got more of it than most.
As far as the number of games that interest me Saturn wins- tons of 2D games, arcade ports, straight up weird experimental things... but the 64, while having less of a library for me in numbers has games that impact me more. GoldenEye is one of my favorite games ever, Perfect Dark exists, Mario 64's atmosphere grabs me, Banjo I first played recently with a friend who grew up with it and it felt fresh to me. In short, Saturn is quantity over quality, 64 is quality over quantity for me. I am aware a lot of the community hates the 64 and its honestly pretty undeserved. The system isn't perfect but neither was the Saturn. PS1 I think has that sweetspot library, where there's something for everybody.
The N64 had a few great games but that was the extent of it. It dropped off a cliff after those top few. I loved my Saturn and had like 30 games for it. A few that I bought sucked liked Virtual Hydlide.
Visually Nintendo 64 seems to be it was having better graphical 64-bit 3D low polygonal model animations aesthetics than Sega Saturn 32-bit 3D pixelart model animations.
about the size of consoles libraries and amount of games in a certain genra, let not forget that most of us don't had the mean to get a lot of games anyway, I paid Super Mario 64 for like 100$ in summer 97, during the next winter I got Extreme G, soon after Star Fox 64, in chrismas 98 got Zelda Oot. summer 99 Top Gear Overdrive. During that time I had bought other crotrollers to have 4 total, a memory card and a rumble pack, and expension pack. I had like nearly 800$ worth of N64 stuff, and still during my teenages years I only owned 5 games as I did not resold any. So in that time buying a game was something, and needed to be a very good one you liked much with good replay value.
Wasn't there piracy in your country? I remember that in 1998, I had about 20 Saturn games and 12 Playstation games. In my country it was quite easy to buy games, the hard part was convincing your parents to buy the games.
I appreciate that you had no interest in bashing or fangirling out. Both systems deserve respect, even if the Saturn utterly annihilates the N64 in these particular categories.
YES! The Sega Saturn is > the N64. All the Fighting Games say so. Dynamite Cop, Light Gun games, Kuma in Fighters Megamix, timeless 2D Fighters, Dungeons and Dragons. What did N64 bring to the table besides blocky polygonal games that didn't age well? Where were smart people like you back when the Saturn was out? Obviously NOT in America. The douche that was running Sega of America at the time cost me (us Sega players) Street Fighter Zero 3, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, MSH vs. Street Fighter and Dungeons and Dragons. They couldn't "cancel" that guy fast enough back in the mid 90s.
I had a Sega Saturn without a doubt it was better than PlayStation in Nintendo 64 to clarify that I own all three of these consoles around the same time
Its tough; the Saturn had the deeper library (lets face it: Anything on the N64 not made by either Nintendo or Rare was typically forgettable), but focused more on Arcade ports of Sega's hardware and on titles that, more often then not, ran better on the Playstation. If the Playstation didn't exist the console would have been far more successful then it was.
I never paid attention to the Saturn until the early 2000s, thanks to some high school anime club buddies who imported games and showed me what the system had to offer. At the time of its original release, though, Sega's hideous mismanagement and marketing kept me away from the system, so the PlayStation and the N64 just seemed like the better choices. It's a shame, because with better support, marketing and management I could have seen Sega standing toe to toe with Sony and Nintendo.
Sega shot themselves in the balls with Shining Force III; they *_ONLY_* released Scenario 1 in the US, so we technically never got the complete experience. And did poor sales of the Sega CD & 32X really scare them outta releasing the ROM Card, the 1 MB & 4 MB RAM cards, AND the games that use them outside of Japan? It's kinda unfair that American Saturn owners couldn't get KoF95-97, Real Bout Fatal Fury, X-Men vs. Street Fighter and the like in all their superior glory. On the other hand, while it did have additional capabilities thanks to the 4 MB RAM card, the Saturn version of Street Fighter ZERO3 actually had some pretty ridonkalonkalous load times on par with the PSone version, which is nuts. In that case alone, I guess reviewers outside of Japan would've ripped Capcom and the game apart after the nearly zero load times of the Vs. Series. Also, while the Saturn did ultimately get SFZ3 after the PSone & Dreamcast, it didn't get a port of Marvel vs. Capcom 1 or even Capcom vs. SNK 1 - the latter being something that shouldn't be possible for the PSone (especially considering that Capcom didn't even attempt to port any other NAOMI system games), but the PSone GOT a modified port of CvS Pro...by "modified", I mean that unlike the Dreamcast, you're forced to buy everything in the shop with Vs. Points like in the DC port of vanilla CvS1; BUT, the PSone makes it easier as everything is at vastly reduced prices.
No way. The Saturn’s frame rate makes my eyes hurt (I.e. Hexen & Doom ports). The controller was out of date for the 3D games it has. 2D has made a huge comeback but during that generation companies focused on 3D so the 2D offerings were far and few in between (outside of Japan). The Saturn simply didn’t have the same multiplayer greats like Goldeneye, Mario Party or Mario Kart 64, nor the same in depth 1 player experiences like Zelda or Mario 64. Star fox 64 was far better than any shooter on the Saturn.
Nah, Panzer Dragoon 2 eats StrarFox 64. Also, no in depth 1 player experience? Have you heard about Powerslave, also known as Exhumed? That game was Metroid Prime before Metroid Prime.
@@yoman8027 It’s not aged as well as Starfox in the graphics department, nor was the music anywhere near. That is my opinion though, both were highly rated by critics. I’ve never heard of powerslave but I understand it was also on the PlayStation and was not as critically acclaimed as the Zelda games or Mario 64.
@@SRPC21 The PS port of Powerslave was inferior to the original. And the N64 games are, in my opinion, grossly overrated. Their art style is horrible and the pacing is slow and boring, a huge downgrade compared to the excellent Link to the Past. Besides, most JRPGs are much better solo experiences than them.
As much as I love my Saturn and games like Panzer Dragoon Saga, would I prefer some lightgun shooters over Turok 2 or Perfect Dark? No :) would I prefer any Saturn game over Ocarina of Time? No :) Would the Saturn get obliterated comparing jump and runs as the N64 does when it comes to fighting games? Yes? :) This comparison can go in each direction considering which aspects of both consoles we have a closer look at ;) - 3D graphics - Action Adventures - Jump and Runs - Multiplayer Games - FPS - sports games Just a few categories the N64 smashes Saturn ;) Also I would argue Lylat Wars and Sin & Punishment are overall superior than Panzer Eins and Zwei. Only valid solution: own both systems ;)
It was a victim of the popularity of 3d games I can remember as a kid having a choice between a PS1 and a Saturn and I pickedthe ps1 because I wanted 3d games machine and ps1 was generally betterI don't think I owned a 2d one on the ps1 and I missed alot of good games but it was a sign of the times. I think the Saturn was probably the best out of all the consoles of the generation due to it's ability to do both 3d and 2d games so we'll but unfortunately like I said it true strength compared to the ps1 and N64 was it's 2d games and this to a 3d crazed generation ment it didn't get as much love.
I love Saturn. It was my favorite and my system of choice at the time. Radiant Silvergun, Shining Force 3, Shining the Holy Ark, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Dragon Force, and many arcade classics such as Sega Rally, Daytona USA, Virtual Cops, House of the Dead, Die Hard Arcade, and X-Men vs Street Fighter.
Damn Straight Bro!
You got some Heavy Hitters there. I grew up with the Sega Master System and the Sega Genesis, but sadly didn't get a Saturn till years after love the library. As a matter of fact I was playing some Panzer Dragoon Zwei today. I'm going through the whole series from beginning to end.
Nobody asked
The Saturn was excellent. If Sega had gotten Final Fantasy VII or Sonic X-Treme out things might have been different.
I think Sega just really dropped the ball at that time with marketing. The 32x and Saturn being on the shelves at the same time was confusing, and no Saturn sonic game??
The Sega Saturn also has the best version of Duke Nukem 3D compared to the N64 and PlayStation
I prefer the N64 version (yes I know about the censorship) because it came with new weapons and goodies. It was worth having even if you played the other versions.
It's sad that the Saturn never got a main line fully 3d Sonic game. It could have gave Mario and Crash a run for it's money if executed properly.
That's probably the biggest reason it did not really compete with the others in terms of sales in the west!
Sonic Extreme was being planned for it. But the Dev team was having issues maintaining Sonic’s fast speed on the system without major slowdown. It was a big issue and they never figured it out after lots of delays. I’ve watched many documentaries on it. There were lots of things working against it even more then this reason. One video I saw said that by the time they figured it out it was too late and the Dreamcast was the main focus by then.
@@redstratus97 There was internal conflict between Sega of Japan and Sega of America.
The US team developing Sonic Extreme was using Sonic Team's Nights into Dreams game engine without their permission, and Yuji Naka threatened to leave Sega if the US team did not stop. This caused the team to basically try and start over.
The funny thing is Sonic Team had included Sonic in Christmas Nights, a free holiday release in most regions.
Sonic Team would later produce Sonic Jam, a collection of prior Genesis Sonic titles, with a 3D hub world showing that a 3D Sonic was indeed possible on the Saturn.
Decisions both Sega of Japan and Sega America took hindered the Saturn and crippled Sega in the long run.
SoJ:
-focusing more on the home market with the Saturn than the global market , sure they finally beat Nintendo there and it was their best selling home market console, but globally the N64 trounced it (not to mention PSX/PS1), and the Genesis and Master System out-sold it and the Dreamcast nearly beat it in half the time.
-abandoning the 16 bit console that was still fighting the good fight against the SNES worldwide
-abandoning some of their 16 bit franchises
-not taking any input from SoA on the direction of the next (32 bit gen) console, ideas brought would eventually end up being their competition that generation
-panic reaction to the Atari Jaguar leading to the rushed decision to make the 32x
SoA:
-after being given the order to contend with the Jaguar, made the final decision as the form of the 32X as an add-on, should have been either a standalone console, or not have been made at all
-new management decide to not import many Japanese titles to the Saturn (among these many language heavy titles)
-same management announced that the Saturn was not Sega's future, which halted a lot of games in development, pissed off devs and consumers alike, and likely denied Sega themselves of much needed funds for the upcoming generation.
@@lazarushernandez5827 spot on, and wasn't that one of the reasons EA didn't launch anything for the dreamcast? so those seeking their FIFA/NFL/NEED FOR SPEED fix essentially ruled out the dreamcast in favour of the Ps2/xbox. Shame because the saturn is not a bad console. As you say just poor infighting and bad descisions.
@@BiohazardX9 EA wanted to be the exclusive provider of sports titles on the Dreamcast, Stolar had just purchased Visual Concepts who was tasked with creating sports games ( The 2K series). With the pedigree EA sports game had, they would have easily sold well on the DC, something must have happened in the negotiations for things to end up as they did. 🤷♂️
Yeah, because of Virtua Fighter, Panzer Dragoon, SEGA Rally, Radiant Silvergun and NiGHTS! 🥰
There is one hidden SHMUP gem on the N64-legendary developer Treasure's _Sin and Punishment._ IIRC, it was the first and only game where you played primarily in "left postion", with your right thumb on the control stick and your left thumb on the D-pad.
I didn't get to play it until the Wii shop years later, but it was an excellent title worthy of its developer's reputation, and very much ahead of its time. It also has a superb sequel on the Wii, _Sin and Punishment: Star Successor,_ which utilized the pointer better than any other action game on the system.
That's a rail shooter.. not a shoot em up
I bought my Saturn in 1996 after a month of overtime at TEXAS (now Homebase) I still have it now, boxed and working perfectly and is my favourite console. Being an underdog as a kid, but proving many wrong as the years passed as i became an adult - i have a huge soft spot for the Saturn and the WiiU. Great system, fantastic games and perfect memories of wonderful times.
The Saturn is my favorite console too, then 3D0, Neo Geo, and the Playstation 1
This was a time when each console was demonstrably different . Each console had something to offer. However, the significance of super mario 64, zelda ocarina of time, and goldeneye are hard to ignore.
Still, all 3 consoles deserve credit.
Those 3 N64 titles aren't just a little better...they are light-years better. Nintendo just really really knew how to make amazing games
@Caleb Price indeed. I just felt it was important to make the point that once, each console was actually unique. Sega does deserve some respect for game design too. Unfortunately, they increasingly squandered it, chasing Sony and Nintendo.
However, each to their own.
I'm a Nintendo fan boy (if you can call a 52 year old a boy!) I do respect Sega's legacy though.
@@jamiecampbell8855 I owned a Saturn, never a 64. I didn't get a playstation till years later when I won it. haha. So I remember playing Virtua FIghter 2, Virtua Cop, Fighters Megamix, etc. But then just playing 10 minutes of Ocarina of Time or Mario 64 at a friends house....ya I can remember exactly where I was trying those games. Even now, they hold up so darn well. Saturn had a chance to be the home of FF7, and a great Sonic game. If those 2 games would have happened, it would have changed everything.
@@pfcalebBack then... Try and play those games now.. Saturn has aged like fine wine thanks to most of its library being 2D and not needing the nostalgia goggles or justify it with the classic line "At the time" lol
You forgot to mention its import friendliness. All you need is an Action Replay Plus cartridge inserted.
5th generation of consoles + 90s vibes + well exposed review + British accent= excellent content.
P.D.: Nice channel and greetings from a Sega Saturn player who had a PS1 in the 90s and lost good stuff.
I remember writing Nintendo power as a teen and begging them to put xvsf on there. They graciously replied to me saying the 64 couldn’t handle 2d sprites well
So glad the saturn is getting the attention it deserves. I got min back I the day and most people did not believe me how good the machine was.
Back then everyone was on the “3D” trend
The Saturn was the right console at the wrong time. But growing up, despite the little time I had with it, I always thought the Saturn had the better library. I did not like Mario 64 though so there's that lol. Plus the system seemed much cooler to me as a kid and found the 64's shortcomings way more glaring. But man the AKI wrestling games, Smash and Goldeneye will probably forever be in my fondest of memories with gaming. Really makes me miss the time when the art form filled me with so much wonder and joy.
Two awesome systems.
But to be fair, a 4K limit per texture isn't as big an issue as many would have it seem - technically on N64, all developers had to do was tile more textures and switch of the anti aliasing and texture filtering... however, due to Nintendo, developers faced an uphill struggle with not only the limited memory on cartridge but they had to wrestle with broken dev kits, and heavy restrictions placed on them on how they were able to write code to suit their type of game. The N64 was designed to be flexible by SGI, they envisioned a system were the power was in the developers hands, however Nintendo saw different.
" a necessity for gracious living". I love it! Another great review, Lady Decade! I feel the Saturn is getting so much more love now than when it was current. Saturn still aimed for that being the arcade home which I think it mostly succeeded over N64, especially with fighters. I think you perfectly outlined how it outclassed N64, but just couldn't get a good foothold in the west. We didn't know what we had.
Agreed, shame Sega of America had a crappy COO in Bernie Stolar at the time, who basically banned the localization of RPGs and relegated Working Designs to a pittance when it came to E3. Had many of those RPGs came over? I'm sure the Saturn would've done far better.
I'd say it's personal preference. For me, The Saturn all day long, even at the time. I remember mates not even knowing what one was and it was fun showing them something new (PS and N64 owners).
You can understand why Nintendo fans loved the n64 though.
I hope you showed them Guardian heroes and panzer dragoon Zwei
@@HollowRick certainly did. They loved fighters megamix the most.
Out of the 4 people who bought a Saturn in the west, 3 hate n64 with the force of a thousand suns, in the other hand 99% of the n64 owners didnt even know saturn existed, and probably liked the dreamcast very much 😅
they would have known about the saturn before the n64 came out though it was the biggest deal for like 6 months
Saturn owner back in the day here.
We also had a PS as we needed one eventually for the quantity.
Mates had N64's. They wasn't a bad console, it just felt a bit young and didn't appeal to me (not taking anything away from it as people who love Nintendo and their ips will love it). However, I really liked the star wars games on there.
Goldeneye and Zelda were something different too for its time.
i remember being a kid and wanting a sega saturn more than any other console and my parents wouldn't do it, maybe they couldn't, idk, but it looked very cool to a child-aged me.
No mention that the Saturn was discontinued in the same year (1998) in both the US and Europe, but the N64 lasted until 2002 in both territories. The Saturn (Optimistically) sold about half as many units in their respective lifespans in the time that they were supported, which meant that it was rather competitive. Look, I love the Saturn, and have more games on it during its short life by more than a 2 to 1 ratio than the N64 even though the N64 lasted twice as long. The issue wasn't with the hardware on either of the systems. It was with how stupidly Sega handled everything before the system came out, as well as after its release.
Its an interesting comparison, because the Saturn might generally have the stronger library, its strengths were (RPG's excepted) in genres that ended up falling out of prominence in the era following like light gun titles, shoot 'em ups, & general arcade ports. The N64 by contrast had a smaller list of games, but ended up inventing or greatly elevating series that ended up sustaining it for a long time afterward, to the point where they became staples. Even Sega's brilliance with 2D titles occurred alongside that style's last hurrah for a long time as 3D platormer/action titles strongly innovated by the likes of Mario 64 & Zelda OoT ended up getting the spotlight.
Basically the Saturn's arguably stronger quality is competing with the longer legacy of the N64.
I'd say each is better in different ways
N64 for pick up and play with very little load time as well as the only platform worthy to be called a multiplayer machine p
Playstation has the biggest games list and highest polygon graphics
But Saturn is the absolute Goat for 2D arcade Ports
Same isn't Said for the following generation which is a easy Xbox - GameCube - Dreamcast - PS2
If any game released in more then one platform get them in that order as the PS2 was the worst all around not counting exclusives
@@smg4reblooperd182 Good take, I disagree with the polygon graphics though. The heights of the N64 outclass the psx by far in that regard. Just imagining the Psx trying to run games like Turok 2, Percect Dark, Conker, Shadow Man in its N64 build, rayman 2 in its N64 build, Majoras Mask, Lylat Wars, Wave Race and so on would smoke the good old Sony system. There is nothing even slightly comparable in terms of 3D graphics on the PlayStation.
Since I love anything 2D, I would take the Saturn and its library of games over the Nintendo 64. Probably not the popular opinion. But I would play all those awesome 2D fighters and shooters more than any of 3D games the N64 had.
Yes, the Saturn. I've said it before, I am and always will be a Sega fanboy, but Sega is a good example of dire mismanagement. The internal struggle of Sega Japan and Sega USA weighs heavily on the down-fall of Sega as a console company, I love Sega hardware. They were all gems in their own right and all show their roots in the arcade and where along the best of their time. Just a shame Sega didn't know what to do with their successes...
Agree. Sega of japan being very toxic to sega of America during sega saturn basically killed sega saturn sells in usa. Them self sabotaging the new sonic game and getting it cancel which sonic was huge in the west hurt them a ton.
Great video on the Saturn from the Japanese+a few Asian perspective LD, highly appreciated.
But let's add some more facts.
1) in Japan, Saturn had an advantage of a certain genre that were specifically popular among there - Dating sims and Text adventures.
2) Sega was the 1st company to introduce the rating system to Japan. Which allowed developers to make "sensitive viewership" games on the system. Sure it didn't lead to great sales but it did make the Japanese Saturn library more interesting than its rivals.
3) this topic is slightly mentioned in the vid, but if a same game was released for multiple platforms, it was usually best to play on the Saturn. Due to the fact Saturn had better 2D/Sound capability and the Saturn version was revised to have better gameplay.
I could talk days about my favorite Sega console, but this is getting longer than I expected so I'll end it here for now. Again thanks for the good work!
The Research You do on this stuff is incredible. I really enjoy all your videos. Looking forward to your next one. God Bless and take care, You Rock Lady Decade!!!
I also really loved the Sega Saturn we used to play the Japanese version of X-Men vs Street Fighter with the 4MB ram cart and it was so fast and Arcade perfect
The question is like : do you prefer play like 10 all-time classics, and the rest is garbage (because let's get real, outside N64's "big games", there's nothing worth playing), or not having those all-time classics, but tons of super cool games ?
The Sega Saturn may in retrospect, have a library that can match or exceed the N64's, but the Saturn was a miserable console to own at the time in the late 90's. The System disappeared off store shelves completely in 1997, none of your friends had one so you couldn't swap games, true 3D games were rare, and the only way to continue being a Saturn gamer was to order Japanese-language imports from those sketchy phone numbers that you found on the back pages of gaming magazines - and those cost a fortune.
I find this curious, because I'm Brazilian and here it was easy to have a Saturn. Piracy was huge, so Japanese and European games were easy to get. I played a lot of X-Men vs. Street Fighter, having a Saturn was as easy as having a Playstation. I had a lot of games, about 40.
I'll say that I had lots of fighting games that I loved on N64. Mortal Kombat 4, Ultimate Mortal kombat, Clay Fighter 63 1/3, Clay Fighter Sculpter's Cut, Mace the Dark Ages, Super Smash Brothers, Xena, and War Gods to name some.
Fighters Destiny
Flying Dragon was good. It has a japan only update.
Killer Instinct
Killer Instinct is goated, but it's not holding up the entire console against Alpha 2, KOF 96, and VF2. And those are just the best games of each company.
And don't even joke about OG Smash Bros. being anywhere close to the same level as golden age Capcom or SNK.
You forget the awesome wrestling games, wcw revenge wwf no mercy etc
I just love the Sega Saturn better than N64.
Because I love playing Sonic 1 , 2 or Virtua Fighter game and even Shadow Dancer were retro classical game are the best.
Sure, the Saturn had House of the Dead, but I've seen better art using an Etch A Sketch. The Saturn was a shmup beast. It's a shame we didn't get localization for most of them.
Sega gave up on the Saturn way to fast they got scared unfortunately
Love YOU LADY DECADE GREAT CONTENT as always!!!
Excellent delivery.. absolutely loved "saturn worship"
N64 emulated sprites with polygons, and the Saturn emulated polygons with (affine transformed) sprites. This is why it used quads, not triangles, and also why textures got warped, such as at the pavement at bottom of the screen of Daytona USA
Great video!
I have to say that it was a strange but wonderful final year for the Saturn in the UK. Everyone was abandoning the system - even the guy at the shop counter encouraged me to buy a PS1 instead, but I had one anyway and desired the Panzer Dragoon games. Ah, to have a copy of Saga...epic win!
Yes, the Saturn is a friggin monster of a machine with more processors than developers knew what to do with them all, but tricky to use them effectively in any case. One such story is in the Saturn port of Doom, where I understand that Jim Bagley had the right idea of utilizing the hardware to it's strengths, but id-software made a decision to place texture quality over speed. Although this has left Jim in a very awkward position to explain all of this in UA-cam comments, John Carmack would acknowledge this.
If there are any Saturn homebrewers out there, it would be amazing to see Jim's original coding plan for Saturn-Doom implemented.
And so the N64 can at least claim the superior port of Doom, which was practically a new game designed specifically for the system.
In hindsight I really wish I got a Saturn and a Dreamcast and kept them all these years. I had a Playstation at the time and I can play the whole library now on my modded backwards compatible PS3. Come to think of it, I do have pretty much everything that Sega made available as rereleases and ports on the PS3 but still wish I experienced the real deal on the original hardware. The Saturn was truly underated in my mind.
does the Dreamcast play dvds
@@Mariofans-gn1luno 👎
N64 had a handful of good titles. Saturn had way more. I had both and the PlayStation and they all had their good exclusives, but if I could only choose one of the three it would the Saturn.
Saturn had so much potential,maybe if things would have panned out then DC would have been successful too
The Saturn has my favorite game of all time on it. Die Hard Arcade
Awesome content, such a massive inspiration to us smaller creators 👌👌
Gotta say, the N64s place in history as a system of the future. it was at the forefront of game development, defining what modern games would be for years to come.
But I'd say it was too quick to bury the past. There was still a lot more refinement to do with existing genres that the N64 just took a hard pass on. And that's really a shame.
I never owned the Saturn. But from what I can tell, it took largely the opposite approach, with the Playstation being the middle man.
I dislike how publishers in the West suddenly acted as if sprite based games were now outdated and of 'yesterday', focusing on 3D graphic games.
While this first step into 3D graphics on consoles was an important step in its evolution, sprite based games had not suddenly become irrelevant.
Developers could now finally make console games which graphics and animations were on par with those in the arcades.
And with the cd-rom medium there was now room for even more content.
We could have had more games like those on the Sega and Nintendo 16 bit consoles of even higher quality.
It even took a couple of early 3D graphics games to make publishers realize that the technology was not quite there yet for all game genres to make the transition.
I have so much love for this system
Sega Saturn is such a obscure yet intriguing system! I just got my system a few months ago and I’m enjoying its beloved features of its CD Format!
Sadly, I've never played a Saturn. I didn't know anyone who had one back then. I asked for one for Christmas in 1996 but my parent's told me I already had 2 game systems(NES and Genesis) so no luck there. I got a N64 the next year and all but forgot about the Saturn.
The Saturn was such a beast it was rarely used to it's full potential, but yet it completely outclassed the N64. Hell, home computers outclassed it easily even with the primitive 3-D cards available at the time. Anyone remember the furor that UltraHLE caused? Your bog-standard Pentium II class PC with a 3dfx (D3D wrappers were soon available) running ROMs of Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time at full speed while the N64 was still current made Nintendo collectively flip the fawk out. It was unreal.
You had me angrily defending my beloved North American N64 and Ps1, I just repurchased a Ps1 last week, and never sold my N64, still got it under the TV rn... but I stopped defending... because I LOVE love 2d art, and I aaalways wanted a Saturn as a kid, but never got one :( .... until now, as a 30 something year old man. Lol. Just bought it from Japan 2 weeks ago, just got my Satiator in the mail 2 days ago, just changed the watch battery 2 minutes ago. 😊 I love your channel, you make me excited to FINALLY play Saturn. I hope I love it a much as I did my childhood Sega Genesis. 😊❤
The Saturn came along at a time when people desperately wanted 3D because it looked more next-generation. The reaction a lot of people was "is THIS the next generation?" whereas with the Playstation it was "this IS the next generation." The polygons made a difference. I got a Saturn with Gex when it came out and even my parents were unimpressed, it was just another sidescroller. Complete with the fact that I wasn't into fighters then, the purchase felt like a mistake.
I would have loved to have seen the shenmue version on saga Saturn
The ONLY reason Saturn outsold the N64 in japan, was because any Japanese youth that WEREN'T playing a Saturn had the SH!T beat out of them by Segata Sanshiro! Even kids at Christmas time were terrified at him showing up!
Every time someone buys a white Sega Saturn, Segata suplexes an angel in heaven.
@@HollowRick I imagine all the angels have bought Saturns by now just to stop getting beat up....
This was the best sales pitch for sega saturn I have seen so far and I was around for it’s launch.
The Saturn was my go to back in the day, then Dreamcast. Fighters and Schmups were my thing back then. I mostly played JRPGs on my PS1.
I want whatever the Japanese people are smoking haha 😆 thank you as always for making top-tier content and I appreciate all of your dedicated time and efforts into making each video. I was born in 1986 and it was amazing to experience a ton of amazing times through the whole '90s decade. It was seriously the best time for gaming systems as far as with how many were out at a time every year with consistently innovative game titles. I love retro systems the most since they were all a part of my entire childhood up until being 36 now. I still play GBC and SNES regularly with emulators on my phone every day and I plan on restoring my collection of games/systems/peripherals to what I used to own growing up. Gameboy was technically my very first game system and my first game was the OG Kirby's Dreamland game. It was absolutely the best decade of my entire life so far, since everything was soo revolutionary and just kept getting better and better with how many companies there used to be and all of the really creative ideas they had at the time. 💚 💚
Is the Saturn better than the N64 ? Based on games, i would say completely yes !!!
Was always a Big N fanboy, but the Saturn would have been my system of choice in retrospect. Thank the heavens I got on board with the Dreamcast! Praise Jeebus!
does the Dreamcast play dvds
@@Mariofans-gn1lu ya got me there, but does the Saturn play Freddy Pharkas Frontier Pharmacist burned unmodded lol
@@jeffreyjeffrey007 the dreamcast had a better controller then the n64 controller
N64 had Mortal Kombat Trilogy. At the time it was the most expensive video game ever made. I paid over 100$ USD for it when it came out and I loved that game.
Yes the Saturn was underrated while the 64 got way to much hype too me had them all at the time but it was tough to not go get a PlayStation.
The controller looks more like what young me at the time was used to, coming off the SNES. I saw the N64 controller on a system set up at WalMart, and that put me off the system for good. Then I was out of gaming until sometime during the PS1’s lifetime, on a whim I went shopping and got a PS1 and a copy of MK Trilogy and I was back in.
Such a great feeling when you get a new console and games to dive into. I remember on PS1 one of my first games was Destruction Derby
Growing up I was always a sega kid and thought nintendo was over rated. Now I love nintendo and think that Sony is overrated.... so opinions change, but n64 was always terrible in my book outside of maybe 5 games.
Love your vids! Rather watch your reports on these classic games/consols over the many other geeky swats out there. it would seem they don't like your channel, but hey, they don't have the allure you do. :) but they do have many chips on their shoulders about your awesome content. And most probably childhood issues..ha. keep it up! Looking forward to another mario vid also btw :) tc x
The best console is always the one you grew up with
Hah! Absolutely love it. What a great video and interesting presentation. Personally, never enjoyed the N64 very much, largely due to the controller and game selection. Much preferred the Playstation. It is nice to hear about the Saturn's finer qualities, since I adored the Dreamcast at my friend's house. Jet Set Radio and Soul Calbur ALONE justified the price of entry.
I love it when you talk about the Sega Satin.
Now this is a risky video. Loved it!
Agree. Saturn was better and that is particularly true today. Here’s the thing though - back in the day when the consoles were released, the N64 games were must-play games - Mario 64 and the Zelda’s. I can’t say that about the Saturn. And I can’t say that about the Saturn today honestly. But if I were to choose one to retro game on today, it would be the Saturn - the games are better and more relevant today in terms of fun to play. The n64 today? I’d say there’s maybe 5-6 games still worth playing. But Mario 64 and the Zelda’s were revolutionary experiences for the day. The Saturn just didn’t do 3d at the same standard, and in the day it was all about 3d
Great console and great video!
I agree with everything you said here, and i think there was one more thing that N64 games didn't have probably because of the lack of space in the cardridges, i'm talking about the "FMV" or "CGI" movies, they were used specially for the openings/intros, but games like Lunacy/Torico and The Mansion of Hidden Souls had lots of them, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil 1, etc, i recently found out that the fan community made a version of RE2 for the N64 with the CGI, but the sound quality and framerate is pretty inferior from other consoles like PS1, Dreamcast or Gamecube, obviously🤔
I loved the Sega Saturn, and Astel was my favorite game.
I think the real question is:
Ignoring the limitations of the hardware, Would you go for a a handful of Legendary N64 games OR play explore Saturn's mostly solid library titles ranging from Good to Mythical?
I find myself exploring the Saturn. The N64 diehards baffle me a bit as many of the franchises they love have evolved and continued into the modern day whereas the Saturn's Legacy is only now being touched upon. If It's Nostalgia then they've certainly got more of it than most.
Saturn is my favorite platform from that generation and the amount of good games it has is 10:1 versus the N64.
As far as the number of games that interest me Saturn wins- tons of 2D games, arcade ports, straight up weird experimental things... but the 64, while having less of a library for me in numbers has games that impact me more. GoldenEye is one of my favorite games ever, Perfect Dark exists, Mario 64's atmosphere grabs me, Banjo I first played recently with a friend who grew up with it and it felt fresh to me.
In short, Saturn is quantity over quality, 64 is quality over quantity for me. I am aware a lot of the community hates the 64 and its honestly pretty undeserved. The system isn't perfect but neither was the Saturn. PS1 I think has that sweetspot library, where there's something for everybody.
The N64 had a few great games but that was the extent of it. It dropped off a cliff after those top few. I loved my Saturn and had like 30 games for it. A few that I bought sucked liked Virtual Hydlide.
am subbing cos I realised i could learn words like cornucopia from you
I love the video game soundtrack better than voice character sound effect.
Visually Nintendo 64 seems to be it was having better graphical 64-bit 3D low polygonal model animations aesthetics than Sega Saturn 32-bit 3D pixelart model animations.
Much love from Williamsport Pennsylvania
about the size of consoles libraries and amount of games in a certain genra, let not forget that most of us don't had the mean to get a lot of games anyway, I paid Super Mario 64 for like 100$ in summer 97, during the next winter I got Extreme G, soon after Star Fox 64, in chrismas 98 got Zelda Oot. summer 99 Top Gear Overdrive. During that time I had bought other crotrollers to have 4 total, a memory card and a rumble pack, and expension pack. I had like nearly 800$ worth of N64 stuff, and still during my teenages years I only owned 5 games as I did not resold any. So in that time buying a game was something, and needed to be a very good one you liked much with good replay value.
Wasn't there piracy in your country? I remember that in 1998, I had about 20 Saturn games and 12 Playstation games. In my country it was quite easy to buy games, the hard part was convincing your parents to buy the games.
All it took was the Sony exec saying 299 on stage to kill the Saturn in the US before it started.
I appreciate that you had no interest in bashing or fangirling out. Both systems deserve respect, even if the Saturn utterly annihilates the N64 in these particular categories.
a sega saturn video without the mention of sega rally championship or daytona usa? impossible
The best game on the Saturn was Exhumed .. outstanding game back in the day . !
This is the Boujeest console of that generation. It’s not debatable 💅💅💅💅
*Boujee Patrick intensifies*
I love the Saturn. I have an embarassingly huge US Sega collection and the Saturn is special.
I loved playing Duke Nukem 3D on the Saturn.
MY dad gt one, it was awesome Panzer Dragon and some other games back then where revolutionary. The Dreamcast was just as good.
YES! The Sega Saturn is > the N64. All the Fighting Games say so. Dynamite Cop, Light Gun games, Kuma in Fighters Megamix, timeless 2D Fighters, Dungeons and Dragons. What did N64 bring to the table besides blocky polygonal games that didn't age well? Where were smart people like you back when the Saturn was out? Obviously NOT in America. The douche that was running Sega of America at the time cost me (us Sega players) Street Fighter Zero 3, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, MSH vs. Street Fighter and Dungeons and Dragons. They couldn't "cancel" that guy fast enough back in the mid 90s.
I had a Sega Saturn without a doubt it was better than PlayStation in Nintendo 64 to clarify that I own all three of these consoles around the same time
Its tough; the Saturn had the deeper library (lets face it: Anything on the N64 not made by either Nintendo or Rare was typically forgettable), but focused more on Arcade ports of Sega's hardware and on titles that, more often then not, ran better on the Playstation.
If the Playstation didn't exist the console would have been far more successful then it was.
Was Saturn better than the n64? Perhaps… but only in Japan.
I never paid attention to the Saturn until the early 2000s, thanks to some high school anime club buddies who imported games and showed me what the system had to offer. At the time of its original release, though, Sega's hideous mismanagement and marketing kept me away from the system, so the PlayStation and the N64 just seemed like the better choices. It's a shame, because with better support, marketing and management I could have seen Sega standing toe to toe with Sony and Nintendo.
The N64 did have MK Trilogy which was a 2D fighter.
Fighters Destiny is a solid fighting game with a lot of depth. It just didn't have the production values of Namco or Capcom's offerings
Sega shot themselves in the balls with Shining Force III; they *_ONLY_* released Scenario 1 in the US, so we technically never got the complete experience. And did poor sales of the Sega CD & 32X really scare them outta releasing the ROM Card, the 1 MB & 4 MB RAM cards, AND the games that use them outside of Japan? It's kinda unfair that American Saturn owners couldn't get KoF95-97, Real Bout Fatal Fury, X-Men vs. Street Fighter and the like in all their superior glory.
On the other hand, while it did have additional capabilities thanks to the 4 MB RAM card, the Saturn version of Street Fighter ZERO3 actually had some pretty ridonkalonkalous load times on par with the PSone version, which is nuts. In that case alone, I guess reviewers outside of Japan would've ripped Capcom and the game apart after the nearly zero load times of the Vs. Series. Also, while the Saturn did ultimately get SFZ3 after the PSone & Dreamcast, it didn't get a port of Marvel vs. Capcom 1 or even Capcom vs. SNK 1 - the latter being something that shouldn't be possible for the PSone (especially considering that Capcom didn't even attempt to port any other NAOMI system games), but the PSone GOT a modified port of CvS Pro...by "modified", I mean that unlike the Dreamcast, you're forced to buy everything in the shop with Vs. Points like in the DC port of vanilla CvS1; BUT, the PSone makes it easier as everything is at vastly reduced prices.
No way.
The Saturn’s frame rate makes my eyes hurt (I.e. Hexen & Doom ports). The controller was out of date for the 3D games it has. 2D has made a huge comeback but during that generation companies focused on 3D so the 2D offerings were far and few in between (outside of Japan).
The Saturn simply didn’t have the same multiplayer greats like Goldeneye, Mario Party or Mario Kart 64, nor the same in depth 1 player experiences like Zelda or Mario 64.
Star fox 64 was far better than any shooter on the Saturn.
Nah, Panzer Dragoon 2 eats StrarFox 64.
Also, no in depth 1 player experience? Have you heard about Powerslave, also known as Exhumed? That game was Metroid Prime before Metroid Prime.
@@yoman8027 It’s not aged as well as Starfox in the graphics department, nor was the music anywhere near. That is my opinion though, both were highly rated by critics.
I’ve never heard of powerslave but I understand it was also on the PlayStation and was not as critically acclaimed as the Zelda games or Mario 64.
@@SRPC21 The PS port of Powerslave was inferior to the original.
And the N64 games are, in my opinion, grossly overrated. Their art style is horrible and the pacing is slow and boring, a huge downgrade compared to the excellent Link to the Past.
Besides, most JRPGs are much better solo experiences than them.
@@yoman8027 The vast majority will disagree with you but each to their own.
@@SRPC21 The "vast majority" chose PlayStation over the N64.
A die hard Mario Fan like myself would beg to differ
The saturn should have had the capability to play genesis games. That way if a new to sega buyer would have all the older games to play as well
N64 had Rakugakids, fantastic fighting game!
As much as I love my Saturn and games like Panzer Dragoon Saga, would I prefer some lightgun shooters over Turok 2 or Perfect Dark? No :) would I prefer any Saturn game over Ocarina of Time? No :) Would the Saturn get obliterated comparing jump and runs as the N64 does when it comes to fighting games? Yes? :)
This comparison can go in each direction considering which aspects of both consoles we have a closer look at ;)
- 3D graphics
- Action Adventures
- Jump and Runs
- Multiplayer Games
- FPS
- sports games
Just a few categories the N64 smashes Saturn ;)
Also I would argue Lylat Wars and Sin & Punishment are overall superior than Panzer Eins and Zwei.
Only valid solution: own both systems ;)
It was a victim of the popularity of 3d games I can remember as a kid having a choice between a PS1 and a Saturn and I pickedthe ps1 because I wanted 3d games machine and ps1 was generally betterI don't think I owned a 2d one on the ps1 and I missed alot of good games but it was a sign of the times. I think the Saturn was probably the best out of all the consoles of the generation due to it's ability to do both 3d and 2d games so we'll but unfortunately like I said it true strength compared to the ps1 and N64 was it's 2d games and this to a 3d crazed generation ment it didn't get as much love.
I got a Saturn instead of 64 when I was a kid. I both regret and don't regret it lol. I got a 64 later so it's okay I guess.