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[cireza]

Another game has been translated to English, and it seems that it is a very high quality work.

Linkle Liver Story


For your information, Policenauts also received an English translation a few months ago.

And it seems that Princess Crown has made some great progress, as seen on the dedicated topic at romhacking.net

As a reminder, please know that it is possible to play these translated games on an original, unmodified hardware if you own the original game. I can explain the method if required.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

Another game has been translated to English, and it seems that it is a very high quality work.

Linkle Liver Story


For your information, Policenauts also received an English translation a few months ago.

And it seems that Princess Crown has made some great progress, as seen on the dedicated topic at romhacking.net

As a reminder, please know that it is possible to play these translated games on an original, unmodified hardware if you own the original game. I can explain the method if required.

Yay! I've been hoping for an English translation patch for Linkle Liver Story. It's a pretty good Zelda clone, not up to the standards of Nintendo, but pretty good. This will definitely help us better appreciate this game.

Kudos, as always, to the Sega Saturn and retrogaming translation community. You kids are doing great work.

 

[Kazza]

I've lready mentioned him before on this thread, but Sega Lord X recently released a video about reproductions. There are a few really well done reproductions of games which were never translated into English. The Shining Force 3 trilogy in particular looks really nice:

 

[cireza]

I've lready mentioned him before on this thread, but Sega Lord X recently released a video about reproductions. There are a few really well done reproductions of games which were never translated into English. The Shining Force 3 trilogy in particular looks really nice:

I usually make my own French covers for Japanese games I love the most.

Stuff like this :

Or this :

 

[Kazza]

Nice. Do you sell them as well?

How was the Saturn received in France? Was it the same as the situation in the UK (PSX dominating, a little N64 market share, with even less Saturn)?

 

[cireza]

Nice. Do you sell them as well?

How was the Saturn received in France? Was it the same as the situation in the UK (PSX dominating, a little N64 market share, with even less Saturn)?

I don't sell them, I only make them for my own usage. It is not that difficult.

In France the Saturn did not have much success. Of course, I had the console back then, I was a Sega gamer and never really was interested by the PS1. The TV ads for the PS1 were quite something. I strongly disliked them, but I understand how it managed to attract a whole new audience. In one of them, I think you would see monkeys playing the video-game. These ads were so over the top, it attracted everyone. Tekken 2 was the game that interested me the most on PS1. Final Fantasy VIII too, but that's it.

Back to the Saturn, I was a 100% French releases player. Never bought any import at the time. Honestly, it was very easy to have a blast on Sega Saturn even in France, even when we missed on many Japanese games. People telling everywhere that there was no games on PAL Saturn are the worst.

My parents bought me the console in 97 I think (went from MegaDrive to Saturn) when it was more affordable. My parents did not have so much money back then, I had to sell 18 MegaDrive games to buy it.

My first three games were :
Sega Rally
Fighters Megamix
Tomb Raider

I pretty much made the jump from Virtua Fighter 32X to Fighters Megamix. This was a pretty big jump for me. Loved Fighters Megamix to death. I also loved Tomb Raider, it felt a little bit like Doom on 32X to me back then. These were 3D games where you can explore, alone, in a hostile world that is full of secrets and difficult to navigate. I love these kind of experiences (the more recent ones being Dark Souls).

Then I bought many other games, never had any problem finding them. Here are some of the ones I played the most :
Night Warriors + Street Fighter Alpha + X-Men COTA
Mystaria (I love this game, played it a lot)
Nights + Burning Rangers
Panzer Dragoon 1 + 2 + Saga
Dragon Force + Shining Force 3
Doom + Hexen + Duke Nukem
Digital Pinball
Story of Thor 2
Dark Savior
Destruction Derby
Tohshinden URA (I love this game, yeah I know it's not great, but it is so much fun)

There were the most notable games I had back then, I have been playing my Saturn ever since on a very regular basis. I have been playing Burning Rangers these days.

I eventually started buying Japanese games much later, through eBay. I have a quite few of them, I like them as well, but I really had a blast with the PAL releases. Japanese games did not really change the deal for me. I have a few shmups (Radian Silvergun, Strikers I & II, Sengoku Blade, Sokyugurentai etc...), Castlevania, Elevator Action Returns, Bulk Slash, SNK games and both Capcom cross-overs etc... Also played English patched Shining Force III, it was pretty great, but my favorite scenario is the first one. Bought most of these 10 to 15 years ago, so the prices were okay.

My main regrets with the system is that we did not have English Grandia and Virtua Fighter 3. What a waste
I really hope that someone fixes this for Grandia, one of these days !

Also, one more thing that is awesome with Saturn, is that most of Sega's releases were PAL optimized in speed + resolution. And anyway, it is extremely easy to put a frequency switch on it.

 

[Kazza]

cireza Thanks for the detailed reply. It's interesting to hear a little about the situation in other PAL regions.

I loved Mystaria too! It's a game which never seems to get much attention. I remember renting it from Blockbuster and falling completely in love with it. I played it all weekend and I'm pretty sure I rented it a few times after that too.

I owned over 20 games for mine, so had a decent sized collection, but watching Youtube videos some 20 years later made me realise how many great games I missed. I look forward to playing them over the next few years.

 

[cireza]

cireza Thanks for the detailed reply. It's interesting to hear a little about the situation in other PAL regions.

I loved Mystaria too! It's a game which never seems to get much attention. I remember renting it from Blockbuster and falling completely in love with it. I played it all weekend and I'm pretty sure I rented it a few times after that too.

I owned over 20 games for mine, so had a decent sized collection, but watching Youtube videos some 20 years later made me realise how many great games I missed. I look forward to playing them over the next few years.

There are many many great games, but the prices are very high for some of them nowadays. Buying a Rhea/Phoebe is probably a good solution, I might buy one to try some of the more expensive games/shmups. Not decided yet. I love my CDs

Not all expensive games are THAT great either, which is only basic logic after all.

Recently I have been wondering about giving Shienryu a shot. This shmups looks like everything I love in a good shmup, but the price is a bit high. Not sure if I will bite. Would have tried Cotton Boomerang if the price was not so stupid. I don't understand how a game can be available in tenths of units (so not rare at all), and all of them are 200+ dollars. So so stupid.

 

[cireza]

I have been playing more Burning Rangers, in fact, I play this game four tenths of hours each year.

I am always amazed by how fresh the runs are, since the layout of the levels is altered and many different configurations exist. Add the fact that the persons to rescue are also randomized, and you get a game that never gets old.

The first mission is incredible because of how big the enterity of the level actually is. You simply never get to explore all of it in a single run. The game is still pretty well made and does not throw you in the more complex layouts from the beginning.

In fact, there is a slight curve in difficulty, with the new areas getting progressively more complex and bigger in size, making it more difficult to keep the LIMIT below 20%.
This is the same kind of thing you also get in the second mission, with pretty complex layouts and it can be easy to miss someone.

Finally mission 3 is my goto mission when I don't have much time. It is a shorter mission that does not change a lot. You only get one out of four possible routes at the end, sometimes the route will have a special person to save, like Yuji Naka. Otherwise, this mission is always the same. With the ID cards, you must unlock only three switches out of the four in the room. Never use the farthest one, since you can access the room from somewhere else. When you get through gate B03, you should have 2 ID cards left and saved 4 persons normally.

 

[Kazza]

I've never played Burning Rangers, I've always had the feeling that it won't hold up very well today (in common with many 32-bit 3D games). It's good to hear a positive report.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

There are many many great games, but the prices are very high for some of them nowadays. Buying a Rhea/Phoebe is probably a good solution, I might buy one to try some of the more expensive games/shmups. Not decided yet. I love my CDs

Not all expensive games are THAT great either, which is only basic logic after all.

Recently I have been wondering about giving Shienryu a shot. This shmups looks like everything I love in a good shmup, but the price is a bit high. Not sure if I will bite. Would have tried Cotton Boomerang if the price was not so stupid. I don't understand how a game can be available in tenths of units (so not rare at all), and all of them are 200+ dollars. So so stupid.

Honestly, where price is a problem with Sega Saturn videogames, just download them off the internet and burn to disc or use the Pseudo Saturn mod. There's no logical reason in depriving yourself just because of some greedy Ebay scalpers.

Fortunately for collectors, there are still many great Saturn games available for $10 or less, so don't feel that you've been cheated.

 

[cireza]

Pseudo Saturn mod

I will look into this, thanks.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

I've never played Burning Rangers, I've always had the feeling that it won't hold up very well today (in common with many 32-bit 3D games). It's good to hear a positive report.

As always, be sure to check my Saturn reviews on this thread. I've covered over 80 titles so far, including Burning Rangers. When I'm writing my essays, I always play them for a while so that I'm capturing my current mood. I'm not interested in "nostalgia" but in enjoying these videogames today.

As for Burning Rangers, it does hold up very well. As with all classic systems, you have to be a bit forgiving and accepting, but as long as you're not demanding Playstation 4 performance, you'll be fine. There have always been players who could never enjoy anything unless it was the bleeding edge of graphics. They were the ones with the $3,000 PCs who complained endlessly while the normal kids were happily playing Goldeneye 64.

 

[cireza]

.

So I checked, let's say I have an Action Replay available, can I update it with Pseudo Saturn without being able to read burnt discs on my Saturn ? I have seen that there is a method to update the firmware with a burnt game.

Do you know if this will sacrifice the 4MB RAM ability of the cartridge ?

Edit : Ok i found the answers on Pseudo Saturn website. So I need to do the swaptrick, I never did it before and not too hot about taking the risk to break my console. I need to think about this... Otherwise, it seems pretty manageable. I need to find my old Action Replay cartridge, where the 4MB was not working. I hope that I have kept it somewhere.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

So I checked, let's say I have an Action Replay available, can I update it with Pseudo Saturn without being able to read burnt discs on my Saturn ? I have seen that there is a method to update the firmware with a burnt game.

Do you know if this will sacrifice the 4MB RAM ability of the cartridge ?

Edit : Ok i found the answers on Pseudo Saturn website. So I need to do the swaptrick, I never did it before and not too hot about taking the risk to break my console. I need to think about this... Otherwise, it seems pretty manageable. I need to find my old Action Replay cartridge, where the 4MB was not working. I hope that I have kept it somewhere.

Personally, I would not sacrifice an AR cartridge for Pseudo Saturn. I would go with the mod chip instead, which costs the same amount of money and can be installed easily with a minimum of soldering. I remain hopeful that a future version of Pseudo Saturn will enable the rest of the AR functions to work as well. Until then, just spring for the chip.

 

[cireza]

Personally, I would not sacrifice an AR cartridge for Pseudo Saturn. I would go with the mod chip instead, which costs the same amount of money and can be installed easily with a minimum of soldering. I remain hopeful that a future version of Pseudo Saturn will enable the rest of the AR functions to work as well. Until then, just spring for the chip.

Too late, I did it after coming back home. Did the swap trick for the first time, it was easy and work perfectly. You can always put back the firmware for the Action Replay anyway.

Going to try Shienryu right now.

 

[cireza]

So I tried Shienryu. My Model 2 Saturn is having a hard time reading the burnt disc, it is the console I have been using for more than 20 years so I am guessing that it is getting old.

My Model 1 however reads it like a real one.

Shienryu is actually high resolution, this is very interesting. My guess is that the game was meant to be 320 * 240 in arcades, but since the Saturn is not TATE mode, then you have to fit the 320 pixels in only 240 available vertically.

So the choice here it seems has been to opt for the high res of the machine, thus having 480 pixels instead, and doubling 1 line out of two. The result is not bad at all, I think it is a better result than working in low res 320*240 and having to fit 320 pixel in 240, which means taking out 1 line out of 4.

You can feel that you have a higher resolution game than other vertical shmups designed for 320*240 TATE mode. However, because lines are doubled, it looks like the background is "alive" and you can see some slight movement everywhere. But it does not look bad at all.

Very interesting game in the end, that fits exactly the type of shmups I love (classic, old school, not too fast). Will give Cotton Boomerang a try this evening I think. Probably going to burn the ton of shmups I never bought because they are too expensive.

Edit : when you select Arcade Mode, it actually puts the game in TATE mode, and the console switches back to 320*240 progressive output, which confirms what I thought. Clever developers.

 

[cireza]

Just wanted to correct myself concerning the resolution of Shienryu. After further observation, when displayed in the normal Saturn mode, the game uses the high resolution of the console 640 * 480.

What the developers did is double the native resolution of game, in TATE mode that's 240 * 320 = 480 * 640. And then, when displaying this resolution in 640 * 480, what they do is skip 1 line out of 3, bringing it to 480 * 480 pixels to actually display.

Pretty sure that this is how they did it for Shienryu. My guess is that it is not too taxing for the console, since everything is still calculated for 240 * 320 internally, the console (VDP) only having to double lines/columns at the final moment before the output.

But now that I think about it, they could have acheived exactly the same result in 240 * 240 progressive scan, so I wonder why they decided to go high res mode, and I am not so sure that it was a smart move.

In Arcade/TATE mode, the console goes back to its standard 320*240 progressive display.

 

[Deleted member 738976]

I usually make my own French covers for Japanese games I love the most.

Stuff like this :

Or this :

I do the same for Japan only games except I make them like the jewel case Nights into Dreams. That way I can put them over the original Japanese manual/art if they came with it.
http://www.nightsintodreams.com/NiD/boxscans/ussmall.jpg
Yours is more macho than mine I'd say.

I tried to imagine what they would have looked like if they released over here. Though I think I'm too generous with the Darkstalkers one considering the PS1 artwork.

Oh I just realized I could have reused the PS1 box for X-Men vs. SF but as usual it's boring to look at.

 

[Kazza]

Another game has been translated to English, and it seems that it is a very high quality work.

Linkle Liver Story


For your information, Policenauts also received an English translation a few months ago.

And it seems that Princess Crown has made some great progress, as seen on the dedicated topic at romhacking.net

As a reminder, please know that it is possible to play these translated games on an original, unmodified hardware if you own the original game. I can explain the method if required.

For those lacking the original game and/or hardware, the Mednafen emulator recently received and update, and this game now works:



I've recently been playing through The Secret of Mana and this game looks very similar (although I'm sure the music isn't quite as great).

 

[cireza]

I've recently been playing through The Secret of Mana and this game looks very similar (although I'm sure the music isn't quite as great).

I still haven't tried the game yet. I need to rip my original disc, patch it and burn it.

 

[Kazza]

This was already posted on the main gaming forum, but I thought it deserved a place here too:

Japanese man collects every single Sega Saturn game

“All 1,057 titles of the Sega Saturn are finally complete…. It took a long time…. The last three especially…. There are pros and cons to completing this, but for now anyway, I feel relieved that I have made it. I thought it was going to be impossible personally, but somehow the dream came true. Well, guess I’ll have a tempura rice bowl.”

He even received a reply from Sega's official account:

“That’s quite a sight and made me gasp ‘OHHH!’ without thinking. And you did it in the 25th anniversary year of the Sega Saturn. Thank you for loving Sega Saturn for such a long time!”

An impressive achievement. In comparison, apparently only 196 N64 games were released in Japan.

The Saturn's relative popularity in Japan is the only reason I still hold a glimmer of hope for a Saturn Mini or Saturn collection at some point in the future.

 

[Eolz]

This was already posted on the main gaming forum, but I thought it deserved a place here too:

Japanese man collects every single Sega Saturn game





He even received a reply from Sega's official account:



An impressive achievement. In comparison, apparently only 196 N64 games were released in Japan.

The Saturn's relative popularity in Japan is the only reason I still hold a glimmer of hope for a Saturn Mini or Saturn collection at some point in the future.

Goddamn, that's really impressive!

 

[Rulp]

I haven't posted on Gaf in years but I'm pretty happy to see this thread is still so high up. Still love my Saturn, fantastic system!

 

[Kazza]

I haven't posted on Gaf in years but I'm pretty happy to see this thread is still so high up. Still love my Saturn, fantastic system!

DT Media has done a great job with his retrospective reviews, and the rest of us have chipped in whenever we can. Lots of Saturn love here!

 

[Kazza]

A youtuber is attempting to review every single US Saturn release in chronological order:




This looks like a second attempt at the project (there are a few older videos on his channel too). While the humour doesn't always hit the mark for me, overall they are well produced and entertaining reviews.

 

[cireza]

It seems that an English patch for Grandia is available. Still in beta testing, but this is awesome and finally fixes a huge fail from Sega US.



I will probably give it a go on real hardware this evening.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

It seems that an English patch for Grandia is available. Still in beta testing, but this is awesome and finally fixes a huge fail from Sega US.



I will probably give it a go on real hardware this evening.

This is excellent news! Grandia is one of Sega Saturn's finest hours, and its omission from a US release remains one of Sega's biggest mistakes. But, to be fair, the console was all but dead by 1997 and there was little that anybody could do about it. Thankfully, we will soon be able to play this videogame in full English.

I know many Saturn fans have been shouting for Princess Crown, but Grandia is just as important and I'm very happy to see translation work done. Besides, all of this work is being done for free by fans. If you want Game X to be translated, well, get started and translate it yourself.

 

[isamu]

How is Saturn emulation these days? Any emulators progressed in the last few months?

 

[Celcius]

I need to look into getting a Saturn one of these days... it’s one of the very few consoles I’ve never owned.

My favorite one is the limited edition THIS IS COOL transparent black one.

 

[Hellblueboy]

i hope someday we get a Saturn emulation box like PS classic.
Saturn Emulation made a massive progress in recent year, i just want some thing that i can plug to my tv and play some SS games that i miss.

 

[cireza]

So I burnt Grandia and played it on real hardware yesterday... had a blast. The patch works very well. I only encountered one problem (Marna Plains did not load the first try).

Otherwise, everything was perfect. Text is translated, and there are even the small pauses in display at the right moments. Great work.

I had a PAL box created many years ago, I can finally put an English version of Grandia inside it.

 

[Toe-Knee]

So I burnt Grandia and played it on real hardware yesterday... had a blast. The patch works very well. I only encountered one problem (Marna Plains did not load the first try).

Otherwise, everything was perfect. Text is translated, and there are even the small pauses in display at the right moments. Great work.

I had a PAL box created many years ago, I can finally put an English version of Grandia inside it.

Awesome. Do you have a link to the patch?

 

[cireza]

Awesome. Do you have a link to the patch?

I have a link to the original topic from segaXtreme forums :

Translating Grandia

So I thought I'd snoop around in Grandia's files and do some comparing and contrasting with the US and JP PS1 releases to see how different they are. The thought process was to see if it would be possible to extract the English script out of the PS1 version, and possibly use that as a base to...

segaxtreme.net

You need to be registered.
Steps to properly patch your game are at the bottom of page 3, patch 0.54 is somewhere in page 5 I think.

 

[Toe-Knee]

I have a link to the original topic from segaXtreme forums :

Translating Grandia

So I thought I'd snoop around in Grandia's files and do some comparing and contrasting with the US and JP PS1 releases to see how different they are. The thought process was to see if it would be possible to extract the English script out of the PS1 version, and possibly use that as a base to...

segaxtreme.net

You need to be registered.
Steps to properly patch your game are at the bottom of page 3, patch 0.54 is somewhere in page 5 I think.

Thanks. I'll get on it after work

 

[cireza]

I have been continuing my playthrough and so far so good. No problem encountered. Really enjoying the game a lot in these conditions by the way. Saturn version on CRT feels like the right way to play it for me. I had tried on Vita but was really missing the softer picture of my CRT.

I also tried on PS1 some time ago, but this version really is less crisp and missing many details.

The game is actually very impressive for the console and uses quite a lot of its features. For example you have a lot of transparency that is actually full transparency, applied to both the 3D backgrounds and 2D sprites at the same time. This is not something you see often on Saturn, because of how transparency is handled separately by each VDP.

You also have impressive water effects, and shadows that are cast on the sprites. There is really a lot of great stuff as far as graphics are concerned. The game is packed. So many different textures on a single map too (in towns).

Grandia is definitely one of the most ambitious game of the console, with Panzer Dragoon Saga and Shining Force III to name a few.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

I have been continuing my playthrough and so far so good. No problem encountered. Really enjoying the game a lot in these conditions by the way. Saturn version on CRT feels like the right way to play it for me. I had tried on Vita but was really missing the softer picture of my CRT.

I also tried on PS1 some time ago, but this version really is less crisp and missing many details.

The game is actually very impressive for the console and uses quite a lot of its features. For example you have a lot of transparency that is actually full transparency, applied to both the 3D backgrounds and 2D sprites at the same time. This is not something you see often on Saturn, because of how transparency is handled separately by each VDP.

You also have impressive water effects, and shadows that are cast on the sprites. There is really a lot of great stuff as far as graphics are concerned. The game is packed. So many different textures on a single map too (in towns).

Grandia is definitely one of the most ambitious game of the console, with Panzer Dragoon Saga and Shining Force III to name a few.

I always love how Grandia uses VDP2 to create those cool water effects. It reminds me a lot of the Panzer Dragoon Trilogy and Sonic R. It really was a shame that Sega of America passed on a domestic release, but Bernie Stolar was notoriously unfriendly to Japanese RPGs, both during his tenures at Sony and Sega. Then again, not to sound like a broken record, but Saturn was all but dead in the US by 1997 and it likely wouldn't have made any difference which Japanese hits were brought over.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

A quick update: I have been redesigning and updating my DT Media website, which is my indie book publishing label. I have just released my latest batch of street photography ebooks, and I have also been revising the Sega Saturn reviews from this thread that I posted there as well. Feel free to visit the site and take a look around.

As for the Sega Saturn book project, that's still ongoing. I have told myself to evaluate things once I've reached 100 reviews, and I have told myself to write about all the major software titles as well as some more obscure classics, and my check list still has a long way to go.

Oh, and pick up some of my books while yer at it.

 

[Blayzedblue]

The Saturn looks beautiful with a Retrotink 2x and HD Retrovision custom component cable. Just waiting for those wireless Bluetooth Saturn pads from Retrobit now.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

Whenever I pull out my Sega Saturn, Worldwide Soccer is always there in the tray ready to go. I've always been a great fan of this game. It's a perfect arcade-style soccer title that looks terrific (those glorious hi-rez Saturn graphics) and plays like greased lightning. And, of course, it has some of the best "Sega Rock" music ever. They must have all been diehard Sammy Hagar fans back in the day.

I always felt this was one of the standout hits of the Saturn launch lineup, alongside Virtua Fighter, Daytona USA and Panzer Dragoon. Two things that I never understood: why this videogame didn't receive more attention in the gaming press, and why didn't Sega use this graphics engine for more sports games, like American football?

Worldwide Soccer is the videogame equivalent to comfort food. It's not anybody's idea of the "perfect meal," but when it's two in the morning and you're feeling hungry and slightly buzzed, it's absolutely hits the spot. Now I'm hungry for beer and chips.

Any fans out there? You can find WWS on Ebay for peanuts, like most sports games. You should definitely add this to your Saturn library if you haven't yet done so.

 

[cireza]

There is also a pretty great arcade soccer game by Tecmo that was released late on the console. I heard good things about it and should try it one of these days.

 

[Kazza]

Whenever I pull out my Sega Saturn, Worldwide Soccer is always there in the tray ready to go. I've always been a great fan of this game. It's a perfect arcade-style soccer title that looks terrific (those glorious hi-rez Saturn graphics) and plays like greased lightning. And, of course, it has some of the best "Sega Rock" music ever. They must have all been diehard Sammy Hagar fans back in the day.

I always felt this was one of the standout hits of the Saturn launch lineup, alongside Virtua Fighter, Daytona USA and Panzer Dragoon. Two things that I never understood: why this videogame didn't receive more attention in the gaming press, and why didn't Sega use this graphics engine for more sports games, like American football?

Worldwide Soccer is the videogame equivalent to comfort food. It's not anybody's idea of the "perfect meal," but when it's two in the morning and you're feeling hungry and slightly buzzed, it's absolutely hits the spot. Now I'm hungry for beer and chips.

Any fans out there? You can find WWS on Ebay for peanuts, like most sports games. You should definitely add this to your Saturn library if you haven't yet done so.

I believe this one was known as Victory Goal in Europe. I seem to recall it getting pretty bad reviews at the time, so I avoided it in favour of getting FIFA (which I always wanted, ever since seeing the 3DO version). The sequel in Europe was called Worldwide Soccer (there was both a 97 and 98 version I think). Those ones actually got very positive reviews, and I bought, and really enjoyed, the 97 version. Was the original Victory Goal/Worldwide Soccer really that different from Worldwide Soccer 97 and 98?

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

I believe this one was known as Victory Goal in Europe. I seem to recall it getting pretty bad reviews at the time, so I avoided it in favour of getting FIFA (which I always wanted, ever since seeing the 3DO version). The sequel in Europe was called Worldwide Soccer (there was both a 97 and 98 version I think). Those ones actually got very positive reviews, and I bought, and really enjoyed, the 97 version. Was the original Victory Goal/Worldwide Soccer really that different from Worldwide Soccer 97 and 98?

There are a few differences, but not as great as one would think. WWS 97 featured a new graphics engine (with some terrific player animations), a whole stash of gameplay modes, three stadiums and player edit mode. The gameplay was still arcade-like at its core, but the players had a host of new moves and tricks, including a number of moves that weren't put in the instruction manual.

Basically, WWS 97/98 is the more "serious" attempt at soccer, while WWS/Victory Goal is pure arcade action, complete with chirpy Sega Rock music and bright graphics. It plays very well but doesn't have the sim-oriented subtleties of FIFA or Konami's soccer games.

 

[Kazza]

There are a few differences, but not as great as one would think. WWS 97 featured a new graphics engine (with some terrific player animations), a whole stash of gameplay modes, three stadiums and player edit mode. The gameplay was still arcade-like at its core, but the players had a host of new moves and tricks, including a number of moves that weren't put in the instruction manual.

Basically, WWS 97/98 is the more "serious" attempt at soccer, while WWS/Victory Goal is pure arcade action, complete with chirpy Sega Rock music and bright graphics. It plays very well but doesn't have the sim-oriented subtleties of FIFA or Konami's soccer games.

I remember not being happy about Victory Goal having rock music. I guess we in the UK take football/soccer more seriously and wanted a more simulation type of game (such as FIFA). It sounds like the UK magazines may have been a little overly harsh on Victory Goal.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

I'm finally sitting down and playing through Tomb Raider and loving every moment of it. It's easy to forget just how groundbreaking this videogame was in 1996, and how brilliantly designed and executed it remains. Here are some screenshots from my 13" Sony Trinitron w/composite.

Back in the day, the Playstation version got all of the attention and accolades, while the Saturn version was either dismissed or derided as second-rate. In fact, I find that this version holds up extremely well and is far closer to its rival than anybody remembers. Visually, the only knock against this TR is the frame rate, which drops from 30fps to 20fps in large open areas or during animal attacks. Beyond that, the graphics feel more "solid" (none of that crazy glitching and warping you see on PSX) and even have a few cool touches like the water distortion effects.

Like everybody else, I love TR for its wonderful sense of mystery, exploration and isolation. It reminds me a lot of Minecraft but with a far stronger Indiana Jones vibe. The controls will probably put off a lot of modern gamers who would expect Super Mario 64 controls, but the tank controls work perfectly for this world and after a little practice becomes second nature.

Has anybody played Saturn Tomb Raider lately? Any fans out there? I would definitely put this on the Saturn Top 20, or even Top 10. It's crazy how I have more fun with this system today than I did 20+ years ago. I don't know why we were all so harsh on Sega back then.

 

[Toe-Knee]

I'm finally sitting down and playing through Tomb Raider and loving every moment of it. It's easy to forget just how groundbreaking this videogame was in 1996, and how brilliantly designed and executed it remains. Here are some screenshots from my 13" Sony Trinitron w/composite.

Back in the day, the Playstation version got all of the attention and accolades, while the Saturn version was either dismissed or derided as second-rate. In fact, I find that this version holds up extremely well and is far closer to its rival than anybody remembers. Visually, the only knock against this TR is the frame rate, which drops from 30fps to 20fps in large open areas or during animal attacks. Beyond that, the graphics feel more "solid" (none of that crazy glitching and warping you see on PSX) and even have a few cool touches like the water distortion effects.

Like everybody else, I love TR for its wonderful sense of mystery, exploration and isolation. It reminds me a lot of Minecraft but with a far stronger Indiana Jones vibe. The controls will probably put off a lot of modern gamers who would expect Super Mario 64 controls, but the tank controls work perfectly for this world and after a little practice becomes second nature.

Has anybody played Saturn Tomb Raider lately? Any fans out there? I would definitely put this on the Saturn Top 20, or even Top 10. It's crazy how I have more fun with this system today than I did 20+ years ago. I don't know why we were all so harsh on Sega back then.

I loved this back in the day.

The main difference I remember between the Saturn & psx version was the save crystals were a nice transparent blue on psx but a dull grey if I'm remembering right on the Saturn

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

I was playing a little Duke Nukem 3D this weekend and snapped some screenshots from the Trinitron. I really love that little TV set, still can't believe that I scored it for free. If you ever get a chance to pick up one, do so immediately. In fact, you should probably store away several Sonys for long-term use.

Duke Nukem rocks on Saturn, especially with the 3D controller. Even on the easiest difficulty setting, it's very tough and relentless. Lobotomy did an outstanding job and their work continues to impress all these years later. Sega really should have bought them out like Visual Concepts or Nintendo's second-party studios. Can you imagine what they could have done with Dreamcast?

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

Here are some cool Trinitron screenshots of Last Bronx in action. I hadn't touched this game in a while, as I usually prefer to play the other major 3D brawlers, but I really had a blast this time. Maybe I just finally "found" my character, or maybe I was just in a receptive mood.

Like all the Sega fighting games of the era, LB has a tremendous amount of depth while still being fairly accessible. It does offer a few interesting changes to the VF formula that adds to the offense, things like tech rolls, hopping off off fences and some really nasty "on the bounce" combos.

I still think that Soul Calibur seriously raised the bar for weapons-based fighters, especially the ability to parry attacks and move to the side. But LB is all about fast action, quick strikes and sudden violence.

One thing about Saturn that has always fascinated me is its "480/60" high resolution, which was double the standard of Sony and Nintendo. Why wasn't this a bigger deal with gamers in the '90s? Every 5th generation console had its strengths and weaknesses, but people only seemed to remember Sega's weaknesses, and often blowing them out of proportion, all while ignoring their strengths.

Today, 480i and 60fps stands out more, especially on modern digital displays. A lot of the graphics from that era have aged, and it's something you just learn to live with, but the 480/60 visuals really stand out. A lot of these Saturn games could pass as budget Dreamcast titles.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

Goiken Muyou: Anarchy in the Nippon is one of my all-time favorite Saturn games, so I thought I'd waste my entire day playing and practicing and finally writing down all of the menu options. I even managed to see the ending sequence which looks pretty cool (it's the color/monochrome shot above), even if I had to cheat with the life bars to pull it off. This videogame is crazy hard at the end.

Anarchy is still very cheap. You should be able to buy a copy for $10, which is a steal given how good it is and how well it shows off the Saturn's powers. This is the best Virtua Fighter fan tribute you could hope for, and even though Dead or Alive and Last Bronx look a little more polished, this one has the better gameplay, tighter and more intense and perfectly honed for VF junkies.

Honestly, I'll rank this game near the very top of Saturn fighting games, just behind VF2 and maybe Megamix. It's certainly the one I reach for when I need to get my brawler fix.

Best. Fighting. Console. Ever. It's not even close.

Update: After some digging, I finally found the name of the software studio that created Anarchy: Mediamuse. It was a small studio best known for the Mujunto Monogatari series for Playstation in Japan, and was active from 1994-2001. Toyohiko Yoshimine was the director of this game and its 1998 PSX sequel. He's also best known as Ikebukuro Sarah, one of the "Tatsujin" Virtua Fighter tournament champions who also appear in Anarchy as bonus characters.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

I got two questions.

What's the best Gundam game on the Saturn and is Groove on Fight worth buying?