The Sega Saturn never stood a chance. From day one it was hobbled by a surprise launch annoying gaming retailers and was soon in a one-sided brawl against Sony’s all-conquering PlayStation. The Saturn was comparatively more difficult to develop for, couldn’t push polygons as efficiently, and was soon cratering in sales.
By the time Nintendo entered the generation with the Nintendo 64 the writing was on the wall for the poor Saturn. Developers jumped ship to greener pastures, releases slowed to a trickle, and as early as Dec. 1998 the very last North American title hit shelves.
Its fortunes were a little rosier in Japan where it soldiered on into the year 2000, meaning many of the system’s most impressive titles never got a Western release. So, if you’re curious about this promising yet doomed system, here are the ten titles you need to play.
10. Virtual On: Cyber Troopers (1996)
Probably best to come out and say it up top, to play this list legitimately you’re going to need deep pockets. Sega’s 3D robot fighting game isn’t necessarily expensive to buy, but to get the full experience you will need the Saturn twin stick controller to mimic the arcade experience. Virtual On is playable on the regular Saturn pad, but comes alive when you try it with the intended twin stick controls (only $80 on eBay!).
Deep gameplay, fun robot designs, and kinetic action? It’s great.
9. Dragon Force (1996)
What the Saturn lacked in polygons it more than made up with in sprites. J-Force and Sega’s tactical RPG Dragon Force is one of the best proofs of that, showing mind-bending battles featuring 200 individual soldiers fighting at once. It’s a beautiful game, nicely balancing its role-playing and battle management sides while delivering eight separate storylines that flesh out its fantasy world. It’s a more obscure title, but well worth checking out.
8. Guardian Heroes (1996)
This side-scrolling beat-em-up is yet more proof of the Saturn’s 2D mastery. Like Dragon Force it can push a crazy amount of sprites around the screen, resulting in chaotic battles across three 2D planes. That’s all combined with a very fun anime aesthetic, featuring fully animated FMV cutscenes to tell the story. Beautiful sprite art like this never truly ages, but perhaps 90s gamers caught up in the leap to 3D couldn’t appreciate that at the time.
7. NiGHTS into Dreams (1996)
The Saturn famously never received a proper Sonic the Hedgehog game, but in its place Sonic Team developed the excellent NiGHTS into Dreams. In place of the blue blur was an androgynous purple harlequin who lives inside childrens’ dreams, which in retrospect feels unsurprising that it didn’t take off. Anyway, NiGHTS didn’t trouble Super Mario 64, but is an exhilarating time attack game in which you fly around surreal levels helping two children resolve their internal trauma. There’s never been much else like it.
6. Panzer Dragoon II Zwei (1996)
The Saturn launched with Team Andromeda’s excellent rail shooter Panzer Dragoon, though this would eventually be eclipsed by its sequel. Panzer Dragoon II Zwei features branching levels, has a much more involving story, and is (by Saturn standards) something of a looker. Perhaps to modern eyes, it’s a jaggy low-poly blur, but smart environment and enemy design, matched with clever use of the Saturn’s dual processors make it a technical showcase.
5. X-Men vs. Street Fighter (1997)
2D fighters are the genre in which the Saturn inarguably triumphed over both the PlayStation and Nintendo 64, and X-Men vs. Street Fighter is at the very pinnacle of that pile. Coming after Capcom’s X-Men: Children of the Atom and Marvel Super Heroes, this finally brings in the Street Fighter characters for what’s effectively the first Marvel vs. Capcom. It runs beautifully, and the art is incredible.
Sadly this was never released outside Japan, likely because it requires the 4MB RAM cartridge to run. It’s a blistering and practically arcade-perfect port, and leaves the cut-down PlayStation version of the same game in the dust.
4. Radiant Silvergun (1998)
Aside from having one of the coolest names in gaming history, Radiant Silvergun is one of the great shoot ’em ups of all time. Coming from the masterful Treasure (also responsible for Guardian Heroes) this combines 2D and 3D art into an extremely slick presentation.
For many years Radiant Silvergun was something of a holy grail for gamers. It was only released in Japan in limited quantities, and now goes for around $250 for a complete copy. Fortunately, it’s since been ported to the Switch and PC, where it can usually be had for a deep discount.
3. Virtua Fighter 2 (1995)
The Saturn launched with a rushed port of 1993’s Virtua Fighter, whose flat-shaded polygons were looking dated even a year on from its release. But the fully textured mapped Model 2 Virtua Fighter 2 wowed gamers and was probably the single most advanced-looking game to date in 1994. How could the Saturn possibly handle this?
Well, somehow those geniuses at Sega did what few others could. Saturn Virtua Fighter 2 runs at a buttery smooth 60FPS and even takes advantage of the system’s rarely used 480i resolution. That this 3D Saturn game looks this good is, quite frankly, witchcraft.
2. Sega Rally Championship (1995)
In the 1990s Sega was dominating the arcades with a series of brilliant racing games. Virtua Racing, Daytona USA, and Scud Racer are all incredible titles, though sadly the Saturn quickly developed a reputation for receiving ports that didn’t do them justice. Fortunately, this was not the case for 1995’s Sega Rally Championship, which had the most advanced physics system of any racing game previously seen.
Simply put, Sega Rally Championship controls like a dream both in arcades and at home and comparing the slip n’ slide of mud to the grip of tarmac still feels great. Another Sega masterpiece.
1. Panzer Dragoon Saga (1998)
Talk about a labor of love… Panzer Dragoon Saga follows up Zwei with a fully-fledged JRPG, telling a gripping and epic story over four discs. It has an amazing turn-based combat system that honors its rail-shooter origins, smart production design that leans into the Saturn’s graphical capabilities, and squeezes every inch of performance out of the hardware.
The tragedy is that the Saturn was on life support by the time this released, so despite glowing reviews few played it. That’s compounded by this never getting ported to any other system and the source code is now long lost. But trust me, it’s worth tracking down and is a genuine lost classic. Give us a port, Sega!
