- [JAMES] Should you buy a Sega Saturn in 2019?
The Sega Saturn is the little console that unfortunately couldn't.
Released in 1994 in Japan and
right at the E3 expo in 1995 in North America, and really, the rest of the world if I remember correctly,
the Sega Saturn was a 32-bit Sega console
released in the mid-90s before the Sega Dreamcast
but after the Sega Genesis and its numerous add-ons.
This console had two processors and could do 3D graphics, though with a bit more difficulty than its main competition, the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation 1.
But it's not a bad console!
In fact, if you ask most Sega fans, myself included,
we'll say it's a console that didn't fail due to any hardware shortcomings -
trust me, this thing is super capable -
but because Sega's marketing was all over the place in the mid-90s
as kind of was the company itself.
But that's besides the point.
Should you still buy one in 2019?
Should you buy a Sega Saturn in 2019?
Well that's what we're going to find out in today's buying guide!
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Today we're going over one of my favourite under-loved consoles of all time:
the Sega Saturn!
Look at this! Look at me holding it like a waiter!
So let's jump into the first of three categories we'll be covering today,
because of course, as always,
we're covering hardware, software, and accessories.
First off: the hardware!
The Sega Saturn had a somewhat troubled development and launch.
From what I've gathered, work on the Sega Saturn was started by Sega Japan sometime in the early 90s
and they were very secretive about it
So secretive, in fact,
that Sega of America didn't know about it until quite late.
The Sega Genesis had not sold well in Japan,
where, like in Europe, it was known as the Mega Drive.
But, it had been a smash hit in North America.
With the 32-bit generation looming,
Sega of America decided to make their own 32-bit system...
kind of.
This was the Sega 32X add-on for the Sega Genesis
which was completely and utterly poorly conceived and poorly timed.
Not a bad piece of hardware, mind you.
Just not one that should have existed.
What ended up happening then was that the 32x launched in North America
the same week that the Sega Saturn did in Japan.
But, issues didn't stop there.
By this time, Japanese developers had Sega Saturn development kits,
but North American Saturn developers, or so I've heard from interviews,
got development kits based off the specs Sega thought were going to be in the Saturn,
but wasn't actually the Saturn itself.
Things just got worse when the Sega Saturn was officially launched
at the E3 expo in 1995.
Now, the Sega Saturn was originally going to be released in late 1995 on a day known as "Saturnday".
This was kind of like what they'd do with the Dreamcast by launching it on 9/9/99 in the west.
However, when they learned that Sony was making their own console, the PlayStation,
they decided to undercut them by releasing earlier in the year.
Unfortunately, Sega gave such little heads up on this
that when the console launched there were only three of twenty or so planned launch titles available
and it was only sold at several retailers in North America.
This would hurt Sega for years to come.
I got mine a few years ago and it's actually pretty nice.
We have this CD slot here.
Yes it can not only play games but also music CDs,
or, via an add-on you can attach to the back here, video CDs!
Furthermore, if we actually open up this back slot right here
you'll actually see a little watch battery in there.
Now this is important because the Sega Saturn has an actual built-in internal clock.
One of the other big things, though, is that there's a cartridge slot on every Sega Saturn.
The cartridge slot is interesting.
During development, it was actually originally going to be a thing
that would allow for backwards compatibility with the Sega Genesis,
but this did not happen.
There's no way to get a Saturn to run Genesis games unless you, say,
play the Sonic Jam compilation, which is just ports of the Genesis Sonic games.
What the cartridge slot can let you do, however, is use cartridges such as the RAM expansion cartridges
or my personal favourite: the Action Replay 4M Plus cart!
Now I'm going to be bringing this cartridge up throughout this video.
It's very cheap and easy to find from my experiences
and if you own a Sega Saturn or are planning on getting a Sega Saturn and haven't thought about getting one of these,
it's an essential.
We'll get into why.
So, Japan got many different colours and variations of the Saturn.
In fact, not all of them were made by Sega.
Some were made by Hitachi such as the Hi-Saturn.
We just got two variants here.
Even then, they were just variations on this same one.
We have these with these oval-like buttons
and we also got some that had circular buttons.
The biggest difference between US and Japanese Saturns, though, is their libraries.
The Saturn is region-locked.
But, the Action Replay cart will break that region locking
and also let you use cheat codes if you're into that.
It will also give a 4 Megabyte RAM upgrade, which is great.
That's what the "4M" on there is.
But anyways, before I ramble on more, let's get into the games!
Y'know, the Sega Saturn has some really great games and that was evident from launch.
Daytona USA!
What a great, classic game!
Daytona USA, despite the weird draw distance issues and what not,
at the time was an almost arcade-perfect port.
In addition to this we also got Virtua Fighter,
which, okay, was a little rough.
But the one thing I should not about both of these games, is while they were both somewhat solid at launch,
they both got better versions as the console's lifespan went on.
Most importantly, Daytona USA eventually got a version called Daytona USA: Net Link Edition
where you could hook your system up to a modem and actually play online, which is great!
One of the biggest issues for the Sega Saturn, however, is that it did not have a proper Sonic the Hedgehog game.
Sonic the Hedgehog was (and is) Sega's mascot and they'd had a Sonic game in the works for years!
Originally for the 32x and codenamed "Sonic Mars",
this game became Sonic Xtreme.
While I will probably soon have a documentary out on this,
wink wink nudge nudge,
on the full story of Sonic Xtreme,
long story short, this game went through development hell
and eventually got cancelled, and then they quickly put out a version of Sonic 3D Blast,
which was a Sega Genesis game.
Admittedly, the Saturn version is better.
Though it has load times, it also looks crisp and clean and has special effects
and a great new soundtrack and the best special stages in the entire Sonic series!
It's a good time!
However what's even better than that is Sonic R.
I've done a review of Sonic R.
I really like this game, though a lot of people don't like it.
It's an on-foot Sonic racing game
and though it's no Mario Kart beater or whatnot,
and it's a lot of fun, as is Sonic Jam, which is just ports of Sonic 1, 2, 3, & Knuckles
but also with easy modes and special extras and whatnot
and also Sonic World,
which was a hub world that was an actual full-fledged 3D Sonic level.
It was also the only platforming level in all of classic Sonic that was in 3D.
To be honest, this is more fun than I think Xtreme would have been.
So with no true Sonic game, what was the makeshift mascot here?
It wasn't Rayman.
It wasn't Mega Man.
But, it was NiGHTS.
NiGHTS Into Dreams!
This is a game where you play as NiGHTS,
who, I guess is a Nightopian
and you have to go into these kids' dreams
and save them from nightmares and stuff like that.
I'm really describing it badly. I'm not up to date on NiGHTS lore.
What I do know is that it is fun.
What made this game so unique
was that it actually came with an analogue controller.
The Sega Saturn Analogue Controller is huge!
It's big enough in size that I'd say it's like a predecessor to the original Xbox controller!
But, it still feels really great.
The analogue stick is actually really big
and it's curved in such a way that it's hard to lose your grip on it.
It feels really good in the hand and if you play a game that doesn't support it, it has a great d-pad on it!
Now the big downside to the Saturn is that some of the best games for it are prohibitively expensive nowadays.
Mega Man 8 comes to mind.
Yes this was also on the PlayStation 1, but the Sega Saturn version is sought after
because it had additional bosses, new music, and an art gallery
and it's now usually worth over $100.
However, if you're like me and got the Action Replay 4M Plus cartridge,
you can just import one from Japan.
I paid roughly $20 USD for my copy.
But unfortunately this doesn't work so well for RPGs
unless you speak Japanese.
So, titles such as Magic Knight Rayearth,
Albert Odyssey,
and especially Panzer Dragoon Saga,
which if you want to buy complete will likely run you around $600 USD,
and that's on a good day,
just scratch off ever wanting to get those unless you're rich or something.
With that said, all is not lost.
The 4M Plus cart breaks the region locking
and this works on any region Saturn,
Japan, PAL, North America, or otherwise.
Japan got a lot of really great games.
Mainly shmups!
Radiant Silvergun is a great game,
though admittedly it's actually quite expensive from Japan and was re-releasedon the Xbox Live Arcade service awhile back.
But, there are some other games there too...
including some weird adult games.
Such as The Yakyuken Special, which is just strip rock-paper-scissors.
But regardless, if you want to play games such as the original Panzer Dragoon,
or shmups such as In The Hunt,
it's probably much cheaper to get them from Japan.
Speaking of which, my favourite Japanese Saturn game that I own
is actually one that came out in the west on PS1
but was Saturn exclusive in Japan
even though the west never got that version
and that was Grandia!
This is an RPG and I can't anything it says in this version,
but I love me some Grandia.
But do you know what I also love?
Really cool accessories!
So let's jump right into that!
The Action Replay 4M Plus cartridge is an essential.
Trust me.
American Saturn games are just way too expensive nowadays.
However, something else I'd like to note is in regards to Saturn controllers.
If you really want the best controller experience, even if you're playing games that don't have analogue controls,
the Sega Saturn 3D Controller just feels great in the hand.
In North America, the Sega Saturn launch controller,
which I don't think ever came out in Japan,
just is not very comfortable.
The original Japanese pad,
which we also later got in North America,
is also quite comfortable.
It just kind of feels like a six button Sega Genesis controller but with shoulder buttons.
Honestly I can't complain.
There was also a steering wheel controller,
which I'm mentioning here because, a:
it's gotten rarer over time and now I just can't seem to find one anywhere, and b:
if you want to play some games, particularly motorcycle racing games
such as Manx TT Superbike,
it's more or less essential and they just seem way too twitchy with a standard controller.
Maybe they were just designed with the steering wheel in mind.
In addition to this, though,
you might want to invest in some fight sticks for your Sega Saturn
because the Sega Saturn had some great fighting games.
In particular, I'd like to mention X-Men vs Street Fighter,
which was the predecessor to Marvel vs Capcom.
So, the Sega Saturn was a great system with some incredible games.
It also had some really neat variants in Japan.
The one I want the most, which is one I think a lot of people want the most,
is called the Hitachi Hi-Saturn Navi,
which is an incredibly sleek, smooth, and slightly smaller Saturn
that had a flip-top screen
and, as you may know if you've seen my PS1 buying guide,
I just really like semi-portable home consoles with flip-top screens.
It just seems really convenient to me in a way
and if I own a home console with a screen like that
then I know for a fact that I'll use it.
So what's my verdict?
The Sega Saturn is a fantastic console that I wish had done better when it was new.
It had some fantastic games and a lot of potential that I just don't think it quite reached.
Well, except for maybe in Japan.
It really had some fantastic titles
and keep in mind I just gave kind of a teaser here.
I didn't go super in-depth.
If you really want to see some in-depth Saturn stuff,
check out Sega Lord X.
But, in regards to the Sega Saturn itself,
I love this console.
It's a great console.
But, to be completely honest,
as much as I absolutely adore this console,
unless you're a collector willing to plop down some serious cash,
or who knows how to import stuff from Japan on the cheap,
then this one is definitely a hard pass.
So with that, thank you very much for watching today's buying guide.
Do you agree with me or do you think I'm full of it?
What buying guides should I do in the future?
Let me know down in the comment section below
and while you're at it, why don't you subscribe to Stuff We Play for more great content like this
or even tune into our documentary series
which will be airing throughout 2019, six episodes of it,
The Art of Failure.
So with that, thank you very much for watching,
stay classy, and I'll see you...
next time!
