Ah yes, the Sega Saturn, the console that
is often considered as the poster child for
everything that Sega did wrong following the
success of the Mega Drive or Sega Genesis.
A console that flopped in every western market
and ultimately led to Sega leaving the hardware
market.
Most seem to think that Japan was the only
market where the Saturn was well received,
but that’s actually not entirely true. In
my home country of Portugal, the Saturn was well received, selling on par, if not
better than the Playstation during the console’s
first couple of years and vastly outselling
the Nintendo 64.
So, how did this happen? Why was my tiny country
of Portugal such an exception to this rule?
That’s what we’re looking at today.
I should start by saying that Sega has always
been very popular in my country, the Master
System outsold the NES and the Mega Drive
dominated the Super Nintendo. This was in
part due to the Portuguese distributors for
both Sega and Nintendo.
Sega’s distributor, Ecofilmes, already had experience
distributor in the movie and music industries,
and so, when they became the official Sega
Distributor in 1991, they already had an established
distribution network and the budget to promote
their Mega Drive console. This partnership
proved so fruitful that they’re still the
official Sega distributor to this day and
have even expanded to include companies like
EA and Square-Enix.
Nintendo on the other hand, established a
partnership with Concentra, a toy distributor
better known for their Mattel line of toys.
This partnership lasted until 2009 when
Nintendo finally established offices in Portugal.
There’s a LOT of background story regarding
this rivalry, but suffice it to say, Sega
was a vastly more popular brand here.
So by the time the 32-bit generation came
around, it seemed pretty clear who was going
to come out ahead right from the onset. Sega
was still riding high on the success of the
Mega Drive and so few people bought or even
knew what the Mega CD or 32X were, that they
never affected consumer confidence on their
brand.
However, this time, there was a new competitor
on the horizon, the Sony Playstation. And
at first, it seems to have been giving Sega,
its first true competitor in the Portuguese
market. Sony had the budget and structure
to challenge Sega head-on and the titles to
back it up.
Games like Tekken 2, Ridge Racer and Crash
Bandicoot were giving Sega a real run for
its money. But Sega had a trick up their sleeve,
a killer app that every kid wanted to play,
a game which Sony did not have and was released
right when at the best possible time for the
Saturn.
You’re probably wondering what game could
Sega possible have that could compete with
Sony’s best titles? Could it be Virtua Fighter
2? Sega Rally? Virtua Cop? No, not at all,
this game was only ever released in 4 countries
worldwide. That game was… Dragon Ball Z:
The Legend. Yes! Sega was saved… by a Dragon
Ball game!
You see, Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z started
airing in Portugal a few years before it aired
in the UK or the US. So by the time the Saturn
was out, we were well into the Android saga
and Dragon Ball Z craze was sweeping the nation
I should also point out that the Portuguese dub of Dragon Ball is infamous
for being so bad, it's good
in our dub, the villains don't scream or shout, they sing opera.
*magic happens*
and the dialog was riddled with gags and pop-culture references
My favorite one being when Pui challenges Goku and Vegeta to a fight
and Goku looks at the camera and says "This guy has no idea we still have 60 episodes left!"
So huh... yeah. We pretty were pretty much doing Dragon Ball abridged before anyone.
Despite that, Dragon Ball Z was insanely popular
and Sega clearly saw an opportunity and imported
the game to Portuguese shores. But now here’s
the thing, they weren’t the only ones to
do this. France and Spain also imported and
translated the game onto their respective
languages. We on the other hand never got
the game translated into Portuguese, instead
we were sold the French version. Not to mention
the game itself is pretty terrible and it
even had some content removed from the Japanese
version. If you want to know more about, be
sure to check my review on it. It’s a bit
of an older video, but when am I ever gonna
get the chance to talk about this again?
This wasn’t the first time Ecofilmes did
something like this either. During the 16-bit
generation they also imported Dragonball Z
Buyuu Retsuden for the MegaDrive and sold
it in stores. What’s funny is that both
the cartridge and rom were Japanese so it
wouldn’t run on PAL consoles. So when you
bought the game, you had to walk to the store
clerk and you’d also a get a free copy of…
THIS. 
Gotta love how they got around that issue.
Anyway, back to Dragon Ball Z: The Legend,
the game was pretty terrible, it was in French
and it had content removed, but we didn’t
care. It was Dragon Ball and it looked awesome.
I mean remember, this is 1996, the console
generation was still new, graphically it looked
amazing and it had the high energy of the
show. And the game flew off the shelfs.
I remember going to a friend’s birthday party
who owned a Saturn, and everyone kept lining
up to play this game.
Sure, the Saturn had other popular games,
but THIS was the console’s killer app and
the Playstation was struggling to compete
with Sega’s console. Meanwhile, the Nintendo
64 had a strong launch with games like Mario
64, but it was soon left in the dust and to
this day, you’re much more likely to find
someone who owned a Saturn or Playstation
back in the day, then you are of finding an
N64 owner.
The ironic part is that Sony actually could
have fought back, because Dragon Ball Z: The
Legend was also launched for the Playstation
in Japan, but Sony of Portugal never brought it
over even though they could have
Still, I’m glad the Saturn was so popular
in my country, because it made it really easy
for me to build a sizable collection. For
years you could buy cheap Saturn games in
my country for a fraction of their ebay prices.
I’ve bought games like Keio 2 Flying Squadron,
Shining the Holy Ark and Shinobi x for as
low as 30, 20 and even 10 bucks.
I still don’t own every Saturn game I want,
I’m still missing games like Guardian Heroes
and Panzer Dragoon Saga, but I did build up
a collection of over 60 Saturn games because
of it. Sadly, it seems that word has gotten
out that Saturn games are worth a lot more
on ebay and now scalpers are always on the
lookout for them so they can sell them on Brittish ebay
for up to ten times the price. In fact, here’s
a quick exercise you could do right now, go
to Ebay.co.uk, search for Keio 2 Flying Squadron
and count how many of those sellers are from
Portugal.
But getting back to out story, by late 1997
and early 1998, Saturn sales were dwindling
down. Saturn exclusives were dwindling, multiplatform
games were almost always better on the Playstation
and Sony’s console was getting titles like
Crash Bandicoot 2, Resident Evil 2, Metal
Gear Solid and Tekken 3.
But Sony still needed to land a final, killer
blow against the Saturn, and the turning point
in the console war finally came with the release
of one exclusive Playstation title that finally
knocked Sega off its pedestal. That game was…
Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout.
Yes, Sega was both saved and destroyed... by Dragon Ball
Sony’s answer may have been late, but
man, what an answer. It was a new Dragon Ball
game that teased enemies from the GT saga
when we were still watching the Buu Saga on TV
and it looked amazing. Sure, it may not look like
much now, but seeing those 3D character models
was mind-blowing and a huge step forward from
the Saturn’s 2D character models. Of course,
once again, the game completely sucked, but
again, we didn’t care. It was Dragon Ball,
it was on the Playstation and we had it to
get it.
THIS was the final push the Playstation needed
and when we couple that with the lack of support
the Saturn was receiving from game developers,
many kids ended up selling their Saturn to
buy a Playstation.
I remember how I kept begging my parents for
a Saturn as soon as it came out and how I
kept saving money hoping to buy one, but,
by mid-1998, when I finally had amassed enough
to buy a console, I ended up getting a Playstation
and never looked back.
And yes, I played a LOT of Dragon Ball: Final
Bout, finishing the game with every character
and unlocking all the secret modes and fighters.
Man, I have no idea how I used to think this
was a good game.
And that’s pretty much it. Nearly two years
later, Sega would try again with the Dreamcast
but by then the damage was already done. The
Playstation had established itself as the
system to get and there was little Ecofilmes
could do. Though the dreamcast did end up
outselling the gamecube.
I hope you enjoyed this bit of my country’s
gaming history. If you’d like more videos
like this, let me know in the comments and
I’m sure I can think of a few more gaming
stories from my country.
Hey everyone, thank you for watching st1ka’s
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I hope you have a great day. Bye!
