IGN's Top 10 Sega Saturn Games

http://retro.ign.com/articles/894/894643p1.html

Here are IGN's suggestions for the best Sega Saturn games. I just bought a Sega Saturn with no games and I am currently looking for some good games to try out. The problem is that it is difficult to actually find any Sega Saturn games anywhere! A local store chain, Games X Change has a few and I have some credit there. I like all games except sports (football, basketball, baseball) and turn-based games.

Do any of you have any recommendations that IGN did not list. Are there any games on that list that should not be on there?

Help me out! Thanks!

I mostly agree with the list. Daytona USA should be up there just for the fun factor (better than SEGA Rally Championship). If you like fighters, FIGHTERS MEGAMIX is awesome (ing giant dancing bean is cheap, though), tied with VF2. I never played Astral and PD2Zwei. Clockwork Knight1&2 aren't on the list, but they're great platformers.

I dunno... most of those Sega games didn't age especially well, or are entirely obsolete now.

Though Nights definitely deserves to be there.

Surprised Shining Force isn't on the list. Never played Astal

where is Die Hard Arcade.... WHERE IS DIE HARD ARCADE!

Making a best Sega Saturn games list without including Japanese games is retarded. List needs more fighting games and shooters.

[quote name='Halo05']Making a best Sega Saturn games list without including Japanese games is retarded. List needs more fighting games and shooters.[/QUOTE]

No kidding. I'm surprised "X-Men Vs. Street Fighter" wasn't listed as I use to play that a good deal. "Guardian Heroes" and "Dragon Force" definitely deserve to be on that list. "Dragon Force" is like crack for crying out loud. "Astral" I'd debate. It's not a bad game by any means but I don't know if it deserves to be on this list. Frankly I'm almost surprised "Mega Man 8" isn't listed as it's the best version of the game there is, INCLUDING the one on Megaman Collection.

Guardian Heroes is the best on the system IMO. It offers a unique experience that has yet to be matched.

I was surprised Street Fighter Alpha 2 wasn't on there though.

A game that I really like is Legend of Oasis. It's an action/adventure game in the style of Zelda. Another is Three Dirty Dwarves - it's a side-scrolling beat-em-up. As for Panzer Dragoon Saga, I didn't care for it.

To the OP - Sorry for ignoring your initial question. I loves me some Saturn (favorite system ever) and seeing a list that doesn't really reveal the system's true potential bugs me more than it should.

Anyhow, if we're going to stick to US only releases, I'd recommend the following, fairly common and cheap games...

Sega Rally Championship - Great sense of speed but with only 3 cars and 3 courses, the fun comes from really learning to master the drifty sensation of racing over rally courses.

Nights - This has probably gone up in price with the Wii sequel but it's still worth it. One of the most imaginative and beautiful games of its generation.

Street Fighter Alpha 2 - A very good port of a very good game. Plus the 2nd gen Saturn pads are absolutely built for fighting games.

Nightwarriors - The second Darkstalkers game, same story as SFA2, I love it.

Duke Nukem 3d - I can still play this and enjoy it. Others will say it has aged badly. Give it a whirl if you're feeling lucky. It could actually be played multiplayer over the Saturn modem. Crazy stuff for the mid/late 90s.

Powerslave - An Egyptian themed FPS. Made/ported by the same guys who did Duke 3d on the Saturn. Very much ahead of its time.

Quake - Same as Duke 3d. I appreciate this more for its history than as a game. Long story short, GT Interactive was going to port Quake to the PSX and the Saturn. They gave up and said it couldn't be done on a system with 2 MB of RAM. Lobotomy Software stepped in and knocked it out of the park. They're the same guys who did Duke 3d and Powerslave on the Saturn.

A lot of Saturn games still play very well today. Panzer Dragoon 2 is still one of the best rail shooter ever made, and no other game is like PAnzer Dragoon Saga. Shining Force 3 is amazing but we only got 1/3 of the game. The downside is that the getting those games wont cheap.

For other games i would get the sequel. Die Hard Arcade is great but the sequel on DC is better.

I'm glad this topic was made. Saturn is such an underrated system as well as the Dreamcast. Dont listen to the general public, gamers know those systems have MANY awesome games especially when you include the import games.

My favorite Saturn game was Albert Odyssey but I doubt you (TC) would like it because it's a RPG. I've never gotten to play Panzer Dragoon Saga or Dragon Force but I still want to after all these years.

Without the inclusion of import titles the list feels empty. That was a badass system for 2D fighters, not seeing any on the list makes me sad. To name a few: KOF 97', FF Real Bout Special, SF vs X-Men, Groove on Fight, Samurai Shodown IV, SFA2, Night Warriors, Cyberbots, Waku Waku 7, Astra Superstars, Golden Axe: The Duel, and Asuka 120%. "phew"

I used to own Panzer Dragoon Saga and it was fun, not my absolute favorite for the system but it deserves to make the cut. I loved both Albert Odyessy & Magic Knight Rayearth. Wanted to see at least one of them make the list. AO had a lot of tradional RPG charm. But I agree with Guile, Gaurdian Heroes is the game that aged the best, if anything it's probably gotten better with time, like a fine wine.

It's an okay list, but I can tell they wanted to include a good variety of games.

oh and if you can track it down fire pro wrestling six man scramble is a great import japanese wrestling title. Not as good as firepro returns but still awesome

[quote name='Rodimus']Without the inclusion of import titles the list feels empty. That was a badass system for 2D fighters, not seeing any on the list makes me sad. To name a few: KOF 97', FF Real Bout Special, SF vs X-Men, Groove on Fight, Samurai Shodown IV, SFA2, Night Warriors, Cyberbots, Waku Waku 7, Astra Superstars, Golden Axe: The Duel, and Asuka 120%. "phew"

I used to own Panzer Dragoon Saga and it was fun, not my absolute favorite for the system but it deserves to make the cut. I loved both Albert Odyessy & Magic Knight Rayearth. Wanted to see at least one of them make the list. AO had a lot of tradional RPG charm. But I agree with Guile, Gaurdian Heroes is the game that aged the best, if anything it's probably gotten better with time, like a fine wine.

It's an okay list, but I can tell they wanted to include a good variety of games.[/quote]

I really had fun playing Magic Knight Rayearth, its really the 2nd RPG ive beaten in a while (I beat Front Mission DS the other day WOOT). Its a game you can sit down in the morning and finish it by the night and feel really good playing it. Another game i need to finish playing is Shining Wisdom.

Its not a bad list, but it is lacking Shining Force, Burning Rangers, X-Men games (Xmen vs SF, Children of the Atom which i heard is really good) and probably a few others i can think of. The only imports i wanna play is the Sakura Wars game, Solo Crisis, and the Segata Sanshiro game.

Of course NiGHTS and PDS are up there, PDS is like the holy of holy rare penicle of games of any system. NiGHTS is popular before the game was even decided to get a sequel on the Wii. Virtua Cop really needs to have a sequel in america, that is a really fun game for its time. PDZewi is a great rail shooter, but i really like the newest game for the Xbox, since its basicly taken elemtents from the previous games (the switch sides comes from the RPG, and the Dragoon lv up comes from the second game).

I think this top 10 list is easier to list than a top 10 for dreamcast, without making it to generic...

It's been awhile since I dug my Saturn out (and, being at work, I can't follow the link to see the list), but here are some of my favorte games on the Saturn

Panzer Dragoon Zwei: I liked the first game (the music is epic to this day), but the second one holds up much better. Played it maybe 2-3 years ago, and still enjoyed it.

Mr. Bones: It's a rather quirky game. Can't sit here and say that it's criminally underrated, or that it's a great game (it may have been at the time, but now, it wouldn't be). Still, it's quirky game and there is nothing else out there like it.

Christmas Nights: It's the demo disc released for free in the States. It isn't a full game, but it gives you the first level with a Christmas theme. As we approach Christmas, my Saturn always comes out of the cabinet so this can play for at least an hour.

I never played any of the jap games, christmas nights, or panzer dragoon saga so i don't know anything about those. But I own guardian heroes, panzer dragoon 2, and nights.
Nights is easily the best
I would say zwei is second and guardian heroes is third.

Absolutely love Nights.

Die Hard Arcade.

So many good Saturn games. Anyone who says otherwise is a ***got and a liar.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

Sega Rally has been easy to find but that's about it. Anyone heard of Impact Racer or Alien Resurrection?

There also seems to be tons of baseball games for the system like Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball. I remember seeing commercials as a little kid for a Twin's Pitcher Brad Something baseball game for the Saturn. Can't remember the name though and it seems like I have seen every baseball game for the Saturn except that one.

I wish I can find Mr. Bones, Daytona, Nights, PDS (This looks awesome!), and more....guess I'll have to keep searching

Saturn was a fine system -- it couldn't compete with the PS1 because it couldn't pump out the polygons and 3d graphics like the PS1 could. So, where Daytona played like the arcade, but didn't look like the arcade (tearing and popup), Ridge Racer both played and looked terrific. Sega Rally was great. THen later a few Saturn games were re-relased with graphica improvements, like Daytona, and Virtual Fighter, and looked like they should have earlier on.

Has anyone here played the JP PS2 port of Nights into Dreams? I keep thinking about getting it, but I'm not sure if the language is a significant shortcoming (well, me not being able to read any Japanese). I haven't played the original. I had never even heard of the game until I learned of the JP PS2 port.

[quote name='crunchewy']I haven't played the original. I had never even heard of the game until I learned of the JP PS2 port.[/QUOTE]

:shock:

I actually got it during one of Play-asia's sales but haven't tried it yet. I'll give it a spin today and post back here about it.

If it's anything like the Japanese Saturn version, it won't really matter that things are in Japanese, the game is pretty straightforward.

EDIT - The PS2 port of Nights is perfectly playable without knowing Japanese. The only Japanese there is to deal with is during the saving/loading process (pick the option on the left to say "Yes, save my game". Pick it again to say, "Yes, it is okay to overwrite my old save"), the hints between worlds (who know what those say?) and when (if) you're starting the PS2 in progressive scan mode (pick the option on the left to say "enable proscan" before the timer runs out and pick the left option again to confirm that yes, you can see the now clearer screen.) I only played a world each of the "Saturn Mode" and "New Mode" but everything works fine from what I can tell. Truly a classic that was never appreciated in its time.

[quote name='crunchewy']Has anyone here played the JP PS2 port of Nights into Dreams? I keep thinking about getting it, but I'm not sure if the language is a significant shortcoming (well, me not being able to read any Japanese). I haven't played the original. I had never even heard of the game until I learned of the JP PS2 port.[/quote]

It really shouldn't be unless they added a bunch of extras (not on the game itself, but animations and pictures). The game itself had no dialogue and minimal HUD. Only thing you might miss is if you pass through an acrobat bonus ring, you won't know what moves you're doing, and outside the game in the bonus features, you won't know the names of music tracks or the storyline (kids have nightmares, Wizeman's a dick, NiGHTS saves everyone by getting their Ideyas back).

for retrogaming, a site like racketboy offers a deeper perspective
I'd like to see princess crown make it to the states oneday.

I think Odin Sphere is the closest we're going to get. I think Princess Crown got a PSP port but as far as I know, no one has plans to translate it and release it here.

Die Hard Arcade
X-Men vs Street Fighter
Street Fighter Collection
Resident Evil
Dark Savior
Soviet Strike
Tomb Raider

Most of them are on the PS1 but I liked the Saturn ports better for some reason.

Feel free to check out my trade list. I just sold some good games but I have a few left.

[quote name='vherub']for retrogaming, a site like racketboy offers a deeper perspective
I'd like to see princess crown make it to the states oneday.[/QUOTE]

Just buy it for the PSP already! Or do you want to end up paying out of your ass if it becomes rare just like the Saturn original print AND reprint because?

Man depascal, "Dark Savior" is such a CLASSIC!

A somewhat obscure RPG that I haven't seen mentioned yet is Mystaria: The Realms of Lore or otherwise known as Blazing Heroes after its re-release (due to a lawsuit with TSR I think). It was similar to the Shining Force games in that battles were done in a top down fashion. Instead of changing scenes when you attacked an enemy though, the game would dynamically zoom in. Pretty cool for its time at least. I still have my original copy of it before it got re-named.

This game, along with Dragon Force are just a couple of games that made the Saturn purchase that my brother and I split at the time totally worth it. Its a shame we never saw the sequels to either of these games released in the states though. I even read that there was a PS 2 remake of Dragon Force that has remained Japan only. Bummer

[quote name='Drizzt']

This game, along with Dragon Force are just a couple of games that made the Saturn purchase that my brother and I split at the time totally worth it. Its a shame we never saw the sequels to either of these games released in the states though. I even read that there was a PS 2 remake of Dragon Force that has remained Japan only. Bummer [/quote]

That would be for the "Sega Ages" collections on PS2. Ive only seen one copy of Dragon Force, and i should have got it (but at the time, i lacked the funds, but spent them on Burning rangers, Shining WIsdom and Magic Knight Rayearth).

The only way you can play that game is with a swap disk for you PS2 system. Or, play them on your PS3 (since they are region free systems)...

[quote name='ZeonikFreak']The only way you can play that game is with a swap disk for you PS2 system. Or, play them on your PS3 (since they are region free systems)...[/quote]

Blu-Rays are region free but DVDs still are. You can NOT play Japanese PS2 games or DVDs on a US PS3.

I bought some guy's collection a long time ago, with his Saturn. Unfortunately, the console didn't work Good news is, it came with a factory sealed Panzer Dragoon Saga, and every rare title on the system; sans MM8 for a grand total of $300. This reminds me to buy another Saturn
thx OP

BTW, Dragon Force was a major reason I wanted the system. I played it at my friends, and it blew me away. I have never had my ass handed to me so early on in a game.

Three great import wrestlers:

Firepro Six Men Scramble
Firepro Blazing Tornado
All Japan Pro Featuring Virtua: Licensed AJPW game with some Virtua Fighter characters mixed in. This game has the best crowd noise pops of any wrestler ever.