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Nintendo 64 Vs. Sega Saturn

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J

jeremy1456

Junior Member
It's a bit of a continuation of the SNES vs. Genesis discussion. I thought it would be fun to see what everyone's preference was back in the day, and now of course.

I left the PlayStation out because I think it would dominate the conversation. It had the most high profile third party games between the three consoles, and I would just like to talk about the Sega Saturn and Nintendo 64 here.

So what was everyone's preference? I remember a friend of mine getting a Sega Saturn and I thought it was "weird" because it was very seldom mentioned. I went with the Nintendo 64, and later my friend and I traded consoles for a weekend (so he and his brothers could play more Goldeneye) and my mind was blown. I always loved JRPGs, and he had Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean and Dragon Force. They both sold me on the system, and in 1999 I bought one from a friend along with a bunch of games for $100. After seriously getting into collecting the Saturn is my favorite of the two.

What was everyone's preference between the two consoles?
 
A

antitrop

Member
When I was a kid, the Sega Saturn may as well not even have existed. Not I, nor any of my friends even cared about the system.

Too busy playing Mario Kart 64 and Goldeneye deathmatch.

Easy answer.
 
P

POWERSPHERE

Banned
antitrop said:
When I was a kid, the Sega Saturn may as well not even have existed. Not I, nor any of my friends even cared about the system.

Too busy playing Mario Kart 64 and Goldeneye deathmatch.

Easy answer.
Click to expand...

0312_NCAA2_Article.jpg
 
S

ShockingAlberto

Member
The Saturn was a great system to own later in its life when you could pick up all the good games. I think being an owner of just solely a Saturn, on a week-to-week level, would be pretty frustrating.
 
K

KojiKnight

Member
I still have my Sega Saturn... and while I loved my N64 and it had more games I liked, the SS had the single greatest game (and still my favorite game to this day) ever.... Dragon Force.
 
J

Jaxar

Banned
N64 easily. Some of the best couch co-op I've ever experienced was on that system. Such great memories.
 
J

jeremy1456

Junior Member
antitrop said:
When I was a kid, the Sega Saturn may as well not even have existed. Not I, nor any of my friends even cared about the system.

Too busy playing Mario Kart 64 and Goldeneye deathmatch.

Easy answer.
Click to expand...

I know what you mean, but did you ever get to have a significant amount of time with the Saturn?
 
L

Loomer

Member
I'd say the Saturn because of how many near-perfect arcade ports it has, especially Battle Garegga and other Shoot 'Em Ups. It's a pretty great system if you have a love for the arcades.

N64 does have Ogre Battle 64 though, which is one of my favorite games ever.
 
J

jeremy1456

Junior Member
ShockingAlberto said:
The Saturn was a great system to own later in its life when you could pick up all the good games. I think being an owner of just solely a Saturn, on a week-to-week level, would be pretty frustrating.
Click to expand...

I kind of disagree a little bit. I remember the Saturn release schedule being generally better than that of the N64. Keep in mind I only really started paying attention in 1996.

As long as you didn't get tired of Mario 64 you were okay at first.
 
C

Cess007

Member
N64.

For all his flaws and Nintendo's missteps, the damn console had some of the best games ever made: Mario Kart, Majora's Mask, Perfect Dark, ISSS2000.
 
J

jeremy1456

Junior Member
Jaxar said:
N64 easily. Some of the best couch co-op I've ever experienced was on that system. Such great memories.
Click to expand...

I agree completely, but whenever my brother and I get together now we don't play Goldeneye or Mario Kart 64 generally.

It's usually Virtual On.
 
D

Dark Octave

Banned
They both were kinda wack. The N64 had like three good games on it and you had to be a Sega fan and be into a few specific styles of games to get anything out of the Saturn.
 
J

jeremy1456

Junior Member
catmario said:
N64:
Mario Kart Bomba
GoldenEye Bomba
Super Mario Bomba

Saturn:
Eh..... uh..... I don't remember :)
Click to expand...

Come on, you remember NiGHTs. It's the best game that almost no one played.

And let's not forget Dragon Force. In my opinion it's the best strategy RPG ever released.
 
S

Superblatt

Member
If you haven't played both system's libraries -- as I would assume many here have not -- your default answer will be N64.

I still own both consoles and have a nice library for each. However, I really can't compare them to each other all. The games are radically different on each, as well as each systems strong suit (3D world building vs sprites).

I'm not picking sides because this is an apples vs oranges debate. I'll go one step further and say these two consoles have so less in common than just about any other two consoles released in the same era.
 
J

jeremy1456

Junior Member
Dark Octave said:
They both were kinda wack. The N64 had like three good games on it and you had to be a Sega fan and be into a few specific styles of games to get anything out of the Saturn.
Click to expand...

Huh? The Saturn had a significantly better spread of games in different genres than the N64.
 
A

ascii42

Member
I had a playstation at the time, but I had some friends with an N64 so I Had some experience with the N64 during that generation, but didn't play a Saturn until I got one for Christmas in 2005. I bought an N64 the next summer, so I've had about as much opportunity to play both of them, and and Id definitely say Ive played the N64 more. I like the Saturn, but I'd have to give the N64 the nod.
 
legacyzero

legacyzero

Banned
Dark Octave said:
They both were kinda wack. The N64 had like three good games on it and you had to be a Sega fan and be into a few specific styles of games to get anything out of the Saturn.
Click to expand...
Come on, N64 had great games! Blast Corps, Goldeneye, PD, Hybrid Heaven, the Zelda games, MK64, Diddy Kong Racing, Star Fox 64, etc.
Classics!
 
A

Anth0ny

Member
N64 is my favorite console of all time, so N64.

While I love my Saturn, I don't think it's even in the same league as the N64. I think it's one of those examples of a console having a huge amount of good games (Saturn definitely has N64 beat in that department), but very few great games (nothing like Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask or Super Mario 64 on the Saturn).

I know GAF in general disagrees, though. I remember a thread like this in the past dominated by "N64 games have aged like shit!" and "Dem Saturn shmups/fighting games" comments.
 
J

jeremy1456

Junior Member
Dark Octave said:
It was really big on 2D fighters and arcade games with the occasional Dragon Force and Panzer Dragoon. This is how I felt about it anyway.
Click to expand...

That's understandable, but at the same time why the system failed. That's how people perceived the system.

It had a decent spread of 3D fighters, RPGs, and platformers as well.
 
R

Ric Flair

Banned
I never had a saturn so I can't speak on that console (was a total genesis fanboy though, haha) Maybe it was just my age (grew up on the N64) but it was one of the most fun consoles I've ever owned.
Ten games I can think of off the top of my head, in no particular order
1)Hybrid Heaven
2)WWF No Mercy
3)Smash Bros.
4)Mario 64
5)Mario Party
6)Resident Evil 2
7)Doom 64
8)Turok / Turok 2
9)NFL Blitz
10)NBA Jam
 
D

Dark Octave

Banned
legacyzero said:
Come on, N64 had great games! Blast Corps, Goldeneye, PD, Hybrid Heaven, the Zelda games, MK64, Diddy Kong Racing, Star Fox 64, etc.
Classics!
Click to expand...
Star Fox 64 is one of my all time favorites.

Goldeneye was amazing.

I enjoyed Perfect Dark.

Mario Kart was great.

Mario 64 was cool.

Zelda (Ocarina) was great.

...All I got. I bought a system for six games...
 
J

jeremy1456

Junior Member
whitemex88 said:
oh come on. there was Nights and uh uh....that dragon game and uh...........Astal......Bug...................................
Click to expand...

Astal and Bug weren't even that big.

It was all about Virtual Fighter (2 is my favorite 3D fighter from that generation), Burning Rangers (I know it's rare so not commonly played, but come on), House of the Dead, Sonic R, and of course, third parties focused on Saturn more than the N64 in the early days.
 
W

WillyFive

Member
N64 vs. Saturn is an unfair and unbalanced match, and I usually defend the Saturn. A true match would be the N64 vs. the Playstation.
 
J

Josh7289

Member
antitrop said:
When I was a kid, the Sega Saturn may as well not even have existed. Not I, nor any of my friends even cared about the system.

Too busy playing Mario Kart 64 and Goldeneye deathmatch.

Easy answer.
Click to expand...

Same situation for me, and to this day I have still never played a Saturn. I would never have even physically seen one if I hadn't visited some retro game shops in Japan when I was there.


But this thread idea is an interesting comparison and I'd like to read about the technical differences between the two consoles.
 
IrishNinja

IrishNinja

Member
GAF, please stop embarrassing yourselves

N64 has maybe 20 titles worth remembering. Saturn is a bastion of hardcore fighters, SHMUPs, arcade racers, run-n-guns, RPGs and more - the emulation has been solid for years now, stop missing out.

seriously, Mario 64, Goldeneye etc are classics, but pound for pound the N64 isn't even near the Saturn's league...do your homework people!
 
B

Blues1990

Member
jeremy1456 said:
It's a bit of a continuation of the SNES vs. Genesis discussion. I thought it would be fun to see what everyone's preference was back in the day, and now of course.

I left the PlayStation out because I think it would dominate the conversation. It had the most high profile third party games between the three consoles, and I would just like to talk about the Sega Saturn and Nintendo 64 here.

So what was everyone's preference? I remember a friend of mine getting a Sega Saturn and I thought it was "weird" because it was very seldom mentioned. I went with the Nintendo 64, and later my friend and I traded consoles for a weekend (so he and his brothers could play more Goldeneye) and my mind was blown. I always loved JRPGs, and he had Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean and Dragon Force. They both sold me on the system, and in 1999 I bought one from a friend along with a bunch of games for $100. After seriously getting into collecting the Saturn is my favorite of the two.

What was everyone's preference between the two consoles?
Click to expand...

At the time, I never even knew that Sega had released another console that was sandwiched between the Nintendo 64 & the Sony Playstation, so I feel my opinion would be one-sided. After doing some research on the system, I felt there isn't much to like about it. Even though there were some excellent exclusives for the SEGA Saturn, as far as North America is concerned, the system had lacked the robustness & diversity of it's competitors' libraries. (Though that would've been SEGA of America's fault of trying to push their 3D wares, especially for a console that was designed in mind to be a 2D powerhouse, with mixed results.)

If given the choice, I would've gone with either the Nintendo 64 or the Sony Playstation, though I know collectors would drool over the prospect of having one of those things, gloating & such. :/
 
A

Anth0ny

Member
As a kid, all of my friends had N64s. Every single one. It blew my mind when I got older and realized Playstation dominated that gen, because no one I knew had one. I hadn't even heard of the Saturn as a kid. I swear I didn't see Saturn boxes at Blockbuster. They still had Genesis games, but never Saturn.
 
Y

Yawnier

Banned
N64 was my preference because of the 3D Zeldas and Smash Bros. The PS1 is by far my most played console of that particular generation though because of the incredible variety of western and Japanese games it had.

The Saturn also had NiGHTS into Dreams, which is one of my favorite games ever but nobody else I even knew growing up owned a Saturn.
 
R

Ric Flair

Banned
Blues1990 said:
At the time, I never even knew that Sega had released another console that was sandwiched between the Nintendo 64 & the Sony Playstation, so I feel my opinion would be one-sided. After doing some research on the system, I felt there isn't much to like about it. Even though there were some excellent exclusives for the SEGA Saturn, as far as North America is concerned, the system had lacked the robustness & diversity of it's competitors' libraries. (Though that would've been SEGA of America's fault of trying to push their 3D wares, especially for a console that was designed in mind to be a 2D powerhouse, with mixed results.)

If given the choice, I would've gone with either the Nintendo 64 or the Sony Playstation, though I know collectors would drool over the prospect of having one of those things, gloating & such. :/
Click to expand...

I remember thinking at the time that it was just another name for the Sega CD expansion pack that everyone regretted buying.
 
JordanN

JordanN

Banned
Saturn don't even got a flagship Sonic game. You had to wait till Dreamcast for that.

N64 wins, no contest. Though to be fair, I've never looked much into Saturn's library (other than those arcade ports). But I still never found the system all that appealing.
 
J

jeremy1456

Junior Member
IrishNinja said:
GAF, please stop embarrassing yourselves

N64 has maybe 20 titles worth remembering. Saturn is a bastion of hardcore fighters, SHMUPs, arcade racers, run-n-guns, RPGs and more - the emulation has been solid for years now, stop missing out.

seriously, Mario 64, Goldeneye etc are classics, but pound for pound the N64 isn't even near the Saturn's league...do your homework people!
Click to expand...

The best Saturn games hold up better as well.
 
entremet

entremet

Member
IrishNinja said:
GAF, please stop embarrassing yourselves

N64 has maybe 20 titles worth remembering. Saturn is a bastion of hardcore fighters, SHMUPs, arcade racers, run-n-guns, RPGs and more - the emulation has been solid for years now, stop missing out.

seriously, Mario 64, Goldeneye etc are classics, but pound for pound the N64 isn't even near the Saturn's league...do your homework people!
Click to expand...

My man.

I never owned a Saturn outright, but I traded my N64 back and forth over the years with a friend for his Saturn during their heyday. I got to play the Saturn library for free because of that. Amazing stuff--Guardian Heroes, Nights, Burning Rangers, Capcom fighters at the closet to arcade perfect at the time, Die Hard Arcade, Fighter's Megamix.

Such a great system.

N64 had the heavy hitters, but the bench was not deep.
 
IrishNinja

IrishNinja

Member
the saturn has been around for 20 years now. GAF has been celebrating #YearoftheSaturn in the retro threads to highlight this. the fact that so many here don't know about X-Men vs Street Fighter, Dragon Force, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Elevator Action Returns, Guardian Heroes, Radiant Silvergun etc etc shows only the ignorance of a few members of a core community, not any fault on the fantastic library.

legacyzero said:
N64 =Best console ever.
Click to expand...

it has easily the weakest library of a nintendo console, assuming the WU has some more gems before its end.
 
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