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Saturn or N64?

N64:
  • Super Mario 64
  • Mario Kart 64
  • Paper Mario
  • Ocarina of Time
  • Majora's Mask
  • F-Zero X
  • Super Smash Bros.
  • Pokemon Snap
  • Goldeneye
  • Banjo Kazooie
  • Bomberman 64
  • Diddy Kong Racing

As far as 6-10 year old me was concerned, if you didn't have any of those games you weren't worth my time. Crash and Spyro were similar enough for me to give the Playstation a chance whenever I was at my cousin's place.

Never even saw a Saturn, though nowadays I'd definitely be interested in owning one just for the slew of fighters for it that haven't been ever been re-released. I'm going to guess they sell for quite a lot online, right? :/
 
I'd want to say Saturn only because it would be a largely new experience for me but I guess I had to have played with both to properly weigh-in on this...well I can still say a few points.

But packaging-wise at least here in Europe, it doesn't help the packaging tries to break the discs (not my pic found on other forum years ago)
crackeddisc.jpg

I think the issue is something like the manual pushed against the disc and the force is focused on one point (wonder if its the reason why we never see the games here in PAL-land). BTW, I've heard the same thing happen to Panzer Dragoon Saga (I also have to say having the entirety of disc 1* as a magazine demo disc was a cool move but probably didn't help sales as I can imagine it being *gets long demo week after games release*, SEGA sure were generous then as there was Christmas Nights and heck, they gave away Chu Chu Rocket for free as well)
*-Hope I'm not mistaken here.

What was it with SEGA Europe and awful packaging in the 90s; All my Megadrive instructions manuals got damaged by the packaging, and then there is the thick EU Dreamcast cases which just fall apart.

One thing I'd have to say about Saturn. Hassle. To get the most out of it you're going to have to import (this is true for any system, even N64 if you're Europe as you also lack Ogre Battle! but the JP exclusives worth caring about are Bangai-O, Sin and Punishment and something else), in fact it might be easier to skip a western system if you're just going to look at Arcade games or other stuff where understanding the dialogue is non-essential.
 
Saturn was so godlike. Just so many rad arcade ports, they were pumping out quality fighters and shooters left and right back then. Throw in Panzer Dragoon Saga, Nights, Dragon Force, Guardian Heroes, etc ... it's not even close. Saturn over the N64, without question.
 
PSX and Saturn both had a deep selection of great-to-amazing games, but the experience of Mario 64 + Waverace 64 + Ocarina of Time + Majora's Mask in their day IMO beat any console ever in their day. And I have some pretty damn good memories of many consoles.
 
Saturn! But that's mostly because I owned one growing up and didn't have the N64. Virtua Fighter 2, Panzer Dragoon 2 Zwei and Sega Rally Championship owned my soul as a kid! Even had some of the rarer games purely by chance (It's insane to me seeing how many cult Sega games I have that I enjoy now, yet at the time purely bought because they were in local bargain bins and that ilk) like Dragon Force and Shining Force 3 (which I dunno, I've not gone back to play them as an adult, but I remember disliking DF although it gets ton of love, and also remember not liking SF3 as much as I liked SF1 and SF2 as a kid...I dunno, then again I think Zwei > Saga so there's that...). I mean, I bought Panzer Dragoon Zwei and Virtua Fighter 2 because they came on that Bootleg Sampler as videos, and it wasn't even them! It was the first PZ and VF Remix on there and they didn't have those in stock when we went to Sears or wherever the hell we bought games back then!

Hell, I played the crap out of the N64 games but they always seemed...I dunno. Nintendo games are always better made than Sega games IMO...they seem like the talent behind them knew what they were doing in making gameplay feel fully realized, more complete/full games and all that moreso than Sega ever did, but Sega games always seemed to have more soul/quirk to me. I guess back then I wasn't able to understand the real difference between Nintendo making "home console" games and Sega making more "arcade-type" games. My friend and I back in middle/jr high school would trade consoles/games for a week or two on end to try em out and I always remembered feeling like Nintendo 64 games were sterile. Liked Ocarina of Time but didn't love it, never understood why Goldeneye was so great, I've never collected all the stars in Mario 64 and honestly the only game on that console that just jumped out to me as a kid/teenager was Mario Kart 64 which was admittedly the shit...

But mostly, it was the Sega games that I could replay over and over. I dunno how many times I've heard "Game over yeeeeaaaa!" in Sega Rally on Saturn or how many times I got my ass whipped in VF2's Ranked Match mode. But that console wins hands down for me.
 
I'd argue that N64 had a few really great titles that bested anything on the Saturn, but the overall library is pretty slim pickings. Most of its games have aged very badly and it just didn't have the sheer volume and variety of Saturn.

Thanks to the wealth of 2D games, there are still Saturn titles around that hold up well.

How can you choose Saturn over N64. HOW? Saturn failed hard for a reason.
Click to expand...
If you were talking about the US Saturn only, I'd select N64 as well, but the Japanese library of Saturn software is immense and much better. The system did NOT fail in Japan, after all. It won out over N64, which did not do particularly well there.
 
Very sad to say I've never played a Saturn, speaking as a huge Sega fan :( One day I'll pick up a US one (for 60Hz 'n stuff) and get to collecting.

N64 is such a strange one though, I loved it back in the day (even if I did miss the 16-bit gen style of games) and still really like it, but it's only been with the internet I've seen there was a backlash to it at all. I definitely agree with complaints like it not delivering in RPGs or fighters (save for Nintendo's own unique efforts), but I still ended up with about 30 games for the system, and the quality quota among them was very high. I still think it's a great machine, but it's weird to see how divisive it is.
 
I remember when the two came out, saturn had the deal of 3 free games included (virtua cop, virtua fighter, daytona usa), n64 had only mario included.


I went with saturn, and I'm happy I did.

also,

this made virtua cop the most fun game ever
cobra-light-gun.jpg
 
RevDM said:
I remember when the two came out, saturn had the deal of 3 free games included (virtua cop, virtua fighter, daytona usa), n64 had only mario included.


I went with saturn, and I'm happy I did.

also,

this made virtua cop the most fun game ever
cobra-light-gun.jpg
Click to expand...
I got one of those guns too and still have it in its box in storage somewhere. It's a shame light guns only work on CRT displays.

I also finally got two official SEGA Stunners, but the NyKO one will have a special place in my heart.

I was always a SEGA guy since the early Genesis days with Altered Beast. It was the logical step for me to move up to Saturn when the time came. I don't regret it much. I still got to play my friend's N64 so I didn't miss much. I still prefered my niche games like NiGHTS, Burning Rangers, Shining Force III, and Baku Baku animal. Oh man so many good fighters and puzzle games. I was in heaven.
 
Whilst stuff like Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time are timeless classics, I can't really go back and play N64 games these days.

Saturn, on the other hand has such a huge library of arcade ports and SEGA classics like NiGHTS, Burning Rangers, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Shining Force III, Virtua Fighter 2 and SEGA Rally. Not to mention all the amazing imports and wacky Japanese games.

So Saturn wins this for me. Weirdly I went into that generation a Nintendo fanboy, but left a SEGA fanboy.
 
Mortrialus said:
I like the Saturn (Though I'm surprised Astal has not been mentioned) but I'm really surprised how many people are choosing it over the N64. I don't know if I can pick the Saturn over the system that owns OoT.
Click to expand...
Because you can play OOT elsewhere? Like duckroll mentioned, most of the worthwhile N64 games either got re-released or have superior versions elsewhere, while most of the Saturn heavy hitters stayed there.

BTW you don't really need to pick up an actual Saturn either, since SSF runs pretty much all games with pixel perfect accuracy. Unless you want to play the games on a CRT TV, of course (which will always look better then blown up on a LCD screen).
 
Ocarina.

Blast Corps. Mario 64. Starcraft 64. Silicon Valley. Majora's Mask. Mario Kart 64. Jet Force Gemini. Sin and Punishment. Smash Brothers. Harvest Moon 64. Banjo. Conker's Bad Fury Day. F-Zero. Paper Mario. Perfect Dark.

Goldeneye.


_dementia said:
I loved saturn's library for it's arcade ports.
Click to expand...

This and SFIII/Dragonforce are the only ways I'd lean toward Saturn.

And that's kind of my issue with it: most of my favorite Saturn games are just arcade ports.


Igor Antunov said:
Best action adventures-n64 (zeldas) no contest

Best fps's-n64(goldeneye, perfect dark) no contest

Best platformers-n64(mario 64, banjo, conker) no contest

Best racers-n64 (mario kart, diddy kong racing, top gear rally), but saturn was no slouch, albeit nothing competes with top gear rally in that era....nothing. close

Best traditional rpgs-saturn(lots) no contest

Best 3rd person shooters-Neither, saturn(panzer dragoon series), n64(starfox 64, jetforce gemini) draw

Best sports titles-Saturn (but only due to quantity and variety, superstar soccer 64 on n64 remains the best sporting title of the 90's.) close

Simulations...?


Best overall: N64 = winnar
Click to expand...

This is very democratic of you and I appreciate it. I will say that the Madden N64 games were no slouch and if you consider "alt-sports" to be sports, the Tony Hawk games on 64 were pretty dope as well.
 
I adore both, and owned them back in the day. If you'll humour my opinions:

Best platformer - Banjo Tooie

Best 2D fighter - Guardian Heroes

Best 3D fighter - Fighters Megamix

Best FPS - Exhumed (PAL title) / Powerslave (NTSC Title)

Best Racer - Mario Kart 64

Best 2D RPG - Dark Savior (Isometric is 2D)

Best 3D RPG - Panzer Dragoon Saga

Best 3rd person action adventure - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Best score-based thing - NiGHTS

Best multiplayer - Death Tank Zwei (with multitap)

Best puzzle game - Baku Baku Animal

Best RTS - Command and Conquer

So on the face of it, I seem to think the Saturn mastered a greater variety of genres than the N64.

If we try a different approach, looking at which system gave me the greatest high, I was expecting to write Nintendo 64, but the more I think about this the more I realise the Saturn wins this criteria too. No N64 games matched the intensity, brilliance and social fun I had with many friends while playing Guardian Heroes, Death Tank Zwei and Saturn Bomberman with two multitaps rigged to give us ten players at once. Those social gaming moments were the absolute peak of that amazing generation, and probably my greatest experiences as a gamer.

Saturn wins for me. What an amazing, underrated, gem of a machine. It was Sega's finest moment, and their continuing ignorance regarding its outstanding back catalogue serves to show far they have fallen.

For those who have commented in the thread having never "seen a Saturn" or played on one, you are missing out on one of the most diverse, eccetric and brave lineups of sofware ever concieved. Especially if you include the international releases, the Saturn library was the height of gaming lunacy, and required reading as a gamer. Its just a shame it never achieved the success such a stellar lineup deserved.
 
The N64 was excellent for Rare and Nintendo games, but apart from that it had little variety and a terrible controller, that is why I prefer the Saturn.
 
N64 doesn't have too much that hasn't been exceeded in the time since it dropped out of the market IMO. The Galaxy games are superior to Mario 64; Smash Bros on the GC and (imo) Wii are both better; F-Zero GX is better than X; etc. Many games on the 64 have also aged pretty terribly (Goldeneye sucks now, deal with it).

OoT still holds up strong and many would say it's still the best in the series, and nobody has even come close to matching the wrestling games on the 64, I'm sure I'm missing something else obvious, but all in all in the present day I feel that the Saturn offers a lot more that you can't get anywhere else than the 64 does.
 
Mama Robotnik said:
Just out of curiousity KevinCow, which are the games you want to play?
Click to expand...

Mainly just the Panzer Dragoon games. Except Saga, since I don't care for RPGs.

Most of the Saturn's popular lineup seems to be either Sega style super arcadey games, or RPGs, neither of which really appeal to me.
 
There's some amazing games for the N64 (Sin & Punishment, Blast Corps, 1080, etc.), but I'd have to go with the Saturn. Ton's of arcade ports? Oh hell's yeah.

The whole PSX/SS/N64 era of gaming was fantastic.
 
I love adventure games, so I'm going to have to choose the N64. Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask and Paper Mario, this might as well be Nintendo's holy quadrilogy... and you have Rare's superb line-up. Embarrassingly enough, these games are still shining examples of their respective genres and they continue to play better than 99.99% of what is available on the entire market. When I was introduced to the wonderful world of Mario 64, I knew this was the future and the Saturn was going to become irrelevant.

Credit where credit is due, Nights and the Panzer Dragoon games are unique, spectacular games. The Saturn certainly had many genres covered, but how many of those games compete with the best in the subsequent generations?
 
King of the Potato People said:
Credit where credit is due, Nights and the Panzer Dragoon games are unique, spectacular games. The Saturn certainly had many genres covered, but how many of those games compete with the best in the subsequent generations?
Click to expand...

Well, I still consider Shining Force 3 scenario 1 - 3 to be the greatest SRPG ever.
 
Panzer Dragoon Saga aside, I don't think I like Saturn RPGs. N64 of course has nothing of value in that area either, but it does have a very good selection of platformers and action adventure games. Plus one of my favorites of everness, Mischief Makers.

In general, N64 covers my particular tastes much better.
 
Saturn has Panzer Dragoon Saga and Shining Force 3 trilogy... Some of the greatest RPGs ever.

It also has the greatest game of all time - Guardian Heroes!

Saturn <3 <3
 
N64 was probably the biggest disappointment of a console I ever owned. Let's see, I had Mario, Zelda, Starfox, Goldeneye, aaaand... Well shit, I think that was it. There were some other games worth owning (Most notably Majora's Mask I guess), but none of them appealed to me enough to justify the ludicrous price of the carts.

I <3 the Saturn though. Sooooooo many hours dropped into Guardian Heroes, I literally never tired of that game. I would kill someone for it to get an XBLA release. KILL.
 
Lol, the N64 has aged worse than just about any system ever, and it was a piece of shit even when it was current. I remember being stuck with shit like Banjo Kazooie and Fighters Destiny while people were playing stuff like X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, Symphony of the Night, Tekken 3, etc. What a horrible system. I finally got a Saturn in 2008 and still play it regularly. The games on there are worlds better than what the N64 ever had.
 
Sir_Crocodile said:
And had evil puzzles.
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I didn't think the puzzles were that hard, though I do recall being completely unable to find the third cube toward the end on another playthru years later.
 
I got lost quite a bit. mainly in the zombie heavy sections where it was hard to see paths.

Chacranajxy said:
Lol, the N64 has aged worse than just about any system ever, and it was a piece of shit even when it was current. I remember being stuck with shit like Banjo Kazooie and Fighters Destiny while people were playing stuff like X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, Symphony of the Night, Tekken 3, etc. What a horrible system. I finally got a Saturn in 2008 and still play it regularly. The games on there are worlds better than what the N64 ever had.
Click to expand...

Banjo Kazooie was a good game.

The N64 has aged badly due to its use of early polygon graphics, but it doesn't change the quality of the core gameplay.
 
Ichor said:
This thread makes me more and more depressed every time I look at it... Why can't I find a Saturn!?
Click to expand...


lachesis said:
Price includes US Shipping via USPS Priority & tracking
Paypal accepted

d0027587_4d880da52bcd0.jpg


Multi-region (NTSC-J & NTSC-USA) Sega Saturn + Fighting Vipers (Jp ver)
Great working condition. Game is also in quite good condition as well.
1 controller, AC power cord, and S-video AV connector, box & manual included.
Needs new battery for the system.

45 dollars - please pm me.

Thank you!
lachesis
Click to expand...

Your welcome.
 
Sir_Crocodile said:
I got lost quite a bit. mainly in the zombie heavy sections where it was hard to see paths.



Banjo Kazooie was a good game.

The N64 has aged badly due to its use of early polygon graphics, but it doesn't change the quality of the core gameplay.
Click to expand...

Banjo Kazooie was a collecathon where every level looked exactly the goddamn same, and it took forever to get anywhere. And it just wasn't exciting. There was no skill involved in the platforming -- it was basically a non-stop endurance run to see how far you could get before turning the system off and doing something fun.
 
Well, I played both quite a bit. I never owned a saturn but was able to borrow one from a friend for a while and I had a blast with it playing such games as Virtua Cop 1 & 2, the Virtua Fighting games, Daytona USA and lots of other classic Sega arcade games. I never had many non-arcade games though...

I didn't get an N64 until 1999, but I used to rent a system before that to play Goldeneye and OoT and other games. Then on christmas 1999 I got a Goldeneye N64 bundle and I played that and other games I rented for months. The games on the N64 were often a bit more involved and not so arcadey, and ultimately, those are the games I prefer.

So it's tough but I'm gonna say the N64. But nothing beats the Saturn when it comes to arcade style gameplay... except maybe the Neo Geo AES but that's a different era!
 
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