Yeah but the Saturn is the reason, or one of the biggest reasons, why we never got a Saturn/Dreamcast 2 and Sega are now just a third party.
A system like that no matter how great its library is can't be redeemed.
Konami just put out one of the shittiest collections ever made and people sprung to give them their money just because they wanted to play Metal Gear Solid 1 again.
Nintendo put 3 3D Mario games on their Switch, nothing more, and somehow managed to make bank off of making it a timed buy because people wanted Mario 64 on their Switch.
They got people to subscribe to a subpar online service just to get Mario 64 and all those "aged like warm milk" Nintendo 64 games on the Switch.
Banjo Kazooie has people begging and begging Microsoft to get Rare to make a new entry.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is one of the most anticipated titles of next year.
You are absolutely insane to imply that any of these titles aged like warm milk in a sauna when even 25 years later they are some of the most recognizable and beloved video game properties in existence.
I don’t think it needs “redeeming”…. Just going by how things went games alone could not have saved sega in the console space.
I think they was always gonna be the casualty of industry Change.
But for that brief period in the 90s….. they were special. I think some of you are so caught up on their failure that you discard what that era meant to sega fans. To people who kind of was on that line between the arcades and consoles in the 90s. Some of us knew it was the last years, and that kind of made it more special. It was the last years of the arcades. The last years where importing rare quality Japanese games was a thing.
Even when I look back it’s a stark contrast to my modern gamepass/Xbox approach to gaming. I’m all for digital but in the 90s…. I was that kid that went to and got the import versions of these crazy Saturn games and my friends who were mostly PS and N64 owners were indeed blown away by those arcade ports. We poured countless hours into clean bs street fighter and start fighter alpha 2…. And that’s at a time when I had a pSX with GT and N46 with golden eye and f zero carts ready to play. Them Saturn fitting games weee something……and I can’t forget the endless BBQ base pizzas and late 90s hip hop we used to pay in the back ground…. Though when nobody was around I so would soak in those awesome capcom 90s sound tracks. Sure it’s part rose tinted glasses about the 90s as a whole but it was very real. The games were that good. Music was that cool. And the Saturn was this cool, niche pocket of gaming few got into but those who did probably became pretty bad ass at king of fighters and other fighting games in the process. And that’s what it was all about in the 90s. Beating the shot out of your friends on forgoing games… before the days of always online games and FPS dominating. Your dismissiveness of the Saturn just tells me you missed out on something very cool.
Sega was never gonna last as a console manufacturer. And that’s ok. What matters is from the master system to the DV we got some awesome memories out for them… my master system that I got for Xmas a year before the NES…… seeing revenge of Shinobi running on mega drive at a booth at dixons and instantly wanting one so bad it hurt…. Then getting one for Xmas in 1989. Being heart broken by that Daytona conversion on Saturn…. Yet utterly in love with that sega rally and VF2 conversion…. Even though the arcade version constantly reminded me how far behind console were to model 2 or even model 3……. That was ever sega owners pain….. but then that over complicated box pumps out gems like the games I mentioned in this thread.
I loved my PS for GT, ridge racer, tekken and a bunch more.
I lived my N65 for being that machine that gave us legit leaps and bounds in 3D gaming. Mario64 and Zelda remain some of my fave games of all time…..
However…… in them brief moments during the mid to late 90s…. When we got sega rally… VF2, fighter mega mix…. Panzer dragoon saga… grandia…… maaaaaaaan. I put golden eye, GT1/2 rage racer, tekken 3, Mario kart on hold for them fighting game sessions at my house.
There’s a charm to the Saturn that inspire of all its flaws just makes me love it all the same. The DC was always gonna be segas last console. And given how times changed. Maybe that’s for the best. Sega never had the financial clout of a song or even Nintendo…. But they made up for it in other areas, particularly how far they pushed 3D graphic during the era in the arcades. I don’t think anybody else could have gotten the results they got out of the Saturn except for lobotomy and they gave us better be displayed of duke Nukem and quake than even PS1.
And for sure. It’s 2D games look better in 2023 than any of the PS1 3D games. No 3D pS1 games of that era have ages well except maybe GT, RR-Type 4 and wipeout( due to its art style; being a snap shot of the 90s). Saturn 2D games still have a beautiful animation. Gameplay is fluid, as opposed to the sub 25FPS and short draw distances of 3D many console games of many consoles games of the era.
I think somebody else said it here…. The Saturn was a bubble of 90s Japanese gaming……. I’ll add that It was the arcade goers console of choice, because of those fitting games. It had these weird and awesome games.