Why the Saturn was the worst major console of all time
Last week, I told you all why the Super Nintendo Entertainment System was the greatest console of all time. And although I caught some flak from the misinformed, it seems all too obvious now that it really was the greatest gaming device ever created.
But what about the worst console of all time? Surely, we can pick from a number of systems like the 3DO, 32X, Sega CD and a host of others, but what about major consoles? Even though these were released to the masses, the 3DO was nothing more than an overpriced proof-of-concept that never had a chance and the two Sega add-ons were a bridge to the Saturn.
And while I think there were a slew of crappy consoles that easily eclipse the Sega Saturn in pure crappiness, what other major console sucked as bad as Sega's Playstation competitor? Further, what other major console contributed so heavily to the downfall of one of the world's greatest hardware manufacturers?
As far as I'm concerned, the decision to call the Saturn the world's worst major console isn't difficult at all.
So what made the Saturn so bad? Well, why not start at the beginning? Does anyone remember its release?
Originally scheduled to launch "Saturnday" September 2, 1995 -- a week before the Playstation -- the Saturn was one of the most anticipated consoles of the time. Almost everyone was wondering if the console manufacturer's biggest console release since the Genesis would be something special. But then disaster struck.
At the very first E3 in May 1995, Sega's President Tom Kalinske committed a blunder of epic proportions long before Steve Jobs made it cool -- he announced that the "Saturnday" was a ruse and it was available that very day in select retailers. Of course, this announcement caught most major retailers off guard (Wal-mart for one) and aside from availability in those few stores, the console was scarce.
In one fell swoop, the video game industry and retailers were shocked at Sega's ridiculous move. And to make matters worse, third-party developers didn't know about Sega's real launch date, meaning games weren't ready, and the Saturn's pricepoint -- $399 -- was $100 more expensive than the Playstation.
After trying to rebuild relationships with KB Toys and other retailers who refused to even launch the Saturn, Sega's console quickly become the also-ran in the industry, trailing far behind the Nintendo 64 and Playstation.
Believing the console was dead in the water, Sega abandoned the Saturn far too early and by 1998, the company released its last game for the system -- one year after third-party support dried up.
Did any good come out of the Saturn?
When we look back on the Saturn, there's not much to like. Aside from some neat first-party arcade games that Sega had become known for, the chances of finding a stellar title amongst the garbage were slim, at best.
Amazingly, only two Saturn games sold over 1 million copies -- Virtua Fighter 2 and Grandia. Aside from those, the Saturn quickly became the cesspool of gaming. After all, can anyone actually name 30 great games they played on the console?
The main reason the Saturn was the worst console of all time
More than anything else, the Sega Saturn should be considered the worst major console of all time for one reason -- it was the catalyst that ultimately led to a series of events that brought one of the foremost hardware companies to its knees.
After the Genesis competed admirably against the SNES, Sega made a slew of mistakes before the Saturn. And while they proved to be damning internally, most people expected the company's next major console to save the day. But through poor management and even worse games, the Saturn solidified Sega as the next company to join the pantheon of also-rans.
And even though the Dreamcast was a valiant effort that I consider to be one of the best consoles of all time, the damage was already done and the days of Sega manufacturing consoles were numbered.
Suffice it to say, the Saturn was the greatest blunder in gaming hardware and the worst major console of all time. It's as simple as that.
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
2. Myst
3. Reloaded
4. Fighters Megamix
5. Virtua Cop
6. Fighting Vipers
7. Mr Bones
8. Guardian Heroes
9. Nights
10. Dark Savior
11. Shining force 3
12. Shining The Holy Ark
13. Powerslave
14. Samurai Showdown RPG
15. X men Children of the Atom
16. Panzer Dragoon
17. Burning Rangers
18. Lunar Silver Star Story
19. Lunar 2 Enternal Blue
20. Sakura Wars 1
21. Sakura Wars 2
22. Radiant Silvergun
23. King of Fighters
24. Sega Rally
25. Daytona
26. Alone in the dark 2
27. Soviet Strike
28. Dragon Force
29. World Series Baseball 2
30. Suikoden
Out of memory, there are many more I enjoyed.
worst console of all-time? hardly...how quickly you forget the Atari Jaguar and it's famed "64-bit gaming".
You admit to making a faulty article about a console who's history is well known, so why even bother making an article about one that is more obscure? Sounds like you didn't even own it, you certainly wouldn't know about the qualities then.
Why does the Atari Jaguar not count?
Why not the N64, which almost ruined Nintendo?
Why not the TurboGrafix?
Consoles that were easily worse than the Saturn;
Jaguar
3DO
32X
MegaCD
CDi
Amiga CD-32
And a load more. Heck, on the ground that the Saturn failed because it wasn't a commercial success, you could also call the GameCube one of the worst consoles, though clearly it isn't.
I'm not sure about 30 games specifically, but I can list some clearly excellent Saturn games, some of which are all time classics even today, including;
NiGHTS
Panzer Dragoon Saga
Grandia
Shining Force 3
Dragon Force
Guardian Heroes
Radiant Silvergun!
Virtua Fighter I & II
Sega Rally
Sega Touring Cars
Daytona
Fighters Megamix
House of the Dead
BOMBERMAN (10 player!)
Athlete Kings
Panzer Dragoon I & II
Super Puzzle Fighter
Virtual ON
Virtua Cop I & II
Sonic R
heck, TOMB RAIDER which came first to the Saturn
There's over 20 games there, I could go on. 3 of them are easily some of the best RPGs ever made. One is one of the best shooters of all time. And the rest consisted of some of the best arcade games of their time.
But clearly this article was a story to garner attention on Digg and other social news sites, so in that sense, it was a success. But clearly also rubbish.
Also, if I remember correctly the Sega Saturn stomped the Nintenedo 64 in Japan. And Japan at that time was a larger market than either the U.S. or Europe!
I would say the console you might be looking for comes from your beloved Nintendo.
Both the Virtual Boy AND the Nintendo 64 Disc Drive failed on an EPIC scale!
Heck, the N64DD failed so miserably that it didn't even make it out of Japan!
No console that had
Sega Rally
Virtua Fighter 1 + 2
Panzer Dragoon Saga
Panzer Dragoon 1 + 2
Shining Force 3
Grandia
Burning Rangers
NiGHTS
Virtua Cop 1 + 2
House of the Dead
Dead Or Alive
Daytona USA
Radiant Silvergun
Tomb Raider 1
Saturn Bomberman
plus a ******** of amazing 2D Fighters and Shooters
deserves that title!
YOU ******* ******** WANNABE JOURNALISTS!
How about?
ATARI 7800
ATARI JAGUAR
NOKIA NGAGE
NINTENDO VIRTUALBOY
3DO
"...it was the catalyst that ultimately led to a series of events that brought one of the foremost hardware companies to its knees."
What series of events? What exactly happened behind closed doors at Sega to cause this console to fail?
The Saturn had some of, if not the, greatest 2d shooters of all time, had some excellent RPGs and fighting games. It was the ultimate 2d gaming system in a time where all anyone considered was 3d. No, sir, you must re-evaluate your thoughts on this great system.
Panzer Dragoon
Panzer Dragoon Zwei
Panzer Dragoon Saga
Virtua Cop 1
Virtua Cop 2
NiGHTS
Sega Rally
Virtual On
Tomb Raiders
Cotton Boomerang
Grandia
Virtua Fighter 1
Virtua Fighter 2
Astal
Clockwork Night 2
Daytona USA
X-men vs Street Fighter
Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter
Tempest 2000
Elevator Action Returns
Powers Slave
Darius Gaiden
Saturn Bomberman
Shining Force 3
Shining the Holy Ark
Dragon Force
Burning Rangers
Thunderforce 5
Guardian Heroes
Legend of Oasis
Radiant Silvergun
mystaria
duke nukem
darkstalkers
Vampire savior
D and D collection
sonic r
decathlete
magic knight rayearth
mega man 8
shining wisdom.....ect
See, the Saturn did well in Japan. Even beating out the N64. In fact, if it wasn't for the failures of Sega of America as well as Squaresoft's Playstation support, chances are the Saturn would have continued to go toe-to-toe with the Playstation in Japan for the duration of its existence.
Granted, thats just talking about numbers, which certainly does not give any indication of how good a console is or isn't. Of course, your article only covers numbers for the US, an area in which games like GTA and the annual iterations of Madden sell millions plus upon release, so you're entire point is rather incompetent in that area as well.
So is the Saturn the worst console ever? No. And only someone who knows absolutely nothing about videogames would ever make that statement to begin with. In the US, one of the most critically acclaimed RPGs to ever be released came out exclusively for the Saturn (Panzer Dragoon Saga). Likewise, Treasure put out Guardian Heroes exclusively on the Saturn, which is one of the best side-scrolling beat 'em up titles in existence. Of course, as you mentioned, Sega did also put out a plethora of great arcade titles as well as original games (Astal, NiGHTS, Burning Rangers, etc.).
And thats just in the US. In Japan, the Saturn was KING of 2D fighters and 2D shooters. In fact, the most praised and sought after 2D shooter of all time, Radiant Silvergun, came out exclusively on the Sega Saturn and can still only be found on the Saturn. This is not to mention legendary shooters such as Batsugun and Battle Garegga, both of which are also exclusive, and both of which are also highly praised amongst fans of the genre.
And in the 2D fighting realm, the Saturn was uncontested. The use of the memory expansion carts made it so that it could actually play ARCADE PERFECT ports of the latest releases from Capcom, SNK, Sunsoft, etc. And the Saturn is still the only home for amazing fighters like X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Street Fighter, and Astra Superstars. It also has arguably the best version of Street Fighter Zero 3 (aka Street Fighter Alpha 3 in the states).
So if you're a fan of classic gaming, then no, you're article is horribly wrong. The Saturn is the 2D king of consoles, and the only thing that even compares is SNK's expensive and niche Neo-Geo AES.
Now, thats just looking at the software. The hardware itself was excellent. There's a reason CAPCOM brought the Saturn controller out for the PC and the PS2. And with the expansion bay up top, you could use extra RAM for some games, you could use it for your saves (which stored far more than any PS1 memory card), you could use it to surf the internet, you could play Saturn games ONLINE, eventually Hitachi made a VCD chip for it so the Saturn could play VCDs, and they even made a special Hitachi Navi GPS HiSaturn which is a Sega Saturn with a built in GPS system, a TFT-backlit matrix screen (same as the PSP uses), and even has inputs for microphones for karaoke.
So on the hardware, people did A LOT with the Saturn. Which honestly, puts it ahead of most anything else that was out at the time. The Saturn hardware was incredibly versatile. The only problem was that the Saturn's architecture was painfully difficult to write code for, so lesser talented teams had a hard time really making it shine. But if you look at near anything Sega made, look at Team Ninja's "Dead or Alive", look at Atlus' "Princess Crown", Time Warner Interactive's "Shinrei Jusatsushi Taromaru", virtually anything by Capcom, or anything by Treasure, you'll see talented teams really pushing the limits of the Saturn and showing off some impressive stuff. There is no PS1 game that is even in the same league as Princess Crown or Astal.
So the software was good, the hardware was good, and the technical capabilities of the machine were good for anyone who knew how to use it. So, how is this bad again? Well, I'll tell you how you came to that conclusion:
You're incompetent. You have absolutely no idea about what you're talking, and feel you must spew this drivel because you probably think it makes you look cool or something. But no, because first off, your article is full of falacies. The last Sega released Saturn game in the US was Panzer Dragoon Saga in April of '98. The last US released Saturn game wasn't from Sega, it was Magic Knight Rayearth from Working Designs in November of '98. Now, Europe's last Saturn was from Sega, and it came out in Dec. '98 (Deep Fear). Likewise, the last mainstream release for the Saturn in Japan wasn't from Sega, it was from Capcom, and it came out in 2000 (Final Fight Revenge).
At any rate, in the end you challenge us to name 30 great games from the Saturn. I'll do you one better and name 70:
01. Astal (US)
02. Fighter's Megamix (US)
03. Keio Flying Squadron 2 (JP or EU)
04. Radiant Silvergun (JP)
05. Guardian Heroes (JP)
06. Silhouette Mirage (JP)
07. Panzer Dragoon (US)
08. Panzer Dragoon II Zwei (US)
09. Panzer Dragoon Saga (US)
10. NiGHTS (US)
11. Burning Rangers (US)
12. Virtua Fighter (US)
13. Virtua Fighter 2 (US)
14. Virtua Cop (US)
15. Virtua Cop 2 (US)
16. Daytona USA (US)
17. Virtual On (US)
18. Saturn Bomberman (US)
19. Soukyuugurentai (JP)
20. Hyper Duel (JP)
21. Game Tengoku (JP
22. Cleopatra Fortune (JP)
23. Street Fighter Alpha (US)
24. Street Fighter Alpha 2 (US)
25. Street Fighter Zero 3 (JP)
26. X-Men vs. Street Fighter (JP)
27. Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (JP)
28. Astra Superstars (JP)
29. Metal Slug (JP)
30. King of Fighters '95 (JP or EU)
31. King of Fighters '96 (JP)
32. King of Fighters '97 (JP)
33. Real Bout Fatal Fury (JP)
34. Real Bout Fatal Fury Special (JP)
35. Samsho III (JP)
36. Samsho IV (JP)
37. Albert Odyssey (US)
38. Magic Knight Rayearth (US)
39. Shining the Holy Ark (US)
40. Iron Storm (US)
41. Dragon Force (US)
42. Dragon Force 2 (JP)
43. Princess Crown (JP)
44. Battle Garegga (JP)
45. Dead or Alive (JP)
46. Assault Suit Leynos 2 (JP)
47. Batsugun (JP)
48. Galactic Attack (US)
49. Darius Gaiden (US)
50. Bulk Slash (JP)
51. Blast Wind (JP)
52. Thunder Force V (JP)
53. Vampire Hunter (JP)
54. Vampire Savior (JP)
55. Shining Force III (US)
56. Puyo Puyo Sun (JP)
57. Bubble Symphony (JP)
58. Three Dirty Dwarves (US)
59. Legend of Oasis (US)
60. Dark Savior (US)
61. Powerslave (US)
62. Deep Fear (JP or EU)
63. Necronomicon Digital Pinball (JP) Arguably the best digital pinball game in existence.
64. Fighting Vipers (US)
65. Dungeons and Dragons Collection (JP)
66. Die Hard Arcade (US)
67. Prikura Daisakusen (JP)
68. House of the Dead (US)
69. Mega Man 8 (US) Which is still the best version of it.
70. Magical Drop III (JP)
And I would like the point out that I only listed games accessible to people that can only speak or read English. Meaning, the list I constructed completely IGNORES the Saturn's dominance with the Langrisser series, the three expansions on Shining Force III, Wachenroeder, the highly estemmed Sakura Taisen series, etc.
Also, I made it a point to, for the most part, avoid collections since technically that wouldn't count (i.e. Konami's various collections, Sega Ages, the Thunder Force Gold Packs, etc.). My exception was the Dungeons and Dragons Collection from Capcom, but I only used that because those are not available anywhere else and are two of the best side scrolling beat 'em ups ever made.
But, fact remains, for the hardcore gamer, the Saturn is right up there with the PC-Engine Duo as probably THE greatest console to exist. For people like you, who no doubt gorge yourselves on the latest sports title from EA, licensed game, Rockstar game, etc., then you, I wouldn't expect someone with that level of ignorance to understand what makes the Saturn great. But for those of us who actually play good games, the Saturn is about as good as you can get.
So please Mr. Reisinger, do the world a favor and quit writing articles until:
A. You learn to research your subjects.
or
B. You become a competent individual.
Because as is, right now you are nothing more than an embarrassment to CNet and journalists everywhere.
Either that or it was flame-bait.
But whatever the cause, it's not good journalism.
How can you say that the Saturn is the worst console ever and then reel off a (very short list) of business errors on Sega's part - like the shoddy launch, over pricing etc..?
To be a great console, you would need to have great games and well designed hardware.
So, surely, to be a terrible console it would need to be poorly made (physically and in appearance) and have dreadful games.
But the Saturn was actually well made (looks good and is physically a decent piece of kit).
As for the games - you asked: "After all, can anyone actually name 30 great games they played on the console?"
I can tell you that I own about 50 Saturn games (more than any of my other consoles) And I would consider them all to be great.
-I own more "Excellent" games on the Saturn than any other console.
Can you name 30 truly great games for the N64, 3DO, Jaguar, Atari 7500. To be honest I don't think I can name 30 truly great games for the PS1...
I think if you really wanted to get your point across you should have had a look at the review scores for the best Saturn games - I think you could easily find more than 30 games that received a high score all round.
Please, for your own credibility, as a games journalist, go out and play NiGHTS or Panzer Dragoon Saga, and then tell us that there aren't any good games.
And if you want a list of games to play, I'll happily give you one with more than 30 games on it.
http://www.gamepilgrimage.com/SATPScompare.htm#games
As for the assertion that the Saturn had no chance against the Playstation:
http://www.gamepilgrimage.com/SATPScompare.htm
Finally, to see this exact same "version" of history almost word for word, check out the Sony approved book "Revolutionaries at Sony: The making of the Sony Playstation and the Visionaries Who Conquered the World of Video Games" by Reiji Asakura.
The Saturn's best games have aged much better than most of the contemporary hits because they were so well-executed and unique (Panzer Dragoon Saga, Dragon Force, Radiant Silvergun, Guardian Heroes, NiGHTS being the most obvious).
The biggest criticism is one of taste: It was the last "old guard" system, featuring powerful 2-D graphics and effects; well-composed, snappy soundtracks; controllers made for function instead of looks.
SEGA had no marketing compared to the Sony juggernaut, so you just had to know your **** instead of letting GamePro tell you what to buy.
It was only FFVII that really killed the Saturn, btw. In Japan it was actually winning until then, and continued to have a long lifespan and but only modest sales from then on.
1. Virtua Fighter 2
2. Sega Rally
3. NiGHTS
4. Burning Rangers
5. Sega Worldwide Soccer
6. Panzer Dragoon Saga
7. Die Hard Arcade
8. World Series Baseball
9. Athlete Kings
10. Exhumed
11. X-Men: Children of the Atom
12. Virtua Cop
13. Virtua Cop II
14. Duke Nukem
15. Fighters Megamix
16. The Story of Thor II
17. Panzer Dragoon Zwei
18. Radiant Silvergun
19. Deep Fear
20. Last Bronx
21. Sonic R
22. Street Fighter Alpha
23. King of the Fighters
24. Resident Evil
25. Grandia
26. Shining Force III
27. Tomb Raider
28. Daytona USA
29. Sega Touring Car Championship
30. Virtua Fighter Kids
Not to mention the fact that VFIII and Shenmue were both in the working prototype stage on the Saturn, I fail to see how you can justify this article at all.
Anyway, as far as the Saturn as a console goes, and particularly the games, it's one of the best. It's basically the sequel to the SNES in terms of types of games and gameplay styles, being a heavily 2D driven machine, which the writer claimed was the best console. So obviously someone didn't get their facts straight. Anyone who's played Saturn games knows how wrong the writer of this article is. Go back and enjoy your quality Saturn games, and let this misinformed "journo" go back to playing "generic first-person shooter".
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by AtticusVandal
February 1, 2008 10:39 PM PST
- You say the Saturn was the worst system of all time and you say [we] are misinformed? The Saturn was a great system and it was the first one I ever really bought. Just because a numb nuts gamer like you didn't actually sit and play games on it doesn't mean it was the worst console of all time. Besides which, what the hell do you know? You work for CNET.
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Reply to this comment
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (40 Comments)You want 30 Great Games? Here they are:
1.) NiGHTS into Dreams and Christmas NiGHTS
2.) Mr. Bones (Yea, never heard of that one, have you? ***hole.)
3.) Virtua Fighter 2 and Virtua Fighter Remix
4.) Virtua Fighter Kids (Yea, it was damn good)
5.) Radiant Silvergun
6.) Virtua Cop and Virtua Cop 2
7.) Daytona USA and Daytona USA Championship Circuit Edition
8.) Dragon Force and Dragon Force II
9.) Grandia
10.) Panzer Dragoon
11.) Panzer Dragoon II Zwei
12.) Panzer Dragoon Saga
13.) Resident Evil (Yes, it was just as good as the PSX version)
14.) Shining Force III
15.) The House of the Dead
16.) Sonic 3D Blast
17.) Deep Fear
18.) Alien Trilogy
19.) Command and Conquer
20.) Dead or Alive
21.) Any Mortal Kombat Game
22.) Tomb Raider
23.) Burning Rangers (I liked it)
24.) Street Fighter Alpha 2
25.) Duke Nukem 3D
26.) Die Hard Arcade
27.) Lunacy (Demented and Well done)
28.) Quake (I liked it better than the PC version)
29.) Sega Rally
30.) D
You want more? Okay.
31.) Fighting Vipers
32.) Warcraft II
33.) Loaded
34.) PTO II
35.) Scud: The Disposable Assassin
36.) Battle Arena Toshinden series
37.) Virtual On
38.) Grid Runner
39.) Bottom of the 9th
40.) Clockwork Knight and Clockwork Night II
Is going on really necessary, or have I shown you that you know absolutely nothing about the Saturn? I bet you're the same type of guy who says the Dreamcast was terrible because the PS2 buried it. **** you. You are a mainstream mindless consumer, not a gamer. Why don't you bend over a lil more so they can shove that big Sony/Nintendo dick a little further up your ass? Sega was a great hardware designer. It's just a shame that Nintendo and Sony outlived them.