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[RedTop]

Just wanted to share that after years I finally hooked up my Saturn again (finally have the room to hook up more than one system at a time. ).

First I had to replace the dead battery and then I had to repair the CD-drive as the CD holder had lowered somehow, causing friction between CD and the drivecase. It kinda felt like breathing new life into an old friend.

After a first quicky with Sonic dashing through Green Hill and Marble Zone in Sonic Jam I put in Soviet Strike and was amazed by the quality of the presentation and the level of skill the game demands right from the start. Looking forward to more sessions with my old pal! God, how I love the Sega Saturn. Such a shame that Sega did such a poor job selling it.

Can't wait to give Guardian Heroes, Nights, Paradius, Shinobi X, Bomberman and King of Fighters '95 a spin (and Tomb Raider, and Darius and In The Hunt and Sega Rally and...)

Maybe I should try and find one of those all-in-one cartridges and buy some more classics.

[meppi]

That really brought a big smile to my face when I read this post.

Such a great system which seems to not be talked about as much these days for some reason.
Unless a game such as Radiant Silvergun comes up in a thread and the "3Xtr3m3 h4rdc0r3 gamurz" jump in to declare how incredibly bad the game actually is and how they know much better shooters which no one has played. 

Anyway.
There are so many great games on the system it's hard to start recommending things.
What I definitely recommend is that you do get the 4-in-1 cart and dive into Japanese imports, as doing so will easily quadruple the amount of absolute classics you are able to pick up for the system. 

[Addicted to Chaos]

That really brought a big smile to my face when I read this post.

Lol meppi, you've literally read my mind, as I was about to post this myself.

Yes, a great system indeed, and if there is one recomendation I have to make to anyone that owns a Saturn, is to track down Shinig Force 3 Scenario 1 (US/PAl), Scenario 2 & 3 (Japanese). You owe it to yourself if your a fan of Tactical RPGs, just RPGs, or just love really great videogames as a whole that say, "Now this is gaming".

And the beauty of it all is that the first complete beta patch, with all the words translated and inserted, for Scenario 2 & 3 is about to be released any moment. And after that comes further bug testing and reviews of the current script (This is truely a high quality and well organized translation).

So for the first time Shining Force fans, and videogame fans in general that owe it to themselfs to play this game, can enjoy this game in it's intire fully translated glory. Just please don't support patched ISO's of the games as it may jeopardize the translation team from continuing to perfect the patch and it's definately illegal.

However, only download the patch from Shining Force Central, and from there on let's assume that you own a copy of the original Japanese game(s) and that you patch it yourself to play either on an emulator or actual physical Saturn (yes, it can be done).

The only downside to these games is they can be pricey to get. That's it.

Other than that, it's definately my favourite Saturn game(s). I mean come on, 3 games in one. That's what you want, no? Well for the price of at least 3.

But yeah, this game allows you to transfer you save files from Scenario 1 to 2 to 3 and finally, the optional Premium Disk. A promtional givaway disk with proof of purchase, as a final gift of game developers love for gaming and it's fans, that's a fans "dream come true" of extras.

Yes, I find hard for anyone who experiences the fully/completely translated Saga (Scenario 1,2,3 & optional PD)(which all 3 Scenarios are needed to see the whole story and true ending) to not enjoy it and still call themselfs a gamer.

Hiroyuki Takahashi in an interview said; “We put everything we had into Shining Force III – it took so much time and so much of our money that no matter how many copies we sold, we would never have been able to make much money out it. I’m both a game creator and a business manager, and from the business perspective you could say that Shining Force III was a ridiculous challenge. It’s a miracle that the game was fully realised.”

Read the rest of the great interview here, from GamesTM; http://www.gamestm.co.uk/?p=297

[RedTop]

Yeah, I bought Episode3 the moment it came out. I hated SEGA for the fact that they seemed intent on preventing US/UK gamers from playing those awesome JAP-only games.

[Addicted to Chaos]

I hope you Know about SFC and it's forums as there are alot of things discovered about SF3 there that I haven't seen before. Like hidden Weapon EXP and how it works, there is a hidden Earth resistence, the weapon EXP characters start with for all weapons have been cracked for all Scenario's, etc.

Plus the best site by far for an FAQ on the game is http://www.celestialdamnation.com/jumesyn/guide/index.html

Definately be sure to read the Weapon FAQ in regards to stuff like a weapons hidden class that boosts Magic power and Attack power. So the better the class in each separate ctagory, the higher the boost at weapon level ups.

Even though you might know all this, I just mentioned it to be sure.

[Critical Failure]

Yeah the Sega Saturn is really great. The last time I played one was almost a decade ago. It has long since been broken, but a replacement is now on it's way in the mail. Woo!

[meppi]

Been playing mine quite a bit actually.

Started of with Taromaru, which I just got a couple of weeks ago and then went into a shooter frenzy with Batsugun, Layer Section, Soukyugurentai, Dodonpachi, Strikers 1945 and Guardian Force.
Then went on to play my favourite racer till this very day: Sega Rally Championchip 1995.  

[Addicted to Chaos]

Then went on to play my favourite racer till this very day: Sega Rally Championchip 1995.  

Man, you saying this made me go on a Sega Racers playing spree all day yesturday (and plan on continuing after I finish this post  ).

Yeah, the 3 sega racing games I really love are Daytona (both version, but mostly the newer one), Sega Rally, and, believe it or not, Sega Touring Car (good game once you get the hang of it).

Though Sega Rally is my favourite Sega Saturn racer too. Why? Because the gameplay is very deep. So deep that if you take a couple of months break, you almost have to re-learn how to play it. Same goes for Sega Touring Car, but Sega Rally is still more fun. Though with Daytona, it doesn't take as much to get back into it.


I recall I bought the Sega Saturn ASAP because of Daytona USA + the steering wheel. I mean come on, the arcade experience at home. It was too good to be true for me to pass up. Many, many fun hours and days playing that game (very good times). And then some more with the remake CCE.

Now I have to admit, when I got Sega Rally, I didn't like it as much as Daytona (and how I can relate to the same way OSSM reviewer of Sega Rally said the same), though Sega Rally is my favourite now as I keep coming back to it the most.


I also wished Sega Touring Car conversion was better handled by Sega, but because that was around Bernie Stolar's time and his idea to brush away the Saturn (who he wasn't around for it from the beginning, therefore not his baby) for Dreamcast, alot of Sega Saturn's last generation games weren't handled as well. Other examples of this are off the top of my head, besides Sega Touring Car, Last Bronx & Burning Ranger.

And other developers fell in this catagory too, like the team behind House of Dead (we know they could do better as they did with the Wipeout sequel & Manx TT). There are more examples, but this is just off the top of my head.


Also, I would of loved to have seen what Sega Saturn's truelast generation of games would of looked like had it been around as long as the Playstation. Heck, I wouldof loved a true last current generation (mid of 1997-1998) of Saturn games without the effort moved to Dreamcast + all those scrapped games, that where in the works for Saturn, finished and released.

So far one of the best games to showcase the Saturn in it's last year is, believe it or not, Scenario 2 & 3 of Shining Force (yeah, enough of me and the SF3 too  ). And believe it or not again, Camelot where not given a big budget for these games, and they still showcased some of the Saturn strong points (highest resolution + highest resolution & very detailed textures) + all other bells and wistles thrown in still. All with no loading  . Though because all three Scenario where basically one game serparated into three, is what helped alot with the tight budget and why they where able spend a good portion of it on graphics (same graphics engine that kept getting better/refined with each Scenario).


OK, where was I? Oh yeah, Sega Rally. Laterz.

[meppi]

For some reason it's the opposite for me.
I don't have any trouble getting back into Sega Rally but I have a huge problem getting the hang of Daytona.
Doesn't mean that I need to drive a few laps in Sega Rally before I adjust to it again though.

It's actually funny how hard a time I had when I first bought my Sega Saturn.
Got home and tried both Sega Rally and Fighters Megamix since those were the games I got with my system.
I just couldn't wrap my head around either game for some reason.
PLaying Sega Rally looked more like playing pinball with a car.

Went to bed that evening thinking I might just have made a very expensive mistake and felt bad about it.
Got up the next morning, popped Sega Rally back in and went to work on it again.
Took me quite a while to get any good at it, but the game clicked with me at a certain point and even though I wasn't doing great, I started to fall in love with it. Never looked back.
Same happened with Fighters Megamix and a lot of Sega Saturn games actually, one particular game that comes to mind is Virtual On. Man, that was hard to get to grips with, but soooooooooooo satisfying.

Not that this was limited to the Saturn.
Been thinking about getting back into F355 Challenge for the Dreamcast for the past couple of weeks, and anyone who ever played this game knows how hard it is.
At least when you play it the way it's meant to be played with all the driving assists off and manual transmission.

Love it to bits though. So sad we'll never see anything like this again.

[Addicted to Chaos]

You know, when i first bought Sega Rally (when it came out), I had very mixed feeling about it too. In a way I was happy that the port graphically was most excellent, I was disapointed that it wasn't as fun as Daytona USA (also wasn't used too, or too keen and the how you rank over the course of all tracks type racing at first either)... though now my thoughs are opposite of course, since I find Sega Rally's gameplay to be much deeper and satisfying than Daytona USA now. Sega Rally never seems to get old + gameplay feel so good/right.

Also remember it took me awhile to master that game... well, at least beat the game in first on the third course, and to my shock and surprise on discovering the (as well as very beautifull) Lakeside Course + making it in first there. Tell you right now, that last race was always a heartattack of tensen and suspense, lolol.


Your thoughs on Virtual On are very interesting because after just briefly playing that game, I'm seriously doubting it's as fun and deep as OSSM claimed. As I can't see any strategy at all in that game, lol. So I'm glad to hear this good new from you right now. I'll be sure to get this game the time of day now, lol (Well, i was planning to to eventually, but your thoughs are making me alot more motivated Thanks). As it does seem very interesting and it is supposed to be one of the Sega Saturn highlights. Technically (learned this after reading the OSSM interview) and graphically too.


In regards to F355 for Dreamcast, I never played it (always wanted too, though). But sice you said it was so hard, I'm reminded of the very hard to get the hang of Sega Touring Car for Sega Saturn. And you know, I think Sega Saturn Magazine never gave that game a chance, as after all these years (EGM discouraged me from playng this game more over here, lol), I found it pretty satisfying. What are your thoughts on STC? And that OSSM review?