Saturn is very worth getting into. I love my Saturn very much. It is a sort of demanding machine, necessary to buy many extras to make the experience complete. Light guns are necessary for Sega arcade shooter ports, RAM carts are necessary for games like KOF, the Saturn featured dual processors, twin Hitachi SH2 chips, parallax scrolling planes, multiple scrolling planes, unlimited (virtually) sprites on a line...
Unfortunately Saturn did not support such programming tricks as transparencies, but I'd say the Saturn could best the PSOne and N64 graphics-wise if the programmer were to take advantage of the Saturn hardware to the fullest. Sega offers some beautiful documentation about the machine, and it includes this kind of propaganda...
Saturn White Paper Documentation
There's endless talk about next-generation technology -- state-of-the-art microprocessors, polygon counts, texture mapping, etc.-- but most consumers aren't concerned about the technical marvels that lie "under the hood." Instead, their focus is on the experience of playing games on the system: Are the games fun? Close to the edge? Full of surprises? Realistic enough to make you forget that it's a creative illusion? To the person at the controls, the underlying technology is irrelevant unless it makes possible an exhilarating, one-of-a-kind gameplay experience.
and here's my favorite part...
There's been no shortage of hype about the "next generation" in video game systems. Almost a dozen manufacturers have hopped on the next-generation bandwagon and hope to capture the consumer's attention and a slice of his or her home-entertainment budget. Each vendor promises game systems that are faster and more capable than today's 16-bit video game devices -- with more dramatic special effects and greater realism and interactivity.
But where does the hype leave off and reality begin? What's it really going to take to dazzle consumers and make them eager for more? Sega will leave no room for debate by providing the ultimate gaming experience with Sega Saturn. Once consumers compare the next-generation game systems, Sega Saturn will prove the hands-down choice.
Lofty expectations? Oh hell yes. Expectations fulfilled? Uh, does this have to be answered? The Saturn is a powerful machine that deserved better treatment than it received from Sega and third-party game developers... if you look carefully however you can build up a terrific library of excellent games that will make you wonder what the hell went wrong to make the Saturn flop so hard on the market. It certainly shouldn't have been such a disaster, anyone who gives it a chance will be amazed by the games and what the Saturn is capable of producing.
A personal favorite of mine is Burning Rangers and Nights Into Dreams. I'd say you really need to see Burning Rangers first-hand, it pushes the Saturn to the limits for sure. Nights is a beautiful game, a masterpiece that embodies the spirit of the system, and creates a fantasy world worth visiting.
