Kieren Hawken - The A-Z of Sega Saturn Games: Volume 1

The A-Z of Sega Saturn Games

Volume 1

Kieren Hawken

Published in 2017 by

AG Books

www.agbooks.co.uk

Digital edition converted and distributed by

Andrews UK Limited

www.andrewsuk.com

Copyright 2017 Kieren Hawken

The right of Kieren Hawken to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998.

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without express prior written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted except with express prior written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damage.

The opinions expressed herein belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect those of AG Books or Andrews UK Limited.

Game screenshots are included in this publication legally under applicable fair use law which allows such material for the explicit purposes of commentary and criticism.

Introduction

After the huge success of the Sega Mega Drive (or Genesis if you are from North America) the Saturn, first released in 1995, was supposed to be Segas path into the next generation. And it seemed as if they were going to have an easy journey too. Their biggest rivals Nintendo didnt have a console ready yet, the Atari Jaguar and 3DO were both failing in the market place and this left Sony as their only true rival. But Sony had no real experience in the console market, so how were they going to compete against a recognised brand like Sega? Well better than almost everyone expected as Sega made a catalogue of mistakes that left the Saturn looking like a disaster. People hadnt forgotten the under supported Mega CD or the ridiculous decision to produce the 32X add-on and so Sega were already under scrutiny. Cue a botched early US launch that saw Sega annoy major retailers due to lack of supply and annoy consumers with unfinished and clearly rushed games. The lack of any games starring their ever popular mascot Sonic The Hedgehog was the final nail in the coffin and the Saturn ended up being utterly routed by the Sony PlayStation and later arriving Nintendo 64. Well in all areas except Japan that is, where the Saturn was a remarkable success and continued to be supported until the end of the century. Especially surprising when you consider that no previous Sega console had managed to capture Japanese hearts. It was the strength of the Saturn in this market that has made the machine so collectable today and there is no doubting that this 32-bit console is home to some all-time classic games.

In this book I take you through the life of the Sega Saturn looking at a varied cross section of the many games available for the machine with a small review and screenshot of each one. This is not a list of the best games, a list of the worst or indeed a complete guide to whats available. The A-Z of Sega Saturn Games: Volume 1 is just that, my first look at a selection of Saturn games in alphabetical order. There are three games featured for each letter and these range from the earliest titles released in Europe, to Japanese imports and even some unreleased prototypes! Hopefully this book gives you some inspiration to try games youve never played before or bulk up your personal collection. You might even find it that brings back happy memories of unwrapping Christmas presents or inviting your friends round after school for a two-player battle. But most of all I hope you enjoy reading it and remember what makes the Sega Saturn such a great home console to own and collect for.

Kieren Hawken

Author

A

Area 51

Midway Games - 1996

A conversion of the 1995 Atari arcade game, Area 51 is also one of several games that can be used with the Sega Saturn Virtua Gun. Interestingly the original arcade hardware was based around that of one of the Saturns competitors, the Atari Jaguar, although no home version was ever released for that console! As the title gives away, this shooter is entirely set in Americas top secret military base Area 51 . The plot tells us that the many aliens that were being kept there have organised an escape and we are going to need to stop them before they reach the outside world and all hell breaks loose! There are five different types of weapon available in the game and these power-ups can be found inside crates. At your disposal is a basic pistol, machine gun, pump action shotgun and finally an automatic shotgun, which targets the enemies for you. The automatic shotgun and machine gun also enable a rapid fire function, so you can keep the trigger held down. The other weapon that you have at your disposal is a limited amount of grenades, as before these can also be found hidden in destructible crates. On top of this there are other crates, which are marked as flammable, that will simply explode when shot, destroying everything around them! The key feature of Area 51 that sets it apart from similar light gun shooters is that it uses a mix of digitised and pre-rendered graphics to portray the action, this gives it a real B-movie like feel. It might have some fairly generic gameplay but Area 51 is also a hugely enjoyable game too.

8/10

Arcades Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection

Midway - 1997

This compilation contains six classic Atari arcade games and whilst it is actually called The Atari Collection 1 , there was sadly never any further editions released. Unlike many of these arcade classics collections that feature remade versions of the games this actually uses emulation so you are able to play the exact arcade game! So lets look at the games on offer and they start with the classic bat and ball game Breakout that was programmed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, of Apple fame, when they worked for Atari. Next up we have Asteroids , the classic vector shoot em up that broke all records when it was released. Garden blaster Centipede is third on the list and while it might be missing the track ball it plays as well as it ever did. Another vector based coin-op is up next, the wonderful Battlezone . A game that was considered so realistic when it was released that the US Army used an adapted version to simulate tank combat! One of my all time favourite arcade games is Missile Command so I was more than happy to see this here, a game will never get boring! The final game is one that actually appears on the Saturn twice, its yet another vector based game, and it is none other than Tempest (which is also contained in Tempest 2000 ). All these games are classics in the true definition of the word and the only one that hasnt aged well is Breakout - mainly thanks to Arkanoid superseding it in every single way. If you love your classic arcade games like I do then this collection of Atari favourites is a must have title for your Sega Saturn.

9/10

Athlete Kings

Sega Sports - 1996