How is your Saturn gaming going?

[Reprise]

I got Duke Nukem 3D and Sega Worldwide Soccer 98 the other week.

God damn Duke Nukem is an amazing port. I love Lobotomy's work on the Saturn.

[Reprise]

Since the above, I've managed to score Command & Conquer, Steep Slope Sliders, Fighting Vipers, Crusader: No Remorse and I won a copy of Clockwork Knight by coming fourth in an online competition, so that one didn't cost me a thing.

Crusader is an awesome as hell game from the mid 90s that I somehow never heard of until I stumbled upon it recently. It's a PC game, but as far as the port on the Saturn goes, it looks and plays brilliantly, but you have to spend a long time investing in getting used to the complex controls. This game was made for keyboard and mouse really...

Clockwork Knight is a fun platformer and a lot like Toy Story. It's a fairly well known title, but I never got 'round to picking it up, so it was cool to win a copy.

Command & Conquer is the game I've enjoyed the most. I loved the hell out of the PC version back in the day and this is a very good port. It works perfectly fine with a controller.

[BogusMeatFactory]

I got Duke Nukem 3D and Sega Worldwide Soccer 98 the other week.

God damn Duke Nukem is an amazing port. I love Lobotomy's work on the Saturn.

Duke nukem on the saturn is legit the most true to the original, although I think the n64 port is the best because of the insane multiplayer and co-op.

Also Worldwide soccer is no slouch. It is a ton of fun, even though there is a gamebreaking say to get an assured goal.

The Sega sports games on the Saturn are the best combination of arcade fast pace and simulation.

[Reprise]

Also Worldwide soccer is no slouch. It is a ton of fun, even though there is a gamebreaking say to get an assured goal.

The Sega sports games on the Saturn are the best combination of arcade fast pace and simulation.

Yeah, the Worldwide Soccer games on Saturn were awesome (before the development team changed for the Dreamcast titles).

I already owned WWS97 (one of the first titles I picked up for the Saturn) and I remember abusing the hell out of that gamebreaking way to get a goal every time in that title, so I assume it's the same 'exploit' in the 98 game. I've got to be honest though, it has probably been nearly 15 years since I've played it, so I can't actually remember what the exploit is or how to do it

[Alucard]

Sad to see the Dreamcast’s older brother isn’t getting any love; I dug out my absolute favorite series from that era to spend some quality “Retro” time with

Panzer Dragoon Series

https://www.flickr.com/photos/152642275@N06/29724972638/

Good times keep on gaming

[pierrot]

I've been falling in love with my Saturn all over again, playing tons of shmups around playing through Deep Fear. I was playing a bit of Batsugun again, where I made it into Stage 4 of the base game for, apparently, the first time, according to my rankings table. Last time I was playing Batsugun, a few years ago, I was mostly playing the Special Ver, which I don't know if I entirely realized is much easier than the base version. I know I made it to the boss in Stage 4, where I was going to try to do a bunch of point farming, but ended up dying because I couldn't really find the safe zone. Anyway, it's a little weird to me that the Special Ver. gives 8 credits, while the base version only gives 4. Maybe the Special Ver. has a much more difficult Stage 5, or something, but the shield granted in the Special Ver. makes things significantly easier. Not that it matters, since I'm always doing single credit attempts, anyway.

I was also playing around a little bit with Battle Garrega (pretty rusty at this one), Sengoku Blade, Darius Gaiden, Donpachi, Valgus, Exed Exes, all of the Konami shooters, and Steam Hearts (mostly to see if it's really as lackluster a shooter as I remember it being, and it is--even in terms of titillation, I don't really see the appeal).

I've been mostly focusing on Gradius, and Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius, though. I've 1cced Gradius before on the PSP collection, but I'm trying to beat it again with all the default settings (mainly the arcade screen size), but abusing the hell out of rapid fire. I'm getting to Stage 4 fairly consistently, which was the main wall that I remember last time. I'm finding the game to be way easier with very few power ups, though. Most sections of stage 4 are a lot easier when I only have missiles, a speed power up, and the pea shooter. Perhaps victory is in sight. Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius feels like a relatively easy game. It clearly was not made with arcades in mind, considering it's essentially a Super Nintendo game. The stages are quite long, and feel way easier than Parodius Da, for instance (maybe it's just a difference in stage scrolling speed). I was using Upa a bit, after discovering his homing missiles, and then I decided I just wanted to try out Mike, because, floating cat. Then I found the real star of the game: Ran. She is obscenely good, and also a floating cat, so win-win. She has two "h-bit" missiles that home in on things, and return, doing damage in both directions, plus a reflect shot that fires in three directions, and bounces off of solid objects. It's nuts. Her other shot weapon is a homing laser, and the cherry on top is her shield power up, which is just a cardboard box that covers up her limbs. With Ran, I last made it to Stage 6, where I was backed into by the boss, which was such BS, because I was hanging out near the middle of the screen, expecting it to come in from the left. I couldn't really recover from that setback, partly because Stage 6 is so full of visual noise, and really ramps up the difficulty in general. This game tosses out extra lives like tic-tacs, though. Part of the benefit of Ran, is how easy it is to uncover a lot of the hidden fairies, which are a 10k point bonus each (same as the max combo bells, and a lot less work). I am digging Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius.


Edit: Ugh, man. I made it through Stage 4 of Gradius tonight, and got through all the limbed brain things, then somehow died right as I was shooting the core of the boss. I seriously have no idea how I died. It's amazing how much easier Stage 5 is than Stage 4. I can't quite recall how bad Stage 6 is, but I know I remember Stage 7 being partly luck when I beat it the last time.

[pierrot]

Updating my Gradius progress: I made it to Stage 7 last night, and I think I realized why I didn't really remember Stages 5 or 6 at all, before. They're really easy. Like, maybe the easiest stages in the game. Stage 7 feels like it's just as much luck as I was fearing, though. There is no space to maneuver. I was doing pretty well, until I just couldn't keep up with the upgraded Duckers on the ceiling, and got hit by one from behind. (Still had the shield up in front--.) Had a few lives left, but recovering that far into the base was just not in the cards, unfortunately.

[comicstar100]

Lately it's been fighters, Currently playing Fighters Megamix. Such a fun massive crossover game between Fighting Vipers and Virtua Fighter, it is the crossover I never knew I always wanted.

[marurun]

I agree that it is a fantastic game. Maybe not great for tournaments (some crazy balance issues) but lots of fun for just making a mess of things.

[Nemoide]

I got a custom stick from Benj Edwards which has really rekindled my love for the Saturn, especially for 2D fighters. The Saturn controller might be legendarily good, but having an arcade-quality stick still a big improvement IMO.
I'm mostly playing Capcom fighters and feel accomplished for finally beating X-Men: Children of the Atom : even on the easiest difficulty, Magneto is ridiculously hard. I'm basically playing through Capcom fighters in chronological order with the end goal of playing a ton of Darkstalkers 3 and X-Men vs. Street Fighter.

I've also only recently learned that I can get a Pseudo Saturn cartridge with a physical switch for 1MB/4MB RAM-expansion and apparently this fixes the slowdown that a lot of 1MB-expansion games have when using an Action Replay (ie Marvel Super Heroes, Metal Slug). Even though I already have a Pseudo Saturn cart, two Action Replay 4-in-1s, and a few other memory expansion carts, I think I'll have to get one of those.