Saturn Convinced?

[Omerta]

Don't do it.

You'll be playing something like Virtua Fighter innocently enough. Next thing you know you're opening credit cards in your mother's name to afford AES games while wondering how the hell you got to this point.

[CD AGES]

[strangenova]

Well I'm convinced....the saturn will be a look but not touch kind of thing. While I could afford the console and few games, the barrier to entry on the games I'd really want (astal, shining force 3, radiant silvergun...etc) is just too high.

Well thanks for the help in that one, guess I'll just throw that money at my genesis til it loves me

[TSTR]

YOU CAN LOOK
BUT YOU BETTER NOT TOUCH

[mjmjr25]

Sega Genesis is still the one (mainstream) library that defies the rule "you get what you pay for". There are plenty of excellent games for the budget minded gamer on GEN.

To expound on prfl_gmr's post about lack of exclusivity...i'm not sure I agree with him from a US perspective...and I vehemently disagree when considering english friendly imports.

Some of the best RPG's (coming from a guy who pretty much loathes RPG's) are on US-SAT and nowhere else. Non-RPG's like Saturn Bomberman, Baku Baku, Panzer Dragoon / Zwei, NiGHTs, Burning Rangers, and Guardian Heroes are all exclusives.

Some games aren't exclusive, but are either cheaper, or considerably better on SAT than PS. In the Hunt, Herc's Adventures, Sexy Parodius and dozens of others.

If you delve into imports (easily done w/AR+ or a JP console (cheaper than a US console) there are easily 100 exclusive / english friendly / worth playing games. We are doing a JP Saturn Club in a few months and narrowing the list to 52 was difficult...and we didn't even consider mainstream JP games like Garegga, Batsugun, or Silvergun.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Pros: Many interesting and exclusive games. Really diverse import library. A Saturn console itself isn't very expensive to obtain. Great system for shmup and fighting genre fans. Apparently it's not too difficult to physically mod the system to play imports or burned discs.

Cons: Many of the Saturn's best games have become prohibitively expensive for the average retro collector. And a lot of Saturn's greatest games are only available in Japanese.

Reality: Most people I know who play Saturn, do so via piracy. Either with burned discs in a modded Saturn, or via ISOs played through SSF.

Pretty much this.

I buy maybe one or two domestic Saturn games a year + a handful of imports as they're cheaper.

Great console, but most stuff is prohibitively "rare" (tough to find in stores, expect to spend some time on eBay) and expensive.

[noiseredux]

it's cool. Y'all back off. Leave more in the wild for me to stumble upon.

[strangenova]

Yeah my local shop is barren for saturn games. I've seen children of the atom and a few occasional sports games there. But he's been holding onto a saturn console for a month now and it's just watching me when I'm in the store.

[flojocabron]

I'm so grateful that I completed most of my saturn collecting before the era of ebay!

I cant fathom the amount of money I would have paid now for games that a decade ago I would have seen for less than $5.00!

But that's what happens when scarcity is introduced into a beloved console.

But on another note.......

how much would it cost to ship a saturn over the US mail?

with weight and shipping and insurance?

I need some fyi and thoughts about this....

because I may just have a spare Saturn for an OP if he/she so chooses.

It wont be pretty but it should work.

[prfsnl_gmr]

IMO, Panzer Dragoon Saga is one of the very best RPGs, and it has not been ported to other systems. It is incredibly expensive, however, and most of the other great Sega Saturn games have ports (making the Saturn a "for collectors only" system, IMO).

just to clarify - this is your opinion, right?

Yes. Don't get me wrong. I love my Saturn and my Saturn collection, but I just cannot recommend that some one start collecting for that system now. IMO - and not including games like Mega Man X4 that were also released for the PS1 - the true "must play" Sega Saturn games are: Dragon Force, Guardian Heroes, Nights, Panzer Dragoon, Panzer Dragoon II, Panzer Dragoon Saga, and Radiant Silvergun.

Guardian Heroes is available for $5 on XBLA; Nights is available for $10 on PSN and XBLA; Panzer Dragoon is included with the (absolutely fantastic) Panzer Dragoon Orta (Xbox); and Radiant Silvergun is $15 on XBLA. That leaves Dragon Force, Panzer Dragoon II, and Panzer Dragoon Saga as the only "true" exclusives on that list, and while I absolutely adore all of those games (and particulary the Panzer Dragoon games), it is hard for me to recommend that someone spend the money required to play them legally.