Failed and 'what could have been...' consoles are fascinating to me for a couple of reasons: The potential they had, either due to
hype or real, unrealized potential as well as the technical aspects which were probably revolutionary at the time - though we'd think
of them as "quaint" now ("3-D Polygons? My 3DS does that easily.") Other features such as control gimmicks, niche games or established
franchises make a long forgotton console hitorically significant as well.
The Sega Saturn has some very niche games ("Space Fire Fighters? I'll definitely give that a try!") and some that definitely border on
the weird (Hello, "Mansion of Hidden Souls" that I splurged and spent $0.99 Amercian for). There's the usual bumper crop of sports games
but it's at the weird intersection of before EA Sports bought up exclusive agreements and Sega Sports, Acclaim and even Konami putting out
sportsball games for it. Ocean, Data East and Digital Picutres (Yay for FMV games!) also released an obscure sports title or two. Some arcade
games made the jump over but not the ones that make a ton of sense, such as the "Die Hard" arcade game. "Mortal Kombat" and "Street Fighter"
both get an obligitory release. The crown jewel of the Street Fighter titles is "Street Figher: The Movie". It's Street Fighter-ception,
if you will: the game based on the movie based on the game. For ~$15 in late 2018, it's worth picking up as a gag gift for the Jean-Claude
Van Damme enthusiast in your life.
Having said all of that, There are some hidden gems and really great releaes. "D" and "Enemy Zero" are worth experiencing if not looking up the
great "Stop Skeletons from Fighting" video on YouTube about them. They're really ambitious, especially for the time. The aforementioned 'space
fire fighters' game "Burning Rangers" is quite a bit of fun with the caveat of 90's 3-D camera control. There's also the crazy-expensive version
of "Bomberman" for up to 10 players. Imports (with a modded Saturn or Action Replay cart) are considerably cheaper and a good number of titles do have
English as an option. Personally, I've had really good luck with imports and have only run into 1 that hasn't been easily playable ("Psychotron").
The Japanese imports are in regular sigle or double CD jewel cases that make storing them much easier than the giant slab of plastic housing the US
versions.
I've genuinely been enjoying spending the winter days tracking down and trying out the fun, weird, overlooked titles for the Saturn. It's an easy
console to acquire and import games are readily accessible, sometimes for $5-$10.
