15 Best Sega Saturn Games You Should Try
Let’s share with you some of the best Sega Saturn exclusive games. There are numerous excellent games that were released for the Sega Saturn in the middle 80s to the late 90s. These include a variety of original Sega classics and several fantastic third-party releases. Fans of RPG and fighting game enjoyed a healthy array of options on Saturn plus there were numerous other genres that held sway.
We’ve picked the best 15 top titles released on the Saturn, it’s time to fire up Sega’s 32-bit console, and check out some of those your almost forgotten favorites.
15 Best Sega Saturn Games You Should Try
Table of Contents
1. Die Hard Arcade
Die Hard Arcade doesn’t have anything to do with the classic ’80s Die Hard action movie. The game was actually developed independently by the Japanese company. The film’s name was actually slapped on it for added marketability across the world.
The game proved to be an appealing fun-filled fighting game for two players, where the fighters would walk your way through a building while killing villains in bunches. You are not just limited to fisticuffs only, you have a wide array of firearms and free-for-all weapons which help amplify the arcade-style action.
2. WipEout 2097
Wipeout 2097 is a Psygnosis neon-lit futuristic racing series that took a cue from Formula-1, but it did well to push the sci-fi trappings into a glowing vision reminiscent of the rave scene at the time. This Saturn version offers the same deep, hyper-speed racing capabilities that had brought the original such appeal. The futuristic racing action felt next-gen at the initial time of production and today, it still feels ahead of its time. If you’re diving into the Saturn scene these days, you sure need to grab this iteration to see for yourself how well it’s doing today.
3. Virtua Cop
With 3D technology having evolved fast in the 90s and coin-op shooters such as Midways Terminator 2 still relying on the old gun-styled joystick pioneered by failed arcade companies like Operation Wolf, Sega’s Virtua Cop series took it upon their shoulders to provide a long-overdue update on the formula with their revolutionary Virtua Cop.
The game’s deceptively-nuanced play demonstrated the kind of variety available to contemporary first-person shooters, besides exacting marksmanship challenges and tests of reflexes. The Saturn port allows the use of accessories like the Stunner light gun, or equally challenging keyboard/joypad aiming.
4. Steep Slope Sliders
Steep Slope Sloders is DonPachi Cave’s trick-racing snowboarding title, released during the first flurry of gamer’s enthusiasm for the sport in the late 90s. It offers a number of innovations over the standards of the present day. It has a free-form control mechanism that does not tie you into a set of tricks, but it offers the player a greater scope for creative play and improvisation.
The game’s home version offers real weather and course conditions based on the system’s own internal clock. What this means is that if you had this game and a full-time job, you’d wonder why an entire snowboarding game had been set during evenings and weekends.
5. Croc
This game was developed in the height of the Super Mario 64 craze. Its designers intended this romp as a Nintendo 64 exclusive game. However, the London outfit’s Japanese patrons turned down the favor. The N64 setting was abandoned in favor of friendlier pastures on the Sega Saturn and PlayStation giving players on the Sega and Sony machines a chance to explore 42 brightly colored levels worth of Argonauts take on the Mushroom Kingdom. The game turned out a bestseller, earning the company a bestseller of its own in the process.
6. Street Fighter Alpha 2
The Sega Saturn has built a legacy from its ability to serve up smoother-running versions of top 2D fighters games and Street Fighter Alpha 2 is just one amongst many examples. The Alpha 2 was built upon the solid foundation of the original 32-bit game, and the present Saturn version of the fighting sequel is easily the best. It offers smooth visuals, a few bonus characters, extra survival opportunities, and art gallery features.
Regardless of platform, Street Fighter Alpha 2 remains a great fighter game from the era, providing technical showdowns with a good mix of characters to always remember.
7. Shining Force
This game got Western players stuck with the bravura first installment, God Warrior of the Kingdom, released simply as Shining Force III. The game’s depth and ingenuity are satisfying. It gives a tantalizing glimpse into the massive slice of Shining goodness enjoyed by game players.
This is the rich, tactical play you know and love from the beginning of the Shining titles, now bumped up with even more epic battles and new enhancements such as the ability to pair two characters stats to obtain a greater XP bonus.
8. Exhumed
This game puts crack Special Forces agents against some weird Egyptian creatures and deities in an adventure sequence.
Exhumed’s solid three-dimensional play and ingenious nonlinear design ensured it got converted to other gaming formats like the PC and the PlayStation. Saturn’s original however features the greatest breadth of powers, effects, and cool gameplay innovations that arrives with this title.
9. Duke Nukem 3D
This Saturn version of Duke’s signature adventure was released as a valediction for Sega’s shut-down Deep Water imprint which was established in the early nineties as the company’s comics-styled mature content sub-label. The game features all the ass-kicking, gum-lacking, pig-exploding, movie-quote-appropriating fun we’ve come to demand from 3D Realms irrepressible meathead, Mr. Nukem’s gleeful profane legacy.
If you dig deep enough into this SlaveDriver Engine-powered port, you will be rewarded with an exclusive bonus-level and the second installment of developer Lobotomy Softwares cult Death Tank series of mini-games.
10. Galactic Attack/Layer Section
Have you ever meandered into an arcade and strummed a few stages into a shooter coin-op named Gunlock? If the above question elicits a yes response, then congratulations, you have actually tried out Galactic Attack, the influential, shoot-em-up arcade produced by Taito. The game offers fast gameplay designed around a split-level lock-on system. It’s actually a game to play.
11. Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider was originally developed with the Saturn in mind, but later installments on PlayStation saw the arcades heroine Lara Croft become something like a de-facto face for Sony’s gaming brand. It’s easy to see why Sega Saturn owners felt slighted. However, many hardcore Sega fans will still argue that Tomb Raider played better on Saturn. The game’s origins certainly serve as a reminder that Tomb Raider was a solid and groundbreaking game, and served for many as a major proof of just how exciting this 32-bit generation could be.
12. Dark Savior
Dark Savior mixes quality role-playing, fantastic isometric 3D platform, with an all-action combat mode. The game’s mission changes Depending on how quickly and well certain objectives are completed allowing the game to offer its players considerable replay value.
The game was produced by Climax Entertainments Landstalker as a standout Saturn quest and a deep, unique action RPG exclusive to induce envy even in SNES and Genesis owners used to getting the Climax’s standouts on their platform. It’s a game to play.
13. Resident Evil
This original zombie-filled survival horror game with its cinematic take on tank-controlled ammo-hunting that first arrived on PlayStations was converted and slightly upgraded in Saturn. This game showed that the Sega’s Saturn could keep up with Sony’s PlayStation with improved graphical effects and a bunch of extra bosses added in.
This Saturn version includes a more refined battle mode, and survivalist take on survival horror. It’s great to play especially if you enjoy the zombie stuff.
14. Saturn Bomberman
Bomberman as a game had existed long before the Saturn came into production, and several revisions have been done on the game since, however, Saturn’s Bomberman continues to glow in the memories of fans. The reason is because of the multiplayer facility that Saturn came with. Thanks to the multi-tap function, it became possible to play a local match with up to 10 players.
Thanks to the Net Link function, it is possible to play online over a dial-up modem, assuming you have dial-up service and a friend to play with. Bomberman is simply amazing, and this Saturn version may still be the best version out there.
15. Sega Worldwide Soccer ’97
Sega Worldwide Soccer ’97 was unarguably superior to anything on Sony’s PlayStation. It offered smooth 3D visuals, plenty of options to choose from, and one of the deepest and excellently rewarding exemplifications of the round leather game ever seen during the 90s. It was most definitely a cut above the FIFA’S EA at the time, despite their awesome soundtracks, and certainly gave Sega fans something to smile about when in the company of their PlayStation-owning mates.
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