"It's sickening to see so much untapped potential..."

This system never got the chance it deserved due to Sega of America trying to release Genesis games, Sega CD games, 32X games, 32X CD games AND Saturn games all at the same time. If only they were smarter and devoted all their attention towards Saturn, things would have been much, much different over here on US shores (PSX was the dominating system both in the US and Japan, but Saturn was actually doing better in Japan over the N64...go figure). This was and still is an excellent system with many great games, plus peripherals that are actually USEFUL.

Graphics Capabilities: 9
For starters, the Saturn had the highest resolution over both the PSX AND the N64. Games that use 704x480 still manage to have a smooth framerate, which is quite lovely no matter how many dimensions the game is played in.

As far as 2D goes, the Saturn is just about as powerful as the Dreamcast (I've also actually heard some people say that the Saturn is even slightly better at 2D even when compared to the DC). All you have to do is look at the Saturn's fighting game lineup to see what I mean. Arcade ports are nothing short of perfect and Saturn exclusive fighting games fall in the same quality bracket. The powerful 2D capabilities of this system are complimented with a large amount of RAM to hold all of the animation. In fact, Saturn actually has more RAM than PSX and N64 (not counting any RAM upgrades)!

The Saturn was built in a way that is completely opposite to the way the PSX was built. The PSX has dedicated 3D hardware, so it must do 2D in a 3Dish way (flash a bunch of polygons which act as sprites). The Saturn has dedicated 2D hardware, so it must display ''distorted sprites'' as polygons. Despite this unorthodox method of rendering 3D images, it does it quite well. When it comes to maximum amount of polys on screen, the Saturn can do 250,000 texture mapped and 500,000 flat, making the PSX's 180,000 mapped and 360,000 flat look quite paltry. The Saturn had just as many 3D enhancing effects when compared to the PSX. How come so many 3D PSX games look better, then? Apparently, developers were scared to code for the Saturn because it was too difficult to tap out all of it's power, regardless of whether it had more power than the PSX or not. Well, thankfully some companies DID tap out it's 3D power...and the games that resulted showed everyone that the Saturn really can have 3D graphics on par with PSX, if not better! More on that later.

Audio Capabilities: 10
The fact that the Saturn uses CD media means that music will always be great (either CD tracks or CD quality files), but one advantage that it has over the PSX is that some digital sampling is better because of its slightly larger amount of RAM.

Controller Design: 10
Why they didn't stick with the Saturn's control design when making the DC is beyond me. Six buttons on the front made this controller PERFECT for fighting games, plus it still had shift buttons which have become standard on all systems.

Memory Saving Capabilities: 8
The fact that the Saturn has internal RAM means you won't have to run out and buy a memory card right away, which is very nice. In fact, it's quite a large amount of save RAM. I have a good amount of Saturn games and I don't need an expansion cart yet (although I got a Game Shark for archival purposes just in case the CMOS battery suddenly gives out). Because of the internal RAM manager (which is just one of the features of the very cool Saturn BIOS), you don't have to boot a game just to manage its respective save file like the N64. The only time when things may get tedious is when two people want to exchange data between two carts, which means one person downloads the data into the system's internal RAM (which means a little bit must always be kept free), then the system has to be turned off and on again with the other cart inside which takes the data. The fact that the cart slot is on top makes it much easier to use cheat devices like the Game Shark (instead of having to take off the little port door of the PSX and sticking a cheat unit it in the back).

Load Time: 9
The Saturn has something called an ''Intelligent Double Speed CD-ROM.'' I don't know how it's different from the PSX CD-ROM, but some games actually load much faster than PSX games. The only people who won't be satisfied are those that can't pull themselves away from cart games.

Game Library: 9
Saturn touches on every genre nicely. Let's start with the fighting games. Saturn showed off its 3D power quite well even before its final games were created. Virtua Fighter 2 had people whispering for a loooooooooong time. If you want to talk about AWESOME 3D graphics, play Dead or Alive for the Saturn! There is NO PSX game that looks that good. As for 2D fighting games, as said before there is no contest. All you need to do is play games like Guardian Heroes, any of the Street Fighters and any of the Capcom crossovers. There are also great RPGs on this system (Shining the Holy Ark, Albert Oddessy, Dragon Force (an RPG/War Sim)) as well as some good adventure games (like Shining Wisdom). Platform action games are everywhere on the quality spectrum (Nights being one of the best). Although sports games were more popular on the PSX, Saturn had decent titles. Racing games are great on the Saturn (Sega Rally, Daytona Remix (although they took out the original music), Manx TT Superbike (KICKASS graphics, just as good looking as a PSX racer)). As far as all the other genres, they are all touched upon well enough so that there's something for nearly everyone. Sega also made their own type of genre in a way, that being their innovative Panzer Dragoon shooter series.

Peripherals?
Wow! Things I can actually USE! The 6 player adapter is extremely cool when you have a large get together (:: coughcoughGUARDIANHEROEScoughcough ::). The analog controller that came out with Nights is THE most comfortable controller I have ever used. I use it for every type of game. Memory carts that go beyond standard capacity are much more stable than PSX cards (which have that ''page'' system). They actually compress and decompress data using hardware that's inside the cart! One of THE best things you should get for your Saturn is a 4 meg RAM upgrade. This lets you play amazing enhanced games like the above mentioned Capcom crossover fighters. Now I know what you're thinking..., ''The N64 made us do that!'' Well, the difference between the two is that the Saturn games are actually WORTH the upgrade! It's not that expensive, either (I got mine for 25 bucks). Mostly fighting games use this upgrade, so if you don't like fighting games then you may not want to get it. If you're a fighter fanatic like me, however, YOU NEED THIS NOW!!! BTW, there are some games that only use a special 1 meg upgrade cart, but you can find RAM carts that act as a 1 meg and a 4 meg (which is what I have).

Bottom Line?
Unfortunately for the Saturn, Sega of America had to be dumb and not put all their energy towards their best system. Oh well, at least those of us who know what a great system it is can still get imports on the Internet. The Saturn had so many possibilities and thankfully at least a few companies brought out what it can truly do. Anyone can have fun with this system PLUS enjoy great graphics, which is why I give it a 9.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/05/01, Updated 10/15/01