"10 years later and it's STILL my favorite system...but should it be?"

It's been 10 years. 10 long years. And in that time, I've seen the Saturn, then come across the 32X, the Dreamcast, SNES, N64, PSX, PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, etc., and I STILL find that the Sega Saturn is my absolute favorite system. But should it be?

Well, in terms of personal preference, yes. There's just something about it, I can't put my finger on it, a certain, je ne sais quois, but there's something about the Saturn that just draws me inexorably to it. No wonder it's my unicorn. Today, I just won an auction for what will be my 4th Saturn since its release. I just can't stay away from it, but it seems I can't make myself hold on to one either. Looks like this argument can go both ways. Let's take a look at why:

Marketing
10/10

Ok. So while many of you may have read about it in magazines or heard it from a friend or found it online, I had kinda lost interest in Sega when they were hyping the upcoming release of the Saturn. So, I didn't really know anything about it until this strange package arrived in my mailbox. In it was a video tape that was more or less a 20+ minute infomercial/product demonstration video for the Saturn. But I only needed 5 minutes of the video to be hooked. And why not? The machine they were showing me ROCKED! And, they had gone out and found ME, one person, and left me a video. As if they were asking for MY seal of approval before launching.

I don't like to think of myself as affected by advertising very often, but after that video, and the gesture of sending me one, I just HAD to have one....and if for no other game, Virtua Fighter.

With the flop of the 32X (often blamed heavily on the marketing), Sega seemed to have learned from their mistakes and really hyped the Saturn...and with good reason. It was an amazing system. Magazines, commercials, and just good old word of mouth hype, coupled with the occasional target mailing, and Sega made sure the world knew that they had something they wanted us to look at, and, especially after losing so many of us with the 32X debacle, that it was worth looking at.

With that (and obviously my bias...since the Saturn, I became a diehard Sega fan, actually, since that video in the mail) said, let's look more at the actual system itself.

General Hardware
9/10

Ok. In this category, in my mind, there is a lot of gray area. While parts of the design were GREAT, it seemed that simultaneously they sucked more than the mosquito on the player's head in that old Sega commercial from the early/mid 90's.

The general case design. I loved it. Compared to the PSX especially, it was a lot sleeker. Just look at the lid and how it opens and closes when inserting or removing a disc. The PSX to me seemed very basic. Form follows function seemed to be the rule of thumb at Sony. Sega, though, with the Saturn, made the system black, shiny, gave it some curves and rounded edges, and just generally incorporated style into the system and its presentation as much as the power they packed into such a sleek package.

Plus, the hardware itself was just unheard of. I remember thinking at the time, that even if the PSX and the Saturn were equally powerful, just by having the name Sega on it, it would blow the PSX away in terms of long-term sales. Why didn't it? Well, it was about as powerful as the PSX, but, it went about it totally differently than the PSX did...actually, apparently, it went about it totally differently than anything that had come before. And that made it a real pain to program for. Which saw many developers going to Sony....a much easier to system to develop for from a company that, like Saturn, had big pocketbooks. This one is a toss-up. While the games that were released on it were great, there just weren't enough of the right ones from the right developers. More on this in the ''Games'' section of this revieew.

But there was hardware contained in that great case design that I just didn't get. It seemed it had no business being there. The ONE thing there in the back. You all know what I'm talking about. The mysterious cartridge port.

Sure, it took a modem. And hats off to Sega for taking console gaming online (and first to do so, I believe). It took a memory card, though it wasn't the best place or idea for one in my mind. What if I want to play with a friend? Where does he put HIS memory card? Well, in the same slot....after you put yours in, copy the data to the internal memory, then put his in and copy it there too...and back to the card to go home. Great idea, but, just not executed as well as some other systems. A Gameshark could go there as well as a host of other peripherals. But to me, it always looked like it was the right sized and shape for Genesis and 32X games.

And why not? At one point, I believe, Sega considered allowing for backwards compatibility with Genesis, 32X, and Sega CD games, but didn't (due to either system architecture, price, or time constraints), and I personally hated the fact that support for those systems wasn't included. We've already bought the Genesis (32X, Sega CD)? So what if I sell it online to get money to buy a Saturn? Besides, allowing me to play all those games would have been great!

Sony tried backwards compatibility with the PS2 and it turned out alright. But I also see why, with the massive library of games available for those systems, why adding backwards compatibility might have been a bad idea:

1)Why buy new games for the system when I have a library of old ones to play on it?

2)Why buy a new, more expensive system, if all I'm gonna do is play my old games on it that I can play now?

So they left out the support. I personally wish they'd left out that &%$)(#@ port on the back then. Change the shape, the size, the location of that port, anything. But don't leave it there, shaped like that, enticing me to put in a Genesis game....knowing I shouldn't (trust me on this one.....there's a reason I've owned 4 Saturns).

But they did include an internal memory for game saves. We wouldn't see the likes of this ''out of the box no need for a memory card'' set up again until the Xbox. Sega was on to something.

And of course, the sheer power of the hardware....CD-ROM instead of cart base. 8 button controllers similar to the already familiar Genesis 6 button. The 3d Control pad. The Stunner. The Driving Wheel. 32-bit RISC processors in parallel. Oh, this was a force to be reckoned with.

Games
9/10

THIS is where the system had its issues. Remember I said the Saturn was notoriously hard to develop for (compared to anything else at the time)? Well, that meant that not a lot of popular 3rd party games really made it to Saturn. And those that did didn't make it well. Madden 97 for example. EA DID make a version for Saturn. But it didn't play nearly as well as Madden games on other systems. Mortal Kombat Trilogy released for both PSX and Saturn....but was hard to find for Saturn, and while the Saturn version is my favorite release of the game, I must admit, the PSX version did seem to just ''handle'' itself better, as with Tomb Raider, Croc, and other games that came out on Saturn AND competing consoles. Plus, they seemed to come out faster for other consoles...perhaps b/c the Saturn took more time to code for as it was a more difficult machine to develop for.

In fairness though, Sega released a lot of great games for its own new baby and Sega has ALWAYS shown innovation and the ability to deliver killer apps like Virtua Fighter, Panzer Dragoon, Virtu Cop, and a number of others. And of course, who could forget the now ultra rare ''Christmas NiGHTS? I never saw a Christmas Crash Bandicoot mini-game or the like on any other system. And to think, I got the Christmas edition of NiGHTS as an unwanted waste of space in a game magazine from a friend who was holding out for N64 and laughed at me for going Saturn. And now it's one of the rarest video games in recent history.

All in all, the Saturn had simply AMAZING ability for its day, and the games that were released for it rocked and were generally well done (performance-wise). But the issues surrounding developing for it left its mark on the game library. And that keeps this section from getting a 10 rating.

Overall and Final Thoughts
9.5/10 average....with personal bias, 125,555,882,221/10

In the end, it was a wonderful system. Had so many other factors not surrounded it, like the history of the 32X et al, it might have lasted much longer and we would have really seen what it could do. And to Sega's credit, like I said about the marketing--Sega really did try to undo what had been done by the 32X. But once that snowball starts rolling, good luck stopping. But they made an effort and that says a lot. Even then, Sega was cranking out innovative games, on a sleek system that was a real powerhouse with innovative hardware ideas that it seems the gaming world just wasn't ready for...and still isn't (sheds a tear for the dreamcast). And maybe it's this, this thinking-outside-the-box, got the brass to act on it, trying new things even if they fail, new and innovative games making, sleek designin', black sheep of the gaming world quality they have that's encompassed completely in the Saturn, and makes me love it so much.

IS it my favorite system? &%($) YEA!
SHOULD it be? Why not? It's my personal preferences, my taste, and ultimately, my money. So I'm gonna get what I want. And while I hope this review is helpful, get what YOU want. Saturn's are a lot cheaper now in online auctions than the initial $400 price tag (which also must have hurt it, but at least it was cheaper than its competitor from Sony at the time). Enjoy YOUR system. That's what I'm doing. And this time, I may even be able to keep it. Else, there will soon enough be a 5th Saturn, 6th Saturn, 7th.......

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 05/31/03, Updated 05/31/03