Sega Saturn: Daytona USA, Virtua Fighter, Panzer Dragoon

The dominant narrative of console gaming is one of perpetual conflict. It is not enough to speculate about what games shall be made on certain hardware, the months prior to the launch of new systems are a mess of hype and arguing – always the same kind of hype and arguments. Why, the Playstation 4 will give true freedom to developers; there are no technical limits anymore! Sure, and the Playstation 2’s Emotion Engine was powerful enough to power Saddam Hussein’s nukes.

In 1994, the main conflict would be between Sega and Nintendo. The Super Nintendo was winning, while Sega’s successful Genesis system was burdened by justifiably scorned add-ons like the 32X and Sega CD. Everyone expected the conflict next generation would be between Nintendo’s Ultra 64 and the Sega Saturn.

Alas, it was not to be. Nintendo’s system was delayed until 1996; now Sega’s main competitor was newcomer Sony. Both came to Japan in 1994, and both were due to reach the rest of the world within weeks of each other in September ’95.

At the first E3, the expo for the games industry, Sega presented first. Seeking to get the jump on Sony, they announced the release date for the Saturn was not September. Oh no, the Saturn was available-now!

This move was successful in the short-term and horribly, horribly idiotic in the long-term. Yes, sales were brisk at the few retailers with Saturns ready – and scorn was readily available at the stores not allowed access to the early launch. The next day, Sony announced the Playstation would be 100 dollars cheaper than the Saturn – and those angry retailers knew what system they would be selling.

Were you a developer, working hard on a game for the Saturn’s launch? Surprise! Now your game would be buried among other September releases. The Saturn launched with just five or six games – accounts differ on what they were, but a contemporary report names them: arcade ports Daytona USA and Virtua Fighter (developed by Sega, the latter was included with the Saturn); Panzer Dragoon (developed by Sega); Worldwide Soccer (developed by Sega); and Pebble Beach Golf Links (published by Sega). Third-party developers and publishers were excluded entirely.

It didn’t help that the Saturn wasn’t the easiest of consoles to develop for. Though it thankfully used the CD format, the system had dual CPUs and used quadrilaterals instead of triangles for graphics. To port games to the Saturn meant rewriting everything. Naturally, many developers quickly abandoned the system.

The Playstation, meanwhile, was easier to develop for, arguably technologically superior, and had broad support from third-party developers. And them’s the breaks: the Playstation won.

But is it worthwhile to dismiss a whole system like that? No. The Saturn is more than a failure.

It’s inaccurate to say the Saturn was the place for crazy experimentation, because the Playstation had its share of the bizarre too. But the Saturn was unique for being entirely defined by experiments and entries in niche genres like the side-scrolling shooter or arcade-perfect fighters. The Saturn debuted to fanfare in 1995, made a last stab at commercial viability in 1996, held on through 1997 and was ditched for the upcoming Dreamcast in 1998.

By 1997, you’d be hard pressed to find a major developer who cared about Sega’s system – franchises like Tomb Raider and Resident Evil began with games on both the Playstation and Saturn, before switching to Playstation exclusivity.  In 1998, even a high-profile title like Panzer Dragoon Saga would only see sale in a tiny number of stores, nation-wide. Yet if you wanted an audio-only game for the blind, well, the Saturn was your only option.

The Saturn may have been difficult to develop for, but it was also ahead of its time. Online multiplayer had existed for the Super Nintendo and Genesis via third-party services, and the latter had a service called the Sega Channel which let you download games to your console. The Saturn, unique among this generation’s consoles, featured a kind of online multiplayer in certain games – just five, in fact. But that was five more than the other systems, and it presaged the Dreamcast’s invention of a regular online gaming service.

I’m not pretending that the Saturn was a classic whose every game was gold. But it doesn’t deserve the status some have given it as one of the worst consoles, or one with maybe 20 good games on it. I won’t be able to look at popular games for the Saturn, so instead I just hope to have a general survey – one that represents the console well, and honestly.

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In this post, I’ll tackle some of the Saturn’s launch titles. I don’t want to look at Worldwide Soccer until I’ve played a soccer game for the Playstation; Pebble Beach Golf Links is just beneath me.

DAYTONA USA/VIRTUA FIGHTER

Developed by Sega AM2/published by Sega
Released May 11, 1995 (NA)

Daytona USA and Virtua Fighter were the top arcade games of their day, and Sega fucked up their console ports by rushing them for that stupid May launch. They were fucked up so throughly, in fact, that both were later “remixed” for future release.

Daytona USA is frankly superior to the similar Ridge Racer in every way except technologically, and those limitations only matter because the game was rushed. Daytona USA has multiple tracks and pits you against up to 40 racers. The only place the game falls short – the rushed development.

Locations pop into view when you near them; the arcade game’s 60 frames per second is reduced to just 20. A game everyone loved from the arcade was transformed into a cudgel to attack the Saturn with – “Hey, our game, Ridge Racer, is so fast. What do you have, Sega?”

Of course, problems of low viewing distance or slow speed were not unique to the Saturn. And the presentation of Daytona USA is amazing – the game’s soundtrack, with its dulcet cry of “ROLLING START!” will stay with you long after Ridge Racer’s tracks go missing from your mind. And it’s not hard to appreciate that Sega didn’t just edit one track a couple of times and called it a day.

Virtua Fighter was burdened with the same problems. The game that created the 3D fighter was rushed to completion, and it became a target of mockery for fans of Tekken and its like. Included with the purchase of your Saturn was a port of a famous game…with limited polygons and textures, one that looked amateurish in comparison to the games that took after it.

Of course, Virtua Fighter was important, and the series’ enduring success shows that its brand of more realistic fighting would hold out against such complaints. Virtua Fighter could survive one botched port. But could the Saturn?

It’s not hard to see why, in 1995, a gamer would hold these two ports in low esteem: rushed from September to May, they were a symbol of Sega’s disregard for quality in the search of quick publicity.

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PANZER DRAGOON

Developed by Team Andromeda/published by Sega
Released May 11, 1995 (NA)

There is no better argument for the Saturn than the Panzer Dragoon series. From rail shooters to a unique take on the RPG, Panzer Dragoon is a perfect symbol of the Saturn’s capability for oddness – or in this case, a weird aesthetic layed upon a typical genre.

Panzer Dragoon is a typical shooter, but it’s a joy to behold in motion because the art design is just wonderful. The dragon you ride is not a stereotypical kind of fire-breather, but instead a fluid bio-mechanical beast. Its rider is not a dark ages knight or a Pern type, but a man from a desert society with its own invented language.

Your enemies, too, are hideous mutations. The levels are also hardly typical. The desert is full of leaping bugs. The first level is a set of ancient ruins, poking their way out of tranquil water. Nothing about Panzer Dragoon is a visual cliché; it is all unique in style and presentation.

Of course, the gameplay is a stock form: the rail shooter, another dying genre. Here you move on a predefined path, shooting enemies that come into view. You can rotate to face any direction. The later games will fix Panzer Dragoon’s gameplay; but the first is still worthy as an example of visual inventiveness elevating a game to brilliance.

Another element boosting Panzer Dragoon: the game’s soundtrack is one of the best in gaming. I remember playing the first level and finding the game’s experience would be lessened with the music removed – without the music, you are just blasting away enemies in a place that looks kind of neat. The level’s music is majestic and melancholic – an invitation to an adventure that doesn’t sound, or look like any other in gaming, even if the style of play is familiar:

When the Saturn was announced, everyone deemed it a failure right off the bat. They may have been right commercially, but they were wrong in a way, too. The Saturn was a creative success. The Saturn’s twin arcade ports made the system seem rushed and weak technically; games like Panzer Dragoon showed the Saturn’s true life would be in experiences no one had seen before.

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On Wednesday, I consider Sega’s attempts to make amends for flaws in Virtua Fighter and Daytona USA. Also, a enhanced port of Battle Arena Toshinden. I doubt it’s enhanced much, honestly.