The Sega Addicts Top 10 Hidden Gems for the Saturn

In this week’s top 10 list we’re uncovering some of the lesser known, but still great, games on the Sega Saturn. For a system where even some of the most popular and best games for it are still slightly obscure and not played by a large audience of gamers, these “hidden gems” are buried deeper than a banana on a hot summer day in Brazil, if you know what I mean…

Anyway, why not hit the jump and read about our top 10 hidden gems before I make anymore nonsensical comments?

10. Assault Suit Leynos 2

Flake: Remember a really hard robot side-scroller on the Genesis / Mega Drive called Target Earth? Guess what! It got a sequel! Also, like so many awesome Saturn games, it was forever locked away by Bernie Stolar, never to leave the land of bushido and weird corn-based-softdrinks.

That is a real shame because Assault Suit Leynos 2 is fantastic. High paced, side scrolling robot versus the world action. It is essentially the Metal Slug of big robot games: You rush from left to right dealing death with a variety of heavy weapons and missiles. The game is hard but in a gentle ‘come back to me, it will be different this time’ kind of way and the big, bold sprite animation is very easy on the eyes.

9. Kidou Senshi Gundam: The Blue Destiny

Flake: When you get a Sega Saturn, it is pretty much the law of the land that your first purchase needs to be a Pro Action Replay. This weird, Nintendo 64 looking cartridge opens your Saturn up to games from beyond the horizon. Games like the multi-disc epic Mobile Suit Gundam Side Story: Blue Destiny.

Gudam Side Story plays similar to a faster paced Gungriffon. You are a mecha pilot for the Earth Federation, battling the Zeon troops and robots who have invaded Earth. As the story unfolds with each mission, your character becomes entangled in an epic of dangerous military prototypes, science gone out of control, and a blood feud in space. Also – massive robots.

Most of the story is in Japanese but as Blue Destiny is a very popular part of Gundam Lore, Wikipedia can fill in the pieces. Beyond that, Gundam Side Story is probably the best 1st person robot experience on the Saturn, bar none. Also, the series is incredibly cheap to import so….get on that.

8. Mass Destruction

Scott Morrison: In the vein of the enjoyable 16-bit helicopter shooters of Urban Strike, Jungle Strike or Desert Strike, Mass Destruction employed the same idea but with one of three types of tanks. If you are familiar with any of the previously mentioned games then you already know how much fun Mass Destruction would be. With a top-down view, you control a tank completing missions with simple goals of rescuing civilians or blowing up certain buildings and structures. The gameplay and controls are simple enough so that anyone can jump in and immediately destroy entire villages and enemy camps for the sake of their country’s glory. Though the game can be cleared in a short amount of time, certain levels are only unlocked by completing hidden goals, which lends itself to the replay value immensely. To this day I have not been able to fully complete the game mainly due to the distraction of destroying everything on the screen instead of fully completing missions. Weapons range from landmines and flamethrowers to mortars and air strikes. For anyone who is a fan of mass hysteria, any of the Sega Genesis “Strike” games, or non-stop explosions, Mass Destruction is a game for you.

7. Galactic Attack

Scott Morrison: Galactic Attack introduced me to the “shoot-em-up” genre, and with it a new addiction. Galactic Attack was also the reason I bought a second controller for my Sega Saturn initially. I can still remember renting the game and realizing how awesome it was so quickly that my brother and I immediately drove to the closest Block Buster just for the sake of acquiring a second controller as soon as possible. This second controller was also necessary, because we quickly realized how difficult the game was for single player. Galactic Attack is a game that will leave the letter “C” engrained in your thumb due to holding that firing button for the entire game. With gigantic bosses, onslaughts of enemies, and beautiful parallax backgrounds, Galactic Attack is a shmup with constant eye candy on the Sega Saturn. This game was also brutal in the fact that you had no save states and were forced to start from the beginning if you met your demise. Even though the game was made in the 90s, its quick anime cut scenes and retro soundtrack felt like a game straight out of the 80s in the best ways possible. Any shmup fan owes it to himself to find this game and the sequel Ray Storm for some quality sci-fi shoot-em-up adventures.

6. Scud: The Disposable Assassin

Mike Kyzivat: This game is kinda tricky, because as a game Scud is not that great, but there is so much more to this game then it’s graphics and it’s gameplay that make it a lost gem. First and fore most is the story of the game which is based on a comic book from the nineties of the same name, which follows our hero Scud who is a vending machine robot assassin (kinda like deadpool, except with a pill for a head). The premise is that once Scud takes out his assigned target, in this case Jeff, a monster with an electrical plug for a head, mouse traps for hands, and a squid for a belt, he will self destruct after killing his assigned target. The problem is that he finds out he will explode after killing his target when he reads the warning label on his back in a mirror. So (like johnny 5) he wants to continue to live, so instead if killing Jeff, he beats him so badly that he goes into a coma, and so they keep him on life support so Scud doesn’t die. In order to pay the huge hospital bills that Jeff incurs, Scud decides to be an assassin for hire. oh, and he also has a side kick named Drywall who is covered in zippers that lead to hammer space, where he can pull out all manner of objects. So you can imagine with a setup like this the levels and enemies are going to be fairly strange. Well, they don’t disappoint there are lots of strange enemies running around, and levels that range from a mannequin factory to a lab, to a desert.

The game is a standard side scrolling shooter with some first person on rails shooting parts throw in for good measure. What separates it from the pack and what makes it interesting is that you have the option of using a light gun during the whole game. One player can control Scud as he runs around the level, and one person can play as Drywall running around, or one player could instead use the light gun to snipe enemies that are on screen, while the other player runs around, or you can both use light guns. Confused yet? The music is also very good in this game and runs the gamut from a sort of techno rock to a rap song about Scud. Also if you play the disc as a CD you can listen to many of the tracks in the game including the songs mentioned above. Also if used as a CD you can hear a radio comedy sketch by the Dead Alewives; a comedy troupe run by Rob Schrab the creator of the Scud comic. The case also has some interesting art work form the comics on it, including scud holding a Huge F’ing gun and taunting you with a “your mom”

As a game Scud kinda falls flat, but as a whole product it is a very interesting and quirky disc.

5. Waku Waku 7

Alex Riggen: Waku Waku 7 has everything I want from a fighting game. It has a roster of bright colorful characters that stand out from all other 2D fighters at the time and the arenas are detailed and well-designed making the game a blast to play. The game requires the 4 MB RAM cart and it shows as the big sprites and smooth animations are some of the best on the system and the game just secretes charm and personality. This game is a must play for any fan of wacky Japanese fighters.

4. In the Hunt

Mike Kyzivat: This game is a shining example of the 2D powerhouse the Sega Saturn was, as it has beautiful backgrounds, big colorful (but not overtly cartooney) sprites, and melt in your mouth animation. In the Hunt is a side scrolling shooter created by Irem the same company responsible for R-Type (if you look closely the yellow bipedal enemies also make an appearance in R-Type but they are blue instead).  The big difference here is that you play as a submarine that fights land, sea and air enemies, and you shoot in three different directions at the same time.  For the most part (depending on the level and boss) half of your screen is underwater and half is above.  you can move freely in the water and fire torpedoes at enemy subs or other submerged baddies, or you can also drop depth charges for enemies crawling around on the bottom of the ocean, and send balloons with mines attached to get boats on the surface of the water.  But that’s not all, when you surface instead of sending out balloons you fire missiles instead from the back of the sub, to hit enemies on land and in the air, and if you up grade them enough you can fire homing missiles.

What also set this game apart was the art style, which has a sort of steam punk or diesel punk look to it. There is so much detail in both the backgrounds and the enemies it’s crazy. And on top of that the animation is amazing as well.  Not only can you shoot down the enemies but a lot of the levels feature destructable backgrounds.  The developers even realize that blowing up things in the water is different then blowing up things in the air so when ever you destroy an enemy sub, instead of a big fireball of an explosion, the sub instead implodes as clouds of air escape.  And in another level you can fire your missiles into an office building and watch as all the windows shatter in a wave like pattern, before the building explodes and sends chunks into the water below.  It’s little details like that, that really add to the experience. The design of the game reminds me a lot of the metal slug series, and for good reason too, because while I was researching this game for my write up I found out that the development team who made In the Hunt eventually left Irem to create the Metal Slug series on the Neo Geo.  So automatically if you are a Metal Slug fan, you need to play this game, and everyone else, you should at least watch some videos on YouTube just to see the amazing 2D animation it has.

3. Alien Trilogy

Alex Riggen: Do you like Doom? Do you like the Aliens license? Then this is the game for you. The developer, Probe, struck digital gold with their great use of the Aliens license. Basically “Doom with Aliens”, Aliens Trilogy is an amazing first-person shooter for the Saturn and full of great pacing and a wealth of content that I’m amazed it doesn’t get brought up more often when discussing licensed games that were done right. It remains my favorite game with the Aliens license and I can’t wait to see if Gearbox’s Aliens: Colonial Marines finally tops this 16 year old game.

2. Three Dirty Dwarves

Tom Kyzivat: Why this game never became a sensation, I’ll never know. One of the few beat’em ups of its era, its liquid-smooth 2D sprites, innovative boss battles, unique three-character gameplay, well-written, humorous story, fully animated cutscenes and overall charm made it an easy favorite of mine on the ol’ Saturn. You played as three dwarves, each with a different weapon they got from a sporting goods store: a baseball bat and baseballs, a bowling ball and pin, and a friggin’ shotgun. These three dwarves, conceived as part of a Dungeons & Dragons-eque game by super-intelligent youths trapped in a government facility, quest through the mean streets of New York’s boroughs to rescue said kids from their super high-tech lab. Pretty standard stuff. What follows is quirky, fun and creative at every turn. Sega Soft, the developer, did such a good job that I would nominate them to develop Eternal Champions III. Which they were going to do. But Sega cancelled it. And now I don’t feel like writing anymore because I’m depressed.

1. Astal

Tom Kyzivat: Have you ever wondered what would happen if Brian Froud made sweet, sweet dirty love to every anime ever made and they had a kid? Well, they would name that kid Astal, and he would have magical adventures in a tragically underappreciated game with no title on the side of the case. Developed by Sega, Astal is rife with rich visuals and fun-yet-challenging gameplay. Unfortunately, it came out in a time when solid 2D platformers with seeming hand-painted, mutli-paned backgrounds were passe, and like so many works of art, it was not appreciated in its own time. If you enjoy breaking everything in sight with your giant fists, do yourself a favor and dive into the colorful, crystal-encrusted world of Astal. YATTA!