The BEST Sega Saturn Games!

[Boschloo]

Here's an alphabetical listing of top 50 recommended Saturn games

They were compiled by Sega Saturn fanatics over at SegaXtreme and some of the least popular ones were voted off as well.

A categorized list (by genre) could be added later.

Thanks to all those who helped put this together.

 

TOP SEGA SATURN GAMES:

Albert Odyssey

Battle Garrega

Burning Rangers

Daytona USA

Dead or Alive

Die Hard Arcade

DonPachi

DoDonPachi

Dracula X (Something tells me the Colecovision Dracula is just not going to come out anytime soon)

Dragon Force

Exhumed/Powerslave

Fighters Megamix

Grandia

Guardian Heroes

Gunbird

House of The Dead

Lunar 2: Eternal Blue

Manx TT Super Bike

Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter

Mega Man X4

Metal Slug

NiGHTS: into Dreams

Panzer Dragoon

Panzer Dragoon II Zwei

Panzer Dragoon Saga

Pocket Fighter

Radiant Silvergun

Resident Evil

Sakura Taisen

Saturn Bomberman

Sega Rally Championship

Sega Touring Car

Shining Force III

Shining the Holy Ark

Shining Wisdom

Shinobi X

Soukyugurentai

Steep Slope Sliders

Street Fighter Alpha 2

Street Fighter Collection

Street Fighter Zero 3

Super Puzzle Fighter

Thunder Force V

Virtua Cop

Virtua Cop 2

Virtua Fighter 2

Virtual On: Cyber Troopers

World Series Baseball 98

X-Men vs. Street Fighter

Edited December 24, 2023 by Boschloo

[Lord Innit]

Sega Touring Car? Really? It hurts my eyes just playing it for a short time.  

[roots.genoa]

I would add at least Deep Fear and Amok, but I need to check in detail.

[Boschloo]

16 minutes ago, roots.genoa said:

I would add at least Deep Fear and Amok, but I need to check in detail.

I will add Deep Fear for sure, even though it wasn't voted.

 

For the fans keeping track, it was featured in that Segata Sanshiro commercial where he makes a sushi boat out of a tunafish.

[Warmsignal]

On 12/24/2023 at 1:36 PM, Lord Innit said:

Sega Touring Car? Really? It hurts my eyes just playing it for a short time.  

I just got this one after years being on my want list. This is one of, if not the most impressive driving games on the console. It looks on par with a lot of 1997 PS1 driving games, and I think it's a strong showing of what the Saturn could do, and might have done had it lasted longer on the market. Good frame rate, great sense of driving speed. It's not pretty by today's standards, but in 1997 yeah it's def one of the better Saturn games I'd say.

[roots.genoa]

I loved it for its music, but I wouldn't say the frame rate was good, especially since it dropped every time you drove underneath something... It was clearly not as good as SEGA Rally.

[Lord Innit]

2 hours ago, Warmsignal said:

I just got this one after years being on my want list. This is one of, if not the most impressive driving games on the console. It looks on par with a lot of 1997 PS1 driving games, and I think it's a strong showing of what the Saturn could do, and might have done had it lasted longer on the market. Good frame rate, great sense of driving speed. It's not pretty by today's standards, but in 1997 yeah it's def one of the better Saturn games I'd say.

I bought it new bitd and the first thing that hit me was the low frame rate. It hurt my eyes in 1997. More than Daytona ever did. Yeah, the sense of speed was there, but when combined with the frame rate it was far from smooth.  

[Lord Innit]

15 minutes ago, roots.genoa said:

I loved it for its music

Yeah, I'd say that was its outstanding feature.  In fact, the sound  was pretty impressive throughout.

[Warmsignal]

7 hours ago, Lord Innit said:

I bought it new bitd and the first thing that hit me was the low frame rate. It hurt my eyes in 1997. More than Daytona ever did. Yeah, the sense of speed was there, but when combined with the frame rate it was far from smooth.  

The first Daytona was truly an ugly rush-job, Touring Car was not. I dunno, isn't it true that PAL versions run a bit slower than NTSC because 50/60hz issue? I didn't perceive any frame rate issues.

[Tanooki]

Maybe I'm spoiled, but I had decent set of Saturn games that were done to Sega-PC Windows 95/98 in the day, Touring Car, Panzer Dragoon, Smash Pack, the various Sonic bundles, Sega Rally (2 as well), Sonic R, etc.  Touring Car wasn't exactly my usual thing but I found it quite nice.  It did run better on PC even if it didn't look really any better than on Saturn, it did have a higher resolution with better hardware so that helped.

[roadrunner]

Battle Monsters 

 

 

[Austin]

On 12/26/2023 at 1:00 PM, Warmsignal said:

I just got this one after years being on my want list. This is one of, if not the most impressive driving games on the console. It looks on par with a lot of 1997 PS1 driving games, and I think it's a strong showing of what the Saturn could do, and might have done had it lasted longer on the market. Good frame rate, great sense of driving speed. It's not pretty by today's standards, but in 1997 yeah it's def one of the better Saturn games I'd say.

I mean, sure, it's nice to look at. But it's generally of the mindset that it's awful to actually play. That's kind of the most important part of any game.

  

On 12/27/2023 at 12:02 AM, Warmsignal said:

The first Daytona was truly an ugly rush-job, Touring Car was not. I dunno, isn't it true that PAL versions run a bit slower than NTSC because 50/60hz issue? I didn't perceive any frame rate issues.

Daytona was certainly rushed, but unlike Touring Car, it plays really well and is still a lot of fun.

  

2 hours ago, roadrunner said:

Battle Monsters 

I definitely wouldn't call it one of the best, but I have a major soft spot for that game. It's got some cool mechanics that you didn't see super frequently in 2D fighters at the time, like double jumping and ring-outs on certain stages. It's got a weird mixture of cool and goofy visuals, good use of zooming, some visuals are neat/creative and others are just fun to laugh at. Music can be upbeat too which is nice.

Edited December 29, 2023 by Austin

[+Cafeman]

Chiming in, Touring Car doesn't have enough depth. It has a sense of speed and engaging music, but the graphics are too low-res and lack the detail and color to accurately see things like upcoming turns.  That could be forgiven, but it is super shallow. I always felt it was fun for an hour or so, but unlike any Daytona or Sega Rally Championship, there just isn't that incentive to replay Sega Touring Car.  I don't think its graphics are superior to either Daytona CCE or Sega Rally.  In this sense it reminds me of Manx TT on Saturn.  Manx TT has a great first impression, but doesn't have enough courses and modes to keep you replaying it.  

 

My ratings are:   SRC > Daytona CE (JN) > Daytona CCE > Daytona OG > Manx TT > Sega Touring Car. 

[roots.genoa]

The problem with traditional racers on the Saturn is that SEGA Rally is so good it makes everything looks bad in comparison.