The "Genesis" of my Sega Fandom
Honestly if you were born in the 80s you probably were too. The problem was, the Nintendo systems were usually shared with my brother. They never really felt like "mine". That all changed when I got my Sega Genesis. Of course this was preceded by a Game Gear, but the less said about that thing the better.
So yes, Genesis, Sonic, Shining Force, Phantasy Star. OK Mainly Shining Force 2, Phantasy Star 4, and Sonic and Knuckles. Nothing else on Genesis ever really wowed me like those 3 games did, and resulted in me still playing the good old SNES more often than my poor black box.
And then the Saturn came along. My brother and I largely ignored it, and he got a Playstation and then we eventually got a joint N64. Being of course big Nintendo and Squaresoft fans we of course had a blast on both systems. However along came a little game called Tomb Raider.....
IT BEGINS
For reasons I can no longer remember my dad bought a Saturn from a friend of my brother's basically with the purpose of playing this game. Along with it came a few "meh" games such as Sonic 3D Blast. I can't remember what other games came along with it, but I don't think I even have them anymore.
Anyways, when Tomb Raider 2 was announced as a PS1 exclusive, my dad decided he was going to sell the Saturn, and I decided I could have that. Why? I don't really know, being a video game dork I think I just wanted to have access to some Saturn exclusives I had yet to play. Regardless, I spent the next months mowing the lawn (which is big because I hate yard work with a passion) to pay off the Saturn and make it my own. I can not tell you how glad I am that I did that.
The Glory Days
Panzer Dragoon. Nuff said.
I've never been one for shootery type games (meaning things like gradias) or light gun shooters or anything like that but both Panzer Dragoon and Panzer Dragoon 2 just worked for me. I don't know if it was the setting, or the controls, or what but I played the heck out of those games. There was just something special about them, and there's never really been anything else like them (though I think remember someone saying Darksiders had a PD type section).
Well just take a look at some gameplay footage:
Yes I know the Saturn's 3D graphics are a little janky, but Sega just had a knack on the Saturn for making some weird games with probably limited appeal that were just brilliant games to play if you could get into them. Shining the Holy Ark for example was an insanely difficult first person RPG for example, that had just mind-bending puzzles and very difficult battles, but with "meh" looking environments, but somehow as a whole the game just worked.
Where the Saturn did shine over its contemporaries though, was in 2D:
The Playstation could just not do this kind of thing folks. Also unlike Sony, Sega never seemed to have an issue allowing 2D games on its system. Thus we got some great fighting games from Capcom, and also one of my favorite 2D Rpgs from Working Designs:
Working Design's other releases for the Saturn were more famous, but this was my favorite, both because of its funny and excellent translation and for just being a great overall RPG. It a few loading time issues, but other than that this game just worked for me, and I played the heck out of it. Nothing was particularly original about it (its battle system was no different than any other standard JRPG) but the story and music were fantastic.
The basic point I'm getting at hear is that while the Saturn never did have the quantity of games, it did have a number of high quality releases that really won me over in the end. I loved that little system, and even played games like Resident Evil, Myst, and Madden on it rather than other platforms. Though Sega's big franchise (Sonic) was mostly lacking on the system, Sega created a lot of cool unique games and continued my person favorite Sega series (Shining games).
Whilst playing through Albert Odyssey, and borrowing Shining the Holy Ark from a friend, and playing through Guardian Heroes with said friend as well, I was at the height of my Sega Fandom.
And then it all came crashing down.
Join me next time as I tell the story of how a Sega fanboy became a Sega hater!
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