Sonic on Sega Saturn: What Went Wrong [Part 2]

A retro feature taking a look at the three Sonic products on Sega Saturn, Sonic 3D, Sonic Jam and Sonic R.

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• sonic
• sega
• saturn
• jam
• 3d
• platformer
• retro
• feature
• gaming
• games
• video
• game
• adventures
• the
• hedgehog

[fireheartgames]

Not all Sega Saturn games where bad either dude.  What the heck are you smoking. Tomb Raider came out on the Saturn and actually looked better than the PS1 version( which was pretty rare but some games did). The Saturn is my favorite console of all time and had some awesome arcade ports. Plus some of the best fighting games to ever come out. Heck Marvel Super Heroes played way better on the Saturn than the PS1 because it was a 2d power house so whats up now dude.

[BattleDamaged]

@fireheartgames Don't get me wrong, I love my Saturn, and there are plenty of fantastic games for it like Nights, Burning Rangers, Panzer Dragoon, Sega Rally etc. but the Sonic output for the machine was really weird. Doesn't change the fact I love that damn machine and all of it's quirks, just wish they'd made a "proper" Sonic game for it! It's probably the only console I have really strong enjoyment with every time I plug it in, even when I'm playing an awful game like Virtual Hydlide.

[bmoviefanrude]

I had a Sega Saturn and Sonic R, and yeah Sonic R's racing mechanics were hard as shit!

[fireheartgames]

@BattleDamaged Yea I guess your right. The Sonic games are pretty weird. Although they where strange I love sonic R there's just something about that game that rocks. Oh yea and Sonic 3D Blast is way different on Saturn than the Mega Drive/Genesis. It might look like the same game but I've seen reviewers compare both of them sid by side. It's kind of weird just how different and better the Saturn version is.

[fireheartgames]

Um I know the controls where pretty bad but you can get used to them. I learned how to control Sonic pretty good. The tag mode in two players was amazing as well.

[LewisLongshanks]

Atleast Mech Warrior 2 saw a Saturn release aswell I guess XD

[Zawicki1]

@BattleDamaged Haha, true. In Michael Jackson's Moonwalker Smooth criminal is laughably slow. But the games are still great. :D

[BattleDamaged]

@Zawicki1 Yeah, the music is the easiest thing to notice for sure. Spring Yard Zone never sounded slower!

[Zawicki1]

@BattleDamaged Crap, I made a double comment. Well anyways, true. I have never played an actual PAL system, but I have played them on emulators, and they are pretty slow. But the only huge noticeable difference is the music. But for the most part it's pretty hard to tell the difference.

[BattleDamaged]

@Zawicki1 The Megadrive version of Sonic The Hedgehog is maybe the worst example of a game running on a PAL Machine. Massive borders and the game is 16% slower than it was in the US. I've had chance to play the XBLA / PS3 versions which are the American versions, and they are a hell of a lot better, it's still weird to plug in my Megadrive and find this super slow version of sonic! It's all slow because it's built for 50fps instead of 60, so instead of reworking they just slowed the game down.