US Saturn Release #010 - Robotica

Played on a real American Sega Saturn with the Fenrir ODE

I could easily write this off as a poor doom clone, but there's definitely something in here that is done right. The controls are surprisingly great and the gameplay itself has plenty of opportunity for strategy, but the loop of gameplay itself is very flawed in the sense that it gets boring really quick.

Most of it is you walking around randomly generated levels finding a key and a door to get to the next one, shooting a lot of the same enemies and waking corridors that look the same. There's a couple of little stage varieties like dark stages or levels where you have to take down certain targets to progress, but it really doesn't change enough for the game to suddenly become fun.

Additionally, the game tends to slow down a lot and has a relatively small draw-distance even in lighten stages. However, the low draw distance can make the game more atmospheric when you're struggling. It becomes a bit of a tense survival game, which is admirable.

So it's kind of mixed. There's plenty here to admire and plenty to potentially make this entertaining for you, but for me, there's not enough for this to be really enjoyable at all. It would be worth picking up if it's cheap, but otherwise you can skip it. It's very meh.

6/10

US Saturn Release #009 - Astal

Played on a real American Sega Saturn with the Fenrir ODE

Astal's pros are definitely evident upon starting it up. The art style is gorgeous and the music is wonderful. Even if the controls don't feel perfect and some of the later parts of the game feel oddly difficult and frustrating, the graphics and music mix for a wonderfully calming vibe. It's a game that really shows the wonderful 2D power the Saturn had, a power which seemingly went overlooked at the time due to the push for 3D experiences.

But the game isn't perfect. As stated, the controls are not perfect. I think they're great for the most part, but having run be a double tap was really jarring, and led to plenty of deaths. It's annoying because the problem could have been easily fixed by mapping another face button to run.

Additionally, the latter half of the game gets surprisingly tough. Part of this is due to a certain boss fight where you have to control your bird ally solo. Getting used to a completely unique control sequence that only exists here is annoying, and it's not fun at all. The levels afterwards aren't horrible, but they are definitely flawed and less fun compared to the starter levels.

On the bright side, you have bird mechanics throughout that help you a lot. the bird can grab health items, attack enemies, or perform area-specific functions. Since you only get 3 health points, you'll probably end up just using the health option (minus for the bosses). Additionally, you can play the japanese version, which gives you 5 health points and allows you to start with a lot more lives. I try to play through games on the American versions, but plenty of games were made harder purely due to rentals being legal. If there's an official version of a game that's not frustrating, I'll gladly play/recommend that one. So, if you can, play the Japanese version.

7/10

Also the English dub is laughably poor.