LilSwampAss
1990
Actually a perfect game. I swear, ever since I was like 7 playing this for the first time on my Retro Duo, this game has just gotten better, and better, and more and more fun with every playthrough. I think part of that has to do with all the cool moves you can do and how all the abilities and power-ups make for a different experience every time you run through a stage. I think it's also due to how much fun finding all the exits and unlocking all the secret levels is. It's probably also due to the perfect sense of difficulty throughout, where things are indeed challenging but never frustrating.
I honestly cannot thing of even one flaw. This is one of the greatest games of all time.
10/10
I honestly cannot thing of even one flaw. This is one of the greatest games of all time.
10/10
1994
I haven't played this game in like a decade so getting back into it was a little tough, thankfully the starter fights are good for getting you back into that groove. The fights really ramp up in difficulty but it's pretty easy to learn what to do when if you give it some time. There's still tough execution but when you know what to do when it's a lot more comfortable, and I really like that. At the end of the day this is just really fun boxing game, one that pretty much anyone can get into, like the NES one.
8/10
8/10
1995
This game is painfully middle of the road. It's by no means horrible but there's a lot wrong here like how your health doesn't replenish upon level completion, or how the screen is cropped in a way that makes it hard to see what's coming, or how insane some difficulty spikes get later on. At its core the actual platforming and stuff is fine and functions well but the issues I mentioned hold back the good stuff from being great at all. It's just a passible middle-of-the-road platformer that is easily skipped.
6/10
6/10
Yoshi's Island kind of blows me away. It doesn't feel like a game that looks and sounds like this should be able to play well on a 16-bit console, but it does. It felt a lot like playing a Sega Saturn platformer, actually, with that console's insane power for 2D. In the end the game really shows just how much you can do on the SNES.
And still, the game holds up if you look beyond the art and the sound. At its core this is just a really fun platforming game, one that provides plenty of fun mechanics (primarily egg throwing) to keep the long runtime fun, and a good scoring system to keep the game challenging at all times. I found myself picking this up every time I had nothing to do.
So obviously, this is a must-play, must-own SNES game.
8/10
And still, the game holds up if you look beyond the art and the sound. At its core this is just a really fun platforming game, one that provides plenty of fun mechanics (primarily egg throwing) to keep the long runtime fun, and a good scoring system to keep the game challenging at all times. I found myself picking this up every time I had nothing to do.
So obviously, this is a must-play, must-own SNES game.
8/10
1993
US Saturn Release #008 - Myst
Played on a real American Sega Saturn with the Fenrir ODE
Myst knows how to truly immerse you quickly and efficiently. Even if you have a hard time getting into the puzzles and the general game loop, I think you'll appreciate how it feels.
On those puzzles though, they really vary in fun factor. Some of them are really easy, some are tricky nut actually fun to do and make you feel smart for accomplishing, and others make you drag out the ol' notebook. That's not necessarily bad but I wasn't exactly expecting it so I wasn't too happy about it.
This is a game you really need to play with the shuttle mouse (or on emulator with your regular PC mouse). Playing with the controller is just kind of slow and annoying for the most part, really draggin stuff out making you not want to go through some puzzles the intended way just due to how much playing with controller tanks it.
So I guess overall, Myst is an ok game for the Saturn, though, I don't really know why you would play this on Saturn and not on PC.
6/10
Played on a real American Sega Saturn with the Fenrir ODE
Myst knows how to truly immerse you quickly and efficiently. Even if you have a hard time getting into the puzzles and the general game loop, I think you'll appreciate how it feels.
On those puzzles though, they really vary in fun factor. Some of them are really easy, some are tricky nut actually fun to do and make you feel smart for accomplishing, and others make you drag out the ol' notebook. That's not necessarily bad but I wasn't exactly expecting it so I wasn't too happy about it.
This is a game you really need to play with the shuttle mouse (or on emulator with your regular PC mouse). Playing with the controller is just kind of slow and annoying for the most part, really draggin stuff out making you not want to go through some puzzles the intended way just due to how much playing with controller tanks it.
So I guess overall, Myst is an ok game for the Saturn, though, I don't really know why you would play this on Saturn and not on PC.
6/10
1995
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.
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.
1995
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
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 #011 - Street Fighter: The Movie
Played on a real American Sega Saturn with the Fenrir ODE
I have no idea what to say for this one. On one hand, it plays a lot like the later Street Fighter 2 revisions with a lot of the same characters, so people used to Street Fighter 2 will have an easy time adapting to this, and because those later revisions are good, this controls fine.
but on the other hand, I played this for like half an hour and had absolutely no fun. I tried out the story mode which forces you to play a guile and I just got my shit rocked by Balrog. I got better and better and understood the game more, sure, but it was like 5 hits and I'm down.
The graphics also look terrible, and that's not just because it's real people photographed and digitized. The arcade version of this game looks far better than this and this still uses a lot of the same sprites. However they're all way lower quality with less frames of animation and it really makes the Saturn look bad. Doesn't help that the backgrounds and UI look pretty bad too.
So if you're used to Street Fighter 2, you might get a kick out of it, though I wouldn't jump to saying that you will definitely have fun. You'll probably just see it as a "so bad it's good" kind of experience with your friends. If you're new to Street Fighter and are solo, stay away. I'd recommend jumping into 3rd Strike or the alpha series instead (and after all, the Saturn got ports of the alpha games).
5/10
Played on a real American Sega Saturn with the Fenrir ODE
I have no idea what to say for this one. On one hand, it plays a lot like the later Street Fighter 2 revisions with a lot of the same characters, so people used to Street Fighter 2 will have an easy time adapting to this, and because those later revisions are good, this controls fine.
but on the other hand, I played this for like half an hour and had absolutely no fun. I tried out the story mode which forces you to play a guile and I just got my shit rocked by Balrog. I got better and better and understood the game more, sure, but it was like 5 hits and I'm down.
The graphics also look terrible, and that's not just because it's real people photographed and digitized. The arcade version of this game looks far better than this and this still uses a lot of the same sprites. However they're all way lower quality with less frames of animation and it really makes the Saturn look bad. Doesn't help that the backgrounds and UI look pretty bad too.
So if you're used to Street Fighter 2, you might get a kick out of it, though I wouldn't jump to saying that you will definitely have fun. You'll probably just see it as a "so bad it's good" kind of experience with your friends. If you're new to Street Fighter and are solo, stay away. I'd recommend jumping into 3rd Strike or the alpha series instead (and after all, the Saturn got ports of the alpha games).
5/10
US Saturn Release #012 - Minnesota Fats: Pool Legend
Played on a real American Sega Saturn with the Fenrir ODE
There's really not much I can say about this game. It's a pool sim, and a functionally sound one at that. It is by no means graphically or sonically impressive, but I don't know why you'd be looking for something that "proves the Saturn's strength" in a pool simulation.
There's lots of little modes you can try out that are pretty entertaining. I'm not used to playing pool games so I started off just whackin' the ball around in training mode, getting more acclimated to how it all works. Then I jumped into the story mode for a bit until I got stuck on Diamond. I had a tough time with him but it was always pretty fun. It helps that the cutscenes are so bad they're laughably good.
So, throughout my admittedly short trial run, I had a good time. It wasn't anything stellar or mind-blowing, but it clearly wasn't meant to be. It's unimpressive for the Saturn, practically being a genesis game (and this was also dropped on the genesis), but that's not gonna be a deal breaker if the core gameplay has something fun in it. If you run into the opportunity to pick this game up at a low price, I'd go for it. It's sure to give you a good half hour to an hour of good fun, a great Saturn time-killer.
6/10
Played on a real American Sega Saturn with the Fenrir ODE
There's really not much I can say about this game. It's a pool sim, and a functionally sound one at that. It is by no means graphically or sonically impressive, but I don't know why you'd be looking for something that "proves the Saturn's strength" in a pool simulation.
There's lots of little modes you can try out that are pretty entertaining. I'm not used to playing pool games so I started off just whackin' the ball around in training mode, getting more acclimated to how it all works. Then I jumped into the story mode for a bit until I got stuck on Diamond. I had a tough time with him but it was always pretty fun. It helps that the cutscenes are so bad they're laughably good.
So, throughout my admittedly short trial run, I had a good time. It wasn't anything stellar or mind-blowing, but it clearly wasn't meant to be. It's unimpressive for the Saturn, practically being a genesis game (and this was also dropped on the genesis), but that's not gonna be a deal breaker if the core gameplay has something fun in it. If you run into the opportunity to pick this game up at a low price, I'd go for it. It's sure to give you a good half hour to an hour of good fun, a great Saturn time-killer.
6/10
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is probably the best retro remake I've ever played. Through every bit of the journey you can tell this project was constructed by people who love Wonder Boy to death because the original game is handled with immense care. I say it was handled with care because the original game is all here, mostly untouched. If anything, that should reveal just how amazing the original game is, and I'd have to admit it's my favorite Sega Master System game.
And that's the best part of it all. While the new art, arranged music, and various QoL updates are all wonderful in their own right, the added ability to strip all of it away and just play the original game is amazing. Extra amazing considering you can kind of toggle which new additions to keep and what to reduce to its original form. Through that, Wonder Boy is a complete gateway to the past built perfectly for newer audiences who might not be able to enjoy older games. The game blasts you with beautiful art, amazing music and immensely wonderful action gameplay and then says "guess what? the original game is just as amazing, come take a look!". Even if it can show some of the faulty parts of the original game, it's done with love. Through projects like these, all gamers can step back and appreciate what made old games amazing, and additionally take note of what held them back.
Wonder Boy lets its core gameplay shine through new and old. I hope my rambling made sense. If you're going to play any one Wonder Boy game, let it be this one (though you should really play every single one of them). Every video game remake should go the extra mile this game does to demonstrate absolutely everything amazing about its original game. I think we would all be better off that way.
10/10
And that's the best part of it all. While the new art, arranged music, and various QoL updates are all wonderful in their own right, the added ability to strip all of it away and just play the original game is amazing. Extra amazing considering you can kind of toggle which new additions to keep and what to reduce to its original form. Through that, Wonder Boy is a complete gateway to the past built perfectly for newer audiences who might not be able to enjoy older games. The game blasts you with beautiful art, amazing music and immensely wonderful action gameplay and then says "guess what? the original game is just as amazing, come take a look!". Even if it can show some of the faulty parts of the original game, it's done with love. Through projects like these, all gamers can step back and appreciate what made old games amazing, and additionally take note of what held them back.
Wonder Boy lets its core gameplay shine through new and old. I hope my rambling made sense. If you're going to play any one Wonder Boy game, let it be this one (though you should really play every single one of them). Every video game remake should go the extra mile this game does to demonstrate absolutely everything amazing about its original game. I think we would all be better off that way.
10/10
1995
US Saturn Release #013 - Virtual Hydlide
Played on a real American Sega Saturn with the Fenrir ODE
I played this game for 1 hour, which is definitely longer than anybody should be playing Virtual Hydlide. This game does practically everything wrong when it comes to action RPGs. Firstly, there's a clear over-emphasis on FMVs and digitized sprites which all look horrendous in-game. Second, the game absolutely chugs to a point where it's barely playable in literally every environment. Third, the combat is horrible in every way. It's hard to tell when you're close enough to attack an enemy and because you get put in a lot of tight corridors in the game, rotating yourself to attack your foes ends up getting the camera stuck in awkward positions where you can't quite see what you want to see. Even worse, your rotation speed is insanely slow, so it's easy for enemies to get pot shots at you while you're trying to rotate in the enemies direction. Forth, the controls are pretty awkward. Your player controls moreso like a tank rather than a person, so movement generally sucks. It's very easy to overshoot things both due to running speed and the horrendous framerate.
Evidently, the game runs into an infinite sum of problems that combine just right to make one of the worst playing games I've ever played, certainly the worst game I've played so far on the Saturn.
Onto specifics of my playthrough, I firstly appreciate that there's a unique world generator, but I have to admit it doesn't really matter much. You'll always get a compass pointing you directly to the next item/dungeon, so their locations don't really matter. Speaking of not mattering, I found out later on in my playthrough that you don't have to interact with any of the enemies because you only get points from them.
I stopped playing once I applied a cursed item by accident and it prevented me from putting on the spectacles which are required for the ruins level. Not necessarily a softlock, as I'm pretty sure there's a shop for me to purchase an item to remove the cursed item, but this shouldn't even be a problem in the first place. The idea of not knowing what an item is when you find it and it possibly being a cursed item you can't remove is immensely annoying.
Don't play this game. Just watch the GDQ run and have a laugh that way. Don't actually play it.
2/10
Played on a real American Sega Saturn with the Fenrir ODE
I played this game for 1 hour, which is definitely longer than anybody should be playing Virtual Hydlide. This game does practically everything wrong when it comes to action RPGs. Firstly, there's a clear over-emphasis on FMVs and digitized sprites which all look horrendous in-game. Second, the game absolutely chugs to a point where it's barely playable in literally every environment. Third, the combat is horrible in every way. It's hard to tell when you're close enough to attack an enemy and because you get put in a lot of tight corridors in the game, rotating yourself to attack your foes ends up getting the camera stuck in awkward positions where you can't quite see what you want to see. Even worse, your rotation speed is insanely slow, so it's easy for enemies to get pot shots at you while you're trying to rotate in the enemies direction. Forth, the controls are pretty awkward. Your player controls moreso like a tank rather than a person, so movement generally sucks. It's very easy to overshoot things both due to running speed and the horrendous framerate.
Evidently, the game runs into an infinite sum of problems that combine just right to make one of the worst playing games I've ever played, certainly the worst game I've played so far on the Saturn.
Onto specifics of my playthrough, I firstly appreciate that there's a unique world generator, but I have to admit it doesn't really matter much. You'll always get a compass pointing you directly to the next item/dungeon, so their locations don't really matter. Speaking of not mattering, I found out later on in my playthrough that you don't have to interact with any of the enemies because you only get points from them.
I stopped playing once I applied a cursed item by accident and it prevented me from putting on the spectacles which are required for the ruins level. Not necessarily a softlock, as I'm pretty sure there's a shop for me to purchase an item to remove the cursed item, but this shouldn't even be a problem in the first place. The idea of not knowing what an item is when you find it and it possibly being a cursed item you can't remove is immensely annoying.
Don't play this game. Just watch the GDQ run and have a laugh that way. Don't actually play it.
2/10
1995
US Saturn Release #014 - Cyber Speedway
Played on a real American Sega Saturn with the Fenrir ODE
It's sad really. Cyber Speedway feels like it's so close to being a really good and worthwhile Saturn title, but it just isn't quite all there.
Cyber Speedway is quite obviously an F-Zero clone. Now, I don't want to say "clone" as if that's immediately a bad thing. If you're making a racing title, F-Zero is not a bad game to ape a bit. It's just kind of a hard game to stand alongside. I think it's mostly a result of boring tracks. Some of the starter courses in standard mode were pretty okay, the first one in particular did a good job of acclimating me to the honestly satisfying boost controls. However as you keep going a lot of the courses go for a rather narrow, claustrophobic approach. F-Zero did this too, but I think that game did it a lot more gracefully, because it felt like that game had more up its sleave for uniquely challenging tracks. Here, it feels like "narrow races" is the only thing that's here for real challenge, so a lot of tracks kinda mesh together in my head into a grey mush of nothingness.
Thankfully, the controls for racing are pretty good. As I mentioned, I do like how boosting works for tighter turns. It all felt natural to work with. Even on the blandest of tracks it's still a little fun to race around. Though, that's about all I can really say for positives.
The presentation in this game is laughably poor. Poor to a point that it doesn't feel like a finished product. Cutscenes are essentially 1 background with 1 poorly drawn character placed on top with maybe some voice changers thrown in for aliens. Thankfully that means the cutscenes can be very funny, but they're also very boring at their worst. Thankfully you can skip all of them if you really want. I did appreciate my helper telling me what engines, brakes, and steering types I could use, but at the same time it feels like directly telling me what to go with was kind of trivializing an interesting system. The customization could have been a lot more fun if I wasn't told exactly what was best.
Lastly and honestly the thing of least note here, I don't really like the music. It just wasn't for me. That's about it.
You can't be hurt by it if you find it out in the wild for cheap, but I really don't recommend looking for this game. It's not anything amazing, just kind of an average title with a couple moments of fun here and there. Sadly easily skippable.
6/10
Played on a real American Sega Saturn with the Fenrir ODE
It's sad really. Cyber Speedway feels like it's so close to being a really good and worthwhile Saturn title, but it just isn't quite all there.
Cyber Speedway is quite obviously an F-Zero clone. Now, I don't want to say "clone" as if that's immediately a bad thing. If you're making a racing title, F-Zero is not a bad game to ape a bit. It's just kind of a hard game to stand alongside. I think it's mostly a result of boring tracks. Some of the starter courses in standard mode were pretty okay, the first one in particular did a good job of acclimating me to the honestly satisfying boost controls. However as you keep going a lot of the courses go for a rather narrow, claustrophobic approach. F-Zero did this too, but I think that game did it a lot more gracefully, because it felt like that game had more up its sleave for uniquely challenging tracks. Here, it feels like "narrow races" is the only thing that's here for real challenge, so a lot of tracks kinda mesh together in my head into a grey mush of nothingness.
Thankfully, the controls for racing are pretty good. As I mentioned, I do like how boosting works for tighter turns. It all felt natural to work with. Even on the blandest of tracks it's still a little fun to race around. Though, that's about all I can really say for positives.
The presentation in this game is laughably poor. Poor to a point that it doesn't feel like a finished product. Cutscenes are essentially 1 background with 1 poorly drawn character placed on top with maybe some voice changers thrown in for aliens. Thankfully that means the cutscenes can be very funny, but they're also very boring at their worst. Thankfully you can skip all of them if you really want. I did appreciate my helper telling me what engines, brakes, and steering types I could use, but at the same time it feels like directly telling me what to go with was kind of trivializing an interesting system. The customization could have been a lot more fun if I wasn't told exactly what was best.
Lastly and honestly the thing of least note here, I don't really like the music. It just wasn't for me. That's about it.
You can't be hurt by it if you find it out in the wild for cheap, but I really don't recommend looking for this game. It's not anything amazing, just kind of an average title with a couple moments of fun here and there. Sadly easily skippable.
6/10
1995
US Saturn Release #015 - Shinobi Legions
Played on a real American Sega Saturn with the Fenrir ODE
It's truly unfortunate that this game so overlooked nowadays. I mean, I kind of understand it to an extent. There's some poorly designed segments later on. The digitized graphics are a serious step down compared to Shinobi 3, and you could do so much more with the Saturn for a shinobi game with Shinobi 3 as context. It plays completely differently to Revenge of Shinobi and Shinobi 3. I think that's the main reason this game isn't remembered as fondly. Saturn owners would have expected a game that played more like the genesis titles and looked as impressive, and that's not what they got. Indeed, this game does pale in comparison. However, standing on its own, this is a great action game.
This game focuses more on your sword rather than your shuriken, and thankfully the swordplay has plenty of depth. You have quite a lot of different options, like double jump screw attacks, 2 different air swings, deflecting projectiles back at your opponents, blocking, dash attacks, you name it. It's not exactly like the genesis games, but there's still the focus on tempering your own skills against tough opponents and levels.
Unfortunately there definitely are bad levels. I stopped playing at stage 7, which has you jumping from boat to boat against ninjas that can easily knock you in the drink. It's usually fine because you can block, but sometimes a ninja would pop up mid-jump and knock you in after a big jump, and I think that's just horrible.
Though, I did enjoy pretty much every other level. The cave level was a little annoying to get used to but the level sprinkles you with blue orbs (10 give you an extra life) so its a little balanced out. Additionally it's followed up by a super fun elevator section.
So I guess to sum it up, no, this is not nearly as good as the genesis shinobi games, but that doesn't mean this is a bad action game. I really enjoyed my time with it, and will continue to play it in the future. Definitely grab this one if you can (try to play the European version, Shinobi X, if you can. It has a soundtrack more in style with revenge of shinobi).
7/10
Played on a real American Sega Saturn with the Fenrir ODE
It's truly unfortunate that this game so overlooked nowadays. I mean, I kind of understand it to an extent. There's some poorly designed segments later on. The digitized graphics are a serious step down compared to Shinobi 3, and you could do so much more with the Saturn for a shinobi game with Shinobi 3 as context. It plays completely differently to Revenge of Shinobi and Shinobi 3. I think that's the main reason this game isn't remembered as fondly. Saturn owners would have expected a game that played more like the genesis titles and looked as impressive, and that's not what they got. Indeed, this game does pale in comparison. However, standing on its own, this is a great action game.
This game focuses more on your sword rather than your shuriken, and thankfully the swordplay has plenty of depth. You have quite a lot of different options, like double jump screw attacks, 2 different air swings, deflecting projectiles back at your opponents, blocking, dash attacks, you name it. It's not exactly like the genesis games, but there's still the focus on tempering your own skills against tough opponents and levels.
Unfortunately there definitely are bad levels. I stopped playing at stage 7, which has you jumping from boat to boat against ninjas that can easily knock you in the drink. It's usually fine because you can block, but sometimes a ninja would pop up mid-jump and knock you in after a big jump, and I think that's just horrible.
Though, I did enjoy pretty much every other level. The cave level was a little annoying to get used to but the level sprinkles you with blue orbs (10 give you an extra life) so its a little balanced out. Additionally it's followed up by a super fun elevator section.
So I guess to sum it up, no, this is not nearly as good as the genesis shinobi games, but that doesn't mean this is a bad action game. I really enjoyed my time with it, and will continue to play it in the future. Definitely grab this one if you can (try to play the European version, Shinobi X, if you can. It has a soundtrack more in style with revenge of shinobi).
7/10
US Saturn Release #016 - Shanghai: Triple Threat
Played on a real American Sega Saturn with the Fenrir ODE
To be honest, there's really not a lot to say here. Shanghai: Triple Threat is just a simple little puzzle board game. It's not exceptional in any way, it's just kind of ok. It can be fun, but not for a very long time. It's a good time waster but not much else.
While overall I enjoyed playing it for the brief time I did, there are some problems. Firstly, not a big fan of the music. It just kinda droned on and annoyed me more than anything. Secondly, throughout the various piece styles, there are always pieces that don't look quite like each other but do indeed match (which is awful for a game centered around matching tiles). I'm not sure if this has anything to do with the base game this is trying to emulate or not, or if this is a problem with this specific version. Thirdly, it can be difficult to tell what every tile is at a glance. Some can easily be obscured by tiles on a higher tier. Theoretically this could have been solved by making the whole board of pieces 3D, and have it possible to rotate the board for better viewing angles, but that's easier said than done. Either way, I think this is evidently the kind of game that's not supposed to be a big amazing hit, just a small little thing that's easy to port and will sell some good copies. They probably didn't want to over-complicate the coding process.
I could also add that this is definitely a game you should play with the Sega Saturn shuttle mouse if you can, but moving the curser around with the regular controller is no issue. It just could be much smoother and faster with the mouse.
So it's nothing horrible at all, but it's noting special at all either. It's a good cheap pick-up but don't expect to get that much time and investment with it.
6/10
Played on a real American Sega Saturn with the Fenrir ODE
To be honest, there's really not a lot to say here. Shanghai: Triple Threat is just a simple little puzzle board game. It's not exceptional in any way, it's just kind of ok. It can be fun, but not for a very long time. It's a good time waster but not much else.
While overall I enjoyed playing it for the brief time I did, there are some problems. Firstly, not a big fan of the music. It just kinda droned on and annoyed me more than anything. Secondly, throughout the various piece styles, there are always pieces that don't look quite like each other but do indeed match (which is awful for a game centered around matching tiles). I'm not sure if this has anything to do with the base game this is trying to emulate or not, or if this is a problem with this specific version. Thirdly, it can be difficult to tell what every tile is at a glance. Some can easily be obscured by tiles on a higher tier. Theoretically this could have been solved by making the whole board of pieces 3D, and have it possible to rotate the board for better viewing angles, but that's easier said than done. Either way, I think this is evidently the kind of game that's not supposed to be a big amazing hit, just a small little thing that's easy to port and will sell some good copies. They probably didn't want to over-complicate the coding process.
I could also add that this is definitely a game you should play with the Sega Saturn shuttle mouse if you can, but moving the curser around with the regular controller is no issue. It just could be much smoother and faster with the mouse.
So it's nothing horrible at all, but it's noting special at all either. It's a good cheap pick-up but don't expect to get that much time and investment with it.
6/10
1995
US Saturn Release #017 - NHL All-Star Hockey
Played on a real American Sega Saturn with the Fenrir ODE
I'm not knowledgeable about Hockey at all, but I can understand the basics. This game feels broken when you're playing it. I studied up on the controls through the help screen, but getting into the actual game, nothing felt right. About the only thing that felt like it consistently worked was switching players on the ice. Shooting and passing never did what I expected it to, so most of the game was spent just moving around and eventually getting pummeled by the opposite team. I could block my own goal but I couldn't get anything to work for the other players so it was essentially the stalemate from hell.
I'd avoid this one even if you're a hockey guy. It just doesn't feel like this game even works. Of course, having the real players, the real teams, and the real stats is cool for people who like hockey, but it doesn't feel like you can do anything with that information when you get into the game.
3/10
Played on a real American Sega Saturn with the Fenrir ODE
I'm not knowledgeable about Hockey at all, but I can understand the basics. This game feels broken when you're playing it. I studied up on the controls through the help screen, but getting into the actual game, nothing felt right. About the only thing that felt like it consistently worked was switching players on the ice. Shooting and passing never did what I expected it to, so most of the game was spent just moving around and eventually getting pummeled by the opposite team. I could block my own goal but I couldn't get anything to work for the other players so it was essentially the stalemate from hell.
I'd avoid this one even if you're a hockey guy. It just doesn't feel like this game even works. Of course, having the real players, the real teams, and the real stats is cool for people who like hockey, but it doesn't feel like you can do anything with that information when you get into the game.
3/10