25 years ago, our favorite Japanese gaming giant launched what would end up being its’ most successful console in its’ native market, and it did so with five titles available for purchase on day one. Only two of the five would see release outside of Japan. On the 25th anniversary, we thought it would be fun to look back at the games that debuted on the 22nd of November, 1994. Saturn gaming had arrived!
Virtua Fighter
This was it – the launch day killer app. The arcade cabinet had taken Japan by storm and created a legion of players hungry for a system that would feature a home conversion, and SEGA delivered. Saturn games did not come with a pack-in title in Japan, yet copies of Virtua Fighter moved nearly one to one with each Saturn system sold.
The game was graphically somewhat buggy, with polygon tearing on both the character models as well as on the ring, especially in replay modes. Further, the game moved at a respectable-but-reduced 30 frames per second, which was half the speed of the arcade. On the plus side, it featured a solid soundtrack by SEGA house band B-Univ that came over to Saturn in redbook format and, critically, the game played very faithfully to the arcade version.
Featuring eight fighters each with a substantial set of moves based on real martial arts, the game allows either a one player assault against all comers, or a two player versus mode where two humans attempt to master each character’s strengths and nuances to overcome their opponent. Eventually, a Ranking Mode is also unlocked. The game is balanced well, plays quickly, and has a good amount of depth. There is a very addictive quality to it.
Although superseded by later Saturn fighters, this title is widely credited with launching the Saturn into early prominence (some would say near-dominance) in what would be a solid 6+ year lifespan in Japan. Overall launch score: A, for Awesome. SEGA couldn’t have planned for a launch title to do better for the console than Virtua Fighter did.
Every single Saturn that SEGA of Japan had on hand [for the launch] sold within two days.
Sam Pettus on the Saturn’s launch success in Japan thanks to Virtua Fighter, “Kamikaze Console: Saturn and the Fall of SEGA”
Fun Fact: This is the game that spawned the infamous Yu Suzuki quote that working with one processor would have been preferable to a multi-core architecture, and that only the best programmers would be able to harness the Saturn’s true power.
Myst
Apart from Virtua Fighter, this was the only other launch title to make its way Stateside. Myst was hardly Saturn exclusive, having appeared on virtually all platforms known to man by this point, yet SunSoft handled the port and ensured a Nov 22, 1994 release. The Saturn version is rumored to be one of the weakest ports of the game but this is not much of a factor, because the game is essentially a slideshow with sparse, small bits of FMW movement and the occasional piece of music or sound effect. One of the early point-and-click adventures which took advantage of the CD-ROM storage medium to represent rendered graphics.
The game, which we featured here, follows the story of a traveler sucked into the worlds of Myst. In order to effect his escape, he must solve the riddles of the island with only obscure clues as to what to do next. This game was very high-concept for its’ time, featuring no regular gaming conventions such as hit points or enemies. In fact, it is not possible to die in Myst! As the adventure progresses, the traveler uncovers more of the story of Myst, and is ultimately faced with a choice of which of two imprisoned brothers to free.
Not a title to show off the 3D strengths of the Saturn; instead, this was a bona fide bestseller that received a good port and was able to showcase the Saturn’s advanced resolution and color palette abilities. Oh, and it is compatible with the Saturn Mouse! Overall score: B, for Bretty Good (oh I know! Just roll with it).
Fun Fact: Myst would end up being the highest selling CD-ROM game of all time (across all platforms), an accolade it held until 2002!
Tama: Adventurous Ball in Giddy Labyrinth
Time Warner Interactive joined the launch lineup with Tama, the only other polygon-based game available on Day One for the Saturn aside from Virtua Fighter. The game is a take on the old plastic maze-and-ball toys from yesteryear, and just like in real life, the player controls the tilt (and in this case, the zoom) of the board rather than controlling the ball itself. There is a very Japanese story attached to the game, where the player must guide his ball through various lands before making it to the end.
Each world is themed (forest, ice, desert etc.) and each world contains several boards to clear. Initially simple, the boards evolve to include doors which must be unlocked, traps, holes, ramps, and pressure pads. Combine these obstacles with a time limit and the game becomes surprisingly challenging, often venturing into ‘frustrating’ territory. Still, with the challenge level high and nothing overly complicated in terms of gameplay (truly, all the player can do is tilt the board and zoom in/out for a better view), there is a ‘just one more try’ immediacy to the game.
This is not a bad game, but people were not snapping up Saturns on launch day in order to play Tama. This is a good secondary purchase, showing some interesting gameplay and nice, if simple, 3D handling. Overall score: C, for Charming.
Fun fact: ‘Tama’ is the Japanese word for ‘ball’.
Mahjong Goku Tenjiku
Developed by Chat Noir and published by Electronic Arts, this game began life as a 3DO title in Japan before being ported to a variety of systems, Saturn included. Truly a game that has a uniquely Japanese appeal, this is a Mahjong game with a variety of anime avatars, from pigs to birds to humans, because, reasons! The graphics are very simple yet adequate for this type of game. The sound is utterly atrocious (think GameBoy sound effects – beeps and bops, nothing else), so much so that one must wonder what went horribly wrong here. Not much more to say about the title: it does its’ job reasonably well as a Mahjong game, and 99% of Western Saturn players would (probably rightly) not give this game even five minutes.
Pick it up if you’re a Mahjong fan who likes to see a game use only 3% of the Saturn’s power! Otherwise, move along… Final score: D, for Dastardly. The game itself isn’t bad, however it does nothing that couldn’t have been done on the previous two generations of hardware. Mahjong may indeed be popular in Japan, but no consumer needed to spend ¥44,800 for a new console, just to play it.
Fun Fact: The game was also a Japanese launch title for the Sony PlayStation, and is heralded as the game that took Sony straight to the top (OK, I made that last part up).
WanChai Connection
Micronet put this game together. Set in the Hong Kong district of Wan Chai, it is a quasi-FMV detective game. A body of a young woman washes ashore, and as a member of the “Research Bureau Headquarters”, you must solve the mystery.
Gameplay consists of selecting where to go next by picking from several tiles with pictures of destinations of them, then watching videos as your detective ‘goes there’ and ‘does things’. For example, selecting going to the shore where the woman washed up plays a video of the detective checking the area out, then finding a small fruit that is not local to the area. Hmmm. How did the fruit get there? With this clue, where to go next? There are occasional interactions with people and you are presented with choices (ask again, press for more information, etc.), all part of clue gathering.
Set across two discs, this is an interesting diversion but absolutely not suitable for non-Japanese speakers. If anything, it is a good cultural snapshot of the time in which it was created, as the videos (clothes people are wearing, cars people are driving) gives you a sense of the Wan Chai region circa the mid 1990s. Overall score: B, for Binteresting (YOU try to come up with contextually suitable adjectives that start with B!).
Fun Fact: the game was initially titled Chinese Detective.
There they are: the five games that kicked off the Saturn’s complicated run in the pantheon of gaming consoles. Certainly a lineup well suited to Eastern gaming tastes what with a Mah-Jong and a Hong Kong detective game. As expected, Virtua Fighter proved to be the killer app that propelled the Saturn to the lead over all other 5th generation machines. For a few brief, beautiful months, the Saturn was the pinnacle of the gaming landscape, both in terms of sales and gameplay experiences. The eventual tumultuous life-cycle of the machine is infamous, but on this, the 25th anniversary of the platform’s launch, let us celebrate the Saturn as the little grey (black, white, etc.) box that brought us exciting new gameplay experiences and continues to bring retro gamers together to this day.
SEGA Saturn – this is cool!
Party like it’s 1994!
There were only three other titles released on the Saturn in 1994, bringing the machine’s inaugural year’s total to eight. It is worth remembering that the Saturn was only available in Japan in 1994, and then for only the last 40 days of the calendar year. 1994 was a transformative year in the industry; SEGA of America launched the 32X, Nintendo debuted Donkey Kong Country, and Sony unleashed the original PlayStation in the Japanese market. The winds of change were blowing in full, and the sails of the good ship Saturn looked thus:
1994.11.22: Virtua Fighter (SEGA-AM2), Mahjong Goku Tenjiku (Electronic Arts-Chat Noir), Tama: Adventurous Ball in Giddy Labyrinth (Time Warner Interactive), WanChai Connection (SEGA-Micronet), Myst (SunSoft)
1994.12.02: The Mansion of Hidden Souls (SEGA-System Sacom), Gale Racer (SEGA-CS)
1994.12.09: Clockwork Knight (SEGA-CS)
Factoids: final releases per territory, first party and third party
If these were the launch titles, what were the final releases for the Saturn in each major territory?
Japan First Party: Segata Sanshiro Shinken Yugi, 1998.10.29. Sweetly, the last first-party Saturn game in Japan came out in late 1998. The firm had pointed all resources to Dreamcast development, and all following Saturn titles were third-party.
Japan Third Party: Yuukyuu Gensoukyoku: Perpetual Collection (MediaWorks), 2000.12.07. There were only three Saturn titles released in 2000, and two of them (this one included) were special box sets of previously released games. The only original title released in 2000 was Final Fight Revenge, in March of 2000.
Time between first and last releases in Japan: 6 years 0 months 16 days
America First Party: Shining Force III, 1998.07.31. This was the swan song for the North American market. Sadly, the remaining scenarios would never be officially translated and released, although fan-made patches exist.
America Third Party: Magic Knight Rayearth (Working Designs), 1998.11.30. A title that, incredibly, was part of the very first batch of announced Saturn games ever, it was finally released in North America after an arduous localization period.
Time between first (1995.05.11) and last release in North America: 3 years 6 months 20 days
Europe First Party: Deep Fear, 1998.09.18. It is interesting to note that whilst the Saturn lasted much longer in Japan than anywhere else in the world, both America and Europe would release their last first party games after the last Japanese first party title.
Europe Third Party: World League Soccer ’98 (Silicon Dreams), 1998.06.05. The only Saturn football (Soccer) game to run in high resolution, this beauty was a European exclusive.
Time between first (1995.07.08) and last release in Europe: 3 years 2 months 11 days
Length of time that Saturn games were available at retail, in days: Japan 2208 days, America 1300 days, Europe 1169 days.
A Saturn fan since the beginning, Peter plays Saturn almost exclusively. For Peter, Saturn represents a moment in time where 2D games were at their best, 3D was just rising, and fascinating gaming ‘firsts’ were commonplace. There are very few Saturn games that Peter cannot find some enjoyment in!
Excellent round up of day one. VF was so ahead of everything. I think mysy, mahjong and fmv sum up what happened to most of the Saturn library. So many Japanese movie/picture type games. Excellent article
Wachenröder was the last Sega game in Japan.
Hmmm I think you’re right! Seems to have come out a month after Deep Fear. I’ll have to update the article. Thank you!
I did a bit more research and it seems I was way off on Deep Fear. Wachenroder did indeed come out a few weeks after Deep Fear, but there were other first-party titles that followed, including Shining Force 3 Scenario 3, SEGA AGES I love Mickey Mouse / I love Donald Duck, Sonic 3D Flickies Island (it was so much later in Japan than elsewhere), and finally, the last Japanese first-party release: Segata Sanshiro Shinken Yugi. That brings a tear to my eye.
Document updated!
Shining Force 3 was indeed a second party title. And those other titles are not new games at all.
In fact, AM1-AM3’s efforts for Saturn ended during the second half of 1997. The CS divisions followed and most of their works finished before the unveil of Saturn. Sega abandoned Saturn quite quickly. Deep Fear and Wachenroder were the last few games for summer 1998.