Articles by Peter Malek

Spotlight

Guardian Heroes #BestOfSaturn

SHIRO! SHOW Recap A side-scrolling beat-em-up cult classic, Treasure’s Guardian Heroes lit the Saturn up in 1996. Featuring RPG-like stat gains at the end of each level, branching paths, multiple…

Spotlight

Rayman #BestOfSaturn

SHIRO! SHOW Recap Criminally ignored at launch because it wasn’t 3D, Michel Ancel’s Rayman is an exquisite platformer that looks the business. Coupled with an awesome Rémi Gazel soundtrack and…

Spotlight

Worms #BestOfSaturn

SHIRO! SHOW Recap Team 17’s Worms is an artillery game – using physics and aim to try and destroy the opposing team’s worms. Featuring plenty of maps, versus and league…

Spotlight

Vandal Hearts #BestOfSaturn

Recently translated to English (2020), Vandal Hearts is an isometric, turn-based strategy RPG. Take control of the valiant Ash Lambert and company and lead the resistance against Ishtarian rule… only,…

Spotlight

Courier Crisis #BestOfSaturn

SHIRO! SHOW Recap Before there was Crazy Taxi, there was Courier Crisis. You’re a biker, picking up and delivering documents in various locales. Avoid cars and pedestrians and complete your…

Spotlight

Virtual On #BestOfSaturn

Virtual On is a one-on-one mech game. Faithfully ported to the Saturn from the arcades, the game is best controlled with SEGA’s fantastic Twin Sticks for the authentic arcade experience….

SHIRO Shorts!

SHIRO! Shorts: Heads of Saturn

SHIRO! Shorts is a series of tiny articles focusing on various aspects of the Saturn Universe. SEGA’s North American ads during the Genesis era were edgy and routinely featured various…

Spotlight

Steam-Heart’s #BestOfSaturn

Combining two genres the Saturn is famous for, Steam-Heart’s is a Japan-only shmup featuring various erotic scenes as the game progresses. The world has fallen prey to a virus infecting…

Spotlight

Clockwork Knight #BestOfSaturn

Pepperauchu was SEGA’s first mascot for the Saturn! Play as the titular Clockwork Knight and attempt to rescue Princess Chelsea in this platforming adventure. Solid gameplay, a surprisingly good soundtrack,…

Editorial

Saturn Link-up Play

Let’s Play Together! Reflecting SEGA’s build-anything, arcade-rich 90s heritage, the Saturn boasts a plethora of hardware expansion options that enhance the end-user experience. Complimenting a healthy number of mainstream accessories…

Editorial

Shining Force 3 Begins

When Time Grows Short… 1998 would be remembered as one of the most fertile years for revolutionary gaming experiences… but not, at first glance, for western Saturn fans. With SEGA’s…

Editorial

Secrets of the Floppy Disk Drive

Updated August 2023 Show me Door #3! The Floppy Disk Drive remains one of the more obscure, misunderstood, and underdeveloped pieces of SEGA Saturn hardware ever released. A SEGA-branded external…

Editorial

Saturn Lands in America!

… and skids off the runway 11 May, 1995 marked the opening day of a brand new, annual industry event – the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3. Here, companies big…

Editorial

Grid Runner

Living off the Grid B-sides. In the days of records and cassettes, these were the lesser, lower-end, ‘secondary’ tracks of an artist’s album. The idea was to have the best…

Editorial

The Congo Conundrum

We are now a quarter century past the launch and all-too-brief lifespan of our beloved SEGA Saturn. That’s long enough that, shockingly, there is a cross-section of Saturn fans that…

Community

PRGE 2019 Round-up

Greetings, fellow Saturn aficionados! A quick report on the 2019 edition of the Portland Retro Gaming Expo (PRGE) which took place this October 18-20 at the Oregon Convention Center in…