Table of Contents
About
I started compiling information on titles that were related or similar to Saturn games over a decade ago and never really stopped. My original intention was to film gameplay footage of some of these for my YouTube channel, but that ship has long since sailed at this point. Anyway, it would be a shame for all that work to go to waste, and seeing as how most other lists of this sort are either a bit crap or outright AI-generated garbage, I figure it’s worth making it publicly available.
If anyone out there would like to help further build this list, there’s a roadmap below of games and franchises that I’ve yet to add along with research notes. Contact me via Twitter.
Changelog
June 11, 2025
- Added tables for 3D Lemmings; Actua Golf / VR Golf ’97; Actua Soccer / VR Soccer; Antarctic Adventure (Franchise); Athletic Land / Wanpaku Athletic (Konami Antiques); Ayrton Senna Personal Talk: Message for the Future; Batman Forever: The Arcade Game; Chisato Moritaka: Watarasebashi / Lala Sunshine; Comic Bakery / Pompokopan (Konami Antiques); Conveni, The (Franchise); Creature Shock; Cubic Gallery; Culdcept; Dino Island; Edo City Renaissance; Eyeful Home; Feng Shui Master; Game Basic for SegaSaturn; Gekirindan; Gouketsuji Clan (Franchise); Guardian Force; Gun.Smoke (Capcom Generation, Vol. 4); Heim Waltz; King’s Valley (Konami Antiques); Knightmare / Majou Densetsu (Konami Antiques); Kururin Pa! (Franchise); Langrisser (Franchise); Magical Tree (Konami Antiques); Media ROMancer Daisuke Asakura; Message Navi (Franchise); Mopiranger (Konami Antiques); Noon; Pict Flash Dondon; Pippols (Konami Antiques); QuackShot (Sega Ages); Real Sound (Franchise); Revolution X; Samurai (SAMS, Vol. 2); Sega Saturn de Hakken!!; SonSon (Capcom Generation, Vol. 3); Star Bowling, The (Franchise); Tamagotchi Park; Ten Pin Alley; Tenchi wo Kurau II: Sekiheki no Tatakai; Terra Cresta 3D; Texthoth Ludo: Arcana Senki; Touryuu Densetsu Elan Doreé; Tower, The; Wolf of the Battlefield (Franchise); X-Multiply; and Yumimi Mix Remix
- Merged Purikura Daisakusen table into new Gouketsuji Clan (Franchise) table
- Added Target: Terror to the Area 51 and Maximum Force tables
- Added mobile version of Battle Garegga to the Battle Garegga table
- Added a mobile version of Fantastic Night Dreams: Cotton, Magical Pachinko Cotton, Witch ‘Em Up to the Cotton (Franchise) table
- Added Senko no Ronde 2 to the Cyber Troopers Virtual-On table
- Added Segata Sanshirou Shinkenyuugi to the Decathlete / Athlete Kings (Franchise) table
- Added Darius Ocean along w/ PC-8K and mobile versions of Deep Scan to Deep Scan table
- Added Cool Riders, Delisoba Gold (Tokyo Friend Park II DS), Delisoba Gold (Tokyo Friend Park II: Perfect!), and Ramen Crisis to the Delisoba Deluxe table
- Added a mobile version of Don’t Pull to the Don’t Pull (Wonder 3: Arcade Gears) table
- Added two mobile versions of DDPL to the Doki Doki Penguin Land table
- Added Elevator Action DX, Elevator Action: Episode-ZERO, Elevator Action Real, and Elevator Action Real 2: Ghost Hunter to the Elevator Action (Franchise) table
- Added Classic Collection; Game no Kanzume, Vol. 1; Game no Kanzume Otokuyou; and Wondermega Collection to the Flicky table
- Added Rad Rally to the Gale Racer table
- Added Buta-san, Tatakae Buta-san, Exerion, Exerion II: Zorni, Exerion DX, Final Exerion, Field Combat, Field Combat DX, Formation Z, Formation Z DX, FZ: Formation Z, Momoko 120%, Momoko 1200%, Momoko 1200% in Machigai Sagashi, Momoko no Kasei Bowling: La Mars Cup, Plus Alpha, and Plus Beta to the Game Tengoku: The Game Paradise table
- Added mobile ports of Ghouls ‘n Ghosts and Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, GnG minigame Ko Maikamura, three unreleased Ghosts ‘n Goblins titles, Ghost’n Zombies, GladMort, and Knight ‘n More to the Ghosts ‘n Goblins / Maikamura (Franchise) table
- Added Tatakae! Big Fighter to the Hyper Duel table
- Added Sengoku Blade, Taisen Hot Gimmick, THG Kairakuten, and THG 4 Ever to Gunbird table
- Added Image Fight & X-Multiply, Irem Collection, R-Type Final, R-Type Final 2, R-Type Final 3 Evolved, Shuyaku Sentai Irem Fighter, and War of Aero: Project MEIOU to the Image Fight table
- Added MoonStriker to the Layer Section (Franchise) table
- Added Hyperdimension Neptune vs Sega Hard Girls and LINEAR S to the Miscellaneous table
- Added a fan remake to the Motteke Tamago w/ Gunbare! Kamonohashi table
- Added Neon Genesis Evangelion: Eva and Good Friends – The Stripping Instrumentality Project, two mobile ports of Neon Genesis Evangelion: Girlfriend of Steel, and the PC version of Yoshiyuki Sadamoto Illustrations to the Neon Genesis Evangelion (Franchise) table
- Added Xmas Lemmings to the NiGHTS into Dreams table
- Added a mobile version of Ninja Princess to the Ninja Princess (SAMS, Vol. 2) table
- Added fangames Javascript Pseudo 3D Racer and OutRun 4K to the OutRun (Sega Ages) table
- Added Ice Muncher to the Pengo table
- Added mobile vers. of Pirate Ship Higemaru and Higemaru Makaijima to the PS Higemaru table
- Added Coaster Race to the Power Drift (Sega Ages) table
- Added arcade version of Rabbit to the Rabbit table
- Added Hellbound Rampage and a Flash version of Rampage to the Rampage World Tour table
- Added Sega Rally: First Stage, Sega Rally: Next Stage, and Sega Touring Car Championship to the Sega Rally Championship table
- Added arcade and Windows versions of STCC to the Sega Touring Car Championship table
- Added mobile ver. of Mahou Daisakusen to the Shippuu Mahou Daisakusen / Kingdom GP table
- Added Hai no Majutsushi, JPP Wrestling ’96: MV, Snatcher Pilot DS to the Snatcher table
- Added EX-Terra and a mobile version of Soukyuugurentai to the Soukyuugurentai table
- Added Son of Space Harrier to the Space Harrier (Sega Ages) table
- Added Tac/Scan to the Star Jacker table
- Added Chase H.Q. 3D to the Taito Chase H.Q. Plus S.C.I. table
- Added Tama-Run to the Tama: Adventurous Ball in Giddy Labyrinth table
- Added Flash port of Tempest and fangame Tempest 1000 to the Tempest (Franchise) table
- Added Broken Thunder and Segagaga R-720 with SYRINX to the Thunder Force (Franchise) table
- Added Windows version of Time Gal HD Remaster to Time Gal table
- Added Calcolo! and TSS Gaiden: Twin Star Memories to the Twinkle Star Sprites table
- Added Shenmue III to the Virtua Fighter (Franchise Table)
- Added Tomoyasu Hotei: Stolen Song to the X Japan: Virtual Shock 001 table
- Fixed the anchor link for titles beginning w/ the letter “D”
Roadmap
This is a list of Saturn titles I’ve yet to add to the directory along with criteria for similar games.
| TO ADD | SEARCH PARAMETERS & NOTES | STATUS |
|---|---|---|
| 194X (Franchise) | Capcom’s 194X games inspired a ton of WWII-themed shmups. Its first three entries in the series are set in the Pacific Theater and remain somewhat more grounded in reality than later entries, so those two points could potentially serve as limiting factors for determining what qualifies for this table if the list gets too long. | Medium priority |
| 3×3 Eyes: Kyuusei Koushu S | ||
| 6 Inch My Darling | ||
| Advanced V.G. | I’d like to find some other fighters like this with all-female rosters and similar mechanics without falling into the trap of just rattling off every game in a subgenre. IIRC, the more unique aspect of AVG’s theme has something to do with the girls all being waitresses, but I seriously doubt any other fighter before or since has done that, lol. | Low priority |
| Advanced World War: The Rise & Fall of the Thousand Year Reich | ||
| Air Management ’96 | ||
| Airs Adventure | ||
| Albert Odyssey [Gaiden]: Legend of Eldean | ||
| Album Club: Mune Kyun Saint Paulia Jogakuin | There’s a bit more going on here, but this is essentially Virtua Photo Studio minus the outright nudity. The only challenge here will be determining how much of the VPS table to copy over. | High priority |
| Alien Trilogy | ||
| Alone in the Dark 2 | ||
| Amagi Shien | ||
| AMOK | ||
| Andretti Racing | ||
| AnEarth Fantasy Stories: The First Chapter | ||
| Angelique (Franchise) | ||
| Ankh (Franchise) | ||
| Another Memories | ||
| Aqua-World: The Marvels of the Sea | ||
| Aquazone (Franchise) | Aquarium simulator. There’s a bunch of these out there, so it might be fair to say it’s a simulation subgenre at this point. That makes me hesitant to bother tackling this. | Low priority |
| Arcana Strikes | ||
| Assault Rigs | ||
| Astal | In terms of aesthetics, Astal has a crystal theme and makes heavy use of pastels. I haven’t been able to find any other platformer like it in that regard. Gameplay-wise, you have a number of fairly unique attacks — a few of which might have been replicated elsewhere at some point. Limited command over a secondary character (the bird) definitely feels like something another platformer would have done. | Low priority |
| Asteroids (Arcade’s GH) | There are far too many Asteroids clones out there for me to bother… | Low priority |
| Astra Superstars | ||
| Atelier Marie | Long-running franchise with a lot of sequels. I don’t know jack about it so coming up with clone criteria will take some time. | Low priority |
| Atlantis: The Lost Tales | ||
| Ayakashi Ninden Kunoichiban Plus | ||
| BackGuiner (Franchise) | ||
| Bakuretsu Hunter (Franchise) | ||
| Baldy Land | ||
| Batsugun | ||
| Battle Athletess Daiundoukai | ||
| Battle Monsters | ||
| Battle Stations | ||
| BattleSport | ||
| Battlezone (Arcade’s GH) | Keeping the list of similar games to just BZ clones that use vector graphics might be a way to prevent things from getting too lengthy. | Medium priority |
| Beach de Reach! | ||
| Big Thanks Super Keirin: Dream with Keirin 50 Years | ||
| Bishoujo Variety Game: Rapyulus Panic | A minigame collection featuring anime girls that you defeat and partially undress. There is an attempt to mix in adventure elements, but it’s so underdeveloped that it may as well not be there. | Low priority |
| Black/Matrix | ||
| Blam! Machinehead | ||
| Blast Chamber | ||
| Blast Wind | ||
| Blazing Dragons | ||
| Blue Breaker: Ken yorimo Hohoemi wo | ||
| Blue Seed: The Secret Records of Kushinada | ||
| Bomberman (Franchise) | Huge franchise, lotta clones… I could narrow things down by keeping it more in line with the aesthetics or gameplay innovations of Saturn Bomberman — unfortunately, I think the latter is mostly limited to the expansive multiplayer mode. Ugh… Also gotta account for Bomberman Fight and Bomberman Wars. | Low priority |
| Bouken Katsugeki Mono Mono | ||
| Brain Dead 13 | ||
| Break Thru! | ||
| Bubble Bobble (Franchise) | Symphony is pretty much just BB2 and there are a ton of BB clones to pick from. There are also a crapload of a Puzzle Bobble clones, so putting those two under the same table might get confusing. And then there’s Rainbow Islands too… | Low priority |
| Bubbles (Arcade’s GH) | ||
| Can Can Bunny (Franchise) | ||
| Casper | ||
| Castlevania: Symphony of the Night | Who hasn’t done a Symphony of the Night clone at this point? This would take quite a while, and I’d probably end up adding about half-a-dozen clones every damn year for a piss poor PS1-to-Saturn conversion. If Konami didn’t care, then why should I? | Low priority |
| Cat the Ripper: 13-ninme no Tanteishi | ||
| Centipede (Arcade’s GH) | There’s a ton of Centipede clones out there, but not so many that this would feel impossible. | Medium priority |
| Chaos Control | ||
| Chariot: Adventure through the Sky (Wonder 3: Arcade Gears) | ||
| Chibi Maruko-chan no Taisen Pazurudama | One of the many versions of Puzzle-dama, which was Konami’s take on Puyo Puyo. Tokimeki Memorial also has a Puzzle-dama spinoff on the system. | Low priority |
| Chou Aniki: The Ultimate Man’s Counterattack | Gotta find other homoerotic shmups (not something I ever expected to find myself saying). Preliminary searches haven’t yielded much in the way of similar games, but Wikipedia mentions a couple unrelated ones in which CA characters appear, so at least there’s that. | Medium priority |
| Choro Q Park | Takara has farmed out the Choro Q license to various development studios across three decades, so there are quite a few games I could list here. That said, I’m not sure if I want to do that or narrow things down to Choro Q games that play a bit more like the Saturn title — so think kart racer-esque item pickups or the mid-race car swapping mechanic. | Low priority |
| Civilization: Shin Sekai Shichidai Bunmei | ||
| ClockWerx | ||
| Columns Arcade Collection (Sega Ages) | ||
| Command & Conquer | Dune II is a predecessor, some Petroglyph titles could possibly be considered successors. Haven’t exactly nailed down the criteria for clones. There are already tons of suggestions out there for C&C clones, so I’ve got a starting point. Just gotta get around to reviewing game footage myself to confirm. | Medium priority |
| Contra: Legacy of War | Probably the worst Contra game to appear on a game console. LoW isn’t worth wasting my time on while there are still a ton of much better games that I’ve yet to tackle. | Low priority |
| CrimeWave | I’ve found a number of police-themed, top-down, free-roaming driving games, but I don’t think any of them emphasize vehicular combat to the extent of blowing up your opponent using military-grade weapons, lol. | Low priority |
| Criticom | ||
| Cross Tantei Monogatari: Motsureta Nanatsu no Labyrinth | ||
| Crows: The Battle Action | Crows has some staff overlap with the Kunio-kun games, so they can probably be listed as spiritual predecessors. There’s also a number of other beat-’em-ups out there with the whole chibi/super-deformed thing going on. | Medium priority |
| Crusader: No Remorse | ||
| Crypt Killer | It’s part of that brief transitional stage for gun shooters where the levels were either pseudo-3D or fully 3D environments, but the targets were all sprites. I guess you could compare it to something like Alien 3: The Gun, but that doesn’t quite hit the mark thematically. | Medium priority |
| Cube Battler (Franchise) | It seems unlikely that there’s anything out there remotely close to this strange FMV puzzle game. I’ll keep looking though… | Low priority |
| Cyber Doll | ||
| Cyberia | ||
| D-Xhird | ||
| Daisenryaku (Franchise) | ||
| Darius (Franchise) | Giant robotic marine life and lots of it. Got at least two clone candidates so far… | Medium priority |
| Dark Seed (Franchise) | ||
| Darklight Conflict | ||
| Darkstalkers (Franchise) | ||
| Dead or Alive | ||
| Deadalus | ||
| DeathMask | There’s more than a few cyberpunk FMV games — in fact, I’ve already got several listed in the Blue Chicago Blues table… | High priority |
| Defcon 5 | ||
| Defender (Franchise) | ||
| Dennou Tenshi (Franchise) | ||
| Denpa Shounenteki Game (Franchise) | ||
| Densha de Go! EX | Train simulation has pretty much morphed into its own subgenre since this game came out, which makes creating a table for Densha de Go! seem kinda pointless. Still, there are a lot of games within this franchise, so I should at least list them eventually. | Low priority |
| Deroon Dero Dero | ||
| Destruction Derby | ||
| Device Reign | ||
| Digital Dance Mix, Vol. 1: Namie Amuro | As far as I can tell, Namie Amuro has never starred in any other video game, and no one else has ever created a glorified tech demo featuring a dancing J-Pop idol with no real gameplay. | Low priority |
| Digital Monsters, Ver. S: Digimon Tamers | ||
| Disc Station Bessatsu: I Miss You | A goofy simulated recording studio, some minigames, and a music video. I haven’t been able to find anything else like it, and I doubt I ever will. | Low priority |
| Discworld (Franchise) | ||
| DJ Wars | There are a few big DJ titles, but they’re actual rhythm games. DJ Wars, on the other hand, is a completely baffling simulation. A few indie games on Steam look sorta similar. | Low priority |
| Donpachi (Franchise) | I hate danmaku… Thanks, Cave. Y’ruined shmups. | Lowest of low |
| Doom | The amount of games that Doom inspired is staggering… This would take forever. | Low priority |
| Doraemon: Nobita to Fukkatsu no Hoshi | ||
| Dragon Ball (Franchise) | ||
| Dragon Master Silk | ||
| Dragon Slayer (Franchise) | Remakes of first two Dragon Slayer titles, which are both top-down, fantasy-themed action role-playing-games that introduced the sort of bump combat seen in later RPGs like Hydlide and Ys. I’ve already identified more than a dozen other similar games, but I still need to explore a few more search avenues. | Medium priority |
| Dragonheart: Fire & Steel | ||
| Duke Nukem 3D | ||
| Dungeon Master Nexus | ||
| Eberouge (Franchise) | A dating sim that takes place at a magic school. This concept has been revisited more than a few times since this game came out. | Medium priority |
| Eiyuu Shigan: Gal Act Heroism | ||
| Eternal Melody | ||
| Exed Exes (CGv3) | ||
| F1 Challenge | Aside from a few nifty car customization options, I’d argue that F1 Challenge doesn’t do much stand out. Keeping the list of similar games exclusively to its Formula 1 racing sim contemporaries might be the best approach. Alternatively, turning to the Japanese version that features running announcer commentary could be a way of further limiting things. | Medium priority |
| Fantastep | ||
| Farland (Franchise) | ||
| Fatal Fury (Franchise) | ||
| Father Christmas | Carmen Sandiego clone. Probably just wanna connect this one to CS since all other games like CS will obviously be copying CS rather than FC. | Medium priority |
| FEDA Remake!: The Emblem of Justice | ||
| Fighter’s History Dynamite | ||
| Final Fight Revenge | The weird Final Fight fighter… I’m not even sure where to begin with this oddball, lol. | Low priority |
| Find Love (Franchise) | ||
| Fire Pro Wrestling (Franchise) | The Fire Pro series is generally characterized by its large rosters, timing-based grappling system, and an expansive amount of moves that become more and more available as opponents wear down. There are a couple wrestling games that are said to play like this, but none of them resemble Fire Pro in terms of visuals. | Medium priority |
| Formula Grand Prix Team Unei Simulation | ||
| Formula Karts | I’d hazard to guess there aren’t a whole lot of realistic 3D kart racers out there, so this could be easily doable. | Low priority |
| Frankenstein: Through the Eyes of the Monster | ||
| Fully Cowled Mini Yonku | This is actually part of a franchise, I think, lol. As for similar games, the slot car stuff from Yakuza 0 and Kiwami 1 might fit the bill… | Low priority |
| Funky Fantasy | ||
| Funky Head Boxers (Franchise) | Finding some other boxing games where the characters have misshapen heads of some sort would be a good start. So far, nada… | Low priority |
| G-Vector | Obvious connection is Star Fox, but I suppose it could be linked to other railshooters w/ a lock-on laser mechanic. Not really sure how many later Star Fox-inspired games I want to link it to though… I guess if they have the lock-on mechanic, it’s fine…? | Low priority |
| Galaxy Fräulein Yuna (Franchise) | ||
| Gaia Breeder | ||
| Gakkou no Kaidan | I think we might have a Japanese take on the Night Trap / Double Switch formula here, but I’m not 100% positive. The player seems to be tasked with protecting a group of kids walking around an abandoned school, it’s mostly presented in FMVs, there’s a map that lets you jump from room to room, and a timer. I’m not sure that you’re actually trapping anything and all of the FMVs don’t seem to be constantly running in the background at the same time though. What do you guys think — close enough or nah? | Medium priority |
| Gal Jan | ||
| Galaxy Fight | ||
| Game of Life, The (Franchise) | ||
| Gebockers | Is it fair to call this a Virtual-On clone…? I’m not entirely convinced. | Meh… |
| Gex | Closest annoying TV/movie-themed mascot platformer is probably Bug! Not sure if I want to compare them since the original Gex game plays nothing like Bug! Might have to just keep it to Gex ports, sequels, and compilations… | Medium priority |
| Ghen War | ||
| Girl Doll Toy | ||
| Golden Axe: The Duel | The distinguishing feature here revolves around how the super meter is charged — collecting potions by smacking around the imps that run onto the playfield during matches. I haven’t been able to find any fighter with a similar mechanic, so the only other obvious point of comparison for similar games would be theme, which in this case is a Conan-esque dark fantasy fighting game featuring weapons combat. | Low priority |
| Gotha (Franchise) | ||
| Gradius (Franchise) | ||
| Gran Chaser | Actually predates Wipeout — is it the first antigrav racer in 3D? How many other antigrav racers should I compare it to? Maybe just ones with a story mode…? | Medium priority |
| Grandia | I’ve seen some people compare Grandia to stuff like Child of Light and the Trails games. Not really sure though. I probably need to consult with people who are more into RPGs than I am… | Medium priority |
| Grandread | ||
| Great Adventure: St. Elmo’s Miracles, The | ||
| Grid Runner | ||
| GT24 | Super GT 24h, obviously. I guess I could add other 3D endurance racing games, but that’s basically a genre unto itself, so maybe don’t do that…? Gotta figure out the criteria or I’ll just be listing every single game that does Le Mans… | Medium priority |
| Gun Frontier (Arcade Gears) | Are there any other sci-fi meets Old West-themed shmups out there? Sadly, I’ve yet to find anything else… | Medium priority |
| GunBlaze S | ||
| Hang-On GP [’95/’96] | It’s so easy to look at a motorcycle racing game and compare it to either Hang-On or Super Hang-On because those games are so distinctive. Hang-On GP, on the other hand, is not… It’s just a generic closed circuit 3D motor cycle racer, which makes it difficult to come up with a narrow list of similar titles. | Low priority |
| Hansha de Spark! | Often compared to Bomberman, but this game has a much higher emphasis on playfield manipulation. | Low priority |
| Hardcore 4×4 | ||
| Harukaze Sentai V-Force | ||
| Haunted Casino | There are plenty of strip poker/blackjack/etc. games out there, but finding something that mixes in adventure game elements is key here. So far, I’ve come up empty. | Low priority |
| Herc’s Adventure | ||
| Hexen | Got a few clone candidates on my radar like Amid Evil and the Hands of Necromancy games. I’m sure there are more. | Medium priority |
| Hi-Octane | ||
| High School Terra Story | ||
| Hissatsu! | ||
| Hop Step Idol | ||
| Horde, The | An early top-down tower defense game that tasks the player with defending medieval towns against rampaging hordes of goblins. You can construct obstacles and traps, hire mercenaries, and buy weapons and abilities for the player-controlled hero character to use during the defense phase. Towns will grow or decline automatically between phases and generate income depending on how well they’re managed and protected. Said income must be put toward paying taxes but can also be reinvested in defense or further income generation. I’ve yet to find another game that combines most of these elements. | Low priority |
| Horror Tour | ||
| Houma Hunter Lime Perfect Collection | ||
| Hyper Securities S | ||
| Idol Mahjong: Final Romance (Franchise) | ||
| Impact Racing | ||
| In the Hunt | ||
| Incredible Hulk: The Pantheon Saga, The | ||
| Independence Day | ||
| Jantei Battle Cos-Player | There are a couple other cosplay-themed mahjong games out there. I think this would be a pretty easy game to cover. | Medium priority |
| Jewels of the Oracle | ||
| Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu (Franchise) | Chibi/SD baseball franchise. ID’d at least two similar — one on the Saturn itself. | Medium priority |
| Jikuu Tantei DD | ||
| Johnny Bazookatone | ||
| Joust (Arcade’s GH) | Balloon Fight is the first really obvious Joust clone and probably spawned a crapload of clones of its own. Just gotta make sure other clones are modeled more after Joust than BF. | Medium priority |
| Jungle Park: Saturn Island | ||
| King of Fighters, The (Franchise) | ||
| Koi no Summer Fantasy: in Miyazaki Seagaia | As far as I can tell, Megumi Okina never appeared in any other game, but I’d bet there are probably a few other dating sims out there that feature real world Japanese celebrities. | Low priority |
| Konami Rally (Konami Ant.) | ||
| Krazy Ivan | ||
| Kumitate Battle: Kuttu Ketto | ||
| Kunoichi Detective Story | ||
| Kyuukyoku Tiger II Plus | ||
| Kyuutenkai: Fantastic Pinball | Can’t really find anything else quite like it. Criteria should probably be multipart scrolling tables with a cute chibi theme. | Low priority |
| Legend of Heroes III: Shiroki Majo, The | Dragon Slayer spinoff. I’m not sure yet if it’s going to get its own table or only appear under the Dragon Slayer (Franchise) one. | Low priority |
| Legend of the Galactic Heroes | There seem to be several more LotGH strategy games by the company that made this… | Low priority |
| Lifescape: Life’s Four Billion Year Journey | ||
| Lifescape 2: Body Bionics | ||
| Linda³ | ||
| Linkle Liver Story | ||
| Loaded | ||
| Lode Runner (Franchise) | There are a ton of games based on Lode Runner and/or Alien Panic. | Low priority |
| Lost Vikings 2: Norse by Norsewest | ||
| Lost World: Jurassic Park, The | ||
| Lunar (Franchise) | New collection makes me want to get these on the list sooner rather than later. Not really sure about clones. Everyone says Pier Solar. Saw a few others compare it to Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky. Gotta consult RPG fans… | Medium priority |
| Macross: DYRL? | Pretty much identical to the second Zeta Gundam game. Might be able to find some other horizontal-scrolling Macross games w/ an “Itano Circus” lock-on mechanic and the transformations. | Medium priority |
| Magic Knight Rayearth | ||
| Magical Drop (Franchise) | ||
| Magnificent World of El-Hazard, The | ||
| Mahjong Hyper Reaction R | ||
| Mahjong Tenshi Angel Lips | ||
| Mahoutsukai ni Naru Houhou | ||
| Manx TT Super Bike | There is a modern Manx TT franchise, but — of course — it’s very much a racing sim that feels and plays nothing like the Sega arcade racer. | Low priority |
| Marica: Shinjitsu no Sekai | ||
| Martian Successor Nadesico (Franchise) | The Sega-developed Nadesico title on the Saturn has a fairly similar FMV combat system to the Sega-developed Evangelion one that was released about a year earlier. I’m sorta hesitant to mark them as similar games though because the Eva game isn’t also a love sim. I dunno… | |
| Marvel (Fighting Games) | Probably shouldn’t be too hard. Just link them to the Capcom fighters they borrow elements from and map out the franchise. | Medium priority |
| Mass Destruction | There’s a few games like this one. Shouldn’t be too hard. | High priority |
| Master of Monsters: Neo Generations | ||
| Mechanical Violator Hakaider | ||
| MechWarrior 2 | ||
| Mega Man (Franchise) | Identifying Mega Man clones isn’t that difficult. There just happen to be a lot of them… | Low priority |
| Megami Tensei (Franchise) | ||
| MeltyLancer (Franchise) | ||
| Minami no Shima ni Buta ga Ita: Lucas no Daibouken | ||
| Missile Command (Arcade’s GH) | ||
| Monster Slider | ||
| Moon Cradle | ||
| Mopiranger (Konami Ant.) | A fairly easy top-down maze game where the player is tasked with collecting baby mice while avoiding or attacking hostiles. The maze is flooded though, so speed will be reduced when moving against a current. I have seen this mechanic duplicated using conveyor belts in a few other maze games like Pac-Man Arrangment (2005) and I’m Sorry, but I can’t think of any others where it’s employed to the same extent as in Mopiranger. Feels like there should be more, so I’m going to keep searching… In the meantime, I went ahead and added a table since I found a fan remake. | Table exists, medium priority |
| Mortal Kombat (Franchise) | ||
| Mr. Bones | Musically-themed horror title that makes heavy use of FMV. In terms of genre, it’s all over the place. Sometimes it’s a platformer, sometimes it’s a shooter, other times it’s a rhythm game… I enjoy Mr. Bones, but it’s definitely a game that doesn’t really know what it wants to be, and that makes the prospect of finding anything similar to it extremely unlikely. | Low priority |
| My Best Friends: St. Andrew’s Girls School | Scantily-clad anime girls in jigsaw puzzles, accompanied by light nudity in a few of the FMVs. There’s no shortage of stuff like this out there. | Low priority |
| Myst (Franchise) | I’d say the hallmarks of a Myst-type adventure are isolation (especially on an island), puzzle solving, and potentially using some sort of medium to move between ages or worlds. There are a ton of games like that to sort through though… | Low priority |
| Nanatsu Kaze no Shima Monogatari | The Wonder Project J games are both Givro titles that share some common staff and themes with NKnSM, but are basically raising sims, so I don’t think they’re quite close enough. I’ve seen one person compare it to the Samorost games, and I can kinda see it… Kinda. | Low priority |
| NASCAR ’98 | ||
| Nekketsu Oyako | Closest thing might be Final Fight. The father resembles Mike Haggar quite a bit, so that’s one fairly obvious connection at a glance. | Medium priority |
| Next King: The Eternal Kingdom of Love | ||
| Nile-gawa no Yoake | ||
| Ninja Jajamaru-kun | Not sure I’m gonna find anything quite like the Saturn/PS1 games. The one Goemon game on the N64 might be the closest thing. There’s a bunch of games in this franchise worth listing even if I can’t find anything else that’s similar. | Medium priority |
| Ninja Hayate | Although unrelated in both story and genre, Taito’s Legend of Kage series pretty much recycled Hayate’s character design — especially for promotional artwork. I think those games could safely be listed as pseudo-sequels. | Medium priority |
| Ninkuu: Tsuyokina Yatsura no Daigekitotsu! | ||
| Ninpen Manmaru | ||
| No-Appointment Gals Olympos | ||
| Nonomura Byouin no Hitobito | ||
| Nouvelle Fanpasia Gulliver Boy | ||
| Ochige Designer: Tsukutte Pon! | Design software for creating user-made games in the falling puzzle piece genre. So far I’ve been unable to find anything else like it. Considering that there’s all sorts of software like this for RPGs, shooters, and even sound novels, that’s kinda surprising! | Low priority |
| Off-World Interceptor Extreme | ||
| Ogre Battle (Franchise) | I’ve already created a table listing entries in the franchise, but I really want to find some clones. There have to be at least a few games take after Ogre Battle and Ogre Tactics… | Table exists, low update priority |
| Ousama Game | Essentially just a collection of minigames with some scantily-clad models as your reward for winning, but the whole premise is supposed to revolve around the Japanese children’s game where “the King” (O-sama) orders everyone around. I guess you could say it’s like truth or dare without the truth component. I bet there’s probably a ton of stuff like this out there but searching it out isn’t a high priority for me. | Low priority |
| Pacific Theater of Operations II | ||
| Paneltia: Kerun’s Great Adventure | Paneltia’s main gimmick revolves around constructing the world around you as you explore it. You collect map panels from defeated enemies which can then be placed on a map grid and explored. I don’t know how I’d even go about searching for other RPGs with a similar mechanic to this, lol. | Low priority |
| Pappara Paoon | Usually compared to Columns. | Low priority |
| Parodius (Franchise) | Obviously spun off from Gradius and features some characters who are either from or went on to appear in other Konami games. As for similar games, there are a lot of wacky horizontal-scrolling cute-’em-ups out there. I guess singling out ones that use the Gradius power-up system would be a good way to go… Y’know, that or ones featuring lots of giant women. | Medium priority |
| Pastel Muses | Puzzle Bobble on a horizontal playfield. Shot placement also depends on how long the player holds down the fire button. | Medium priority |
| Phantasm | ||
| Phantasy Star Collection | ||
| Photo Genic | ||
| Planet Joker | ||
| Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Super S: VE | There are four other Sailor Moon fighting games and one based on its predecessor manga Sailor V. I’m betting there might be a fan game or two out there as well. In terms of theme, there are quite a few magical girl fighters that could be included as similar games, but I’d probably be casting too wide of a net. Perhaps best to limit it to ones where they’re wearing sailor uniforms…? | Low priority |
| Primal Rage | ||
| Princess Quest | ||
| Prisoner of Ice | ||
| Private Idol (Franchise) | ||
| Pro Yakyuu Team mo Tsukurou! | Another super-deformed baseball franchise on Saturn — the other being the Power Pros games. Should be pretty easy to knock both of them out. | High priority |
| Psychotron, The | ||
| Pu-Li-Ru-La (Arcade Gears) | I swear, the dude who came up with this game must’ve been on an acid trip while watching something made by Hayao Miyzaki or Isao Takahata — the girl character, in particular, reminds me of Anne Shirley from 1979’s Anne of Green Gables television series. Sadly, I don’t think there’s anything else out there like Pu-Li-Ru-La, but I do know of at least one crossover it has with another Taito title. | Medium priority |
| Pup-Breeder | ||
| Puyo Puyo (Franchise) | The sheer number of Puyo clones out there makes me reluctant to touch this anytime soon. | Low priority |
| Quake | Low priority | |
| QuoVadis (Franchise) | ||
| R?MJ: The Mystery Hospital | ||
| Rayman | Mainly need to figure out how to parse the many, many Rayman 1 releases. Adventures of Lomax definitely replicates Rayman’s visual style. Rayman Redemption and Rayman 4 You as fan projects. | High priority |
| Real Sound: The Wind of Regret | Surprisingly, I stumbled across a Real Sound fangame, so I figured it would be worth creating a table for it — even if I haven’t thoroughly looked into other similar games yet. And yeah, there definitely should be at least a few adventure games in this mold since video games for the blind are much more prevalent these days. Heck, audiogames.net has a database of their own that I can sort through. | Table exists, low update priority |
| Resident Evil | ||
| Riglordsaga (Franchise) | ||
| Road & Track Presents the Need for Speed | ||
| Road Fighter (Konami Ant.) | ||
| Robo Pit | Seen some comparisons to VO but with a ton of customization. I guess that kinda makes it more like Custom Robo? Also has a sequel. | Medium priority |
| Robotron: 2084 (Arcade’s GH) | ||
| Ronde | ||
| Roommate (Franchise) | ||
| Roosters: Quest for the Chariot (Wonder 3: Arcade Gears) | ||
| Rox | Falling puzzle game where the pieces that drop are dice. MobyGames has a pretty good explanation of the rules here. Anyway, Stakk’M from the Maxi-15 game pack on NES and Mr. Dice on Atari ST exhibit some similarities but neither seem close enough, IMO. | Low priority |
| Sakura Wars (Franchise) | Grid-based TRPG w/ visual novel and dating sim elements accompanied by a steampunk Taisho-era setting featuring mechs… Unsurprisingly, finding something that checks all those boxes has proven impossible. But even limiting it to just the previously mentioned gameplay elements won’t get you much closer to a Sakura Wars clone. The most comparable titles are probably ones like Sparkling Feather, Thousand Arms, or the Growlanser games, but I’m not sure any of them come quite close enough. Input from an RPG aficionado would be greatly appreciated. | Low priority |
| Samurai Spirits (Franchise) | The easy answer is “2D fighting game w/ bladed weapons combat,” but that’s still probably too broad. Also want to avoid accidentally listing games that take more from Bushido Blade’s gameplay style. I should probably consult w/ people who know fighting games better than me before proceeding. | Medium priority |
| Saturn Music School (Franchise) | Educational music software that’s compatible with the Saturn’s MIDI keyboard adapter. The same company that released this also made O.to.i.Re: Dreamcast Sequencer, which can use a MIDI keyboard as well but doesn’t seem to be educational software. I’m not sure whether I want to connect them together or not. | Low priority |
| Savaki | ||
| Scorcher | ||
| Scud the Disposable Assassin | ||
| Sengoku Blade | The feudal Japan theme makes it comparable to a few of the games in the Aleste series, but I’m not really sure if that’s enough to warrant their inclusion — especially since Blade, unlike Ace, scrolls horizontally and features flying people. It’s not all that special mechanically. You’ve got a main shot, a sub shot (in the form of a familiar) that can be charged for more damage, and a bomb. | Medium priority |
| Senkutsu Katsuryuu Taisen Chaos Seed | ||
| Sentimental Graffiti (Franchise) | ||
| Shadows of the Tusk | ||
| Shellshock | ||
| Shining (Franchise) | Never played a Shining game and probably never will, so I’m not really sure what makes them stand out compared to other RPGs. Still, Shining Force III is one of the biggest RPGs on the system, so I have to look into this eventually… | Low priority |
| Shinobi Legions | Just gotta be careful not to fall into the Ninja Gaiden trap… | Medium priority |
| Shinouken | ||
| Shinrei Jusatsushi Taroumaru | I don’t think there is anything out there quite like Taromaru. HG101’s article on the game does compare the shooting mechanic to the one in Alisia Dragoon, and that does appear to be somewhat apt. Still, the two are pretty different otherwise. And yeah, the sheer amount of boss fights Taromaru throws at you does feel very reminiscent of a Treasure title, but I can’t exactly point to any single example and say “these two are very similar!” Not sure where to go from here. | Medium priority |
| Shockwave Assault | ||
| Shutokou Battle (Franchise) | Maybe just keep clones to Japanese highway racing games of the era. | Medium priority |
| Shutsudou! Mini-skirt Police | ||
| SimCity 2000 | Maxis pioneered the whole city-building simulation genre through the SimCity franchise. One could liken any number of games to it, but it would probably be best to keep things limited to generic modern city builders à la Cities: Skylines. | Low priority |
| Sinistar (Arcade’s GH) | ||
| Skeleton Warriors | ||
| Sky Jaguar (Konami Ant.) | ||
| Slayers (Franchise) | ||
| Sol Divide | Horizontal flying guy shooter w/ RPG elements and ugly digitized sprites. I don’t think anyone ever replicated that formula, lol. | Low priority |
| Söldnerschild | ||
| Solo Crisis | Solo Crisis was pieced together from the remains of a cancelled ActRaiser remake, so that’s at least one connection I can draw. As for clones, I’ve yet to find any other god games that use the top/bottom world mechanic. | Low priority |
| Sonic Council | ||
| Sonic Wings Special | There’s a new Sonic Wings game coming, so it’s at least worth mapping out the franchise, if nothing else. SW/AF was pretty popular, so I figure there has to be at least a few similar games too, right…? Probably no other dolphin pilots though! | Medium priority |
| Sorvice | ||
| Sound Novel Machi | Spike/Chunsoft made quite a few games like this. There’s also a successor of sorts that came out in the 2010s, IIRC. Should be pretty easy to do. | High priority |
| Sound Novel Tsukuru 2 | There’s a couple of these… | Medium priority |
| Sound Qube | An audio puzzle game where you use sonar to correctly identify, group, and eliminate similar pieces of a floating space cube. As far as I can tell, nothing has ever come close to approximating Sound Qube’s gameplay. | Low priority |
| Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels | ||
| Space Invaders | ||
| Spartan X (Irem AC) | The first beat-’em-up, so it’s relatively simplistic. Clones should have no lateral movement and no platforming. Maybe keep it to just martial arts-themed ones. | Medium priority |
| Spot Goes to Hollywood | Isometric mascot platformer with shooting and puzzle elements. I guess you could compare it to something like SteamGear Mash, but I feel like that one leans more heavily on shooting than platforming. Might be worth exploring other games featuring recognizable advertising mascots to find one that sorta looks and plays like this one. | Low priority |
| StarFighter 3000 | ||
| SteamGear Mash | ||
| Steep Slope Sliders | ||
| Strahl: The Seven Hidden Lights | Closest thing is probably Time Gal or Space Ace, but it’s much more serious than either of those. Not exactly great fits for points of comparison. | Low priority |
| Street Fighter (Franchise) | This’ll take a while… | Low priority |
| Street Racer [Extra] | A goofy kart racer with combat more akin to something like Road Rash than Mario Kart. | Low priority |
| Strikers 1945 (Franchise) | Obvious point of comparison is probably Capcom’s 194X series of games. Strikers series dials up the absurdity by introducing future tech and aliens into the WWII setting. I’ve been able to find at least a few other shmups that kinda fit this mold. | High priority |
| Suchie-Pai (Franchise) | ||
| Suiko Enbu | Fighting game based on the Chinese novel Water Margin. Japan seems to love that tale almost as much as Romance of the Three Kingdoms, so I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more similarly-themed fighters. | Low priority |
| Suikoden | I know next to nothing about this franchise other than the fact that it’s based on Water Margin, but the recent remaster or whatever it is probably means I should get around to it. | Medium priority |
| Super Breakout (Arcade’s GH) | ||
| Super Cobra (Konami Ant.) | Scramble with a helicopter, Super Cobra is a horizontal shooter with a standard forward shot, a secondary shot for ground targets, and a constantly depleting fuel gauge. Meet those criteria and you’ve got yourself a Super Cobra clone… | Low priority |
| Super Real Mahjong (Franchise) | ||
| Super Robot Wars (Franchise) | ||
| Swagman | ||
| Sword & Sorcery | ||
| T&E Golf Games | There’s a lot of stuff that uses this engine. As for defining features that can be used to find similar titles, I’d say look for golf games that utilize digitized sprites and have caddies or other golfers pop up on screen to comment on your shots. | Medium priority |
| Tactical Fighter | ||
| Tactics Formula | ||
| Tadaima Wakusei Kaitakuchuu! | ||
| Taiyou no Shinden: Asteka II (Falcom Classics II) | ||
| Tamagotchi Park | Could possibly add some more Tamagotchi games besides the “…de Hakken!!” titles — especially considering that branding really doesn’t mean much in terms of how the games are related to one another. | Table exists, low update priority |
| Techno Motor | There’s a ton of music creation software for game consoles out there. | Medium priority |
| Tenant Wars | Mall Madness meets Monopoly in video game form. | Low priority |
| Tenchi Muyou (Franchise) | ||
| Tengai Makyou: Daiyon no Mokushiroku | ||
| Terra Phantastica | ||
| Tetris (Franchise) | There’s not enough time left before the heat death of the universe to document every Tetris clone in existence. | — |
| Theme Park | ||
| Thor: Chronicles of the Elemental King | ||
| Those Who Hunt Elves (Franchise) | ||
| Tilk: Aoi Umi kara Kita Shoujo | I’ve seen Tilk compared to the Wonder Project J games, but it doesn’t seem to play anything like them. In terms of the art style though, I can definitely see it. Hell, they appear so similar that it’s hard to imagine one didn’t influence the creators of the other. It might be worth scanning through JP Wikipedia or googling both titles in Japanese to see what folks on the other side of the Pacific have to say. | Low priority |
| Time Bokan Series Bokan to Ippatsu! Doronboo Kanpekiban | ||
| Time Pilot (Konami Ant.) | Another time travel-themed shmup à la Gekirindan. This one is multidirectional though. Seeing as how I kept the Gekirindan table to vertically scrolling time travel shooters, I should probably be looking for multidirectional time travel shooters here. | Medium priority |
| Three Dirty Dwarves | Comical beat-’em-up that allows for a single player to switch between three characters on the fly. Haven’t found anything like it yet. | Low priority |
| Time Commando | ||
| Tokimeki Mahjong (Franchise) | ||
| Tokimeki Memorial (Franchise) | ||
| Tokusou Kidoutai J-SWAT | An underwhelming police-themed boomer shooter with a stiflingly claustrophobic field of view, J-SWAT is probably more notable for being one of the few examples of Japan’s take on the genre than anything else. Regardless, it feels like there should be something reminiscent of it — I just haven’t invested much time in sniffing it out. | Low priority |
| Tokyo Shadow | ||
| Tomb Raider | I mainly want games that look and play similar to the first three Tomb Raider titles. I’ve already ID’d a few. Mapping out the TR franchise itself will be annoying though. It’s pretty big… | Low priority |
| Touge (Franchise) | Probably best to keep clones to mountain racing games of the same era. | Medium priority |
| Toushinden (Franchise) | I could probably copy over most of the Last Bronx table w/ a few alterations. | Medium priority |
| Transport Tycoon | ||
| Trash It | ||
| True Pinball | True Pinball is one of several pinball games DICE developed before they became known for Battlefield. I’ve already got their stuff mapped out, but I’m not sure whether to include some of the later games that were marketed as sequels but developed by other companies. | High priority |
| Tssuukai!! Slot Shooting | An beach/ocean-themed puzzle shooter w/ a slot machine mechanic. Not exactly comparable to TSS since destroying puzzle pieces feeds them into the slot machine rather than being an attack. | Low priority |
| Tunnel B1 | ||
| TwinBee (Franchise) | Defining characteristic of these games is probably the bell power-up system. Might wanna look for other cute-’em-ups with something similar. Punching ships probably started with this series too. There are a few things on itch.io that kinda fit the bill. | Medium priority |
| Ultraman (Franchise) | ||
| Universal Nuts | ||
| Vandal Hearts | ||
| Virtuacall S | ||
| Virtual Hydlide | ||
| Virtual Kyoutei (Franchise) | A fairly poor speedboat racing sim with a lot of customization options. Surprisingly, there’s like five or six games in this franchise, lol. | Low priority |
| Virus | ||
| Voice Idol Maniacs: Pool Bar Story | A reskin of Data East’s 32-bit Side Pocket series featuring idols. I don’t believe this one is technically a dating sim like The Star Bowling games. Seems like you’re just earning FMVs featuring the girls. Either way, I haven’t been able to find anything comparable yet. | Low priority |
| Vulgus (CGv3) | Xevious clone. Multiplane vertical shooters of this vintage are a dime a dozen, so this would be an enormous time sink. | Low priority |
| Wachenröder | An isometric strategy RPG with a run-down steampunk motif. Preliminary searches haven’t turned up anything similar. | Low priority |
| Waku Waku 7 | ||
| Wara² Wars: Gekitou! Daigundan Battle | ||
| Warcraft II: The Dark Saga | ||
| Whizz | ||
| Willy Wombat | ||
| Wipeout (Franchise) | Antigrav racers have kinda become their own genre at this point, so coming up with a criteria to narrow things down would be good. I guess you definitely want to differentiate between those that take after F-Zero and those that are more like Wipeout. Not sure what else… Maybe keep it limited to lo-poly ones…? | Medium priority |
| Wizardry (Franchise) | ||
| Wizard’s Harmony (Franchise) | ||
| World Heroes Perfect | ||
| World Series Baseball (Franchise) | Fairly big franchise spanning multiple Sega consoles. The Saturn games were basically reskins of Greatest Nine. Should be pretty easy to add. | High priority |
| Worms | Turn-based artillery game featuring cute mascot characters. | Medium priority |
| Yie Ar Kung-Fu (Franchise) | ||
| Ys (Franchise) | Remakes of first two Ys games, which are both top-down, fantasy-themed action RPGs featuring bump combat. I’ve already identified more than a dozen similar games, but I still need to explore a few more search avenues and parse the Dragon Slayer games. | Medium priority |
| Z | Z lacks base building and resource management. Instead, the player needs to capture sectors with preexisting structures that pump out units at set intervals. Destroying your opponent’s fort or all their forces results in victory. My experience with the real-time strategy genre is mostly limited to the Command & Conquer, Age of Empires, and Total War franchises, so I’ll have to do some digging to find out if any other RTS games work like this. | Low priority |
| Zanma Chou Ougi Valhollian | ||
| Zap! Snowboarding Trix (Franchise) | ||
| Zippy Race (Irem AC) | ||
| Zoop | ||
| Zork (Franchise) |