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In the spirit of Douglas Erickson's Editorial (except that this one is a little late because of a stupid mistake with the accountants at the Concentric Network, which disconnected me for two weeks from the net... arghhh!), I want to throw my two cents about the year that was 1998. There was plenty to bitch about with the Saturn being dragged through a slow and undignified death through retail clearances, but there was also the glimmer of hope being raised in the future as, little by little, the Dreamcast hype began to come though with mixed results. Sega is only a company run by mere (albeit talented) humans, so I am not terribly aprehensive and worried about the immediate future; even the delays of key titles like "Sega Rally 2" and "Climax Landers" have to be taken with the positive attitude that, compared with where the N64 was at this point in 1996 with its first few titles out, the future looks more bright and prosperous. How many RPG's does the N64 have right now, almost three years after being released in Japan? About as many as the Dreamcast has coming out in the next few months alone... enough said! But this Editorial is one last recap of the good and bad games that came out for our beloved, struggling and still working Sega Saturn, as well as honorable mentions for N64/Playstation titles (which, lets face it gang, were as good as they could possibly get this year); next time we write the year-end Editorial celebrating the best and worst of the year, this 32-bit system will only be mentioned (a) as a once great warrior that has retired into gaming heaven, or (b) as a cheapo gaming alternative being released by Majesco to squeeze an extra ounce of gaming bucks out of the casual gamer. Oh well, at least there were so few games released in the States that pretty much every game released qualifies for at least one award; importing games was the only way to get the best Saturn gaming thrill for your buck in '98. Shame that some of us have a life, and plenty of work that prevents us from familiarizing with another language just so we can expand our gaming hobby; oh well, there is always a N64 and PlayStation nearby with plenty of games to keep us busy until the Fall of '98. Then "Sonic Adventures"... sigh!
BEST GAME OF THE YEAR: On the domestic market, "Panzer Dragoon Saga" easily stands as the perfect mix of innovative RPG control mechanisms, atmospheric graphics and movie-quality soundtrack; add a deep story, some quality (although sometimes too serious for its own good) English translating and a limited distribution run... voila! The Japanese market received a whole lot more games than the U.S., which would make the selection process a tad more difficult than here in the States ("Marvel/X-Men Vs. Street Fighter", "Vampire Savior", "Radiant Silvergun", "Grandia", etc.); but, in the end and regardless of what language/culture you belong to, "P.D.Saga" were probably the best 20+ hours you spent with your Saturn in 1998. PlayStation: "Resident Evil 2" (Capcom) Nintendo 64: "Zelda: The Ocarina of Time" (Nintendo)
WORST GAME OF THE YEAR: Released (or should I say 'dumped'?) very early in 1998 as a way to recoup some of the investment in the license, Acclaim dumped their Saturn port of the 3DO system's futuristic tank battling game "BattleSport" with very little in the way of visual, aural or gameplay improvements (the tanks still kept the 3DO 'skating on ice' feel... from a game that was coded in 1995!). Ugly textures and excrutiating loading times aside, a perfect emulation of a decent game on a dead system; pathetic! PlayStation: "ODT" (Eidos) Nintendo 64: "Deadly Arts" (Konami) and "Dual Heroes" (Hudson)
SLEEPER TITLE OF 1998: Quietly and with only a handful of press releases to hype it, Sega put an end to its Netlink gaming experiment by releasing (via their 800 number to anyone who ordered it) "Daytona USA CCE: Netlink Edition" on February 16th. If you blinked or were away from gaming for a few months, you may have missed it entirely; decent improvements on the handling and graphics, plus the ability to race against fellow Netlinkers via phone lines added the extra punch to the game that its 1996 Saturn release lacked (especially since gamers were expecting the second coming of "Virtua Fighter Remix"). Quality product that very few Saturn gamers actually heard or, or even bothered purchasing since it never was available at retail. PlayStation: "Klonoa: Door to Phantomile" (Namco) Nintendo 64: "Body Harvest" (Midway)
BEST THIRD-PARTY RELEASE OF 1998: Sneaking it just in time for the Christmas holiday but not before the platform itself (as well as the potential customer base) went to hell in a handbasket, Victor Ireland sticks to his guns and releases the last third-party AND domestic game EVER for the Sega Saturn in the States: a 1995 action/RPG with cute graphics and a low-key thrill factor that goes by the now-legendary moniker "Magic Knight Rayearth". The manual of the game itself had more depth, content and dedication put into its creation than the effort that went into creating the 'other' third-party release for the Saturn in '98 besides "BattleSport" (see bellow).PlayStation: "Tekken 3" (Namco) Nintendo 64: "Turok 2: Seeds of Evil" (Acclaim)
WORST THIRD-PARTY GAME OF 1998: Acclaim may have the worst game on the Saturn for '98, but there was one more title released by a third-party that showed contempt and just plain disrespect for its audience with its rushed and incomplete graphics (the transparent wireframes for glasses were a travesty!), lackluster AI and overall shoddy port from its Playstation original. Yep, "NHL'98" may be the best hockey game on Saturn by default but it truly is a case of a company putting their junior programmers into finishing a contracted title; no thanks, I don't like to be mercy-fu***d by Electronic Arts anymore. PlayStation: "Master of Monsters" (Toshiba) Nintendo 64: "Knife Edge" (Kemco)
BEST SPORTS GAME IN 1998: Well, we know that EA's "NHL'98" won't get it, and "Daytona CCE: Netlink Edition" already has a title... so let's be charitable and give Sega's "Winter Heat '98" a nod despite being one of the most boring and lackluster experiences I ever had playing the Saturn; at least Sega had the pride of knowing it beat Konami and its licensed "Nagano Winter Olympics" PlayStation/N64 softs at their own game... shame that very few gamers cared or knew about the better alternative in Sega's planet, and made Konami's crappy games best-sellers for their limited time. Life's a bitch, indeed! PlayStation: "FIFA '99" (Electronic Arts) Nintendo 64: "Kobe Bryant's NBA Courtside" (Nintendo)
WORST SPORTS GAME IN 1998: EA's "NHL'98"... 'nuff said! PlayStation: "Bottom of the Ninth '99" (Konami) Nintendo 64: "Fox Sports College Hoops '99" (Fox)
BEST IMPORT OF THE YEAR Tough one, becuase this was the bread and butter of good games during most of 1998 and niche gamers found plenty to like to satisfy their own unique needs: RPG nuts probably went ape for "Princess Crown", while shooter Gods found their match with Treasure's masterful "Radiant Silvergun", and strategy buffs who could speak the language got their "Sakura Taisen" fix. But fighting games NOT AVAILABLE IN THE UNITED STATES (unless you settled for inferior PlayStation ports... "Dead or Alive"/"Samurai Showdown III" anyone?), especially the one's from Capcom that were powered by the 4MB cart have to be the import of the year; take your pick ("Vampire Savior", "Marvel/X-Men Vs. Street Fighter", "Pocket Fighter", etc.), because you are getting as close to an arcade-perfect port as a current system could possibly get. PlayStation: "Tenchu" Nintendo 64: "F-Zero X"
DIDN'T LIVE UP TO THE HYPE IN '98: It's possible for a really good game to fall just short of greatness, and its the failure to meet the expectation that is remembered long after the game has been forgotten. For "Burning Rangers" there will always be a 'what if' attached to every description that acompanies the game: 'what if' Saturn had a better internal architecture to handle the Sonic Team vision? 'what if' Yuji Naka had waited until Dreamcast to give the game a better chance? 'what if' Sega of America hadn't hyped the game so much before its release showed there was less here than initially expected? 'what if' ad infinitum? PlayStation: "Ninja" (Eidos) Nintendo 64: "Yoshi's Story" (Nintendo)
'COULD HAVE BEEN A CONTENDER IF IT WEREN'T RUSHED' IN '98: "The House of the Dead" could be the best-playing shooter game on the Saturn, if it weren't for one of the worst graphical engines the genre has ever seen that puts it in the 'wasted potential' category; shame, because at its core this is a really gory and cool attempt at being an action-packed "Resident Evil". Also here there must be an honorable mention to "Shining Force III"; the next-to-last release on Saturn and Sega of America's last domestic game had the potential to start an unheard-of trend in RPG's of segmenting the quest through the viewpoints of many characters encountered in the adventure. Here's to hope that SOA tries that strategy with Dreamcast, since you can only appeal so much to the hardcore otaku before there is a need for a new audience to be brought to the genre (which was Square's "Final Fantasy VII" biggest contribution to the genre). PlayStation: "NFL Xtreme (989 Studios) Nintendo 64: "South Park" (Acclaim)
THE MOST PLAYED GAME IN 1998: Picture how long it took an average gamer who isn't really into RPG's to finish the Saturn games released in 1998... OK, now add gameplay time beating the other Saturn games released in 1998, not to mention the old one's that are still hanging around like "NiGHTS" and "Fighters Megamix"... OK, now add plenty of time playing the good and bad N64/PlayStation games (everything from "Kula World" and "Crash Bandicoot: Warped" to "Zelda: TOOT" and "Rush 2")... That's a whole LOT of time, right? Well, I'd say I played about THREE TIMES THE TIME I SPENT PLAYING ALL OTHER GAMES IN MY LIBRARY COMBINED racing around the five tracks in Traveller's Tales' "Sonic R", the single most addictive game that has fallen in my pathetic gaming existence. Maybe it's the music, maybe it's the fact that I have mastered the sucker like no other game before it, or it's just that I am capable of feeling the sunshine... I just love this game and I am not in denial, damn it! The best $50 I've ever spent in my life, hands down! PlayStation: "Gran Turismo" (Sony) Nintendo 64: "Goldeneye 007" (Rare) Well, there you have the last word on Saturn gaming from the year that was 1998; the system's dead now officially in Japan, which pretty much means it's Majesco's world of cheapo packaging and crappy instruction booklets from now until kingdom come. But as long as there is a bone of gaming nostalgia in my body, the Saturn will be alive and thriving in my memory... sob, sob! ENOUGH BULLS*** though, because we're in 1999 and Dreamcast is coming baby! Shame that it's just not coming out soon enough.
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