16 years ago today, SEGA of America President Tom Kalinske took to the stage at E3 and announced that the SEGA Saturn was now available in select retailers across the United States. Though this would later be seen as one of the greatest marketing blunders in SEGA’s history, it nevertheless marked the debut of one of the greatest consoles ever made. In commemoration of this momentous birthing of this epically underappreciated game console, we at SEGAbits are committing not a day, not a week, but a full month for all things SEGA Saturn! You can expect to see plenty of reviews, articles, and a dedicated episode of the SEGAbits podcast all about the Saturn from here until E3 on June 7th.
Those of you who don’t know much about the Saturn, or think there was a big load of nothing between the Genesis and the Dreamcast, should learn something this month. The SEGA Saturn is a veritable treasure trove of SEGA hits that have yet to see the light of day on other systems due to the Saturn’s difficult to emulate architecture, and the general obscurity of its library. Sure, we’ve all heard of NiGHTS and Panzer Dragoon, and Guardian Heroes has recently risen from obscurity to be remade as an Xbox Live Arcade release. But have you ever heard of Blazing Heroes? Ever heard of Astal? Did you know the SEGA Saturn had two Die Hard games, one which was a piece of crap and one which kicked ass? Have any of you guys even seen Dragon Force?
While Nintendo spent the 32 bit generation giving its 16 bit hits the 64 bit upgrade, and Sony spent it producing games that would go on to define its Playstation brand for more than a decade to come, SEGA went through a creative renaissance, almost completely ditching the franchises that made the Genesis a hit in favor of all new franchises that, regrettably, no one would buy. Even Sonic took a backseat to NiGHTS, which became and still remains one of the best reasons to own a Saturn.
So sit back, relax, and enjoy this month long ride through SEGA’s forgotten generation.
Ad:
I'm in love with the new banner. I'd say keep it, or something like it in the future
The new banner is very very sexy, well done!
New banner is great, that ad freaking blows though. Not sure what they were thinking.
Thanks for the banner comments, I was the designer behind it. 😉 Looking forward to Saturn Month!
Sega Saturn is my favorite console. Lord knows it deserves its own month! Maybe Sega will try and bring more of its games over with the release of GH…
Great job, and a nice time to keep the Saturn in SEGA's mind as they look for new games to port to XBLA and the fictional PSN.
If you need promo flyers or magazine advert/issue scans of anything Saturn-related, let me know. I found a ton of it while visiting my parents’ place.
That would be pretty cool segaismysavior. Scan what you can and send it to use via our contact page:
http://www.segabits.com/?page_id=34
We will disperse post it via during the next few weeks! Could me fun looking at older stuff like magazines and flyers.
Love the theme of the month banner. Good work on this one's. I really like the Saturn lid banner.
I have such fond memories of this lost generation of SEGA.