The late bloomer Saturn homebrew game, Vigilant Paradise, is available now

I’ve long waited for the day I could talk about an impressive new indie game for the Sega Saturn, and the wait is finally over.

Vigilant Paradise is a new Miami Vice inspired FPS designed for the Saturn by one Riccardo Campione. Of course, although I say it’s new, the game actually made its debut with little-to-no fanfare in November 2025. It sat quietly on itch.io until someone going by dmar3000 just happened across it from simply searching for “Sega Saturn” on itch one day and then posted about it on Reddit. From there, it caught the attention of our good friends at Sega Saturn Shiro, who then wrote about the game themselves. It goes to show that sometimes going off the beaten path can lead you to some interesting hidden discoveries.

If this looks interesting to you, you can read on past the break to find out more about this hidden homebrew gem.

The game stars two hardcore cops Vince Dimare and Paolo Diterra, who are on forced vacation lamenting the lack of action they’re seeing when they happen across a terrorist cabal who’s obviously up to no good. These loose cannons then take it upon themselves to dish out extreme justice on a hair raising adventure through six levels with a variety of different firearms to use. The game is single player only, but you can select between playing as Vince or Paolo at the start of the game.

Here’s a list of features detailed on the itch.io page.

• A full single-player campaign with 3D characters, weapons, and levels
• Two playable characters with differing weapons and story paths
• Over 15 minutes of in-engine cutscenes with cheesy, 90’s-style voiceovers
• A shameless overuse of CD synth music
• A symphony of Japanese silicon – utilizing both Saturn CPU’s, both VDP’s, all standard memory chips, CD audio, and PCM playback

The game might look a little rough compared to most Saturn games, but it’s still a major achievement considering who created it. Saturn homebrew development has been slowly, but surely improving as of late, so it won’t be long before we start seeing a lot more new games like this from some talented enthusiasts.

You can check out the game below on itch.io for just $10 USD, which is a very reasonable price for a game of this caliber made by a single homebrew developer over a long period of time. From there, you can try it on a real Saturn console equipped with an ODE or in a Saturn emulator, though the game does have some compatibility issues with certain ODEs and emulators. The itch.io page does thankfully list the currently known issues some of them have upfront. It also states that the game has only been tested on NTSC hardware, so PAL Saturn consoles may see some other issues if the game works at all. The game is designed to, in theory, automatically adapt to PAL systems if you try it on one though. You’re encouraged to share any issues you come across in the itch.io page’s comments section.

Does this look like an interesting Saturn game to you? If you tried it, then what do you think of it? Are you hoping to see more homebrew games just like this on Saturn? Be sure to tell us in the comments below.

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