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40 |
Dark Savior |  |
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| Pseudo sequel to the under-appreciated, cult classic Mega Drive game Landstalker (same developer and same gameplay, but different characters and style). Dark Savior is an isometric adventure game focusing on puzzles and platforming. Despite some great new additions, such as the moveable camera, and alternate levels (based on performance) Savior doesn't quite live up to its predecessor (there's not quite as much charm and polish), but it does still manage provide a very involving and interesting adventure nevertheless. | |||||
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39 |
Deep Fear |  |
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| Deep Fear is a very good survival horror game inspired by Resident Evil. Its set in an underwater base that has been take over by a parasite that mutates the crew into monsters. The underwater theme helps to lend a claustrophobic, trapped feel to the atmosphere, the graphics are first rate, and the puzzles well thought out. In fact, this is exactly the sort of game Sega needed earlier on, unfortunately it arrived a little to make a big difference, and its lateness also adds to the rarity and cost. In regards to the huge price, is it worth it? truthfully I have to say definitely not to be honest, but if you find it at a reasonable price then make it a priority buy. | |||||
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38 |
Legend of Oasis/Story of Thor 2 |  |
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| Another sequel (in this case prequel really) to a great Mega Drive game. Beyond Oasis is a Zelda-esque top down adventure game, where you travel the lands fighting monsters, picking up new weapons and increasing your health. Like its predecessor Legend of Oasis has much more of an emphasis on the fighting aspect of gameplay than the Zelda games, with a plethora of different hand to hand combat moves available, there's also a bunch of unique elemental spirits to collect throughout the game, which help you fight, and give you access to abilities to solve the game's puzzles with. Its a great game, and would've been higher in the list if it wasn't occasionally a little confusing at times. | |||||
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37 |
Thunder Force V |  |
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| Technosoft continue their consistently excellent series here with the fifth game (2-4 were all on the Mega Drive). The developers decided to go with a more 3D graphics style with this game and I have to say that I find it a little inconsistent, some sections look great, whilst others look a little bit dated. What hasn't dated however is the gameplay, which delivers everything you'd expect from a TF game (namely full of action, set-pieces, and clever weapon designs). TFV also introduces a new weapon, the Free Range, which is tricky at first but a joy to use after its been mastered. Just to add one other thing, there's a boss fight in this game that has you going up against the ship from the earlier games in the series, with a remixed TFIV track playing in the background, and I must say as a fan of the series this fight is actually one of my absolute favourite video gaming moments ever, its awesome. | |||||
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36 |
Twinkle Star Sprites |  |
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| Here we have fantastically original and under appreciated hybrid of shmups and block style Vs puzzle games. Basically you shoot the oncoming enemies and send them to you opponents side of the screen, each time they're hit back they become faster and more dangerous. The Saturn version of this game has actually been improved over the Neo Geo original, with extra bits and pieces such as presentation improvements and an extra character, these were not carried over to the Dreamcast version, which makes this arguably the best of the ports out there. | |||||
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35 |
Dead or Alive |  |
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| Whilst Virtua Fighter was always considered the deep fighter, Dead or Alive went for more of a fast, fun, and accessible style (it also included big bouncing boobs of course). The first game of the series was ported excellently to Saturn, and actually contains some of the absolute best graphics on the entire system, looking better, and with fewer compromises than even the PS1 version released a year later. | |||||
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34 |
Battle Garegga |  |
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| This is a great, traditional style vertical shmup that's extremely action-packed, and throws very impressive amounts of action and enemies towards you at all times. The weapon system uses programmable options like those found in Musha which basically have a number of different preset actions that can be changed between on the fly depending on situation. | |||||
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33 |
Daytona CE |  |
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| This'll probably be a bit of a fairly controversial decision. There were two Daytona games released on the Saturn, and the majority seem to prefer the original port. I, however, have decided to recommend the second one, Daytona CE (more accurately the Japanese version of Daytona CCE, which included the original music). In my opinion its the more complete package overall. I'm going to break down the differences to help people make their own decision though. Daytona is an arcade racing game of the checkpoint style, initially it was ported to the Saturn in a very bare bones manner, the graphics were fairly poor, and there were no real extra modes to speak of, it did however play pretty accurately to the arcade version. It was then updated as CCE, CCE has an extra 2 courses, bringing the track count up to a more respectable 5, the graphics have been improved in every way, and there's also a split screen option for two player, on the other hand, the handling isn't as accurate to the arcade as it was in the original port (though analogue support, and fiddling with the options does help), so purists tend to dislike it. | |||||
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32 |
Kings of Fighters 97' |  |
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| SNK were one of the, if not the biggest competitors to Capcom in the fighting game business. Their games started off fairly derivative of Capcom's, but they quickly started to branch off and blaze their own trail in regards to both gameplay mechanics, and character designs. The King of Fighters series is perhaps their most well known, and well respected series, its main difference to other fighters of the time is its team based gameplay, instead of picking a fighter and playing you must pick a team of three, each of which have to fight one after the other. I've gone with KOF 97' mainly because I find the storyline to be more interesting and in depth than the others available on Saturn | |||||
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31 |
Metal Slug |  |
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| At a time where 2D run n' guns were becoming few and far between, Nazca' Metal Slug series appeared out of nowhere to give fans something to cling to during the turbulent times. Metal Slug is your classic hardcore arcade game, it doesn't let up on the action for a second, with a constant barrage of enemies and explosions going off all over the screen at any given time, there's bosses, and vehicles to jump into, great music, and a 2-player co-op feature. Another area where Metal Slug really stands out is the presentation, the artwork is very stylised, and there's a lot of visual humour throughout the experience. | |||||
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