Peter Molyneux's interesting, unique, and in some ways revolutionary shooter/strategy hybrid. In the game you fly around the map on a magic carpet killing monsters and collecting mana to store in your home castle, the more mana you have, the more spells you can cast, and as your castle becomes more built up, it even spawns its own AI guards to defend it. The strategy elements really compliment the action based gameplay, adding that compulsive "improve yourself" aspect to the proceedings. The Saturn version doesn't quite control as well as it did on the PC, but its still a good port.

Magic Knight Rayearth is an action Adventure game with a very troubled history, the game was originally released in 1995 in Japan, but due to disputes between the localisation team, and Sega it didn't actually see release in the west until 1998. The game follows the usual Zelda adventuring style, but with a tag team system between three characters with different weapons, and much more emphasis on storyline and FMV's. Its a shame it was released so late, as though the school girl centred storyline is not for everyone, the game would've been a very solid, and likeable early Saturn release.

Sega's take on the block falling puzzle genre has you matching up animals with their favoured foods. The combo system here is very well implemented, and 2-player matches are a lot of fun. I've decided to drop positions for Baku Baku mainly because its a very similar game to Puzzle Fighter II, which I feel is superior, but Baku Baku is still a valid purchase of its own as it still contains its own style, and a few of its own gameplay nuances.

Dungeons and Dragons Collection

This is a collection of two of Capcom's arcade beat-em-ups that had previously been unreleased for home consoles, Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom, and Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow of Mystara. The gameplay includes a lot of aspects not commonly seen in beat-em-ups, such as equipment collection, spellcasting, and experience points. These features, coupled with a very competent fighting engine and the classic Capcom art style make D&D Collection one of the best beat-em-ups ever made.

As always Treasure provide yet another unique take on a staple genre here. Silhouette Mirage is a platformer with the unique aspect being the fact that you change between two colours depending on the direction you're facing, only enemies of the opposite colour take damage, whilst those of the same colour become weaker, this gameplay mechanic was re-used for their later game Ikaruga. Apart from the main gameplay mechanic you have all the usual hallmarks of a Treasure game, nice graphics, loads of style, impressive set pieces and memorable boss fights.

Puzzle game where you shoot coloured balls to the top of the screen trying to match three at a time. Not a lot has changed with the series since its inception, there's some new modes, and bubble type's, but mainly Puzzle Bobble 3 is and incremental update, its still as good as ever though, and worth picking up if you don't already own one of the older games.

Hardcore strategy game based on the Games Workshop board game of the same name. You manoeuvre a team of armoured soldiers around the levels following set objectives, being careful to position each unit as tactically as possible to secure each area and control the constant influx of enemies. The story mode is excellent, with you slowly rising up the ranks as time goes on, but the training modes (which allow you to play through famous moments of the Warhammer history) are equally great, and generally more accessible to beginners.

This belongs to the Fatal Fury series of games, SNK's oldest classic fighting series. Real Bout Special contains all the usual balance and finesse present in all of SNKs fighting games, but what makes it different to the plethora of other similar games on the Saturn is a system of multiple fighting planes, you can tactically jump between the background and foreground to avoid attacks and plan your next move, this changes the pacing and style of the fighting.

Clearly inspired by the quintessential Command and Conquer, Warcraft 2 may not be quite as in depth as its inspiration, but unlike C&C it simply excels at being full to the brim of charm and humour. Like C&C the gameplay here is classic building forces and managing resources.

Layer Section is a very polished vertical shooter with some well judged gameplay and excellent pacing. Apart from the usual shooting, and power-up collection, here you also have a homing laser which locks onto enemies below you and releases a barrage of shots. Anyone who's considering starting a collection of Saturn shmup's should absolutely start here, this manages to have one of those rare combinations for Saturn shooters, not only is it one of the best its also one of the cheapest and easiest to obtain.