I love it. I have 2.
Younger people may not know this - but back in the 16-bit days , before the launch of the Saturn and PS1 - apart from the console exclusive platformers (Sonic and Mario) - and the RPGs (which had a pretty limited mass market reach beyond Zelda) - the reason most people made their console choices were based on who had the best arcade conversions.
Sega, with their AM2 - were ruling the arcades in terms of 3D - and the mind boggled at the possibility of faithful home conversions of Daytona, VF, Virtua Cop et. al.
Capcom had the best 2D arcade games around - whether fighter (SF2) or multiplayer beat em up (D&D, AvP etc).
Namco - had started to make inroads in Sega's 3D driver/fighter market (Ridge Racer/Tekken) - but we3ren't nearly as well known.
Well the next part is pretty obvious - when the PSX/Saturn launched - Sega got the Sega Arcade conversions (obviously) - and the best Capcom ones (Sony were pushing 3D pretty hard, and requiring devs to release 3d games over 2d ones, this is the year when SSFIITurbo was king of the hill in the arcades - they didn't even let Capcom release a SF until SFAlpha) - And Sony got the exclusive conversions of the lesser known Namco 3D arcade games (Tekken/RidgeRacer).
It seemed pretty assured for Sega - they had the exclusives of the more popular 3D arcade games, and the better versions of the Capcom 2D games. Sony had exclusives of the lesser known Namco games, and very little in the way of 2D fighters (the dominant genre of that period) - in fact I think MK3 was the first major 2D PSX game/conversion released.
Well - when the Namco 3d conversions turned out to look a lot better on PSx than the Sega 3d conversions on Saturn (they even released a better looking VF1 to keep up - protip - skip the first and get that one) - suddenly the Tekkens and Ridge Racers grew in stature and status. And comparing games like Wipeout on both systems - PSX's advantage in polygon pushing was quite marked. Remember I'm talking year one here.
I'd gone from wanting a Saturn - to wanting a PSX - big time. I'm glad I've got one (two actually a PAL and a JAP one) now, but regret I didn't support Sega more at the time, as I deeply loved their IP's, attitude, and core approach. But hey I was 18 - Sony were advertising in music magazines, and realy reaching out to the teen/young adult market. Friends who ho-hummed at my SNES and MegaDrive all wanted to play this Sony Playstation thing I'd paid AUD$700 for (Dec 1995 RRP) - and I got caught up in the hype.
Looking back now though - as far as first party goes - Saturn shits from a great height on PSX. Those "OMG Polygons! It's like a PC with one of those fancy 3D graphics cards" moments on PSX haven't aged as well as the 2D sprite art of Saturn's titles. People also don't remember that before this gen - Sony's 1st party was pretty rare - and unlike MS - who bought their first major 1st party studio before the Xbox released (Bungie), and planned their launch around their output - Sony didn't buy Psygnosis (Sony Liverpool) until the 11th hour. Sure they bought Psygnosis after PSX released - but apart from Wipeout and GT, and the random one off like PaRappa/Lammy or VibRibbon - they didn't really do much first party stuff in the PsX days. PS2 they added Jak and Daxter and Ratchet and Clank (pretty much killed PaRappa with the average PaRappa2), Socom and GoW near trhe end of the consoles life - but it was around this time they started PacMann-ing up the studios (Guerilla etc) so they'd have a wide range of 1st party for Ps3. It's funny - but people bash MS for lack of 1st party, ignoring the fact that it took Sony 10+ years to build up a decent armory of studios. The 360's (MS second gen) Forza/Halo/GoW/VivaP/Fable/Kinect measures up pretty equally to Ps2's (Sony's second gen) - JakDaxter/RatchetClank/GT/Socom/GoW. I'd expect them to be about equal next gen as MS has started a lot of new studios, and Sony has closed a lot down.
Both had some great titles - and Sony's 3rd party was undoubtedly stronger in most areas - but god damn if I don't love my Saturn now.
