The Saturn was where Sega's fortunes took a turn for the worse. It was difficult to program for, had a botched surprise launch, and it was expensive compared to the PS1. 

The console itself seems to have gone down in history as "like a PS1, but crappy."

I disagree.

It might not have had the PS1's extensive libary or the N64's first party masterpieces, but games like Panzer Dragoon, Saturn Bomberman, and Nights into Dreams were great fun.

I owned an N64 and had access to a friend's PS1, but playing my cousin's Sega Saturn was awesome in its own right.

Am I the only one?

Saturn has lots of fans. Maybe not on here but in general. While the Japanese library has tons of must-haves (you should like shmups) PAL has only a few but those are great and enough to be a great console on its own.
I'm still trying to get all the PAL must-haves but when I'm there the Saturn will be a great addition to my collection

I missed out on Saturn growing up, but I picked up a used console from eBay a few years ago.

Its library might not be as impressive as N64 or PS1, but it's got some real gems: Panzer Dragoon, Astal, NiGHTS into Dreams...

And I still haven't gotten to Guardian Heroes, Dragon Force, Shining Force III, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Burning Rangers, etc.

It's definitely an underrated system.

This one game...

Edit: People keep asking, it's called Madou Monogatari, made by Compile.

Still to this day the best controller ever created (model 2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoLC93zVgOE

Radiant Silvergun.
SEGA Rally Championship.
Nights.
Fighters Megamix.
House of the Dead.
Burning Rangers.
Guardian Heroes.
Virtua Cop 1 & 2.
Decathlete aka Athlete Kings.

And the very best ports of Capcoms arcade fighters around at that time. (Night Warriors: Darkstalkers Revenge, Street Fighter Alpha, X-men vs Street Fighter etc)

Yup, i always have and always will have more than a soft spot for the SEGA Saturn.

I too have a soft spot for the Saturn. Picked one up used about 5 years ago, and it came with a bunch of games, including Nights! The 6-button controller makes it great for fighting games, but the D-pad was never that good for 3-D games.

It certainly has its hidden gems, but it's easy to understand why it ended up a distant third during its generation. The Dreamcast is what the Saturn should have been... Sega would have been better off holding the Saturn back for a year instead of rushing it out in late '94 / 1st half of '95 in JP and US to try to head Sony off. It ended up backfiring on them big time.

I loved my Saturn
Such good times and so many hours sinked into Burning Rangers

The Saturn was my favorite Sega console.

So many people are praising the Dreamcast, but personally I had a far better time with Sega Rally 1, Daytona USA, Panzer Dragoon 1-Saga, Saturn Bomberman (10 player mode ftw), Worms 1(I hate the never ones with the super small maps), Nights, Dragonforce, Shining Force 3, Winter Heat (winter version of Athlete Kings), Virtua Fighter 2, ..

Here's a list of games I primarily played on my Saturn as a kid.

Virtua Fighter 2
Fighting Vipers
Fighters Megamix
Nights and Christmas Nights
Virtua Cop 1 and 2
Daytona USA
Die Hard Arcade
Quake
Sonic R
Sonic Jam

At the time I was into arcade style action games. Had I been older I would have played more RPGs and stuff like that. Assuming I could actually find them. It was rough buying games without the internet.

Sega Saturn emulation has gotten so good I've been able to play games i missed out on like Panzer Dragoon.

i bought the saturn after my dreamcast. I didnt have any luck finding good games or installing a chip.f... But it does feel magic. Let me share the segata sanshiro.. Its thing I liked most about the system.. Classix stuff