curl-6 said: Quality vs quantity is an interesting argument to be had for both N64/PS1/Saturn and Xbox vs Dreamcast. The N64 and Dreamcast don't have that many games compared to their competitors, but pack a lot of greatness into a relatively small library. Xbox, thanks to its longer life, had more software overall than the Dreamcast, but for some the candle that burns brighter for a shorter span of time is more impressive than the one that burns longer but less intensely. |
I know it's not official but it's funny to see Dreamcast still gets new games. Sold on Play Asia and such. Usually 2D games. Tho a couple of years ago some indie devs got a dev kit and made a custom 3D engine and made Xenocider. It's a cool game. Fans also got Atmoswave arcade games running on the hardware. The other day they got a Japanese online golf game back online. Yeah, the love is still there. I have not kept up on it but I do remember a new 3D racing game being developed for DC a couple of years ago. Dreamcast ended up with over 600 officially licensed games and was a hair less than Gamecube. A big part of that is NAOMI games being ported to DC. One of my fave games I own on Dreamcast is Psyvariar 2 which released in 2004 in Japan. Also ported from NAOMI. The last US DC game was in 2002 but the last game in Japan was in 2007. SEGA discontinued the GD Rom format in 2008. The same year they stopped supporting NAOMI arcades in Japan.
FTR for those who don't know. NAOMI was a SEGA Arcade board that is a beefier Dreamcast. They released a NAOMI II a couple years after DC launched which was even more powerful and NAOMI II is what Virtua Fighter 4 ran on that was ported to PS2.
Saturn has over 1000 games and many are great due to the sheer amount of arcade and puzzle games on it. Just a fraction of those made it west. Had a healthy stock of RPGs. Not PS1 level of course aside from the better version of Grandia and Panzer Dragoon Saga, Dragon Force, and Shining Force III as its best. It's put those with any of the best of the era but PS1 just had so many that Saturn is still in a distant second. N64 was pitiful by comparison. Paper Mario and Ogre Battle 64 but after that it's pretty sparse. N64 I think is the most overrated and it's still a good system don't get me wrong. Just it really lacked variety. Most of its libraries are mediocre platformers. You have Nintendo and Rare carrying 95 percent of that system. Mario 64 and other first-party games mostly hold up. Rareware is not as solid, Conker isn't that good. The novelty wore off long ago and left with a somewhat clunky game. Jet Froce Gemini a game I loved back then.. Jesus, it sucks to play now as a TPS.
Granted 3D games in general aged since that era. Tho I think Panzer Dragoon. Burning Rangers and such hold up better than most N64 games from 3rd parties. BUG sucked then and sucks now on Saturn tho lol. Saturn's best strengths are the 2D games that stood the test of time. Sōkyūgurentai, Radiant Silvergun is still some of the best. It had better versions of Darkstalkers or any Neo Geo/Capcom fighting game than PS1. N64 had few but yes OoT. Mario 64. MK64 is impossible to deny their impact and quality. Saturn did not have Smash but it does have the best Bomberman game ever with up to 10 players Tbh I think if you embrace all 3. You have one of if not the best generation of consoles ever.
New IPs left and right. Tons of innovation on the software and hardware side. Variety and disparity. Its biggest flaw is assessability. Many of the gens great games were stuck in another nation. Didn't talk a lot about PS1 as everyone knows how loaded that console is.
Edit I should note City Connection a Japanese publisher has been porting Saturn games to PS5. Switch and PC. Cotton games. Guardian Force. Assault Suit Leynos 2. And most recently WolfFang and Skull Fang. All great games.
Last edited by Leynos - on 11 November 2024