I traded in my Dreamcast for an Xbox back in the day (I was broke and couldn't afford to stay current with gaming without trading old stuff in). For years I've had a good thing going - I absolutely
lived the DC experience from 9/9/99 until fall 2002 when there was just nothing much left to play. It was the system that made me a serious Sega fan (nice timing, guys). Because I was so deeply into it, I never had much desire to go back to it. I felt
sated by my experience with it, and many of my favourites like Rez & KoF '98 moved on with me to other platforms if I got thirsty anyway.
But now this thread is ruining that.
It's funny seeing the winds change, because during the DC's lifespan it was always Saturn die hards saying the DC didn't live up to it. And since much of the Dreamcast's good stuff got ported, the Saturn remained the collector's system, getting the nod over the DC for its shmup, 2D & fighting game libraries. But I guess years of praise for the DC's creativity has shifted the conversation a bit.
And yeah, Le Mans was a total hidden gem, I sat & played through the full 24 hour race. Alongside Daytona 2001 it is the game I think of when I think of Dreamcast racers, and I think of the Dreamcast as that genre's peak. Metropolis Street Racer was another excellent must-have.
It was actually seeing how badly the PS1 butchered R4's gorgeous art design that convinced me to upgrade to the Dreamcast, even though I'd never owned a Sega system (and had bloodied myself in the schoolyard console wars heartily for the other side). The 32-bit era (at least in the West) was such a step back from the 16-bit days, I just couldn't stand it anymore. And the DC delivered. I've owned just about every version of Daytona, and I've personally found the differences a bit overblown. That DC version was great fun. When I finally got the original Saturn version (as well as CCE) years later I didn't get what the fuss was about. Sega Rally 2 was also a joy, but
man it was hard. There was a certain point in the game that I couldn't get past even though I seemed to be running a flawless race.
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But that's neither here nor there, as I just pulled the trigger on another import Saturn. I have one with a pile of games sitting somewhere in a basement in rural Japan that I'll probably never see again, so I just bit the bullet & jumped back in. For me, along with the PC Engine CD, the Saturn was always the one with the mystique. It had all those inaccessible legendary imports that you could only see glimpses of in Gamefan. They were way too expensive to import (for me at least) and I couldn't read them anyway.
But the import Saturn library was always the one that the people who
really knew games - at least the hand drawn sprite-based Japanese ones I loved - spoke of in reverent tones. What was a Dodonpachi and why was it important, and how the heck did all these people even know about it? Was the dpad
really that much better than everything else? (Pretty much, yeah). Why did Radiant Silvergun cost as much as a console? It was the Gunstar guys?? Man, wish I could check it out. Those pixel-perfect fighters that could satisfy the most anal of graphics whores? I barely even understood what aspect ratio meant, but it sounded important. And all that anime stuff, at a time when it was still relatively rare in the West, looked so enticing (only later would I learn how much trash it involved). So many experiences we just couldn't get here, where hyper-conservative publishers for years assumed we couldn't read, only wanted hyper-macho machosity, and anything with a female protagonist or bright colours was thoroughly out of the question. And of course, anything 2D looked
old and was inherently of lesser value. "You paid money for that? Metal Gear Solid is like looking at a movie!"
Anyway.
Years later now that I can finally actually read the games, diving into the import stuff is paradise because so much of it is is absurdly cheap. Like, classic rpgs & fighters in perfect condition for $3 cheap. Outside of the notable rarities that cost a car payment, the Saturn seems an incredible system to collect for.
I've got:
Dodonpachi
Rockman 8
Snatcher
Samurai Shodown RPG
Magical Drop 2
Sakura Wars Hanagumi Columns
Fighters Megamix
Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers
Hang On GP '95
Mobile Suit Gundam: Giren's Ambition
Macross: Do You Remember Love?
1st Gen Saturn Console complete w/ box
...heading my way for $265 USD.
And there are mountains of things I can't wait to check out. My one fear is that the Poly Mega or similar hardware takes off, everyone realizes they can suddenly play physical import games with English patches, and the prices of all this stuff starts to go up. But the opposite is more likely, the focus switches to Gamecube & PS2 stuff, then PS360 as people who had that stuff as kids stumble into disposable income, and ancient loadfest 90s stuff looks less appealing.