Sonic Jam

[Shatterhand]

I just got Sonic Jam for the Saturn.

And I can't help but thinking

WHY THE HELL Sega never made ANYTHING USEFUL with that 3D engine? I can't believe they didn't do a Sonic 3D with that engine! It's very easy to control Sonic with the Y view. and the engine looks good enough and it's pretty fast and smooth.

Ooohh well...

[Kiken]

I just got Sonic Jam for the Saturn.

And I can't help but thinking

WHY THE HELL Sega never made ANYTHING USEFUL with that 3D engine? I can't believe they didn't do a Sonic 3D with that engine! It's very easy to control Sonic with the Y view. and the engine looks good enough and it's pretty fast and smooth.

Ooohh well...

Said engine became Sonic Adventure. Make of that what you will.

[Shatterhand]

Erm...

Well, It's not a Saturn game, so it doesn't count

If it was made on Saturn, then it would be better

[roushimsx]

If it was made on Saturn, then it would be better

I thought it was quite awesome when it came out, other than the control being limited to 2 buttons for no good reason (nothing like trying to pick up a Chao and accidentally spin dashing them because you're 1cm too far away). It's a shame they never bothered to clean up the camera before it got ported to PC and Gamecube over 5 years later (and it's a shame the Gamecube port ran so poorly...there's no excuse for it, especially when it was caused by their insistance to use higher resolution textures).

btw, if you want to try a really wild 3d Sonic game, check out this Doom mod

[sethsez]

Sonic Robo Blast 2 is my favorite 3D Sonic game. Make of that what you will.

[Shatterhand]

I dunno, when I played it on my friend's DC when it was new, I already thought it wasn't all that hot. The controls weren't very good, and the level design was uninspired. For the 1st time, I would think that Mario was better than Sonic (Putting Mario 64 against Sonic Adventure)

Anyway, a Sonic 3D game for the Saturn would obviously help the Saturn a lot.

If this and Shenmue were released for the Saturn instead of the Dreamcast, maybe things would be different for Sega now?

Naah.. I guess not

[jp]

I dunno, when I played it on my friend's DC when it was new, I already thought it wasn't all that hot. The controls weren't very good, and the level design was uninspired. For the 1st time, I would think that Mario was better than Sonic (Putting Mario 64 against Sonic Adventure)

Anyway, a Sonic 3D game for the Saturn would obviously help the Saturn a lot.

If this and Shenmue were released for the Saturn instead of the Dreamcast, maybe things would be different for Sega now?

Naah.. I guess not

Sonic X-Treme was in the works forever... but it eventually got canceled. The screen shots looked nice though.


And IMO the only thing that could have saved the Saturn would've been Bernie Stolar dying before he got the job at SoA. He burned a lot of bridges for Sega...

[Kiken]

Sonic X-Treme was in the works forever... but it eventually got canceled. The screen shots looked nice though.


And IMO the only thing that could have saved the Saturn would've been Bernie Stolar dying before he got the job at SoA. He burned a lot of bridges for Sega...

It wasn't all Bernie's fault... Sega of Japan were being jerks as well, trying to dictate what would and wouldn't sell in the US. :/

[jp]

Sonic X-Treme was in the works forever... but it eventually got canceled. The screen shots looked nice though.


And IMO the only thing that could have saved the Saturn would've been Bernie Stolar dying before he got the job at SoA. He burned a lot of bridges for Sega...

It wasn't all Bernie's fault... Sega of Japan were being jerks as well, trying to dictate what would and wouldn't sell in the US. :/

Its a fairly well documented fact though that Bernie was the reason for Working Designs and Konami jumping ship on the Saturn towards the end. No Japanese developers wanted to make Saturn games towards the end because they knew they wouldn't get a US release. And at some point Capcom was going to go over Stolar's head and release the 4MB cart in the states by themselves.

Also, Stolar squeeled about the DC early, completely destroying any longevity the Saturn could have had in the states, and really screwing the system over in Japan as well.

[roushimsx]

Its a fairly well documented fact though that Bernie was the reason for Working Designs and Konami jumping ship on the Saturn towards the end. No Japanese developers wanted to make Saturn games towards the end because they knew they wouldn't get a US release. And at some point Capcom was going to go over Stolar's head and release the 4MB cart in the states by themselves.

Also, Stolar squeeled about the DC early, completely destroying any longevity the Saturn could have had in the states, and really screwing the system over in Japan as well.

Working Designs was no big loss. They did three localizations worth a damn (Dragon Force, Sega Ages, and Iron Storm) and that's it. No big loss. They left because Vic threw a temper tantrum after being shoved into a corner at E3 97 instead of being showcased as one of Sega's premier game publishers. I may not have liked Bernie, but I do agree that telling Vic to shut the fuck up and sit in the corner was a good thing.

I think that's the only positive thing I can say about Bernie, though.

[jp]

Its a fairly well documented fact though that Bernie was the reason for Working Designs and Konami jumping ship on the Saturn towards the end. No Japanese developers wanted to make Saturn games towards the end because they knew they wouldn't get a US release. And at some point Capcom was going to go over Stolar's head and release the 4MB cart in the states by themselves.

Also, Stolar squeeled about the DC early, completely destroying any longevity the Saturn could have had in the states, and really screwing the system over in Japan as well.

Working Designs was no big loss. They did three localizations worth a damn (Dragon Force, Sega Ages, and Iron Storm) and that's it. No big loss. They left because Vic threw a temper tantrum after being shoved into a corner at E3 97 instead of being showcased as one of Sega's premier game publishers. I may not have liked Bernie, but I do agree that telling Vic to shut the fuck up and sit in the corner was a good thing.

I think that's the only positive thing I can say about Bernie, though.

US versions of the updated (but in the original's case, not as good) Lunar games would have been nice. As would have been a US Thunder Force V.

[Dartagnan1083]

Vic jumped ship because Bernie wasn't suited to running a games bussiness. In Vic's own words, Bernie was a follower. . .not a leader. Bernie was quick to discourage support of RPGs and other "niche" titles.

If Working Designs had stayed on, there's no telling what else might have come across the pacific. Sakura Taisen was to be personally arranged for WD localization shortly after the bernie incident, Thunderforce V was to come over.
Then we have Radiant Silvergun, and Grandia to consider as well.


When I look at how Sega of America was managed back then...it's clear that he was not the right person for the job.
The so called 5-star policy was a joke that kept trash in the US and the gems in japan.
At least Kalinske fought for his power to command SoA during his tenure, and at least he made the effort to figure out how the game market worked.

In regards to Bernie, he wasn't all bad, but should NOT have been placed in charge of the ENTIRETY of Sega of America. But he was the perfect puppet/figurehead for SoA haters in SoJ.

In closing
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[LoneSage]

They did three localizations worth a damn (Dragon Force, Sega Ages, and Iron Storm) and that's it.

No mention of Magic Knight Rayearth?

[roushimsx]

No mention of Magic Knight Rayearth?

Hell no.

[neorichieb1971]

I think alot of stuff came out in the UK which never came to the USA.

That Flying squadron definately came out.

[Diabollokus]

I've seen the footage of sonic xtreme and honestly it was no big loss, graphics were okay but he did some hideous jumping into the screen and lots of rotation of the screen around sonic, a bit lie bug 2 or clockwork knight style only much faster. probably would have sold really well though.

We were better off with sonic adventure, which is a good game.

[jp]

I think alot of stuff came out in the UK which never came to the USA.

That Flying squadron definately came out.

Parodius
Darius II
Keio Flying Squadron II
Disc World
Disc World II
Riven
Jewels of the Oracle
Swagman
Deep Fear


Just to name a few.

[Shatterhand]

Does Sonic Jam has slowdown in the main games? Sonic 2 and Sonic & Knuckles slowed down in some weird spots.

Fighters Megamix also slows down sometimes, and I didn't rembemer doing it that when I played in my mate's Saturn.

Is my Saturn getting crazy, or am *I* getting crazy?

[roushimsx]

Does Sonic Jam has slowdown in the main games? Sonic 2 and Sonic & Knuckles slowed down in some weird spots.

Fighters Megamix also slows down sometimes, and I didn't rembemer doing it that when I played in my mate's Saturn.

Is my Saturn getting crazy, or am *I* getting crazy?

IIRC Sonic Jam had the option to play with and without the slowdown that was present in the original Genesis games.

I recall Fighters Megamix had a bit of slowdown in it. Shame they had to include those arenas...would have prefered a more open layout and a higher resolution

[Shatterhand]

Hmm, I didn't find this. It has a difficult setting which I didn't mess yet, you can set it to "Easy", "Normal" and "Original". I've only played in original so far.