Too fucking right!People like to think the Saturn’s hardware was the cause of its failure in the west but really it’s because they never made any next gen sequels to their popular 16-bit sega games and all they had were very content lite arcade games.
Back then I remember coming across an industry related magazine, and in it a couple publishers mentioned how they were using Dreamcast as a stop gap until PS2 arrived. You could see it too, because Dreamcast was only receiving prettier PSone ports, while their new games were headed to PS2.
It was disappointing too see. Also back when the system launched there was some excitement in regards to Namco as they had just pumped out Soul Calibur, and promised two more games. It was like a kick to the nuts when those games turned out to be Mr Driller and Namco Museum. I wonder if that was really the actual plan or did something change?
Well, I did....All the games you mentioned, plus Gun valkerie, JSR, and panzer dragoon...... Then getting ports of guardian heroes, radiant silvergun, ikaruga, and bangaio-O on X360 (all of which I still play even now via BC on my series X) , in addition to the AM2 ports (VF2, fighting vipers, daytona USA) ......I kind of feel Sega fans should gravitate towards Xbox, given all the BC games you can only play on Xbox.
Sonic Adventure 1&2
Sonic all stars racing transformed
Sonic Generations
Virtua Fighter 2
Nights
Virtual On
Sonic 3 (with original music)
Fighting Vipers
Superior versions of many genesis games due to the botched audio in the genesis collection.
Golden Axe (arcade)
Altered Beast (arcade)
Etc.
That's nice and all but peak Xbox never produced anything close to peak Sega in the console space and that was 18-20 years ago with the OG Xbox.I kind of feel Sega fans should gravitate towards Xbox, given all the BC games you can only play on Xbox.
Sonic Adventure 1&2
Sonic all stars racing transformed
Sonic Generations
Virtua Fighter 2
Nights
Virtual On
Sonic 3 (with original music)
Fighting Vipers
Superior versions of many genesis games due to the botched audio in the genesis collection.
Golden Axe (arcade)
Altered Beast (arcade)
Etc.
Well there was SEGA Sports, but that got killed off by the EA-NFL deal and reincarinated into a Sonic spinoff series.Their only AAA franchise at that time was Sonic, and even there we could argue that Sega had over saturated the market with too many Sonic games 1991-94.
Did Sega make great videogames? Absolutely. Did those games deserve to sell millions? Absolutely. But the didn’t, and they weren’t going to. Just look at Sega’s software output on PS2, Xbox and GameCube. Nothing outside Sonic sold worth a hill of beans.
Sorry, kids. Sega was doomed.
No sonic, sor, golden axe, shinobi (well, shinobi x/legions wasn't as fluid in gameplay etc).
Too fucking right!
From experience, I was waiting for Saturn games library to justify console purchase. No sonic, sor, golden axe, shinobi (well, shinobi x/legions wasn't as fluid in gameplay etc). Then RE/TR sequels were PS1 exclusive instead of also for Saturn.
Ended up getting a PS1 later on, like '99, didn't pick up a Saturn until like 2002 just to have one for the collection.
Aside from Sonic and their 2K sports line, Crazy Taxi (PS2/GC/XB), Super Monkey Ball 1/2 (GC) and Virtua Fighter 4 (PS2) also sold well in US.Just look at Sega’s software output on PS2, Xbox and GameCube. Nothing outside Sonic sold worth a hill of beans.
I didn't...but your first lines nailed it.I think the only way Sega could’ve conceivably remained in the hardware space is if they‘d released a proper handheld again...
Thank you for reading my fanfiction.
I didn't...but your first lines nailed it.
The gameboy didn't kill the Gamegear, ridiculous battery did...
You're godam right, a handheld would have been the perfect fit for Sega's huge library.
Imagine if Sega had released a 3d-capable handheld in 2001 or so, to compete with the GBA.
Aside from Sonic and their 2K sports line, Crazy Taxi (PS2/GC/XB), Super Monkey Ball 1/2 (GC) and Virtua Fighter 4 (PS2) also sold well in US.
Did Sega make great videogames? Absolutely. Did those games deserve to sell millions? Absolutely. But the didn’t, and they weren’t going to. Just look at Sega’s software output on PS2, Xbox and GameCube. Nothing outside Sonic sold worth a hill of beans.
Wouldn't work when the PSP would come out 3 years later, GBA was dealing with imploding competition with Swan and N-gage but it still ended up selling slower and being a weaker entry because of the PSPS and DS later taking attention away faster than expected in most parts of the world.
The GBA had such short life-span only because Nintendo pulled the plug after the DS came out.
The PSP would be more powerful obviously, but that didn’t prevent it from being outsold by the DS,
Of course, this Sega handheld would need a library of compelling games, but with Sega‘s console business dead, they would‘ve been able to concentrate fully on making games for said handheld system, so I don’t think a lack of software would’ve been a problem, especially when there‘s also a huge selection of Sega games from the Saturn and everything before that that they could port.
Tetris is one of the reason the Gameboy outsold the Gamegear but it didn't kill it. Sega did... Me and my friends ditched that console because it had less than 2 hours battery life.It was too expensive to play as a legit nomad handheld, not sustainable.Gameboy killed the Lynx and the Gamegear because of Tetris. it was accessible, and cheap to buy a GB with it, and GG and Lynx didn't have a competitor ready and any advantages they had was removed because of it. GG and Lynx couldn't drop the price low enough ASAP either because there were production issues at the time for their color/backlit screens.
They had a handful of hits in the 2002-2008 period:
Super Monkey Ball was one of 2002's bestselling NGC games - it ended up selling almost 200k copies and cost almost nothing to develop.
Phantasy Star Online sold more than 1 million units (DC-PC-NGC-XBox). Final tally was probably closer to 1,6 million.
Ryu ga Gotoku (Yakuza) sold 1 million units for the PS2.
Valkyria Chronicles sold 2 million copies across all its platforms (PS3-PS4-NSW-PC).
True. Nonetheless i think a 2023 Sega could be strong enough to survive a brand new console:Those are nice numbers, but in the 21st Century, those numbers are not anywhere sufficient to sustain a hardware platform.
LOLSega can barely make a mediocre Sonic game let alone a console.
I don't know how bad it was worldwide but even here we had a magazine called Games that was hip and mainstream or whatever and even had a TV show and it was basically a Sony ad from cover to cover, more so from intro to outro, with some token mention of Saturn or later N64 games, at times
I mean, B-K was THE state of the art 3D platform console game when it was released
Tetris is one of the reason the Gameboy outsold the Gamegear but it didn't kill it. Sega did... Me and my friends ditched that console because it had less than 2 hours battery life.It was too expensive to play as a legit nomad handheld, not sustainable.
Games were not the pob. Port or not, kids were delighted to play Sonic (for a few minutes)
Crash 3, Sonic Adventure.
True but more important, arcade racers fans must secure their Daytona on xbox consoles, it will delisted on February 7th:Also, kudos for praising Daytona ‘95. Get yourself a racing wheel and be amazed at how perfectly AM2 captures the feel of the arcade classic. Add in the murder death cars and 80-lap endurance mode and you have an all-time classic. Yes, it’s rough looking, always was. But it’s a fantastic trip.
"At the time of release". These were released later.
Also you can argue Crash was your regular on-rails Crash game vs Banjo's open world design. It's FAR easier to optimize visuals on a game where it controls the camera for you, vs a game with huge free-roaming environments where the developer has to take into account a lot more variables and leave some breathing room for any scenario.
As for Sonic Adventure... It was released a half year later on a much more powerful console.
IMO, no console game could touch Banjo-Kazooie in mid 1998, graphics wise.
My two cents is that the fatal flaw of the Saturn was SoA. Bernie Stolar was adamant about not having 2D games or quirky Japanese titles. He wanted 3D western-style titles. The marketing, the surprise launch, etc. Truly mind-bending business decisions.
Agree that SoJ also made awful decisions, imagine being legit terrified/motivated by the Atari Jaguar, lmao.Bernie was right, it only failed because of Sega of Japan distancing themselves from the Genesis and the western success, and Bernie making bad moves with the little they left him with.
Bernie wanted to continue where the previous western leader left off that Sega Japan fired, which Sega Japan didn't want.
Agree that SoJ also made awful decisions, imagine being legit terrified/motivated by the Atari Jaguar, lmao.
So as for your statement of if Banjo has the best graphics from any 3D platform game on consoles when it came out, yes that's possible. I suppose Gex 3D would be the competition in that case.
Comparatively, Gex has some higher highs in some areas than Banjo, but the themed levels based on genres make Banjo more "consistent" if you get what I mean. Gex's graphics are inconsistent as a result based on where you are in the game, so yeah I could see that being the case of what you said.
Banjo has some pretty high highs though. I especially like how it can effortlessly render the whole landscape from afar, with no loss of texture quality or fog,
You seem to be posting images of the HD remasters with additional detail in image quality and textures, not the N64 originals.
Remaster
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N64 Original
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No, my screens are from Parallel RDP at 480p so not nearly the quality of the remaster.
The Remaster does not add any detail and the textures it uses are the same assets. The only thing it improves is make the game widescreen, which my pictures are not. And i think they made the UI look cleaner but i'm not sure.
Even in gameplay there are details missing from the N64 version that are in the first pic and your pics, like certain details on the hedges, pop-in, texture blur at distances, missing flowers, missing marks on the ground, flat or missing texture details on various walls indoor and out.
You're shots look very close to the XBLA version in not just these details, but also the lighting, the lack of blur, and it being brighter. The details on the maze hedges are also pretty much the same, where in the N64 original the top was always flat as shown, with minor details when close up.
Still a good looking game though for the time.
Context I'm taking into account is that even 4th graders on the playground knew the Jaguar was a piece of shit that no one wanted, lol.Make perfect sense in context, no one had any reason to believe Atari was already broke and wouldn't be able to produce their own consoles, or enough of them, they just saw the 3D demos, which were impressive at the time but the tarring of the system by Youtubers for years has made it hard for people to see that. That was before 3DO even had their late event.
However, the Jaguar did have features Saturn and even PS1 lacked, like perspective correction, dither filter, more colors and better blending, and such. It wasn't a bad machine (spec-wise) it was just screwed up massively, so it was difficult to get the jaguar to do anything you wanted it to do, which Ironically, is a problem Sega also had with the Saturn, just not as badly, and things improved massively in the end despite taking too much time to change Sega's fortunes, where as the jaguar has marginal improvement.
Still Sega of Japan was filled with mistakes, greenlit millions into vanity projects that had nothing to do with releasing or marketing games, other than the Pico and Nomad, they also reduced western employees which gave them less games to put out in the west first-party wise, just silly decisions over at Sega Japan.
Context I'm taking into account is that even 4th graders on the playground knew the Jaguar was a piece of shit that no one wanted, lol.