We have finally seen some incredible games feed our nostalgia appetite in the past couple of years. Notable Saturn classics like Daytona USA, Sega Rally, Guardian Heroes, and the recently announced Nights: Into Dreams have revved our hearts up and gives us excitement for what they may announce next. Here are some Saturn Classics that most deserve an HD remake.
Dragon Force (and hopefully DF2):
This RTS Strategy RPG classic gave us the ability to command a specialized group of soldiers to go against the land and take over the continent bit by bit. With colorful anime-stlye designs and an engrossing story, Dragon force made waves as one of the best Saturn games ever made.
What is it about?
A great evil plagues your world and the world is in chaos due to the exploits of an evil dragon. You play as a leader in control of a small nation, in order to defend yourselves against the oncoming onslaught of a zealous conqueror named Goldark. You decide to take the initiative by gathering new generals and possibly create alliances with other nations (by force if necessary). Finding out about the chaos in the world, you set out to unify everyone and defeat the evil.
What kind of game is it?
Simply calling it a real time strategy RPG is a bit complicated. You spend time in the game alternating between managing your troops, making sure they're well supplied and sending the out to battle to capture generals (as well as the other nations doing the same) and handing domestic affairs. During the domestic affairs process, you have the ability to court captured generals to your side, give promotions and items to your troops and upgrade/search your castles for loot and supplies.
The game puts you in the role as a major general enabling you to give commands to your troops. The general you control remains stationary but has the ability to cast magic spells to turn the tide of battle to your side. Upon winning battles, generals can gain experience awarding them new stats and abilities.
Why it deserves a remake?
There simply aren't many games like it. Dragon Force is a prime example of fusing genres done right. Slight enhancements have already been done with a PS2 port of the game, but next gen consoles will finally have the ability to clean it up nicely for an HD screen. The bright colorful graphics and the awesome soundtrack could use an overhaul. There is a reason why complete copies of this game can still fetch 70+ on ebay, the game is still a blast to play.
Astal:
Known for beautiful hand drawn graphics and top notch animation, Astal was a 2d platformer that should be in every Saturn library. Unfortunately, poor sales and questionable marketing kept this from the hands of many Saturn owners.
What is it about?
A supreme goddess named Antowas created the world from a magic crystal. Two humans were created to inhabit the world, each bearing a magic crystal. The first was a girl named Leda who had the power of life and a boy named Astal who bore a red crystal. After expending her energy creating the world and the inhabitants, Antowas slept.
Seizing the opportunity, an Evil being Jerado made an attempt to take over the land that Antowas Created. Jerado creates the minion Geist who proceeds to kidnap Leda and imprison her on the bottom of the Ocean. Astal, enraged Ledas abduction, attempted to rip the world apart to get her back. Antowas awoke from the ensuing Chaos and proceeded to banish Astal to the Moon. Leda was saved and Jerado banished, Anotwas returned to her slumber. Uncontested, Geist roamed the world and created his own dark image upon the land. From the moon Astal witnessed Leda being kidnapped once again. Not being able to cope, Astal broke free of his moon prison and now must rush off to save Leda.
What kind of game is it?
It's a 2d platformer much more similar to Rayman that it is to Mario. Astal has various powerful attacks and can lift objects in the environment to throw at his foes. He also has a blue bird companion that can attack faraway objects, gather items, and find other creative ways to assist Astal in a pinch. Expect awesome boss fights and harsh platforming segments.
Why it deserves a remake?
Simply put, everyone needs to play it. It deserves so much more than it got, and it's one of the games I would stay by 100%. It's easy to pick up and get in to, sports many epic boss fights, and has a very charming aesthetic. There's nothing that should stop this game from being cleaned up, processed and given to us to enjoy it and give it the recognition it deserves.
Die Hard Arcade:
Popular at the arcades and the Saturn, Die Hard Arcade did well in showing us that 3d beat em ups can be done, and can be a very awesome experience. One of the early users and abusers of the quick time events popular today.
What is it about?
You play the role as a cop trying to rescue a company president's daughter from the hands of terrorists. The entire building is taken over from armed thugs it it's up to you and your partner to take them down and rescue the girl. You will utilize everything you can to make that happen.
What kind of game is it?
It's your typical side scroller beat em up. You control a fighter who can dispatch thugs with your fists, and like many beat em ups, you can pick up weapons and items off the ground to use to your advantage. The game supplies you and your foes with everything from pepper to rocket launchers. Many weapons allow you to time your button presses for combination attacks that you can use while you dodge many environmental hazards that appear on the battlefield.
There's several sequences between fights that make you press a specific action at a certain time. Failure to input the command correctly typically leads to loss of life or another scene where you have to beat up some more villains to proceed.
Why it deserves a remake?
Simply put, the game is a ton of fun, especially with a friend. There's not anywhere near enough local Coop games out this, and this would be a worth addition to anyone's library.
Panzer Dragoon (HD collection Please!):
A rail shooter from Saturn's early days. A classic that holds up well in the test of time, giving exciting thrills and a roller coaster ride that keeps you spinning well after the game is finished.
What is it about?
Thousands of years into the future, in the aftermath of a great war that pitted humans against biological monsters, a young man happens upon a mysterious creature during a large battle. The creature saves the man and the two form a partnership as they go off to fight against some of the monsters and people plaguing the world.
What kind of game is it?
Panzer dragoon is best classified as an on rails shooter. It's easiest to think of it as a roller coaster ride where you can't control the direction of which you travel, but you are able to move the dragon up, down, left, or right. You can also change the direction of the camera, as enemies will come at you from all sides.
Why it deserves a remake?
Its a scary thought to think that this game may die in obscurity, not only was it one of the first games that brought the Sega Saturn up, the series final game was one of the last games during the Saturn's final farewell. If any one series deserves a remake above all the others, it would be all 3 of the panzer dragoon games (maybe add Orta as an extra?)
Shining Force III (You know what? Bring all of them!):
One of the games that truly tested the Sega Saturn's might. Shining force III was a high quality strategy RPG that combined sprites with 3d fight scenes in a pretty remarkable package. Stellar character designs, music, production values, and an epic story too boot.
What is it about?
You take the role of a Hero named Symbios who is attending a conference for peace. A unknown masked terrorist sect attacks and causes trouble during the assembly and kidnaps your King. You gather your group of warriors and set off the save him while uncovering a plot of the Bolzome sect to use large mechanical golems to attack and take over the world.
The story is told as a trilogy (though sadly only the first game made it here in the states) as there are 3 main characters in the story.
What kind of game is it?
Pretty pure bread and butter strategy RPG similar to Final Fantasy Tactics. Instead of random battles, battles fought as missions to progress the story. Grinding consists of running away from a battle to try again. Abilities are learned through weapon proficiency. As you attack opponents, you will have new abilities that will appear as you battle. While you have no control over when you do these abilities, their frequency will increase during the course of the game, dealing massive amounts of damage.
The game also utilized a unique comrade system, the longer you kept units close to eachother, the better their stats. They would form "Friendships" giving each other attack damage and defense bonuses.
Why it deserves a remake?
Why doesn't it? A fantastic game that will give you 40+ hours of gameplay as you go through an epic romp through the world. Shining force has all the makings of a true classic and is still fun to play to this day. (I know, I've played it recently!)
Fighter's Megamix
What do you get when you get Virtua Fighter, Fighting Vipers, and a....Daytona car?
What is it about?
There's not really a story, they took the fighting game characters from many Sega fighting franchises and put it into a single game. At the time, they incorporated new moves (at the time) from Virtua Fighter 3 and added more than twice the roster in hidden characters. For its time, it was the match up the century being a celebration for all the Sega franchises before there was ever a Smash Brothers.
What kind of game is it?
Well if you haven't played the core games, it's a 3d fighting game that uses a 3 button fighting system. Punch, Kick, and Block and combinations thereof will enable your character to employ various attacks. The roster features a very impressive 34 characters (Incredibly large for a 3d fighter of the era) and had a couple of wild choices like the Daytona car Hornet, and a couple of characters from Sonic: The Fighters.
The game also gave the virtua fighter combatants the ability to sidestep for the first time, enabling a character to dodge dangerous incoming attacks.
Why it deserves a remake?
If anything, this game needs to be out there to preserve Sega's fighting game legacy. Not too many people I know plays a lot of Virtua Fighter, and rarely have i seen anyone excited after fighting Vipers, but I don't want those games to ever fade out into obscurity. Even though the update for Virtua Fighter V is here, people really need to play Fighter's Megamix to see just where that legacy was drawn from.
Princess Crown
Vanillaware's amazing game for the saturn. Those of you familiar with Odin's Sphere, GrimGrimoire, and the upcoming Dragon's Crown will feel right at home. With truly stunning sprite work and animation, this game really pushed the Saturn to its limit
What is it about?
You play the role of a Princess roaming around your kingdom in order to solve the issues of your people. This leads the princess into countless perils but luckily she meets many strong allies along her way.
What kind of game is it?
This game is a whole lot like Odin's Sphere. You have an attack button in which you can perform combinations of attacks provided you have stamina. Over the course of time, depleted stamina will regenerate do you can continuing attacking the enemy. The game will test your reflexes for dodging, jumping, blocking and controlling your attacks for peak efficiency. The game sports many boss battles. The bosses will have patterns that you must learn if you want to survive their onslaught.
Why it deserves a remake?
There's a good cult following for Vanillaware games, and this was a game that really brought out the amazing 2d engine of the system. The game received almost universal praise for the visuals and remains as one of the greatest looking 2d games on the Saturn. It's still fun to play, if you played Odin's Sphere and liked it, you should really find a way to give Princess Crown a whirl.
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