Horrors of the Saturn: Sega’s Troubled Yet Undeterred Console at 30

In retrospect, you do have to feel a bit sorry for the Sega Saturn, despite Sega shooting themselves in the foot during its lifespan. While the Saturn’s 1994 launch in Japan was deemed a success, the North American launch the following year was hampered by inexplicable decisions that ultimately culminated in the Saturn’s early demise in the region. It’s a shame, as there were some quality titles that could go up against what was going on for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 at the time, even if some of them were Japan exclusive. That also included a number of horror titles, some of which are bona fide classics. So, on the 30th anniversary of the Saturn’s launch, here’s a selection of those titles. Obviously, some are ports from other systems, but that shouldn’t stop you from seeking them out if you’re a collector for the Saturn (if you can afford it).

Resident Evil

While it’d be easy to say that it’s just Resident Evil, there are a few key differences between what PlayStation owners had in 1996, and what the Saturn received a year later. For starters, the port was handled by a third-party developer, Nextech, and thanks to the Saturn’s architecture, Nextech to rework the graphics. While this resulted in better colour and a bit more detail in the textures, the loading times during the door opening screens were increased. Not only that, but the transparent textures were swapped for dithered textures (a recurring issue with Saturn games), which didn’t look as good as the PlayStation version.

However, Resident Evil on the Saturn got a few exclusive goodies. The precursor to The Mercenaries Mode that we all know and love started as a “Battle Game” minigame, which has you taking on swarms of enemies as you move through rooms in the mansion. There are new costumes, as well as new enemies, including a new gold Tyrant, a zombie version of Wesker, and a replacement to the Hunter in the Tick.

Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight

A port of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for the PlayStation, this was sadly a Japan exclusive. It also unfortunately wasn’t as good as the original. Much like what happened with Resident Evil, transparencies were again changed to dithered textures, and load times were increased, and there’s more slowdown. Since the Saturn doesn’t have a select button, you have to go to the status menu to access the game map. Due to the Saturn’s different resolution when compared to the PlayStation, the graphics were stretched, resulting in obvious distortion.

As for exclusives, two new areas in the castle were added with The Cursed Prison and the Underground Garden, each with new music that remixed “Bloody Tears,” “Beginning,” and “Vampire Killer.”  Also, much like Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, the Saturn version of Symphony allowed you to play as Maria. Her arsenal consists of kicks, but can also unleash magic attacks like in Rondo, as well as use magic summon spells akin to Alucard’s magic. Lastly, Richter has been redrawn from his original Rondo appearance to match the artwork by Ayami Kojima.

Deep Fear

Taking place deep under the Pacific Ocean at the aquatic lab known as Big Table, players assume the role of John Mayor, a Navy Seal stationed at the lab for security purposes. An incident involving a nuclear submarine results in an alien virus being unleashed, causing the inhabitants of the lab to mutate into horrific creatures. John must now fight for survival to escape.

Sega tried their hand at Survival Horror, and the results were pretty good with Deep Fear. Released in 1998 to capitalize on a certain other Survival Horror title’s success, Deep Fear shares similarities with Capcom’s baby, including the downright awful voice acting. Despite this, Deep Fear leans more towards the action side of Survival Horror, and doesn’t use all of the typical tricks that Capcom employed. The cinematic camera angles and the environment of the Big Table, for example, lack variety, resulting in things looking pretty same-y as you play. The music also doesn’t quite have the same dramatic effect as in Resident Evil.

Nonetheless, Deep Fear shines in the graphics, with character models getting far more attention than its inspiration. Also, seeing as you’re underwater, the air supply mechanic is used quite well to get the tension going. Daniel went into detail on Deep Fear in his article a few years ago, so check that out if you’re keen to learn more.

Corpse Killer: Graveyard Edition

Much like Digital Pictures’ other FMV title Night Trap, Corpse Killer is dumb cheese that you can switch your brain off to enjoy, even if the gameplay is still suspect. Still, it’s a bit puzzling for Sega to bring this one to its new console. The story for this one has you playing as an unnamed marine who’s been airdropped onto a tropical island on a top secret mission to stop the evil Dr. Hellman, who plans on releasing his army of zombies on the world. On top of that, you’ve been bitten and need to find a cure while also rescuing your fellow captured marines.

Being that this is the Saturn, Sega upgraded this version of Corpse Killer to the “Graveyard Edition”, which features a few exclusives such as full-screen FMVs as opposed to the compressed FMVs in the other versions, difficulty selection, new items and power-ups, and new zombie attacks where enemies pop up in front of you and attack. Oddly, the Saturn version lacks light gun support, though this is most likely due to the programmers being unable to put in a function to select from the new multiple ammo types.

Crypt Killer

Already an unremarkable game in the arcade in terms of its graphics, story and gameplay, Konami ported their lightgun shooter Crypt Killer to the Saturn, with the expected results. Granted, the Saturn does have faster load times when compared to the PlayStation port, but the graphics are somehow worse on the Saturn. Textures are a pixelated mess on the 3D assets, while the 2D sprites for the enemies are made all the more horrendous when they decide to pop up right in front of you as a jump scare.

It’s all on top the fact that this is still the boring, uninspired game that was in the arcades. Furthermore, unless you’re a hardcore lightgun fans, when you have the likes of Sega’s own The House of the Dead on the Saturn, it really begs the question of why you would want to bother with this one.

Digital Pinball: Necronomicon

When you think of horror pinball games, chances are you immediately go to Devil’s Crush or Alien Crush on the TurboGrafx-16. Meanwhile in Japan, developer Kaze had Digital Pinball: Necronomicon, a pinball game inspired by the works of H. P. Lovecraft. Surprisingly, Necronomicon does have a story, where a monk has discovered the text of the eponymous Necronomicon, and is slowly being driven mad as he reads the book, with his visions being the pinball tables you play. Of course, you can forego the story and play the tables individually.

Featuring some excellent ball physics with silky smooth 60 fps gameplay and crisp graphics, the entire experience is complemented by an awesome soundtrack by John Petrucci of Dream Theater. Best of all, for those looking to import the game (seeing as it was only released in Japan), everything from the menus to the options to spoken dialogue is all in English.

Enemy Zero

The second entry in Kenji Eno’s “D Trilogy” (the first game is also on the Saturn), Enemy Zero follows Laura Lewis, who awakens from cryosleep aboard the biological research spaceship AKI on its return to Earth. It seems that aliens that are invisible to human eyes have boarded the ship and are killing off the crew. Laura must now navigate the ship and stop the alien menace.

Apart from blatantly ripping of the plot to Alien and Eno’s animosity towards Sony, Enemy Zero‘s other noteworthy aspect was its gameplay. While navigation is similar to what players were doing in D, Enemy Zero utilized the unique mechanic of sound when it came to its invisible enemies. Getting their location and distance from the player is only possible by listening for audio cues. Coupled with the delayed time to charge your weapon, the fear generated here is obvious. It’s definitely not for everyone, since this mechanic can just as easily give way to frustration very quickly, but it’s this uniqueness that also makes Enemy Zero one to try at least once.

The House of the Dead

You knew this was coming. The story for The House of the Dead (much like the game itself) is over-the-top hilarity: Dr. Roy Curien, obsessed with discovering the secrets of life and death, unleashes his army of the undead on an unsuspecting populace. It’s up to AMS agents Thomas Rogan and his partner “G” to stop the scientist.

The Saturn is known for its excellent arcade ports of fighting games, but The House of the Dead still landed fairly well. The game wasn’t a perfect port from the arcade, with the graphics and sound taking a hit, and the slowdown and mid-level load times being an annoyance (particularly with the latter if there were enemies right around the corner). It’s still a lot of fun in spite of those niggles. And once again, Sega tried to offset those issues with console-exclusive extras. The Saturn Mode allows players to choose from different characters, each with their own stats like clip size, reload speed and life bar. There’s also a boss rush mode where you fight the game’s bosses in succession.

Dark Seed

Dark Seed tells the story of Mike Dawson, an author who has just bought a spacious mansion in Woodland Hills. On the first night in the house, Mike has a nightmare where a machine shoots an alien embryo into his forehead. Upon waking up, Mike discovers that within the mansion are portals to what’s called the Dark World. The Dark World is being taken over by aliens calling themselves the Ancients. The Ancients are now looking to get into our world, and Mike (with the embryo in his head) is the key. As a result, Mike must now find a way to stop the Ancients.

Another title we’ve talked about before several times, this was oddly given a Saturn port that was exclusive to Japan. Even weirder was the fact that despite the upgrade in every department when compared to its original PC version, the Saturn port doesn’t improve the visuals at all. This meant that the 16-colour VGA palette used on the PC version has Dark Seed looking extremely out of place when compared to what was also available on the Saturn at the time. The text was also translated to Japanese, but the voice acting is still in English.

Lunacy

Another FMV game, Lunacy was developed by System Sacom, who also made Mansion of Hidden Souls on the Sega CD. The game centres around a man named Fred, who finds himself imprisoned in Misty Town jail, with no recollection of who he is, or just how wound up in jail. The player soon learns that Fred came to the village in search of answers. Once Fred is released, he learns that the town ruler, Lord Gordon, has taken quite an interest in Fred, due to the strange mark on Fred’s forehead. The mark, it turns out, is only given to those who have been to the fabled City of Moons, of which Lord Gordon is quite obsessed with finding.

Being that this is an FMV game, the entire playthrough of Lunacy is filled with characters that you’ll be interacting with to tease out information on your journey, as well as adding colour to the game. System Sacom wisely added a time-saving mechanic for players, allow you to replay important conversations from Fred’s memory so that you can “recall” specific pieces of information. Another time-saver is the fact that walking sequences are pretty quick, avoiding the dreaded molasses movement of some FMV games. The whole atmosphere of Lunacy has an eerie feeling to it, with the game taking place in perpetual night, and the surreal music only accentuating that feeling. Not an outright scary title, but a definitely creepy one.

Mr. Bones

It’s hard to classify what type of game you’re getting with Mr. Bones. From the mind of Ed Annunziata, creator of the Ecco the Dolphin series, Mr. Bones combines platforming mechanics, along with rhythm game mechanics and other minigames. Mr. Bones tells the tale of the mad scientist DaGoulian, who sets out to purify the world with evil by using alchemy and a set of drums to summon an army of the dead from their graves as his skeletal soldiers. However, one of these resurrected skeletons is so “pure of heart” that he can’t be turned. DaGoulian quickly becomes aware of Mr. Bones, and sends the skeletal army after him.

While Mr. Bones employs platforming for a good deal of its gameplay, it’s not the only mechanic you’ll encounter. The opening level is a 2D platformer, while the next employs rhythm mechanics as you avoid skeletons trying to grab you. You’ll also have sequences of Mr. Bones jamming on his guitar or drums to turn parts of the skeleton army away from DaGoulian, or you’ll be running down a hill avoiding logs chasing after you. Along with the unique gameplay, Mr. Bones sports beautiful animation, as well as a soundtrack by Ronnie Montrose that mixes blues and hard rock. A definite highlight of the Saturn library.

PowerSlave

PowerSlave (or Exhumed as it’s known in Europe) unfortunately got caught up in the Doom clone craze, and was unfortunately overlooked by many FPS fans. This is especially frustrating, given that the developers, Lobotomy Software, were able to produce some impressive graphical effects and gameplay on the Saturn. PowerSlave centres on the Egyptian city of Karnak, which has been taken over by alien forces in the late 20th century. You along with a team of soldiers are to uncover what happened. However, your helicopter is shot down, and you’re left alone to battle the aliens, who are seeking to resurrect the ancient Egyptian pharaoh King Ramses and use his powers to control the world.

While the main gameplay for PowerSlave is typical FPS action of the day, there are some platforming elements. Also, PowerSlave isn’t linear, as you have several locations to visit across the map, which you’ll be revisiting in order to grab specific artifacts that grant you special abilities, such as being able to jump higher, breathe underwater, and so on. The levels themselves also sported complex layouts when compared to something like Doom or Quake. In fact, the developers made it so that if you were up for a challenge, you could find “Team Dolls”, dolls with faces of the members of the development team on them, scattered throughout the levels. Finding all 23 would unlock a minigame called Death Tank.