🪐 Written: January 21st-February 25th, 2023 🪐
Hello, gamers and readers, welcome to my blog and thank you for taking the time to tune in today, I really appreciate it, and hope everyone is having a happy new year thus far. 😃 I'm in the mood to talk about the Sega Saturn, it's Saturday, and you know what that means:
I could not think of a subtitle that wasn't derived from one of the games in HAL Laboratory's Kirby franchise, but it's the best I could think of
Random Saturnday III: Triple Deluxe is here! 😄 For those tuning in to one of these for the first time, Random Saturnday posts are when I briefly cover my thoughts and experiences pertaining to my latest retro console, the Sega Saturn (which I got ten months ago) and talk about what games for it I caught up with at that point.
The first one I wrote back in June and talked about my first four Saturn games as well as my thoughts on the console itself--
#1 Clockwork Knight (Clockwork Knight: Pepperouchau no Daibōken [ ⬤ ]) | Saves: N/A
#2 Solar Eclipse (Titan Wars [ ◯ ][ ⬤ ]) | Saves: 3 Blocks
#3 Tomb Raider (Tomb Raiders [ ⬤ ]) | Saves: 55 Blocks
--and the second I wrote in September and shared my thoughts on games five through nine--
#5 Croc: Legend of the Gobbos (Croc! Pau-Pau Island [ ⬤ ]) | Saves: 4 Blocks
#6 Clockwork Knight 2 (Clockwork Knight: Pepperouchau no Fukubukuru [ ⬤ ]) | Saves: 1 Block
#7 Sonic 3D Blast (Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island [ ◯ ][ ⬤ ]) | Saves: N/A
#8 Bug! (Bug!: Jump Shite, Fundzukechatte, Pecchanko [ ⬤ ]) | Saves: 2 Blocks
#9 Panzer Dragoon | Saves: N/A
Something I probably should've done last time was list what games I had prior to covering the new ones I got, which I'll make up for now, I'll also give mention to how many blocks a game's save takes up in the system's memory (if it does) in case anyone is curious. The CR2032 battery I replaced in the Saturn back on May 12th, 2022 is still working, and I'm glad about that, but for how much longer I'm not exactly sure as I don't know what the battery life's longevity is like regarding the Saturn.
So anyway, in the time since I wrote the last Random Saturnday, I've managed to catch up with eleven more Sega Saturn games, four of them for Christmas, making for a total of twenty Sega Saturn games in my collection (for the time being). Wondering how I was going to approach this (since it is a lot to talk about) I figured I would split this post in two with my thoughts games 10 through 16 being covered here and the remaining four that I got for Christmas on a separate post which I plan to upload on the same day.
Without any further delay, let's talk about the newer games I've played and experienced on the Sega Saturn:
* The North American jewel case just refers to the game as Baku Baku, but shows the full title in-game
Under the most suspect lighting choice, no less, almost as if this game is suggesting it's an evil idea... 🤔 which may or not be depending how you look at it
The princess has got far too many pets for one person to handle, oh no! So the minister suggests to the King that a competition be held to see who will attain the title of Royal Zookeeper.
* Emphasis on "difficult", believe me when I say that this game pulls absolutely no punches in terms of overall difficulty and challenge value... but that's exactly what makes it compellingly addicting
Whoa, expectation subversion: instead of saving the princess you must compete against her
if they lost (having Polly or Gon do a looped celebratory jump) or if you did, the lion Gabriel spontaneously appearing on the loser's playing field upon the match being over gnashing with his teeth, and there are CG cutscenes at the beginning and ending of Baku Baku Animal. There's a retroactively creepy quality about a lot of this game's character models and animations--time has certainly not done them justice--but having said that they are amusing to watch despite the bizarre presentation.
"And this is Gabriel. He eats everything!"
"Including basic post-credits Sega logos..." 🦁
Wow, what marketing
The back of Baku Baku Animal's manual features an advert for Team Andromeda's Panzer Dragoon II Zwei, which I am still curious about playing one day
Having known that the Action Replay Plus was a way of bypassing the region block when it came to the Saturn, I knew I wanted to get it if it meant I could play Japanese games on the system (and that's all I would need the cartridge for), but I was a bit cautious around the idea because surely it can't be that simple, there had to be catch, right? Well, I watched a YouTube video of it to make sure, and turns out that it is that simple (or so it seems), so gladly while I was on a family trip I simultaneously ordered it alongside a Japanese Saturn game before we came back.
Screengrabbed from watching Daalar's "That's No Good" Sonic Says excerpt video on YouTube
and that's no good.
This game was also released on the PlayStation One, but only in Japan and in Europe
My very first Japanese Saturn game (which also came on the same day as my Action Replay Plus cartridge on October 8th, 2022), and the eleventh game in my collection, was the Sunsoft-published falling block puzzler Popoitto Hebereke which was developed by Success because I was in such a mood for another puzzler. Hebereke (which is a colloquialism for drunkenness and untrustworthiness) was a franchise that began life in 1991 for the Famicom as a lite take on Nintendo's Metroid which saw a European NES release as Ufouria: The Saga with the narrow-eyed penguin Hebe and puzzle-loving cat O-Chan being changed to a snowman named Bop-Louie and a lizard named Freeon-Leon,
YEAH, take that, Neverland's Estopolis Denki/Lufia, Albert Odyssey made the word balloon dialogue design look cool before you did!
The popularity of Hebereke also resulted in them making the occasional cameo appearance in certain Sunsoft releases, like in Tokai Engineering's Albert Odyssey on the Super Famicom for one such example.
I can't really say my thoughts on this game because I haven't gone too far in the years I've had it, tactical turn-based RPGs I generally shy away from, but I like Naoki Kodaka's music
Oh yeah, there wasn't just one Albert Oddsey on the Super Famicom but two (and in Japan they were a big deal), and the Saturn also received a game in the series (which ended up localized by Working Designs) which was the lesser received of the three due to leaning more towards the traditional turn-based RPG format instead compared to what preceded it.
I love how each character has got their own personal HUD design, that's such a cute touch
The goal of this puzzler in particular is to clear out all the poro-porous with heads shaped like the Hebereke cast where they're disposed of by stacking at least four or more of the same color vertically or horizontally (i.e. Sukezaemon=red, Jennifer=green, Pen-Chan=purple, et al) but the catch is that those randomly set up poro-porous have a mind of their own and will sometimes move aside so you'll have to time your drop properly or rush your present piece down towards them. And much like any other puzzler, the rate of speed will amp itself up the longer you stay alive to the point (should it come to that) that it might be a bit hard to retain control of where you want your pair of poro-porous to go if not rotate them (counter)clockwise if need be.
Wait, are Hebe and company watching... themselves??? 😖
Before and after each competitor's stage there is a cute cutscene featuring an interaction between two select characters, and I adore their expressiveness and different natured settings bookending in the victor bumping off the loser.
And yes, it is indeed a keeper
I love that Success developed this game, Kenichi Hirata's music is great in this game and in two of the Cotton cute'em ups I've played, plus I love Keeper on the Super Famicom. 🤗
So, wondering what Japanese Saturn games I should try next after a positive experience with Popoitto Hebereke, but within a reasonable price, I decided to order a couple of them at the same time.
Whizz was also released on the PlayStation One in both Europe and Japan
The first of the two to arrive, on October 14th, 2022, was Flair Software's rabbit-starring isometric action game Whizz where this 32-bit version in particular only saw a release in Europe (by Konami of all companies, wow) and in Japan (by B-Factory).
Fret not, the SNES version is not bad, Titus' name is not a reflection of lack of quality here
From the developer of acclaimed classics [citation needed] Oscar and Realm, Whizz originally made its debut on MS-DOS computers in 1994 and was largely prominent in Europe, having also seen a treatment on Amiga computers, an SNES port by Titus Software which also came out in North American shores, and both the PlayStation One and Sega Saturn editions as late as 1997. Even though I already owned the SNES version, I was genuinely curious how the Saturn version fared by comparison, and honestly I found the Sega version to be superior in a lot of ways.
I was disgusted to learn that in trying to promote this game, supposed "adults" writing for gaming magazines resorted to urination jokes simply because it's called "Whizz" ... 😒 GROW UP!! 😠 Like, I know it's three decades too late, but grow up, no one does that unless they hated their audience let alone their profession
There are even stage-specific items that will aid you in your way, and I like the creative variety of ways for Whizz to progress further, feeding a fish to a whale in exchange for a ride across, cautiously weaving around and keeping at a safe distance from land mines, being shot out of a cannon in one of three directions you choose for it to face, riding a motorboat and later on a surfboard, creating a makeshift coin bridge after playing with the slots, and riding on a zig zag pattern astride a giant knight chess piece, et al. The isometric gameplay is decently fun even if you can only move in four directions (and there are no shadows) and how non-demanding it is in terms of entertainment, the visuals are colorfully appealing (my favorites are the snow and game stages), and the 32-bit rendition of Keith Leary and David Murrant's soundtrack is nice and catchy (especially the first stage theme with notes from "London Bridge is Falling Down") and it's great how (bar the cutscene music) the game disc doubles as a soundtrack (small as it may be).
Full disclosure: every time I turn the Saturn on post acquiring the Action Replay Plus cart, I press the C button at the Action Replay Plus menu to go the Saturn menu and then play from there; I found, at least with Whizz, that if I immediately accessed the game from the Action Replay Plus menu then what happens is that the cutscenes won't show up at all but the sound will still be present
The CG cutscenes certainly were a product of their time, huh? But you know, there's an earnest '90s charm to them, I don't dislike them... that said, they are a bit rough. Like all versions of Whizz, the in-between cutscene as he's flying ahead of his zeppelin-riding competition is the same for each version and the same is true here but in 3D.
Not exactly seamless image splicing, but this was the best I could manage
Interestingly, the Saturn version of Whizz has got a password system which you're given upon losing your last life which takes you back to the start of stage, and even though the game isn't all too challenging or too long to warrant one it is nice to have nonetheless, especially since the harder the difficulty mode the less time you're accorded to reach the goal.
Regardless which one is deemed superior, I think we can all agree on one thing: it's not creepy like the European cover art is
I also found myself liking Whizz's sprites and fluid walking animations a lot more here than how he appeared on the SNES, Flair touched his face up a bit, and I especially like how he appeared in a different color depending on the version for he's purple here (he was blue on the SNES version, red on the MS-DOS, cyan on the Amiga). My favorite appearance of his is in the cover art as it's got him at his most charming, though I'm hard-pressed to decide which is superior: Titus' SNES one or B-Factory's Japanese cover design. Also, rabbits are cute. 🐰
It's worth noting that January 22nd, 2023 to February 9th, 2024 marks the Year of the Rabbit 🐰
I am glad I looked into the Saturn version of this rabbity game. I'd never call it great or anything, but again, I do enjoy it.
We've all got our guilty pleasures... Well, I may have found one on the Saturn with what came next.
Those floor maws are genuinely creepy 😨
As far as I looked up, this game takes place mere years after the events of the tactical turn-based RPG Shining Force II and Camelot's originally intended plan was to create this game for the MegaDrive/Genesis console until they decided at the very last moment to relegate it to the Saturn instead as a way to bolster the newer Sega console's library of games. Shining Wisdom is also generally regarded to be one of the weaker titles in the franchise, and while I can't vouch for that having never played any other Shining game myself as of yet, I will say that it is the weakest game in the action adventure genre that I've played in a long time.
This especially rings true when it comes to certain situations and boss fights that require two different weapons but you can only use one at a time (and have to switch weapons in the menu therein), it's highly repetitious to go all "taptaptaptaptap, stomp the ground with heavy boots with the ice element so that fragments of ice will hopefully fall on the bomb or fireball, change weapon to Hercules gloves in the menu, taptaptaptaptap, pick up recently frozen bomb or fireball and throw at target, rinse and repeat, taptapTAPTAPTAP until you're done" to name one, and the reason behind that is because Mars has a different set of sprites for every weapon you've equipped. There were also certain moments when the collision detection was rather iffy when it came to fighting off certain monsters, and even though the game was relatively small I found it easy to get myself lost at certain points.
That and its sense of pace is consistent through and through, also its soundtrack slaps hard
Personally, I have more enjoyment playing Zoom's quietly atmospheric mood fest Lagoon. Given a choice between tightly close ranged combat and ranged magic or always tapping my whole way through while constantly switching weapons on the menu when needed in Shining Wisdom, I'd sooner go with the former as I do not feel it asks as much from me as the latter.
Apropos of nothing, I'm not sure whether to try HAL Laboratory's Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe or not; because on one hand I love the 2011 Nintendo Wii classic and I like that the newer take is going to add some abilities (not to mention I love that pink puffball with all my heart), but on the other hand... err, distracting character outlines (in a 2023 game, seriously?)
Visually Shining Wisdom is a bit hit and miss: I wasn't a fan of the pre-rendered CG sprites having bold outlines as I felt they gave the proceedings an eye sore, the scaling effects appear wonky as a result, and there was a noticeable lack of visual polish in certain areas, but on the other hand there are a variety of locations and dungeons with their own sense of detail (like the color layering shadows in the forest and the piercing lights in Carly's mirror dungeon which might make one feel half-dyslexic control-wise), the background in which you fight against Noog looks impressive with the cloud effects swirling around, and the overall color palette is decent.
Tonkin House's Ys IV: Mask of the Sun's "Crimson Wings" will never not slap, and Sega's Astal's soundtrack will never cease to impress no matter how many times I hear it
More retro video games need icy reflective floor surfaces!I usually enjoy action adventure soundtracks, but Motoaki Takenouchi's music did not click with me for the most part; it's not that the soundtrack was bad, it just simply wasn't to my taste. One dungeon theme in particular lingers throughout in absolute horror and prolongs its creepy factor as a result which does work up to a point for certain dungeons but can get grating if listened to for longer than necessary, and there are certain themes that can easily get stuck in your head (like the Eastern District, Odegan Town, Odegan Castle).
Between Shining Wisdom and Beyond the Beyond, 1995 wasn't exactly a great year for Camelot, huh? Oh well, at least they're both ripe with guilty pleasure qualities; just recently played through Beyond the Beyond for the first time, it's certainly a turn-based RPG of all time
As 1995 Camelot Software Planning video game soundtracks go, I much preferred Motoi Sakuraba's music from their PlayStation One turn-based RPG Beyond the Beyond a lot more which is easily that game's major highlight as it makes for a great listen (it, just like its story, simply deserved a better game).
In case anyone asks who that girl who I'm totally not jealous of for holding a baby dragon in her arms is supposed to be, I have no idea; this is the only screen she appears in, and she doesn't appear anywhere else in the game, let alone have her name dropped... 😕
Also, Steiner's such a cute baby dragon, awww! 😊 And then three-quarters into the game he becomes a giant badarse force to be reckoned with, but that's neither here nor there. 🐲
Something I did while playing it for the first time (and my next Saturn game) up to a point was use my phone's translator app by taking a picture of key dialogue present on my TV, but I stopped doing it after a while as it took up a lot of power from my phone. I was inspired months later to take up the task of translating via Google (for my own benefit) the dialogue and credits for Sting's cute'em up Flying Hero: Bugyuru no Daibōken for my review of it back in November 2022, and that was fun.
The story itself is fine, though I feel I dodged a bullet in not playing the American version as I looked up that in localizing this game to North America the publisher Working Designs did not handle it properly, excising all references to prior Shining games and made a translation that bordered on disrespectful (I'm... afraid to ask to what length they incorporated pop culture references and non-sequiturs into the dialogue here or to what degree they augmented the difficulty, as that was their modus operandi) that Sega's European version created a more faithful (albeit not well-kept) translation for the PAL edition. Sorry, Victor*, I don't need to see every translation you made firsthand, ...
* Victor Ireland, founder of Working Designs and company translator
Matrix Software's Alundra's translation I felt was a respectably well-done and compelling effort as Working Designs toned down their translation tendencies and quirks considerably, and it helps that Alundra is a great game with deftly handled mature themes, too; this is not me saying anything about Game Arts' Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete or its translation, I just wanted to bring up a quote so unequivocally silly that it's lived rent-free in my head since the first instance I saw it
two is enooough.
I feel like a broken record for saying this, but there are games I played that have got polarizing receptions that I'm fully aware have got their problems but I still ended up enjoying anyway, but sadly Shining Wisdom was not among them despite it being occasionally amusing
I didn't walk in expecting it to be great, knowing it wasn't all that well regarded, but in the end I found my foray to the Shining franchise to be okay... though I was hoping for it to be more than just okay; it does have replay value as there are numerous secrets, but if the gameplay were better than it turned out to be I think it would've helped tremendously. Despite everything though, I wouldn't mind trying another Shining game in the future if I have the opportunity (maybe Camelot Software Planning's Shining the Holy Ark? I'm definitely down for it, in fact, I'll look into now). If there are people who enjoyed it though, that's fine, I'm not a gatekeeper, I just personally found it to be among the weakest games I played on the Saturn even if it was a guilty pleasure in terms of how gimmicky it was.Up to this point every game I played on the Saturn was also released in Europe
"WAAAAH, how dare you make a mockery out of me!"
"I'm going to steal your friend away as retribution, muahahahahah, I'm not petty!" 😈
O-Chan no Oekaki Logic was also released on the PlayStation One, Super Famicom, and WonderSwan
Sunsoft's O-Chan no Oekaki Logic, my fourteenth Saturn game which I received on October 24th, 2022, is the sister game in the Hebereke franchise featuring the eponymous cat who's off on a big adventure to reclaim her friend Hebe after he got abducted by the alien Utsujin, and the only way to save him is by solving a large series of Picross puzzles* through the way of math and logic. The first in a trilogy, O-Chan's 1995 starring vehicle was the only one to see a wide distribution on multiple platforms in Japan, while the two sequels were PlayStation One exclusives in 1996 and 2001 respectively. It also shares the distinction along with Success' Popoitto Hebereke as being one of only two games in the series to be given the Sega treatment.* One of many identifier terms for Nonograms, named after one of its creators Non Ishida
Not sure how it feels compared to the Super Famicom mouse controller, but I'm sure it might feel fine
This is also one of those games on the Saturn that could either be played with the regular controller or the mouse controller. Ah, it's nice when you have options.
The soundtrack is good, I'm annoyed that YouTube doesn't have the Saturn version's music
As O-Chan you'll come across familiar faces in the Hebereke franchise who each will challenge you to a series of ten Picross puzzles that you'll need to solve, all consisting of different images and over time a larger amount of pixels (the smallest set is 5 x 5 that eventually goes up to 10 x 10 to 15 x 15 until the very end where you must solve a puzzle on a 30 x 30 grid, the last of which amounts to 900 individual pixels... try not to faint when you see those), where math and logic is the only way to win, and should you defeat them they will join you. If you make three mistakes you'll be forced to start the puzzle over, but for one time only per puzzle you have a chance to automatically fill in certain spots by selecting someone in your group:
Because this is O-Chan's game, naturally she gets two Picross puzzles designed after her as opposed to just one like everyone else; well isn't she a diva
Of the Saturn-based puzzlers in the Hebereke franchise, I honestly much prefer this game the most. Granted, Popoitto Hebereke is the more digestible of the two to play and is arcade-length, but O-Chan no Oekaki Logic has got so much more depth to its sense of puzzle-solving that as a result feels so much more rewarding when all is said and done. It's always thrilling to anticipate the next puzzle and trying to guess what design you're trying to make out as you slowly solve it (including the occasional Hebereke cast member), no matter how intense the number of pixels might be. I wouldn't mind trying one of Jupiter and Ape's Mario-starring Picross games someday, because this game was a real treat. 😸🧩Once more, I decided to order two Japanese Saturn games at the same time for Saturn games fifteen and sixteen.
Maybe Double Atelier upped their game and redeemed themselves with Zap! Snowboarding Trix '98, which also got released and localized outside of Japan on the PlayStation One? I mean, one can only hope, but this was a bit of a letdown for me. 🏂 Pass.
Now the other game I ordered at the same time, the one I was really looking forward to play, had yet to arrive, so I waited. And waited. And waited. It was taking longer than it was supposed to, and I didn't realize until later on why that was: whereas I ordered Double Atelier's Zap! Snowboarding Trix from an American seller, the second game I ordered from a Japanese seller on eBay (something I hadn't done since before COVID hit with certain Super Famicom cartridges) and it turned out that shipping laws in Japan changed since then or something like that. Luckily my family was contacted about it and things got settled eventually, and even though it was a long wait due the shipping delay, I felt the wait was very worth it because what I ended up with was a game that's very fun.
"Mina-chan! I'm going to help you now!!"
LOOK AT HIM! HE'S SO CUTE!! AHHHHHH!!! 😭
The game in question, my sixteenth Saturn game, was the Takara published isometric action game Tamsoft's SteamGear Mash.
As renowned Tamworld scientist Hiroto Sendagaya's eponymous creation, SteamGear Mash is on a mission to save his granddaughter Mina-chan who's been kidnapped by an evil space simp emperor named Gash and he'll need all the help he can get to bring her back. Throughout your quest you'll be contending with a myriad of enemies (who'll randomly drop hearts to replenish your health or missiles to replenish your weapon meter upon being disposed of) and gather new powerups and secondary weapons in your arsenal (stored inside random "M" boxes) in order to overcome color-coded obstacles.
Even though the main goal is straightforward and arcade-like in its simplicity, I like how this game allows you a chance to explore the given areas in an open-ended fashion (so there'll be convenient enemy respawning) as it rewards you for thorough searching (you can even see where you are in the map after pausing), if you activated a warp box earlier you'll be able to use it to backtrack to a prior area if you feel the need to, and you can even save your progress by standing on a box in the save room. The eight-way isometric controls are fun (complete with shadows), there's a lightheartedly endearing anime charm, and there are a couple of stages that play like an isometric shoot'em up in the vein of Sega and Ikegami Tsushinki's Zaxxon and Aicom's Viewpoint.
The CG cutscenes are charmingly well-done for 1995, even if their rendered quality is a bit fuzzy the animation itself is very endearing and the vibrant colors really pop out at you.
The areas are well-designed with a good sense of layout, Mash's sprites are very good and solidly animated, the difficulty is very manageable after some practice, and the soundtrack by Fumio Tanabe, Makoto Mukai, and Yasuhiro Nakano is very enjoyable with so many good themes (the title theme is so good with the saxophone, I like the fun-sounding first stage theme, the underwater third stage theme sounds engrossingly atmospheric and wonder-filled, and the final area theme has got strong Brad Fiedel-style percussive beats like something you'd hear in James Cameron's Terminator films), and even though there's the occasional Japanese dialogue from Mash it's not very hard to follow and there is a nice sense of experimentation with the controls.
It's not a very long game as it's somewhere in the fifty minute range, but I think it's a very fun game while it lasts with a good amount of replay value depending on whether you choose to find all of Mash's gear or not. The second time I played through the game I managed to play it through in one go without saving once, miraculously, though I don't recommend attempting that so soon after you try it because there's always a chance that you might lose your entire health and be brought back to the title screen if you're not careful (particularly in the shoot'em up segments in the third and fifth stages). Well worth the wait, SteamGear Mash is enjoyably good action fare that's adorable to boot. 😃
Now for a quick recap:
#10 Baku Baku Animal: World Zookeeper Contest (Baku Baku Animal: Sekai Shiikugakari Senshuken [ ⬤ ]) | Saves: 9 Blocks
#11 Popoitto Hebereke [ ⬤ ] (Hebereke's Popoitto [ ◯ ]) | Saves: 3 Blocks
#12 Whizz [ ⬤ ] | Saves: N/A
#13 Shining Wisdom [ ⬤ ] | Saves: 17 Blocks
#14 O-Chan no Oekaki Logic [ ⬤ ] | Saves: 114 Blocks
#15 Zap! Snowboarding Trix [ ⬤ ] | Saves: 8 Blocks
#16 SteamGear Mash [ ⬤ ] | Saves: 71 Blocks
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