100 reasons why Sega is/was stupid.

[AndrewTS 0]

Or rather, a fighter with more complicated button commands than a Smash Bros. smash attack.

[BUTT 0]

I don't get why Streets of Rage is rated T now, anyway. The old Sega 6-Pak game with six Genesis games on it (Sonic, Super Hang-On, Golden Axe, Columns, Revenge of Shinobi, and Streets of Rage) is rated K-A.

 

Well, there's definitely enough "animated violence" in it, I guess.

 

Slightly off topic, but dealing with beat-em-ups: This arcade somewhat near me had an awesome brawler game for a while, but it was a long time ago and I can't remember the name. Basically it was a 2D side scroller where you could have up to four people playing, and the thing that was unique was there were a ton of weapons you could pick up and use (chains, 2x4s, pipes, etc). One of the guys you could play as resembled Hulk Hogan. Anyone have any clue what I'm talking about?

Sounds like Vendetta (AKA Crime Fighters 2).

 

[AndrewTS 0]

Konami seemed to really love that HUD design.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Yep, Vendetta was the game. Thanks, guys.

[Special K 0]

This thread inspired me to plug in the ol' Genesis. I have four games now. Golden Axe 2, Sonic 2 & 3, and um, Flicky,

 

One thing. The levels in Sonic 2 & 3 are fucking HUGE! Way way bigger than Mario World. Ah, who am I to quibble, they all kick ass. I just wanted to phone in: those games are the shit. Fuck, now I want to play NIGHTS because of Sega's 2D glory.

[razazteca 0]

Why play NiGHTs when you can fly through hoops in Pilotwings on SNES?

[AndrewTS 0]

Sega / AM2's Virtua Fighter is the grand daddy of the 3D fighting game genre. This by no means makes it the best, but it does have quite a long, rich history.

 

When the early Virtua Fighter games hit the arcades, they were huge sensations in Japan and Asia. In other regions, they were more of a novelty, praised by the gaming press but oft ignored by regular players. Ah yes, so neglected was Virtua Fighter, that for about 5 minutes people thought that Toshinden was actually a much better game. Then Tekken came out, and Toshinden and its sequels were kicked to the curb. Virtua Fighter has remained a pretty solid and beloved series to this day, despite that.

 

However, it's hard not to feel that the series is looking a bit long in the tooth. Despite cosmetic upgrades, the old man hasn't really learned many new tricks. The grand daddy may have had liposuction and botox, but he's still yelling at those damn kids to get off his lawn.

 

Despite that, the games have been fairly solid. None of the VF games can really be called a huge disaster or misstep. However, that doesn't mean that Sega hasn't made a few blunders in the genre.

 

83. The Cast of Fighting Vipers.

 

When exactly did Sega's good character designers either vanish, leave, or go completely insane? It seems that nobody in the company can come up with a non-terrible character to save their life these days. Phantasy Star Universe, anyone?

 

While solid in gameplay, the Virtua Fighter series has had some problems with character design. Extremely boring character design. Maybe it's rooted in the fact that the original game had such little room for creative expression with its big, blocky polygon men and women. Then again--there's Tobal, which destroys Virtua Fighter in character design despite its blockiness.

 

When Tekken debuted, it definitely outshined Virtua Fighter in this area. While Tekken can be flat out goofy at times, it's always quite interesting and it just silly enough.

 

Perhaps threatened by this (and Namco's upcoming Soul Edge/Blade series), Sega and AM2 launched a new 3D fighter...one quite a bit flashier, more violent, and featuring breakable armor and enclosed arenas: Fighting Vipers.

 

Vipers is pretty much Virtua Fighter...on crack. The game is much faster, some characters use weapons of some sort, characters are often knocked off buildings and through glass, and technique is sacrificed in favor of pure brutality. The gameplay, as a more mainstreamed take on the 3D fighter, mainly succeeds although it has aged poorly.

 

It's a shame that the cast of freaks in this title are such utter eyesores. There's a glam rocker. A butch, female soldier. A rollerblader. A skateboarder. A fat guy. And nearly all of them are decked out in "armor" the likes of which a retarded teenager might pick out for playing sports. There's a boss called B.M. that looks kind of like the brain damaged offspring of Serpentor and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers' Scorpina. Even a soft drink mascot got involved. The game's de facto sex symbol is Candy aka Honey, who looks only slightly less ridiculous than the rest of the cast. She seems to be...um...a goth lolita school-cat-girl. Or something. AM2--pick only 2 cliches *at maximum* for your characters. Your awesome Naked Robot and Karate Guy may have been dull but they did the job. Ninjas? Acceptable. Ghost pirate? Also can be acceptable. Keep tacking on and you end up with crap. Stick with something simpler, like a vampire cheerleader.

 

The game spawned a little-known

and was apparently popular enough to warrant a PS2 re-release, though.

 

84. No Fighters Megamix 2

 

Nowadays, the crossover party game fighter is quite a welcome sight, managing to combine simple, fun gameplay with utterly shameless fanservice. And by that, I mean pretty much just Smash Bros., as opposed to something like Dream Mix TV.

 

However, way before Nintendo nailed it, Sega almost, *just barely* missed the mark on a similar concept. AM2 followed up the releases of Virtua Fighter 2 and Fighting Vipers on the Saturn with Fighters Megamix. The game let you pit exciting Virtua Fighter characters such as Karate Guy, Naked Robot, Mr. Ninja and Blonde Babe against Vipers like Cock Rocker, Skateboard Punk, Fat Man and Captain Doofus. If your heart couldn't take that much excitement, 3rd-rate Sega characters like Bark and Bean, Rent-A-Hero, and the Daytona car were also available to punch in the face (or hood, as the case may be).

 

If nothing else, the game was still a tremendous value for being basically Virtua Fighter 2 and Fighting Vipers in one package. Unlike many crossover games, you could play either Viper-style or Virtua Fighter style, rather than being stuck with one set method of gameplay or the other.

 

Long lost VF1 character Siba/Shiba returns in Fighters Megamix. He was cut from Virtua Fighter because he wasn't boring enough.

Replaced in the final game by Karate Guy.

 

Nope, no Sonic, no Joe Musashi, no Ax Battler, no Blaze or Axel, no Alex F'n Kidd. Just a bunch of complete and utter lameasses, really. Granted, the game was still based on the VF/Vipers engine(s), but I'm pretty sure it would have worked a bit better to put an Axel in than it would have f'n Bark and Bean in the game.

 

Oddly, despite the fact the Sega tended to rip off awful ideas from everyone left and right, they never really decided to capitalize on what they'd started with Megamix. Too bad. Another crack at Megamix would have at least a thousand times better than Virtua Quest.

 

85. Virtua Fighter CG Portrait Series

 

From Wikipedia:

 

In Japan, the curious Virtua Fighter Portrait Series, wherein each character in the series had their own Saturn CD showcasing various poses of the fighter, was released around the same time as well. People who collected all the discs could send in their proof of purchases to get a special Portrait CD of Dural.

 

Yeah, that's really all it is. You might occasionally see one or two of those discs cluttering up an Ebay lot of import Saturn games. I honestly don't see what the use or interest would be of seeing some hideous renders of Canucky Wrestlefield, but Sega seemed to think there was one.

[PLAGIARISM! 0]

Oh My God. As someone who's pretty ignorant of gaming history like this, I love this thread.

[Special K 0]

Well done AndrewTS. Great article.

 

I won't enumerate this point, but SEGA had some great RPGs, and they were all outrageously expensive. Which, of course precluded rental stores from offering them. Phantasy Stars II and IV were like $80 a pop! in 1990 dollars! I am sort of grateful that my local stor didn't have PSII, as that game would have made me cry. It's a great game, but damn is it a level grind.

 

The one game my rental place had was Warsong (Langrisser) a ridiculously awesome strategy RPG.

 

Sega America simply had tunnel vision. They pretty much only had platformers. Nintendo was broadening its approach. All things said, the Genesis probably had the better platformers, or at least a greater number of really good platformers.

They just didn't exepand.

 

The 3-button controller was a BIG hinderance. Street Fighter II was THE game when it came out. I don't think any other game has had that much impact in the console wars. While Mario and Sonic were incredible games, here was the game every kid wanted to play, and you could only really play it on the SNES.

 

And I never got the appeal of Virtua Fighter. Granted, I only played up until VF3, but it always felt weird and floaty. I always preferred Tekken.

[BUTT 0]

Some of those Virtua Fighter portrait discs sold over 100,000 copies, which is a pretty good total for a collection of pictures.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Kage the Ninja is such a generic character, as is VF poster boy Akira. However, I think Wolf is pretty awesome, but out of the cast of the original VF, he's probably the best of the bunch.

[LaParkaMarka 0]

Wow, I actually owned Fighting Vipers, and had completely forgotten about it. Nice trip down memory lane there, thanks for the post Andrew.

[AndrewTS 0]

No problemo. I don't think Vipers is bad. The idea is solid (a "dumbed down" Virtua Fighter), but even if the character designs were better, there wasn't much need for it (Tekken already existed as the far more accessible and fun 3D fighter at the time).

 

Oh, did I mention that Candy had wings, too? What the hell!?

 

"However, I think Wolf is pretty awesome, but out of the cast of the original VF, he's probably the best of the bunch."

 

Wolf's look is kind of weak, IMO (he's just...a wrestler...in shorts and a little bit of facepaint. And he howls like a wolf), but his moveset made him quite terrific. The giant swing in 3D is damn cool. Plus he was the obvious template for King.

 

Sega America simply had tunnel vision. They pretty much only had platformers. Nintendo was broadening its approach. All things said, the Genesis probably had the better platformers, or at least a greater number of really good platformers.

They just didn't exepand.

 

That and sports, don't forget. And a lot of them platformers were licensed, too, as if 3Ps didn't do that enough. However, if we got one Vectorman for every 3 or 4 Desert Demolitions I'd have been more cool with it.

 

However, keep in mind that this was also a point in time where people seemed to identify less by genre and more with characters (we were in the midst of the 16-bit mascot wars).

 

As for Genesis having the better platformers, you may have something there. Rocket Knight Adventures, Vector Man 1 and 2, Sonic, Gunstar, the Shinobis, Headdy were all really good.

 

Both had different versions of Contra and Castlevania, but I'd say the SNES ones were better.

Konami made great titles for both of them, including even licensed stuff.

 

The 3-button controller was a BIG hinderance. Street Fighter II was THE game when it came out. I don't think any other game has had that much impact in the console wars. While Mario and Sonic were incredible games, here was the game every kid wanted to play, and you could only really play it on the SNES.

 

Most definitely. Scoring that one was one of the smartest moves Nintendo ever made.

[Special K 0]

Mumpity mump

[AndrewTS 0]

I know, I'll be working on an update soon. It's just I'd had work and applying for a better job tying up a good bit of free time, sadly.

[AndrewTS 0]

QUINTESSENCE!!!

 

86. PROJECT ALTERED BEAST

 

For some reason or another, when Sega nostalgia is brought up, Altered Beast manages to sneak into the discussion. Lord knows why, because Sega made much better games on Master System, and the title was one of their worst arcade titles. It was a shallow, stupid walk-and-puncher, that was more impressive on a technical level (parallax, chunks of baddies flying towards the screen, digitized voice clips) than on any gameplay terms. On the Genesis, it was something to boast about, again, on visual and audio terms. That's it.

 

Anyone who revisits the game will find lousy, awkward controls, jumps that either send you too high or straight-on into enemies. The game's incredibly annoying design (grab the orbs or keep playing until you do, or you will never face the boss) discouraged you from playing it. While graphically impressive at the time, the art design was horrible, with gaudy pastels all over the place when a grittier direction would have fit better. The main character starts with a shred of an outfit and grows more horrifically shirtless. Oh, and those wolves you gotta kick to drudge through the miserable pile? They look more like pigs.

 

When Sega of Japan introduced the Sega Ages line to PS2 (a line of mostly horrid remakes of Sega classics, many of which arrived here as Sega Classics Collection), one title that seemed to be missing was Altered Beast. However, Sega announced that it had something special planned for AB fans!

 

Rather than a remake, Sega announced that a full-fledged sequel of Altered Beast would be made. Entitled

, it was going to be big, brutal, bloody, and naturally have transformations in.

Sega charged Wow Entertainment, aka AM1 to do it--folks responsible for the House of the Dead series and Vampire Night.

 

So...a revival of a "classic" action game, on 3D hardware, with a respectable budget, featuring the gameplay mechanic of changing into several big, badass, destructive animals and monsters. They *couldn't* screw it up, right?

 

Well, they did. Rather than going the traditional route and making a sequel with the same settings and theme, PAB took place in a modern/semi-futuristic setting, and the transformations were now the result of DNA experimentation and other such tampering in God's domain. But, hey, that's fair enough, right? Besides, God of War seemed to have that whole angry shirtless Greek killing lots of stuff thing cornered, anyway.

 

Rather than trying to truly go next-gen, the gameplay stayed fairly true to its beat'em up roots (and thankfully isn't the annoying forced-scrolling affair the original is). However, when the original game isn't that good to begin with, a company should *really* take as many liberties as possible to make the game play well. Unfortunately, the gameplay is pretty much--kill, move on, kill, move on. sadly, the control is overly simplistic (jump, attack, and a super attack) and not very responsive. Transformations are based upon Spirit Energy, which is acquired by weakening and draining enemies. Once activated, the transformation ticks down on your Spirit energy...and you eventually go back to normal. Combat is dull, A.I. is poor, and there aren't really any cool twists or intriguing level designs to keep you going. The game was such a half-baked mess that Sega of America never approved it for U.S. release.

 

However, the question remains--with a concept that could have been any of 1000 incredible games, whether a better beat 'em up, 3D action game, action RPG, and so on, why could Sega not make a mind-blowing, awesome action game to capitalize on the name value they had?

 

well, they're stupid.

 

Gameplay footage of Project Altered Beast : http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/action/alteredbeast/media.html

 

42 (Expanded version). VIRTUA FIGHTER 2 - SEGA GENESIS

 

Fans of sega and owners of the Saturn were always rather disappointed that, while the system saw the birth of several original new games and series, several successful Sega Genesis games never got sequels and updates. Streets of Rage lived, thrived, and died on Genesis; a true next-gen Sonic game never made it out of development; Ecco was teased and never came to be; Phantasy Star was MIA, and so on. If only, perhaps those titles came out, the Saturn's fortunes might have changed.

 

Of course, no, but it's fun to imagine. Sega did wisely invest in a lot of great original series like Virtua Fighter and Panzer Dragoon...but strangely, rather than updating too many of the classics on Genesis, they opted to take a step back-asswards and put Virtua Fighter 2 on Genesis.

 

If you've browsed sites that cover and review old pirate ROMs, you may know that plenty of arcade and console fighters for the 16-bit systems (and even Neo Geo) often ended up mashed into NES, Master System, and Game Gear carts. Among the likes of Somari, Metroid hacks, and massive Multi-cart, there were Fatal Furies and Street Fighter 2s for NES. Typically, besides looking like, well NES games, the titles were missing most characters, missing moves, were stuffed with flicker and slowdown, and had horrible, horrible control.

 

Well, Sega channeled the spirit of Hong Kong pirates when they produced Virtua Fighter 2 Genesis in 1996. Actually...that's almost paying them a compliment. Lousy pirate NES fighters usually felt a *little* like the 2D fighters they were mimmicking. With VF2 being a top-notch 3D fighter at the time, and the Genesis translation being all 2D, it just doesn't work.

 

The game loses Lion and Shun Di--the "new" fighters who were introduced in VF2. The animation, while fine for a 2D game, made it play drastically different, i.e. nothing at all like the original. The control was mushy and unpredicable, and while plenty of moves and combos did make it, who is seriously going to invest any time into it?

 

In what must have been some sort of joke gone horribly wrong, not only was this "classic" brought to the PS2 and PSP in the form of the Sega Genesis Collection, but it has been made available as an 800 Wii Point download (that's 8 bucks, kiddies!) for the Virtual Console. If Virtual Console featured Doom for SNES or Mortal Kombat 56 People it wouldn't be as much of a pathetic, shameful, insulting ripoff.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Hooray for the return of this thread. I remember we discussed the VF2 thing online before. Good stuff.

[BUTT 0]

I listed VF2 for Genesis in this thread, but I only wrote like 2 sentences on it so I applaud Mr. TS for expanding on it.

[AndrewTS 0]

I listed VF2 for Genesis in this thread, but I only wrote like 2 sentences on it so I applaud Mr. TS for expanding on it.

 

Noted.

 

87. Sonic Next Gen on 360 -- the demo

 

It's well known, and accepted, by now that the Sonic franchise is kept afloat not merely by kiddies who like the character (in fact, the amount of them are probably ridiculously overstated), but by nostalgia nuts who really should know better and a fanbase that is dangerously insane.

 

While many hardcore games often bemoan the supposed "Nintendo cult" and fact that Mario games are practically an industry in and of themselves, most of the folks who buy and play them limit their fascination to playing, talking, and writing about them.

 

The Sonic fanbase, or at least a vocal subset of them, are absolutely obsessed with the character and his "world" (any of many possible interpretations or "canons"). The quality of the games going to hell are no deterrent, as long as the game "builds on the world", "adds new characters," or introduces "great new story developments." In a nutshell, Sonic games are faithfully bought by people who are ultimately going to write lousy fanfiction and draw lousy fanart. And probably engage in other activities best left to the imagination.

 

That being said, Sega knows this, so the sequels will never end. However, with Sonic the Hedgehog on 360 (later PS3),Sega announced that they were going to take Sonic back "to his roots" and focus on the game play over unnecessary characters and other gimmicks that seem to have harmed the Sonic franchise.

 

After lots of interesting trailers and leaked info, players got their first chance to play the game through the Xbox Live Marketplace with a free downloadable demo.

 

....have you played it? If you have a 360, please play it.

 

Now, assuming you have...wrap your head around this logic: Sega was honestly expecting people to play this and expected the quality of it to make people want the game? Seriously?

 

If you don't have any chance of playing the demo (or the full game), you can still often play it at demo kiosks. In short, it sucked. In long, it's the worst 3D Sonic game made to date, and gives you an adequate glimpse of one of the worst games ever made.

 

By playing it, you come to realize that its most basic play mechanics don't actually work. The homing attack, a staple of the 3D Sonics, doesn't really adequately "home in" on enemies. Well, at least not when it really should. It will home in on an enemy that's *much further away* than an enemy almost directly in your line of sight. Plus, sometimes you'll try to homing-attack a sole enemy in front of you, and fly over its head and fall to your death.

 

Remember the Light Dash, where you tapped a button and Sonic would speed through a line of rings, collecting them along the way? You have maybe a 50/50 chance of it actually activating...and when it does, it will not grab all the rings.

 

The control is so horrible that the waggled-up Sonic and the Secret Rings feels like Sonic 2 in comparison. I'm fairly sure you could play "Secret Rings" while using the Wii Remote as a suppository and you would still have more accurate, reliable control than "Sonic Next Gen."

 

Now, there are still segments of that insane Sonic fanbase who played the game and bought it...but any and all potential players who were not so insanely dedicated surely would not bother. Considering that the typical 360 buyer likely isn't one who normally buys Sonic games anyway, the game unsurprisingly bombed. The demo, had it been of a good game, would have given players a chance to get interested in the game free of any financial risk. Sega blew it, and word of mouth from players killed the game's sales before it hit stores. At least for maybe the kiddies and the Sonic loonies.

 

I actually still have the Sonic demo on my 360, and I will play it occasionally. If you ever get really frustrated at a game, questioning the competency of the design team...play that demo. You'll have a new appreciation for just about any other game you play afterwards.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

The Sonic fanbase, or at least a vocal subset of them, are absolutely obsessed with the character and his "world" (any of many possible interpretations or "canons")

 

Slightly OT, but "Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog" airing Monday - Friday in the same TV season as "Sonic the Hedgehog"'s run on Saturday was really confusing. That is perhaps the most polar opposite any two shows about the same character can be, and they're airing at the same time. Ok then.

[World's Worst Man 0]

A lot of fursecution going on here.

[AndrewTS 0]

A lot of fursecution going on here.

 

I was deliberately vague.

[In Credible 0]

I really liked Sonic on Dreamcast, but yeah that 360 demo was beyond terrible. It made me hate Sonic.

[Obi Chris Kenobi 0]

#88

 

The Chao Doctor being on vacation for... ever.

 

Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast had an online mode where you could email the Chao Doctor for advice on your Chao's, yet, he was holiday after the first week and never replied to any questions ever again. That and the fact that all the promised hidden easter eggs and bonuses you could download never appeared and were eventually labelled to appear on the Gamecubes Sonic Adventure 2... and I still never found them.

 

On a side note, if you ever play Sonic Adventure again and find the Black Chao egg, never.. EVER... place it in the Garden with your pride and joy Golden Chao with the crazy HUGE ASS GRIN and expect to come back to find them all alive. Instead prepare for Black Chao to kick all their asses while your away and sit smiliing aloft the over hanging rock near the waterfall. Damn you cliché colours making the kick ass black one evil.

[Guest Smues]

I own Sonic 360 and I still haven't beaten the first level. The normal part of the level no problem, it's that retarded speed dash crap that gets me. And takes away my motivation to really ever try again.

[AndrewTS 0]

#88

 

The Chao Doctor being on vacation for... ever.

 

Corrected number

[Jingus 0]

As a NES/SNES fanboy turned PS1/2 disciple turned guy who just doesn't have the money to buy stupid next-gen systems that don't look like they're much better than the old stuff, just let me say: fuck Sega.

 

I owned a 32X. Fuck Sega with a silver studded strap-on for seven centuries. With Sonic's head on the tip of it.

 

Yeah, I did enjoy playing various Genesis titles like Shadowrun, Dune, Robocop vs. Terminator, X-Men 2, so forth and so on, but it always seemed like Sega just never had a library of enough good games to even come close to whoever their competition at the time was.

 

(FFX) wasn't bad either

No, It was fucking awful. Simple as. Theres nothing else to it. It was fucking awful. It made Resident Evil look like fucking shakespeare. And like the good Shakespeare like Twlefth Night.

I must strongly disagree. Yeah, Tidus, Yuna, and especially Rikku were annoying. But the rest of the cast was just fine; what was wrong with, say, Lulu or Auron?

 

On the other hand, I DARE you to find worse-sounding dialogue than infamous lines like "Master of unlocking!", "Don't open... that door!" and "Ji-hill sandwich" on the first RE.

[Jingus 0]

89:

 

Night Trap.

 

Well, not JUST Night Trap. Sure, it was a crappy game with godawful acting and video quality, but the suck didn't stop there. Nope, long before Mortal Kombat was offending senators everywhere, friggin' Night Trap started the whole backlash against video game violence and the endless debate over whether our kids' games were turning them into psychos.

[BUTT 0]

Oh man, I just thought of another one:

 

90. Long before Nintendo and the N64 made launching with two games fashionable, Sega had two launch titles ready for the Mega Drive's October 1988 Japan launch: Super Thunder Blade, a port of a Master System game released a scant three months earlier, and Space Harrier 2, a more-of-the-same sequel featuring the choppiest scaling you will ever see. No wonder that system was such a flop in Japan.

 

I think the Japanese launch of the Saturn only had like two games, but one of them was Virtua Fighter and that sold a lot in Japan so I won't criticize them too much for that.

[AndrewTS 0]

91. Killing the Shinobi series

 

After the death of the Dreamcast and Sega's subsequent change to a 3rd party publisher, the company spent the lion's share of their focus on porting Dreamcast titles to other platforms and making arcade titles and ports. Curiously, the Xbox seemed to get most of the higher quality original products, while the PS2 mainly got ports and shovelware save for VF4. One of their first interesting original PS2 releases came in the form of Shinobi.

 

Reviews were mixed, with most negative reviews focusing on the game's difficulty. Hordes of enemies were always ready to attack main character Hotsuma, although his ability to dash about quickly and strike multiple enemies all in a row helped even the odds. Camera issues and pits helped complicate things, however.

 

In response to much of Shinobi's criticisms, the sequel/spinoff, Nightshade (Kunoichi in Japan) had much lighter overall difficulty. However, Shinobi was no longer the title character--replaced by a female protagonist. Also, there weren't many overall improvements to the game; the same basic engine was in place, the graphics were more or less identical, and level design was generally considered weak overall. Poor marketing and undoubtedly much of the massive hype for Ninja Gaiden on Xbox lead to a quiet release for the title.

 

Sega hasn't released another original game in the series since, though they continue to flog many of their other series to death and beyond. Maybe Itagaki's boast about the Ninja Gaiden titles making developers "lose their ambition" wasn't just blowing smoke up people's asses after all.

 

I think the Japanese launch of the Saturn only had like two games, but one of them was Virtua Fighter and that sold a lot in Japan so I won't criticize them too much for that.

 

Yeah, VF and also VF2 were huge, especially in Japan. Saturn was a huge success in Japan early on because of it. However, Sega fumbled the US launch badly and the American market was hungry for good 3D, something Japan didn't need quite so much. Eventually, yeah, Sony began kicking their asses everywhere, but Saturn stuck around in Japan a long time. Of course, to this day import-playing capability is a must-have for any Saturn owner. Like 3/4 of my Saturn games are imports, and several of them are games that *did* come out in the US, but Saturn import games are/were so dirt cheap on Ebay that importing them is a better value.