US exclusives

[forangejuice]

Just saw there was an American release of romance of Three Kingdoms 4 for the saturn which has got me excited for US imports(also heard good things about Astal)
I have no clue what I should be paying for any of these games or which of those exclusives are any good, any help on this front?

[sych]

Aug 13, 2017 12:17:15 GMT forangejuice said:

Just saw there was an American release of romance of Three Kingdoms 4 for the saturn which has got me excited for US imports(also heard good things about Astal)
I have no clue what I should be paying for any of these games or which of those exclusives are any good, any help on this front?

Astal is good but not brilliant. I haven't played Romance of Three Kingdoms so can't comment on that. Of the US exclusives I have the best ones in order are:

1) Winning Post
2) Iron Storm
3) MegaMan X4
4) Hercs Adventures
5) Magic Knight Rayearth
6) Albert Odyessy
7) Contra Legacy of War
8) Astal
9) High Velocity Mountain Racing Challenge
10) Minnesota Fats Pool Legend
11) Scud: The Disposable Assassin


The prices for US exclusives will mostly be pretty high unfortunately. Especially for the top 8 games on that list, you'll be paying £100 plus.

Other US Exclusives include MegaMan 8, Double Switch, World Series Baseball 98', 3D Baseball and a few others. Can't cooment on those games as I've never played them but I hear Double Switch isn't very good.

[forangejuice]

Aug 13, 2017 15:28:19 GMT sych said:

The prices for US exclusives will mostly be pretty high unfortunately. Especially for the top 8 games on that list, you'll be paying £100 plus.

Wow, honestly wasn't expecting this but looking at those titles I suppose it does make sense but doesn't seem like I'll be getting many of those anytime soon, just looked up three kingdoms and it seems to be £30 shipped so maybe I'll start with that for US imports

[forangejuice]

Also don't know how inflated the ebay prices are but three kingdoms seems reasonable

[sych]

Aug 13, 2017 17:54:07 GMT forangejuice said:

Also don't know how inflated the ebay prices are but three kingdoms seems reasonable

I think people get genuinely put off by it as it looks like it could have been done on an 8-bit console.

[darkman01]

Astal is a good game, my main issue with it (I used to have the US version , but sold it) was that it felt very linear . in some ways it felt more like a tech demo. When comparing it to Rayman , Astal can be prettier but gets repetitive much more quickly

[forangejuice]

Aug 13, 2017 18:10:25 GMT sych said:

Aug 13, 2017 17:54:07 GMT forangejuice said:

Also don't know how inflated the ebay prices are but three kingdoms seems reasonable

I think people get genuinely put off by it as it looks like it could have been done on an 8-bit console.

Yeah I can see this being the case, it did also get a snes release which I imagine was more popular but for me this a great considering I don't own any copy of the game and it's on the saturn!

[Anthaemia.]

When it comes to Saturn games that were released in the US but not PAL territories, my top five has to include World Series Baseball '98, Astal, Iron Storm, High Velocity and Scud The Disposable Assassin.

[mick_aka]

Scud is probably one of my favorite platformers.

[pastel]

I had no idea Astal was US only. But then again, what's the benefit in getting the US version? It's just a platformer, no story, correct? I'd go for the Japanese version.

[xDerekRx]

Aug 15, 2017 21:25:33 GMT pastel said:

I had no idea Astal was US only. But then again, what's the benefit in getting the US version? It's just a platformer, no story, correct? I'd go for the Japanese version.

It does have a story and decent voice acting too. But its not like an rpg

[xDerekRx]

Aug 13, 2017 12:17:15 GMT forangejuice said:

Just saw there was an American release of romance of Three Kingdoms 4 for the saturn which has got me excited for US imports(also heard good things about Astal)
I have no clue what I should be paying for any of these games or which of those exclusives are any good, any help on this front?

Sych is a good reference as hes an all region gamer.

Romance of the 3 Kingdoms is actually really good if that is your type of genre. KOEI seemingly only released their games over here (I think off the top of my head PTO II, Winning Post, Heir of Zendor) Also Aerobiz 96 got cancelled or that would have been a nice one.

To me the really good US non PAL release titles are (in no order). A few of these are even in my Top 20 overall on the system.

- Magic Knight Rayearth
- Albert Odyssey
- Astal
- Mega Man x4
- Mega Man 8
- Contra Legacy of War
- Hercs Adventures
- Iron Storm
- Winning Post
- High Velocity Racing
- World Series Baseball 98
- SCUD
- Minnesota Fats Pool
- Dark Legend (Outlaws Of The Lost Dynasty in Japan)
- Romance of the 3 Kingdoms
- PTO II

Ones of odd interest
- Congo The Movie (personal favorite, although flawed to many, Doom in the jungle)
- Battlesport (addicting vehicle sports title, but too expensive)
- Braindead 13 (one of those Discworld type games)
- Corpse Killer (FMV Zombie cheezy stuff)
- Sports Games: There seem to be a lot of odd baseball and NFL titles that only came out here if youre into that

If you want to get deeper, there are games with better versions/variations in the US
- Sega Rally Plus - last release of Sega rally with some bug fixes and full 3D pad support
- Powerslave - Has deathtank 1 included if you find all of the dolls and runs a better.
- Tomb Raider - Have heard alot of bug fixes here
- Bomberman/Duke Nukem 3D/Virtual On have Netlink modes if you ever want to try the new online Netlink over internet that was discovered


Again as mentioned, most of these are really expensive. Luckily it seems you are into the deeper sim games and Romance isn't as crazy priced.

[slicer1000]

My shoutout goes to

Midway Presents Arcade's Greatest Hits

Which only got a North American release, the Atari one got released on Saturn in PAL but not the Midway version, instead it only got a Mega Drive PAL release and was missing the sixth game Bubbles.

[sych]

Aug 15, 2017 17:31:59 GMT Anthaemia. said:

When it comes to Saturn games that were released in the US but not PAL territories, my top five has to include World Series Baseball '98, Astal, Iron Storm, High Velocity and Scud The Disposable Assassin.

Is World Series Baseball 98' better than WSB 2? I hear they changed a lot of things in the 3rd installment but was it for the better?

[xDerekRx]

Aug 17, 2017 14:04:43 GMT sych said:

Aug 15, 2017 17:31:59 GMT Anthaemia. said:

When it comes to Saturn games that were released in the US but not PAL territories, my top five has to include World Series Baseball '98, Astal, Iron Storm, High Velocity and Scud The Disposable Assassin.

Is World Series Baseball 98' better than WSB 2? I hear they changed a lot of things in the 3rd installment but was it for the better?

It depends how you look at it.

WSB 2 kept the simple, sprite based, arcade charm. Easy to pick up and play.

WSB 98 is considered by many to be one of the best baseball games ever at least in North America where it was released. It was truly one of the only, other than Soccer 98, to be really considered a contender against a PS1 sports title. 

While WWS was solid, Sega made WSB engine look truly next gen at the time. 

It plays more "sim" like which means its not as fast and arcade like as WSB II. While that might be a turn off to some, its appreciated by fans of the sport as it relates to realism and flow. Around the time of its released most magazines considered it a 4-5/5 star game. All around best team sports game the Saturn produced in terms of production and feel. But again the non baseball fan will not be concerned with it likely.

Only game I wish they had attempted in polygon form would be Cricket. Didn't even get one of those on Saturn.