@@eskanda3434 Sega of Japan and their poor marketing strategy to rush it to North American consumers without anyone knowing it was out also didn't help.
@@eskanda3434 wrong, Saturn was strong in Japan and many games never even came over. Sonic wasn't a big deal, Sega never died, they made a while other console that was great too and kept putting games out for others. They are basically responsible for Xbox too, microsoft withers directly admit this. Xbox carried he torch. They basically still have Panzer lol which was .....Saturn's Sonic, thank you good night.
@@eskanda3434 Sega never fell so your statement was dead before it started. Sonic not being on Saturn was nothing. Sonic wasn't on there first 3 home consoles lol and there were Sonic games on Saturn just not a main one. Meant nothing as far as losing in US. A $400 console in 1994 that half the fans didn't even understand and wrote off as a Sega CD type of thing is what killed it lol and out of over a thousand games mess than a third made it to the US. I'm sure a Sonic game would have changed all of that lol 🤣
It's a great character, game, IP, and Shigeru Miyamoto was very wise and humble to say that he wished to have been Nights' creator. But, still, Nights actually wasn't capable of it because the Saturn failed resoundingly.
@@keithng2517 saturn didn't too. It was different time and games. It was low poly arcade greatness and 3d recolution. Sega made amazing arcade games and pretty lousy saturn games without a clue what they need to do with a new hardware. Like a lot of games was very uninspired by idea and pretty much scared of a new era . Nights had that amazing Sega magic feeling, that after had sonic games till 2009, and very special atmosphere and real Saturn capability, even though it was 2.5d game. From the list - astal is a game, that got most heart of before NiGHTS, but still was comfortable 2d game , that felt like ristar successor , than a proper Saturn tech demo. Bug is mediocre. Mr bones felt funny, but uninspired . Clockwork Knight is uninapired as hell - felt like marketing tunt to make toys game while toy story was something in the air at the moment That's pretty shitty actually, most of Sega Saturn games are that depressed on launch and first year.
I thought it was the US version and he got some random girl to say SEGA for his intro. I didn't know Japan had it's own version. Why would the US one remove it? The japanese vocals i get, but saying SEGA? Seriously? Was that not edgy like that SEGA scream?
@@zylowolf7919 The Seeeegaaaa chant was more of a Japanese tradition in their comercials than anything else, not usually seen in the western regions except for the boot up logo sequences of the Sonic the Hedgehog titles on the Mega Drive. Americans were more used to the Sega screams on their commercials and in Europe the approach was different and variable according to the country. That's why I suppose the North American version of Astal removed it and maybe an European one would have done the same as well.
@FieryReign Agreed. Very basic and linear gameplay. But while graphics certainly aren't everything, it's still an important part of any game. Otherwise you'd still be sitting playing Pong, which I assume you don't. 😉
Ice Cube would have been hilarious, since just the other week he went on a terrific Twitter tirade that included implying that Saturn, the planet, was evil as it features a hexagon. Because of his rant, I learned that Saturn really does feature a gigantic blue-gold hexagon at its north pole. Who said rappers weren't educational?
Bug (the original), was probably my favourite mascot out of them all; his game was difficult beyond belief, and its level design magnificent. Although simple, it had a sence of wonder that's difficult to describe; I tink they did a spectacular job in their approach to 2.5D; every corner full of imagination and sweet mechanics. Pepperouchau III and his friends are super charming too... It's world is like an alternative aproach to the world of Toy Story, only done first, and that's were it's at; it's gameplay was fun, replayed the second game it in its entirety last year, what an experience it was. Nights, although the most well known, is probably the one I have the least experience with, which doesn't mean I didn't have fun with it; played the original, the remastered and the sequel on Wii; and loved'em all, even though I still spent a lot more time with the others. An honourable mention goes to the Daytona car; Hornet on Figters Megamix was a badass!
Sega spent the entire Genesis era telling us how awesome Sonic and his speed were, and how lame slow careful platform games are. So what do we have here? Three slow careful platformers. I know how much the system means to you, but this lineup was a disaster. And I can’t agree they could have turned any of these games into a Sonic game. Sonic is fast. These games are slooow.
Actually Clockwork Knight 1and 2 could be quite fast. The engine could have handled the speed if the stage design had been altered. Rewatch the CK2 horse segment. And Bug! WAS a Sonic game in its early development stages.
Agree.. Sega also had to deal with Mario 64.. Nintendo hit a home run with that game.. Sega was wise not to release a real saturn sonic game, it could have done more Damage it they did.
@TrueSinister Sonic extreme was a nightmare to work on albeit it wasn't just because of issues with the console itself. I wouldn't be surprised is that had a Sonic game released on the Saturn that it would have been 2d or 3d with smaller levels. Most of the early attempts at 3d games were trying to bring what worked in 2d and place it in a 3d space and had it been released the same year as Super Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot it would have been and unfavorable comparison.
@@costby1105 If you look at Sonic World on the compilation game Sonic Jam, the game could easily have combined hub/discovery/item collect sections done in that style, with 'speed' sections with Sonic channelled through narrow, 2.5D paths at high speeds. Would have worked really well.
You know, everybody keeps wanting a Dreamcast mini and while it would be amazing, I'd love to see a Saturn mini. Especially since I never got to experience a Saturn. Probably would never happen, but one can dream!
Both for me, it should go in order. Genesis>Saturn>Dreamcast. Combine Master System with Game Gear and have it double as a handheld AND a plug n play. Sega could do that and make a fortune.
I am THOROUGHLY convinced we need a remaster of ASTAL. I had it. It's astonishing and really challenging at times and super artistic creative and fun. With new hardware the speed could be upped or the frames ....sega killer app.
Another great video. I’ve basically binge watched your entire sega saturn playlists today and I am in awe of how knowledgeable you are and how amazing and dedicated you’re to your videos. As a huge Sega fan myself I say thank you and I look forward to watching more of your videos from the past, currently and from the future
i always wondered if Nights was supposed to be a Sonic game. where a flying super sonic flew around collecting rings instead of a flying clown collecting orbs.
Nope. Yuji Naka was bored of Sonic and wanted to do other games, which is why he did Nights and Burning Rangers. Nights was never going to be a Sonic game, but because it's Yuji Naka there are similarities to Sonic.
@NERV Agent Bernie Stolar stole the nights engine and gave it to the Sonic Xtreme team. When Yuji Naka heard about this, he threatened to quit until Sega took the engine back. It cost Sonic Xtreme months of dev time.
Nights was a fun new type of game, but it could not compete with Mario 64. Mario 64 and all the platform games on the Psx made the Saturn look like a piece of crap. The Saturn had some major hardware issues and that is why we never seen a true next gen Saturn game. By the time the engineers figured out how to make a sonic game look good(look at the level in the sonic collection it is amazing and should have been used in a sonic game), it was too late and already 1997/98 and the Dreamcast was already on its way. The Staurn was poorly designed from the start and the engineers at sega did not want to use american technology and stuck with their pieced together nightmare of a system. I still have my Saturn and some games on it are amazing but the PSx was by far the better system and the N64 had Mario and Zelda and that was all it needed.
@@johnjay6370 That Sonic Jam level could have happened by 1996 but Naka was busying himself with Nights and then Burning Rangers. It's a shame nobody at Sega would put their foot down and tell him they needed a Sonic game for Christmas '96. As for the PlayStation platformers, Saturn could have had platformers to rival them, but the genre wasn't as popular in Japan as it was in the west and Saturn was dead in the west by the time 3D platformers became so abundant. Alternatively, they could have asked Traveller's Tales to turn Sonic R into a platformer instead of a racing game. They did a lot of advanced things with the Saturn's hardware in that game that would have worked perfectly in a platformer. Anyway, that was all 20-25 years ago. PlayStation platformers of that era have not aged well at all. They look like shit and play like shit (other than Spyro), and the Saturn's 2D games look and play as great as they ever did. I find myself playing my old Saturn games much more than my old PlayStation games, even the 3D ones like Panzer Dragoon Saga.
@@SegaLordX I've never played it. I'm just going by what you showed. The Saturn is in storage, unfortunately. It's been awhile since I've been able to do any real Saturn gaming.
I played almost all of these extensively as a kid. Only one I never got my hands on was Clockwork Knight 2. I still have my copy of Astal and the first Clockwork Knight to this day, and I get the most out of the latter.
You never played Clockwork Knight 2? Well, well... Please let me tell you what it's like being a pretty doll day and night. Baby, it ain't easy! th-cam.com/video/tPi15GjCDAc/w-d-xo.html
@@Rationalific Now that I think back on it, I played the demo on the sampler disc that came with my Sega Saturn, but that only had the first level on it. Also, I remember that title screen music. Really dug it back in the day. It was a bonus song that was playable in the Saturn's CD player, and I would play it a lot. :D
I remember my brother buying Bug right off the bat at launch. I never hated that game, but I never loved it, either. I guess that's kinda my feelings towards the Saturn overall, which honestly makes sense why Bug should be the system's mascot.
Great video as always! I made a video about Astal too where I said that I felt he could've or should've been the mascot for the Saturn, in lieu of any captivating Sonic titles on the system. I can always dream lol. Looking forward to your next video!
Sonic 3d world was a very good game on the saturn, but not a Mario 64 killer..Bug 1&2 were very good too, but still missing something. 2D sonic on the Saturn would have been amazing, but the market wanted 3d. Anything 2d was not considered a challenge to Mario 64.. the only thing that might have been was that 3d would in the sonic collection on the Saturn. They should have made a game with that engine..
I always wanted that super crazy detailed 2d sonic game for Saturn. 3d sonic games just never hit with me, they always felt off and played bad. Mario fits 3d worlds better since he's slower and that just works so much better in that type of a platformer.
Sega had a 2 year window from when the Saturn launched in Japan (94) until the N64 was released (96). In that time they could have made an awesome 2D Sonic game for Saturn, Knuckles Chaotix was supposed to be a Saturn Sonic launch title apparently, but it was taking too long, so it came out for the 32X in April of 95 instead (I'm a little dubious of this considering the Saturn was also released in the US in 95..ie it could've made the U.S. launch). Knuckles Chaotix wasn't quite up to par with previous Genesis efforts, but it did try to innovate some gameplay, used hardware scaling, and had 3D polygon special stages. They had 3D games in the library with Virtua Fighter, Daytona USA and others to satisfy early expectations.
@@lazarushernandez5827 They had a 2 year window and did nothing with it except make things worse. The PSX was much better at 3d games and I don't care what anyone says about how the Saturn could have made the games just as good or better.. Developers will not spend the time and resources to push a system to its max when the user base is 1/4 of what the PSX is. Its all about money and the PSX was the most profitable at the time, even more so than the N64. The N64 had MARIO and Zelda and that is all they needed. The PSX had all the 3rd party support it could ever need. The Saturn had little or nothing compared to the PSX. I lived it during that time and as much as I loved the games on the Saturn that you could not get on a PSX or N64, there were few and every port was hands down better on the PSX...Sega made a mistake with its hardware and it took until the very end of the systems life to see games that really pushed the system, games like SONIC R showed what the saturn could do, but by that time it was way to late... The Saturn was the sum of all Sega's Failures. I might sound like a Sega hatter but I am not, I really liked my Saturn and still have it. I supported them until the end with the Amazing Dreamcast. Saying that the Saturn was a failure and the PSX was hands down a better designed system.
@@johnjay6370 I lived it too, by 97, the PSX had pulled way ahead, but devs were still willing to make games for the Saturn, because it was disc based, the 3rd parties would still get $$ from each sale compared to the N64. Saturn would've been fine if it had settled into this role in the US, it was still getting 3rd party games, and Japan was still sending a few games over every now and then. But Bernie's announcement in 97, shot all of that to hell. I agree that the PSX showed up with the right machine at the right time. The Saturn was hard to program for, with only Sega themselves really leveraging all of the processors impressively. The sad thing is Sega should have known better, they helped usher in 3D with their arcade titles, they also had a shot at both the PSX and N64 hardware...
@@lazarushernandez5827 I agree. I am an engineer, the picture of my icon is one the the displays I designed. Saying that Looking at the hardware from an engineering side, Sega's hardware is a mess. I do understand with all its processors it could do some very impressive things, but most developers do not have the talent to even the WANT to spend time learning a system like that. The Saturn can be used in a few different ways and one way to use the saturn is to 1/2 ass it. Meaning it might be easy to get a game up and running but only using 1 of its main processors and using a fraction of the power of its VDPs. I think most developers wrote code that way, in fact I would bet on it. With deadlines and weak Sega Tools I would expect that was the case in most games. Anyways thanks for listening.
Sega made a lot of mistakes, not their games but the ideas that made them. Like you said sonic could had used assets from them games. I'm thinking more clockwork knight and mainly Astal! Didn't care much for Bug or it's sequel
Ehh, I don't know. I actually kind of like that they decided to make original mascots. But yeah, I guess they could've borrowed assets from those games and made a good Sonic game out of them.
The Sega Saturn is such an interesting system. I would love to see a 2 - 3 hour documentary chronicling it's history. The design, revisions, politics, marketing, game development, actual games, etc...
i just beat bug last week and yeah it’s pretty good and then you reach the snow snow world which is incredibly difficult with some cryptic elements and the lave world wasn’t as bad but the check points were too scarce and oh man the maze at the end of the last level
Bug! irked me back in the day. My friend was happy enough with Astal, and since those days, quite the fangirl. I borrowed her Saturn with Bug! And a few other games. I think that might explain my iffiness with Saturn back in the day. By 1997, that changed... But I don't regret exploring, as it got me out of the fanboy notion I was. Loved the N64 and eventually PlayStation lol Also PC for those amazing RTS'
I've had all three games and I still have them to this day. If I remember, I got Clockwork Knight and the first Bug!, along with the Saturn itself, on Christmas Day 1995 at my grandpa's house in Brooklyn, NY. (Thanks Dad!) I got Astal at the local Kay-Bees Toys store at the Staten Island Mall; and the sequels to Clockwork Knight and Bug later around 1996. Don't care what the critics say, I still enjoy them!
I loved bug game growing up. It was a rental, though. It was difficult, at least for me, seeing the snail boss here is a first for me because I never saw him as a kid.
I believe Bug could and should have been reworked into a Sonic game. Imagine they had the finished product but instead of releasing it they just replaced everything with the Sonic aesthetic, made Sonic accelerate, and adjusted the platforming from there as needed. Would’ve sold millions more Saturns in 1995 I promise, even if it was bad!
Sega of Japan:we need a Saturn Sonic game from Sega of America Sega of America: sure thing. Just let us use some assets Sega of Japan: NO. START OVER!!!
@@zylowolf7919 idk why sega waste there time with sonic mars for the 32x. After the genesis they should use the time to develop xtreme for the Saturn a year earlier.
@@maroon9273 exactly. I mean it still looked better than Star Fox on SNES, but it could hav3 been cool on Saturn. I mean Playstation had Jumping Flash. Plus the Saturn would have cd audio quality for it. Can you imagine Knuckles Chaotix "Doors into Summer" with cd music? I wonder if it could have been done with cd/32x combined? Like have it be a more complete version. If the 32x wasn't so limited being a temporary fix for 32 bit games, it could have been great. It had some good arcade ports at lest, but they were outdone by Saturn's versions. Sega Ages is a big one. Then there's NBA JAM, Mortal Kombat, Primal Rage, you get the idea. All stuff that was either already passable on Genesis or almost 1-1 perfectly ported onto Saturn from their original arcade version. The 32x ports were better than the Genesis ones, but unnecessary. It really was a situation where Sega had to pick one or the other. Having both at the same time was wasteful. Tom was right when he said Genesis had more life to it, but Saturn already being out by 94-95 meant the 32x was moot at this point. But Saturn still needed a good Sonic original game. Tom was right about that. I love NIGHTS, but it's not what most common gamrs wanted, be they Sega fans or not. But at least NIGHTS was a better mascot than bug, Clockwork Knight, or Astal. Clockwork Knight was probably outdone by Toy Story which not only was a great early cg movie, but it also had a game with similar gameplay and graphics to Clockwork Knight ON THE GENESIS. Bug was basically Sonic XTREME minus the fisheye cam, and Astal was most likely forgotten over Rayman, an argueably much better game. But then if all this didn't go the way it did, we wouldn't have Dreamcast or Sonic Adventure.
@@zylowolf7919 still would had the dreamcast at a later time period after the 20th century like 2000 or 2001 with more ram and processing power. Most likely sonic adventure would have been ported to the Saturn and the dreamcast will have sonic adventure 2. Also don't forget the SNES/DOS version of toy story. As for knuckles and Chaotix, it would have been a good title for the Saturn if you include team sonic as well. Sad the Saturn and ps1 has a terrible port of mortal kombat 2 and both the of ports should have been in the same level as the arcade/dos version if probe would have put more effort into it. Sculpture would have been a better developer for both ports.
I wonder if there was any consideration at the time of wanting to avoid overexposure of Sonic in 1995, with Sonic & Knuckles and Sonic 3 having been released the prior year, I believe. Of course, not having a Sonic game hurt them and they ended up in a bad position anyway. I also wonder if they came up with new properties to try out gameplay ideas in order to figure out what worked and what didn't with the new hardware capabilities before applying them to a Sonic game. I remember in those days not finding Clockwork Knight particularly appealing. Same for Astal, for different reasons. And Bug was only mildly interesting, more for the new gameplay concepts than the character.
Astal needed a sequel to smooth out the gameplay. Of the games here its really the only one that had the potential to grow from a good game to a great game.
@@SegaLordX I've always found it bizarre how Astal wasn't released in Europe. The UK Sega Saturn Magazine used to praise the game and recommend importing if possible. Even at the time as a kid, i could see that it wasn't something that would appeal to the US and didn't understand why it wasn't at least released in Europe instead, because it certainly would have appealed to us more. Sega always made such amazingly stupid decisions that even a child could have done better.
As a PAL Saturn owner, I'd never heard of Astal until SLX featured it on his channel years after the fact. It looks like a top tier title and I'm pretty surprised we didn't get it in the UK. It was Sega of America that seemed to have the issue with 2D, not Sega Europe. Even late on in the system's life it would have made sense as a release, when Abe's Odyssey and Yoshi's story were reviving interest in the 2D platforming genre on other systems. But what made sense about any of Sega's decisions back then?
I was aware of the existence of this game because of a Spanish magazine covering it back on the day as an import. They seriously regretted about the odd decision of Sega Europe not bringing it to Europe (ie, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, etc). If I remember right, apparently it was a combination of the fact that it had to be released a while later in Europe, even if it was a console launch release (keep in mind it was an early console release in North America and they got the console two months ahead of us) together with the fact that Sega wanted to give the console a strong 3D vibe at launch. In case you are wondering about Clockwork Knight, even if that one had 2D gameplay, its look was "3D-ish", so that's why it made the cut. But Astal was purely 2D in both gameplay and appearance and they wanted to make the Sega Saturn stand away from anything purely 2D at first (the Mega Drive was still around then, they reconsidered this later), and so they regarded it not worthy to convert it to PAL. A sad decision indeed, as it's a gorgeous game and obviously the best one featured in this video coverage.
This game came out when people wanted 3D. Side scrolling platforms was all we had until 3D. Now I can go back and enjoy these games more. Funny that those 1st gen 3D games don't hold up and the 16 bit era is the golden era of video games.
???? What? Golden era???? 16bit wasn't the golden era by any means. Games struggled and was flooded with alot of junk consoles and bad arcade conversations. All eras have their gems, early 3d blew 16bit out of it's shoes lol. Resident Evil was born, blew away anything I ever tried on SNES or Genesis by miles and miles. Final Fantasy and the RPG genre got even better, outside if Chrono Trigger not one rog was better than what PS had. Metal Gear? Again like RE blew away boring old side scrollers that were played out by 1990. There a classics in all eras but damn the early 3d was better than half the trash now. Unless your a graphics snob then you missed out on stuff like Bushido Blade. Early 3d was top notch, more creative, better controls (especially on N64) and effortful compared to eras to follow
@@thomasbeall9069 I would say when it comes to jrpgs then the ps1 era is the golden age for that type of game. Overall you could easily say that the 90s is the golden age of gaming since we got some of the biggest leaps in gaming, along with what I would say are some of the greatest games of all time.
@@unclematt3134 it's truly not lol fans complained about all the limitations and how arcades blew consoles away so again your making things up. It literally wasn't the golden age.
I always considered the cast of Virtua fighter to represent the Saturn the best. Between Virtua fighter kids, super puzzle fighter and fighters megamix it seemed Sega was all in on that franchise being a shared face for Saturn.
I’m not sure what the Saturn mascot was supposed to be but I’m just happy we at least got a Shinobi game for the Saturn which is my favorite sega franchise. And this maybe controversial but I believe Shinobi X (that soundtrack makes me choose X over legions) is the best Shinobi game in the franchise just edging out Revenge of Shinobi and Shinobi 3
It was also strange how in the u.s. version of shinobi the intro or the village being attacked was cut out but the European and Japan version stayed intact
@@avalond1193 We always used to get the short end of the stick when it comes to US releases of games so that was not a surprise to me although I agree it was strange and unnecessary
It probably would have been more difficult than you would think. Sega was very Japan-centric when it came to development on top of the conflict between Sega America and Sega Japan. The reason why it took so long for another Sonic game to get developed was that Sonic was not nearly as popular in Japan as everywhere else unlike Mario who was at the time. Sonic was also at the time shipped off to STI and Travelers Tales likely as a result of this.
I could totally see Traveler's Tales being able to port Clockwork Knight to Genesis. 😮... Would be a novelty to behold. Love seeing stuff like that on older hardware... Just gets me all... Happy in my heart to see retro consoles being pushed beyond what was ever believed to be conceivable... Truly amazing what you can do if you really get the architecture and know a boatload of tricks up your sleeve as far as coding goes.
Nice video I’m Impressed with “Astral” looks and sounds great.I think it is one of jewels on the “Sega Saturn”.I definitly want to play it if I have the chance🤗Have a Nice day Dude
During the Saturn's first year, down here in Texas, Bug was pushed heavily as the new mascot. I remember thinking this must be a stop gap for the next Sonic game.
It’s also worth mentioning that the Japanese version of Astal may be cheaper than its western counterpart. I would love to play that game also. What was mentioned at the end, I love Crash Bandicoot and I was happy to have it remastered (I wanna get CTR: NF so bad!!!) and I really want to play Crash 4 that recently came out. Y’all should check it out.
Although I was a mad fan of Sega at the time of the Saturn's launch (I never considered buying the Playstation, and would have paid any price for the Saturn), Bug and Clockwork Knight were two of the games that I detested, casting a shadow on the console for me. Thankfully some games came along later which fully vindicated the Saturn for me... but I can't watch those two games without shuddering. I wish I had had Astal. That. Sounds. AWESOME. omg that Japanese music is so "Sega", it makes me cry for all we have lost.
It's always interesting to hear other peoples opinions on things. I have had many Saturn fans confess their disdain for Bug and Clockwork Knight during my time on SLX. It has made me realize just how important not having a Sonic game ready early really hurt the console with many potential buyers.
@@SegaLordX I think it was the lack of Sega IPs that I knew and loved that hurt. If they'd badges Clockwork Knight as a new Illusion game, and made it feel like Mickey, I might have liked it more, The only games that keot me on the Saturn in those first 6 months were Shinobi X and the new surprise- Panzer Dragoon. ut then in Jan 1996, I got VF2 (The game that VF should have been!), Sega Rally and... Mystaria. omg Mystaria. This felt like Sega (Shining Force). The saviour for me. You've said it in one of your other videos, but the apparent loss of all the console IPs (at least at first) made this first 6 months hard. I didn't need a Sonic game, personally. I had 5 of those already. :)
...kinda odd that you mention the Sonic race in the description but not in the video when you were making your point about the "Sonic Blueprint"; I think it's also worth mentioning that splitting Clockwork Knight isn't unlike how S3&K got split and how their attempt to establish a Saturn mascot was almost history repeating itself since Sonic himself replaced Alex Kidd.
I can't believe the amount of ads on your videos lately, SEGA Lord X. I know it's probably not your doing, but it makes watching your brilliant channel a chore when there's ads every 2-3 minutes.
is it just me, or does the astal fmv use a few seconds from the sonic cd fmv? specifically the part where he's standing all dramatic on a tall rock and the camera pans around behind his head. but then it cuts away to an icy zone before you get a good luck of the (totally not little planet) terrain?
Astal looks cool and so does Clockwork Knight. Bug looks a bit too vanilla to me. And although they are good games on their own they never filled the void of not having sonic on saturn. I remember none of my friends being interested in the console for the very same reason. No Sonic? No Saturn :(
I've played both Bug games, and my favorite is the second one. Better physics, a save system, run button, CD music and more varied worlds are what make it superior to me, although the graphics are muddier and uglier than the original. Also it actually starts out nicely until World 3 rolls by and hits you like a truck with a difficulty spike. Lol.
I still think of NiGHTS as the de facto Saturn system mascot since none of the Sonic releases on the system were new, exclusive system platformers. Likewise with Panzer Dragoon Saga as the Saturn's main RPG, with no new Phantasy Star and with Grandia also going to the PlayStation. The N64 had Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time for the main system representatives. The Saturn had NiGHTS into Dreams... and Panzer Dragoon Saga. Not bad alternatives at all, especially since both games revolve around the theme of flight, perfectly fitting for a system called the Saturn.
Clockwork Knight was rad but never played the first. I also had Bug on the PC, it came in a combo pack with Sonic 3 & Knuckles (that I, no joke, got from Jack in the Box). Would've liked to have played on my Saturn but the PC version seemed great.
Funny thing is clockwork knight came out before the toy story movie came out. Is it possible that the toy story franchise was inspired by clockwork knight the game?
Bug! looks very nice on HD tv sets, but when I first saw it a local FUNCOLAND..it really did not impress me.. I mean that, when I first saw it..I felt that it was not true 3D... As I see it now..it does look very vibrant and lush, and I might play it for a while. I really like the 3d flying levels.
Astal is definitely the best of the 3. I just beat the Japanese version today. The American version unfortunately was way too hard. 3 health and only 1 continue. The Japanese version has 5 health and unlimited continues, and honestly it kinda needs it. You're unlikely to ever beat the American version without being able to practice the later levels. When I first played the game, I was expecting it to play like Donkey Kong Country, and that really did it a disservice. But because of those expectations, I didn't really like it at first. Astal is heavy feeling, and the game isn't a fast paced game even though Astal can run. His attacks are weird too, he doesn't kill enemies by jumping on them, and that bothered me at first. But once you accept it for what it is, it's an excellent game. It's not trying to be like other platformers, and is its own thing. I would love to see a new Astal game, but that's never going to happen. :(
I didn't have a Saturn until YEARS after launch, after the DC was done even, but I always thought of Nights as the mascot because it was always on the demo kiosks at Target and stuff back in the day.
Yeah, the saturns launch lineup is mostly sega published games, I do heard that myst (the classic point and click adventure game) was going to be a launch title in North America, but was rejected by sega. But the Saturn port was release anyway but just not as a launch title, but myst was a launch title in japan
Yuki Naka was burned out on Sonic by the time Saturn was released. That’s why he focused heavily on the Nights project. Don’t get me wrong, a Sonic game in the style of Sonic World featured in Sonic Jam would of been excellent and I would of bought a Saturn just for that. Sonic R was cool but the controls were too stiff.
No Sonic? Big Problem!
If you can't do a good sonic game than don't do it. Something I wish Sega would take note of today.
@@eskanda3434 Sega of Japan and their poor marketing strategy to rush it to North American consumers without anyone knowing it was out also didn't help.
@@TyTye It's clear that the fans of their IPs are doing a much better job at it ... *cough* Sonic Mania *cough* Streets of Rage 4
@@eskanda3434 wrong, Saturn was strong in Japan and many games never even came over. Sonic wasn't a big deal, Sega never died, they made a while other console that was great too and kept putting games out for others. They are basically responsible for Xbox too, microsoft withers directly admit this. Xbox carried he torch. They basically still have Panzer lol which was .....Saturn's Sonic, thank you good night.
@@eskanda3434 Sega never fell so your statement was dead before it started. Sonic not being on Saturn was nothing. Sonic wasn't on there first 3 home consoles lol and there were Sonic games on Saturn just not a main one. Meant nothing as far as losing in US. A $400 console in 1994 that half the fans didn't even understand and wrote off as a Sega CD type of thing is what killed it lol and out of over a thousand games mess than a third made it to the US. I'm sure a Sonic game would have changed all of that lol 🤣
Only Nights is capable of it
No one else feels like Sega's character.
It's a great character, game, IP, and Shigeru Miyamoto was very wise and humble to say that he wished to have been Nights' creator. But, still, Nights actually wasn't capable of it because the Saturn failed resoundingly.
Nights definitely had the speed of Sonic but not the attitude.
@@keithng2517 saturn didn't too. It was different time and games. It was low poly arcade greatness and 3d recolution. Sega made amazing arcade games and pretty lousy saturn games without a clue what they need to do with a new hardware. Like a lot of games was very uninspired by idea and pretty much scared of a new era . Nights had that amazing Sega magic feeling, that after had sonic games till 2009, and very special atmosphere and real Saturn capability, even though it was 2.5d game.
From the list - astal is a game, that got most heart of before NiGHTS, but still was comfortable 2d game , that felt like ristar successor , than a proper Saturn tech demo. Bug is mediocre. Mr bones felt funny, but uninspired . Clockwork Knight is uninapired as hell - felt like marketing tunt to make toys game while toy story was something in the air at the moment
That's pretty shitty actually, most of Sega Saturn games are that depressed on launch and first year.
@@Mazgid Clockwork knight actually did inspire traveller's tales when they made their genesis toy story game.
Nights is such a great character and game concept but I can't help but feel Sega missed his potential
OH so thats where he got the opening sound from.
I thought it was the US version and he got some random girl to say SEGA for his intro. I didn't know Japan had it's own version. Why would the US one remove it? The japanese vocals i get, but saying SEGA? Seriously? Was that not edgy like that SEGA scream?
I thought the same exact thing lol
@@zylowolf7919 The Seeeegaaaa chant was more of a Japanese tradition in their comercials than anything else, not usually seen in the western regions except for the boot up logo sequences of the Sonic the Hedgehog titles on the Mega Drive. Americans were more used to the Sega screams on their commercials and in Europe the approach was different and variable according to the country. That's why I suppose the North American version of Astal removed it and maybe an European one would have done the same as well.
@@WeskerSega yeah but Sonic made that SEEEEGA iconic in the west. That should have been more of a thing here. Even casuals were familliar with it!!!
Bug is a forgotten gem in my opinion. So many awesome childhood memories. Will always have a warm place in my heart.
Astal looks amazing even now so many years later - it's a work of art.
@FieryReign Agreed. Very basic and linear gameplay. But while graphics certainly aren't everything, it's still an important part of any game. Otherwise you'd still be sitting playing Pong, which I assume you don't. 😉
Best Saturn Would-Be Mascot: Ice Cube 1:32
Ice Cube in Monster Land.
Ice Cube would have been hilarious, since just the other week he went on a terrific Twitter tirade that included implying that Saturn, the planet, was evil as it features a hexagon.
Because of his rant, I learned that Saturn really does feature a gigantic blue-gold hexagon at its north pole. Who said rappers weren't educational?
lol I remember that ad.
So THAT'S where your intro music comes from. Now whenever I hear "Segaaaaa!", I'll think of Astal and/or Sega Lord X.
Bug (the original), was probably my favourite mascot out of them all; his game was difficult beyond belief, and its level design magnificent.
Although simple, it had a sence of wonder that's difficult to describe; I tink they did a spectacular job in their approach to 2.5D; every corner full of imagination and sweet mechanics.
Pepperouchau III and his friends are super charming too... It's world is like an alternative aproach to the world of Toy Story, only done first, and that's were it's at; it's gameplay was fun, replayed the second game it in its entirety last year, what an experience it was.
Nights, although the most well known, is probably the one I have the least experience with, which doesn't mean I didn't have fun with it; played the original, the remastered and the sequel on Wii; and loved'em all, even though I still spent a lot more time with the others.
An honourable mention goes to the Daytona car; Hornet on Figters Megamix was a badass!
Sega spent the entire Genesis era telling us how awesome Sonic and his speed were, and how lame slow careful platform games are. So what do we have here? Three slow careful platformers. I know how much the system means to you, but this lineup was a disaster. And I can’t agree they could have turned any of these games into a Sonic game. Sonic is fast. These games are slooow.
Actually Clockwork Knight 1and 2 could be quite fast. The engine could have handled the speed if the stage design had been altered. Rewatch the CK2 horse segment.
And Bug! WAS a Sonic game in its early development stages.
Agree.. Sega also had to deal with Mario 64.. Nintendo hit a home run with that game.. Sega was wise not to release a real saturn sonic game, it could have done more Damage it they did.
@TrueSinister Sonic extreme was a nightmare to work on albeit it wasn't just because of issues with the console itself. I wouldn't be surprised is that had a Sonic game released on the Saturn that it would have been 2d or 3d with smaller levels. Most of the early attempts at 3d games were trying to bring what worked in 2d and place it in a 3d space and had it been released the same year as Super Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot it would have been and unfavorable comparison.
@@SegaLordX sort of like how Croc started off as a Yoshi game in development.
@@costby1105 If you look at Sonic World on the compilation game Sonic Jam, the game could easily have combined hub/discovery/item collect sections done in that style, with 'speed' sections with Sonic channelled through narrow, 2.5D paths at high speeds. Would have worked really well.
Astal may not have been mascot material but that game deserved more love than it got. If nothing else, at least some sort of HD remake or something!
You know, everybody keeps wanting a Dreamcast mini and while it would be amazing, I'd love to see a Saturn mini. Especially since I never got to experience a Saturn. Probably would never happen, but one can dream!
Both for me, it should go in order. Genesis>Saturn>Dreamcast. Combine Master System with Game Gear and have it double as a handheld AND a plug n play. Sega could do that and make a fortune.
While that would be cool i have a feeling that it wouldn't sell very well
@@mraljfri770 yes it would. Saturn Mini will sell if it has the best of the best. Toss in some japanese exclusive stuff and you're golden!
@@zylowolf7919 the problem is that people don't look back fondly at the Saturn especially compared to the ps1 & n64
@@mraljfri770 dude, I'm from the 90s. Saturn was hype til psone came out with the heavy hitters in 97.
Looking at Astal, Clockwork Knight, and Bug! shows what Sonic X-Treme could have been.
I am THOROUGHLY convinced we need a remaster of ASTAL. I had it. It's astonishing and really challenging at times and super artistic creative and fun. With new hardware the speed could be upped or the frames ....sega killer app.
Another great video. I’ve basically binge watched your entire sega saturn playlists today and I am in awe of how knowledgeable you are and how amazing and dedicated you’re to your videos. As a huge Sega fan myself I say thank you and I look forward to watching more of your videos from the past, currently and from the future
Thanks man. Appreciate the kind words.
@@SegaLordX Thank you for your great channel
Thank you sega lord x. I can always count on you to shed light on my favorite games and characters. LOVE THESE THREE!!!
Wow, that Astal Japanese song is amazing! Haven't heard it before. Thanks for sharing.
i always wondered if Nights was supposed to be a Sonic game. where a flying super sonic flew around collecting rings instead of a flying clown collecting orbs.
Nope. Yuji Naka was bored of Sonic and wanted to do other games, which is why he did Nights and Burning Rangers. Nights was never going to be a Sonic game, but because it's Yuji Naka there are similarities to Sonic.
@NERV Agent Bernie Stolar stole the nights engine and gave it to the Sonic Xtreme team. When Yuji Naka heard about this, he threatened to quit until Sega took the engine back. It cost Sonic Xtreme months of dev time.
@@madhatter8508 thats too bad, since they're within Sega, wish they could have shared the tech together
Nights was a fun new type of game, but it could not compete with Mario 64. Mario 64 and all the platform games on the Psx made the Saturn look like a piece of crap. The Saturn had some major hardware issues and that is why we never seen a true next gen Saturn game. By the time the engineers figured out how to make a sonic game look good(look at the level in the sonic collection it is amazing and should have been used in a sonic game), it was too late and already 1997/98 and the Dreamcast was already on its way. The Staurn was poorly designed from the start and the engineers at sega did not want to use american technology and stuck with their pieced together nightmare of a system. I still have my Saturn and some games on it are amazing but the PSx was by far the better system and the N64 had Mario and Zelda and that was all it needed.
@@johnjay6370 That Sonic Jam level could have happened by 1996 but Naka was busying himself with Nights and then Burning Rangers. It's a shame nobody at Sega would put their foot down and tell him they needed a Sonic game for Christmas '96. As for the PlayStation platformers, Saturn could have had platformers to rival them, but the genre wasn't as popular in Japan as it was in the west and Saturn was dead in the west by the time 3D platformers became so abundant. Alternatively, they could have asked Traveller's Tales to turn Sonic R into a platformer instead of a racing game. They did a lot of advanced things with the Saturn's hardware in that game that would have worked perfectly in a platformer.
Anyway, that was all 20-25 years ago. PlayStation platformers of that era have not aged well at all. They look like shit and play like shit (other than Spyro), and the Saturn's 2D games look and play as great as they ever did. I find myself playing my old Saturn games much more than my old PlayStation games, even the 3D ones like Panzer Dragoon Saga.
Watching the Astal opening reminds me how much I love the Rockman X3 opening!
Nice transparency by Astal.
Oh man I would definitely go for the Japanese version of Astal for the music alone. Then again, I'm a raging weeaboo.
I have a hard time playing the NA version. Those voices are terrible.
@@SegaLordX I've never played it. I'm just going by what you showed. The Saturn is in storage, unfortunately. It's been awhile since I've been able to do any real Saturn gaming.
I played almost all of these extensively as a kid. Only one I never got my hands on was Clockwork Knight 2. I still have my copy of Astal and the first Clockwork Knight to this day, and I get the most out of the latter.
You never played Clockwork Knight 2? Well, well... Please let me tell you what it's like being a pretty doll day and night. Baby, it ain't easy!
th-cam.com/video/tPi15GjCDAc/w-d-xo.html
@@Rationalific Now that I think back on it, I played the demo on the sampler disc that came with my Sega Saturn, but that only had the first level on it.
Also, I remember that title screen music. Really dug it back in the day. It was a bonus song that was playable in the Saturn's CD player, and I would play it a lot. :D
i aways thought that Astal could be a descent "Knucles anything..."
I can see that.
Now that you mention it...
@@clinkencrew1806 just swap that bird thing with a Flicky and you are good to go
I remember my brother buying Bug right off the bat at launch. I never hated that game, but I never loved it, either. I guess that's kinda my feelings towards the Saturn overall, which honestly makes sense why Bug should be the system's mascot.
I just bought a Saturn. Enjoy the channel, been watching for about a year. Good stuff.
Fun fact, the only true 3D Platformer on the Saturn is croc legend of the gobbos in 1997
Nights was the Saturn mascot. That’s what I felt as a child, so it is so.
Great video as always! I made a video about Astal too where I said that I felt he could've or should've been the mascot for the Saturn, in lieu of any captivating Sonic titles on the system. I can always dream lol.
Looking forward to your next video!
Sonic 3d world was a very good game on the saturn, but not a Mario 64 killer..Bug 1&2 were very good too, but still missing something. 2D sonic on the Saturn would have been amazing, but the market wanted 3d. Anything 2d was not considered a challenge to Mario 64.. the only thing that might have been was that 3d would in the sonic collection on the Saturn. They should have made a game with that engine..
I always wanted that super crazy detailed 2d sonic game for Saturn. 3d sonic games just never hit with me, they always felt off and played bad. Mario fits 3d worlds better since he's slower and that just works so much better in that type of a platformer.
Sega had a 2 year window from when the Saturn launched in Japan (94) until the N64 was released (96). In that time they could have made an awesome 2D Sonic game for Saturn, Knuckles Chaotix was supposed to be a Saturn Sonic launch title apparently, but it was taking too long, so it came out for the 32X in April of 95 instead (I'm a little dubious of this considering the Saturn was also released in the US in 95..ie it could've made the U.S. launch).
Knuckles Chaotix wasn't quite up to par with previous Genesis efforts, but it did try to innovate some gameplay, used hardware scaling, and had 3D polygon special stages.
They had 3D games in the library with Virtua Fighter, Daytona USA and others to satisfy early expectations.
@@lazarushernandez5827 They had a 2 year window and did nothing with it except make things worse. The PSX was much better at 3d games and I don't care what anyone says about how the Saturn could have made the games just as good or better.. Developers will not spend the time and resources to push a system to its max when the user base is 1/4 of what the PSX is. Its all about money and the PSX was the most profitable at the time, even more so than the N64. The N64 had MARIO and Zelda and that is all they needed. The PSX had all the 3rd party support it could ever need. The Saturn had little or nothing compared to the PSX. I lived it during that time and as much as I loved the games on the Saturn that you could not get on a PSX or N64, there were few and every port was hands down better on the PSX...Sega made a mistake with its hardware and it took until the very end of the systems life to see games that really pushed the system, games like SONIC R showed what the saturn could do, but by that time it was way to late... The Saturn was the sum of all Sega's Failures. I might sound like a Sega hatter but I am not, I really liked my Saturn and still have it. I supported them until the end with the Amazing Dreamcast. Saying that the Saturn was a failure and the PSX was hands down a better designed system.
@@johnjay6370 I lived it too, by 97, the PSX had pulled way ahead, but devs were still willing to make games for the Saturn, because it was disc based, the 3rd parties would still get $$ from each sale compared to the N64. Saturn would've been fine if it had settled into this role in the US, it was still getting 3rd party games, and Japan was still sending a few games over every now and then. But Bernie's announcement in 97, shot all of that to hell. I agree that the PSX showed up with the right machine at the right time. The Saturn was hard to program for, with only Sega themselves really leveraging all of the processors impressively. The sad thing is Sega should have known better, they helped usher in 3D with their arcade titles, they also had a shot at both the PSX and N64 hardware...
@@lazarushernandez5827 I agree. I am an engineer, the picture of my icon is one the the displays I designed. Saying that Looking at the hardware from an engineering side, Sega's hardware is a mess. I do understand with all its processors it could do some very impressive things, but most developers do not have the talent to even the WANT to spend time learning a system like that. The Saturn can be used in a few different ways and one way to use the saturn is to 1/2 ass it. Meaning it might be easy to get a game up and running but only using 1 of its main processors and using a fraction of the power of its VDPs. I think most developers wrote code that way, in fact I would bet on it. With deadlines and weak Sega Tools I would expect that was the case in most games. Anyways thanks for listening.
Sega made a lot of mistakes, not their games but the ideas that made them. Like you said sonic could had used assets from them games. I'm thinking more clockwork knight and mainly Astal! Didn't care much for Bug or it's sequel
Bug is what Xtreme should have been.
Ehh, I don't know. I actually kind of like that they decided to make original mascots.
But yeah, I guess they could've borrowed assets from those games and made a good Sonic game out of them.
@@shinyneko8136 Sega has so many one and done mascots. I wish they'd bring them back and give them all another chance.
Astal felt a lot like a next gen Vectorman to young me at the time. Just with the gorgeous effects and the action platformer gameplay.
Feels like Ristar and Rayman to me
@@PaperBanjo64 yeah, Rayman for sure, I could feel that. Ristar played totally differently, and the aesthetics were very distinct from each other.
The Sega Saturn is such an interesting system. I would love to see a 2 - 3 hour documentary chronicling it's history. The design, revisions, politics, marketing, game development, actual games, etc...
i just beat bug last week and yeah it’s pretty good and then you reach the snow snow world which is incredibly difficult with some cryptic elements and the lave world wasn’t as bad but the check points were too scarce and oh man the maze at the end of the last level
God, I loved Astal. 'Still have my physical disc
I got "Clockwork Knight" when I got my Saturn. I completed the game, but never felt it was good enough to get the sequel.
It looks kinda meh, and it lacks that Sega "cool" factor, Bug and Bug Too look fun, I have Astal, and I enjoyed it.
Bug! irked me back in the day. My friend was happy enough with Astal, and since those days, quite the fangirl.
I borrowed her Saturn with Bug! And a few other games. I think that might explain my iffiness with Saturn back in the day. By 1997, that changed... But I don't regret exploring, as it got me out of the fanboy notion I was. Loved the N64 and eventually PlayStation lol
Also PC for those amazing RTS'
I've had all three games and I still have them to this day. If I remember, I got Clockwork Knight and the first Bug!, along with the Saturn itself, on Christmas Day 1995 at my grandpa's house in Brooklyn, NY. (Thanks Dad!) I got Astal at the local Kay-Bees Toys store at the Staten Island Mall; and the sequels to Clockwork Knight and Bug later around 1996. Don't care what the critics say, I still enjoy them!
I loved bug game growing up. It was a rental, though. It was difficult, at least for me, seeing the snail boss here is a first for me because I never saw him as a kid.
I believe Bug could and should have been reworked into a Sonic game. Imagine they had the finished product but instead of releasing it they just replaced everything with the Sonic aesthetic, made Sonic accelerate, and adjusted the platforming from there as needed. Would’ve sold millions more Saturns in 1995 I promise, even if it was bad!
Originally Bug! was going to be sonic game. The developers change there mind and created bug! instead.
Sega of Japan:we need a Saturn Sonic game from Sega of America
Sega of America: sure thing. Just let us use some assets
Sega of Japan: NO. START OVER!!!
@@zylowolf7919 idk why sega waste there time with sonic mars for the 32x. After the genesis they should use the time to develop xtreme for the Saturn a year earlier.
@@maroon9273 exactly. I mean it still looked better than Star Fox on SNES, but it could hav3 been cool on Saturn. I mean Playstation had Jumping Flash. Plus the Saturn would have cd audio quality for it. Can you imagine Knuckles Chaotix "Doors into Summer" with cd music? I wonder if it could have been done with cd/32x combined? Like have it be a more complete version. If the 32x wasn't so limited being a temporary fix for 32 bit games, it could have been great. It had some good arcade ports at lest, but they were outdone by Saturn's versions. Sega Ages is a big one. Then there's NBA JAM, Mortal Kombat, Primal Rage, you get the idea. All stuff that was either already passable on Genesis or almost 1-1 perfectly ported onto Saturn from their original arcade version. The 32x ports were better than the Genesis ones, but unnecessary. It really was a situation where Sega had to pick one or the other. Having both at the same time was wasteful. Tom was right when he said Genesis had more life to it, but Saturn already being out by 94-95 meant the 32x was moot at this point. But Saturn still needed a good Sonic original game. Tom was right about that. I love NIGHTS, but it's not what most common gamrs wanted, be they Sega fans or not. But at least NIGHTS was a better mascot than bug, Clockwork Knight, or Astal. Clockwork Knight was probably outdone by Toy Story which not only was a great early cg movie, but it also had a game with similar gameplay and graphics to Clockwork Knight ON THE GENESIS. Bug was basically Sonic XTREME minus the fisheye cam, and Astal was most likely forgotten over Rayman, an argueably much better game. But then if all this didn't go the way it did, we wouldn't have Dreamcast or Sonic Adventure.
@@zylowolf7919 still would had the dreamcast at a later time period after the 20th century like 2000 or 2001 with more ram and processing power. Most likely sonic adventure would have been ported to the Saturn and the dreamcast will have sonic adventure 2. Also don't forget the SNES/DOS version of toy story.
As for knuckles and Chaotix, it would have been a good title for the Saturn if you include team sonic as well. Sad the Saturn and ps1 has a terrible port of mortal kombat 2 and both the of ports should have been in the same level as the arcade/dos version if probe would have put more effort into it. Sculpture would have been a better developer for both ports.
Actually there was a Windows version of Bug released, as well.
Same with the sequel.
Nice job as always. I always thought that NiGHTS was Saturn's mascot.
I wonder if there was any consideration at the time of wanting to avoid overexposure of Sonic in 1995, with Sonic & Knuckles and Sonic 3 having been released the prior year, I believe. Of course, not having a Sonic game hurt them and they ended up in a bad position anyway. I also wonder if they came up with new properties to try out gameplay ideas in order to figure out what worked and what didn't with the new hardware capabilities before applying them to a Sonic game. I remember in those days not finding Clockwork Knight particularly appealing. Same for Astal, for different reasons. And Bug was only mildly interesting, more for the new gameplay concepts than the character.
Astal needed a sequel to smooth out the gameplay. Of the games here its really the only one that had the potential to grow from a good game to a great game.
From what I’ve read Astal didn’t do big numbers in Japan and tanked completely in the US. It never really had a chance.
@@SegaLordX So bad, apparently, they didn't even give it a spine name logo.
@@SegaLordX I've always found it bizarre how Astal wasn't released in Europe. The UK Sega Saturn Magazine used to praise the game and recommend importing if possible. Even at the time as a kid, i could see that it wasn't something that would appeal to the US and didn't understand why it wasn't at least released in Europe instead, because it certainly would have appealed to us more. Sega always made such amazingly stupid decisions that even a child could have done better.
Even in the bizarre, fantastical world of Astal, he still managed to have a heavy dose of 90's 'tude!
As a PAL Saturn owner, I'd never heard of Astal until SLX featured it on his channel years after the fact. It looks like a top tier title and I'm pretty surprised we didn't get it in the UK. It was Sega of America that seemed to have the issue with 2D, not Sega Europe. Even late on in the system's life it would have made sense as a release, when Abe's Odyssey and Yoshi's story were reviving interest in the 2D platforming genre on other systems. But what made sense about any of Sega's decisions back then?
I was aware of the existence of this game because of a Spanish magazine covering it back on the day as an import. They seriously regretted about the odd decision of Sega Europe not bringing it to Europe (ie, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, etc). If I remember right, apparently it was a combination of the fact that it had to be released a while later in Europe, even if it was a console launch release (keep in mind it was an early console release in North America and they got the console two months ahead of us) together with the fact that Sega wanted to give the console a strong 3D vibe at launch. In case you are wondering about Clockwork Knight, even if that one had 2D gameplay, its look was "3D-ish", so that's why it made the cut. But Astal was purely 2D in both gameplay and appearance and they wanted to make the Sega Saturn stand away from anything purely 2D at first (the Mega Drive was still around then, they reconsidered this later), and so they regarded it not worthy to convert it to PAL. A sad decision indeed, as it's a gorgeous game and obviously the best one featured in this video coverage.
I always wanted to own a copy of Astal.
To this day, I have no idea why there was no proper Sonic game for Saturn. BAFFLES ME!
Astal is like a weird lovechild of Nights and Knuckles, lol
I loved astal...back in the day...great game
This game came out when people wanted 3D. Side scrolling platforms was all we had until 3D. Now I can go back and enjoy these games more. Funny that those 1st gen 3D games don't hold up and the 16 bit era is the golden era of video games.
???? What? Golden era???? 16bit wasn't the golden era by any means. Games struggled and was flooded with alot of junk consoles and bad arcade conversations. All eras have their gems, early 3d blew 16bit out of it's shoes lol. Resident Evil was born, blew away anything I ever tried on SNES or Genesis by miles and miles. Final Fantasy and the RPG genre got even better, outside if Chrono Trigger not one rog was better than what PS had. Metal Gear? Again like RE blew away boring old side scrollers that were played out by 1990. There a classics in all eras but damn the early 3d was better than half the trash now. Unless your a graphics snob then you missed out on stuff like Bushido Blade. Early 3d was top notch, more creative, better controls (especially on N64) and effortful compared to eras to follow
@@thomasbeall9069 Yes, golden.
@@unclematt3134 you are a man of great taste! I've always said that that 16bit era was the golden age of gaming.
@@thomasbeall9069 I would say when it comes to jrpgs then the ps1 era is the golden age for that type of game. Overall you could easily say that the 90s is the golden age of gaming since we got some of the biggest leaps in gaming, along with what I would say are some of the greatest games of all time.
@@unclematt3134 it's truly not lol fans complained about all the limitations and how arcades blew consoles away so again your making things up. It literally wasn't the golden age.
Ha! I never knew that was your into! I never played Astal or had a Saturn. Now I want to try it and clockwork night, great video!
How can you show Clockworks knight here and not show off that crazy salsa song and dance they did?
I thought I was doing you a favor....
I always considered the cast of Virtua fighter to represent the Saturn the best. Between Virtua fighter kids, super puzzle fighter and fighters megamix it seemed Sega was all in on that franchise being a shared face for Saturn.
I’m not sure what the Saturn mascot was supposed to be but I’m just happy we at least got a Shinobi game for the Saturn which is my favorite sega franchise. And this maybe controversial but I believe Shinobi X (that soundtrack makes me choose X over legions) is the best Shinobi game in the franchise just edging out Revenge of Shinobi and Shinobi 3
It was also strange how in the u.s. version of shinobi the intro or the village being attacked was cut out but the European and Japan version stayed intact
@@avalond1193 We always used to get the short end of the stick when it comes to US releases of games so that was not a surprise to me although I agree it was strange and unnecessary
It probably would have been more difficult than you would think. Sega was very Japan-centric when it came to development on top of the conflict between Sega America and Sega Japan. The reason why it took so long for another Sonic game to get developed was that Sonic was not nearly as popular in Japan as everywhere else unlike Mario who was at the time. Sonic was also at the time shipped off to STI and Travelers Tales likely as a result of this.
All the english voice acting for Astal was done by one person
Lani Minella. The English voice actress of Rouge in Sonic Adventure 2 among others.
@Velzek She did Rouge only up to Sonic Heroes. After that she was sadly replaced with the rest of the cast by the Sonic X one.
I could totally see Traveler's Tales being able to port Clockwork Knight to Genesis. 😮... Would be a novelty to behold. Love seeing stuff like that on older hardware... Just gets me all... Happy in my heart to see retro consoles being pushed beyond what was ever believed to be conceivable... Truly amazing what you can do if you really get the architecture and know a boatload of tricks up your sleeve as far as coding goes.
Narrator: As it turned out, no Sonic was indeed a problem...I'm pantless Morgan Freeman.
Nice video I’m Impressed with “Astral” looks and sounds great.I think it is one of jewels on the “Sega Saturn”.I definitly want to play it if I have the chance🤗Have a Nice day Dude
Seem like interesting titles that I'll try out someday. I will always wish things turned out better for the Saturn and for Sega.
Similar to Bug and Astal, I would like to see what other games were pretty had on the Saturn.
Fine, i'll FINALLY give Astal a try (it was never released here in the UK). The Japanese version sounds superior so i'll get that.
I fucking loved astal
It looks amazing!
UK player here, totally worth it and recommend the Japanese version over US
I'd love to see a video about the unreleased Eternal Champions: The Final Chapter. :-)
During the Saturn's first year, down here in Texas, Bug was pushed heavily as the new mascot. I remember thinking this must be a stop gap for the next Sonic game.
It's the first time i eard about Astral. It's look be a great game, the music is amazing !!!
I love all 3 of these games for different reasons. I would suggest them all personally.
for me,Astal will be ideal mascot because of him beauty of gaming
It’s also worth mentioning that the Japanese version of Astal may be cheaper than its western counterpart. I would love to play that game also. What was mentioned at the end, I love Crash Bandicoot and I was happy to have it remastered (I wanna get CTR: NF so bad!!!) and I really want to play Crash 4 that recently came out. Y’all should check it out.
All of these games are good. I especially enjoy Clockwork Knight, just a wonderful game.
I always wondered where your intro came from!
Although I was a mad fan of Sega at the time of the Saturn's launch (I never considered buying the Playstation, and would have paid any price for the Saturn), Bug and Clockwork Knight were two of the games that I detested, casting a shadow on the console for me. Thankfully some games came along later which fully vindicated the Saturn for me... but I can't watch those two games without shuddering. I wish I had had Astal. That. Sounds. AWESOME. omg that Japanese music is so "Sega", it makes me cry for all we have lost.
It's always interesting to hear other peoples opinions on things. I have had many Saturn fans confess their disdain for Bug and Clockwork Knight during my time on SLX. It has made me realize just how important not having a Sonic game ready early really hurt the console with many potential buyers.
@@SegaLordX I think it was the lack of Sega IPs that I knew and loved that hurt. If they'd badges Clockwork Knight as a new Illusion game, and made it feel like Mickey, I might have liked it more, The only games that keot me on the Saturn in those first 6 months were Shinobi X and the new surprise- Panzer Dragoon. ut then in Jan 1996, I got VF2 (The game that VF should have been!), Sega Rally and... Mystaria. omg Mystaria. This felt like Sega (Shining Force). The saviour for me. You've said it in one of your other videos, but the apparent loss of all the console IPs (at least at first) made this first 6 months hard. I didn't need a Sonic game, personally. I had 5 of those already. :)
Sonic Xtreme should have been released on the Saturn by 1996. It would have helped the system stay afloat for a longer time.
These 3 games could never compete with what was available on the playstation
@Rap Lawyer i loved playing those games at my uncles house but the Saturn could not compete with *walks on stage* $299 *walks off stage*
astal really looks incredible
...kinda odd that you mention the Sonic race in the description but not in the video when you were making your point about the "Sonic Blueprint"; I think it's also worth mentioning that splitting Clockwork Knight isn't unlike how S3&K got split and how their attempt to establish a Saturn mascot was almost history repeating itself since Sonic himself replaced Alex Kidd.
The graveyard map is very similar to the first levels of the GEX game.
I can't believe the amount of ads on your videos lately, SEGA Lord X. I know it's probably not your doing, but it makes watching your brilliant channel a chore when there's ads every 2-3 minutes.
Most are skippable. It’s the best I can do without utterly wrecking my revenue.
I love the original Sega Saturn box how it says photo realistic 3D graphics! Lol with that being said its still my favorite system of all time.
I nominate Three Dirty Dwarves for unofficial Saturn mascots :P
Heck yes. Finally someone acknowledges this gem.
Wait.... No comments on how Astal is actually a two player game? The second player can control the bird at any time.
Nights was dope af! I remember when I picked it up with the 3d controller a million years ago!
Who who thought it was bright idea to take the Japanese lyrics out of Astal. It's so empty without it.
is it just me, or does the astal fmv use a few seconds from the sonic cd fmv? specifically the part where he's standing all dramatic on a tall rock and the camera pans around behind his head. but then it cuts away to an icy zone before you get a good luck of the (totally not little planet) terrain?
I don't understand why they'd just cut the vocals from the Astal theme when it was begging to be substituted for a guitar playing the vocal part.
I'm 99% sure Astal actually had a one panel cameo in issue 50 of the Archie Sonic comic.
Oh yeah! Spaziante was a major Astal fan, so as a "watermark" he used to sneak Astal in the comic every time he worked on a sonic comic
Fun fact: he recently even did a anniversary artwork to celebrate Astal
Astal looks cool and so does Clockwork Knight. Bug looks a bit too vanilla to me. And although they are good games on their own they never filled the void of not having sonic on saturn. I remember none of my friends being interested in the console for the very same reason. No Sonic? No Saturn :(
I've played both Bug games, and my favorite is the second one. Better physics, a save system, run button, CD music and more varied worlds are what make it superior to me, although the graphics are muddier and uglier than the original. Also it actually starts out nicely until World 3 rolls by and hits you like a truck with a difficulty spike. Lol.
I still think of NiGHTS as the de facto Saturn system mascot since none of the Sonic releases on the system were new, exclusive system platformers. Likewise with Panzer Dragoon Saga as the Saturn's main RPG, with no new Phantasy Star and with Grandia also going to the PlayStation. The N64 had Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time for the main system representatives. The Saturn had NiGHTS into Dreams... and Panzer Dragoon Saga. Not bad alternatives at all, especially since both games revolve around the theme of flight, perfectly fitting for a system called the Saturn.
I have actually never heard the Japanese intro of Astal. I like it! Also, your intro for Sega!
Clockwork Knight was rad but never played the first. I also had Bug on the PC, it came in a combo pack with Sonic 3 & Knuckles (that I, no joke, got from Jack in the Box). Would've liked to have played on my Saturn but the PC version seemed great.
I think Astal's intro suits better as an intro for your channel than the game itself.
seeing clockwork knight makes me think of Toy Story on the genesis!
Funny thing is clockwork knight came out before the toy story movie came out. Is it possible that the toy story franchise was inspired by clockwork knight the game?
I heard they were inspired by Clockwork Knight when making the Genesis Toy Story
Bug! looks very nice on HD tv sets, but when I first saw it a local FUNCOLAND..it really did not impress me..
I mean that, when I first saw it..I felt that it was not true 3D...
As I see it now..it does look very vibrant and lush, and I might play it for a while.
I really like the 3d flying levels.
clock work night had a sequale I never got to play :(
Astal is definitely the best of the 3. I just beat the Japanese version today. The American version unfortunately was way too hard. 3 health and only 1 continue. The Japanese version has 5 health and unlimited continues, and honestly it kinda needs it. You're unlikely to ever beat the American version without being able to practice the later levels.
When I first played the game, I was expecting it to play like Donkey Kong Country, and that really did it a disservice. But because of those expectations, I didn't really like it at first. Astal is heavy feeling, and the game isn't a fast paced game even though Astal can run. His attacks are weird too, he doesn't kill enemies by jumping on them, and that bothered me at first. But once you accept it for what it is, it's an excellent game. It's not trying to be like other platformers, and is its own thing. I would love to see a new Astal game, but that's never going to happen. :(
It’s a shame Astal never got a release in Europe!
What a great video. I love the deep dive into a company's history. Great job.
I'm pretty sure that footage for Crash Bandicoot was from the N. Sane Trilogy released in 2017, not the 1996 original as the narration suggests.
I didn't have a Saturn until YEARS after launch, after the DC was done even, but I always thought of Nights as the mascot because it was always on the demo kiosks at Target and stuff back in the day.
Yeah, the saturns launch lineup is mostly sega published games, I do heard that myst (the classic point and click adventure game) was going to be a launch title in North America, but was rejected by sega. But the Saturn port was release anyway but just not as a launch title, but myst was a launch title in japan
Yuki Naka was burned out on Sonic by the time Saturn was released. That’s why he focused heavily on the Nights project. Don’t get me wrong, a Sonic game in the style of Sonic World featured in Sonic Jam would of been excellent and I would of bought a Saturn just for that. Sonic R was cool but the controls were too stiff.