Editorial: Why The Sega Saturn Is Not The Worst Console Ever
By William on Thursday, January 31st, 2008 at 10:05 AM PST In Atari, Editorials, Features, Game Companies, Game Consoles, Game Platforms, Gamer Life, Hardware, Sega
Skimming through random game articles is a daily routine for me. I came across an article titled ‘Why the Saturn Was the Worst Console of All Time’. Of course this article interested me, because there is no way I would ever call the Saturn even a bad system. Of course Sega completely blundered the whole Saturn and 32X debacle, but the system itself wasn’t bad. Although it was a little over-priced in the beginning, many great games came out for it. Some of those games I still enjoy today including Doom, Shining Force III, Virtua Fighter 2, Lunar: Silver Star Story and many others.
The author’s primary point follows:
More than anything else, the Sega Saturn should be considered the worst major console of all time for one reason — it was the catalyst that ultimately led to a series of events that brought one of the foremost hardware companies to its knees.
After thinking about this for a while, I realized that although we are all entitled to our opinions, he was just nowhere close to the mark on this one. If the Saturn brought Sega to its knees, how were they able to rebound with the release of the Sega Dreamcast? The Dreamcast just so happens to be one of the greatest consoles in history in my opinion. The actual catalyst that eventually knocked the Saturn completely out of the picture and led to a “series of events that brought one of the foremost hardware companies to its knees” was a little something called the Sony PlayStation. The Sega Saturn was simply a case of a system being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Had it been released 6 months or a year prior, history may have been different.
Now that I’ve said my piece, I’m sure you’d like to know what systems I believe actually were the worst of all-time. I was almost tempted to throw the Atari Jaguar, Atari 7800 or Atari 5200 on the list, but Atari has enough to worry about these days. Here’s my list of the three worst video game consoles of all-time:
Amstrad GX4000
There’s probably a reason why you don’t remember Amstrad’s attempt to make it in the world of video games. The Amstrad GX4000 was released in 1990 with 8-bit technology. There were very few games released at launch. Quality games didn’t actually hit the shelves until after the GX4000 could be found in nearly any bargain bin. For whatever reason, the company believed at the time that they were entering the market with a major competitor.
3DO Interactive Multiplayer
The 3DO could have been an awesome system, but the high price simply ruined what could have been. The best games that came out for the 3DO were simply ports and nothing to write home about. Although the system was advanced for it’s time, it also relied on way too many Full Motion Video games (FMV) and to be honest, those were beginning to be completely “played out”. The 3DO’s limited library, lack of 3rd party support and extremely high price tag sealed it’s own fate.
Philips CD-i
The CD-I was billed as a video game console in the beginning, but it simply didn’t have the library to support it. If you haven’t played the CD-I, there’s probably a good reason for it. If you want prime examples of how terrible the games were on the system, just check out Link: The Faces of Evil, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon or Zelda’s Adventure. Nintendo should be ashamed of themselves for ever allowing the Zelda franchise to be cheapened the way it was.
I would have to say the Phillips CDi gets my vote. A friend of mine had a Panasonic 3DO and Street Fighter 2 Turbo on it was awesome.
BTW its funny how many people forget the prices of these consoles when talking about the PS3 being the most expensive console. The 3DO launch price was $699.95 and the CDi was $700.
oh yeah.. I remember. Back when those two came out, I stuck with Nintendo and Sega systems, because they were still in my price range. As a kid, there was no way I could afford the 3DO or CD-i. I did play both of them at friend’s houses and was actually glad I had my Sega and Nintendo systems.
The 3DO and CDi also share another common trait with Sony’s PS3. A lack of good games.
The thing about the 3DO is that it had some great games, but the great ones were just ports. It didn’t have anything unique. At least the PS3 has Uncharted. I think the PS3 will really pick up speed this year though. Some people wrote it off in 2007 as a disaster, but I think it will be a viable option for all gamers in the near future.
You are absolutely right ManOfTeal. Uncharted, Ratchet & Clank, Call of Duty 4, Motorstorm, Resistance, Warhawk, Assassins Creed, Guitar Hero, Rock Band and the other 100+ games released over its first year either dont exist or they are all rubbish.
@ William
Only complete morons wrote the PS3 off as a disaster last year. It only sold 700k fewer units than the 360 did but at a far higher price. It was also only out in Pal regions for 9 months of that year. The simple fact is that if Halo 3 had been delayed until 2008 (like all of the PS3’s big games) the PS3 would definitely have outsold the 360 worldwide last year.
I agree. Halo 3 is the reason the Xbox 360 stayed in front. The PS3 is a much better system than most people are willing to state.
panzer dragoon saga.
best 32 bits rpg ever..
To be fully honest, this article is a response to an earlier article, which regarded the Saturn as the worst “major” console, and by “major,” I think the columnist meant from the big console companies, such as Nintendo, Sega, Atari, Sony, and Microsoft. Out of those companies, I see two consoles that are by far worse than the Saturn: Nintendo Virtual Boy and the Atari Jaguar.
I think Atari Jaguar should be added to that list.It was a calamity from the beginning.
I love how people keep thinking the ps3 is dead and burried!
or isnt that good a console as they are all so wrong.
It is by far the most powerfull out of the 3 consoles and at the moment developers still dont know how to tap all of what it can do when the xbox360 is almost at its limits and so is the wii.
that said i actually am not a ps3 fanboy nor do i own any playstation products ever(I am actually a devoult Nintendo fan).
the ps3 suffered from a poor start adn a high price tag, now its struggling due to poor top rated games (yes i know there are many really good games out there for it but none that are system sellers on their own. like halo or mario).
as for the worst comsole ever hmmm i played a 3D0 my friend had one and at the time i was loving it esp wing comander for it. I didnt see the virtual boy or atari jaguar there or the commodore 64 cartridge machine ( if forget its name) they woudl all be on my list for worst consoles.
Sega Saturn is not the worst console ever, but it is the worst popular console ever.
Rewind the clock back to 1995, it was the beginning of the 32-bit wars here in the USA. Between Sega and new comer Sony. Sega came in to that battle looking like a champ riding off its 16-bit successes with its Genesis against Nintendo, it quickly got on the back of Sony and tried to the same tatics they did to try to bury Nintendo only it backfired.
It didn’t help that Sega was already tarnishing its name among its fans from its tatics of dropping support from previous consoles. It killed Genesis off too quickly, which killed its peripherals Sega CD and 32X. I don’t know about you but this lack of console committment Sega demonstrated, made me not trust Sega for the future run. I jumped on the Sony camp in 32-bit era.
Worst consoles ever are those that didn’t sell past a million, Atari Jaguar, Philips CD-i, NeoGeo-CD.
‘I jumped on the Sony camp in 32-bit era.’
Well done mate, thats nothing to brag about. It was people like yourself that made it ill fated. I bought a saturn the other week after my original died after a water leak in my house, Let me tell you know. The saturn is a clone of model 2 tech. Have you herd the sound and seen the 2d graphics that come from a model 2 board…………
Not to mention when the correct developers got a hold of the saturn it did actually out perform the playstation. ‘Duke Nukem’ ‘Exhumed’ Just to name a few……..
I love virtua fighter 2 on it and any 2d fighter/shooter
You should all feel very regretful.
Sega Saturn was one of the greatest underdog consoles ever. Unlimited potential but very unused it’s a shame third party software dwindled. Saturn had the most /best 5 star games compared to playstation. Quality over quanity. The Saturn was a very elegant but underated system, I love it.