Saturn Bomberman is an exclusive on the Sega Saturn and one of the system's more rare games. Developed by Hudson Soft, it's a cute and clever puzzle game with some beautiful pixel art that still looks great by today's standards. It hosts a number of different game modes and can be played with a friend (or 9). Here's my review!
The vast sea of forgotten tales long buried in the sands of time can seem insurmountable to one looking for a place to dig. Sega's Saturn is a system that has been pushed to the wayside for the entirety of its existence in the West, while it enjoyed a brief success as the great black gaming box of the East. Some of its games made their way over to the West, but the overall ratio of those that came compared to those that never made it is sad to look at, especially if you put yourself in the mindset of a Western Saturn fan who sees the press talk about new Japanese games that only had a tiny chance of being brought over. Some of the ones brought over were excellent, like Dragon Force, GunGriffon and the arcade ports that I have previously discussed. Even the weaker titles brought over were at least something to whet the appetite. With all that in mind, which category of quality does Dark Savior manage to fall into, or is it just another futile voyage along a sea of the endless sands?
During the 32-bit era some of Irem's best shmups were ported onto the PSX and Saturn in two different collections. Depending where you go it's either a hit or a partly miss.
Released in the US thanks to ASCII Entertainment (later became known as Agetec), R-Types is perfect port of R-Type and R-Type II on one disc. R-Types comes with a nice intro video, a Museum mode, and of course both games. Shmup fans and arcade fans in general will love the collection because the gameplay is still hard and fun after all these years.
[img width=315 height=279]http://www.retrogame-shop.com/shop/images/image-xing.jpg[/img] Note: Playstation version looks just like the Saturn cover except it has the Playstation logo on it.
Released only in Japan and in Asian counties (Hong Kong, Singapore, etc.), Arcade Gears was Xing's line of retro arcade games that was published in the late 90s. Xing didn't develop any games, they just ported other company's games to mostly the Saturn and some on the Playstation (like Tatio's Gun Frontier, Capcom's Three Wonders, etc.). Image Fight and X-Multiply were two great Irem shmups that were released after R-Type. While these games didn't get the same fanfare as R-Type, they're still fun and hard like R-Type. Image Fight is a vertical shmup where the first five stages are a simulation. Do well in those stages you can go to the final three stages. X-Multiply is more similar to R-Type but it tends to focus a lot more on organic backgrounds and enemy designs (like Konami's Salamander/LifeForce).
Anyway, about the ports. Both the Playstaion and Saturn ports were mostly good except for some few faws. In both versions when playing X-Multiply you have to move the status menu (which tells the score, lives, etc.) by using the L/R buttons in order to see the whole screen. The original arcade game didn't have this problem at all. You can't change button configurations in the Saturn version (only in PSX version). In both versions, when playing Image Fight it appears that the bullets move a little too fast (compared to the arcade version). On the PSX port, when playing Image Fight in TATE mode (true Vertical mode by flipping your TV on its side, aka true Arcade screen mode) you'll sometimes get graphical glitches.
Funny thing because unlike R-Type where the menus look nice, Image Fight & X-Multiply's menus look really rushed. Of course when does having pretty menus mean anything (never)? If you want to get Image Fight & X-Multiply it's going to cost you a good bit of money. The Saturn version goes for $70-$100 and it's more common than the PSX version (but the weird thing is that the PSX version is cheaper, around $60-$80).
The Saturn version was only released in Japan while the PSX version was released in both Japan and in Asian countries.
Well, the holidays are nearly upon us. Family will be coming in to town, the eggnog will be flowing, and there will hopefully be some games under the tree for all of us. With all the stress of the holidays, what better way to unwind (or take out your frustrations) than will a few fighting games!
Our featured game this week is a newer title (for the US at least) on the Nintendo DS, Bleach: The Blades of Fate. Our reviewer, Shimra, had pretty much nothing but praises for this game. It sounds like a title that you can easily get some life out of. No matter if you're a fan of the cartoon series, this will be a great game to play. Give it a shot!
The featured image is for Guilty Gear X2 on the Sony Playstation 2. Not many fighting games are as fast paced, well executed, and downright fun as this one. Although a fairly pricey title in the recent months, it still sells for less than when it was originally released. If you can, pick up a copy of this game.
What better way to play fighting games than with a great arcade stick?! Our featured hardware is the Hori Fighting Stick SS for the Sega Saturn. I used to own one of these, and let me tell you, their claim of using "GENUINE ARCADE PARTS" is exactly what they mean. From the odd color of the buttons to the feel of each button and the joystick, this is as close as you will get with a fighting stick to the arcade.
The featured collection belongs to Moriya Hanzo. The first thing that appealed to me was the Sony Playstation RPG collection he has. Then I say his other PS1 image. Look at all those great fighting games! Some of the biggest fighting games in history are in his collection! I bet he could strike up a great coversation with you about fighting games.
Well, that's it folks. Another week, another few days closer to the holidays. I do want to wish all of you out there a Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanza, and a Happy New Year. Please be safe this season and game on! Oh...and keep it tuned to RFG on channel 3!
The Saturn Database is slowly being completed. I am putting all of the UPCs, Part #s, and Ratings in, but we still need scans!!!
Check out the Image database and see what scans are missing. We need just a couple Front and Back Scans, Quite a few Manual scans, and some game scans. Let's get the database finished!!!
With more of the database finished, it will be easier to see if you have that ultra rare Mortal Combat variant that you have been wanting. Finishing the database is all good!!!
Also, site appeal will go up, and more members may actually register! The big collection guys such as izret, tan, and nes_rules have done so many scans its not funny, so even if you can't do scans, try putting in part numbers and such, on any game for any system. Give back to the best gaming site there is, RFGeneration!!!!
Edit: Im soooooo sorry i forgot to put you in there Tan! Lets give him a round of applause!!
Well, the holidays are nearly upon us. Family will be coming in to town, the eggnog will be flowing, and there will hopefully be some games under the tree for all of us. With all the stress of the holidays, what better way to unwind (or take out your frustrations) than will a few fighting games! 
