Saturn Titles for The Next Gen...

There has been a BIG resurgence of interest in the Saturn since it was announced that a new NiGHTS title was coming to the Wii, and in EVERY gaming mag I've read since that announcement, the Saturn has been referenced in one way or another.

Take the June edition of the excellent Games TM magazine for example. Now admittedly, this outstanding journal has always flagged up fine examples of yesterday's games in its Retro Section... But it has recently surpassed itself in terms of Sega-Love, posting some brilliant retrospectives on Dreamcast and Saturn titles.

In this issue there was the following article. I'm taking the time to copy it out for you, 'cos I value its opinion, and for our Trans-Atlantic cousins who can't get hold of this missive, it deserves a read... So here goes...

"Right then, you've just picked up a second hand computerand are looking for some classic games to play on it. The only problem is, you're not too surewhat to buy. Hopefully we can help. This month, inspired by the news of NiGHTS 2, we take a look at the other Sega games we'd love to see a sequel for:

Burning Rangers, Estimated Price £20, Format: Saturn, Year Of Production: 1998.

Aside from NiGHTS, Burning Rangers is the one Yuji Naka creation that was most criminally overlooked. Taking the part of a team of futuristic firefighters, the players mission was to explore randomly generated space stations, put out fires and dodge deathtraps, using a jetpack.

Uniquely for the time, the player was given audible directions, in order to make their way through the burning stations. We'd love to see this on the Wii with the remote taking the place of game's laser hose.

Shining Force III, Estimated Price £30, Format: Saturn, Year Of Production: 1998.

Sega's Shining serieshas been going for ages with several excellent and varied entries, but Shining Force III is undoubtedly the best. Taking the series into 3D for the first time added a new element to the game, as did the innovative civil war story that allowed the player to experience the conflict from three different perspectives. There have been several follow ups since, but none were made by their original creator, Camelot. We'd love to see them at the helm of Shining Force IV some time.

Virtua Fighter Kids, Estimated Price: £15, Format: Saturn, Year Of Production: 1996.

Virtua Fighter Kids is just the sort of game that typifies Sega; a concept that feels like the stuff of Internet rumour , but actually turns out to be true and even plays quite well. Virtua Fighter Kids used a modified version of the Virtua Fighter 2 engine to pit childlike renditions of the classic beat 'em up characters against each other. With the recent success of Virtua Fighter 5 and Nintendo Wii's penchant for cute characters, this series is about due for a comeback right about now.

Fighters Megamix, Estimated Price £10, Format: Saturn, Year Of Production: 1997.

Even more of a fanboy project than VF Kids was Fighters Megamix, a 3D beat 'em up that teamed the characters from Virtua Fighter with those from Fighting Vipers, along with others from Sega's arcade history. With diverse charactersfrom Sonic The Fighters and even Daytona USA, as well as a move set partly taken from Virtua Fighter 3, this was a must have Saturn title. Now how about a PS3 version with characters from Shenmue and Yakuza in it?"

Wow! Great article wasn't it? I have two of the games mentioned above, Virtua Fighter Kids and Fighters Megamix. I first became aware of VF Kids through the capsule toys collected in Shenmue. It was months before I realised it was an actual game. My copy is an imported Japanese version, and to be honest, I've only played it a couple of times... Again, with Fighters Megamix, I've played it a few times without realising its potential. I aim to become more familiar with it this weekend...

This is FK for the SJY, wishing you a GW... (great weekend!) Peace out!