While it has already been known that the Saturn classic Radient Silvergun will be returning via a release on the XBOX Live Arcade in 2011, it was just recently announced that there will also be a kick-ass arcade stick. Check this thing out! The stick is made by Hori (so it's quality) and will sell for $160. Yikes! Well, if you have that sorta dough, you can buy the stick here. If you do plan on buying one, make sure to buy a second one and send it my way.
The pads were one thing with the Saturn. Mark I controller actually came after the Mark II, because the Mark I was USA and European only. It's amazing Microsoft ignored this customer feedback when they released their original xbox, with an ENORMOUS pad. Then, since when did Micro$oft ever listen to anyone? :)
I loved mine. I still love it. It's great for SEGA Rally. It's a shame there's no feedback on the wheel (remember which year this was though), but a high tension string could have done a great job or pseudo-feedback. Hey-ho. It's a damn good wheel in my opinion. I'll let you fight it out in the comments.
Then we have the arcade stick. Not bad at all. Nothing on the Dreamcast arcade controller if you ask me, but it still does the job. I got this for $10 inc shipping from Japan.
I've been wanting to post about a lot of stuff lately, but for some reason I just didn't feel like writing, and when that happens I just can't force it. So, instead of doing whole post about each subject, I'll just cram it all in one, hopefully not too long, post. To start things off, the Virtua Stick. After countless hours of gazing at pictures of it, with the wallet too light to afford one, I finally found a deal too good to ignore. Having finally bought the hallowed controller, I immediately plug it in for a session of DodonPachi and it didn't disappoint me.
(this is not mine, just a random picture I found on the web)
Actually I was a little disappointed by the fact that the joystick is noisy as hell, but in terms of performance, the stick is tight and responsive, allowing for some bullet-dodging impossible to recreate with the regular pad. But the best was yet to come, for this stick obviously can be used as a 2nd controller, allowing for the first ever 2 player matches I've played with my Saturn! Yes, my friends, for the first time in my life I shared my Saturn with a buddy!
Going by the nickname of fredy, he had promised here to pass by my place to play a bit of Savaki, and indeed he did that yesterday. But oh, we didn't just play Savaki. We also played DoDonPachi, Battle Garegga, X-Men, Virtua Fighter and Virtua Figher 2, and it was awesome!
But moving on to the single-player side of the Saturn, before even thinking about the Virtua Stick I spent my time playing two very different, but equally great, games. The first was an hidden gem coming straight from Japan, going by the name of Tryrush Deppy, and it's times like this that I can't help but wonder about the brilliant future the Saturn could've had here in Europe and also in America, had we received all the great games that were exclusive to Japan. This, my friends, is a platformer capable of rivalling games like Rayman or Astal, when it comes to both awesome graphics and great gameplay.
But hey, we still had a lot of good games released here, and some even made here, like Firestorm: Thunderhawk 2 by Core Design (yup, the same guys from tomb Raider). Sequel to the great Sega CD game Thunderstrike, here you control a helicopter but don't think of it as a flight simulator, because this is a pure action game.
(the European cover is great, isn't it)
You choose the mission (from South America to Eastern Europe or Japanese waters), equip your heli with a vast array of different missiles and bombs, and then you're free to blast everything in your way. There are some different types of missions, like escort or protection, but the better ones are the "just blow everything up". The graphics are awesome for a early game, the gameplay is solid and intuitive after getting used to the controls, and overall the game is just plain fun.
Or at least it looks like it. If everything went well, by now Father Krishna is taking sunbaths in the beautiful (or so I hear, never been there myself) beaches of Cyprus. Being the best man at a friends wedding sure as its advantages, like spending a week in a lovely Mediterranean island. Hope that you have a great time and try to pass by gnome's place when you come back, it's relatively close xD
On the other hand our dear contributor elend should be already in Japan! That's right folks, most Saturn fans (or gamers in general) dream about going to that hallowed land but few of us actually go ahead and do it (I plan on going there, someday...). Elend is one of those rare cases, taking his Saturn passion to a whole new level by visiting the country where it was made and, hopefully, bringing a lot of Saturn stuff back! Elend, may you have a great time there and don't forget those photos! I wanna see what it's like over there :)
As for me, well, I'm not going anywhere... I rarely do, actually, only left the country once and I didn't go far, just "next door", to the lovely city of Salamanca, Spain (here I am with my buddies, I'm the guy in the middle). But no problem, right now I'm happy to be at home with my Saturn, and hopefully soon I will have a new toy to play with, for I just scored a Sega Saturn Arcade Stick! Yeah!
Been looking for one of those for quite some time, but the fuckers, like everything else that is game-related, always reach outrageous prices in the Portuguese 2nd hand market, so I was more than happy when I finally scored one for 15€, postage included. That might look average, or even pricey for our American or English friends, but trust me, over here they easily reach 30€, so this deal was gold. Hope that it works well. By the way, anyone have a suggestion for the first game I should try the arcade stick with?
