s far as I'm concerned, the decision to call the Saturn the world's worst major console isn't difficult at all.

So what made the Saturn so bad? Well, why not start at the beginning? Does anyone remember its release?

Originally scheduled to launch "Saturnday" September 2, 1995 -- a week before the Playstation -- the Saturn was one of the most anticipated consoles of the time. Almost everyone was wondering if the console manufacturer's biggest console release since the Genesis would be something special. But then disaster struck.

At the very first E3 in May 1995, Sega's President Tom Kalinske committed a blunder of epic proportions long before Steve Jobs made it cool -- he announced that the "Saturnday" was a ruse and it was available that very day in select retailers. Of course, this announcement caught most major retailers off guard (Wal-mart for one) and aside from availability in those few stores, the console was scarce.

In one fell swoop, the video game industry and retailers were shocked at Sega's ridiculous move. And to make matters worse, third-party developers didn't know about Sega's real launch date, meaning games weren't ready, and the Saturn's pricepoint -- $399 -- was $100 more expensive than the Playstation.

After trying to rebuild relationships with KB Toys and other retailers who refused to even launch the Saturn, Sega's console quickly become the also-ran in the industry, trailing far behind the Nintendo 64 and Playstation.

Believing the console was dead in the water, Sega abandoned the Saturn far too early and by 1998, the company released its last game for the system -- one year after third-party support dried up.

Did any good come out of the Saturn?

When we look back on the Saturn, there's not much to like. Aside from some neat first-party arcade games that Sega had become known for, the chances of finding a stellar title amongst the garbage were slim, at best.

Amazingly, only two Saturn games sold over 1 million copies -- Virtua Fighter 2 and Grandia. Aside from those, the Saturn quickly became the cesspool of gaming. After all, can anyone actually name 30 great games they played on the console?

The main reason the Saturn was the worst console of all time

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 the Genesis competed admirably against the SNES, Sega made a slew of mistakes before the Saturn. And while they proved to be damning internally, most people expected the company's next major console to save the day. But through poor management and even worse games, the Saturn solidified Sega as the next company to join the pantheon of also-rans.

And even though the Dreamcast was a valiant effort that I consider to be one of the best consoles of all time, the damage was already done and the days of Sega manufacturing consoles were numbered.

Suffice it to say, the Saturn was the greatest blunder in gaming hardware and the worst major console of all time. It's as simple as that.

Not only that, but I don't even recall this console. It must have been an amazing PR/Advertising Agency that were using! *sarcasm*

I wouldn't call it that at all. Save that title for the 3DO or maybe even the Atari Jaguar (now those were garbage). Saturn gave birth to the Panzer Dragoon series, which has always been flawless and which ultimately lead to arguably the greatest on rails shooter of all time, Xbox1's Panzer Dragoon Orta. Biggest blunder and flop, probably. Worst console, not at all.

__________________
swap god for a janitor, rot in a jar of dog paws.

Here's further evidence. I have only included systems from large, otherwise respectable companies that were released and advertised worldwide.


Total console sales worldwide for comparison:

Saturn: 17 million (according to Wikipedia, which is almost double the 10.6 million that the Dreamcast sold and is well over the 13 million in total sales that the Sega Master System did in it's various incarnations, is more than half the 29 million units Genesis sold, and only 4.74 million shy of the 21.74 million that the Nintendo Gamecube sold worldwide).

3DO: 2 million

Virtual Boy: 770,000

CD-i: 570,000

Atari Jaguar: 250,000

Apple Pippin: 42,000


Total number of games available on each system worldwide:

Saturn: 488 (Dreamcast only had about had 325+, so technically it actually beat the Dreamcast here)

3DO: 232

Virtual Boy: 22 (no, that is not a typo)

CD-i: 152

Atari Jaguar: 69

Apple Pippin: less than 100


Launch pricing in North America:

Saturn: $399

3DO: $699

Virtual Boy: $180

CD-i: $700

Atari Jaguar: $250

Apple Pippen: $599


Need more evidence? Here is a list of Saturn games that would qualify as decent to incredible games.

Albert Odyssey

Nights Into Dreams

Daytona USA

Panzer Dragoon Saga (still considered one of the greatest RPG's ever made) and the 2 Panzer Dragoon shooters (Panzer Dragoon and Panzer Dragoon Zwei

Radiant Silvergun (import) and Many Other 2D Shooters (Gradius, Thuderforce 4, Battle Garegga, Darius Gaiden, In the Hunt, etc)

Virua Cop 1 & 2

Street Fighter Alpha 3 Many Other 2D Fighters (Marvel Super Heroes, Waku Waku, Pocket Fighter, Samurai Showdown, Fighting Vipers, Mortal Kombat, Darkstalkers, Xmen vs Street Fighter, KOF games, etc)

Guardian Heroes

Saturn Bomberman (up to 10 player simiultaneous multiplayer? wow!)

Shining Force III

Shining The Holy Ark

House of the Dead

Die Hard Arcade

Shinobi Legends

Manx TT Super Bike

Dragon Force

Sega Rally Championship

Assault Suit Leynos 2

Rayman (it's better than the PS1 version)

Astal

Baku Baku, Super Puzzle Fighter, Bust-a Move 3, Magical Drop and Other Puzzle Games

Tempest 2000

Burning Rangers

Wipeout (pretty good in it's day)

Virtual On (great in it's day)

Virtual Fighter 2 (great in it's day)

Sonic Jam

Magical Hoppers/Pandemonium!

Silhouette Mirage

Bug! and Bug Too!

Mr. Bones

Castlevania: SOTN

Tomb Raider

Capcom’s Generation 2 (Chronicles of Arthur)

Phychic Killer Taroumarou

Herc’s Adventure

Skeleton Warriors

Resident Evil

Myst

Policenauts (from Hideo Kojima, of Metal Gear fame, import only)

Bulk Slash

Mech Warrior 2

Gun Griffin 1 & 2

Powerslave/Exhumed

Duke Nukem 3D

Doom

Quake

Elan Doree

Three Dirty Dwarves

Magic Knight Rayearth

Legend of Oasis

Princess Crown

Dark Saviour

Steep Slope Sliders

Pro Pinball

Madden Football Games

Elevator Action Returns

Alien Trilogy

Hexen

Ghen War

D

Magic Carpet

Mass Destruction

Fighter's Megamix

Last Bronx

Slam and Jam

VR Golf 97

Winter Heat

World Series Baseball '98

and any others that I may have missed in my research.


Also, there were more great imports, like Metal Slug, a few Megaman games, Dungeons and Dragons Collection and Dead or Alive to name a few.

I have not played even 1/3 all of these games (my friend owned a Saturn and had about 20-something games for it, most of which are on this list, and also another friend of mine had a Saturn, and I played a few of these games over his house as well), but you get the idea. Was it a flop? Definitely. But it was far from the worst system ever.

Special thanks go to Wikipedia.org, Philipscdi.com, Racketboy.com, videogamecritic.net and Gamepro.com for helping me compile these stats and lists. Word.

__________________
swap god for a janitor, rot in a jar of dog paws.

Also of note.... the Saturn actually looked almost respectable for software sales in Japan Circa 1996.

Of the top 30 selling games for that year in Japan, 1 in 5 were Sega Saturn games.

Not bad considering it was competing with Playstation, Nintendo 64, Super Nintendo and Gameboy.

Source: the-magicbox.com

__________________
swap god for a janitor, rot in a jar of dog paws.

One final reason to defend the Saturn?
It was Sega's second best selling console platform ever (again, according to wiki).
Including the 32X (200,000 units), Sega CD (6 million units), the Nomad (1 million units) and the Game Gear (11 million units).
In other words, it wasn't all that bad, so don't blame it for Sega's demise as a console hardware manufacturer. Case closed.

__________________
swap god for a janitor, rot in a jar of dog paws.

One last thing and then I'll give it a rest... I can't believe I forgot about the TurboGrafx-16 in my research and comparisons. I have no idea how I could've forgotten about it.

Here are it's details...

Number of games: 100+ (including imports).

Total sales worldwide: 10 million

Launch price: $140

Yet another system I would place as being worse than the Saturn. 1 controller port? Come on, now.



PS- I in no way intended any of this as a slight against Stallion - his points are mostly valid, not to mention that his contributions to this site are many and great and I appreciate him sharing his knowledge on here very much. There's just a soft spot in my heart for the Saturn that stems from many fond memories with friends, and I felt like someone had to defend the mislaunched system that could have and should have come through, but didn't. Not to mention that I learned a lot and had an absolute blast doing the research to establish the Saturn's defense.

__________________
swap god for a janitor, rot in a jar of dog paws.