Dusting the Old Sega Saturn

Your parents were probably close my age when this came out

As this being my fist blog post about the videogame universe and the correlation with the name 6 Button Mashing Machine, I figured I would start by dusting the old Sega Saturn off and quickly replaying a few of my old games. I figured this would be a great way to test the waters of videogame blogging and working kinks out of my writing.

The first game I decided to pop into the tray was Sonic R, a Sonic racing game created in the mid-90's. WOW, my eyes were burning more than Sonic's feet tearing up the race track. I mean, talk about an unresponsive game with an epic cast of characters mixed into the bunch.

Who needs retinas?

Try leaning left or right with your character, you are going right into a wall or water. Jumping is no better either. The controls in this game dare you not to throw the controller across the room or into a television set. I do have to give it that this game does have some nostalgia behind it and some epic 90's J-Pop, but that is not enough to have me coming back to this game anytime soon.

The second game I decided was Mortal Kombat II. That's right, Mortal Kombat II. I bet many of you had no idea this game was ported onto the Sega Saturn all that time ago. Well, it was and it was epic. I have to say that the controls for this game were better due to the 6 button layout. It really made a difference on how it played. The graphics are as expected, something from the mid-90's in 2-D and with actual actors as the cast. I am sure most of you have had the opportunity to play Mortal Kombat II so there is no need to continue with this game.

Oh man, what system is without its collections of old games to sucker us old timers into nostalgia? Even Sega got in the foray in the 90's with the Sonic Jam collection for the Sega Saturn. This collection consisted of Sonic's 1-3 and Sonic and Knuckles. Who could not love such an epic game collection like this? Heck, I think the Sonic games were around 5 years old when this came out, but who cares? This game had a hidden gem that made it worth all the money that you would spend on it, the "Sonic World" bonus that was included. I forgot how much history Sonic the Hedgehog had in the 6 years since the first one. They had anime, other games not included in the collection pack, merchandise, music, and on and on. They had little perks to the world like finding Tails or Knuckles. It was one of the few games that make the Saturn notable.

I cannot talk about the Sega Saturn without talking about Guardian Heroes. It is a fun adventure/action/side-scrolling game that features a few characters. You just go about beating people up with some friends and take different paths to the end. I don't have much to say but if you have recently played Code of Princess for the Nintendo 3DS and enjoyed it, you would enjoy this too. You can actually find it in the Xbox360 market place for $10.00. Don't hesitate, go snag it and play it.

Despite all the games I own for the Sega Saturn, one I will miss. The Panzer Dragon games. I wanted to blog about these games last, but I cannot find them anywhere. They must have gotten lost when I moved all those years ago and now I will have to try to find them cheap online--never happening--and replay them.