The Next Generation Wars

by Scott Chapin (scott@animo.com)

The three systems of choice this holiday season are the Sega Saturn, the Sony Playstation, and the Nintendo64. Each retails for $199, and each has several advantages and disadvantages that I will outline in the next few paragraphs. It should be noted that I own a Saturn, but I will try to stay as impartial as possible.

The Sega Saturn:

Advantages:
1. Sega has some of the best in-house programmers in the world, and they have an impressive stable of properties (characters) to use in future games (Toe Jam & Earl, anyone?). Almost all of the major third party developers (with the exception of Namco, and perhaps SquareSoft) write Saturn games, so unless a game is by Nintendo, Singletrac, NaughtyDog, or some other 1st / 2nd party developer, there is a good chance that it will appear on the Saturn at some point. I also feel that the Saturn has the best ratio of good games vs. available games.
2. The Saturn does 2D better than any other system. The system can pump out an almost infinite number of sprites at once, and it has more internal RAM than the Playstation (but, I believe it has less RAM than the N64). This is important because I feel that the next few years will see a backlash against 3D for the sake of 3D, and some amazing 2D games will re-emerge.
3. The Saturn has the best controllers. The Virtua Stick is unmatched by any other stick manufacturer, and the standard pad configuration is more logical than the Playstation's. In addition, the Stunner and the 3D analog pad are excellent accessories (though I personally hate the steering wheel).
4. Sega is offering an unbelievable offer right now. You get Virtua Fighter 2 (my vote for the best console fighting game of all time), Virtua Cop 1 (with the Stunner, this is one of the best Saturn games), and the original Daytona USA (which is still pretty damn fun) free when you buy a Saturn. Sony and Nintendo couldn't pull off this offer if they wanted too.
5. Sega has recently released the NetLink, which allows for Internet browsing and (soon) Saturn web games. If this takes off, Sega will have a cool, unique product.
0 6. The Saturn has the best hockey, soccer and baseball games (NHL Powerplay, World Wide Soccer 97, and World Series Baseball II) on the market. If you are a fan of these sports games, this is the system to get.
7. Despite Sony's Final Fantasy coup, the Saturn is the premier RPG system. In Japan, where the Saturn is the best selling system and most good games are designed, there is a deluge of new RPGs coming out soon. A good portion of these will see US release.

Disadvantages:
1. Without good programming, the Saturn's 3D graphics are the least impressive of the three consoles. This is because many 3D effects (like light sourcing and transparencies) have to be executed by the software (as opposed to the specialized chips in the Playstation and N64). In addition, many programmers have complained that they can't program efficiently with the Saturn's multiple processors, and that Sega of Japan has been slow in releasing new libraries and techniques to third party developers. This would be far less aggravating if there weren't some games with fantastic 3D and tons of amazing effects.
2. In terms of new 3rd party games, Sega almost never gets anything first. It can be tough seeing a game you want (like Soviet Strike or WipeOut XL) released for months on the Playstation before it gets released on the Saturn.
3. Besides the Nintendo64 (which only came out in September), the Saturn has the smallest collection of games. This is not entirely a bad thing, as there are a slew of crappy Playstation games collecting dust on shelves right now. But sometimes, your new game selection can be slim.
4. The Saturn has not gotten great support in the retail environment. Stores like Kay Bee don't sell the Saturn, and others like Blockbuster Video hardly keep any Saturn inventory available to rent.
5. Sega didn't get a good start in 1995 and it has dogged them since. Unless they can insure some killer 3rd party exclusives ("Enemy Zero" and "X-Men vs. SF" is a good start), they will not give buyers the impression that they have any 3rd party games worth buying the system for (Capcom's "Resident Evil", in contrast, created incredible interest in the Playstation when it was released).

The Sony Playstation:

Advantages:
1. The Station has elegant chipset design and powerful libraries that just about every developer can get their hands on. This means that the Station is very easy to program for, thus more games will be released on it in a shorter time. Playstation games are usually released 1-6 months before their Saturn brothers and sisters.
2. The Station has excellent 3rd party support. Just about everyone but Nintendo, Sega, Warp and Working Designs makes Station games. Sega is lacking in this area, and many companies do not have the capital to develop N64 games.
3. Sony has Namco, which produces amazing (but hardly original games) like Tekken, Ridge Racer, and the Museum series, Naughty Dog (Crash Bandicoot), and SingleTrac (Twisted Metal, WarHawk). They also have excellent (but not exclusive) support from Psygnosis, Capcom, Konami, LucasArts, and Activision. These companies make great games that may never get released on any other platform.
4. The Station has the best football, basketball and golf games (GameDay 97, In the Zone 2, and VR Golf) on the market. If you are a fan of these sports games, this is the system to get.
5. The Station is the exclusive recipient of Final Fantasy VII. This is a major coup for Sony, as they snatched the most respected 3rd party developer out from under Nintendo's nose. And the Station has recently had some decent RPGs released.
6. 3D Playstation games look better than their Saturn cousins (but inferior to the N64 version). This is, again, because of the built in libraries and custom effect chipsets.
7. The Station has link capabilities, so two people can play a full-screen verison of a game like WipeOut (provided you have 2 Playstations, 2 TVs and 2 copies of the game). I have tried this feature, and it is a really cool way to play.

Disadvantages:
1. There are a lot of bad Playstation games out there (I feel that they have the worst good game vs. released game ratio). Because the system is easy to program with, many companies are throwing together crappy games with good 3D effects. Just because a game looks good, doesn't mean it is good.
2. Sony is shooting itself in the foot by not approving 2D games, as if they are somehow worse than 3D games. Capcom has recently gotten peeved at Sony because of this, any I wouldn't be surprised to see other companies getting fed up and developing for another platform.
3. Sony has very little 1st party support. Unlike Nintendo and Sega, they do not create their own best games, so they are at the mercy of their associated developers.
4. I personally feel that the Playstation controllers are uncomfortable and illogical, especially in fighting games. There is also not a decent joystick to be found on the Playstation, and they do not (yet) have an analog controller, other than the unwieldy (and expensive) flight stick.
5. The Playstation has been known to have hardware glitches that Sony will not rectify for free. This has been well documented, and it will be very frustrating when it happens to you.
6. Of the three systems, the Playstation has the slowest load times. This is because the Station has the smallest amount of internal RAM. This may not seem like a big deal on paper, but you will get really annoyed with waiting longer than a few seconds day after day after day...

The Nintendo 64:

Advantages:
1. The N64 is the most powerful console on the market. It can easily produce effects that cannot be done on other systems, like mip-mapping and z-buffering, and it handles 3D images like a dream. Because it is ROM cartridge based, there is no load time in games, and everything occurs very fast.
2. Nintendo has some of the best in-house developers in the world (there is great debate as to whether Nintendo or Sega has the best game designers - I can't decide myself), and they have excellent 2nd party support (from Paradigm and Rare). Their 3rd party support is strong in terms of company names, but shallow in terms of developing products.
3. The Nintendo64 is the only system with the game that many believe is the best ever made, Mario64. It is a huge, impressive adventure that was the main selling point at the system's launch.
4. The system is selling at an enormous rate, which means that consumer (and developer) support will be high.
5. The N64 has an analog / digital controller, and built-in four player support. This eliminates buying a lot of additional accessories.
6. Nintendo will be releasing the "Bulky drive" in 1997. This is a read-write optical disk, like a SyQuest, that will allow larger games with (hopefully) massive game customization to be developed.
7. The system is made by Nintendo, which, besides the sad Virtual Boy, has never produced an unsuccessful game system. They will do anything and everything they have to to make this system work.

Disadvantages:
1. The N64 is cartridge based. While this was also listed as an advantage, I think that, in the long run, it will be more of a disadvantage. Cartridges cannot hold 1/10 as much information as a CD, so things like redbook audio, full motion video, extensive statistics and textures might get left out of a N64 game. And I don't feel that the $100 - $200 bulky drive add-on is a fair way to compensate for this short coming. Also, cartridges are far more expensive to develop and publish on, so many game companies will not release a lot of games on this platform for fear of losing their shirts in overhead costs. The expensive cartridge production costs get passed on from the 3rd party to the customer. I've seen "Shadows of the Empire" and "Wayne Gretsky Hockey" being sold for $90 each! These two games alone cost as much as the system! You have to ask yourself whether a N64 game is really $40 dollars better than a Saturn or Playstation game.
2. The system is still very unproven. There are only about eight games available for the system, and the flow will not improve much in the coming months. Sure, the games coming out of Nintendo are amazing, but they had two years and the best developers working on them. The 3rd party games have been good, but not great. The N64 can also be a bit difficult for some developers to work with, so several 1st generation games will probably not be up to snuff.
3. If the Bulky drive doesn't sell through the roof (providing the consumer support needed to begin game production and lowering the price of development / consumer cost), then I think that many companies will shy away from the N64, and go with the cheaper Sony / Sega market.
4. The N64 will not have much 2D / 3D variety. Most of the titles will be 3D only, which will breed the "Playstation disease:" tons of pretty, but shallow and similar, games.
5. The games are being developed for and marketed to kids under 16. This means that many sophisticated games (like "Resident Evil" or "Loaded") may not get made for the N64.
6. Because of their increasingly in-depth and expansive nature, many RPGs will not be developed for the N64 (unless the Bulky drive has adequate disk space and speed). There will, of course, be exceptions, but none of the major 3rd party RPG developers have jumped on the N64 bus yet.

Conclusions:

Picking a system requires that you put aside your rose-colored glasses and see a platform for what it is. A game system should be selected for its games, not the number of z-buffered polygons it can rotate at a single time, or whatever. If you like a certain type or style of game, get the system that will best accomidate you.

I chose the Sega Saturn for the following reasons: 1) I like the Sega arcade games, and the Saturn is the only platform that delivers them. Additionally, the Saturn gets just about every good Playstation game, even if I have to wait a bit for it. 2) Gameplay is more important to me then graphics, and I found that there were more solid titles on the Saturn then on the Station or N64. 3) I'm not a millionaire, but I like having a large game library, so I wasn't going to buy a system that expects me to shell out $70 - $100 clams every time I want to play. 4) Despite the 32X debacle, Sega is a high quality company that I have a good deal of faith in. Sony was an unknown (this is their first game system) at the time, and the N64 always seemed like a kids machine (albeit a well made one). 5) I could really care less whether a game is in 2D or 3D, as long as its good. It seems that the Saturn will get the cream of the crop when it comes to 2D games, so there is the best long term potential when the backlash comes (remember, you heard it here first).

This is not to say that I don't really enjoy the Playstation and the N64 - I would be stupid not to. The Playstation has a staggering number of games, and they have the best overall sports selection. If you are buying a system for sports games, get the Playstation - no contest. The Playstation also sports some nifty graphics, and the Namco games are pretty sharp (but they really are just Sega rip-offs). If you want a lot of flash for your buck, you might want to look Sony's way. I also really like the link feature (especially on the driving games - suddenly, you're not squished on to one half of the screen). But, the lack of really good 1st party support and a talent for pissing off 2D developers has me a bit worried about the long-term future of the Station. If they don't keep up the current level of developer / consumer support, innovation and variety, Sega will really take a chunk out of their butts.

The N64, I think, is too new to recommend. I know that almost 1,000,000 people did not listen to me, but there's just not enough to run with yet. "Mario" and "Wave Race" are awesome, but what else really rocks? "KI2" and "Cruisin' USA?" Give me a break. There are also no significant sports games on the system, and no RPGs (until Zelda, that is). The technology is there, and great things could happen, but the glacial flow of new product, the astronomical price of the games, and the lack of software diversity leave me a bit cold for now. Maybe in a year, when the 3rd party developers have gotten their feet wet, and the bulky drive is released (and supported), will I change my tune and buy one. For now, two games is not worth $350.

If you want to comment, or just flame me for liking Sega, mail me: scott@animo.com