The Video Game Critic

jon wrote: The Jaguar just needed ... games.. the system had potential. If the programmers could have just had more time to master it, they could have pushed the system more and there could have been some really cool ... games.

Is this not the lament of every runner up console ever? If only. If only the programmers knew then what we know now. If only the console had more time. If only 3rd parties had come on board. If only they had marketed it better. If only they understood what gamers would buy. If only the price had been lower. If only ...

While the particulars might change, systems like the the Apple Pippen, the Odyssey 2, the Sega CD, the Saturn, the Dreamcast, the 7800, etc all could have done better....but did not. Sometimes there iseems to be clear reasons for relative lack of marketshare, sometimes it just seems the stars did not align.

Its fun to discuss with past systems, as long as it doesn't become a crusade. With current systems, like the Wii U, its a more interesting question.

I think the Saturn was a huge disappointment. It was so frustrating that they couldn't port their arcade lineup faster and more smoothly than they did. If it had came out even a little bit earlier, say early '95, and had quality ports of the arcade games, it would have sold like hotcakes. It's unbelievable that a game like Virtua Striker never even made it to a console. That goes back to what I said about those years in the mid 90's where consoles couldn't even handle some arcade games, Virtua Striker being a perfect example. That game was awesome, and Sega couldn't even get it on the Saturn. If those things had happened, and they had momentum, then Virtua Fighter 2 could have came out and been huge. That would have put the PS1 in its place.

The reason the Saturn's lack of success bothers me so much is that it had the type of games I wanted to play the most. By a long way. While consoles like the PS1/PS2 just had games that I sometimes play and try to like. The same goes for most Atari consoles. I really like the type of games they have generally speaking.

I bought a sega classics compilation for the PS2. It just wasn't the same so I bought a Saturn and got the games I really wanted.

I sold my Dreamcast awhile ago & don't really regret it. I didn't have any of the games I really wanted. There were only a couple of games I could think of that I really wanted. The games I wanted were all very expensive. For example I wanted Street Fighter on the Dreamcast, but it was something like $40. I've got other versions of that game on PS2 so do I really want to spend the money just to have it on Dreamcast? I also liked Virtua Tennis, a cheap game, but I had it on the Xbox 360. I looked up Dreamcast games, but as I went through the list I didn't see anything all that great so I just sold it.

The problem I have with the Dreamcast is the controller. It's the ugliest I've ever seen. I love Virtua Tennis, and when I use the controller it's fine, but it just looks terrible. I'm intrigued by a lot of games though, including some homebrews.

I love the DC. It is one of my favorite consoles. I can understand why some people don't like it but the fact that it continues to get support, to this day, is amazing. The DC is an arcade fans dream as the games on it feel a lot different then the ones found on the other 3 consoles of that generation. The games on the console are definitely not cheap but they are actually more doable then consoles like the SNES which have become very expensive over the last few years.