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I didn't even know there were so many AVGN games!  That last one is something else!  LOL

It really is fascinating to observe, his fans are getting as crazy as the Earthbound people.

This is really tough, every time I do one of these it ends up being different.  But still, a great reflection I think as more time gives you better perspective on these games and their place in history.

1.  Xenogears (PSX) - A flawed game for sure, but as an RPG fan, I feel like this game pushed the envelope farther than any before it.  Dual battle systems, unbelievably well rendered 3d for the PSX, fantastic sci fi story with influences from philosophy.  Then you add on what I think is the greatest videogame OST and Mitsuda's best work.  One of the things I hated about Phantasy Star dying out was the lack of a good Sci Fi oriented RPG with a complex plot, and suddenly this game came out of nowhere, putting the RPG world on its head.

2.   SMT:  Devil Summoner (Saturn, import only):  This was the first RPG I had played in a realistic, modern setting, with horror elements.  Couple that with a fantastic plot, great music, and it's one of the greats and my #1 Saturn import.

3.  Lunar 2:  Eternal Blue (Sega Saturn MPEG Edition):  This was the height of Game Arts, for me.  A classsic dungeon crawler with incredibly well done anime cut scenes, a great OST, and proof that the Saturn MPEG card add on wasn't a waste after all.

4.  Phantasy Star IV (Genesis/Megadrive):  To me, this game pushed the Megadrive to its limits (supposedly it was going to be a CD game and that was scrapped, meaning they had to make it work only on a cart).  The soundtrack proved the Megadrive could do music as well as the SNES even without the CD add on, while the plot, anime inspired character designs and the depth of the gameplay made it one of the all time great RPGs.

5.  Shadowrun (Megadrive/Genesis):  Unique sci-fi/fantasy story set in the near future, great gameplay, this one really stands out from standard JRPG fare.

6.  Tempest 2000 (Atari Jaguar):  Even now, my favorite game on the Jaguar.  Given all the Atari fans here I think it needs no explanation, but the soundtrack is one of all time greatest.  I need to pick this one back up, keeping the Saturn version over the Jag was a bad move.  >_<

7.  Darius 2 (Master System):  Still one of my all time favorite shumps, obviously the arcade version is superior, but this is the version I grew up with.

8.  Astra Super Stars (Saturn):  A fantastic, underrated fighter by the equally underrated Team Santa Claus at Atlas.  Hilarious, beautifully animated characters, fantastic battle mechanics, and great music make this my all time favorite fighter on any console.

9.  King of Fighters 97 (Arcade, Saturn):  My all time favorite SNK game, I wasted way too many quarters on this one during the last days of my local arcade.  Fantastic mechanics and all your favorite SNK characters, what's not to like?

10.  Musha (Megadrive):  Still one of the all time great shmups.  It's hard to appreciate now, but it was revolutionary to get a shmup that played this well on the Megadrive at the time.

I would have to go with Gunstar Heroes, that game could have looked at home running on an AES.  The detail of the sprites with little to no slowdown and the scaling are still impressive.

I'm going to throw out a Jaguar game I don't hear mentioned very often, Towers II.  It really is a great First Person RPG, I would recommend it to anyone who has a chance to pick it up reasonably, if RPGs are your thing.  Outside of that, the first person Shining games were all great; I think Shining the Holy Ark doesn't get the love it deserves when compared to the Megadrive Shining games.

I think it is revered because it is one of the few good titles for the 32X and rather unique for when it was released.

Just picking up on that, this is a title that was worth some decent money in the US, before the rise of ebay.  It's kind of the inverse of Neo Geo games; when you had to resort to digging through piles at flea markets and used game stores, it was selling for some good money, but now that you can just do a search for it, the supply is way higher than the demand for 32x games.  It is a great game, though, I haven't played it in years but I remember thinking it was a pretty worthy Star Fox rival at the time.

I like the Jaguar game, though I know it isn't everyone's cup of tea.  I've never played the Genesis/MD version.

I am going to have to pick that one up when I get back into collecting for the Jag; one thing that annoys me about all of these guys on Youtube doing angry game videos is that they run out of consoles/games to yell about, and pretty soon we're saying everything sucks.  I was talking to my nephew about the Jaguar recently, and he said something like "There weren't any good games for that one, though".  When I asked him how he knew that, he said something like "Oh, the Angry Video Game Nerd said so."

I actually don't have a good local one, there is just a horrible chain called "Game On" that is overpriced and has barely any selection.  I drive about 1 1/2 hours to Columbus, OH every now and again to hit up a store called Tech N Gamer.  I know there was another poster I saw here from Cleveland, so if anyone lives in the vicinity of OH and is the Columbus area, it's worth checking out - http://www.techngamer.com/  The guy who owns it, Mike, is really nice, has reasonable prices, and also does console repair.  He replaced the laser in my Megadrive CD a few years ago, and did a great job. 
Outside of that, there are some really good sellers at a Flea Market I visit called Casesar's Creek, outside of Cincinnati, OH (which is a lot closer to where I live) - http://www.caesarcreek.com/

Many years ago there was a great local game shop called The Trading Zone, where I bought my Saturn and Dreamcast games for the most part.  They would stock almost every import release, so it was great for picking up the Saturn games we never got in the US.

Poor Bubsy, he deserved far better than that 3D 32 bit game, at least this is a bit of redemption.  I never thought the Megadrive game was as bad as people made it out to be, though, never played the Jaguar Bubsy game.

I dislike the general tone of that article.

Worryingly Nintendo still pledges to work on the Wii U hardware, aiming to "enrich the value" of the GamePad. Apparently the plan is to "utilise its built-in functionality as an NFC reader/writer" and the company will "seek to supply high quality games on a continuous basis.

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't it a good thing that they are not going to abandon it and continue to support it, and how on earth is it a worry that they will seek to put out quality games on a regular basis.

What's potentially more ridiculous is that Nintendo foresees Wii U sales actually increasing in the year ahead

what is ridiculous about that, sales have been slow but the system lacks some core franchises, and is due a completely new Zelda and Mariokart along with a ne smash bros.

Now even people who do not like Nintendo would admit that those franchises are system sellers to its fans. Mariokart is due out at the end of the month, and with that you get a free download code for a game of your choice. I have a feeling the Wii U may see an increase in sales at the end of the month.

I honestly feel Nintendo got overlooked a little in the excitement people had for the PS4 and Xbox one, I feel that now those systems are out that now people have them, that they may be casting their eyes towards a WiiU as a second system as well.

You make a lot of great points, Snake Eyes.  I think that my biggest issue with the Wii U coverage has been that many writers seemed to hope that it would fail from day one, on a lot of sites.  I'm a Nintendo fanboy by no means;  I didn't own a Wii or a Gamecube, I've largely sat out gaming since the Dreamcast died outside of buying a PS3 for the Blu-ray player.  But, I picked up this console for a couple of reasons:  Sony burned me on the PS3, with the Other OS option, and I don't like the transtition to digital only purchases that MS and Sony clearly want.  To an old school gamer like me, Nintendo was really saying what I wanted to hear, in that they were committed to physical media (and preserving the right of first sale as a result), and preserving an offline gaming experience.  I tried responding on the comments pages of a few articles in the past, and the response I got was basically "Everything's going digital, it's all about the hardware, this can't run (insert another generic FPS here), etc.", basically parroting the articles original assertions.  What I find ironic, is that so many of these arguments were once thrown around in regard to the Dreamcast (controller is weird, can't run with the PS2, can't play DVDs).  Now everyone loves that console, through the lens of time. 

So who knows, maybe in ten years gamers will be saying "Man, Nintendo stuck up for their customers with the physical discs, preserving offline gaming, were innovative with the controller, etc, how did it not succeed?" while opining the death of a console no one supported because it wasn't quite up to par in terms of hardware. I just don't get the schadenfreude of wishing failure on Nintendo and the Wii U, but it seems eerily reminiscent of what I was reading about the Dreamcast back in 2000-2001.  All I know, is that it had better stay around long enough for X to come out, or I will not be a happy camper, I need my Monolith Soft!  If people are this happy for DRM, games that can disappear at will without the ability to preserve them for collecting purposes, and mandatory PSN/XBox Live subs to do anything interesting online, I say let them have it.

All great Saturn imports, Cotton 2 in particular.  That is one game that doesn't get its due because of the cutesy characters, but it is one of my favorite all time shmups.  Cotton Boomerang is no slouch either.

Great list Ben, but there are quite a few on that list are available in PAL like Virtual Hydlide, Deep Fear and, Gun Griffon and the Darius games.

Yeah, I'm not 100% positive on which ones you guys got, so I apologize  if there are a lot of redundant titles.  I know there are still quite a few that weren't put out in the UK, particularly the fighters, though.  We barely got any games for the Saturn after 1996 in the US, unfortunately, as that list shows (and that doesn't even include my rpgs!).  I'd really appreciate it if one of you UK posters could glance through that and tell me exactly which ones were (I knew about Parodius and Deep Fear, wasn't aware you guys got Gun Griffon and Darius), given that it would help American collectors who don't know Japanese out quite a bit.

Also, zapiy, I was just lucky in that I picked most of my games up in the late 90's when prices were still low (really glad I bought Panzer Dragoon Saga when I had the chance).  Just putting this out there, I know there is a seller in the UK who still offers Saturn modchips, and given that these games are almost certainly not  going to be released if they haven't yet been...

I would kill anyone quite literally, to own that "This Is Cool" Saturn... SERIOUSLY 

I own a Hi-Saturn and a This is Cool Saturn (they have nifty controllers that match as well, of course).  You're missing one model also, the Derby Stallion Saturn.  One thing to mention about these, I believe they were all Japan only (I know in the US we only got the black model); the Saturn actually outsold the N64 in Japan, and was a worthy rival to the PlayStation.  It was in the US that the Saturn hemhorraged money, due to its botched launch (retailers found out it was coming early at E3, had no shelf space and were not happy), as well as Bernie Stolar of Sega America deciding that no one wanted to play 2d games or RPGs anymore (Bernie having just been fired from SCEA partly for thinking FFVII would never sell in America and opposing a marketing push for it).  So it actually makes sense; the Japanese market got cool variants since it was successful, but they never made it overseas.  Actually, part of what angered a lot of developers and peripheral makers was that Sega killed the Saturn in Japan in favor of Katana/Dreamcast, as it was still very successful there.

Colour me jealous!!!!

I never understood why Bernie Stolar did that, I really don't. I bought a Saturn over the PS1 because it had the much better games library and the games I wanted to play, those included 3D and 2D titles. The Saturn had the best of both worlds. The Saturn still has a killer library with so many AAA titles and then when you discover the Japanese library too it just blows you away. It's such a shame that Sega made so many mistakes it with and that so many people believed Sony's hype and bullshit too.

Both the PS1 and Saturn have a killer library. If you include the japanese stuff, the PS1 has a huge collection of 2D games. Just not a lot of people realise it.

I am one of those that love the Saturn, but to get the best out of it you really need to get involved in the japaneses side of things, especially as it means you don't have to deal with the awful PAL boxes.

Since you mentioned that, I actually posted a pretty lengthy list of Saturn games that weren't released in the US and are pretty well playable without a translation over at Racketboy, when I used to post there.  I have to admit that I don't know the PS1 import library that well, especially the 2D stuff; but I own darn near every good 2d Saturn game. 

Anyway, here's that list I made, these are games that I consider to be at least good (if not great), and that don't get mentioned as much (so I didn't put on Radiant Silvergun or X-Men VS Street Fighter, for instance):

Cotton 2: Probably the best cute 'em up of all time.
Shinrei Jusatsushi Taroumaru: A side scroller beat em up with horror elements, highly recommended.
Elevator Action Returns: Side scrolling beat em up.
Sexy Parodius – Great shmup, also released in Europe in English.
Astra Super Stars : Very underrated fighter by Sunsoft.
Gungriffon II: Excellent mech/FPS hybrid.
Princess Crown: A side scroller with RPG elements, spiritual predecessor to Odin Sphere. One of the best games on the Saturn.
Dungeons and Dragons: Tower of Doom – Basically a side scrolling beat em up with some RPG elements.
Kyukyuoku Tiger II Plus: Overhead shmup.
Groove on Fight: Great 2d figher.
Tryrush Deppy: Side scrolling platformer.
Hyper Duel – Shmup.
Game Tengoku: Another great shmup.
Cyberbots: 2d mech fighting game.
Blast Wind – Underrated Shmup.
Bulk Slash – Mech fighting game.
PuLiRuLa: Side scrolling beat em up (sort of), with some really beautiful animation.
Sengoku Blade – Another underrated shooter.
Battle Garegga – Very underrated shmup.
Soukyugurentai – Another shmup.
Batsugun: Another shooter.
Virtual Hydlide: A dungeon crawler with random dungeons, it's a remake of the SNES Hydlide. Most people hate this one, but I like it, so I put it on anyway.
Nekketsu Oyako: Side scrolling beat em up.
Purikura Daisakusen: Isometric beat em up.
Dodonpachi: ANOTHER shmup.
Thunder Force V: Side scrolling shmup.
Silhouette Mirage: Side scroller with very colorful graphics by Treasure. Not an exclusive (also on the PSX), but a great game.
Deep Fear: Survival Horror game set underwater, released in Europe in English.
Super Tempo: Very colorful 2D side scroller, sequel to the Genesis games.
Ninpen Manmaru: A 3D platformer from Enix with animated cutscenes. It works with the 3d controller.
Elan Doree: 3D fighter with characters riding dragons, basically Panzer Dragoon Fighter.
Pretty Fighter X: A 2d fighter with high school girls and anime cut scenes. It's not half bad!
Skull Fang: Another shmup.
Dragon Ball Z Densetsu: Decent 2D fighter, I'd pass if you aren't a DBZ fan.
Dragon Ball Z Shinbutoden: Same as above.
Wolf Fang: You guessed it...A SHMUP!
SDF Macross: I hesitated to put this on, it's a great Shmup but has a ton of Japanese text/dialogues. Still playable, but you miss something.
Macross DYRL: See above.
Asuka 120% Limited: Another girl-centric fighter, it was released on Japanese PCs and the PSX too, but this is considered the best version.
Gekirindan: Another shmup.
Dezaemon: OMG! A shmup!
Darius Gaiden: It's Darius on the Saturn. SHMUP
Darius II: It's Darius II on the Saturn. SHHHHHHHHMUUUUUUUUPPPPPP
Sonic Council: Very good 2D fighter.
Cotton Boomerang: Cotton 2 with a few new characters and an amped up difficulty. Probably for SHMUP freaks only, I love shmups and this one makes me want to pull my hair out. Plus it's basically Cotton 2 anyway.


The one thing I noticed when I made that list, is that not speaking Japanese really limits you to a high % of shmups, so it's easy to get burnt out.  But there are a TON of great Saturn imports that are worth grabbing.  I thought it was kind of cool that after I posted that, also, a lot of the games I listed were featured on Game Sack, so I'm guessing people saw my list and submitted them.  Their most recent Left in Japan video has several of these, although I didn't agree with Joe's review of Tryrush Deppy!

Now this is a thread I can get into!  I'm a huge Sega fanatic, so I'd say my Megadrive list is the one to go with first.  Keep in mind I love RPGs, shmups, and platformers (as well as 2d fighters), so this reflects that.

Top 10 Megadrive/Genesis games:
1.  Phantasy Star IV
2.  Phantasy Star II
3.  Musha
4. Thunder Force IV
5.  Zero Wing
6.  Gunstar Heroes
7.  Shadowrun
8.  Shining Force
9.  Light Crusader
10. Beyond Oasis

*Honorable Mention:  Landstalker and Shining Force II

SNES:
1.  Final Fantasy VI
2.  Earthbound
3.  Lufia II
4.  Chrono Trigger
5.  Legend of Zelda:  A Link to the Past
6.  Legend of the Mystical Ninja
7.  Actraiser
8.  Super Turrican II
9.  Mega Man X
10. Wild Guns 

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone, I'm really digging the forum and plan to stick around for awhile. 

Hello and welcome to RVG, Ben!  How did you find the site?  I'm also in the US but in the Sunshine State.    Be sure to check out our reviews and interviews and just enjoy your time here. 

As for how i found the site, I was looking for information on the Jaguar, and ran across all of the fantastic Atari interviews.  I sold my Jag years ago, and have been thinking about getting back into collecting for it.  The biggest hurdle for me is the cost of some of the rarer games and hardware (I never had a Jaguar CD add on, just the console and carts).  I just hope this Atari landfill publicity doesn't drive prices up anymore with all of the new interest in old Atari stuff!

Thought this was really cool, and glad to see some Skies of Arcadia merchandise coming out after all these years.  http://kotaku.com/the-hero-of-skies-of-arcadia-gets-the-statue-he-deserve-1569495350