The PSX Vs Saturn Poll.

What sheath said. I love Mariokart 64, it's probably my favorite kart racer of that era. I got Sonic R hoping it would be like MarioKart, though it wasn't anything like it, I still enjoyed it and found it to be a great title to have for the system. Only 2 thing disappointed me with Sonic R. First was the lack of Tracks. There's only 5, while MarioKart on a cartridge has about 4 times that. The other thing that disappointed me was the lack of Multiplayer game modes. A Battle mode would have been quite fun.

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Originally Posted by TrekkiesUnite118

What sheath said. I love Mariokart 64, it's probably my favorite kart racer of that era. I got Sonic R hoping it would be like MarioKart, though it wasn't anything like it, I still enjoyed it and found it to be a great title to have for the system. Only 2 thing disappointed me with Sonic R. First was the lack of Tracks. There's only 5, while MarioKart on a cartridge has about 4 times that. The other thing that disappointed me was the lack of Multiplayer game modes. A Battle mode would have been quite fun.

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I had Sonic Gems collection which has Sonic R on it but I barely played it. If it really only has 5 tracks then how the heck can that compare to Crash Team Racing which I think has 17- 18 tracks not to mention double digit playable characters.

I haven't played through CTR, but I would be absolutely floored if most of the tracks weren't mirrored, or at least same theme remixes, of other tracks. Sonic R went way out of its way developing unique Sonic style themes for each track. They easily could have tripled the track count by dumping the hidden items and unlocks and simply randomizing the levels into new ones.

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Originally Posted by DarkDragon

I had Sonic Gems collection which has Sonic R on it but I barely played it. If it really only has 5 tracks then how the heck can that compare to Crash Team Racing which I think has 17- 18 tracks not to mention double digit playable characters.

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If Sonic 4 ends up with mores stages than any Genesis Sonic game, does that mean that Sonic 1 - 3, S&K and CD can't compare to Sonic 4?

Personally, I found Sonic R to be really quite bad, it doesn't control particularly well, and there's only 5 tracks.

And you can say "yeah they are all unique though" any way you like, 5 tracks really isn't very many.

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Originally Posted by Black_Tiger

If Sonic 4 ends up with mores stages than any Genesis Sonic game, does that mean that Sonic 1 - 3, S&K and CD can't compare to Sonic 4?

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Yes if all Sonic 4's levels and the mechanics used to play them are of equal quality to the former games'.

re the # of tracks = I can believe it. For one thing cart style racing games don't strike me as having detail-intensive lv design as opposed to something like RR4 which obviously details a normal city and realistic cars w/ at least 10 tracks. Furthermore PS games seem to use a smaller amount of data for the same results as Saturn games (just a ROMming observation); often I've noticed the same ISO be a third larger on SS than PS. Could that be due to the quadrilateral polygons? Anyhow those late Colin Macrae games had 80+ tracks each; though my credence remains in the wings they aren't extremely bland and recycled.

@gogogadget = Indeed, the looser the play the more tracks needed, and Sonic R is a party game. It's one thing for lapshavers like Rally or Wipeout--or even an FPS one takes seriously--but Sonic R is definitely hurt by the shortage. The game goes in what I call the bonus class: not stuff to buy a console for or even look forward to but rather stuff that will only be enjoyed by those who chance on it w/o expectations. Linkle Liver, Steamgear Mash, Scorcher, Crusader No Remorse are other Saturn exms.

When Crash Team Racing came out I found it a tedious copy of Mario Kart 64 and could not be bothered to figure out how many derivative levels it had. I have since learned to appreciate it more, but still don't actually enjoy playing CTR.

When I got Sonic R at its release I was impressed by everything except that it clearly was not an answer to Mario Kart 64. I wished it was at the time. Then I got into the game, unlocking everything was entertaining, playing as different characters was as well. When Sonic R came out for the PC I picked it up too, and enjoyed unlocking everything again. This one had more mirror options plus weather just like the version in Sonic Gems Collection has. Which reminds me, I enjoyed unlocking everything and playing as all of the characters in Sonic Gems on Gamecube as well. Oh yeah, I have owned the US and Jpn versions of Sonic R for the Saturn, and have restarted each at least five times.

By now, I hope "why" is the question at hand. It is because of the excellent level design and overall presentation of graphics and sound. I would say I have gotten more than a fair share of play time out of Sonic R.

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Originally Posted by StarMist

Yes if all Sonic 4's levels and the mechanics used to play them are of equal quality to the former games'.

re the # of tracks = I can believe it. For one thing cart style racing games don't strike me as having detail-intensive lv design as opposed to something like RR4 which obviously details a normal city and realistic cars w/ at least 10 tracks. Furthermore PS games seem to use a smaller amount of data for the same results as Saturn games (just a ROMming observation); often I've noticed the same ISO be a third larger on SS than PS. Could that be due to the quadrilateral polygons? Anyhow those late Colin Macrae games had 80+ tracks each; though my credence remains in the wings they aren't extremely bland and recycled..

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That's my point. Quality should come before quantity. I'm not going to pass judgement on CTR or compare it to Sonic R, since I haven't played much of it and am not a fan of cart racers. I just don't think that having a bunch of tracks/stages/etc makes one game better than another before you even play them.

Personally I love Sonic R, but I'll agree it's not as good as it could be. The tracks are great, and if there were just three more on the disc it probably would be heralded as a much better racing game to be honest. The controls take some time to get used to but it really captures that Sonic feel.

That being said for the best racing experience on the Saturn, the best options are Daytona USA and Sega Rally.

Sonic R was fun for the 3 hours it took to complete, but the game was buggy and unpolished, there's no 4-player mode and the draw distance on 2 player is so bad its worthless.

I would take Street Racer over Sonic R, at least it has 8 players and a decent number of tracks, and I would take bloody Mickey's Speedway, Lego Racers, or Snowboard Kids on N64, or Muppet Race Mania, or Looney Tunes Racing (PS1) over Street Racer, let alone the actual best Kart racers of that generation

Mario Kart 64, Crash Team Racing, Speed Freaks, Diddy Kong Racing, those are just clearly leagues ahead of any party racer on Saturn.

I remember trying to sell people on Mickey's Speedway when they came looking for Mario Kart 64. Most of them wouldn't even want to try playing it even after I told them it was virtually the same game. I'd really like to pick up Street Racer at some point.

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Originally Posted by sheath

I remember trying to sell people on Mickey's Speedway when they came looking for Mario Kart 64. Most of them wouldn't even want to try playing it even after I told them it was virtually the same game. I'd really like to pick up Street Racer at some point.

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Weirdly enough Street Racer was one of the games which I spent the most time playing back in the day when I used to visit my Saturn owning friend, it was that, followed by Fighters Megamix most of the time.

Its more like the SNES game than the Mega Drive game, from what I can recall its very different from the PS1 game too (I think it may well be completely different, but don't take my word for it as I've not spent that much time with the Playstation game, and its been a while, even though I own it). My main problem with the Saturn game though, is that it feels like updated SNES mode 7 on steroids and not like Mario Kart 64, when we played Mario Kart 64 for the 1st time we were like "wow" and then swapped over.

I never saw or heard of Street Racer back in the day. I didn't see it in stores and nothing I read mentioned it beyond a forgettable blurb. Now I am really interested in it though. I think the Megadrive game looks more like a tech demo, the SNES game looks like a Mode 7 racer, but the Saturn game looks like they tried to do something different. The PS1 game seems to have been released over here, so I can play it on my non-modded US PS1 or PS2. Sooner or later I'll be able to give it a shot.

-edit-

Okay, I've got the PS1 game coming disc only. I don't think I want to mess with the PC game, so all I need is the Saturn game.

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Originally Posted by sheath

I never saw or heard of Street Racer back in the day. I didn't see it in stores and nothing I read mentioned it beyond a forgettable blurb. Now I am really interested in it though. I think the Megadrive game looks more like a tech demo, the SNES game looks like a Mode 7 racer, but the Saturn game looks like they tried to do something different. The PS1 game seems to have been released over here, so I can play it on my non-modded US PS1 or PS2. Sooner or later I'll be able to give it a shot.

Okay, I've got the PS1 game coming disc only. I don't think I want to mess with the PC game, so all I need is the Saturn game.

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I think the series may have been more popular in Europe, it was never huge or anything, but I remember it being mentioned at the time (both 16-bit and later 32-bit versions).

The game is best played 6-player on a big TV (8 player can be cool but unless you have a huge screen its problematic), its also best that everyone has some familiarity with the courses, as their design is a bit haphazard and can be confusing at first.

Like I said before, I've got a vague voice in my head saying that the two 32-bit versions are different games, or at least have radically different graphics and maybe different courses, but I've only played the PS1 version on two occasions and that was like 5 years ago. I actually just went to check between the two, but unfortunately I think the PS1 game is in storage (I've got the Saturn version here though)

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Originally Posted by agostinhobaroners

I think that most of the Sega-16 crowd hates Sony.
I saw several guys praising Virtual Console here, in many threads... It's hard to see anyone talking about PSN with good words.

Mega Drive fans should hate Nintendo like the plague and it isn't what I see here.
Sony usually gets more hate here as many guys see it as the responsible for the 32X's fail, Saturn's fail, Dreamcast's fail and Sega's death in the console hardware market.

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It's a shame to hate a console because of the competitive practices of its company. I really dislike what Sony has become, but I'd be damned if I didn't think highly of both the PS1 and the PS2. Sega really screwed up in the mid-90s, and you can't blame Sony for that - only Sega (of Japan).

With that said and upfront, I prefer the PS1 to the Saturn, but really mainly because my Saturn knowledge is minimal. Still, the PS1 has twice as many good games (which do not include Jet Moto anything) than the Saturn (my most recent count of games that I have/want for my collection is 56 for the PS1 and 23 for the Saturn).

If only Sega was a bit smarter about giving Genesis owners the required respect while only introducing one new console, the Saturn, and not 2 worthless add-ons with tons of bad games, perhaps more Saturn games could have come over here and kept Sega's name loud enough for the Dreamcast to make a large enough, and trusted enough, splash.