Does anybody else think that the US got the short end of the stick with Sega?

[tbb033]

I certainly felt shafted when SOA dropped support for the Saturn a full year before Dreamcast came out. Almost as shafted as I did when I bought the Saturn only to have the price drop a couple months later for the PSX launch. Stupid early Saturn surprise launch.

[Da_Shocker]

I certainly felt shafted when SOA dropped support for the Saturn a full year before Dreamcast came out. Almost as shafted as I did when I bought the Saturn only to have the price drop a couple months later for the PSX launch. Stupid early Saturn surprise launch.

Yes it was odd Sega didn't have a presence in the American market for like 14 months. I just wracked up on imports though.

[gamevet]

I brought up Grandia because it's in the same boat technically. It started as a Sega CD game with the battle system being designed on that system. It later got moved up to the Saturn. That doesn't make it a Sega CD port, just like how Albert Odyssey being moved to the Saturn doesn't make it an SNES port. To be a port, a full SNES version would need to exist first. And the game definitely does take advantage of the Saturn's hardware. The game runs at a higher resolution, with much more animation, color, and detail than the SNES Albert Odyssey game.

Just compare the two:





Even games like FF6 look noticeably worse.

The SNES demo looks like the game was going to be a SRPG. That's quite a bit of difference from the traditional RPG the Saturn game turned out to be.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

The SNES demo looks like the game was going to be a SRPG. That's quite a bit of difference from the traditional RPG the Saturn game turned out to be.

The SNES game isn't the same game. The SNES one is Albert Odyssey, the original SNES game that was released. The Saturn game is Albert Odyssey Gaiden which is a traditional RPG. It's development started on the SNES and was moved to the Saturn.

[Da_Shocker]

The last time I check I had NO earthly idea the SCD could pull off the polygonal elements of the Grandia. And i'm sure the SCD could easily pull off all of those colors too.

[Zebbe]

Now I am not going to get into the SMS but looking at the Genesis, 32X, Saturn and DC it seems like Europe got a shit ton of games that we never got.

Genesis
Mega Man: Wily Wars
Alien Soldier

(Granted these games were releases on the Sega Channel but I wouldn't even count that.)

32X
Darxide
Fifa 96

Here is what Europeans missed on those two:

Mega Drive (just to name a few):
Warsong
Exile
Arcus Odyssey
Elemental Master
Thunder Force III
Midnight Resistance
Joe & Mac
Vectorman 2
Ys III
Devilish
Battle Mania
Shadowrun

32X (all we missed that USA got):
Tempo
Blackthorne
Pitfall
BC Racers
WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game
World Series Baseball Starring Deion Sanders
Star Trek Starfleet Academy: Starship Bridge Simulator
Spider-Man: Web of Fire
RBI Baseball '95
Brutal Unleashed : Above the Claw

[TrekkiesUnite118]

Wait, Europe didn't get Thunder Force III? That's odd considering you guys got the other two didn't you?

[MrSega]

Yes it was odd Sega didn't have a presence in the American market for like 14 months. I just wracked up on imports though.

Had less to do with the early release and much more to do with CSK's shitty management.

Hiring Stolar was the final nail in the coffin.


Sad thing is, that had SOJ put their foot down and controlled Stolar like a robot, Saturn staying on the market would have given SEGA some extra backup revenue for Dreamcast.

[Zebbe]

Wait, Europe didn't get Thunder Force III? That's odd considering you guys got the other two didn't you?

Correct, both II and IV got here, but not III.

[Furnessly]

Personally I think both the US and Europe got the short end of the stick with Sega when compared to Japan even though some of them wouldn't have appealed to much of a market back then and would have been a hard push.

I can think of some Dreamcast games Europe didn't get like Alien Front Online, Bomberman Online, Death Crimson OX, Elemental Gimmick Gear, Flag to Flag, Illbleed, Ooga Booga, Sega Smash Pack [by extension the Dreamcast version of Virtua Cop 2], Seaman, Sega Marine Fishing, Seventh Cross: Evolution, some arcade ports, some sports games and nearly all games (except Quake 3 Arena) got the online feature dropped like Daytona USA 2001. Yes, they probably aren't as good as Shenmue II or Rez but at least they were ported to PS2 and Xbox to enjoy while only Death Crimson OX [PS2] and Sega Marine Fishing [PC] got ported in Europe, the rest didn't at all.

Historically Europe always got shafted at games, either getting them later, running slower, heavily bordered, sometimes censored or not at all. In fact some rather big games that people often mention on the Internet we didn't get until mucccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccch later, sometimes over 10 years later. Let's see: Mega Man 6 [I think it is on the Virtual Console], Final Fantasy 6 [the PS1 release?], Chrono Trigger [DS], Super Mario RPG [Virtual Console and censored], Eihander [never], Brave Fencer Mushi [still never], Earthbound [it's coming apparently], Parasite Eve [we confusingly got the sequel], Ninja Gaiden 3 [no clue], Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior [not the first ones, the first in the series we got was VIII], Kirby's Dream Land 3, the Kirby Dream Collection on the Wii plus Kirby's Tilt and Tumble [I bet Dave from Game Sack would be very unhappy now], Wario Ware Twisted and Europe never got Hey You Pikachu due to voice recognition problems [the multiple accents in the UK for one never mind the other European languages Nintendo had to translate to]. They're the ones that I can think of, there are plently more. For RPG fans, our first Square RPG was probably either Secret of Mana or Mystic Quest with a select few until Final Fantasy VII while Sega by comparison brought most of the English translated RPGs to Europe.

Also some weird things, Mega Man Anniversary Collection was not released in Europe despite the collection was handled by a company in England and the other Mega Man collection was also not released [I wonder if Nintendo had something to do with it?], the console versions of Smashing Drive was not released in Europe even though the game was originally developed in Spain and the arcade version was released.

[Black_Tiger]

The last time I check I had NO earthly idea the SCD could pull off the polygonal elements of the Grandia. And i'm sure the SCD could easily pull off all of those colors too.

It's as plausible as the SNES handling Albert Odyssey Gaiden. Aside from the 2D visuals that are out of its league, AOG also has a light sourced 3D floor overworld with another 3D layer of transparent clouds flying over it and texture mapped polygons plus scaling sprites in-between.

Here is what Europeans missed on those two:

Mega Drive (just to name a few):
Warsong
Exile
Arcus Odyssey
Elemental Master
Thunder Force III
Midnight Resistance
Joe & Mac
Vectorman 2
Ys III
Devilish
Battle Mania
Shadowrun

32X (all we missed that USA got):
Tempo
Blackthorne
Pitfall
BC Racers
WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game
World Series Baseball Starring Deion Sanders
Star Trek Starfleet Academy: Starship Bridge Simulator
Spider-Man: Web of Fire
RBI Baseball '95
Brutal Unleashed : Above the Claw

I think that it's safe to say then, that North America was better off overall for Genesis/Sega-CD/32X games than Europe.

[sheath]

Oh, I forgot to mention that Barone has been educating me to a number of 2D PS1 games that were never brought over to the States. I don't have a complete list, but it seems like every other game he talks about being a great port of a 2D Arcade game never got released here. I'm looking to mod my PS1 primarily so I can play more Jpn only releases and use them for comparisons.

[Drakon]

What I find bizarre is american exclusive games made by japanese companies. like metal combat: falcon's revenge.

[lumclaw]

What I find bizarre is american exclusive games made by japanese companies. like metal combat: falcon's revenge.

Yup lots of that. one piece (gba), base wars...

[Da_Shocker]

Here is what Europeans missed on those two:

Mega Drive (just to name a few):
Warsong
Exile
Arcus Odyssey
Elemental Master
Thunder Force III
Midnight Resistance
Joe & Mac
Vectorman 2
Ys III
Devilish
Battle Mania
Shadowrun

32X (all we missed that USA got):
Tempo
Blackthorne
Pitfall
BC Racers
WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game
World Series Baseball Starring Deion Sanders
Star Trek Starfleet Academy: Starship Bridge Simulator
Spider-Man: Web of Fire
RBI Baseball '95
Brutal Unleashed : Above the Claw

What about the Saturn?