The Sega Genesis vs The Sega Saturn 

If the Saturn was backwards compatible with the Genesis I would've bought one instead of a PlayStation. Sega hardware could well still be around in the current generation.

Sega use to have a huge building in SF when I was a kid and remember seeing it off the freeway.

I'm a little surprised that you didn't include Sonic 3D Blast in this video; I thought that the Genesis version was very comparable to the Saturn version for that effort, and was more of an achievement based on the resources that the developers had to work with. (and of course the Saturn version was a letdown since that was not the next generation Sonic people had in mind) Race Drivin' may be more technically sound on the Saturn however the Genesis version looks more aesthetically similar to the arcade original. Madden 98 for Saturn/Playstation is pretty much the last Madden game that I actually really enjoyed.

Does anyone else love the intro to these Sega Lord X videos?

Between the SVP and 32X the Genesis still had some fight left in it. Imagine what could have been.

It's so strange how Sega seemed behind the times with the Saturn once it was launched, and to then be so far ahead of time with the dreamcast. Absolutely loved my Saturn though 👍

I played the hell out of Virtua Racing on my mega drive. The idea of a stand alone SVP chip with its own line of games would've been amazing.

Sega should have pulled its head out of its arse and at least release SoR and Shinobi collections for the Saturn that looked and played better, especially when they refused to make new entries for their new console.

The Saturn has some awesome 2d arcade conversions and some truly obscure original games, but the megadrive (im from the Netherlands) has the nostalgia factor and just way more and (thus by number) better games....

Awesome video SLX. I can honestly say, this among the best of the videos you've published. I love those side by side comparisons, and with a variety of games to satisfy everyone. Well done Igor, and please do keep it up. 😉👍🔥

I really wanted/want a Saturn. I only played it once as a kid, had PlayStation, but the Sega stuff was and always will be cool to me. I play Genesis and Master System via emulation but i want a Saturn.

Love the side by side screens.

I'm not even 3 minutes into this video, but I would strongly suggest you make a part 2 of this. Keep up the good work!

In the mid 90s I wasn’t able to get new consoles at release. I was at toys r us one day with my mother & begged for a clearanced out Sega Saturn bundle. I was so happy at the time completely oblivious to PlayStations growing dominance. All I knew was Sega & Nintendo so getting Arcade quality versions of fighting games had me content. At least until I visited friends with massive PlayStation libraries I never knew existed

Fun fact: some of those Disney genesis games are dumped entirely into the saturn’s ram since the file sizes are so small

Well that's an interesting VS video.

I feel the time spent with each system the Genesis was a good time and is must have one a short list of consoles

0:01 Intro 1:14 Afterburner 2 2:37 Castle of Illusion 4:04 Earthworm Jim 2 5:17 Race Driving

Really neat to look at how the Genesis still had a lot going for it during the end of it's life. And of course the Saturn always had some very impressive effects despite the obvious shortcomings.

I remember playing race driving on my grandfather's 286 pc back in 92. It ran like a slide show, but I think it was always meant as more of a tech demo than anything else. The fact that they released it on the Saturn is kind of mind boggling.

Games from Capcom and Sega own AM2 department ensure saturn have a place in gaming history even if it didn't won the console sale battle back in the day.

You probably know the story, but Sega was planning to make more SVP chip games. Since the chip was so expensive the plan was to put it in it's own mini cartridge, and have rom cartridges that attached to that, to keep the price of the individual games lower then Virtua Racing was (which was very expensive to buy at launch). Unfortunately as you know Sega had a lot of hardware at this time and they knew it, and the choice was basically between the SVP and the 32X. I honestly think the SVP would have been the way to go instead of the 32X.

They sort of did make the SVP a standalone accessory, with games for it: the 32x

Both were awesome systems to have. I had both. Great games, great times, great memories.

I ain't got less to do with fearing competition in the 32-bit space, and more to do with Sega of Japan wanting to take back control of the company.

The Genesis had a lot of fight left in it. I loved my genesis and seeing the saturn for the first time I thought it was a cool console. I still wanted to play my Genesis though. I feel like a lot of genesis owners felt the same way. Thanks for the content SLX! Great video.

Looks like you used the color hack version for OutRun on the Genesis.

I forgot all about NBA Jam. That was such a fun game in the arcade.

Seeing the MK footage reminded me when I was a kid and I would see Cyrax being played at the desert level and Cyrax would be in the background in the quicksand. I always got wrapped up with that in my head and would be so confused about it back then. How can he be in two places at once?

“To be this good will take Sega ages!” Old billboard advert promoting the Amiga Cd32 just outside the Sega headquarters in London.

At work watching this great content thank you Sega Lord

The jump from 16 bit to 32 bit tech was a lot different and lesser in some ways, than the leap from 8-16 bits. It was such a HUGE difference in graphics, music and gameplay going from say Nintendo to SNES. The tech was just different and I think a lot of developers didn't know how to really utilize the new so-called 32 bit tech. It's all very interesting and I still lament the failure of Saturn and Dream Cast, even though I always loved the SNES best.

I agree that Sega was doing just fine with the Genesis and the Sega CD, but the 3DO release changed everything. It showed Sega, Nintendo, Sony, and even Atari what they had to do to keep up. The 3DO was a powerhouse at the time that nobody knew how to code for. Sega took note and completely destroyed the competition at that time with the Saturn. The Saturn was just a little bit underpowered from the N64, but it was just too damn complicated to code for. I'd love to see a world where Squaresoft made Final Fantasy 7 for the Saturn, but they already had been making it for the Nintendo Playstation which of course became the Sony Playstation. If Sega had not released the Saturn, they would have been left in the dust. The Dreamcast was again light years ahead of the competition, but Microsoft went ahead and put the knife in Sega's back. I miss Sega's innovation in hardware, but I think they saw the future with the Xbox in that you can just slap any CPU and GPU in a system now and port any game to it. There's really way more money to be made in software now as console production costs eat the majority of profits. All in all, without Sega pushing the envelope we wouldn't have seen the fast progression in consoles...Nintendo showed where it would be from the N64, to the GameCube, the Wii, Wii U...those were all natural progression. Xbox, PS2, Xbox 360,PS3, Xbox One, PS4, and on...those are all thanks to Sega.

Another awesome video! I love the comparison! As for the SVP chip, it doesn't seem up to texture mapping, so I don't know if the sports games would actually look better or worse on the Genesis. Still, the idea of buying a $50 SVP chip for the Genesis makes a lot more sense than the 32X.

Saturn Having backward compatibility with Sega CD and Genesis/32X cartridges would have been epic. Then they could have continued that trend into Dreamcast...

I was hoping you would have featured "Sonic 3D Blast" in this video, since I happen to be one of a few people who actually enjoyed playing the game on the Sega Genesis, and I also found some enjoyment with the Sega Saturn version as well.

Next vs. episode: The Sega SG-1000 vs The Sega Naomi

if there’s one thing that should be said is that the Saturn deserved to sell better. it’s a charming console that was truly capable during the 32/64 bit era that was underutilized throughout its life. it could run most arcade games very well on stock hardware, close to arcade perfect, but the RAM cartridge expansion either greatly reduces the gap of arcade perfectness, or makes arcade ports arcade perfect. the hardware was powerful for 2D and 3D. its quirks is what makes me love it and want to purchase it. it really brought the arcade to the home. the Saturn is easily the most underrated sega console ever. it doesn’t deserve the hate it gets. it should be in the spotlight with the Dreamcast.

The Saturn is probably my favourite console of all time even though it was probably the beginning of the end for Sega in terms of consoles. Some of my absolute favourite games on there. Panzer dragoon saga, dragon force, shining force 3 are three of the best srpgs/rpgs I have ever played. I have great memories of Clockwork Knight and Guardian Heroes but probably my all time favourite platformer has to be Astal, I still feel that game would stand up as amazing in today's marketplace. I remember selling my mega drive/genesis with a large collection of games to get the Saturn new for Xmas when it came out and I really didn't want to but honestly in my mind it was the right choice. I loved the saturn.

The Saturn port of MK2 was a port of the PS1 version which was also a quick and dirty port of possibly the PC version. When MK3 came out there was none of these issues so MK2 on the Sega Saturn could have been done much better even without ram cart when you consider the next in line Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3

You're so close to 100k subscribers! I hope you're able to get it soon. Your content is excellent and consistent.

I love your content, man. Your review style has kept me entertained for a while, so I thank you. Keep doing what you're doing because it really does work. Seriously, I went from watching one of your vids when I had a spare bit of free time, to actually making time to watch your stuff. Thank you, sir. 👍😀

The things Sega did from 1994-1998...it was almost as if they were suicidal. Everything from the design of the 32X, killing the SVP chip, discontinuing the Genesis, allowing Nintendo free reign in the budget 16-bit market, clipping Kalinski, Sega of Japan crippling USA Sega, hiring Bernie Stollar, refusing to allow good Japanese games to come here, and...wait, did I get them all?

A great video once again. Great editing for the sake of comparison and, of course, great text as always!

Love Sega. Forever a place in my heart.

That World Series Basesball segment took me back to laying on the floor in my room reading magazine after magazine in anticipation of the Saturn's arrival. Such a good feeling.

I feel like Sega should have held off on the Saturn & 32X, and instead released a stand-alone enhancement chip/cartridge that used the "lock on technology" like Sonic & Knuckles, and/or taken more advantage of the Sega CD's scaling capabilities...

Thank you for reminding me of a memory I forgot I had playing race driving on my genesis. Absolutely loved that game as a kid being blown away by the 3D at home on a console. Not that great of a game anymore though

I was definitely a Sega kid, and absolutely loved my Genesis, but I have to admit the Saturn was a ton of fun too. If only you could play the Genesis games on the Saturn. That would be amazing. Cheers!

Great video. Next should be Genesis vs. 32X or 32X vs. Saturn.

I didn't even know Race Drivin went over on the Saturn

12:10 cannot unsee the Saturn version constantly flipping the Ferrari horse symbol left and right, while the Genesis version correctly doesn't.

*I had a Saturn on launch. Virtua Fighter was so botched, Sega provided a mail-coupon and sent me Virtua Fighter Remix in a paper sleeve!* 😂🤣

My brother and I spent countless hours playing World Series baseball 1 and 2 on the Saturn. Thank you Sega lord x for bringing this memory back for me

Brother, you make extremely compelling videos; I enjoy every one of them.

After Burner for the Megadrive/Genesis was created in 1989(?) on a short development schedule, with the staff just learning as the went how to make and program a game for the Megadrive. by 1994, i'm sure a development team at Sega of Japan could of pushed the MD capabilities further, and possibly if they used the SVP-1 Chip with a quick buffering ram chip in the cartridge, they could of made an amazing MD/Genesis cartridge version of After Burner on the Mega Drive. I think it can be forgiven a bit due to those circumstances at the time of development, as a very early effort of them just popping out it just after coming out of 8-bit Master System game development, it's decent effort IMO, so it still looks and plays fairly well I think. Yes the Saturn version is way way more visually stunning and 1000x more arcade accurate in how it looks and plays.

the saturn controller is still my favourite controller of all time for fighting games

I Loved the video! hope it grow into a series! Mega drive was huge here in Brazil ( still is actually) but i never had one (working on getting a japanese model).A look into its library via those comparatives is amazing to see what the machine could do

sega need to release saturn mini verison for their fanbase..

another great video from SLX! You are seriously one of the best video game RU-vidrs out there. There is so much quality you put into your content. You are criminally undersubbed and I do hope you skyrocket to 100K subs and more. Thanks for all you do for the community.

What a fantastic video! Thanks man. I didn't realize so many games were on both the Genesis and Saturn.

I owned both the Genesis and the Saturn back when I was a kid.

10:14 Well, I remember that at the time, after playing a lot of the mega drive version, the giant sprites of the saturn version bothered me a lot because they limited the game view and worsened the gameplay ...The mega drive version was more fun to me.

only channel of RU-vid making me watch an entire 20+ minutes video at 2:00 AM

Every time I read someone mentioning that the Saturn was meant to be a 2D powerhouse I wonder what they are thinking. SEGA was making 3D arcade games years before the 32X was released, the next gen, 3DO, Sat, PS1, n64 were all meant to be 3D consoles with more powerful 2D capabilities than the previous 16-bit consoles. The only thing about the Saturn is that its architecture was difficult to program for. The PS1 only started to catch on 3D in 1997 and later, its first games were simple almost like the Saturn counterparts, the best games for the PS1 were basically released in '98, '99,'00 and '01, impressive titles like Gran Turismo, Metal Gear Solid, to name a few. If you compare better versions like Duke Nukem 3D, Powerslave and Dead or Alive for the Saturn, there's no denying it's only a matter of being a good programmer. If the Saturn wasn't killed by SEGA themselves at the end of '97, we would see many better games just like the PS1, imagine if it was supported until the early '00s. Burning Rangers was one of the last titles and one of the most impressive 3D games on the Sat, except it was rushed and it glitches in spots, it has huge areas, dynamic lightning, 3D sound and a great gameplay. There's a Japanese exclusive called Advanced World War - Sennen Teikoku no Koubou - Last of the Millennium, the 3D battle scenes are impressive, it has dynamic lighting at night, water effects on submarines, particles and so on, also, another game with impressive 3D models is Digital Dance Mix, which uses the engine from the never released Virtua Fighter 3 for the Saturn. If there are two things that hurt me in the gaming industry, is that the Master System had almost no third party support, like the NES did, it would be a dream if it had and the Saturn being abandoned in the late 90's, fortunately both still has much to offer. Titles like Winter Heat and Decathlete are also unique, looks and run so smoothly that even the N64 and PS1 would have a hard time trying the same.

If they had skipped the 32x. Sega would still be in the console market. That time and money could have been spent on a Saturn that was backwards compatible with Sega CD and Genesis.

Afterburner, better on Saturn, but I'm nostalgic for the Genesis.

Game Sack on Sunday and Sega Lord X on Monday. Life is good.

Man I totally forgot about World Series baseball on the Saturn. Forgot I ever even owned that one. Seeing the clip in this video and hearing those sounds again brought me back to the 90s. So much nostalgia.

24:25 ......... I can imagine the exact same thing was said in a meeting that led to the creation of the 32X

The Saturn version of Mortal Kombat 2 runs at 320x224 while on the Genesis it runs at 320x240. Yes, the Genesis ran at a higher resolution. It probably did for other 2D games too but I haven't checked.

Street Fighter 2 SCE on Genesis has 24megabit, SUPER Street Fighter 2 has 40megs!

Your videos have kinda charm vibe, i really love your content, greetings from MX 🇲🇽

I wanted a saturn so bad as a kid but by the time i could finaly have one it was already dead so I got the ps1 instead

Genny was WAAAAY better!! End of story!! Lmiao. I liked the Saturn too, but Genny was so much better! 💜

In the plus column, the genesis version of Primal Rage plays really smooth.

The two best Sega consoles and with the bigger and most complete libraries. By far.

Excellent video congratulations Genesis and Saturn were works of art by Sega

Used to play all these old systems $1 / hr in Three Hills Alberta at Entertainment Center. was awesome

Thank you Lord X :) keep doing this kind of videos you made me go back in time to the lovely gold age :((((

great video as usual, justa couple things: 1) SVP was planned as a standalone cart, as you desire, with VF and even Daytona usa planned for it (look internet for this story, it's documented); fact sega decided to a one-shot cart is their final decision (probably to end MD life and move to SS). 2) MK Trilogy on PS is a much more faitful "conversion" of the arcade (a console with just, even lower, memory and cd speed available than SS), the problem with MK2 (and many other conversion) is "just" a BAD conversion, SS can do much more with a competent programming...

24:25 That could have been the first Lock-On technology.

I really love your videos. It`s so cool how hyped you were about baseball and american football games. Almost nobody plays these sports where I`m from, so it`s hard to relate. Still, it`s cool you've had so much fun with these games and how passionate you are about them. Keep em coming!

Love your work SLX, it reminds me of myself. My first system was a Mega Drive. Been playing ever since. Gaming hardware has taken a huge leap but deep inside we know gameplay is still the most important thing.

if Sega made the Saturn backwards compatible with genesis and 32x cartridges, they would still be in the console business today.

Clearly, a "Genesis Pro" with that small 3d chip and 128+ colors, that can play all the original Genesis games, would have been a good choice, instead of releasing the Sega CD and 32x addons.

To think that mk2 had issues on the saturn because of some memory limitation just cant be right. Cartridges have more or less instant loading compared to disk based media. Saturn was slower because of the cd rom.

Both amazing but Saturn i'd take to the grave : P

I can see now why Sega thought the 32x would have been a good product for the US. Both the 32x and Saturn use SH2 chips and Sega knew that both consoles would be under powered. That's why they wanted the Saturn to be a Japanese only product. If they had supported the 32x longer then they might have pulled it off. I would like to have seen a 32x Outrun comparison to the Saturn. The Saturn would win but at least the 32x would have had more of the software it promised. More 32x powered SegaCD games would have been great.

I'd like to see a updated 32x vs Saturn comparison.

I had the fortune to own them all. From ATARI 2600 to Intellivision to C64 to Amiga. Of all I owned….. Genesis was the best. Fun ass games and SEGA wasn’t afraid to break new ground with more mature content unlike Nintendo trying to remain “family friendly “. GENESIS was the best in my old ass opinion.

I rented Virtua Racer for Genesis so much that I should have bought it. All we had for racing games up until then was Cruisin' USA.

Speaking of after burner, sega should've made an after burner game that would use the panzer dragoon engine, but most of all, they should not have cancelled that sonic xtreme game, if sonic xtreme happened the saturn would've done quite a bit better than it did, maybe a lot better

One of SEGA's biggest mistakes was making 32X and SegaCD two separate addons, it is true that there are some games that take advantage of both accessories, however most chose one or the other when in fact, if it had been a single product, the developers would take advantage of the 32X power and CD storage advantage.

You can look at Sega's console history in lots of ways, but playing Megadrive games a lot more recently (grabbed a Megadrive Mini) has made me think that what Sega was trying to do with each console was fix what others had criticised about the previous one. So the Megadrive couldn't do parallax layers, so Sega made the Saturn a parallax monster. Saturn struggled with ease of programming and polygon environments, so they fixed that for the Dreamcast. It's not that they were completely wrong to fix those perceived weaknesses, but they shouldn't have been the main focus - that should have been identifying what was happening in gaming and being ahead of that curve.

We can guess about what Sega should have done. I would have made the master system lower price alternative. Then make system one to one with that system 16 hard ware instead of the genius. Think that would made them the cream of the crop in 1990s. That arcade at home we never got.

Sega's biggest problem that lead to it's demise is the infighting.

The Genesis was pretty formidable when it came to comparing ports to the Saturn for the most part. Primal Rage was probably the least competitive between the two.

In terms of the actual hardware, there is no competition whatsoever. Look at PDS, Radiant Silvergun, Winter Heat, or any other game that used both video display processors cleverly. The Saturn was an amazing and worthy successor to the MD, it's just that games that make the most of the hardware are rare.

I see we're getting ever closer to that 100K sub milestone. Spread the word gang, this man deserves it.