> When in the right hands, the Saturn was more than a match for the Playstation. Let's not pretend otherwise just because it's more convenient to attribute the Saturn's downfall to a lack of raw power. Dead or Alive on the Saturn is far more technically impressive than the Playstation version that came out *later* believe it or not. The Saturn was designed to use quadrangular polygons and although these quads could fill more space than the Playstation's triangular polygons (so matching polygon counts wasn't a problem), the latter (triangles) were far easier to manipulate than the former (quads). Personally, I think the fatal mistake Sega made here was launching a console with dual processors hardly anyone understood (even developers at Sega). Sega of Japan didn't exactly help matters by choosing to build the Saturn out of on-the-shelf parts instead of state-of-the-art hardware, which Kalinski had recommended hiring Silicon Graphics to build around a simpler to understand single chip precessor. Not even veteran third party developers like Capcom could figure out how to co-ordinate/sync the Saturn's dual processors properly to muster the best possible performance out of them (parallel processing on a hardware level). The end result was that many Saturn third party developers only harnessed one out of the two Saturn twin processors... which was a shame to say the least. Good graphics engines (which Sega should have provided) were scarce, good third party developers not taking bribes from Sony for exclusive support were scarcer, and anyone who aimed to get the most out of the Saturn (to the extent we see in the high res. Athlete Kings/Decathlete) needed to code in Assembly language when everyone was using C/C++. Who knows? If it wasn't for that, Sega may still be making consoles now.

     > The Saturn's lack of inbuilt hardware support for 3D transparency effects was undeniably a killer blow to its chances of success too; an ugly "net curtain" effect was used where proper transparencies should have been used instead (Travelers Tales refined it, however, to what they called "pixie dust", a very fine mist effect in Sonic R). Also... too few Saturn games used the Saturn's highest resolution (704 X 480) mode because the Saturn's processors weren't speedy enough to use it in games with high polygon counts without compromising frame rates even half the time, so it was only used in a handful of games like Riglord Saga 2 (one of my own personal favorites). Of course, Team Andromeda were no strangers to parallel processing, having worked on arcade boards with dual processors for years prior to the unveiling of the Saturn. This experience is evident in the Panzer Dragoon games as TA crammed in flat 2D planes masquerading as convincing transparency effects (albeit "pseudo-3D transparencies" rendered "via the background processor, which can more or less put two properly texture-mapped translucent perspective correct planes"). Who would have thought that transparent riverscapes were possible on the "underpowered" "less 3D capable" Saturn?! 

     > The (often misunderstood) Saturn had wonderful 2D sprite handling capabilities on top of its decent 3D performance (when in the right hands as I noted earlier). Some of the Saturn's best games (tailored specifically for the Saturn hardware) are in fact those that blend 2D sprites with 3D graphics seamlessly (otherwise known as "2.5D" games) like Dragon Force, Guardian Heroes, Grandia and Shining The Holy Ark. While 32bit 3D graphics have aged terribly to become an eye-sore, the 2D sprites in Guardian Heroes etc. still manage to be a sight for sore eyes for the simple reason that they will never age. I just wish more games had followed in their footsteps to show the world what the Saturn was truly capable of; these were the games the Saturn was best equipped to handle IMO. Sony lent a helping hand in preventing these games from thriving by attempting to ban 2D games altogether in order to bring us out of "the dark ages" and usher in the dawn of the 3D era (something Capcom didn't appreciate). Way to go Sony!

     > Unlike the home version of Virtua Fighter 2 for the Saturn, which was quite a downgrade from the arcade version (don't even try to deny it) lacking all the fully 3D backgrounds etc., and unlike Fighting Vipers which went the pure gameplay-over-graphics route by retaining the 60 frames per second gameplay of the arcade game while sacrificing much of its detail to include too ambitious caged arenas that paid the price of low res. visuals and low polygon models (when Sega could have cut the frame rate in half and doubled the amount of detail seen on-screen), VF Remix is actually a step up from the original arcade game I so enjoyed more than a decade ago, so finding a reasonably-priced copy even today (and the CGI artwork Sega of Japan released) is money well-spent (don't even bother with the original Saturn and 32X conversions, for their stick-figure graphics leave something to be desired). I lack the words to express how great the hand-drawn artwork on the front of the Japanese copy's jewel-case is, and the screens on the back make for a great preview of this game. The European box cover doesn't do half as good a job at drawing your gaze (why it was changed here is beyond me). Too bad VF Remix wasn't originally packaged with the Saturn so as to give a better impression of the console's potential.