The Guinea Pigs: 3DO Games on the Saturn...The Aftermath
J.M. Vargas
sjvargas@concentric.netI'm still waiting for Acclaim to release the Saturn version of "BattleSport" so the damn list of 3DO exclusive titles ported over to Saturn is complete. It was supposed to be out on July 30th, but as of this writing (August 9th) the game is still in that limbo known as the UPS warehouse (thanks a lot guys...could your uniform look anymore like fecal matter?). It's time for me to close the window on this madness, thank a few people and start talking more about Saturn games (there are some bitching titles just around the corner). Thanks to Dave Z. for allowing a Saturn site to be used by a fellow Saturn gamer in order to remember the games from a defunct platform; it showed class and, after all, aren't the games more important than the platform in the end?
I'd also like to thank my arch-nemesis The Dark Falcon for going toe-to-toe with yours truly in a quest to prove the world which of us needs more quickly to get a life. I'M KIDDING! It's a stupid joke, let there be peace, no more flames, can't we all just get along? (or, as Joan Crawford aptly put it, 'NO MORE HANGARS!!!'). The guy really got into the spirit of reviewing a few 3DO titles, and between the two of us a few Saturn games previously unseen in the review section now have a presence ("The Horde", "Shockwave Assault", etc.). Thanks to the three other guys who wrote e-mail about the editorial (come on guys, where are your reviews?).
I'd like to end with a list of a few games that appeared on all three 32-bit platforms (3DO, Saturn and PSX) during the period of late 1995/early 1996 when the machines were all battling for shelf space; I guess we all know by now how the market share got divided, but back then these titles were the only source of comparison available for gamers who wanted to see for themselves the difference between the platforms. With maybe one exception (Time Warner's "Primal Rage", and even that's a question mark), all these titles have the same pattern: the PSX looks the best, with Saturn a close second and the 3DO a not-too-distant third. Also notice the lack of blockbusters in the bunch; not one title gets anywhere near an A- caliber, which might lend support to the theory that multi-platform publishing isn't a promising venture ("Tomb Raider" disproved that, but that was the exception to the rule and not the opposite). Those of you adventurous, wealthy and/or curious enough can find these Saturn titles and make comparisons at leisure (or, like me, try to move on and get a life!):
-Time Warner's "Primal Rage" (B-);
-Interplay's "Cyberia" (C-);
-Data East's "Creature Shock" (D-);
-US Gold's "Johnny Bazookatone" (C);
-Digital Pictures' "Quarterback Attack" (C-);
-Digital Pictures' "Corpse Killer" (C+);
-Interplay's "Alone in the Dark: One-Eyed Jack's Revenge" (D+);
-Readysoft's "Brain Dead 13" (D);
-Electronic Arts/Bullfrog's "Theme Park" (B-);
-Activision's "Shanghai Triple Threat" (C-);
-US Gold's "Olympic Soccer 1996" (C-);
-US Gold's "Olympic Summer Games 1996" (C+);
-Interplay's "Casper" (C).I'd finally like to thank my local FuncoLand in N.Y.C. for letting me sample some of this titles from their used-games section; they had to put up with my requests to sample Saturn titles during lunch hours for weeks (ditto for the folks at my local Electronics Boutique) that weren't readily available for rent at my local video store. It took about a month (damn my busy schedule!) to gather all these impressions, and hopefully you will consider them (as well as that of other folks visiting this site) for future purchase and/or rental.
I'd like to close with the one single most important legacy the 3DO system brought to the world of next-generation console gaming: capitalism lessons. Everything 3DO did was, for whatever reason, doomed to come back and screw the machine deeper into the hole it never emerged from to begin with, and those lessons were observed and not copied (sort of!) by Sega, Sony and Nintendo when it was their machine's turn. 3DO proved that the gaming public would not pay $700 for a cutting-edge console, and that was followed by the Saturn's $400 initial price, Sony's $299 for the PSX and a 64-bit console from Nintendo at $200. It's because of this trial-and-error, capitalism-influenced economy of supply and demand that future machines from the big three will feature a bigger bang for the gaming buck than ever (Sega's machine and its many features sound dreamy for the expected initial price of $299).
Other similar mistakes that 3Do started and the competition (including Sega) didn't follow:
-Package: 3DO titles emulated the "big box" mentality of PC games, with big rectangle-shaped boxes that housed the CD cases inside. Saturn's boxes and the PSX's jewel-sized box are an improvement (Nintendo's boxes...what can I say?).
-Prices: the last tile released for the 3DO in 1996, Interplay's "Casper", was still selling for $65; competition has brought us the best bargains for brand-new titles ever, as I can't recall a time when brand-new console titles had cost anything less than $55-$60. "Porsche Challenge" and "Dynasty Warriors" for $39 (PSX), "Manx TT" and "World Series Baseball 98" for $45 (Saturn). Even the too-expensive-even-for-your-rich-uncle-Earl Nintendo 64 is getting better at pricing titles (the Konami soccer game for $59 will be first). 3Do titles were never competitively priced until it was too late.
-Style: remember the Z-1 model for 3DO? It was heavier than an ACME-endorsed tank and, considering the results, could have been redesigned and look better. This paved the way for the messy Saturn architecture, the simple PSX design and the Nintendo 64's toy-like look.
As you can see, Saturn is the one that has consistently stumbled and repeated 3DO's initial mistakes during the early launch of 1995 (high sticker price, few A caliber titles, pissed-off retailers and third-parties giving you grief instead of promoting your product, etc.). Those are mistakes incurred by the pioneers who enter a new era, and Panasonic/Sega/Atari payed the dear price of being shut out of the hype and profits of this cycle. Sony, Nintendo and Oprah took all the money and ran, but now Sega has learned its lesson and will make sure that Dural/Blackbelt features the lessons of a homework well done. I just hope that Sega follows the one thing 3DO did right and that Sony has already admitted will be incorporated on the next PSX: backward compatibility from the previous machine's generation (3DO assured its owners that when the M2 came out, it would be backward-compatible with older 3DO titles) would be welcomed by Sega supporters.
Anyway, that was 3DO then and this is Saturn today. Unlike Trip's machine, Saturn is going out with a hell of a bang that only A caliber titles can bring: "Duke Nukem"/"Quake", "Enemy Zero", "Rayearth" and "Last Bronx" are just four of the many titles that could sell the system to a hungry crowd. I just hope that Sega learns to treat their third-parties a little better: why isn't there any Working Design title included in the "$10 back if you buy any two of these..." promotion? (or any other third-party title for that matter?). Sega better suck up to the people that will be needed to make Dural/Blackbelt anything but a repeat of 3DO's life lessons. Now where's "BattleSport?".