Sonic R - Sega Saturn Review
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- Опубликовано: 26 сен 2024
- At a time when Sega fans were clamoring for a Sonic game on the Saturn, this is what we got. Here are my thoughts on Sonic R.
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Opening "Sega" jingle is from Astal for the Sega Saturn.
Ending Music during the credits is from Batman for the Sega Genesis.
SLX Logo
By: Jan Neves
RUclips Page - / jan3d
Intro by Evan S.
portfolio.tses...
Episode Notes:
1. Captured on real hardware.
2. This was also available on PC, where one of the versions had hardware accelerated graphics options for vastly improved visuals.
3. This was also part of the Sonic Gems Collection for the PS2 and Gamecube.
4. The lead programmer for this was Jon Burton. He has a RUclips channel that talks about his time as a developer back then.
/ gamehut
5. Though Traveller's Tales did much of the heavy lifting here, Sonic Team was still directly involved with the overall direction, art, assets and stage designs.
6. I tried to not spoil too many of the unlockables. There isn't much additional content in this one, so I focused on the base stuff available from the beginning. I showed the 5th stage because it's such a big part of the appeal of the visuals.
7. I also tried to show a progression of gameplay that was in line with learning to play this. At the beginning you will have a tendency to be all over the place, but with some experience, you can do much better.
The Sonic R soundtrack is still on my running playlist!
Nice, I have a running test soon haha, I should load a few of the songs up.
The soundtrack is a banger, totally got obsessed with the saturn thanks to this game and you, mr. sega lord!
Sonic R is one of my guilty pleasures, I love this game and can play solo time trial just running and listening to the music, and me and my cousin when this came out spent many hours drinking and racing, as I was a Saturn owner back then, say what you will, I think the game is awesome
It's a great game. Folks just try to play it like a platformer instead of a drift racer, which it is. Graphics are impressive and music is classic.
Always loved this soundtrack. It maybe full of cheese but it's so nostalgic and wholesome I just can't hate it.
I second that! 🙌
This. Richard Jacques IS the occidental Yuzo Koshiro ❤️
@@samokuma9596 Yessss...... Check ANY music he made for Wangang Midnight maximum tune arcade games. (Especially WMMT5 times are good)
Where every thing is free a fantasy!
Fun fact: Ost is swedish and means cheese
He finally did it
It's been a long time coming.
@@classicsonicbored8163 yes sir
So much memories with this game since it was the only true 3D sonic game at the time.
my question is....
can you feel the sunshine?
It brightens up my day.
This game looks amazing on a CRT, it’s weirdly dreamlike.
One of the most amazing things about your content is the unique ability to transport us back to over 20 years ago, and the beauty of seeing the Saturn when it was alive. There was a joy about looking forward to what was coming, regardless of how it fared against the competition. They were not many Saturn owners in the US compared to Nintendo and Sony, but we were proud of it!
Beautiful words! In Poland we had similiar situation. Greetings 😀
Had this game had been released 2 years earlier and was a little easier to get into and control, it would have been a system seller. Especially had they gotten 4 player on it. Between Sonic R and Sonic Jam, the Saturn was capable of making a real Sonic game. I am still dumbfounded that they launched with VF here in the US. Had they been able to launch with a real Sonic game based off of either engine I think they would have been able to hold of Sony in North America, which could have really turned things around considering Japan was already doing well.
Sega fucked up alot in the run up to the launch of the Saturn, a Sonic game at launch wouldn't have saved them only a freak pure miracle could have reversed their fortunes
I've enjoyed Sonic R very much as a kid, admittedly the controls took awhile to get used to. overall I enjoyed the race courses, unlockable characters and even the europop soundtrack. I had the 98 PC port, even though I owned a Sega Saturn back in 96.
The PC/GameCube version are probably really the best way to play the game, surprisingly. The way higher draw distance and virtually zero slowdown makes it ideal as a fun party racer.
I also had the PC port as a kid and I enjoyed it.
I've enjoyed Sonic R very much as an adult, LOL
I first played Sonic R vis Sonic Gems Collection, and when I found out that there is a Snowy weather option, I was able to watch a Tool Assisted Speedrun video and 100% the game mimicking what the TAS video did.
I picked this up for $10 at Big Lots on PC in late 2000’s. The soundtrack is pure 90’s Japanese cheese and reminds me of an era long gone. It was a fun game for $10.
Despite this game's issues I still enjoy it because
1. That soundtrack is the GOAT.
2. I really love how open the courses are, there are so many different shortcuts to take it's insane.
3. The collectables were a neat idea and I like that you really have to put in the work for those unlockable characters, which were worth it because they're so crazy overpowered.
4. The random weather was a really cool feature, and cold weather freezing the water so you can run on it? That was awesome.
5. I'm a sucker for those blocky early 3D polygons. This game is very "vaporwave" if you know what I mean.
This game is like the definition of vaporwave.
One of the best OSTs of all time
There must be something in the air...I was just listening to this soundtrack while I was washing dishes earlier today. Then, to my surprise, Sega Lord X releases a Sonic R review!
A glimpse at what the Saturn was capable of graphically. The engine would of made for a great proper sonic game
It's really how most Saturn 3D games should have been made, and the best performing ones were. VDP2 creating beautiful 3D planes, skies, water, clouds, with VDP1 chucking polygons around over the top. Panzer Dragoon, Virtua Cop, Decathlete, Virtua Fighter 2, were all made this way.
@@simonrobinson1566 The DSP was also an important part of the Saturn's 3D capabilities but most developers stayed away from it because of its complex programming.
@@simonrobinson1566 Actually Sega did at last a "proper" Sonic game engine (Sonic Wold, just a sort of demo in fact), it was a demostration that a great 3D Sonic game would have been surely possible on the beloved SS (stupid Sega management..)..
Have. Would have. Please. Please stop typing would of. At the very least type would've. Please. I see this shit so much and it makes me cringe so hard.
@@cuylshepherdton7437 why do you care?
I love Sonic R. I beat it so many times back then that I still remember the location of every single coin and emerald. I bought the PC version earlier this year and managed to beat 100% it in less than 30 minutes, but it was a very pleasant experience as always.
This game has always been a guilty pleasure of mine, its the kind of game I play through on a lazy Sunday after a long week at work and just have a stress free good time with, even if its not the best game I could be playing on the Saturn.
Whilst the content was limited, I still had a blast with this game when I bought it back in the 90s and still enjoy sticking it on every now and then, plus playing it with different controllers that most wouldn't think to plug in, you get a different experience with each one you try!
Nostalgic! I remember having to finish 100% of the game in one day, cause the lithium battery was gone. A good memory from childhood.
I love this game! With the 3D controller and Knuckles this game's great fun. And the music... with or without vocals the music tracks have been in my rotation for at least 20 years. C'mon now race!
What I really appreciate about Sonic R is that its map design was done by Hirokazu Yasuhara, the same man who had directed and done level design for all of the Genesis Sonic games. He left Sonic Team afterwards, so this is our one and only window into what a 3D Sonic might have looked like under his eye. Of course, it's also very special to me, as this and Jam were what finally sold me on a Saturn. I was one of those Sonic kids, so I held out until there was an original Sonic game on Saturn. Christmas '97 is one of my favorite childhood memories. Unfortunately, I never really got to experience *much* of the Saturn's library, because as I'm sure you know, stores pretty well stopped stocking it as soon as I got it.
That's why I'm really thankful for your channel, man. I've spent all of *this* Christmas break digging deep into what I missed in the Saturn's library, and your insight has helped give me the context for these releases I was mostly missing before. Thank you!
Could you imagine this remade but with levels based off the entire 3D Sonic series? I think it's be pretty sweet.
I love these individual reviews for games. You convinced me to get Sega Rally 2 for the Dreamcast! I hope you will review Virtua Fighter 3tb since there's barely any reviews out there for it.
Still impressive today. I remember playing this game over and over again and feeling it was N64 game. Great controls too!
I first saw this game on PC at my friends house, and felt the same way Malcom in the Middle felt. I didn’t think of this as a Sonic game, that’s for sure. I have it now on my Saturn and it really shows off what an RGB Scart cable can do on a 3D game, without the nasty mesh transparencies.
This game gets so much undeserved hate. I think it is a pretty fun game and the controls are fine once you get used to them. I remember being blown away by the transparency in the bonus track. Have good memories of this game. Way too short though.
This is a great game, and, for some reason, is completely underrated.
I always loved the soundtrack to this game, because I’m an avid house music consumer.
Me and my lil sister still sing the music from this game when we talk on the phone. We also got huge laughs from Amy if she won 1st place race it looked like she was hitting her head on dash board. I was always a hardcore SEGA fan & Sonic fan. All in all this game wasn't terrible but like he review says its not a deep game.
Traveller’s Tales was actually given only about 5 months to develop this game by Sega and were given limited resources because of the Saturn starting to die at the time, so they had no chance to add in a ton of content to match mario kart 64 or other racing games. Sega pretty much screwed over the development of this game and TT had to take on this heavy burden and weight. It also means they reused their F1 engine to save time and is why the characters control the way they do.
FeelsBadMan
Makes sense, this game was rough. Kudos to the devs for pulling it off. I was just happy to get a 3D Sonic that had any sense of speed.
Holy fucking shit, this was done in 5 MONTHS? That's insane, something this complex and detailed on Saturn in that short a time. I had always wondered why there were so few courses compared to Mario Kart 64 despite CDs being able to hold WAY more than an N64 cart, I never imagined it would be nightmarish time constraints like that. Makes the game even more impressive.
Travelers Tales sadly doesn't really have a good track record when it comes to gameplay. Most of their games are technically impressive but are mediocre in almost every other respect.
Even if they were given the time, I think the game would have still been decent at best, but nothing special.
@@RetrOrigin I think the exploration aspect of sonic r was executed pretty well, since it makes the game go beyond just being a racing game. The depth can't go much beyond that, even if you add in a lot more tracks. If it were to go beyond that, it would become a platformer rather than a racer, which at this point would be too late to do for the Saturn.
I remember playing this once for a couple of minutes when I was a kid and I had absolutely no idea how to control it
Coding Secrets did an amazing video about how he built this game. It’s actually an incredibly advanced 3D engine.
This!
Does he talk about how many advances the game made in suck?
I don’t know guys, hard to judge these days I guess but I played this on the Saturn for the first time in 2021 and the engine looked just terrible, mostly due to the draw distance and constant pop ins.
@@aprichman For Saturn it was kinda good.
Unfortunately an advanced engine doesn’t equate to good gameplay. As much as I love CS (and I’m a sub), not every game he worked on was gold.
The key to enjoying this game is learning to use the shoulder buttons. It's a fun game to try to master best times on each track. It's not easy, so you have to enjoy a challenge.
A second generation of this engine would be great on the saturn
I think Burning Rangers is probably the closest thing to a second generation graphics engine. Even though it wasn’t made by TT, Sonic Team definitely learned some things from TT, and it shows.
Played this on PC when I was kid and Sonic CD. These two were my first two Sonic games. Still love these two to this day.
I have fond memories playing Sonic R on the Sonic Gems Collection on Gamecube! It’s not a great game, but I enjoy it for what it is.
Rarely this early to an SLX video - props to the big man!
Astonishing graphics for the platform. On a strictly superficial level, this engine outshines Super Mario 64 and compares favorably with the Crash bandicoot games thanks to the transparency and colored lighting.
Kinda gotta disagree about this game looking better than Mario 64. It definitely does not.
@@cuylshepherdton7437
Mario's backgrounds are basically simple cheese wedges with lots of sprites to hide the polygon limits.
And this much texture detail would have caused Mario 64 to have CD quality loading times between individual frames of animation.
A polished turd is still a turd.
...yeh...not sure about that one mate 😂😂
This game IS an Amazing example how a soundtrack Can save a game. Loved play it again and again.
Most people hate this game but if it weren't for this game I never would of gotten a saturn or got into sega. I spent many of hours with the PC release with no internet access at my fathers. Being young me and my brother would make power point movies with the assets and make up extra scenarios in the multiplayer.
As I got older and got internet at my moms I would look up the game and see something called a Sega Saturn. I was blown away that there were other ways to experience this game and even other sonic games. Good times!
I just bought this game last month. My friend had this back around 2000 for the PC. He showed this to me and told me how good the music is. It didn't play well being on the PC, very low frame-rate; no one ever spent money to upgrade a computer solely for a game. I like this one.
You probably expressed the feelings of every child on the planet. I was living in Poland when Sonic R came out and I felt exactly the same. Such great graphics! If it was possible, why didn't they make a platformer? Instead, we got racing game so unintuitive and short that if I had spent money on it as a child, I would have cried for a week (luckily, I borrowed the game from a rental store, and that was perfect for two days of fun). I also treated music as a slap in the face. After edgy Flying Battery Zone theme, all rad teenagers that Sega carefully seduced in the Megadrive/ Genesis era were treated to a family-friendly Rave with vocals sung by a kindergarten teacher. But now I love how recklessly and cheesy it sounds. :D Thank you for the great review!
we need sega now more than ever. fb outage was massive
I remember the urban legend about the Tails Doll that's in this game.
Sonic R entire soundtrack is still in my playlist and i listen to it regularly
Sonic R was the first time me and my family saw Dreamcast like graphics! In 1997 Sega was really getting the hang of taking the Saturn to higher levels. All that early Dreamcast stuff was pretty much late Sega Saturn stuff to put it simply. There is no game in my opinion for the Playstation or Nintendo 64 that can compare to these graphics on Sonic R. The Sonic R soundtrack was and is awesome.
💯
Totally
The soundtrack is legendary I listen to that on its own
Remember seeing this game playing in Toys R Us back in the day
I thought it looked incredible at the time.
The game was ok, honestly there's a lot it could have been improved on, but the Soundtrack itself is entirely Astounding.
Finally, a review talking about what this game really is, and not haying it blindly after playing it for 30 seconds. I have really fond memories of playing this game as a child on my Saturn. Thankyou.
I love your content, keep it up!
Hands down, this soundtrack STILL slaps!
Congrats on your 100k subs. I been here since 10k. Luv your content. I was also a Sega Saturn owner & loyalist during those times. SONIC R in 1997 was a hard slap in the face.
I mostly liked the music over other things in this game, can't wait to see what you'll do for "Sonic Adventure" on the dreamcast!
Is an amazing game, i played in the sonic collection 2 in Gamecube 👍
I really enjoyed this game back then and still do today, it's something of a hybrid racer and 3d platformer and is proof of concept that the Saturn could easily have handled a good 3d Sonic game. It's a shame there aren't more courses but what is here is very good and often visually head and shoulders above most other Saturn games. I only recently played the PC port which seems to have a reasonable modding community and I really enjoyed the version on Sonic Gems on the Gamecube with it's improved performance and selectable weather options. Finally I am a huge fan of it's soundtrack
This game is how I found out the Saturn existed. I got Sonic Gems Collection as a kid and when I looked up how to unlock the characters online I found out the console even came out. I always figured up to that point it went from Genesis to DreamCast.
I finally bought a saturn recently,but if it had a real sonic game close to launch I would of bought one 25 yrs ago. Great review sega lord x!
Thank you! I Knew my man Sega Lord x would agree with me, I'm honestly sick of watching reviews of people dumping on this game without even knowing how to use the shoulder buttons.
I have yet to disagree with you, not sure I ever will now xD
If the devs were given at least a year to work on this game then I’m sure it would have turned out a lot better.
yet ANOTHER magical Sonic soundtrack.
Had this game back in the day loved it. Still a unique title to this day. My advice to new players, approach it with an open mind forget the negative reviews and you might actually enjoy it
Two words that will give some people nightmares... Tails. Doll.
Yep, the legendary nightmare fuel itself.
Love this game, it's still one of my favourite Saturn games I own.
I recall speed running it as a kid too. I had it down to at least 22 minutes for all coins and emeralds. I found this out as we once went to an electronics store and they had a Saturn kiosk with Sonic R playing and I beat the game while waiting for my parents to buy a new cooker.
Very good and fair review. I love this game. Very fond memories of playing GP mode with friends to try and top each other's best times (not the two player mode much, as the draw in was too near the screen to make it very playable. The graphics were astonishing for the Saturn at that time. It is a great pity there weren't more tracks, but I blame Sonic Team for that, as they designed the labyrinth, platform game style tracks and made TT develop them. Had the tracks been simpler, I am pretty sure the same work could have produced 10 tracks. There is a lot of fun to be had trying to break records with a slow character like Amy, trying to deploy her turbo at the right times, and find the right shortcuts to get ahead. I love the soundtrack to bits of course.
Yeah, to me this is a techniques game so it doesn't even really matter how many tracks there are. It's not just about getting to the end, it's about playing the same track over and over again to do better. It's never even ocurred to me to think that there was a "lack of content" in the game.
I loved Sonic R when it came out. I played it for hours on end. I wasn't disappointed at all. I didn't miss a mainline Sonic game at the time. Sonic Adventure was right on time with the release of the Sega Dreamcast.
Great video man!
I was only a kid when Sonic R came out, and I didn't like it either, basically because I wasn't very good at it. Playing it as an adult though, it's not so bad, but you're right it definitely needed more content.
Best original soundtrack ever. That alone makes Sonic R worth owning
Sega touring car tops it imo
Yeah, I'm still upset a true Sonic game was never released on the Saturn. Sonic R is definitely a technical achievement.
I was 16 when this came out. I played it religiously for about a year... I loved it.
I don't care how cheesy the soundtrack is supposed be, I absolutely love it! Just like the Saturn soundtrack of 3D Blast.
It pay to have love for saturn even though people are not able to see it back then. Anyone who have bought a saturn back in the 90s and have collected games for it are now sitting on a handsome fortune in their life right now. Who could have thought things will turn out like this? 🙂
True
Great review! Loved Sonic R BITD, but I was confused too (by both it and S3DB). At the time, I thought I just didn't know about the main line titles. I also didn't even have a Saturn at the time, I had the PC version.
As a kid, no story created some interesting gaps to fill in with your own story. Sonic 3D Blast also told you nothing before throwing you into gameplay. Strange times for Sega indeed!
That farting car sound and sonic steps are hillarious
I have something I would like to share with you that I think you will definitely appreciate. I have just witnessed a Sega Saturn model that I have never seen before in my life (I thought I have played and seen them all). It is called the Sega Saturn Super 21 (I think). The front of the machine has Super 21 across the front of it. It had an official release in Japan and is absolutely massive in size. It makes the PS5 look like a mini console...
What makes this thing crazy is that it's a karaoke/Saturn console all rolled into one. It came with a hard drive (for songs), connected to the internet, crazy amount of optical ports on the back, and has both its controller ports/CD tray blocked by screws. Meaning, if you want to play a game you have to unscrew these plastic panels. The CD ROM tray is also massive. When I first saw it I was sure it was a multidisc tray...like a CD changer but it only holds one disc at a time. Seriously, I'm not doing this thing justice here but I have a link of a RUclips video from Retro Core about this Saturn oddity that you should really see.
Here is a link for you to enjoy.
ruclips.net/video/jnbIU1gvw-I/видео.html
press play, thumbs up, and enjoy!!!
keep it up, SegaLordX ^_^
even with the increased output,
we never fail to be pleasantly surprised
by the quality & quantity of your videos!
It's like a Rollercoaster
Sonic R is fucking awesome once you nail the controls. Full 3D movement instead of strange semi-tank controls, and a couple more courses could have made it legendary. Definitely a marvel of Saturn hardware tricks going on with the game, the fade-in looks so much nicer than the pop-in in other 3D games, I'd argue Traveller's Tales were almost as skilled and competent with the hardware as AM2 or SonicTeam. I'm sure I would have a way different opinion if I had paid $50 for it in 1997, instead of getting it for $15 in Sonic Gems collection in like 2016.
It's so much damn fun man, I'd LOVE to see a modern take on a Sonic footracing game, or even just a multiplayer racing mode in the next main line 3D Sonic game, like the awesome multiplayer in Sonic Adventure 2.
I understand your feeling at the time. All consoles already had their mascots in great 3D games, except Sonic. We lost Sonic Xtreme, and were left waiting for a replacement. Today there are already some good 3D games with Sonic, so it is possible to analyze this game without so much expectation.
Music sounds like its from Metropolis Street Racer.
But its not a surprise. Same guy produced it, and I think some of the same singers too.
If it wasn't for Sonic R, Sonic adventure probably wouldn't have been a thing
I kinda like Sonic R. Sega should totally try to make another full on-foot racing game.
the graphics were awesome for the saturn. i just wish instead of Sonic R, they made a Sonic Drift game.
Amazing saturn 3d graphics! Epic sega music ever made!!
I love this game. Most people that complain about the controls don't realise there's 2 shoulder buttons for drifting. Fun fact though, the singer on the vocal tracks was a backing singer for the Brit-pop band Blur
I was clamouring for a game that could do transparency effects at the time. All my friends owned PSX or N64 and I was sick of mesh effects. Sonic R showed me what the Saturn could and should be capable of at the time. I got it for xmas at the same time as Duke Nukem 3D and Nights (with the 3D controller), the transparencies in Nights were all mesh and looked so ugly compared to what I saw in Sonic R. Plus that soundtrack, cheesy as it is, is so much fun.
I still remember the soundtrack to this day!!! I miss the days when sega made consoles...😞
I actually love the pc version, and never played the Saturn version. Apparently on pc it controls better. Also the weather effects are sweet imo. I turn off music and turn on thunderstorms, and fly around with knuckles, it’s awesome imo. Not for everyone though lol.
This soundtrack goes hard. I used to play this with m+k on my dad's Win 95 PC when I was 10 at around 15fps and I loved every janky minute. I will love this soundtrack and game until the day I die. EVERYBODY SUPER SONIC RACING 🔵
I had the PC port of this game and I loved it, I still play the gamecube version sometimes
That damn tails doll haunted me for years🤣
It still does...
I actually enjoyed this game and thought the graphics looked really cool and interesting.
The music still holds up well today.
Sega should have just bought Traveller's Tales and had them write tools for Saturn dev since everyone's main gripe with the hardware was "programming difficulty." Looks like TT knew something no one else cared to find out; seeing transparent polygons on the Saturn is quite a sight.
The most frustrating thing was that Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 had racing modes to compete with other players (the later one with dedicated stages)
This game gave me the feeling that it was the racing mode for the Sonic 3D plaformer that we never had.
I used to have the PC port by Expert software. I was about 7, and while it may not have been my favorite, my sister and I still enjoyed and sunk a lot of time into it, I was a sucker for Sonic, and was excited to play Saturn games on the PC. I used to have most of the Expert ports, salty they're not with my family anymore
Kids today will never first hand experience this era where 90s music was at its peak and games like these gems were made for fun and not for profit.
Coding secrets is a channel where the main programmer goes into a lot of detail in both this game and Sonic 3D. Really interesting!
This could very well be the most technically impressive Saturn title.
Radiant Emerald displays the best transparency effects on the Saturn
I remember buying this game for £30, brand new. I still have it in storage, at the moment. I did find it frustrating at first, but when I finally got the hang of it, I really did start to enjoy it. It definitely is one of those marmite moments, where you love it or you hate it. This game probably would have been so much better if it had more time for development and was made for the Dreamcast, instead. When this game was released in the UK, the Saturn was pretty much dead already, so it wasn't easy to find anyone who was selling the games any more.
I love Sonic R. I think most people simply don't understand that it plays like a kart racer, not a platformer. Most people I have watched that say "it sucks" literally never drift. Imagine playing Mario Kart without drifting; it wouldn't be very fun either. That said, Sonic R does have a major MAJOR failing, and that's the lack of courses. The existing tracks should have just been a single Mario Kart style "cup," with at least another 10 tracks. That still wouldn't be as much as Mario Kart, but it would have been enough to forgive. 5 tracks is just too few.
The biggest reasons Sega didn't give us a real Sonic game for the Saturn was the fact that compared to the western market the Genesis had failed miserably in Japan and Sonic wasn't a big franchise over there. Heck, even Sonic Team were probably tired of their mascot in 1995-96, having developed 4 Sonic titles in just 4 years. Also, arcades were the biggest market for Sega of Japan and the main system seller was Virtua Fighter, Saturn did great in Japan because of it, the success of the Saturn in Japan is also the reason they decided to develop Sonic Jam for the console, to introduce the character to a wider Japanese audience who was wondering who this "Sonic" in Sonic Team was when they saw the logo upon playing Nights into Dreams. Had Sega listened more to fans around the globe I guess the situation had been much different.