Notes from Sega's Gamer's Day

If you've been waiting for a fresh batch of new and exciting titles for your Sega Saturn, you may have to wait a little longer than you'd prefer, but Sega claims a flood of 21 first-party titles and 80 third-party titles are on the way.

NetLink players will be happy to know that more online games are on the way, such as Bomberman, Sega Rally, Virtual On, and the multiplayer must-have Duke Nukem. One surprise revealed at the show is that all the "juicy" bits of Duke (the infamous strippers and the like) are still included in the game at this point, though there was talk that they might be fully clothed and the language toned down.

The highlight of the conference was clearly Panzer Dragon Saga. In the third part of the series, the game takes on a new dimension by turning its action focus from shooter to that of adventure RPG. The rails that once forced dragon steeds on set courses are gone, exchanged for 12 free roaming RPG areas. And what makes it even better is that Sega reports the game will take an average of 100 hours to complete the entire 4 CD game.

Other big titles on display were Quake, Worldwide Soccer, Sonic R, NBA Action, The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Last Bronx. Disappointments included a lack of official word the once-promised Saturn version of Virtua Fighter 3, the early version of the Lost World having button references to the PlayStation (this is obviously going to be a direct port), and the lack of a football title in the Sega Sports lineup (rumor has it that one was planned, but didn't live up to Sega's standard and was canned).