|
||||||||||||||
The Top Sega Saturn Stories of 2025Last year, we celebrated the Saturn’s 30th anniversary in the West. Even after three decades, Sega’s fifth-generation console and the fan community that loves it continue to make headlines. Here are the biggest Saturn stories of 2025 as decided by members of SHIRO! 10. PandaMonium lands an interview with Takenobu Mitsuyoshi Early in the year, our own PandaMonium interviewed legendary Sega composer and singer Takenobu Mitsuyoshi with translation help from SamIAm. In the half-hour conversation, Mitsuyoshi described how he got his start with Sega, how he created Daytona USA’s soundtrack and more. Relevant story: PandaMonium Interviews Takenobu Mitsuyoshi 9. The West celebrates 30 years of Saturn We celebrated the Saturn’s 30th anniversary since debuting in North America, Europe and everywhere outside Japan, reflecting on not only the fun we had with the games that released but also the fun we’ve had since then making and playing new homebrew games as well as experiencing Japanese games via new fan translations. Relevant stories: The Sega Saturn Celebrates 30 Years of Success in North America The Sega Saturn Celebrates 30 Years in Europe 8. Dragon Ball homebrew beat ‘em up for Saturn in development A new homebrew game excited Saturn fans all year since its first unveiling in May. It’s an original beat ’em up set in the Dragon Ball universe that’s being worked on by Brazilian developer and retro YouTuber NaiSan (aka Nai Adventure), who’s also drummed up excitement by taking it to some gaming conventions in his country. Relevant stories: Saturn Dragon Ball Homebrew Beat ‘Em Up Revealed Dragon Ball Beat ‘Em Up Homebrew Gets Progress Update Sega Pluto, Dragon Ball Homebrew at Retrocon in Brazil Saturn News Roundup: YZB SAROO Firmware, Homemade Mini Saturn, Dragon Ball at Dev Game Show 7. End of “de minimis” impacts U.S. Saturn fans A change in tariff policy in the U.S. had drastic effects on Saturn fans there who imported not only games from overseas but also optical drive emulators like the Fenrir and SAROO. It led to higher prices that, at least in the Fenrir’s case, were so prohibitively higher that the creator stopped shipping them to the U.S. outright. Relevant story: End of “De Minimis” Impacts U.S. Saturn Fans 6. Frogbull releases Shenmue homebrew game for Saturn Homebrew developer Frogbull is well known for creating impressive tech demos of PlayStation games running on the Saturn, but he mostly kept them to himself — until the Shenmue game he entered into the SegaXtreme Game Competition. It impressed fans with its 3D recreation of Shenmue’s arcade, complete with playable emulated Master System games thanks to fellow coder VBT, plus its 3D forklift race. It was wrapped in a 2D isometric “open world” with interactive NPCs, some light puzzle solving and a lot of Sega Easter eggs. Relevant stories: Frogbull Recreates Shenmue’s Forklift Race on Saturn Frogbull’s Shenmue Project Is More Than Just Forklift Racing and You Can Play It Now Motor Mayhem, Gundam, Ring Library Win SegaXtreme Homebrew Contest 5. SAROO has a rocky year It was something of an up-and-down year for the SAROO, a cartridge from which the Saturn can play games that’s quickly become popular thanks to its low price and ease of installation. And while it got some new features via firmware, both from its creator TPUnix and a member of the SAROO scene named YZB, users found problems ranging from audio bugs to game crashes to bricked cartridges. Testing found a possible reason for some of the issues — inconsistent data loading — giving some hope that a solution will be found eventually. Relevant stories: New SAROO Firmware Is Feature-Rich — and Flawed Saturn News Roundup: YZB SAROO Firmware, Homemade Mini Saturn, Dragon Ball at Dev Game Show New Firmware Updates for Fenrir, SAROO New Test Reveals Possible Source of SAROO Problems 4. Saturn Ring Library releases to the public Saturn homebrew developers got a powerful new tool in 2025 in the Saturn Ring Library, a software development kit that promises to make it easier than ever to make a game on Sega’s fifth-generation console. Spearheaded by ReyeMe, it enables coders to use C++ and contains features to make life easier like supporting the TGA image format for textures and sprites, using the custom SaturnMath library to speed up calculations, including a wrapper for setting up VDP2 layers and more. Relevant stories: NEW Powerful Development Tools to Push Sega Saturn’s Limits… Saturn Ring Library Releases to the Public Seniriu: The Saturn Adventure Made Alongside a Homebrew Dev Kit 3. Patch makes huge improvements to Saturn DOOM performance It’s not often that a retail game gets significant improvements decades after its release, but that was the case when Fafling released the latest iteration of his patch for Saturn’s Doom. It drastically improves the game’s notoriously choppy framerate by making assembly-level optimizations, fixes enemy AI that sometimes ran too fast and even makes the title screen’s fire transparent. Fafling took one of the Saturn’s most maligned ports and made it just as playable as its PlayStation counterpart. Relevant stories: Latest Release of the Saturn DOOM Fix Patch Dramatically Improves Gameplay Motor Mayhem, Gundam, Ring Library Win SegaXtreme Homebrew Contest 2. Saturn online gets matchmaking server Playing Saturn games online got even easier — and more secure — in 2025 with the advent of a matchamking server. Joe (SegaRPGFan) set up a system in which dialing players input a three-digit code specific to the game they’re playing instead of an opponent’s IP address, then a server connected the first two users connecting for that game to each other. It’s a huge quality-of-life improvement that means no one has to reveal their IP address ever again or worry that their IP will show up during a recording or livestream. It’s getting its first big tryout now that SHIRO! is running a Worldwide Soccer ’98 tournament. Relevant stories: Saturn Online Gets Matchmaking Server US vs. EU in Upcoming Sega Worldwide Soccer ’98 Online Tournament 1. Biggest year for translation patches ever 2025 was probably the biggest year for fan translation patches of Saturn games ever. There were English patches finished for Mobile Suit Gundam, Arcana Strikes, Princess Crown, Dark Seed, Sakura Wars 2, Dragon Ball Z: The Legend, Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Dungeon, Dungeons & Dragons Tower of Doom, Wizardry VI, Shinrei Jusatsushi Taroumaru, Airs Adventure and Delisoba. The official English translation from the PAL version of Keio Flying Squadron 2 was added to the NTSC version. The PlayStation 1 translation of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night as well as some bug fixes were added to Team Meduza’s patch, which had used the PSP version in addition to making a number of improvements to the game. An in-progress patch for Sword & Sorcery was made public. And a patch that adds additional English to Willy Wombat came out, too. English wasn’t the only language to get new translation patches, either. There were Portuguese patches from Team Sakura Brazil for Sakura Wars 2 and Magic Knight Rayearth and French patches from Kitchen34 for Magic Knight Rayearth, BOOK LuLu, RoX – 6 = Six, Dark Seed and Return to Zork. The number of Saturn fan translations has soared over the last decade, but it was at a fever pitch in the last year. At times it felt like every week there was a new translation patch — and a new game to play for audiences who speak the patch’s language. The console feels alive thanks to all these teams’ efforts, and that makes for the No. 1 story of the year for the Sega Saturn. Relevant stories: English Patch for Mobile Suit Gundam Is Out Now English Patch for Arcana Strikes Is Out Now Eadmaster Declares Princess Crown Translation Release-Worthy Sakura Wars 2 Fan Translation Is OUT NOW! English Patch Released for Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Dungeon English Patch for D&D Tower of Doom Is Out Now Keio Flying Squadron 2’s NTSC Version Now in English An In-Progress English Patch for Sword & Sorcery Is Out Now After 2 Years of Work, Dragon Ball Z: The Legend is Now Playable in English Shinrei Jusatsushi Taroumaru Gets English Translation Patch Fan Patches English into Wizardry VI for Saturn Hacker Adds PS1 Translation, More to Meduza Team’s Symphony of the Night Patch English Improvement Patch Makes Willy Wombat More Accessible Than Ever English Translation Patch for Airs Adventure Is Complete! Saturn Fans Get Christmas Gift in Delisoba Translation Patch Honorable mentionsThere was a lot of Saturn news in 2025. In fact, we here at SHIRO! posted more than once per weekday during the year! So let’s briefly mention some of the other stories that were considered for this list but didn’t quite make the cut:
|
||||||||||||||
