Sega’s ill-fated Saturn console may have lagged behind its competition in North America, but that wouldn’t stop popular PlayStation games from being ported to the Saturn. Capcom treated the system especially well, but recently it was revealed that one major port never saw release on the Saturn.
A user on the Internet Archive uploaded a scan of Saturn Fan No. 20, a Japanese magazine dedicated to the Sega Saturn and its then-upcoming releases. This 1997 issue is somewhat special, as it lists a number of Saturn games that never saw a release on the system, including an entry in theResident Evilseries.
RELATED:Resident Evil Fan Patch Restores Missing Content
The Saturn isinfamous for its canceledSonicgameSonic X-Treme, but a significant amount of third-party support is seen in this list, including Capcom’sResident Evilseries, known asBiohazardin Japan. The firstResident Evilgame was released on Sega Saturn in 1997, one year after its initial 1996 Sony PlayStation release. Saturn Fan magazine revealed thatBiohazard 2would be coming to the Saturn, but the final product never materialized.
At the moment, it is unclear whether the games' cancellations were due to declining support for the system, given that it would be discontinued the next year in 1998, or theSaturn’s complex hardware designwhich is often cited as the reason it did not receive as much third-party support as the PlayStation. Still, the possibility ofBiohazard 2on the system may have helped it maintain its second-place status in Japan for longer. However, by this time, the fifth generation systems were aging rapidly and sixth-generation systems were on the horizon.
Horror games are a popular genre, and theResident Evilseries is incredibly effectivein how it handles the scares. However, in addition toBiohazard 2, the Saturn would have also seen releases of other heavy-hitting franchises such asVirtua Fighter 3, a port of SEGA AM2’s Model 3 arcade fighting game. The first twoVirtua Fightergames were popular titles at release time, withVirtua Fighter 2showcasing surprisingly impressive use of the system’s limited 3D graphics capabilities.
With the fifth-generation dying down, Capcom likely decided it would not be worth it to complete and releaseBiohazard 2on the Saturn, but in the end, it isn’t a huge loss. The game is perfectly playable in its original PlayStation form or itscritically acclaimed modern remake, and like the Saturn version ofResident Evilprobably would not have added any significant changes in content.
