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Published February 1, 2026 1:00am
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The Saturn hides many hidden gems (Evan-Amos)
A reader explains why he’s so disheartened with the modern video game industry and how retro gaming has reignited his passion for the medium.
We’re at the end of January now and 2026 has already been an avalanche of bad news, from GAME likely going bust to Ubisoft circling the drain and console sales being terrible over Christmas. Everywhere you look it paints a picture of an industry out of control and out of touch with its customers. Most publishers don’t seem to even want to make triple-A games anymore, just one or two live service games a year and everything else is too small to even worry about.
I think it’s obvious where all this is going: less and less single-player games, more and more expensive consoles, and nothing but live service games and endless subscriptions. I guess that’s been the case for a while now but If this is January, I’d hate to think how things are going to be in just six months or so.
So I’ve decided to embrace what has also been a trend for several years now: me playing more and more retro games instead of anything that’s new. Not only has it been a ton of fun, but it’s reminded me of why I love video games and how much we’ve lost over the last few decades.
I started gaming with the SNES. We had what I think was a Commodore 64 when I was really young but I don’t really remember it or its games. I’ve tried to go back to it, out of curiosity, but couldn’t find anything I remembered or liked.
The SNES is pretty well served in terms of retro availability, if you have a Switch 2 (I’m not completely stuck in the past) so if you’re looking to get into the retro scene I would definitely recommend Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, as it has lots of formats (including the Mega Drive) and for the big ones includes all the classics and a lot of obscure stuff and things that were only ever released in Japan.
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I have a US and Japanese SNES (European consoles, back then, were very badly made, so they all ran slower than they’re supposed to with big black borders) and some rarities, like Wild Guns, Castlevania: Dracula X, and Hagane: The Final Conflict. But most of my interest at the moment is the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast.
The Saturn is fascinating as a retro collector because it was very successful in Japan but a complete flop everywhere else. That meant it had lots of Japanese only games that were very good and which were never released in the West or which most people have never heard of.
I’ll be honest, I’ve had as much fun researching the Saturn and learning about its games as I have playing them. I guess that means I’m a collector, because I actually find myself wishing I’d got into it at the time, as it’s almost too easy to find out about it nowadays, with all the help on the internet.
No too easy, thankfully, because less people care about the Saturn, because it’s so hard to emulate and most people don’t know about its many hidden gems. Some of my favourites include fab ninja game Shinrei Jusatsushi Tarōmaru, mech game Bulk Slash, the actually quite famous nowadays Radiant Silvergun, fellow shooter Sōkyūgurentai, and the Sonic style platformer Tryrush Deppy.
Buying games like these in good condition is quite expensive but if you bide your time and know where to look it doesn’t have to cost the earth. It’s certainly a lot more satisfying to me to actually own games, and have them sitting proudly on my shelf, than having to pay £70 just for a digital licence. Or, just as bad, be constantly nagged to buy £20+ cosmetics in a ‘free’ game.
I don’t like modern gaming but I’m loving retro the more I get into it. There’s a whole world out there that most people don’t know about, and I feel it’ll last me longer than the triple-A games business will, before it implodes.
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Nintendo Switch Online is a good starting point for the retro curious (Nintendo)
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