When I left my last job my coworkers gave me a Sega Saturn as a goodbye present. It came with Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 which I played a couple of times. I always wanted to buy something else but every time I find an interesting game I realize that there a superior version of it on a different console.

So what are some good Sega Saturn games worth buying and playing?

I’ve played pretty much every US released title, as well as all of the Euro exclusives and a lot of the Japanese exclusives, and I can say some of the BEST games are very expensive, namely Shinrei Jusatsushi Taromaru and Panzer Dragoon Saga.
Keeping that in mind, though, there are some great titles that can be purchased for fair prices:
Two that spring to mind as titles that I think SS owners should play are NiGHTS Into Dreams (and it’s Christmas demo counterpart), Guardian Heroes, as well as the strategy RPG Dragon Force.

It should be noted that NiGHTS into Dreams has been ported to the PS2 in Japan and it is hitting Xbox Live as well, but I find myself pulling out the old saturn to play it. Guardian Heroes is another game that got ported to Xbox Live.

And of course, there also exists the only home console release of the original House of the Dead, which was what inspired me to purchase a saturn in the first place. (Graphically, it is sub par to the Arcade release, but still enjoyable).

I would also recommend Astal, Panzer Dragoon II, Daytona USA CCE and Saturn Bomberman.
Saturn Bomberman, it should be noted, is one of the greatest releases in the series.

And if you are a fan of vertical and horizontal side scrolling shoot em ups, the saturn is a haven for them.
Radiant Silvergun is the most widely known, but my favorite by far is Soukyugurentai.

I also liked virtual fighter 2 and the 2 virtual cops.

-Eric

It looks like 9 out of the top 10 Sega Saturn games according to http://www.ign.com/articles/2008/07/29/top-10-sega-saturn-games have been mentioned so far. The only one on this top 10 list that hasn’t been mentioned yet is SEGA Rally Championship.