What it Lacks in Quantity, it Sometimes Makes Up for in Quality
When I was a kid, my parents would take my sister and I to Babbage's to purchase all of the hot new releases for the Super Nintendo. Proudly displayed in the center of the store, was the new, ultra-powerful, super-neat controlled, mega expensive power house the Atari Jaguar. It looked cool and ever so tempting, but I knew even at that young age that the machine was too expensive. Fast forward twenty years, and now, the Atari Jaguar has collapsed in price, and it is certainly feasible for collectors to add this to their shrines.
It does seem that only collectors would appreciate this machine for what it is: a lot of untapped potential. The graphics are stunning for its time and the controller with its telephone keypad, is completely unique and potentially offers limitless game play experience.
The reality of the machine, however, is that game developers found it difficult to work with, thus we see that the vast majority of games for the console don't show the system in all of its true glory. The controller, which is essentially a Sega Genesis controller on the top and a touch-tone phone on the bottom, had infinite opportunities for unique game play, but ultimately, the keypad was often considered to be an after thought. The simple reality is that there a few games for this platform, and the ones that we see woefully under-represent the Atari Jaguar.
That is not to say that there are not exquisite titles for the Jaguar. The platform thrived on horrifyingly gruesome fighting games- products that critics (rightfully so) declare are Mortal Kombat rip offs. Ultra Vortek (one of the Jaguar's few exclusives) is a specific game of this genre, and it is the reason why I purchased the Jaguar. Ultra Vortek does not disappoint- it delivers a great deal of nauseating violence in a soul-crashing cyberpunk nightmare.
Overall, the Atari Jaguar really is a solid machine, but it really only has appeal to somewhat hard-core collectors. If your goal is simply to have machines that have a wide variety of high quality games, then the Jaguar is probably not for you (hmm... with that last sentence, I think I just explained why the machine failed so abysmally). Many of the Jaguar games are available on the 3DO, Sega Saturn, Playstation, and even the Super Nintendo, and the Jaguar versions of those titles do little to show off its capabilities. However, there are treasures that can only be experienced the Jaguar, and if you want to expand your collection to a new and largely overlooked frontier, then I certainly recommend the Atari Jaguar.Read full review
