The Best Fighting Games on Sega Saturn and Dreamcast
If you love 2D and 3D fighting games, Sega's Saturn and Dreamcast are two of the best places to play the classics of the 1990s and early 2000s. The Saturn's six-button controller suits Capcom's fighters perfectly, and the Dreamcast brought arcade-quality versions of games that other consoles struggled with.
Both consoles are region-locked, and a few famous Saturn fighters were only released in Japan, so check that a game is the North American release before buying it for a US console. Saturn games save to the console's internal memory; Dreamcast games save to a VMU memory card in the controller.
Dreamcast
- Soul Calibur: A launch game that looked better than the arcade original. Weapons-based 3D fighting with a deep single-player mode.
- Marvel Vs. Capcom 2: Three-on-three tag fighting with a huge roster of Marvel and Capcom characters. Loud, fast and endlessly replayable.
- Marvel vs Capcom: The first Marvel vs. Capcom, with tag-team pairs and assist characters.
- Street Fighter Alpha 3: The biggest Street Fighter Alpha, with three fighting styles ("isms") to choose from.
- Capcom vs SNK: Capcom and SNK characters meet in one game, with a ratio system for building teams.
- Power Stone: Arena brawling where you can grab anything in the room. Power Stone 2 takes it to four players.
- Mortal Kombat Gold: 3D Mortal Kombat with weapons and a large roster.
- King of Fighters Dream Match '99: SNK's team-based King of Fighters, rebuilt for the Dreamcast.
Sega Saturn
- Street Fighter Alpha 2: Often called the best home version of Street Fighter Alpha 2, helped by the Saturn controller.
- Street Fighter Alpha Warriors' Dreams: The first Street Fighter Alpha, with its mix of Street Fighter II and Final Fight characters.
- X-Men Children of the Atom: Capcom's first Marvel fighter, with huge, beautifully animated characters.
- Marvel Super Heroes: Capcom's follow-up, adding Spider-Man, Captain America and the Infinity Gems.
- Night Warriors Darkstalkers' Revenge: Capcom's monster fighters: vampires, werewolves and mummies with wild animation.
- Fighters MegaMix: Sega's own crossover, mixing the Virtua Fighter and Fighting Vipers casts with bonus characters.
- Virtua Fighter 2: The 3D fighter that made the Saturn worth owning for many players.
- Fighting Vipers: Armoured 3D fighting in walled arenas you can smash through.
Playing them well
A Saturn or Dreamcast pad works, but a six-button layout matters for Capcom games: the Saturn's standard controller is one of the best fighting-game pads ever made. Both consoles also had arcade sticks if you want the full experience.
If you are connecting either console to a modern TV, input lag matters more in fighting games than anything else. Our TV connection guide explains the options, and setting your TV to Game Mode helps a lot.
See every game in the Dreamcast and Saturn collections. Discs last a long time if you look after them: storage and care.
Every game is cleaned and tested and backed by our 1-year warranty, and orders of $50 or more ship free in the US. Prices follow the market, so the listing always shows today's price.
