Customer Reviews

Kasumi Ninja

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

With the possibility that the Nintendo Revolution may be Nintendo's Last Stand as a home console manufacturer, it is time to look at a home console that brought its parent company to its knees. But first, a little background.

1981/1982 - Atari was reigning supreme as the dominant video game company in the west. However, some boneheaded decisions slowly brought down the company and the rest of the video game market. In 1984, Warner Communications announced it wants to sell Atari. Several companies made offers, but in July 1984, Jack Tramiel, who just six months earlier had been ousted from Commodore, bought Atari's home consumer division and shelved all video game projects and concentrated solely on the home computer side with the development and eventual release of the Atari ST 16-bit computer system. Well, in 1985, Nintendo revitalized the American game market with the release of the NES. Tramiel saw the success of the NES and decided to take the shelved Atari 2600 Jr. and Atari 7800 out of the mothballs and into the stores, but Nintendo had already wrapped up the market lock, stock, and fifteen smoking barrels. By 1990 Atari finally gave up on the 2600 and 7800 and started working on a new 32-bit console called the Panther. However, during the Panther's development, work was also started on a 64-bit system codenamed Jaguar. Jaguar development eventually surpassed Panther development, so Atari canned the Panther and concentrated on the Jaguar. Even the Atari home computer division was shut down so Atari could concentrate on the Jaguar. By the time the Jaguar was ready for release, Tramiel knew that if the Jaguar failed, it would take Atari itself down as well. Atari was determined to do everything right. They courted software developers, adopted a "cooler" media presence (including "meet & greets" with Atari executives such as Sam Tramiel, Garry Tramiel, and Jeff "Yak" Minter), and tried to increase its marketing presence. The Jaguar was released in limited markets in New York City and San Francisco in late 1993. It sold out! It seemed Atari finally had the hit everybody hoped Atari would have. The Jaguar was released to the rest of America in mid 1994. Sales were initially strong thanks to cool games like Alien Vs Predator and Tempest 2000. However, Atari once again got lazy with quality control, and by the end of 1995, the Jaguar was virtually dead. Then in 1996, the shot around the world was heard : Atari was exiting the video game business by entering into a reverse-merger with floppy drive manufacturer Jugi Tandon Storage (aka JTS) and became simply a division under JTS. That was the end of the REAL Atari.

Jaguar graphics : Graphics for the Jaguar, as with any other game console, range from "cool" to "meh" to "blech". Games with "cool" graphics include Alien Vs Predator, Tempest 2000, Super Burnout, Ultra Vortek, Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, Val d'Isere Skiing & Snowboarding, and FlipOut. At the opposite end of the graphics spectrum are games such as Club Drive.

Jaguar audio : As with other consoles, it depends on the programmer. Tempest 2000 has outstanding sound effects and music. Alien Vs Predator has outstanding sound effects but no music save the title theme (no in-game music makes the game VERY creepy). Trevor McFut has poor music and poort sound effects. Club Drive has awful sound effects.

Jaguar controls : Depends on the programmer. Most games have good fluid control response. However, Kasumi Ninja has sluggish controls, which ruins the game to a degree. Checkered Flag has AWFUL controls (steering is WAY too difficult). Alien Vs Predator controls great (even using the Jaguar 12-button keypad is easy!), as does Doom (12-button keypad is easy to access as well).

Number of games and good game-to-bad game ratio : There are not many Jaguar games. Less than 80 were released. And to top that off, only about 15-20 of those games are good.

Overall : If you want a great console with lots of games, look elsewhere. But if you want a piece of history, get a Jaguar. There are some good games for it, but be warned : there are lots of turkeys for it.

i really wish that companies like xbox/microsoft would buy all of the old games that we grew up on seeing that most of the games graphics sucked ballz back then and look what they can do now..trevor mcfur is a very killer game i'm gonna buy the atari jaguar just so i can play trevor mcfur again,i use to love that game and i can't wait to play it again..yours truely robert muerto187

This is simply a rare system. It never lasted and has real camp value. The controls were something else too.The they even made a Jaguar CD. On this system there isn't really many games, and further more the "64 bit" system was only a little more powerful then the SNES. If you plan on playing a old system and want the best of the early mid 90s look at 3DO. It was as powerful as PS one, and came out two years earlier. It was a head of its time, this was behind.

The games I can mention are Arati Karts(not bad at all) Kasumi Ninja(ah) and Primal Rage for Jag CD.(3DO,32x,PSone are better ports)

This system really is for camp value only.

This game could have been a viable Mortal Kombat clone with its good graphics and decent sound effects (although the announcer sounded like a Chinese Steve Urkel), but sluggish (and at times unresponsive) controls ruin this one.

In a last ditch effort to salvage their once prominant company, Atari released their last system, the 64-bit (supposedly) Jaguar. When it was first released to mass markets in 1994, the future of the Jaguar seemed bright thanks to some great launch games, but as the previous reviewer already mentioned, by the end of the next year, the Jaguar was pretty much dead. There weren't many games released for the system (less than 90), and there were only a handful of games that were any good. Not to mention that the decent games were just, decent. There were no great "must have" games for the Jaguar to justify purchasing it, and third party support was non-existant. The console itself had a nice sound system and the graphics on many games were pretty good, and the controler was actually pretty innovative and worked great with first person shooters released for the system. Atari even released a Sega CD-like add on called the Jaguar-CD which didn't help the system at all, and soon enough the Jaguar was dead in the dirt. Not long later though, developer Telegames ended up independantly making some games for the dead system (Breakout 2000, Towers II: Plight of the Stargazer), but ultimately the Jaguar was Atari's last hurrah as a console developer. Below is a list of the best games released for the Jaguar, but be warned; just because these are the best games for the system doesn't mean that they're the best games you'll play:

Tempest 2000

Alien VS. Predator

Doom

Syndicate

Cannon Fodder

Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure

Wolfenstein 3-D

Atari Karts

Missle Command 3-D

Iron Soldier

Flip Out

Ultra Vortek

Rayman