System: Atari Jaguar

Released: 1993

Discontinued: 1996

Brief System History

The Atari Jaguar was a commercial failure. It launched to compete with the fifth generation of consoles which included Sega Saturn and Sony Playstation amoung other consoles. Since the Jaguar was struggling to gain an audience to begin with, once Sega and Sony introducted their consoles in 1995 the Jaguar sales declined rapidly. This was the last home console to be released by Atari (not counting the Atari Flashback in 2004).

My Opinion On The Jaguar

I was one of the few who adopted an Atari Jaguar early on in it's life cycle. Despite buying one early, the price had already been reduced when I picked mine up brand new in EB Games in 1994. I remember one of the main reasons I had wanted one was for games such as Rayman, Alien Vs. Predator, and Theme Park. I was a big fan of the Jaguar despite it's extremely clunky and uncomfortable controller. The Atari Jaguar has a pretty terrible reputation today among gamers, but playing this back when it was first released was a really enjoyable experience even if the selection of games for the system was pretty limited. I still play my Jaguar from time to time today, and while most games don't hold up as well as I remember them, I still have fond memories for the system. 

Despite it's reputation, the Jaguar has a handful of titles that are totally worth it for gamers and some are exclusive to the system. Alien Vs. Predator and Tempest 2000 are widely regarded as the two must own games for the system. Most games are pretty affordable and often easy to find complete on eBay, except for a couple of very rare games like Atari Karts, Towers II, Skyhammer, Zero 5, and other homebrew titles. Speaking of Homebrews, there is a large community that are still developing new Jaguar homebrews even today, so there is still quite a loyal following behind the system.

Pete's Quick Pick Recommendations 

Alien Vs Predator is such an amazing game on the Jaguar. You can play as a Marine, Alien, or Predator, but in my opinion the best one is the Marine because there is just something so atmospheric and creepy as you explore the dark silent halways, only to be ambushed by a group of Aliens. These silent killers were scare you senseless because often times they will creep up on you from behind, giving you no prior sound warnings. You can also go into clostrophobic air vents where you will truly feel the tension waiting behind every corner. 

Defender 2000 is for fans of manic fast paced arcade action, or fans of Jeff Minter (Space Giraffe, Tempest 2000) and his obscure sense of game design. It plays like classic defender as you control a space ship at breakneck speed across a scrolling looping horizontal screen where you must rescue the humans before they are snatched up by space ships. What makes this game so much fun is the over the top sound effects and visual presentation that is a stable of all Llamasoft titles.

Power Drive Rally is a fun topdown overhead racing game that fans of RC Pro Am or Micromachines type racing games will feel right at home with. The camera is fixed and does not rotate with you as you turn your car, so if you are not used to racing games like this it may take some getting used to the controls. There are different kinds of weather conditions including night driving in rainy thunder storms! You can upgrade parts of your car with the money you earn to make driving easier as well.

Flip Out! is a tile flipping puzzle game where you control a cursor on different tile layouts (most of the time a 3x3 grid) and you must match the tiles of corresponding colors to the colors shown on the base of the grid. Things can get very hectic and fast paced as tiles flip in the air and stay suspended for only a short time, and if they land on a tile that is already on the ground they break. There are also these little characters who walk around on the tiles are make things that much harder for you. It's cute and colorful and worth it for fans of puzzle games.