===================================================================== Twinkle Star Sprites, A Comprehensive Dreamcast vs. Saturn Comparison ===================================================================== - by CrazyFei BunsOfSteel --------------- Version History --------------- v1.6 (2/18/2002) Big update. Added new sections: 9. Miscellany 10. Graphical Enhancements Fixed a few typos Updated the info for the following sections: 2. Soundtracks 4. Selectable Characters 5. Voice Acting 6. Yanqui/Nihonjin Factor 8. Game Modes. Changed Section 1 to also include ending differences. v1.0 (2/11/2002) - the first version of this FAQ. ------------ Introduction ------------ This is a comprehensive comparison between the Dreamcast and Saturn version for all you collectors, gamers, comparison shoppers and other assorted detail-obsessed people out there. It does not cover the game released on any other platform or hardware. It also includes some personal opining from me, which you may or may not agree with. Specifically, the comparisons are for: 1. Animated Intros and Endings 2. Soundtracks 3. Sound Effects / Voice Quality 4. Selectable Characters 5. Voice Acting 6. Yanqui / Nihonjin Factor 7. Load Times 8. Game Modes 9. Miscellany 10. Graphical Enhancements 11. Extras 12. Conclusion ...and away we go! ------------------------------ 1. Animated Intros and Endings ------------------------------ SATURN: Had two intros. One for Arcade Mode which is the same as the attract mode on the original Neo Geo version, and one high quality animated movie done for Saturn Mode. Magical Girl sweetness and light abounds. The Saturn Mode ending for play in Character Mode also included a bonus after the regular ending, which was an extra credits reel that played along with a slowly scrolling background consisting of a collage of the cast, culminating in Load Run looking up at the stars. A slow piano lullaby plays during this sequence. DREAMCAST: Arcade Mode intro only, with regular ending. For both the DC and Saturn, press and hold A to force the credits to scroll faster. Winner - Saturn -------------- 2. Soundtracks -------------- SATURN: Has two sound track options, one for the original Neo Geo and one for Saturn Mode. The main tracks are similar, with the Saturn Mode also containing a new track for Meirin's special event. (see 4. Selectable Characters) You can play it by selecting Track #15. DREAMCAST: Has three sound track options, one for the original Neo Geo CD, one for the ROM version, and one for ROM (High Quality). Soundtrack quality for the Neo Geo tracks are slightly improved on the DC. Chances are, you're not going to want to play the ROM versions during a game at all. Not either one. They sound like homebrewed jobs, in a bad way. Poorly mixed base and tinny-sounding synths. Winner - Slight edge to Saturn for the bonus song. Saturn has more tracks, DC has more emulations but 2 out of 3 of those are pretty bad. The DC version of the Neo Geo soundtrack is slightly improved in quality over the Saturn's Arcade Mode soundtrack, but not noticeably so. ------------------------------ 3. Sound Effects/Voice Quality ------------------------------ SATURN: With a few exceptions like Digital Pinball Necronomicon, sound has never been a strong suit on the Saturn. Though of course if you've never played the DC version at all, you wouldn't notice any of this. DREAMCAST: Really shines here. Crisp sharp fx which have been remixed for the Dreamcast, and clear voice quality. High frequency pronounciations of letters like "s" come through nicely, whereas they're just about MIA on the Saturn. I had no idea that Load Run exclaimed "LUCKY!" whenever she grabbed a bomb until I played this version. Winner - Dreamcast, hands down. Being able to compare the two like I can, I found the DC version a real pleasure to listen to. ------------------------ 4. Selectable Characters ------------------------ SATURN: 14 selectable characters. 9 arcade characters, 3 boss characters (Dark R., Mevious, Memory), Sprites (Load Run's evolved form), and a bonus character just for Saturn: Meirin, the Chinese girl who is clearly the anime-styled Straight A student of the bunch. Cool character. Her bombs include a random cosplay as part of the detonation fx :) and her panda companion has a great voice. Her attack characters are also great; big roly-poly pandas which climb up either side of your opponent's screen, and then jump off to dive-bomb them. Whee! Another thing about Meirin is that she will appear as a special challenger while in Saturn Character Mode. A flashing red CHALLENGER logo will appear on the World Map and Meirin will take the place of whoever you were supposed to battle. A special dialogue event takes place between her and your character, and off you go. The stage stays the same but the BGM changes to Meirin's own music track. (see section 2. Soundtracks) Here are the conditions to get her to appear courtesy of Alan Kwan: "It happens when you have cleared a stage with 20+ chain, and have not continued. She appears only within a certain range of stages, perhaps between 2 to 6 I think." Meirin also gets her own unique ending of course. DREAMCAST: Only the original cast of 13 from the arcade selectable. Winner - Saturn. Note: For Arcade Mode for both consoles, the codes to select the three bosses and Sprites are: Sprites - put selector on Load Ran, press up up up up A Memory - same as Sprites code, only use down Mevious - put selector on Griffon, press up up up up A Dark Ran - same as Mevious code, only use down ...from Kurt Linsenbardt's Twinkle Star Sprites Arcade FAQ here on gamefaqs.com. --------------- 5. Voice Acting --------------- SATURN: A lot more of the game is voice-acted. This is particularly noticeable in Story Mode, with the pre-match exchange of dialogue to move the plot (such as it is) along. Post-match taunts are also voice-acted. And overall everybody gets more taunts. In the Saturn's Character Mode, when you arrive at your destination on the World Map, the game prompts you to press the L or R shoulder button. Doing this will bring up a window of the Japanese text being voiced by your opponent to you. DREAMCAST: Voices have been completely cut out in Story Mode and Character Mode, both pre and post match. Winner - Saturn, but read on... ------------------------- 6. Yanqui/Nihonjin Factor ------------------------- SATURN: Everything is in Japanese, voice and text. DREAMCAST: A language option! Choose between English, Japanese, and Spanish. While you can't hear the pre/post game and ending chatter anymore, you can read it in one of those three languages instead. This also affects the in-game tutorial text, each character's ending, the game's advice line to you for a better score, and the ending screen which breaks down your levels of destruction. And of course, all of it in some great "Engrish". :) Also, some of the translations have been toned down, whether via editorial choice or just plain innacuracy I have no idea. Ex: at one point, Kesubei grabs Load Run and tries to fly off with her. In the Saturn Story Mode version she exclaims in Japanese: "Let go of me, you pedo old man!" On the DC's Story Mode she just says "Let go of me!". Winner - Depends. If you're a Yanqui, you'll appreciate the DC version more since you can follow the Engrish text. If you want your game dialogue unedited, as accurate as possible, with all original voice intact, and can understand/read Japanese (especially for all the new taunts), the Saturn version is better. ------------- 7. Load Times ------------- SATURN: There is a 4-5 second load time between opponent changes, though you do get one screen of extra art not available in the DC version. But of course this too loses its appeal when needing to stare at it. DREAMCAST: Practically non-existant. The "Twinkle Star Sprites" screen logo transitions from closed to open almost immediately, and Bang! you're off to the next battle. Winner - Dreamcast ------------- 8. Game Modes ------------- SATURN: Three modes, Story, Character and Vs, available across two emulations: Arcade and Sega Saturn. The former gives you the base cast of 13 characters with simulated slow-down from the Neo Geo version. The latter gives you a cast of 14 with better slow-down handling via the Saturn hardware, though it is still present when things get really hectic. It should also be noted that there is a "Shoriochi" option in the Saturn Mode options menu. If you put this on "cut", it will remove all of the slowdown! (though the DC mode will still cycle through some stuff faster, notably bombs) DREAMCAST: Three modes, Story, Character and Vs, available across three emulations: Dreamcast, Neo Geo, and 68000-10 Mhz. I have no idea what that last one is, but for the purposes of this comparison, the Dreamcast version has no slowdown whatsoever, the Neo Geo slows down like it does in the arcade, and the 68000 version slows down a lot. Only the 9 characters to choose from no matter which mode it is. Winner - Dreamcast. Though it should also be kept in mind that slow-down is often considered a shooter player's friend. :) The Dreamcast version is not only merciless in that manner, but the souped up hardware also cycles through the bomb animation quicker. Therefore your window of invulnerability and time to react is a lot shorter! ------------------------- 9. Graphical Enhancements ------------------------- SATURN: The backgrounds in Saturn Mode had little scrolling extras added on top of them by way of stuff used to give a sense of motion or depth while flying by: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Stage #/Name Opponent Extra Effect ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. Forrett Yan-Yan / Till transparent clouds --------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Achelis Kim / Nanja pastel rainbow stars floating by --------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Cloudia Schmidt / Tinker solid clouds --------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Freezia Griffon / Macky pastel snow --------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Mevious Castle Dark R. & Mevious day briefly becoming night, then day again, while the announcer says "Ready, GO!" --------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Wonder World Memory zooming starfield --------------------------------------------------------------------- A few of the character graphics are also enhanced, notably Macky's and Mevious'. Macky, ordinarily flying by herself, is accompanied by Pentell who is sleeping on a floating oversized version of the stuffed toy she carries with her. I actually find this pretty distracting during play. Mevious produces purplish trails of afterimages while flying. :) Other characters have their own little extra trails, eg. Load Run and Sprites trail white stars, Dark Run trails dark stars, Schmidt and Kesubei trail exhaust from their machines, you get the idea. The characters who are riding animals don't get trails. (Probably a good thing, yuck!) All of the characters also cast shadows on the ground below when applicable, only in Saturn Mode. DREAMCAST: Well, the DC version has none of the above. It's a straight Neo Geo port for a quickie budget release. Which Saturn-only owners of the game can also see for themselves by selecting Arcade Mode. Winner - Saturn -------------- 10. Miscellany -------------- This section comprises all the little things that aren't comparisons as much as they are notes that don't fit anywhere else. Some of it affects gameplay, some of it might be of interest, others of it borders on the "Who cares?" level of trivial, but is here anyway if you do care. In Saturn Mode: - Load Ran and Kim are renamed to Load Run and Kesubei. - New corner portraits were done for all the characters, next to their life meters. - the divider between Player 1 and Player 2 is decorated with a carving of Sprites, instead of one of Sprites' wand. - Load Run and her Rabbicat go zooming across the screen and look oh so outrageously cute while rocking back and forth on her heels waiting for the player to select their mode. - Load Run flies across the screen on her broom in a shower of stars over the ADK logo when the game boots up. - energy bars carry over against the same opponent. So if you had a bar that was two-thirds full and died, but still had a life left, you got to carry that bar over against the same opponent. - That also goes for any extra Bombs. ---------- 11. Extras ---------- SATURN: The biggie. It came in an oversized 2 CD case, with one disc for the game and one omake fan disc. The fan disc contains these six sections: 1) hundreds of fan art submissions of the various characters. 2) the winning results of a fan art competition with various mundane and odd themes, MC'd by Memory. 3) hi-res character art, and guest illustrations. 4) character, minion and background concept sketches. There is also a collection of print collateral which had been produced to advertise the game in magazines, posters, etc. 5) Message from Sprites - where each character can be selected for more hi-res stills of themselves playing while they chatter to you. 6) "Unplugged" performances of the Saturn version's opening FMV theme. One as an instrumental with Japanese subtitles, and one with vocals. I really enjoyed this bit myself. Your tour guide can be selected from among the cast by pressing the start button while in the main menu. Keep pressing to cycle through the choices. DREAMCAST: No bonus disc, but it does show some very adorable VMU animations of whichever character you select. Thought they were a nice touch. And they are very well done. Winner - Saturn, but only if fan stuff is important to you. -------------- 12. Conclusion -------------- So that's everything. I don't think anybody can go wrong just getting the DC version. I've really enjoyed playing it despite having the Saturn one since release. It is more bare bones but also contains a lot of improvements. And having a language select is a plus too. But if you find yourself just falling in love with the game, or are otherwise a more collectorly type, the Saturn version is worth hunting down. Whichever version people want to go for will depend on the kind of gamer/collector they are. As well as how much disposable cash you have. :) ---------------- Acknowledgements ---------------- Thanks to Alan Kwan for his most excellent Twinkle Star Sprites FAQ, the info for triggering a challenge by Meirin, and his translation of that line about the pedo old man. Anybody who wants an in-depth look at the gameplay of this unique game should definitely visit his page: http://home.netvigator.com/~tarot/Games/TSS01.html Thanks also to an ex of mine, RB. She got me into import gaming by getting my Saturn region-switched for my birthday back in 1997, along with buying me Twinkle Star Sprites for it. You can mail me here: tirah(AT)drizzle(DOT)com. Note the spambot foils! I'd also appreciate it if you put "GameFAQs" in the subject. This document Copyright 2002 CrazyFei BunsOfSteel. Use and reproduction is permitted for personal private use only. It is not to be copied, sourced or distributed without written permission. As of this writing, this completed FAQ is only available at GameFAQs, at http://www.gamefaqs.com. If you find it elsewhere, please let me know. Twinkle Star Sprites and all associated characters and works are (c) ADK/SNK