Pretty but sluggish
The Sega Saturn was Sonic-less out of the gates, so another mascot platformer was desperately needed to plug the gap. Enter Astal, one of the most jaw-droppingly gorgeous games of the entire generation.
The Saturn was a 2D powerhouse and this was one of its crown jewels. With huge sprites and beautiful animation, it showed the gap between Sega’s new hardware and the previous generation.
Unfortunately, the public never took to Astal in the way that Sega hoped. The game was quite slow-paced and was not as fluid as much of its competition. As an aesthetic showcase, however, this game was second-to-none. Here’s hoping for a return one day!
Astal was pushing high-quality spritework, vivid colours and huge amounts of parallax scrolling.
