I originally posted a review of the Atari Jaguar back in March. I decided, however, that it was horrible. So, I'm taking another shot at it.

Updated on 2/14

Owning an Atari Jaguar is a frustrating thing. Why? This machine had the potential to be very, very good, but just never made it. In fact, the Jaguar turned out to be the last nail in Atari's coffin, and that's too bad. Atari was a great company, but the Jaguar was too poorly marketed and too much a victim of bad timing to be a success. The system might have saved the company, but wound up killing Atari.

This system was released in 1993, and had the technical specs to blow everything else out there out of the water. I know there's some dispute over whether this is a true 64-bit system or not, but I don't pay much attention to that noise. Even if the Jaguar is a "mere" 32 bit machine, it was more advanced that just about everything else out there in 1993. The Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis were 16-bit machines, and they were great. Those machines dominated the market at the time, and Atari hoped to defeat them with the Jaguar. It never happened. Why?

Atari just dropped the ball when it came to marketing this fantastic machine. The company couldn't drum up the necessary third-party support to make the system successful. Atari absolutely messed up an agreement with Wal-Mart, and that just put an end to the machine. Atari had a very good contract with Wal-Mart to distribute these machines, and it had trouble supplying that contract. Atari just couldn't deliver, and the Jaguar suffered. If you ruin a contract with Wal-Mart, you're dead. That was true back then, and it's true now.

Also, the games are a bit confusing. In spite of the Jaguar's advanced hardware (for 1993, anyway), a lot of the games looked very similar to titles that were available for the Sega Genesis or Super NES. Take Zool 2 for example. That one is a platformer that reminds me a heck of a lot of the Sonic the Hedgehog series on the Genesis. Brutal Sports Football looks a heck of a lot like titles out there for the Genesis or Super Nintendo. Indeed, folks coding games for the Jag may have been limited by the times -- they just created some titles that were similar to other popular ones out there. Therefore, the power of the Jaguar was untapped in many carts.

And, of course, the Jag was released just as the 3D gaming era was developing. The Jag doesn't handle polygons worth a damn, as evidenced by sorry, sloppy titles like Supercross 3D (which is so bad is not even playable due to a miserable framerate). There's no way the system can compete in terms of 3D gaming with the Sony Playstation or anything developed after it.

However, there are some games out there that are just fantastic for the old Jaguar. Tempest 2000 is a great version of the old, arcade classic and it's plenty colorful, nice and fast and has a techno soundtrack that really adds to the atmosphere. Missile Command 3D is a great version of another arcade classic that adds some odd kind of three-dimensional twists to the game, and has a "virtual" version which puts the game underwater. And, those two games have the tweaked versions, as well as very accurate translations of the "old" arcade versions.

And, first person shooters such as Wolfenstein 3D and Doom were ported very well to the Jaguar. Super Burnout is a fine motorcycle-racing game, and titles like Cannon Fodder show that complex combat simulations translated well to the Jaguar.

However, there's a lot of junk out there, too. Checkered Flag is a miserable racing game, while titles like I-War and Cybermorph (the pack-in title) are just bland. I'm not exactly sure how many games were developed for the ol' Jag, but there are a lot of stinkers out there, to be sure.

And, the worst part of all this is that the really great titles are expensive. You've got some new ones being developed, but they come out new for around $50 to $70 (at the rate of about two a year mind you), and then sell for far too much money on eBay. NBA Tournament Edition is one of the only good sports games for the system (or so I'm told), but why the hell would I spend $50 for it at eBay when I can pick up a copy of NBA Live 2001 for my Playstation for a mere $15?

Here's another example of how insane pricing for allegedly good Jag games is. Songbird is a company that still develops games for the Jaguar. In the Jag camp, Battlesphere is legendary amongst the few people still impressed with the Jag. How much does it cost? Seems to run from $200 to $400 on eBay. How's that for nuts. I've never played that one, but I think it's safe to say that one can find space shooters that are as good or better for systems like the PS1, PS2, Dreamcast or GameCube for much, much less.

I'm also told the CD add on is a great thing, but plan on plunking down about $100 if you can find one. Hell, for that kind of money, why not get a Playstation with a few games or a Sega Dreamcast? That makes no sense, as far as I can tell.

So, let me list some more things I like about this game. First of all, the sound this thing can pump out is surprisingly good. Sure, you'll have to buy the AV kit to get RCA plugs to your television for really good sound and video (it comes standard with an outdated RF modulator by the way), but you'll actually find some pretty good background music in some of these games. The Tempest 2000 soundtrack comes to mind as a good example.

But, once again, the power of the system was rarely tapped. Most Jag games sound absolutely dreadful and sparse when it comes to sound.

The controller is a darn good idea. It's comfortable and precise, and the numeric keypad allows for some unique camera angles and more in-depth gameplay on a few titles. Heck, I don't even mind the much-maligned cartridge format that's standard with the system -- saving games is easy enough, and the carts are pretty darn sturdy. Hell, the whole system is sturdy -- it was made by IBM and never gave me any trouble.

Still, you've got to be a dedicated fan to own one of these things. It's a nifty little system in terms of system specs, but you've got less than around 100 games to choose from the overwhelming majority of them aren't very good. The great stuff for this system will set you back some serious cash, and you might be better off picking up a Playstation or Dreamcast and getting some great, in-depth games for cheap.

I do wish, however, there was more support for this system. I had some great games for it here, but I had to dig through a lot of crud titles to get to them.

Now, here's the reason I really hate the Jaguar. Sure, it's a decent little system, but about as collectable as a box of rocks. That means if you hate it, good luck getting anything for it when you want to sell it. I sunk about $200 into the system and various games here and there, and couldn't get anything near that amount when I decided it was time for the ol' Jaguar to go. If you want a "white elephant" with little to no support and a bunch of really awful games, run out and waste your cash on a Jaguar. If you hate it, though, you're probably stuck with it unless you're willing to sell it for a loss.

Oh, and here's the best jab against the Jaguar I've heard. I was in the local Game Exchange the other day talking about classic gaming systems with one of the employees. We started talking about Atari and mentioned the Jaguar. Now, the debate about the Jag has always been whether it's a true 64-bit system or not. He argued it wasn't and brought up the Atari marketing slogan when this thing was popular, which was "do the math."

"Do the math?" he asked, while rolling his eyes and smirking about the slogan. "Hell, you can't."

That's funny stuff.


Recommended: No