Panzer Dragoon

You sit on the back of a dragon, a crumbling post-apocalyptic world sweeps past beneath you, and all around you hear a language you don't understand, because no one ever spoke it before. Welcome to Panzer Dragoon, one of the most atmospheric rail shooters the SEGA Saturn ever hosted.

Mechanically it is a so-called rail shooter, where you move automatically along a predetermined path and your task is to shoot. The genius, however, lies in the fact that you can look around and fire in all 360 degrees around you. Enemies attack from the front, the back and the sides, so you must constantly turn your view, take aim and release volleys of homing missiles. What emerges is a tense ballet of attention and reflexes.

What elevated Panzer Dragoon above its genre competition, though, was its atmosphere. Team Andromeda created a melancholic fantasy world that feels like the remnant of a long-vanished civilization. The pinnacle of this devotion to detail is the invented language nicknamed Panzerese, which the characters speak. Few games of the era took their world so deadly seriously and built it with such care.

Released in the mid-nineties, the game was one of the titles meant to give the Saturn its own face and to show that the console could offer experiences with a soul and an artistic vision. The feeling of riding a dragon, the smooth leaning into turns and the melancholic music together form an unforgettable whole.

Panzer Dragoon became a cult series that earned sequels and a remake and is beloved to this day for its unique atmosphere. It is one of those titles that make fans remember the Saturn fondly, proof that even a commercially unsuccessful console can leave a lasting artistic legacy.

Why play: For the unforgettable feeling of flight on a dragon's back through a world with its own language and a melancholic soul, a cult rail shooter that took its atmosphere utterly seriously.