Sabertooth

Thanks for the comments, guys.  It was hard for me to decide between a few of them for equal play time.  I have Ken Siders' Q*Bert 7800 port and it's a fantastic game!  But I tried to stick with official releases on this list.  I may do a homebrew one later once I get a few in my collection if I decide to get more.  And Ballblazer would have made the list easily taking the number 2 spot for it's fun and original play style but I don't own a copy of that one yet. 
I have Donkey Kong Junior and One on One, neither of which I'm a huge fan of.  While I enjoy the game I just don't get into Donkey Kong arcade games much...but I enjoy Donkey Kong Country on the SNES.  I'll have to give One on One another go sometime.  At present time it is my very least played game along with Hat Trick. 
I have Joust, Dig Dug, PP II and a few others as well but I played PP II so much in the past that it sort of became the 7800's "Combat" in my opinion.  Still a great game though.  Joust?  I prefer the 5200 version over the 7800 version.  Graphics are better on the 7800 but the sounds impress me more on the 5200.  Dig Dug?  The 7800 is spot on but...it's Dig Dug.  Sounds again I prefer on the 5200 version more.  Those games I play more on the 5200 than the 7800.
I'm curious to see who else reads this and chimes in with their favorites that I made have missed.

Your list is great.  I'd put "Centipede" a bit higher for one reason:  the two player co-op mode.  Asteroids has this same feature, and it makes an awesome game even better.  
Another of my favorite 7800 games is the Dr J/Larry Bird One on One.  I absolutely LOVED this game on the Atari 8-bit computers and played it to death.  It's amazing the control the designers gave each player using only a stick and one button -- spins, dunks, jumpers, steals, jumps, checks.  The 7800 version plays exactly the same, but has much better graphics.  From your list, it's hard to find any game I'd replace with One on One, but I'd probably choose Choplifter.  Just because the 7800 Choplifter is worse than some of the earlier versions.  
I really love Food Fight, and the 7800 version is absolutely the best home version of that great game.  
I'd say the games that really show off the ability of the 7800 to move LOTS of sprites quickly are Asteroids and Food Fight.
Great post, K -- I really enjoyed reading your thoughts.  Thanks!
 

@RickR- I know that you didn't include homebrews, but if you have a Harmony cart or Stella, try PacMan 8K by Dintari on the 2600. Its become my favorite home version of the game. I even like it better than PacManPlus' 7800 collection (which is also excellent).

This was one of my favourite games on the Amiga, the mix of cyberpunk-theme and depth of the world building won me over, but even then I found the control scheme a little awkward. I can't imagine how frustrating the experience must be with a controller but, to be fair, if there were any console controller with the best chance to make it work it'd be the Jaguar's and its ten-key.

I bought mine new in 1995 and I want to say that it did but my memory is failing me and I could be getting it mixed up with overlays on other Jaguar games.  I want to say it was a black with red used on most games but I could be mistaken.  One sure way to know is to read the instruction manual to the game.  If an overlay was officially included the instruction manual should have a page with a b/w photocopy of the game's overlay that can be cut out and used should the original get lost.  It was common practice on Jaguar games.

@kamakazi - Thanks for the counter viewpoint! As a third party title, did this ever come with an official overlay? I know some people have made their own.

Despite your verdict of the game, Syndicate was my second most played game on the Jaguar only out played by Tempest 2000.  It remains one of my favorites on the Jaguar.  I did it backwards, though...I played the Jaguar version before I could even locate a PC version of this game.  
 
Granted it doesn't push the Jaguar to its limits and the frame rate is not the best it is still a solid game for a cartridge.  Controls do take some getting use to and some of the levels can push your skills to the max but I'd recommend this game to any one that has a Jaguar console.  Just make certain the copy you find has the overlay or you will get frustrated.  
 
For some laughs, set everyone on fire using the flamethrower.

Doom would be great.  It would be interesting to compare to the PS1 and N64 versions, or even the 32X. 

@rick - The FPS games on the Jaguar were Doom, Wolfenstein 3D and Alien Vs. Predator. I'll put Doom in the hat unless you would rather see a write up of one of the other two.

@atarilbc Three suggestions for you to throw into the hat:
 
- Ultra Vortek
- Raiden
- Pitfall

@rick - The FPS games on the Jaguar were Doom, Wolfenstein 3D and Alien Vs. Predator. I'll put Doom in the hat unless you would rather see a write up of one of the other two.

I don't have any suggestions because I'm not familiar at all with the Jaguar line-up.  Are there games that also were made for the other systems of the day?  Like Doom or Quake?  If yes, I vote for one of those. 

Thanks, Rick! Zoop is fun. My understanding is that all of the console versions are pretty similar. It may be worth checking if you like this type of game.

I've never heard of Zoop.  It looks like fun to me.  Thanks for your excellent review. 

Great review atarilbc. I've always liked racing games on Atari systems and when I first saw the Jaguar in magazines before it was released I was so excited for games like Checkered Flag and Club Drive. I thought they'd be 10x better than Virtua Racing. Ultimately they were disappointments. Super Burnout I thought was quite good for what it is. To me it almost felt like a Neo-Geo game that you'd find in an arcade, and I always thought the Jaguar would've done quite well in that arena with some impressive 2D games.

Yes. I have heard of Carl Forhan and Songbird Productions. He is based in Rochester, Minnesota, approximately 100 miles from where I live. He has done impressive work, especially with "Robinson's Requiem." I really wish, but no one would know where to begin on it, someone could complete "Black ICE/White Noise." Unfortunately, no one knows really where the original source code or master video sources in standard definition are. For all we know, they could have been lost forever. Some mook from Atari could have carelessly thrown them away! Anyway, one can dream. I am glad that we have what we have acquired so far for the Atari Jaguar, CDs and cartridges alike. I think that the Jaguar was underrated and, of course, under-marketed. Ah, what could have been…
 
Thanks for letting me share.

When I saw WMCJ on a YouTube video for the first time, I was not so impressed. That was until I bought it. Sure, your players get knocked down so easily all of the time, and that bores me,  it does seem at times very intuitive to play to a certain degree. That is, at least if you select an easier difficulty level. I agree that it is so bad it is good. At least, it isn't horrible. But, it could be better. I do enjoy the Team Tap, though. That thing is mint. I wish I could get another one for potential eight-player gameplay, but I do not think that there is a Jaguar game that is eight-player. However, I can't remember if there was anyway. Whatever, that's irrelevant. I have NBA Jam: TE also, but never played it at this writing yet. However, I do plan to. I can share my feelings on that later.
 
Thanks.

The Jaguar was caught in the middle of a video game era when everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, was hype on doing CD development containing digital videos on game consoles and within games.  Most of those games were not even worth the plastic they were printed on.  The only game I found worthy of the FMV sequences was Sonic CD on the Sega CD.  The animation was not much but opened and closed the story of the game successfully.  It left the true heart of the game for the game play aspects that Sonic was well known for.  That is the reason it was more successful than others.
 
If you were to take a look at other early CD games from the same time frame as the Jaguar you will discover piles of crap games.  Night Trap (while cool actors and actresses were involved the game play blew), Sewer Shark, Road Avenger (OK...this one was sort of cool), and even the Sherlock Holmes series, really went overkill on the CD video stuff and left very little for interactive game play.  Hell...I think the RCA CED players could have done a better game to be honest.  The only other games that even came close to Sonic CD, for me, were the Wing Commander 3 and Wing Commander 4 games on the PlayStation and computers.  I looked forward to the video sequences to move an interesting story line and plot along.  Final Fantasy 7 stepped this up a notch as did FF 8 and 9.  Only when the in-game graphics could be on par with the videos did the videos actually become important to the game play.  But that took years to overcome.  
 
So, sadly, while the Jaguar was a cool console in every aspect, it did not completely avoid the plague of FMV drenched CD based games, and this game was one of them.  I guess the developers had to learn the hard way.

Cybermorph came with my Jaguar along with Iron Soldier.  Cybermorph fought Iron Soldier for game time in my house.  While I loved Iron Soldier's arcade-style action I would put in Cybermorph for a more relaxed interaction.  I think the game was done well although some of the levels could have been better planned as far as finding Pods are concerned.  I eventually beat the game and would gladly do it again.  I like the fact that I don't have a timer going against me...I can explore the game at my own pace.  That is what made me like Cybermorph and I hope to run across its sequel someday.  This is one of my top Jaguar picks.  

Cybermorph is one of the few games I've actually played on a real Jaguar....and I thought "what's all the fuss about?".  Thanks for your honest review. 

Please be gentle to cybermorph

I just checked out the video for Pinball World and I think you hit the nail on the head @kamakazi. It seems like the style that 21st century was going for.

I never could find this game for the Jaguar so I have never played it.  However I do have 21st's Pinball World, new in box, never been opened, pinball game for the PC-CD.  And if the tables on the Jaguar version look just as boring as those shown on the back of the Pinball World box then it seems there might have been a theme going on here by 21st.  
 
Let's see...Jaguar...1992-93, right?  I would have been on a 386 playing Epic Megagames' Silverball and Epic Pinball games.  So I would have most likely compared Pinball Fantasies with those games if I had actually had it.

For me it would be Tempest 2000 first followed by Iron Soldier.  After that throw in some Doom and Wolfenstein 3-D and some Baldies.  After that I would probably play some Raiden and I*War...and then I might play some Bubsy.  But I don't think it as bad as some other reviews lay claim to.  I've seen worse and I mean in all video games...not just Jaguar titles.

@kamakazi20012 - I agree with you that there is fun to be had here. Bubsy is definitely better than the very worst Jaguar games like Checkered Flag. For me, its hard to say that its better than the other Jaguar platformers - Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure, Zool 2, Soccer Kid and Rayman. I think it falls somewhere in the middle of the Jaguar library in terms of quality and fun factor.