Saurus

Saurus at a Glance

Saurus is a Japanese developer founded in 1993 that operated as a second-party studio under SNK until it dissolved in 2000. The company released most of its work between 1995 and 2004, with a heavy focus on the late 1990s. Their catalog on PlayPile shows ten games where they acted as developers and one title published by them. Ninety percent of their output came during the 1990s, while only a single game appeared in the 2000s. This sharp drop in activity suggests the studio ceased production well before its official dissolution date or simply focused all efforts on that specific decade. Their portfolio is dominated by arcade-style games. Five of their titles fall into the Arcade genre, and four are Shooters. They also touched upon Sports with three entries, Puzzle and Racing with two each, and a single Fighting game along with one Quiz title. The studio built its reputation primarily on Neo Geo hardware, releasing eight games for the Neo Geo MVS, five for the AES, and four for the Neo Geo CD. While they did port some work to later systems like the PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Wii, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, these represented a small fraction of their total output compared to their Neo Geo roots. The quality of their games is generally solid but not exceptional. Based on two rated titles, Saurus holds an average IGDB score of 71 out of 100. Neither game reached the great category of 80 or higher. Instead, both titles landed in the good range between 60 and 79. Shock Troopers from 1997 holds their highest rating at 75.4, followed by Prehistoric Isle 2 in 1999 with a score of 66.6. Recent releases listed include Lansquenet from late 2004, which aligns with the end of their active period. The data shows a company that specialized in specific arcade hardware and genres during the golden age of SNK systems before stopping production entirely.

Release Timeline

Rating Distribution