New Miami Vice-inspired FPS ‘Vigilant Paradise’ quietly drops on Sega Saturn after five-year solo dev cycle

The homebrew scene for retro consoles keeps pushing ahead, with a new first-person shooter, Vigilant Paradise, soft-launched for the Sega Saturn by developer Riccardo Campione, endorsed by Playnautic.

Vigilant Paradise launched discreetly in early November 2025 but only gained attention at the beginning of 2026 after Redditors learned of its existence.

This game is a Miami Vice-inspired title that follows the story of two renegade cops, Vince Dimare and Paolo Diterra, who are given a forced vacation to cool off in the sun-soaked City of Paradise. Unfortunately, they quickly get mixed up with a terrorist organisation.

Vigilant Paradise features a synopsis which reads as follows:

After accumulating a little too much overtime fighting crime in unconventional ways, renegade plain-clothed policemen Vince Dimare and Paolo Diterra have been put on forced vacation. Only a few days in, Vince laments the boredom of having so little to do. But, in the City of Paradise, he may not be bored for very long…

Solo developer Campione spent a full five years on his self-funded project and wanted to capture the essence of 90s gaming on the Sega Saturn. The fruits of his labour offer us a full single-player campaign with detailed low-poly 3D levels, six levels beyond the tutorial, two playable protagonists with their unique weapon choices, and a branching narrative.

While it might seem like a low-poly effort on the surface, it boasts over 15 minutes of in-engine cutscenes with your typical cheese, fully voice-acted dialogue, and a heavy synth-based soundtrack that leans into the retro-cop aesthetic.

Campione calls Vigilant Paradise “a symphony of Japanese silicon, utilising both Sega Saturn CPUs, both VDPs, all standard memory chips, CD audio and PC playback.” Vigilant Paradise runs at a 320x240 resolution with an uncapped frame rate that automatically adjusts to NTSC or PAL. This essentially means that the game doesn’t slow down on 50Hz Sega Saturns.

The game can be played on original Sega Saturn hardware using burnt CD-R discs, ODE, physical cartridges, or via emulators after download.

Vigilant Paradise is available on Itch.io for $10. Given the time and effort that went into porting the game to the Sega Saturn, it’s worth the price. Campione also stated that he wouldn’t mind preparing for a proper physical release, given there’s enough demand.

Buy a renewed Sega Saturn on Amazon here.