Sega is quite happy to re-release its retro library of games on each and every system. If you're like us, you've probably played the original Sonic the Hedgehog on a dozen different devices over the years.
In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz at E3 2019, Sega Europe's John Clark defended the company's decision to churn out these classic titles time and time again, explaining how it would "never" overwhelm its audience with retro content and would continue to make it as accessible as possible. Here's exactly what the executive vice president of publishing had to say:
"When do you ever stop reaching the audience? There's always an audience there on one format or another. We've got great content and we're never going to saturate the audience for all of that retro content, so I think we're going to continue to bring it out as broad and wide as possible."
Sega – with the help of M2 – is currently working on the AGES line for the Switch eShop. Apart from this, it's also releasing the Genesis / Mega Drive Mini this September after AtGames' original device failed to live up to expectations.
How many times have you bought the same Sega game before? What games from the company's retro library would you like to see re-released that we perhaps haven't seen in a while? Share your thoughts below.
[source gamesindustry.biz]
Comments 76
Of course not, the retro stuff was some of their best stuff.
Great! Lovely! On that note, give us Sonic 3 and Knuckles at some point while you're at it. Settle that soundtrack dispute(?) or just re-record something similar to it and put it on a compilation collection of some sort. It'd be like if they released the original Star Wars movies (again) but didn't include Return Of The Jedi.
@Godlike_Virus I would kill for sonic 3 and knuckles remake or something. Fav sonic game.
What’s the difference between the AGES line and what was on the Mega Drive/Genesis Classics collection?
I have no problem at all, although it would be nice to get games that aren’t released often. Pulse Man would be good.
1. The Sega of 1990’s was a happy accident, so there is only retro content to keep their long time fans engaged, and possibly some of the fan projects (which is what I call any Sega series not made in-house, simply because of the disparity of passion with Sega’s internal output).
2. They keep promising to up their quality game and I’m just not seeing where there’s been extra effort in regards to their IP
3. Any Sega official emulation not done by the super passionate dev, M2, has been largely bad. I had to call Nintendo for a refund for that Genesis collection. The input lag should not be worse than Retroarch, if it is, you’ve failed massively by charging for it!!
4. Give me some reasons to believe, Sega, that if you were bought out like Neo Geo, things wouldn’t get better in regards to your catalogue of IP. As it stands I think they would!
5. Release Revenge of Death Adder (and look no further than M2 for the job)
Watch what happens when our scientists replace the words Sega with Nintendo. The subjects become enveloped by inexplicable rage.
Great. Now sell me my all time favourite Sonic game on Switch, please - Sonic 3+Knuckles.
Why would they not continue to milk their early successes for everything they're worth?
That being said, I still need to play Mania. Will probably pick up that before revisiting the classics.
well it's not like they have a lot of new material. lol.
Wouldn't mind something modern with this retro fellow.
(That's the reason why Ristar is missing from the Genesis mini, right?)
@Hordak The Mega Drive Collection is pretty much like a collection of roms. You get a great amount ot titles, but they're not emulated 100% perfect. There is also a pretty big input delay while playing the games. This collection also supports online multiplayer, but i never tried it for myself.
Games from the Sega Ages Lineup are pretty much enhanced ports specifically made for Switch. In Sonic the Hedgehog for example you can use the Spin Dash and Drop Dash from later Sonic Games.
You can also pick between the japanese, international and Arcade version, each with their own differences. There are also online leaderboards and challenge modes.
The Sega Ages games are rather expensive compared to the Mega Drive Collection, but they offer extra features and are not just a simple rom dump. I bought a couple of them so far and highly recommend them.
@SheldonRandoms In our modern day, there’s really only hoping that an external developer wants to approach Sega with a plan for IP such as Ristar, like how Dot Emu has been handling their overtures with Sega. Can you think of a studio that would be a fit for making a new Ristar? Maybe Picomy who did Heroki?
In general, I just want them to do more Daytona USA and Gunstar Hero's stuff
Sonic 3 and/or Sonic 3 & Knuckles : Final Answer
Beyond Oasis is the best Genesis game.
I hope they reach the Dreamcast and Saturn. I’d kill for Skies of Arcadia, Jet Set Radio and Sakura Taisen.
The context is rereleasing these retro games not making new ones but that seems to be lost on some people. Sega needs to be concise with the quality like Sega Forever and the Classics Collection using the Jenesis emulator which is old has sound timing errors, they should use the general use emulator M2 seems to have made for the Mini across everything going forward.
I'm not feeling overwhelmed by the abundance of Jet Set Radio Future! It would awesome to have that, Sonic CD, Sonic 4, Sonic 3, Sonic and knuckles, Chuchu rocket, samba de Amigo, sega rally, Sega Rally 2, outrun 2, Daytona, all the Daytona games!, SCUD racer, outrun 2006 coast to coast, fighters megamix, Virtua fighter 2,3,4,5, and Panzer Dragoon Saga on Switch!!!
I've recently played Sonic CD and Sonic 4 episode 2 and had a lot of fun with them.
@Nagi_Nagisa @Hordak The considerable input delay has been reduced to zero in some games and to almost zero in the others. All of them are playable now.
Still, Sega Ages emulation quality and features are unbeatable!
We are afraid we won't be able to count all those piles of cash we would get if we just resell you the most beloved games from our past.
I don't mind if they keep rereleasing their classics, but can they please let Sonic 3 + Knuckles get released again in the process?! Their omissions in the latest Sega retro collections is jarring, considering they likely stand as collectively the best Sega Genesis title they released.
Tbh I just want SA1&2 on the Switch. I’d pay full retail value to have both games in portable form...
I don't care much for Retro Content.
Bring over Sakura Wars to the Switch, Sega!
@Hordak big difference. AGES is mostly Arcade Ports with additional features
Retro is the only stuff im interested in with sonic.
Last good Sonic game outside mania is probaly unleashed and thats saying something
Really looking forward to the Panzer Dragon remake on Switch. I still can't believe it's actually happening......
They should be careful with the nostalgia pandering. If they just continue to reuse old ideas and try to remind the audience every time how good Sonic was in the past, people will sooner or later get tired of it.
Just. Let. Sonic. Die. PLEASE.
Unlike Mario who's games are always fun and good gameplay, and who had a legendary title of Mario Odyssey, Sonic keeps popping out bad game after bad game.
SEGA, it's time to make a new mascot. Maybe Yakuza? Now there's a good mascot idea. Or maybe Ethan Waber from Phantasy Star Universe? He is basically the face of Phantasy Star. Having Ethan as a mascot could make P.S. more known to the public, thus increasing the amount of people who would play the P.S. games.
What do you guys and girls think would be a good new mascot for SEGA?
Also, I don't hate Sonic. It's just hard to love the guy after seeing and playing so many bad games. I'd rather just watch Sonic Underground and Sonic X than play the games.
I acknowledge that Sonic Racing is decent---but it's pitted up against Crash Team Racing and Mario Kart. Which I prefer the latter of CTR and MK over SR.
Thats good, but I just hope they continue to mix it up with lesser rereleased titles and not just the same bunch over and over. They knew this thankfully with the Mega Drive Mini and packed it with rare gems, but the likes of Golden Axe Revenge of Death Addar, Knuckles Chaotix, Skies of Arcadia and many others are waiting for new homes on modern systems.
@Morrow you'd rather watch Sonic Underground than play Generations,Colors or Mania?
Just hurry up and release both Sonic Adventure DX and Sonic Adventure 2 Battle on Switch already
@Xelha Sega's continuation in feeding us with Genesis games is similar to Nintendo feeding us with NES games. The Genesis is to Sega what the NES was to Nintendo, why because both platforms were the ones that brought them success in the first place. The only way they would give us the other library of games from their other platforms is if we continue to bother them about those. You can't just blame Nintendo and not blame Sega as well, both are guilty of the same retro rehashes gen after gen. You could argue that but Sega also gave us Sega Ages as well so it's not all about the Genesis but then Nintendo also gave us Arcade Archives as well which is not all about the NES either. You're basically giving Sega a free pass when they are pretty much doing the exact same thing as Nintendo when it comes to giving us old games.
Come on with Shinobi already.
I hope they don’t stop the AGES line. I am hoping we get more Saturn / Dreamcast / Arcade Games.
Hopefully Virtua Racing is just the beginning. I would love a port of the original Sega Rally
I do not find most Sega Megadrive games to have aged well so I never spend my money on them but keep remaking the games post Megadrive. The Panzer Dragoon remake looks amazing. And some the games they released or developed during the Dreancast/Gamecube/PS2/X-Box era were fantastic and are screaming out for remakes. Skies of Arcadia/Panzer Dragoon Orta/Space Channel 5/Jet Set Radio Future/Billy Hatcher/F-Zero GX/Otogi 2
@HammerKirby Sonic Generations screwed up my fav char, Silver, so that game got blacklisted for me. Colors didn't play yet, and Mania is too close to playing the classic games to the point where I don't see a difference. The old games were fun when I first played them, but now I want a different experience that doesn't suck.
Is Colors really as good as everyone says it is? Silver may be my fav, but I hate Sonic 06 like everyone else. I think playing so many bad games made me worried to play Colors.
@Kalmaro : I agree, but that isn't saying very much. Mediocrity is Sega's trademark.
"We're never going to saturate the audience"
Kind of feels like famous last words to me.
@John_Deacon Are you sure about that? Even after downloading the newest update games like Sonic 1&2, Gunstar Heroes and Mean Bean Machine feel way off to me compared to their Sega Ages or 3D Classic versions. Maybe i'm doing something wrong, but the majority of these games still don't feel right.
@Carck let me just remind about the wink emoji at the end of my post, so my complaints aren’t bubbling from some heart of bitterness, but that’s neither here nor there.
Im genuinely glad that you feel Sega is just as much the premier gamesmaker today, as it was in 1980’s. In my market (NA) today, personally, I don’t feel quite that way. It doesn’t revolve around Sonic either. I’m not the only North American that feels Sega is not the company it used to be and that they’ve left a large catalog of much loved IP’s to wither. I’m glad you’re in all the places Sega is today (PC, Atlus, Yakuza, Football content, amusements, gambling entertainment, Japan focused online software), but none of that hearkens back to my Genesis and game gear days, later, my love for Sega Saturn, and to a smaller extent Dreamcast, though I own very few games for my Dreamcast.
Your post is factual, but you’d be a bit unfair to say I’m completely off the mark with my own experience.
And no, of course Sega isn’t at risk of a buyout, they’re better guarded than even Nintendo.
And again, smiles from me, life’s good and that Panzer Dragoon remake could make my whole year (in gaming)!
Look Sega we just need you to get on with it.........we're still waiting for you to open the flood gates!
@Nagi_Nagisa I'm saying that based on my own experience. I bought the collection on launch day and my disappointment was huge: almost all games were completely unplayable. Sonic 1, 2, the Shinobi games, Kid Chameleon, Gunstar Heroes, all my favorite ones. The only one that played OK was Alex Kidd, but as it's not one of my favorites, I played it for 2 days and then gave up the collection and even deleted it from my Switch (I bought a digital copy). Months later I decided to reinstall it and give it a second try to see if maybe there's an update of something and to my surprise everything was ok. I went through the end of both Sonics, Revenge of Shinobi, Toejam and Earl, for example, and everything was great. I couldn't beat Kid Chameleon but there's no input in that one anymore either.
The only difference between my first and second install was that first the game was installed in the console memory and now it's in my SD card and that can't be a reason for input delay. It just doesn't make sense. The point is: it runs great now. I don't know if anyone has had an experience similar to mine.
More Retro the better !!! It’s the best stuff. I’m a diehard retro gamer through and through:)
Would help if they had made a decent game since 1991.
Other than total war
@Carck as far as gaming goes, my spirit never left 1994, I can’t help it, lol. Sega will just have to sheild itself from my stones coming out of a time warp.
In seriousness, they’ll never/can’t go back, no, you’re right. But, in the games industry selling nostalgia is at least a many multimillion dollar enterprise even for companies with half of Sega’s history, so they know they need to look back, they say as much, even just for the sweet cash (Neo Geo ) I’m just here to express my hope that they dig deeper where they can, because they give far fewer (quality) nods to that legacy than Nintendo does to it’s own, and I think they should improve that.
The list I want of Sega Games is just too big!! There’s so many they can bring to us and I wish they’d get em out to us faster!! Here Goes:
House of the dead 1 to 4
Virtua Cop 1 to 3
Virtua Tennis
Virtua Fighter 1 to 5
Sega Rally Championship
Daytona USA
Zombie Revenge
Crazy Taxi 1&2
Zaxxon
Carnival
Congo Bongo
Space Channel 5
Bass and Marine Fishing
Streets of Rage 1-3
Elemental Master
Phantasy Star 2-4
Shining Force 1-3
Thunder Force II & III
Fantasy Zone 1&2
Alien Syndrome
Alien Soldier
Continental Mission
Sports Talk Baseball
Astal
Nights into Dreams
Baku Baku
Action Fighter
Space Harrier
Afterburner 1&2
Planet Harrier
Turbo Outrun
Outrunners
Outrun coast to coast 2006
And too many others that I can’t think of right now!!! BRING EM SEGA!!
Love the retro stuff. It's a shame they've neglected the fantastic Golden Axe (arcade version) since the days of the Wii, it would have made a stellar 3D Sega title for the 3DS
They're certainly not saturating Western audience with Sega Ages releases.
I still want a family friendly Payday clone featuring the Bonanza Bros.
Saturn Ports are necessary, since most Saturn games are overpriced.
They own Technosoft's IPs now, so how about getting Nekketsu Oyako (not to be confused with Technos/ArcSys' Nekketsu series), Blast Wind, TFV, and Hyper Duel on some current platforms?
@joey302
Enduro Racer 🙂🤞
I think they're getting pretty close to saturation on Sonic and Sonic 2 to be fair. They need to sort out Sonic 3.
@Fandabidozi yes!! Well the list was off the top of my head lol 😆
Also left out Golden Ax Death Adder, Teddy Boy, & Quartet, Clockwork Knight 1&2, Burning Rangers, World Series Baseball II, Hang On & Super Hang On, Guardian Heroes, Panzer Dragoon series, Dark Savior, POWER DRIFT, Galaxy Force II, Manx TT, and yes, Bug and Bug Too!!
I just want a new Virtua Fighter SEGA...
@Ryu_Niiyama I'd be happy to get VF5 Final Showdown Ver.B. it's the most beautifully balanced and technical fighting game on any platform.
Just don't use the joycons to play it!
Not much risk of over saturating on a large number of titles. Sega has been sitting on a ton of stuff that hasn't seen any kind of reissue. Nintendo may lean heaviest on NES reissues, but Sega seems to have an even smaller pool of games and also refuses to touch on later systems. How about giving a few 32X games a chance to find an audience with people that didn't want to jump on a late breaking add-on. Good luck ever playing Tempo again unless you have a working old system.
Scrolling through these comments, I only saw one other mention of Bug! and Clockwork Night. How about Knuckles Chaotix? They leave a lot of their titles to history while putting out Sonic 1 & 2 or Space Harrier for the 8th time.
Panzer Dragoon is a good start, the focus needs to turn to Saturn and Dreamcast rather than solely focusing on Mega Drive.
I am one of those guys that never purchased or have played any of Sega's main classics besides Sonic The Hedgehog back in the day, so just about any release from their backlog is worth at least a look.
@X68000 It always makes my day to find a fellow VF fan on this site. Also, playing with anything other than a fight stick? Never.
I'm still annoyed by the Yakuza 6 bait and switch. I keep hoping that sega will throw Nintendo a bone since they don't care about the franchise and the Switch is getting so many fighting games now. Alas...
@Ryu_Niiyama I still get the PS3 out just for VF5 and plug in a couple of Virtua Stick High Grades.
It's been 13 years or so since the last brand new game and cannot imagine Sega making another now 😫
@X68000 Never say never! I will hold up hope until the end. Seriously they know that VF has a fanbase. They just need to get off their sonic kick and get to it. I hate to say that but I hope that the loss of profit pushes them to dig into their IP catalog.
If only Nintendo was as quick to sell us their retro games on Switch...
@Ryu_Niiyama I don't even know if Sega have the resources and staff to make a fully fledged sequel. The producer of VF4&5 Noriyuki Shimoda no longer works for Sega AM2. Hope they can lure him and his team back through the door.
@X68000 Yeah I know, at this point I'm expecting kinda a soft reboot/revival like the new Samurai Spirits/Showdown game. I'll take anything at this point. Sega Ages of II and 4Evo...port of 5FS...anything. (I'd prefer 4/5 due to my main but I can go back to Kage if needed to play an older game.)
Well they did release 2 Sonic games in a year. They've released a Sonic game per year for a long time.
Eh, they SAY that, but the Sega Genesis Collection on Switch sure makes the Sega Genesis Mini a hard sell.
@John_Deacon Thanks for the info. I thought the collection was just terrible when I got it and haven’t touched it since, I’ll have to dig it out and see if it offers me an update.
Come on Sega. There is loads more retro IP that you can release, what has come so far should just be the tip of the ice berg!
@Joekun Yeah, it was terrible indeed.
See if you notice any improvement and get back to me, please. I don't know if many people have seen any change in input delay after release
All we want from you Sega Skies of Arcadia Legends remaster. 60fps gameplay please with 16:9 native and Dreamcast sound quality. We still didn't get the best version of that game
@rob7979 nuff said
@John_Deacon I just tried it again, and I do think there has been a big improvement. I tried out two Shinobi games again and they certainly felt playable now. Just as a caveat I should say that I always found Genesis controls to feel a bit spongey on the original hardware, but I remember feeling the games on Switch were downright unplayable when I first tried them.
Those Asians, they know we're hungry lol
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