Herzog Zwei Joins Japan's Sega Ages Line On 27th August

I remember back when Electronic Games Monthly gave Herzog Zwei 3s and 4s out of 10. All because the reviewers were stupified on how this strange new top-down shooter from Technosoft, the makers of Thunder Force II, played... even though it was a real-time strategy game instead.

Definitely grabbing it when it leaves Japan.

crazy to think ive bought half of these games, and I'll definitely be picking up Herzog Zwei when we get it.

Hopefully we'll get more of these titles.

@Sabrewing To be fair RTS wasn't really a genre then. And even now the ones that play like Herzog Zwei are a rarer type (I can name Airmech and Tooth n' Tail, while the later Dune 2 was the genre codifier).
Also funny how RTS has its roots in two games that both have 2 in their titles.

I'm glad the next game is not something already re-released 10 times. This looks really good.

Can I play as Werner?

@Sabrewing I remember reading about that. I think the European games magazines generally recieved it better. I never played it & only read about it so I will be picking it up as well

Kinda dissapointing really. Is this it? That's all they're going to do?

No Dreamcast and no Saturn games? Well never get those. And when the next Nitnendo system comes out theyll slowly release these same games over 3 years AGAIN.

It's so tiring. Just emulate at this point because Nintendo and Sega obviously don't want your money.

@Slowdive yep agreed, a physical compilation of all of these would be day one for me but I imagine this won’t happen for some time.

Sega said about 2 years ago if these games sold well enough they'd bring Dreamcast games over... So did they? 🤔

Oh, I do hope these SEGA AGES games were a success and we get more announced (maybe in the next Direct?) I'm not very hopeful...

I really hope Sega isn't done with the AGES line; I've really enjoyed them and would definitely pick up Herzog Zwei as well. I'll be blunt, though; knowing Sega's history it's anyone's guess as to whether they'll continue to bother with anything not named "Sonic" going forward.

If the AGES line is indeed finished, perhaps they'd consider some compilations of their arcade, Saturn, and Dreamcast catalogs. Again, though, I'm not going to hold my breath. They sit on their mountain of beloved IPs like some Dwarf king hoarding his gold, apparently deaf to the pleas of their fans for the most part. We're very, very fortunate to have gotten the games we have out of this line.

If this is the end of the line, it's been good but it could have been so much better. Virtua Racing, Outrun and Phantasy Star were the highlights for me. I was hoping the work they done with Virtua Racing would lead to them doing the same with the other 'Virtua' games.

@Clyde_Radcliffe Reportedly sales were disappointing in Japan but a bit better in the west.

I really wish SEGA would stop teasing Dreamcast and Saturn games. They did it when SEGA Forever launched on mobile devices and they did it again when SEGA AGES launched on Switch. Either give us Saturn/DC games or tell us straight up they're not coming. Enough with this "maybe" crap.

With that said, I hope the AGES lineup gets Golden Axe Revenge of Death Adder, Virtua Fighter and Cotton at the very least. All 3 should be simple enough seeing as how they're coming to the SEGA Astro City Mini later this year.

@Sabrewing i know but was one best couch coop games play with your friends. epic battles

Most deffinately day one.

Crazy to think that sega hes yet to release Daytona USA on switch, people want this SEGA.. people want this!

Ah this is nice, such an important and misunderstood game... and one i spent not enough time on

I am also hoping the Ages Line continues, there’s so many gems I really want. I hope this is not down to sales. If it is, I would be interested to know which games didn’t sell well (it would be criminal if Outrun / Virtua Racing did not sell well).

I would expect they can at least give us previous instalments like Power Drift / Turbo Outrun / Super Hang-On / Afterburner with little effort.
Games that are coming to the New Arcade Mini should also be an easy port to the Ages Line Up

An odd title for the ages line to go out on.

Makes sense since Sega seems more focused on mini consoles nowadays.

Put these on a physical compilation

I don't want to see the AGES series end. So I'm going to buy up the last remaining AGES games I'm missing that I'm interested in when Herzog Zwei comes out. Heck, I might even buy it on my JP account to help those numbers out. I may have said this before but it's worth repeating, if you're holding out for physical please consider picking up one or two of the digital games. Reason for that is that unless you've let SEGA know via Twitter or one of their past surveys that you want a physical collection, then they'll have no idea you're witholding your purchase for that reason. And while SEGA guys like Yosuke Okunari are retweeting western reviews of AGES games, like NintendoLife reviews, to their audiences, it doesn't guarantee that SEGA of Japan are reading our comments.

In the long run not spending money does nothing to help this cause, especially when a physical collection has not been promised in the first place. This is it. We don't have much time left.

Oh man, I've always wanted to play this game. EGGCITE!!!

@khululy Daytona surely has licensing concerns, but also supposedly the hardware was so advanced for its time (they did hire/license it from a aero-space technology company) that it wasn't around the PS3 era or so I heard Sega could properly emulate it, I heard. I can't recall for sure, did they previously re-release under a rebranded name?

Zaxxon, Congo Bongo, Daytona USA, Daytona USA 2/SCUD Racer, Sega Rally Championship, Super Monaco GP, the Virtua Fighter series, Pengo, Afterburner/Afterburner Climax, Super Hang-On, Power Drift, OutRun 2006, Star Wars Arcade, Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder...there's way more than enough genuine arcade classics alone to either keep the AGES line going for a LONG time or to make up one absolutely amazing, must-have compilation. It's frustrating when it feels like Sega's on a completely different page...no, an entirely different BOOK...than their fans and consumers.

Sad the the series ends now. Was hoping to get Phantasy Star 2 and Golden Axe at some point.

What a waste of time. Really tired of playing the same 16-Bit games over and over again.

Oh damn. I have like 5 or 6 sega ages games and were expecting more. But they always complained about low sales and very long development cycles.

@DK-Fan It's a double-edged sword, for sure. Personally, I vote with my wallet even though I realize I'm only a single consumer, because money/profit is the only language corporations really care about, and I have invested in most of the AGES games to date toward that end. I also took the time to complete the surveys you can fill out in the menu of each AGES game, which include the opportunity to request specific future titles.

Of course, these aren't the only examples. I went all-in on Valkyria Chronicles 4 (and purchased three different versions of the original VC before that...as well as showed it off to several friends, each of whom bought their own copies), but didn't touch Azure because it was garbage and I (and thankfully many other fans) wanted to send Sega the message of our displeasure even at the risk of them using it to justify lack of interest in the franchise as a whole.

One very real and serious problem is that so many gamers say they want this or that franchise or remake brought back, only to have the developer take it in a direction (as was the case with VC: Azure) that's neither asked for nor welcome because in many cases it tries to appeal to "the mainstream" instead of the core audience who supported the originals to begin with. The flip side of the coin is even worse: when the developer gives them exactly what they asked for and not enough people put their money where their mouths were. In either scenario a publisher (especially the likes of Sega) will use it to justify returning to their primary M.O. (which in Sega's case means churning out Sonic titles ad nauseam).

At the end of the day, all we can do is vote with our wallets and hope for the best. We're at the mercy of corporations who frankly don't care about us or our wishes to begin with.

R.I.P SEGA AGES. SEGA just announced there are no more games in the series after this one. WAAAAAAAAAGH!

@SmaggTheSmug The original Herzog (for MSX) was also like an RTS, but it was the map was strictly vertical. Still, it plays very similarly, if more primitive. It seemed similar to Rescue Raiders which was potentially an inspiration.

Warcaft III came out of the line of games from Dune 2 on (Command and Conquer, Starcraft) and brought RTS back in that direction of a powerful component "on the board" with the rest of the RTS units. From Warcraft III custom maps MOBA emerged and took it to a point where you no longer had control over the small units focusing only on the heroes.

Not many strike the balance that Herzog Zwei does, which is one of the reasons people still clamor for it.

(Airmech was a free-to-play modernization of Herzog Zwei that I expected to like much more than I did)

@Sabrewing I distinctly remember this. EGM also did Target Earth (Assault Suit Leynos) a similar discredit... though that game was crazy hard until I accidentally discovered the unlimited continue trick. It's funny because along with Sonic, Herzog Zwei and Target Earth are the games that make the Genesis/MD an "unskippable" console for me.

@SmaggTheSmug Thanks for bringing up Tooth and Tail! I had never played it, and forgotten about it.

@GrailUK wow, that’s a huge disappointment.

@Gerald I know right. Man. On the bright side, they did say they wanted to continue to revisit old games on Switch and are working on something. So maybe they are bnringing Dreamcast games or something, and rebranding. (I'm the eternal optimist lol)

@durr I had to comment further to your point. THIS is exactly why I own a ton of modded systems like the Wii, Xbox, Snes and Nes and most recently a modded Genesis mini with 8,000 games packed in! There’s no good excuse here why Sega would decide to end this Ages line now and leave dozens and dozens of their classic games behind!! Makes no sense to me at all! I refuse to wait any longer while corporate clowns make these stupid decisions. So I’ll continue to purchase modded systems to feed my retro gaming needs. As Big a Sega fan that I am this is just plain stupid. Sega ignores the Saturn & dreamcast just like Nintendo ignores the Cube and N64! Ridiculous at this point! 😕
Thank goodness for Hamster for all the retro games they’ve done on the Switch so far! 👍

@joey302 yep. My Switch is hacked and packed with emulators.

If they won't offer me official releases I'll emulate them myself.

@durr I agree - well I didn’t have my Switch hacked as the other systems I mentioned fill the gaps lol. The other great thing about having the mods is you also get the older games with licensing issues that we will never ever see although we do occasionally get surprised with releases like the double pack of Aladdin and Lion King. But it’s also about Nintendo and Sega ignoring their most recent consoles. It’s shameful that Nintendo still doesn’t have any N64 offerings on the Switch after 3 years when they had them on Wii shop and the Wii U! I just don’t understand their strategy, if you can even call it a strategy at all. And to folks who criticize me for this I say there’s a ton of gamers also doing it and I’ve spent PLENTY of money on this industry over the past 40 years lol as an enthusiast with a large game collection. 😊