Ask any fan of SEGA what the best console from the company was. Most will answer that it was the Genesis or the Mega Drive for my fellow gamers in Japan and Europe. I get the strong impression that SEGA themselves firmly believes that with the Genesis, they were at their best and it isn't hard to see why. The system sold the most of any of the company's consoles and with the help of Sonic the Hedgehog, they showed the world that they were a force that should not be taken lightly, capturing the number one spot from Nintendo in 1991. There's no doubt that the Genesis made a huge impact in gaming back in the day and SEGA is going to remind us yet again why the system was so loved with the release of the SEGA Genesis Classics in late May of this year.
Anyone that's into retro gaming and has been on Steam probably already knows of this collection. You can either buy the ROMs for these games in bulk or individually. The PS4 and XBO releases are all of the games in one collection both physically and digitally. If you're thinking that this sounds an awful lot like Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection, an anthology that released in 2009 and contained many of the games that are in this upcoming release, you aren't too far off. However, the SEGA Genesis Classics has a much cooler user interface and some games that were not present in Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection like Alien Soldier, Gunstar Heroes, Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi, The Revenge of Shinobi, Landstalker as well as ToeJam & Earl and ToeJam & Earl: Panic on Funkotron.
SEGA Genesis Classics is all fine and dandy and I'll be picking this one up come release day. However, I'd really like to see a SEGA compilation that isn't so Genesis focused.
The SEGA Master System may have recieved thrashing to the NES but in Brazil and Europe, the system was extremely popular. The Master System version of Sonic the Hedgehog is a pretty compete platformer and Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is heavily lauded as one of the best, if not the best game for the Master System. There are certainly better ports of OutRun but for some, the Master System version was their childhood and it would be great if they could legally play that version of the game on current hardware.
You've also got SEGA's extensive arcade catalog, which is nothing short of amazing. There's the big guns like OutRun, Space Harrier and Super Hang-On, but I'm dying for Turbo OutRun and OutRunners to get more recognition.
Sure, the Saturn and the Dreamcast were failures but they had some really great games like Guardian Heroes, NiGHTS into dreams..., the Panzer Dragoon titles, Crazy Taxi 1-2, Jet Set Radio, etc. The Saturn is a system that is notoriously difficult to emulate games for, which could be the reason we haven't really seen a Saturn-esque compilation. There was a Dreamcast Collection but the number of games was abysmal, lacking some of the system's best games.
It has been almost 10 years since the release of Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection. Genesis compilations are easy, safe money. "Safe" being the key word here. That is the game SEGA has been playing for years now. Perhaps it is due to all the hardware failures after the Genesis but SEGA has not been the risk takers they used to be. They have so many IPs yet more often than not, the only ones they let come out to play are Sonic and Yakuza. I'd love for SEGA to give the many other IPs they have boxed up in a closet or non-Genesis compilations a shot, but I'll still be snagging SEGA Genesis Classics on day one.
And where the frick is the Switch version? Dumb move, SEGA.
Sure, the Saturn and the Dreamcast were failures but they had some really great games like Guardian Heroes, NiGHTS into dreams..., the Panzer Dragoon titles, Crazy Taxi 1-2, Jet Set Radio, etc. The Saturn is a system that is notoriously difficult to emulate games for, which could be the reason we haven't really seen a Saturn-esque compilation. There was a Dreamcast Collection but the number of games was abysmal, lacking some of the system's best games.
It has been almost 10 years since the release of Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection. Genesis compilations are easy, safe money. "Safe" being the key word here. That is the game SEGA has been playing for years now. Perhaps it is due to all the hardware failures after the Genesis but SEGA has not been the risk takers they used to be. They have so many IPs yet more often than not, the only ones they let come out to play are Sonic and Yakuza. I'd love for SEGA to give the many other IPs they have boxed up in a closet or non-Genesis compilations a shot, but I'll still be snagging SEGA Genesis Classics on day one.
And where the frick is the Switch version? Dumb move, SEGA.
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