With the release the fourth volume of SEGA’s new series of game compilations, appropriately titled the SEGA Vintage Collection, two more classic titles for the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive are now available — the funktastic co-operative games ToeJam and Earl and its sequel, ToeJam & Earl: Panic on Funkotron. After the break, we’ve included a basic overview of these titles and our general thoughts on them.
Ristar (also known as Ristar the Shooting Star) is the 1995 platformer developed by Sonic Team and released for the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive and later for the SEGA Game Gear. The game follows the titular young star as he travels across the Valdi Galaxy in pursuit of the evil space pirate Kaiser Greedy, who has kidnapped the Legendary Hero that watches over the galaxy and protects it from harm. Although it is often overshadowed by Sonic Team’s other popular series, including Phantasy Star, Samba de Amigo, NiGHTS, and, of course, Sonic the Hedgehog, Ristar has managed to hold its own over a veritable who’s who of video game classics, and today it is often considered to be one of the very best and most beloved games on the platform.
Without further ado, let’s blast off and take a look at a cheerful little tune called “Star Humming”.
SEGA Vintage Collection has been recently released on both XBLA and PSN – for the XBox 360 and PS3 respectfully. Known as SEGA AGES Online in Japan, it features proper emulations of SEGA classics – both console and arcade – with an abundance of features. It is developed by M2, former SNK employees responsible for SEGA’s Virtual Console offerings on Wii and many previous SEGA AGES games on PS2. Extensive emulation options, high definition artwork wallpapers, leader boards, saving, replays, achievements/trophies, new trial modes, and on-line play are all included, bringing these games back to life in a respectable, professional manner. With it being an on-going series of releases of classic games, it might be helpful to get a basic overview of what is included, how it fairs, and how others view the games released so far. Below is a compilation of this.
Date Released: April 1, 1994
Date Reviewed: August 19th, 2012
Genre: 2D Platformer/role-playing game
Players: 1 Player
Length: 5-8 hours
Replayability: Low
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Introduction:
Monster World IV is the 1994 platformer/role-playing game developed by Westone and released exclusively for the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive. Canonically, it is the sixth and final game in the Wonder Boy series, also being the fourth overall game in the related Monster World sub-series, which grew out of the former with the release of the Wonder Boy in Monster Land for the arcade and SEGA Master System in 1987 and 1988, respectively. Monster World IV had never seen an international release, being exclusive to Japan until very recently, when it was released on the Virtual Console for Nintendo’s Wii, as well as part of SEGA’s new Vintage Collection series, which brought it and Wonder Boy in Monster Land and Wonder Boy in Monster World to the PlayStation Network for PlayStation 3 and Xbox LIVE Arcade for Xbox 360. The wait, however, was well worth it, as Monster World IV is easily one of the finest games for the Genesis/Mega Drive, and it is sure to become an instant classic for many who haven’t yet experienced this wonderful gem of a game.
The arcade versions of Super Hang-On and Wonder Boy in Monster Land were both released today on the North American Virtual Console for Nintendo’s Wii. Unusual for the platform, the racing game Super Hang-On features brand new, but optional motion control functions that take advantage of the Wii Remote’s motion sensors. The action role playing game Wonder Boy in Monster Land is identical to it’s original arcade release and very similar to the SEGA Master System version of the game, which was previously launched on the service years ago.
The most notable download is the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive classic Monster World IV. This is the first time the game has become available outside of Japan and all of the game’s dialog is in English to reflect the change. Monster World IV was the final release in the Wonder Boy action role playing series of games.
All games are priced at 900 Wii Store Points each, or roughly $9 USD.
Each title is set to be released on PlayStation Network for PlayStation 3 and Xbox Live Arcade for Xbox 360, but no specific dates have been announced. It is worth noting that due to a change of Microsoft’s policy on their Achievement system that requires all downloadable games meet a certain criteria, the Monster World Collection and Alex Kidd & Co SEGA Vintage Collection releases – Both of which do not meet the recommended achievement score amount – will be released before June this year.
Last week, news from SEGA of America broke that saw numerous members of staff fired, games canceled and a general downsizing of the entire branch of SEGA of America. Initially, rumors ran rampant and confused a large amount of fans across the globe, the worst of which was that the entire United States branch of SEGA had completely shut down, which of course is not the case.
Immediate reconstruction has taken place going into their new fiscal year. They expect a net loss of ¥7.1 billion ($86.4 million) as part of the reform and news of this dropped their entire company’s stock 4%. However, the day after their stock rose 5% and is showing signs of continual growth.
After the break I discuss the potential cancellations, their effects, observe the negatives and positives of the change and attempt to discover if SEGA truly is in trouble or if the downsizing is the start of a brilliant strategy. The rest of the post should be taken as speculation from a dedicated fan of the company and game industry as a whole and not as a financial advisor.
Out of respect of those whom lost their jobs, any subjects around them will not be mentioned at all.
Gain Ground is the 1988 action-strategy arcade classic set around 350 years in the future where The Federated Government has created an era of peace. Because war ceases to exist the human race has begun to lose their fighting spirit; Worried of threats from outside of Earth, it is decided that a virtual reality simulation of various periods in time will be created to re-introduce their civilization to conflict. An unforeseen problem occurs and instead traps everyone inside the virtual world, turning the test of strength, knowledge and courage into a dark reality.
Included after the break are numerous variations of the ‘Origin’ zone, the first location in the game.
Date Released: November 15, 2011
Date Reviewed: December 3, 2011
Genre: Various Sports Party Game
Players: 1 to 4 Players
Length: 5-40 minutes for a single event, 20-100 minutes for London Party, full completion requires upwards of 30 hours
Replayability: Great
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Introduction
Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games is the third crossover game built around the iconic Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog video game franchises by Nintendo and SEGA, respectfully. This Wii title is a much different experience than the upcoming Nintendo 3DS release of the same name. An officially licensed Olympic Sporting Events party game designed for the upcoming 2012 Olympic Games in London, it succeeds in making an accessible title for all ages in the over saturated ‘Mini-game collection’ Wii market.
The latest Shinobi game in the long running franchise has been released today exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS in North America. Simply named Shinobi in all regions, except Japan where it is titled Shinobi 3D, this latest side-scrolling action game is developed by Griptonite Games whom were perhaps best known for their critically and commercially successful Spider-Man games on Nintendo DS.
Also released today is Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games for the Wii console. This is the third console crossover title combining Nintendo’s Mario and SEGA’s Sonic franchises whom were fierce competitors in the 1990s. The Nintendo 3DS version of this game has been delayed until February of 2012, much closer to the actual upcoming Olympics. This is the first in the series to not receive a Nintendo DS release.
After the break are the latest trailers for both games.
SEGA had the largest lineup or show floor of any publisher at Tokyo Game Show 2011. As such, they have received the most amount of people view their titles and had the longest press and fan events. They also had an extensive library of games by Electronic Arts that they demonstrated as they will be distributing a large amount of their games in Japan in the upcoming years.
We have collected info from hundreds of previews, interviews and presentations then summed it all up in a simple read after the break.
The SEGA Source 