The SEGA Five: Star Wars Games on SEGA Consoles

When I was a kid, most of my free time involved the three S’s: SEGA, Star Wars and The Simpsons. Sometimes, though very rarely, these things would mix. Simpsons games would appear on the Genesis, The Simpsons would parody Star Wars and Sonic 2 would feature the Death Star inspired Death Egg. Despite all this intermingling of my favorite media properties, I never was able to play a Star Wars game on my SEGA Genesis due to Nintendo getting all the games. I recall seeing the Super Star Wars Trilogy in magazines and thinking “why can’t the Genesis get those!?”. As time went on, Star Wars games began to appear on SEGA consoles, and in 1999 I finally owned a console that would receive some of these games. Now, in 2012, I’ve amassed most of the SEGA consoles and all of the Star Wars games. With The Phantom Menace 3D hitting theaters this weekend, I thought it would be fitting to look back at five of my favorite Star Wars games that appeared on SEGA consoles. Do they still hold up? Let’s find out!

Years of the Dreamcast Part 1: Genesis

Years of the Dreamcast is my first stab at autobiographical writing. It is long and is largely a tribute to the Dreamcast’s effect on my life. For those of you brave enough to read a bit about my boring life, my hat goes off to you. I hope you enjoy reading about my Dreamcast experience, and are willing to share yours with the community as well.

Believe it or not, I didn’t really get into gaming with the SEGA Genesis. Or the SNES. Or any other old school console for that matter. Sure, I PLAYED games on my Genesis and Game Gear back in the day, like Sonic, Lion King, and Ecco, but as soon as the Genesis croaked in 1996 I nearly left gaming all together in favor of other interests, including something that got me to buy a Genesis in the first place: Archie’s Sonic comics. I completely passed over the 32 bit generation, something I now sincerely regret given SEGA had some of its best games during that era.

It wasn’t until 2000 that a game console again caught my interest: a SEGA Dreamcast in a Target demo kiosk. I had been playing the N64 and Playstation in kiosks for years, and as much fun as I had had with them, this new system, this Dreamcast, felt like something special. The game on display, Sonic Adventure, was immediately playable. There was no wandering around or collecting of trinkets required to progress: an entire level was immediately opened up to me after the title screen.