Digital Eclipse is name that holds a spectacular reputation among fans of retro gaming. The Atari SA owned development studio has been behind some of the most highly regarded retro game collections in recent years, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection, Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration, and their most recently announced games Golden Tee: Arcade Classics and Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection. (Of note to Sega fans, that upcoming Mortal Kombat collection… sorry, I mean “Kollection…” will include the Genesis/Mega-Drive, Game Gear, and even 32X ports of multiple Mortal Kombat titles)
When speaking with Games Industry.biz regarding their work on Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection, Digital Eclipse head of production Stephen Frost mentioned he’d love to be able to do a collection of Sega’s fighting games on the Sega Saturn. This isn’t a confirmation that any such project is actually in development, but it is cool to hear nonetheless.
You can see his exact quote past the break here.
When asked about what sort of retro game collections he’d like for Digital Eclipse to be able to make in the future, Mr. Frost, himself a former employee of Sega of America, first talked about how keen he’d be on a collection of games based around corporate mascots such as Cool Spot (1993), Yo! Noid (1990), and Pepsiman (1999). After that was when he talked about the games you really wanna hear about. (I can see it on your face from way across the internet)
“The other idea, because I’m a fighting game fan, would be to do a Sega Saturn-based fighting game collection,” he continues. “So all the fighting games from the Sega Saturn: the Virtua Fighters, Fighting Vipers, all that stuff in a collection. I think that would be really popular.”
Digital Eclipse’s collections tend to not only be pretty good at reproducing the look and performance of classic games, but they’re also known to jam pack their collections with a bevy of archival material, including high quality box art and manual scans, concept art, design documents, printed advertisements, and other materials most gamers never get to see. Atari 50 and Digital Eclipse’s Gold Master series of collections have also included a rich timeline of the development of these games and everything else that was going on with the companies and other parties involved that led to the games being the way they are and how they’ve shaped the gaming landscape since then. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection promises to feature all of that kind of material as well. Having something like that centered around Sega’s amazing library of fighting games on the Saturn, or any other classic Sega games, would be amazing for the Sega fans out there who are really interested in the history of these games. Sometimes, a little historical context can really enhance your appreciation of an old game.
Of course, if Digital Eclipse gets to make a collection like this, it won’t even be their first time working with Sega by a long shot. During the years when they were known as Backbone Emeryvillie, as part of Backbone Entertainment, they had developed digital ports of various Genesis/Mega-Drive games for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, including Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2, 3, and Sonic & Knuckles, Gunstar Heroes, Phantasy Star II, Streets of Rage 2, and Ecco the Dolphin, as well as the arcade versions of Golden Axe and Shinobi. They were even behind the emulated port of Sonic the Hedgehog featured in the original 2011 versions of Sonic Generations. Most notably, however, they made two separate Genesis compilations: Sega Genesis Collection for PS2 and PSP and Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection on Xbox 360 and PS3, both of which featured plenty of developer interviews, as Digital Eclipse loves to do.
Funnily enough, Digital Eclipse, as Backbone Emeryville, had also developed the Charlottes Web video game on both the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS, which was based on the 2006 live action film adaptation of the 1952 children’s novel written by E.B. White and published by Sega of America. Studio president Mike Mika recently had a funny reflection from his time working on that game, about it being known internally as “Pig of Persia” due to the game’s similarity to the classic computer platformer Prince of Persia (1989).
As previously mentioned, no Sega game compilations from Digital Eclipse are confirmed to be in active development as of this writing, but if they plan on making any pitches like this to Sega, then we here at SegaBits wish them the best of luck. We’re positive they’d do a great job, just as they’ve done before. In fact, Sega definitely needs a new Genesis compilation to sell to us after taking away the last one, and there are far worse companies out there who could get it done than Digital Eclipse.
Would you be interested in a Saturn fighting collection from Digital Eclipse? What other games from Sega would you want to see in such a collection? Are there any other retro Sega collections you’d want them to tackle instead? Are you looking forward to Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection (Especially knowing Sega ports will be included)? Let your fists do the talking in the comments below.
Finally, check out the rest of the Games Industry.biz article regarding Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection here.
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I’ve enjoyed Digital Eclipse’s Atari 50 compilation and this sounds like a great idea. The only thing is, most of Sega’s Saturn fighting games are arcade ports, aren’t they? Except for Last Bronx, I believe. So I would want it to include the arcade versions as well as the Saturn versions.
Last Bronx was also an arcade port, and if they ever got to make a collection like this, I’d imagine they’d have to include the arcade versions. Knowing Digital Eclipse, they’d probably even try to get the Game.com version of Fighters Megamix in there if possible.
I will be praying beyond all hope and crossing my fingers that this will happen one way or another. At least I’ll have the mortal kombat kollection to look forward to along with the house of the dead 2 remake in the meantime. But seriously though: A sega saturn/arcade fighting collection would sell like buttermilk hotcakes in this day and age. That and a sonic adventure 1 and 2 bundle on modern platforms. Just sayin.😁🦔🦊🌱
Agreed, although I wouldn’t pay full price for that HOTD2 remake if I were you. It ain’t worth it.
I enjoyed the first one. But considering the impressions on the hotd2 remake demo have been pretty bad I’ll probably wait to get the game at a discount. I got the first game for pretty dirt cheap anyway. I could just save up for sonic racing crossworlds in the meantime anyway.