The Weekly Five: SEGA CD Games that Deserve the Christian Whitehead Treatment

Given the success of the Sonic CD rerelease, both critically and in sales, I think it’s about time SEGA gave Retro Engine creator Christian Whitehead his own studio tasked with rereleasing more classic SEGA games from the Genesis/Mega Drive era. While the Retro Engine can cover more than just SEGA CD titles, I think the SEGA CD library is long overdue for some ports. While the SEGA CD console gets a fair share of shit from the gaming community, there is no denying that the add-on had a number of awesome games. In this week’s Weekly Five we’ll highlight five great SEGA CD games that deserve a rerelease utilizing the Retro Engine. I’ve tried to keep the list tied to games that SEGA could conceivably rerelease, so there is no Snatcher due to that title being owned by Konami.

Shining Force: Cross Raid – Trailer



It’s fair to say that the Shining series has had a rocky time of late, with some good-ish games like Shining Wind (if you’re into that kind of thing) and some really bad ones, like Shining Force Neo and Shining Force EX.

But what’s most annoying is that the best of the bunch, like Shining Force Feather for the DS and Shining Force Cross Raid (seen above) never made it out of Japan! On that note, here’s a trailer of Shining Force Cross Raid.

Cross Raid is an Arcade game in the same vein as Phantasy Star Online… But don’t get too excited: unless you go to or come from Japan, you’re unlikely to ever play it.

SEGA permanently drops prices on iOS games

SEGA has announced a permanent price drop on their iOS games (iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch). If you haven’t picked up some their titles when they had that crazy turkey deal, you suck. But you can still get them cheaper than usual.

  • ChuChu Rocket: Now: $2.99 (was: $4.99)
  • ChuChu Rocket HD: Now: $4.99 (was: $6.99)
  • Ecco the Dolphin: Now: $0.99 (was: $2.99)
  • Football Manager 2010: Now: $4.99 (was: $7.99)
  • Golden Axe: Now: $0.99 (was: $2.99)
  • Gunstar Heroes: Now: $2.99 (was: $4.99)
  • Phantasy Star II: Now: $2.99 (was: $4.99)
  • Shining Force: Now: $0.99 (was: $2.99)
  • Super Monkey Ball 2: Now: $2.99 (was: $5.99)
  • Super Monkey Ball 2 Sakura Edition: Now: $4.99 (was: $7.99)
  • Sonic The Hedgehog 1: Now: $4.99 (was: $5.99)
  • Sonic The Hedgehog 2: Now: $4.99 (was: $5.99)
  • Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode 1: Now: $6.99 (was: $9.99)
  • Streets of Rage: Now: $0.99 (was: $2.99)

Wow, Sonic 4 really dropped in price over the last couple of months. Get it!

Shining Force Central – Save our Series!

The long running Shining Force fansite known as Shining Force Central run by the biggest Shining Force fan there is ‘Moogie’ has sprung into action with a new campaign to convince Sega and/or Camelot to give us a new Shining FORCE game in the classic style for next years Shining Forces 20th anniversary.

Who better to introduce the idea then Moogie herself?

Hit the jump for what she had to say on the matter!

Shining Force Cross: Raid trailer

Check out this brand new trailer for Shining Force Cross: Raid, a sequel to last years Shining Force Cross, Cross Raid is made exclusively for the Arcade.

The game doesn’t share a much if anything with classic Shining games, game play or art style wise. In fact it looks akin to a Phantasy Star Online game play wise. However I think the game does look like good fun on its own merits. I wouldn’t hesitate to try it out if ever I had the chance.

However a return to classic Shining Force in both game play and art style is long over due.

SEGA having back to school iPhone sale

Now you can get all your iPhone games on the cheap, you know before you go back to school and someone steals that brand new iPhone 4 you got during the summer.

Ecco the Dolphin $2.99 –> $0.99 / £1.79 – £0.59
Golden Axe : $2.99 –> $0.99 / / £1.79 – £0.59
Shining Force: $2.99 –> $0.99 / £1.79 – £0.59
Sonic the Hedgehog: $5.99 –> $2.99 / £3.49 – £1.79
Sonic the Hedgehog 2: $5.99 –> $2.99 / £3.49 – £1.79
Streets of Rage: $2.99 –> $0.99 £1.79 – £0.59
Super Monkey Ball: $2.99 –> $1.99 £1.79 – £1.19
Super Monkey Ball 2: $5.99 –> $2.99 / £3.49 – £1.79
Super Monkey Ball 2: Sakura Edition (iPad): $7.99 –> $3.99 / £4.99 – £2.39

I would download them, but I don’t have an iPhone.

[Thanks: charmed699]

Sega Series – Hurt and Healed.

Disclaimer; What follows is the humble opinions of a Sega fan! You may not agree with these opinions, but that would just make you WRONG! 😉

I would usually argue that anyone still toting the ‘Sega makes crap games’ line needs a swift kick to the nuts. Not only because this all to common phrase is simply not true, but also because this must mean the person suggesting such a thing would have missed a lot of frankly brilliant Sega games released recently such as Yakuza 3, Valkyria Chronicles, Bayonetta, Phantasy Star Portable 2, Napoleon: Total War and After Burner Climax to name but a few released this year.

Not to mention, we often tend to forget forget Sega has a strong Arcade presents to uphold. Games like Border Break, Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown and Lets go Island are all quality games that have yet to see the light of day outside of a Japanese arcade.

I’m not here to talk about all of the things SEGA’s done right, though. Anyone who’s actually interested in good SEGA games can find that out for themselves. What I intend to talk about is how this misconception started and where it does have some grounds in truth. We’ll be looking at the games Sega really did mess up, how they were fixed and if they weren’t how I personally feel they could be.
So let’s start this ruckus!

Hit the jump for more of my ramblings.

Shining Force shines on the iPod!

Didn’t SEGA say they were reassessing their iPod presence? Because it seems to me that they’re doing the same thing they were doing before: the occasional great 3D title and a number of emulated Genesis budget titles. Despite that, I’m glad SEGA has finally released a Genesis game worth buying an iPhone version of: Shining Force!

Offered up on the same emulation software as past Genny titles, Shining Force actually plays very well. As the game doesn’t require precise controls for split-second jumps (a la Sonic), players will barely notice the hiccups that may occur on older i devices. I might even buy the thing for my first generation iPod Touch.

The game is now available in the App store for $2.99

[source: TouchArcade and The Nomad Junkyard]

Sega at AOU 2010


If there is one thing about Sega that never fails to impress,  it’s their arcade output, and this year is no different!  Sega’s stage was easily the highlight of AOU 2010 and were going to show you why.

Luckily some kind fellow recorded Sega’s event at AOU and has kindly uploaded it to youtube for us all to see.

You like Arcade games? you like little girls dancing? Sega got you covered! Check out both videos here,