SEGA's best and worst of 2012

[semmie]

There's also that and perhaps waay too many re-releases... I just hope they don't turn into the new Atari that pretty much only does small digital titles. They've pretty much faded into obscurity.

i made a topic about this some time ago the disease of re release. and all i can say is that i agee with you
it cant be healthy to go on like that

[CrazyT]

I'd also like to give a quick nod to Spiral Knights, perhaps one of the most acessible free-to-play games on the market today.

I was gonna say spiral knights as well, but that game launched in 2011 so

Funny you mention this, as this Nintendo fan I used to talk to said to me why would SEGA give VC as an exclusive to Sony without any benefits?

To this day I don't get their logic with that.

It's a shame because the franchise may have been alive and well in the west DID it come out on the 3DS

[Barry the Nomad]

Nobody has shared a list of all the 2012 titles yet?

• Binary Domain
• Yakuza of the End
• Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
• Total War: Shogun 2 - Fall of the Samurai
• Football Manager 2013
• Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown
• Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode II
• Hell Yeah!
• Super Monkey Ball Banana Splitz
• Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition (Vita)
• Rhythm Thief & the Emperor’s Treasure
• Crush 3D
• Jet Set Radio HD
• Sonic Adventure 2 HD
• NiGHTS into Dreams... HD
• Vintage Collection: Streets of Rage
• Vintage Collection: Golden Axe
• Vintage Collection: Monster World
• Vintage Collection: Alex Kidd & Co.
• Vintage Collection: Toe Jam & Earl
• Sonic the Fighters
• Virtua Fighter 2
• Fighting Vipers
• The House of the Dead III (PSN)
• The House of the Dead 4 (PSN)
• Total War Battles: SHOGUN
• Virtua Tennis Challenge
• Sonic Jump
• Jack Lumber
• Zaxxon Escape
• Crazy Taxi iOS

[CrazyT]

Thanks a lot barry, i wanted to but i got lazy finding a source.

[MadeManG74]

Thanks for posting Barry, although it doesn't change my list. I'm still in love with the titles I already pointed out.

[Barry the Nomad]

No problem! We had this list in the writers forum, and I thought it would be handy here.

I'm putting together our games of the year round table and should post it tomorrow (waiting on a few stragglers). I've also linked this topic  in the article for those who want to join in on sharing their picks.

[Chaosmaster8753]

^ Yeah I know about Infogrammes buying the name from a while back. Maybe I was thinking of Namco Bandai because they are the distributors here in Aus.

I was reminded of Atari being the former publisher of Dragon Ball games in the West (Namco Bandai publishes the games now and they always have in Japan.)

[max_cady]

Atari was also responsible for distribution of most of the 2002-2004 SEGA titles in Europe. This was the awkward transition period when SEGA Europe shut down it's operations. And the SEGA Europe brand did not get relaunched till 2006 I think.

Getting back to the topic, I think I'll have to consider putting Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown on my Best Of list.

I don't understand why, because the game engine is from 2007. But there's so much background detail, the character models look much more detailed than before. Small little things... There's the License Mode which is a more focused variation of the classic Quest Mode.

[Grant360]

BEST: Very very close but I will have to go for Sonic Transformed. Great tracks, great fan service (Although where is Shenmue, Outrun & Daytona cars etc?) & innovative.

BIGGEST SUPPRISE: LONDON 2012 - I am a huge fan of Athlete Kings (Decathlete) & after the respectable Sydney 200 on the DC there haven't been ANY great track and field games. The production values were high. The multiplayer was blinding fun and the range of events very good.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Sonic 4 Ep 2 (Sega fixed the wrongs with Episode 1)
Virtua Fighter 5 - FS (Retail game at XBLA cost - still the best fighting game out there)
Binary Domain (Slightly beter textures and multiplayer and this would have been better than Gears Of War. In fact the single player arguably is)
NiGHTS - The original with the PS2s improved textures in full HD. Withe the Saturn version thrown in for Nostalgia

WORST: SONIC THE FIGHTERS - Utter utter crap. Sega's worst fighter EVER

MOST DISSAPPOINTING: No Shenmue HD announcemet. Surely 2013 will be the year?

[Barry the Nomad]

Yeah, I enjoyed Sonic 4 Episode 2. No way could it beat stuff like Binary Domain, ASRT or Hell Yeah, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. I'd put it second tier in my favorite games listing.

I guess my issues with Sonic 4 Episode 2 wasn't so much the game itself, which I thought was a solid 2D Sonic title, but that it made so many improvements that it didn't feel like an episode 2 to episode 1. If anything, it felt like a reboot to Sonic 4. I had envisioned the episodic titles to build off of the map screen, like how Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles created one big game. Instead, Episode 1 was a separate title from Episode 2, and the only real link were the Episode Metal episodes which were fun but way too brief.

I guess, given the hate Episode 1 gets, it was for the best to distance Episode 2. But the OCD Sonic fan in me wishes you could play from Splash Hill through to Death Egg Mk II. It doesn't help that SEGA is now being very iffy about an episode 3. In fact, it seems they cut a teaser out of the end of Episode 2, which makes the final ending very unsatisfying. Sonic and Tails just float back to Earth. No big happy ending, just an incomplete sort of bleak end. I have a feeling the teaser involved the Master Emerald appearing on screen and getting stolen by Eggman.

IMO, Episode 2 was good enough to warrant an Episode 3. If Episode 1 got a followup, and Episode 1 itself was pretty weak and unoriginal, then Episode 2 deserves a follow up.

[Grant360]

Completely agree they should have bound together. Sadly Episode 1 was so broken it needed the changes. They feel like separate games rather than episodic content. However as a standalone game I think it was overlooked and I really liked it. I guess the main thing is how did it sell. Sonic 4 Ep 1 did 2 millions copies. Sega certainly hasn't said much on how Ep 2 did? My biggest gripe was the 1200 point price. When Walking Dead publishes episodes at 400! When a port like Sonic Adventure 2 can sell 500,000 on the 360 alone I guess that tells a story and may be why sega may have cancelled it?

I really didn't get Hell Yeah! I wanted to... But it just never clicked for me.