A couple of months ago I wrote an article suggesting 5 franchises that Microsoft should bring back. This time, I’m going through the Sega back catalogue. Back in the 80s and 90s Nintendo and Sega were locked in a console war that makes the Sony v Microsoft battle look like a couple of toddlers having a pillow fight. As you can probably tell from the fact that Nintendo still make consoles and Sega doesn’t, things didn’t work out quite so well for Sega. Fortunately the once mighty corporation hasn’t completely disappeared, they do still make games. What follows are 5 games that I would love to see Sega revisit.
Related article: Back from the dead! 5 Franchises Microsoft should revive
Golden Axe
What was it: Golden Axe was a side-scrolling, hack and slash game. It was first released in the arcades in June 1989 before being ported onto the Mega Drive/Genesis in December of that year. At the start of the game you chose to play as one of three characters: Ax Battler the barbarian, Tyris Flare (an Amazonian), and Gilius Thunderhead (a Viking dwarf). You then proceeded to make your way through levels while being attacked by skeletons, knights, other barbarians, and Amazonians as you tried to rescue the King and Princess from Death Adder.
Why should it be brought back: I could see Golden Axe coming back in one of two ways. You could make it into a full-blown action RPG. The story elements are all there for a classic RPG adventure. King and Princess to rescue, check. Villain who killed your family, check. Hero who can either use melee weapons or magic, check. The other way would be to make it like Diablo 3, as a dungeon crawler. The gameplay would be similar to the original, just in 3D.
Chances of revival: Unlikely. Sega tried to reboot the series back in 2008 with the poor ‘Golden Axe: Beast Rider’ (currently has a Metacritic rating of 45).
Jet Set Radio
What was it: Jet Set Radio (or Jet Grind Radio in North America) was a rollerblading, graffiti, dance, action-adventure game. One of the earliest cel-shaded games, the art-style really made the game ‘pop’ and stand out. Everything about this game was a breath of fresh air. The art style, the gameplay, the music, nearly everything about this game was vastly different from any other game in the marketplace.
Why should it be brought back: Jet Set Radio was so far ahead of its time that even now, there’s still nothing quite like it. The attitude, the style, and the gameplay are what would still make this unique. With the increased power of next-gen, the game could be fully open-world and more populated.
Chances of revival: Low, but not impossible. The original game seems to get fairly regular re-releases on different platforms, so Sega must know that there’s an audience for it.
Super Monkey Ball
What was it: Super Monkey Ball is an arcade game where you tilt platforms to move monkeys in balls. Your aim is to pick up bananas (you are a monkey after all) and to get to the goal. The game might sound a little basic, but it is this simplicity that makes it so addictive. With the exception of Super Smash Bros, this is the Gamecube game that got the most love in our house. We played it for hours and when friends came over, we all joined in the party games.
Why should it be brought back: Because it is fun. Pure, unadulterated fun. The majority of the time you are playing this game you will have a huge grin on your face and the rest of the time, it’s just because you’re concentrating hard not to drop your monkey ball off the edge of the platform.
Chances of revival: Not bad. It’s the most recent game on this list and hasn’t been gone for that long. It’s the kind of game that would particularly work well as a smaller downloadable title.
Metropolis Street Racer
What was it: Metropolis Street Racer was the forerunner to Project Gotham Racing (presumably if Bizarre Creations create another racing game it’ll have the name of another city in the DC universe). The game really is exactly like PGR: the Kudos system, the handling, even some of the tracks are the same.
Why should it be brought back: You did read the bit where I said it’s exactly like Project Gotham Racing, yeah? PGR is one of my favourite racing games of all time. It is superb. If Microsoft won’t bring back PGR, maybe Sega could bring back MSR.
Chances of revival: Next to impossible. Activision now owns Bizarre Creations, the developer of MSR and PGR. To top it off, Sega doesn’t seem that interested in making racing games for consoles anymore. They’re far more likely to revive Outrun or Sega Rally before MSR.
Columns
What was it: Columns was Sega’s answer to Tetris. It’s a match-three puzzle game where you drop 3-piece columns onto each other. Each piece of the column is a random colour and when you match three of the same colour pieces together, they disappear (à la Tetris).
Why should it be brought back: I fully admit that Columns is a strange choice for this type of article, but I really like the game and these are my choices after all. Match-three puzzles are all the rage at the moment and are really big on phones and tablets. We’ve yet to get a really good match-three puzzle on Xbox One and this could be that one.
Chances of revival: While this is more likely than MSR I still fully imagine that it will be a cold day in hell before we get a new Columns game on Xbox.
Well that’s my top five choices, and I didn’t even get to include Streets of Rage, Ecco the Dolphin, Panzer Dragoon, Virtua Fighter, Outrun, Sega Rally, Earthworm Jim and Toejam & Earl. What would your top five be? Feel free to shout out in the comments section below.
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