Back in the 1990s, Nintendo and Sega were in virtual hand-to-hand combat for dominance in gaming consoles, and they each had their own gaming franchises, Nintendo with Mario, and Sega with Sonic the Hedgehog. Now, decades after Nintendo essentially eliminated the Sega Genesis console, Sega is having to rely on its former competitor to keep its games in distribution. The good news for Sega is that nostalgia is still big these days, so fans are sure to be excited to hear that several classic Sega games will be arriving on the Nintendo Switch soon.
Classic Sega games coming to Nintendo Switch
During a press conference this week, Sega announced its plans to bring some of its classic titles to Nintendo’s newest gaming console. The new titles will be released under the company’s retro gaming label, Sega Ages. As would be expected, the original Sonic the Hedgehog title will be one of the first classic Sega games landing on the Nintendo Switch. The other classic titles that will be going to the console first are Phantasy Star, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Thunder Force IV and Ground Gain.
At this point, there’s no word yet on prices or release dates, but Sega did say that those five titles won’t be the only classic games going to the Nintendo Switch. The game maker currently has more than 15 titles slated for release as part of the Sega Ages franchise.
Not a lot of other details were announced, although the company did say that Studio M2 will be working on the Sega Ages titles for the Nintendo Switch. The studio was also involved in other retro re-releases from Sega. Additionally, PC, Xbox One and PS4 players will get the chance to play Shenmeu I & II, which were originally released on the Sega Dreamcast console. The only downside is that the games aren’t fully remastered titles, so some fans might be a bit disappointed with the graphics.
Sega is also working on a mini Genesis console
In addition to announcing that these classic Sega games are going to the Nintendo Switch, the Japanese game maker also revealed that it’s working on a mini version of its Genesis console. The Sega Mega Drive Mini is actually a mini version of the Genesis, which was sold as the Mega Drive outside the U.S. The SNES Classic console was such a hit this past holiday season that Sega probably envisions a similar fate for its nostalgic mini console.
The company did not say when we can expect the Sega Mega Drive Mini to be released, except that it will be some time this year. It didn’t announce a price either. As with the SNES Classic, Sega’s mini retro console will also come packed with several titles that were hugely popular in their day. The console looks just like a mini Sega Genesis console, although it doesn’t hold cartridges like the original model did.
One thing about the Sega Mega Drive Mini that’s unclear right now is the company that’s going to be making it. Sega never said during the press conference who will be making the retro console, and while ATGames said on its Facebook page that it will be making it, that post was later deleted. Multiple tech blogs have noted that the company’s previous attempt at a retro Sega console didn’t turn out well, so one would hope that Sega would pick a different manufacturer this time around.
