For the past few days Sega had been teasing a stream event with some #hot news for their next year of releases, and tonight they went and announced a big ol’ barrel of new games and games related things.
First, Sega Ages was announced for the Switch, a download-only game collection of vintage Sega games like Sonic the Hedgehog, Phantasy Star, and Thunder Force. The final lineup will include a slew of over 15 different games when it comes out this summer to Japan, the US, and Europe.
Next, an HD collection of Shenmue and Shenmue 2 was dated for a worldwide release this year on PS4, PC, and Xbox One. The remasters will include dual audio in English and Japanese, as well as more modern and accessible controls alongside an updated UI.
Other than that, Sega also showed off a very small Mega Drive fittingly dubbed the “Mega Drive Mini” which will be a plug and play NES Classic style device you’ll be able to get your hands on at some nebulous date in the future. They also announced a new Sakura Wars game, but they didn’t really share much information outside of the suggestion that it exists.
All in all while it wasn’t a fantastically extravagant announcement festival, I’m sure plenty of people are excited for the Shenmue collection, especially since the weird reality where Shenmue 3 will actually exist is reaching ever closer. It’s weird to see Sega be so cagey with concrete release dates as well, sticking with vague time periods like “summer” or this entire year. Hopefully, Sega Ages will stick to it’s concrete release date, so everyone can play some goddamn Phantasy Star in that hot summer sun.
