SEGA Forever is officially a thing, and SEGA promised to eventually port games from every Sega console. SEGA’s promise got me thinking about what games I want to be ported to smartphones through SEGA Forever, so I made a list. Halfway though making the list, I deleted several entries since Rocket Knight Adventures and Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver only released on SEGA consoles and aren’t owned by SEGA. Now that I have a list of video games owned by SEGA, here are five games I would love to see on SEGA Forever. I tried to avoid games that were already teased in the trailer, but I apologize if I accidentally included a game I shouldn’t have.
5. Streets of Rage
Side-scrolling beat ’em ups are a lost art. Plenty of games let people feel like a bad ass, but most star a lone soldier who fights through countless enemy soldiers to kill an evil general with aspirations for world domination. Beat ’em ups, on the other hand, feature more realistic (kinda) characters with relatable drives, usually getting rid of gang violence in their cities. The Streets of Rage games are some of the better beat ’em ups ever made, thanks to gameplay that rewards both quick reflexes and situational awareness. The Streets of Rage franchise could be SEGA Forever’s most popular apps, if only because they will give gamers a taste of a dead genre.
4. Virtual Fighter
Unlike beat ’em ups, fighting games are popular and even have a strong esports presence, mostly because they have been tweaked and refined over decades, and Virtua Fighter helped this process. Virtua Fighter pioneered 3D fighting games, thanks in no small part to it being the first. The Virtua Fighter franchise would be a good fit for SEGA Forever, especially for gamers who want to step back in time and see how much gaming has evolved.
3. Shenmue
The Shenmue series is a cult classic. The games revolutionized the open world genre and spawned quick time events. In fact, many SEGA games are responsible for revolutionizing their respective genres, but I digress. Shenmue is so popular that the kickstarter for the third game raised over six million dollars, although that might be partially due to Shenmue II ending on a cliffhanger. Regardless, Shenmue is alive and well in gamers’ hearts, and it deserves to also be alive and well in SEGA Forever.
2. Nights into Dreams
As with every other game on this list, Nights into Dreams is a cult classic, but unlike the other entries, it doesn’t easily fall into any existing genre. Nights into Dreams is not so much a game as it is an experience, much like a dream, which might be part of why the game is a cult classic. The Nights into Dreams franchise has not had a new game in a long time, even though many gamers still consider the titular character Nights as much of a SEGA mascot as Sonic the Hedgehog. However, Nights has appeared as a guest character in other SEGA games, including Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. If any franchise has a chance of being more popular on SEGA Forever than Streets of Rage, it’s Nights into Dreams.
1. Phantasy Star Online
I need to confess something; Phantasy Star Online is one of my favorite video games. Ever. The game seamlessly combines science fiction with magical fantasy and provides a fantastically realized world. Phantasy Star Online has pitch-perfect monster/character design and even more pitch-perfect (pitch-perfecter?) music. Honestly, Phantasy Star Online is a thing of beauty, and that’s just taking the single-player experience into account. As an smartphone app released through SEGA Forever, Phantasy Star Online could revolutionize the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) experience, assuming SEGA could actually port the multiplayer aspects of the game. Even if the company can’t, the game is still worth playing alone for the story.
Do you agree with my list? Comment down below which games you want to see released through SEGA Forever.
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