Sega lovers rejoice! In case you haven’t heard yet, Sega is re-releasing classic games for iPhone and Android for free in their new Sega Forever collection. The games are ad-supported, but they offer saving capabilities (so no passwords like back in the day!) and high scores, so they do have some advantages over emulation. Even though there are online leaderboards, fear not, as you can still play offline too.
Sega Forever is made up of seven (mostly Sega Genesis) games right now, but Sega plans to add new games to the collection on a regular basis. Sega claims that Sega Forever will be made up of games from “Master System, Genesis/Mega Drive, Dreamcast, and more”. Right now, the available games are:
- Altered Beast: Download for iPhone or Android
- Comix Zone: Download for iPhone or Android
- Kid Chameleon: Download for iPhone or Android
- Phantasy Star II: Download for iPhone or Android
- The Revenge of Shinobi: Download for iPhone or Android
- Sonic the Hedgehog (the first one): Download for iPhone or Android
- Virtua Tennis Challenge: Download for iPhone or Android
While Nintendo releases watered-down, mobile versions of their beloved classic games, Sega is smart enough to give the fans the same retro experience they fell in love with decades ago. Sega Genesis games are among the most emulated, so people have been playing Sega Genesis games on their phones for years anyways. With Sega Forever, people can play officially-supported, legal versions of their old favorites, all while supporting Sega at the same time.
The initial collection is pretty great too. You can play Sonic, which is probably most people’s first choice when it comes to emulating old Genesis games. If you want to play one of the best-told stories in retro gaming, you can go for some Comix Zone. Even if you want to play a sports game, you can go with Virtua Tennis Challenge. Once Sega Forever adds Golden Axe, The Lion King, and Road Rash II to its ranks, I might never need to emulate another Sega Genesis game again.
The one drawback of Sega Forever is that they decided to make every single game its own app. In a perfect world, there would be one app that served as a hub from which you could download games, track your high scores, and so on. That said, the games are free and none of them have that big of a file size, so it’s not too much of a problem. Go ahead and give Sega Forever a try, starting with whichever game you want. No matter which one you pick, you’ll either find your new favorite game or fall in love all over again with a classic from back in the day.
