I’ve been playing some games from the SEGA Mega Drive and Genesis Classics collection recently on my Steam Deck after I saw that it had been given a Steam Deck Verified rating. I had previously played several games from the collection on PC but being able to play them portably and to suspend during gameplay has really renewed my enthusiasm for these games. However, what it has also made me wonder and long for are some collections for many of the classics from the Sega Saturn and the Dreamcast.
Before I talk about what I want from these collections, I think it’s worth briefly touching on Sega’s history as a console developer as well as the history of the SEGA Mega Drive and Genesis Classics collection. Sega first began developing consoles in 1983 with the release of the SG-1000 and, over the course of the next couple of decades, would release other consoles such as the Master System, the Sega Mega Drive, the Sega Saturn and the Dreamcast. However, the failure of the Dreamcast led to Sega stopping production on hardware and becoming a third-party video game publisher. Sega, beyond the games they continue to make after their exit from hardware, has a large back catalogue of wonderful games and Sega has continually made use of that in various compilations. The SEGA Mega Drive and Genesis Classics collection was originally divided into several volumes released for PC before releasing a consolidated collection later. In 2016, Sega updated the collection with the hub, an update that featured both a virtual room to play the games in and mod support. Soon afterwards, it was announced that the release of the hub had resulted in a surge of sales and, in 2018, they released the collection for consoles, Mac and Linux while introducing even more updates such as online multiplayer, achievements, the ability to fast forward or rewind in game etc. It has truly become an outstanding collection and something I’ve got to admire about it was Sega’s continual work on improving it over the years.
Perhaps naively, I developed the expectation that, with the success of the SEGA Mega Drive and Genesis Classics collection, that collections of their games from other consoles seemed inevitable. Instead, we’ve seen next to nothing with regards to these games with the closest being a Dreamcast collection which serves as a mere bundle for six Dreamcast games and one Sega Saturn game that simply pales in comparison to the SEGA Mega Drive and Genesis Classics collection.
Looking at Sega’s catalogue of Sega Saturn games, we can see that many have yet to see significant rereleases. I mentioned that the Dreamcast collection contained a Sega Saturn game which is Nights into Dreams, probably one of the most famous games developed for the Sega Saturn. Several others have seen some rereleases and a few, such as Panzer Dragoon, have been remade but there remain numerous Sega Saturn games that, besides emulation, remain inaccessible with a few that I’d be particularly interested in being Mystaria: The Realms of Lore, the Clockwork Knight games, Astal, Dragon Force and Guardian Heroes. There may be issues with releasing these games on other platforms that I’m not aware of such as rights issues, difficulty of porting, lost source code etc. but I would honestly love to see a Sega Saturn collection in the vein of the SEGA Mega Drive and Genesis Classics collection someday.
I would argue that the Dreamcast has had a little more fortune than the Sega Saturn with several of its games such as Sonic Adventure, Jet Set Radio, Shenmue, Crazy Taxi etc. seeing greater availability. However, there also remain many particularly notable Sega games from this period that have yet to see rereleases. While Space Channel 5 Part 2 is currently available as part of the Dreamcast collection, the first game, Space Channel 5, has not seen any rereleases while others like Samba de Amigo, ChuChu Rocket!, Time Stalkers, Skies of Arcadia etc. are in the same boat. Again, I don’t know if there’s a lot of behind the scenes reasons why many of these games have yet to be rereleased but I would absolutely love to get the opportunity to play these games someday.
Sega has a rich, interesting catalogue of games that they released across their consoles and, while I’m overjoyed to be able to play the SEGA Mega Drive and Genesis Classics collection, I’m perplexed that we see so few of these older games get modern day rereleases. If they ever release a collection on the level of SEGA Mega Drive and Genesis Classics then the chances of me picking it up would be very strong. Let me know your thoughts on why I want Sega Saturn and Dreamcast classics collections, what you think about the SEGA Mega Drive and Genesis Classics collection, why you believe Sega has yet to rerelease many of their Sega Saturn and Dreamcast games and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Thanks for reading and if you wish to seek any of the titles I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs! Also feel free to follow my curator page on Steam “JRPG Reviews” for thoughts and opinions on any JRPGs that I play and my YouTube channel “Victory Achieved Gaming” where I guide my friend through challenging games.