I mentioned in my last post that I lament the direction SEGA has taken of late. Understand that I love SEGA, probably more than a healthy person should. Let me share my story with you.
Back in the olden days we call the 90’s, I had a birthday. It was a pretty special birthday for me. You see, my birthday is on December 20th, just five days shy of Christmas. Typically, Christmas time is pretty cold, so I never got to enjoy the fabulous summer pool parties that other kids had. Except one year. In the summer of 1992 my parents decided that my brother and I—his birthday is June 30th—should share a birthday party. I was going to have a summer pool party for my premature 10th birthday;it was awesome. Now more than anything I wanted a Super Nintendo, which had come out the previous year. I was going to have a summer birthday party and a Super Nintendo. Nothing could be better, right? When the big day arrived I got a SEGA Genesis instead. Understand that the Super Nintendo was $200 and that the Genesis was substantially cheaper. Still, I was a little kid and I was upset. So upset that I made my mother cry. In retrospect there are few things that bring me more shame.
In the end, my mother made a great decision and I have been a SEGA fanboy ever since. In the intervening years I have bought every SEGA product excluding the Game Gear. I don’t care what anyone tells you, the 32X had a few good games. The Saturn is one of the most underrated consoles ever—X-men Vs. Street Fighter with a RAM cartridge is worth the price of entry alone. The Dreamcast and Soul Calibur were mind blowing at their release.
SEGA has a history of releasing innovative, quirky, and interesting games. Sonic brought speed to a genre dominated by a slow and portly plumber. Virtua Fighther revolutionized fighting games—whether Tekken fans know it or not. The Dreamcast brought us titles like Jet Grind Radio, Sonic Adventure, Seaman, Virtual On, Metropolis Street Racer, Samba De Amigo, Shenmue, and the now perennial 2K sports franchise. Also, let’s not forget Dreamcast was the first console with Online capabilities built in, bringing Phantasy Star Online—the first console MMO—with it.
All of these games had ideas that are still around and very successful today. Yet for some reason, they were not enough to keep SEGA afloat during the Dreamcast years. It simply wasn’t enough to move product five years ago. The Dreamcast—ahead of it’s time—died a silent death.
Fast forward to 2006. Where does SEGA sit now? They are a 3rd party publisher trying to be the next EA. This is both good and bad. Sure, SEGA is still publishing interesting and innovative titles like Condemned and Chromehounds, but, on the other hand, they are also publishing wannabe titles like Full Auto. They have also successfully destroyed Sonic the hedgehog and all he once represented. The day I started fishing in a Sonic game, I knew something was wrong. Still, it was tolerable in the Sonic Adventure games. Sonic Heroes, however, destroyed my faith in the series. And don’t even get me started on Shadow the Hedgehog. I fear that watered down sequels and EA wannabe titles may eventually outnumber the innovative ones.
So, what can SEGA do? Obviously they want to make money. The question is how can SEGA do that and keep up the innovative tradition. Most importantly, SEGA has got to give its fans what they want. Nintendo understands this very well. They release plenty of new games but know damned well they have to make at least one Zelda and Mario game per generation. The fans demand it. SEGA has been against (real) sequels for a long time. It’s high time they change this policy. And I’m not talking about just Sonic here. Where’s Shining Force, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Vectorman, Kid Chameleon, or Eternal Champions (that one’s really just for me)? Panzer Dragoon on Xbox was nice, but where are the RPGs? I’m hoping that Phantasy Star Universe will deliver the single-player goods, but I’m wary. And for godssakes, make Sonic the only playable character in Sonic Next Gen. Give us some of the old Genesis magic on Xbox Live Arcade and Wii’s virtual console. In reality, even this may be too little, too late. These franchises might not even have enough steam to bring back the SEGA faithful, I don’t know.
I’ve read plenty of SEGA rants and I know they come off sounding like a senile old man reminiscing about the 50’s, but SEGA really has been responsible for some of the great moments in gaming. I’d like to see them come back to that. Until then, I’ll still just be that crazy person going on about how great Phantasy Star was. “What’s Phantasy Star?” you will say. Philistines.