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18 Jan, 27 tweets, 9 min read
Sega Ages are on sale again on Switch & someone asked me about the enhanced features—I feel like ppl might be sick to death of me talking about em but otoh, there are plenty of ppl who didn't follow them at all, so here's a rundown of what's new for all 19 Sega Ages Switch games:
Sega Ages Sonic the Hedgehog includes both the OG Mega Drive game & the obscure remixed Mega Play arcade version (with score attack leaderboard), Sonic Mania's Drop Dash (& spin dash, ofc), a "ring keeper" helper mode, a Green Hill act 1 time attack & more nintendo.com/games/detail/s…
Sega Ages Thunder Force IV (aka "Lightening Force"), the first-ever international reissue, includes the extras from the 🇯🇵-only Saturn port—the addition of the Thunder Force III ship & a more friendly "Kids Mode"—plus slowdown options, leaderboards & more nintendo.com/games/detail/s…
Sega Ages Phantasy Star includes tons features that make it a much friendlier modern experience: an "Ages Mode" with improved encounter/xp/money rates, a walk speed booster, a dungeon automap, detailed item/gear/monster glossaries, FM music toggle & more nintendo.com/games/detail/s…
Sega Ages Outrun includes many of the enhancements added for the 3DS version—60FPS+widescreen, car upgrades, JP/US ROMs, two brand-new arcade-authentic FM tunes etc—as well as gyro controls & 4 extra FM & non-FM arranged tunes from across the Outrun series nintendo.com/games/detail/s…
Sega Ages Gain Ground is the first-ever reissue of the original arcade version and includes both the Japanese 2P & overseas 3P versions, as well as enhancements like a rewind feature, a mode with all units unlocked, vertical handheld display options & more nintendo.com/games/detail/s…
Sega Ages Alex Kidd in Miracle World inherits some of the challenge mode features from the X360/PS3 versions and adds an "Ages Mode" with a rewind feature, a genuine continue option, new between-stage illustrations & a FM rendition of the soundtrack nintendo.com/games/detail/s…
Sega Ages Puyo Puyo features online multiplayer, replays and mechanical tweaks like 2-button rotation & quick turn, and it also includes the mysterious and extremely rare English-localized ROM with unique voices & a lot of peculiar name changes nintendo.com/games/detail/s…
Sega Ages Virtua Racing is not just the first truly worthy conversion of the arcade game but one that goes even further beyond: it runs at 60FPS in 16:9 with greatly increased draw distance and features two-player online play & 8-player split-screen nintendo.com/games/detail/s…
Sega Ages Wonder Boy in Monster Land includes the rare English ROM & challenge modes from the X360/PS3 version and adds a new game+ feature, a mode that disables the widely-abused gold glitch & a secret command to pitch the music down a la Bikkuriman World nintendo.com/games/detail/s…
Sega Ages Space Harrier inherits the extra Haya-oh boss recreation &widescreen display from the 3DS version and adds HD rumble, a gyro control option & a "Komainu Barrier Attack" mode with new between-stage messages that makes you impervious to collisions nintendo.com/games/detail/s…
Sega Ages Ichidant-R includes both the 🇯🇵 & seldom-seen English arcade ROMs with two-player online play, a helper mode with extra lives & lower quotas and the (completely untranslated) 4-player Mega Drive version which features an RPG-esque boardgame mode nintendo.com/games/detail/s…
Sega Ages Columns II is a valiant effort to sand the edges off a brutal game: in addition to online play, a new arrange mode & OG Columns, it features a stage select, skull gem toggle, improved inputs, gem design selection & a Sega Ages cameo chara gallery nintendo.com/games/detail/s…
Sega Ages Shinobi adds an "Ages Mode" that permanently powers you up & gives you two hit points, a rewind function, a melee-only button, virtual cabinet display, replay sharing, HD rumble & lots of specific tweaks like allowing continues on the final stage nintendo.com/games/detail/s…
Sega Ages Fantasy Zone contains tons of new & previously added features: an arrange mode starring Upa-Upa, remade Master System bosses, an unlockable coin bank, a speedrun mode, useful game info displayed on the screen borders, HD rumble, replays & more nintendo.com/games/detail/s…
Sega Ages Puyo Puyo Tsu adds two-player online play, a step-by-step rewind feature, quite a few colorblind settings, a mode that lets you face every opponent, a gallery of translated character profiles & a staff roll animated by a former Compile artist nintendo.com/games/detail/s…
Sega Ages Sonic the Hedgehog 2 includes Sonic 2 & Knuckles and adds Sonic Mania's Drop Dash (Sonic only), a "ring chain" ranking feature, "ring keeper" & Super Sonic (or Super Knuckles) modes, HD rumble, an Emerald Hill act 1 100-ring challenge mode & more nintendo.com/games/detail/s…
Sega Ages G-LOC is another first-ever arcade-authentic reissue—it includes a more forgiving Ages Mode, a moving virtual cabinet display option, a looping BGM option, HD rumble, several different leaderboards & a (non-playable) peek at the R360 version nintendo.com/games/detail/s…
Sega Ages Thunder Force AC (the arcade remix of Thunder Force III that barely left Japan) includes the "Kids Mode" toggle from the Japan-only Saturn port and adds (mostly) stereo music, HD rumble and three extra playable ships with separate leaderboards nintendo.com/games/detail/s…
Sega Ages Herzog Zwei is another first-ever reissue, packed with features: two-player online multiplayer, extra game info displayed in the screen borders, helper mode, a slowdown reduction option, auto-password save & a brand-new "Herzog Acadey" tutorial nintendo.com/games/detail/s…
...and that's that

Sega Ages wrapped up on Switch after 19 games, and while the teams involved with this series aren't done collaborating or working on new reissues, as of right now, they haven't announced a continuation of or successor to Sega Ages on any platform
the Genesis/Mega Drive Classics collection has general emulator features like fast-forward/rewind, save states, online play, achievements etc but the emulation quality's not as high & they didn't go all-out with specific per-game features like Sega Ages
btw, Sonic 1 & 2 are the only games that directly overlap between Sega Ages Switch & Genesis/Mega Drive Classics—Sega Ages is a mix of arcade, MD & Master System games and even then, Thunder Force IV & Herzog Zwei (the non-Sonic MD Ages games) aren't present in the collection
Genesis/Mega Drive Classics is basically the Steam emulator/front-end ported to consoles, minus a few games like Toejam & Earl, Ecco the Dolphin, Eternal Champions & most notably Sonic 3 & Knuckles

the Switch version is also missing some Wonder Boy games
that too... I try not to get too up in arms about the overall quality because I think most ppl will be content with it & I've certainly played worse, but it's not up to my standard
it's not gone altogether, you just have the option of playing a mode without it (which no other arcade-version reissue has offered until now)

it also lets you map the stick-wiggling motion to a button for extra-simple gold glitch abuse
I really thought I'd be beating a dead horse with this thread, but I guess not! I ought to put something together in a more practical format, gimme a minute

btw, I didn't mention the broader features common to each game: screen settings, save states, button mapping, etc

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GSK | https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ab_mn Profile picture
16 Jan
Sega did a mock 20-question version of the Sega Test for the media, in advance of the real thing scheduled for next weekend

4gamer's fairly experienced participant scored 10 4gamer.net/games/999/G999…🇯🇵

IGN Japan's four participants scores 8/9/10/4 jp.ign.com/sega/49481/new…🇯🇵
the 4gamer article is a particularly good breakdown of the types of questions & topics ppl should expect (with all the questions being specific to the mock test, ofc)

when they say Sega, they mean all of Sega, including all the obscure affiliate companies, building details, etc
like, dude was getting hit with questions about Oasis Park, DARTSLIVE, TMS, etc

Q1 asked for the address of Sega's current HQ, Q2 was a multiple-choice question asking him to pick all the games that featured real-world Sega motifs
Read 4 tweets
GSK | https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ab_mn Profile picture
14 Jan
up on Dengeki PS: a GG Aleste series roundtable interview w/ Hiroki Kodama (GG Aleste planner/artist, GG Aleste II planner/artist/project lead), Kazuyuki Nakashima (artist on GG Aleste 3, MUSHA, Battle Garegga, etc) & Manabu Namiki (GG Aleste 3 director/composer, Rezon artist)🇯🇵
on how Namiki, a renowned composer, came to direct GG Aleste 3: when M2 president Horii approached him about handling the music, the project itself has no leader, no direction & no other personnel aside from programmer "Fawlabo"; at that time, Namiki was already working as a...
…sound director on another project that was similarly disorganised & was floundering, so when he sensed that this project might be similarly derailed by a lack of organisation, he volunteered to be the director in order to see it through to the end, for himself & the other staff
Read 48 tweets
GSK | https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ab_mn Profile picture
13 Jan
reminder: while there's overlap, Sega's regional branches each have their own purview & there's a ton of stuff you're just not going to see announced by Sega EU

reminder #2: there's a Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 update due that same day, so that may very well be all they're teasing
their stream announcement didn't even strike me as worth mentioning but I see a lot of sites, including a couple JP ones, writing it up as if they're teasing something major and I just don't see it
re: Puyotet 2, their update roadmap is five items deep & they've already stated, implied or leaked things like:

the co-op boss fight mode from Chronicle
a certain character
PS4/5 crossplay
"accessibility features" which presumably means colorblind settings, spectator mode, etc
Read 6 tweets
GSK | https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ab_mn Profile picture
11 Jan
this might not be news to DQ fans but it's new to me—apparently Akira Toriyama's overbearing former editor Kazuhiko Torishima told some completely untrue story to Yuji Horii about how Toriyama was hooked on Portopia in order to initiate their collaboration dot.asahi.com/dot/2021010600…
it's not from this interview, but here's another Torishima/Toriyama tidbit for Dragon Ball fans: the android/Cell saga's constant changing protags were due to Torishima (who wasn't even editor by then!) being like "really, that's what you're going with?" after every new reveal
...so if it weren't for Torishima's brow-beating, that whole saga may have begun and ended, somehow, with Gero and that weird clown robot
Read 4 tweets
GSK | https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ab_mn Profile picture
9 Jan
I deleted my earlier warning about the Business Journal Sakura Revolution article bc I figured nobody outside of my feed was going to see anyway, but I see people talking about it, so PSA: that site's renowned for posting misleading tabloid garbage, don't take it as gospel
they've already had to edit their article a few times, and the site they've been citing for sales figures has come out and said their numbers are extrapolated from app store rankings, are not necessarily accurate & shouldn't be passed around as hard data
what's more, it seems their article is primarily based around a video essay by some JP youtube dude, and he's been taking heat for all the slop they packed in around his words as if it had anything to do with him
Read 4 tweets
GSK | https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ab_mn Profile picture
6 Jan
I'm not too fussed about the designation, but I really do think it's time for another Fever-style refresh, and maybe even one made overseas

mechanics-wise, hell if I know—I don't think the genre's been tapped out, necessarily, but how do you even match Tsu, let alone top it?
like, think about just how many different rules Puyo has messed with, let alone all the clones and ripoffs and fan games and whatever else, and the only alternatives that ppl have ever seriously entertained are Fever (which took a minute to catch on) & PPT Swap (if that counts)
coming up with new stuff is hard & it can be hard to gauge just how much demand there is for something original to begin with

the other more pragmatic issue is that, aside from Tetris, Puyo's the only game in this genre that can still maintain traditional full-price games, but…
Read 5 tweets

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