Sega Ages Collection (Switch)

[Badnik Mechanic]

 

Sega Ages Collection coming to switch.

Confirmed for Japan. America and Europe.

Sonic 1 is in it. 

More details soon.

 

[Jango]

Wow, Sonic 1. That game that we've never played before!!

[Tracker_TD]

https://gematsu.com/2018/04/sega-announces-sega-ages-for-switch

Developed by M2, the guys behind the 3D Classics series on 3DS.

 

In other words, fuck yes. 

[8ther]

I hope it has the arcade version of Outrunners.

[E-122-Psi]

This sounds interesting. Wasn't SEGA AGES the brand of PS2 remakes (some of which made up the SEGA Classics Collection)?

Nice to see Switch is getting some more support to compensate for no Virtual Console. I just hope it isn't as sloppy as the 3DS Sonic 1/2 were.

[ZackieCD]

NIGHTS NIGHTS NIGHTS' PLEASE NIGHTS' NIGHTS NIGHTS!

[SpongicX]

This announcement is honestly disappointing. Here PS4, Xbox One, and PC are getting a Genesis collection, and HD Shenmue remasters, yet all Switch is getting are a few digital classic games sold seperately...

Why does Nintendo insist on not having good collection games on their platforms anymore?...

[Sean]

1 hour ago, ZackieCD said:

NIGHTS NIGHTS NIGHTS' PLEASE NIGHTS' NIGHTS NIGHTS!

Many of your posts recently have been extremely short and spammy - your posting quality should at least be on par with the ones you see in this very thread, in case you need an indication of what we're looking for. If you continue to make posts like this one and the following:

On 4/12/2018 at 8:34 AM, ZackieCD said:

Mario,

1 hour ago, ZackieCD said:

hmm, returning to the classiks, aww ye

then we'll delete your posts and ask you to redo them.

 

 

 

Anyway...

1 hour ago, SpongicX said:

This announcement is honestly disappointing. Here PS4, Xbox One, and PC are getting a Genesis collection, and HD Shenmue remasters, yet all Switch is getting are a few digital classic games sold seperately...

Why does Nintendo insist on not having good collection games on their platforms anymore?...

Personally I'm content with quality over quantity. M2 have proven themselves time and time again with their efforts, most notably in the west with their 3DS lineup of arcade and Genesis games, and this appears like it'll be the 3D Classics' successor on the Switch. Meanwhile, the PS4/One collection looks to be a straight port of the Sega Genesis & Mega Drive Classics releases on Steam which have lower-quality emulation. The only benefit there is in buying any Genesis game on Steam is to take the uncompressed ROM and use it in an emulator of your choice.

[JezMM]

The Sonic 3D Classics on 3DS were fantastic and no shade to the team at all because I really enjoyed how they tweaked the games, the extra features they added, and the emulations were spot-on.

Buuuuuuuut every additional console re-release of 16-bit Sonic that isn't the mobile Taxman remasters does frustrate me more than the last.

[TheOcelot]

I've never played the M2 3DS version, but I know they added extra features such as the spin-dash in Sonic 1. So by the sound of it the new version for Switch will probably have more features than the one being included in the Mega-Drive Classic collection coming to the other consoles, which baffles me. I mean, yeah I have a Switch so I'm definitely interested in the SEGA Ages collection, but why can't the same collections be released on all consoles. If the M2 version is gonna have more features then I also want this version on PS4 and Steam.

Also, why the hell do the Sonic 1 & 2 mobiles remasters - which I assume would be straightforward to port to consoles - continued to be ignored?

[Tracker_TD]

Thunder Force IV is playable at the event - we now know it adds the Styx mode from the SEGA Saturn Gold Pack 2 version of the game, meaning you can play as the ship from Thunder Force III! This is nice since the mode was previously Saturn exclusive.

Sam Mullen from SEGA’s also confirmed arcade games will be part of the new AGES series, and every game will “have something new”. Space Harrier on Switch is... such a beautiful thought. 

Also to clarify bc OP doesn’t make it clear - this isn’t a collection. The games will be separately released like the 3DS ports were. 

Also also - while I’d also prefer the Sonic 1/2 Taxman ports, I can see they’re going for consistency by having M2 just handle everything. I’m kind of sad this news is being characterised solely as “lol sonic 1” after everything M2 put into the 3DS range...

[Red Hot Jack]

This and Shenmue HD are the most interesting things. We'll see that games they sneak in, but I'm looking forward to the details.

[JezMM]

1 hour ago, TheOcelot said:

Also, why the hell do the Sonic 1 & 2 mobiles remasters - which I assume would be straightforward to port to consoles - continued to be ignored?

This is probably a minor factor but maybe not, since the M2 versions are still emulations of the original game, it might mean they don't have to pay royalties for the soundtrack.  Just a small theory though, since honestly SEGA's willingness to do so for various products appears to be entirely random at times.  Tracker's probably right about the consistency thing more than anything (honestly though an ideal console port of Sonic 1/2 would use Taxman as a base but also include the casual-player-friendly additions of the M2 versions as options).

[Marcello]

Sonic is annoying. I don't know why SEGA refuses to bring the Taxman remakes to consoles.

[Blue Blood]

M2's emulations are good, but not perfect. As emulations they lack the ability for any real technical upgrades like wide-screen support or reductions in slow down. Even though the 3DS version of S1 has the spindash added in, it's buggy and doesn't work correctly. It's still a poorer quality than you've been able to get from emulations and rom hacks for well over a decade. The sound emulation still sounds quite off in some places. And really that's all these amount to - rom hacks on an emulator. I appreciate that they're good by all relative standards compared to other officially licensed emulations, but I honestly want much more in this day and age. At least as far as the Sonic games are concerned which have already been remade to a fantastic quality. 

[Tracker_TD]

12 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

M2's emulations are good, but not perfect. As emulations they lack the ability for any real technical upgrades like wide-screen support or reductions in slow down.

...M2’s port of Out Run (as an example) literally adds widescreen and 60fps support (with an unlockable toggle for the original frame rate), plus a slew of unlockable car parts that change how the car handles, increasing the replay value. This is what I was talking about by judging M2’s entire output based on Sonic.

Shit, in Fantasy Zone II’s case they literally remade the entire game for arcade hardware (as opposed to the Master System original)! And then they threw in an all new score attack mode with its own unlockable characters for the 3DS port!

[Tornado]

When Sega puts "Ages" in front of a release, it usually means that it had at least a modicum of effort put into it. Not necessarily to its benefit/worth the effort (like that awful remake of OutRun), mind, but we shouldn't expect a Virtual Console/NES Classic situation with it.

[Sean]

1 hour ago, SaberX said:

Well these seems like interesting adds.

Do Sonics for 3DS version also share the same features?

Nope. As far as Sega's 3D Classics go, Sonic 1 and 2 come with the bare minimum of extra features (we got a spin dash in Sonic 1 all the way back in 1997, so it's nothing new - and yes, as BB said it's actually bugged) and they even have the occasional audio and graphical oddity that prevent them from being the definitive versions of the games, even if you remove the Taxman/Stealth versions from that particular equation. At the very least they're the second-best portable versions of the games, for what it's worth.

[JezMM]

2 hours ago, SaberX said:

Well these seems like interesting adds.

Do Sonics for 3DS version also share the same features?

The main thing that Sonic 1 had is as Sean said.  Both games let you use the stage select cheat via a menu option and Sonic 2 adds a mode where you start every life with 10 rings.  These things were basically added for casual players coz old games are hard and such.  Sonic 2 also unlocks Super Sonic for use simply by beating the game.

[Lanolin]

I hope M2 port of Puyo Puyo Tsu makes it over, to be able to play it on the big screen with the classic artstyle will make this worth it for me

[SpongicX]

11 hours ago, Sean said:

Personally I'm content with quality over quantity. M2 have proven themselves time and time again with their efforts, most notably in the west with their 3DS lineup of arcade and Genesis games, and this appears like it'll be the 3D Classics' successor on the Switch. Meanwhile, the PS4/One collection looks to be a straight port of the Sega Genesis & Mega Drive Classics releases on Steam which have lower-quality emulation. The only benefit there is in buying any Genesis game on Steam is to take the uncompressed ROM and use it in an emulator of your choice.

But it would have been nice to have a Gensis collection on the go, for a cheap price, not buy 15 separate enhanced ports for roughly $10 a piece! We still don’t know how much these games will cost, but I can tell you that they will probably add up to something overpriced, compared to buying a Genesis Collection.

I really think Nintendo is shooting themselves in the foot, for not having a Genesis Collection on Switch. They’d rather be greedy, and have the games sold separately on the eshop...

[Sean]

And your basis for believing this is Nintendo's decision (and not Sega's) is..?

[Tracker_TD]

The 3D ports were $5.99 a piece. 

I actually prefer it this way, since the ports are upgraded over a bog standard collection, and I can choose the games I want. That, and this has more than just Mega Drive games.

It’ll be a fair expense in the long run - but you pay for the extra work that goes into these versions. There’s a significant difference between plonking 40 games in an all-purpose emulator and a series of re-release where each game has specific new features coded into it, sometimes from scratch (Out Run).

[E-122-Psi]

 

As mentioned the previous M2 rereleases varied in quality. Fantasy Zone 2 was an impressive straight up remake, while the two Sonic games were mediocre ports with minimal and buggy extras and not-so-perfect sound emulation (I'm still a little sore they didn't even try to put in Tails' fly ability in Sonic 2).

Puyo Puyo Tsu being released in the West at all was nice, but it was a barebones replica of the Arcade version without even English translation, compared to their more effortful PS2 remake. The Virtual Console's lack of multiplayer support was about the only thing preventing Mean Bean Machine or Kirby's Avalanche being the better option.

I'd say it's better than the usual fare of SEGA, which is usually just emulated copies with the same bugs, and it's better than nothing at all, but I don't expect something of Taxman/Stealth's level of effort.

[Tracker_TD]

39 minutes ago, E-122-Psi said:

Puyo Puyo Tsu being released in the West at all was nice, but it was a barebones replica of the Arcade version without even English translation, compared to their more effortful PS2 remake. The Virtual Console's lack of multiplayer support was about the only thing preventing Mean Bean Machine or Kirby's Avalanche being the better option.

For what it's worth, Puyo Tsu was later released as standalone with an additional mode that let you play through matches with every single foe in the game. Same with Power Drift - the standalone release of that added a SEGA All Stars Racing mode.