2 Sega Titles That Need a Reboot

Once upon a time SEGA was a powerhouse that challenged the likes of Nintendo with their own mascot and gaming system. As a child I had mainly Nintendo products but a lot of my friends opted for the SEGA Genesis system and it was clear why. As with the gaming industry today, a few decades ago consoles did have their own exclusives which made it a hard choice which one you asked Santa for during Christmas. These games were classics and there were a few that SEGA had that were not available anywhere else and I am not referring to the Sonic games. There are two games in particular that I still go back to and play to this day on my Sonic’s Underground Collection disk for my Xbox 360. These include Streets of Rage, particularly part 2, and Altered Beast.

Streets of Rage was a classic side scrolling beat’em up with a variety of characters to choose from, in the third installment you can even choose a boxing kangaroo if you unlock him. This game had an addictive Gameplay component that to this day I love, it allowed you to have items that heal, hold weapons, and grab and throw enemies at other enemies. The graphics were great for the most part and it was a great co-op game. I actually borrowed my friend’s SEGA Genesis a few times to play this while he had my SNES because it was such a great game. This is one game I wish SEGA brought back from the dead, even as a Xbox Live Arcade or PSN title (but keeping it multiplatform for all to enjoy) with much updated graphics, and more diverse enemies. As a full retail disk game it may be a stretch unless some modes are added in and a fairly long story is in place. The key to this game would be to keep it as a side scrolling and not try to make it more with a lot of extras. The only feature I would like to see added is a level select feature to be able to finish the story without having to play through the entire game few dozen times. This could also be accompanied by online leaderboards for bragging rights so people that play through the whole game will have a lot more points and rank higher.

Altered beast on the other hand I could see being released as a full retail game at full price. Even though the original was a very difficult Side scroller I would imagine that if it was ever remade, it would be in full 3D as an RPG. The crazy looking enemies could be brought into the Gameplay as minions and as you “Power Up” as the character your appearance changes until you unlock the ability to morph into a beast. The best way to do this would probably to have the beast mode as a temporary state and then have a cool down timer until you use it again, making it an ultimate special move. Since in the original each level provided the player with another beast to transform into the new one could do this by either allowing the player to choose which one they want in an unlock system with the ability to get them all or to have a multiple dimension world that gives a specific beast to each dimension. With the right story and graphical polish this could be a great game and I am certain that SEGA could pull it off because of games like Bayonetta. This is one game that a lot of imagination could be used to make a whole new world since the original was limited to a few locals due to the games length. Admittedly I have not finished Altered Beast, I always die in the fourth level but in those few short levels there is a lot of ideas that could be built on to make an amazing RPG adventure.

While everything mentioned above may be nothing more than a pipe dream, maybe it will happen. SEGA has a lot of great intellectual properties that they one day choose to revive and this is definitely on the top of my list. I would play both of these games again without hesitation as long as the effort was put into them and the formula intact that made the originals as addictive as they were. So please SEGA, remake some of my favorite games and watch the money roll in.

[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3HmoSfCl5A[/tube]