To be this good takes Sega ages

Like a huge mother hen, Sega has been sat on its lovely eggs, keeping them warm until they're ready to hatch.

Following up the recent neat Renegade Ops release, they have now unleashed the beasts of Treasure's Guardian Heroes AND Daytona USA!!!! - two genuine gaming classics - onto our laps.  Its quite overwhelming, and does this signal the start of a real change in attitude from the company?  Have they realised XBLA and PSN are too good an opportunity to miss???

We've all known that they have spammed the Sonic brand to the point of breakage over the last few years, and after the insipid release of the Dreamcast Collection I thought there was no way back for them.  But after downloading and really enjoying the joys are Guardian Heroes last night, which has been updated and revitalised with loving care for a change, there is real hope for bringing the Sega love back into the world.

Its clear that they have suddenly started to listen to what their fans actually want.  Daytona USA will be a conversion of the arcade game, not the inferior Dreamcast version.  It means a fair bit more time and effort from them, but its going to make a lot of gamers very happy.

The mind now boggles as to what other old arcade games or Saturn releases they may already be working on.... Panzer Dragoon series?  Dragon Force?  Scud Race?  Burning Rangers?

Maybe if we all ask nicely it will happen...

The Return of the Heroes

Just like busses, you wait around for ages for any news of interest then two lots come around oin a matter of days!

More thanks to Sega, too. This time the announcement of a remake of the superb Guardian Heroes, the Sega Saturn classic from Treasure.

What a game - probably the last great 2D action side-scroller. A quite amazing visual treat with great (and huge list of) characters & stunning music.

The game also had a duel mode that allowed players to choose from any of the main characters plus every single enemy or NPC that you met or defeated in the main game. It was a genius of an idea, allowing the most ridiculous match-ups possible. Pit a tiny little ninja rabbit against a massive screen-high fire-belching plant, or better still pit a tiny ninja rabbit against 5 massive screen-high fire-belching plants in a 6-man brawl!

Enough anyway - roll on the autumn.