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January 24, 2006
Sega TV Games Speeding To Stores
Retro gaming is still big, and now Sega is jumping into the TV games arena with plug 'n play joysticks featuring vintage Sega titles. Sounds good, right? There's even a Sonic the Hedgehog joystick that apparently includes five Sonic games. However, a word of warning to anyone expecting Sonic and Knuckles: the tiny little screenshots on the advertising images indicate that we're dealing with Sega Master System properties, not Sega Genesis games. That means you can expect to see the Master System (or Game Gear, possibly) versions of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic Spinball, and so on. Furthermore, if this were a Genesis-based TV game, wouldn't you expect to find a C button on the joystick along with the A and B buttons? Recall that the Master System and the Game Gear only have two buttons, while the Genesis has three (and later six, but most folks are familiar with the three-button configuration).
As you'll recall, the Sonic Gems Collection compilation showed us that those games just aren't that great compared to their 16-bit brothers in this day and age. Also, the fifth screenshot on the Sonic ad appears to be a tennis game of some sort. From the looks of things, you'll be getting the 8-bit titles Sonic Chaos, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic Spinball, and a tennis game. I'm not aware that Sonic ever dipped into tennis. The point is, always read the box before buying a TV game. The money you save just may be your own.
Posted by MattG on January 24, 2006 at 08:05 AM in Retro/Classic | Permalink
Comments
This reminds me of that day I saw a related product, Sega Genesis games built into a Genesis controller to plug into your tv. My main concern wasn`t so much if the games were good (I mean, we all know there are emulators or the Sega Collections), but if the controller would be good. Same with this product: Can this be a good joystick? Even if the price is high, how good can be a joystick if it also has the console inside the case.
And while we´re talking about Sega and their controllers; I just received the Sega Saturn Pad for the PS2 and this is simply the best controller EVER (followed by the SNES one). Playing Sonic with an arcade stick? Pweh. I dunno.
Posted by: Frederik Jurk | Jan 24, 2006 8:50:00 AM
The arcade stick threw me too, but remember that we're not the target demographic for this. This is aimed at casual gamers who don't know the difference between the time and place for a joystick and the time and place for a control pad.
Posted by: MattG | Jan 24, 2006 9:04:36 AM
It's definitely Game Gear, Matt. That tennis title was available as part of the four-in-one packed in game, and while it's an okay tennis game, it's only Sonic as umpire, so it's a bit odd they'd try to put it out as in a Sonic collection, even one like this...
I didn't know Spinball was released for it, but until Mega Collection Plus I didn't know Mean Bean Machine was released for the Game Gear either.
Posted by: -al | Jan 24, 2006 4:50:08 PM
Oh, Game Gear Mean Bean Machine was great! ...Well, for three hours at a time, at which point you needed 6 more AAs...
Posted by: | Jan 26, 2006 4:03:14 AM
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