5 franchises Sega should revive

If gaming were our planet then Sega would be my home nation. Since very little I became a fan of the company that brought us Sonic the Hedgehog and haven't stopped been one ever since. So been things as they are today you must imagine how excited I am about Sega's mysterious "new identity" and the barrage of good games that they have either released or announced in the last months. Seen how part of that "new identity" is to revive some of their old franchises, today we will see 5 of them that Sega could and should put into their revival machine soon.

1) Astal 

Why: Gorgeous side scrolling platformers to the likes of Astal have been successful ever since the indie scene brought us Braid.

How: Best bet is digital only on all platforms.

Astal was one of those games back then that showed us how powerful the Sega Saturn was when handling 2D graphics. It was fun, beautiful and had a cool story and soundtrack. It featured a lot of surreal stages that kept us on our toes with all types of side scrolling challenges while the story unfolded and at the same time having bosses were also well designed, ranging from simple to gigantic. The game also featured anime videos on it and nicely narrated/spoken cutscenes. It was a complete game that is a great memory for any Sega fan out there and a good opportunity for bringing some of the younger gamers in.

2) Burning Rangers

Why: It had a good and original action-adventure style of game play coupled with an anime direction that rivals any popular series out there.

How: This can go anyway from physical to digital since Sega seems to consider it one of its classics. Maybe they could release an anime series first and see how it goes.

Burning Rangers was a game that was seen as strange at the time. You controlled one of two futuristic fire fighters in a story where fire and conspiracy were your enemies. The stages were interesting to explore, each having their own story with a good amount of action and puzzle elements that made the game really fun while the story unfolded in beautiful anime cutscenes. This would be one of those games that nowadays would spark the curiosity of gamers and otakus alike, both old and new.

3) Shinning Force

Why: The series has been dormant ever since the Shinning Force 3 trilogy was released and deserves a new one following the classic format, but modernized for a new generation of gamers as there is little that can go wrong with a tactic rpg of that magnitude.

How: Maybe release a bundle having the three scenarios of Shinning Force 3 (because scenarios 2 and 3 were never released in the west) to test things out,  then if successful they can finally make Shinning Force 4.

Shinning Force is one of the top tactic rpg franchises of all time and it was really cut short when the Saturn faded away (Shinning Force 3 been one of the last games in the console). The best way I can describe this series is epic, with awesome tactical battles, great stories about conquest, mysticism and conspiracy and great heroes to use in each battle. In order to clean up the mess that happened with the latest Valkyria Chronicles game, Shinning Force makes a good candidate for Sega's redemption on this genre.

4) Blue Stinger

Why: It was a good survival horror that felt different and mixed characteristics of many genres into one. It had the vibe that Deadly Premonition has and that one has a cult following, so... Why not?

How: Somehow get the rights to do it and make it a reality, full release.

Blue Stinger was one of the games that was released close to the console's 9/9/99 launch date. It was one of those titles that was advertised as survival horror, but in the long run felt like a lot more. The exploration was spot on with lots of places to gun and run through, each with their own puzzles and sticky situations all with the kind of atmosphere that while it looked a little too colorful for a survival horror game, was really interesting because it kept the intrigue going. I know that if anybody plays this now they will see the game as dated and buggy, but picture how a well designed adventure like this would be with updated visuals, controls and overall gameplay while keeping the original vision intact. The game's creator may not be with us anymore, but I am sure somebody could carry out his vision and make that sequel that was cancelled when he passed.

5) Skies of Arcadia

Why: Its one of the best rpgs of the whole Dreamcast/PS2 era.

How: Full release in both physical and digital as the colorfulness and vibe of the game would speak for itself for both fans and newcomers alike.

When this was released on Dreamcast back in October 5, 2000, it was like a dream come true. We had played JRPGs before on Dreamcast at the time, but at the moment we only had Grandia 2 (released August 2000) as the AAA Japanese RPG of choice on Sega's young console. So where Grandia 2 excelled with its gritty end of the world-ish story and game world, Skies of Arcadia did on a more lighthearted environment that was closer to what we could find on a Final Fantasy game. It not only had a turn based battle system that felt different, but it also had awesome airship battles and lots of places to find and explore, all wrapped up in a really cool story about pirates and nations in the sky (floating islands).

Wrapping things up
Sega has been doing the right thing since very early this year and as the trend continues they should give some attention to the previously mentioned franchises as they would most likely make it all even better.

15 Cool Things Sega Could Do Even On Hard Times

Right now we all know what is happening to Sega. They recently reported a loss in profits and for all of us long time fans, the phrase "lost profits" spells certain doom to our favorite Sega franchises. Surprisingly, even with the hardships they are going through they decided to make some good things like localizing the new Yakuza game to the west, and coming with remakes of some of their classic games for the Nintendo 3DS. This is all good, but there are some things that Sega could take advantage from especially now that they decided to focus on the digital market rather than the retail one.

Note: There are links in some of the items on this list so you can see what the mentioned games/concepts are about.

1) Include Phantasy Star IV in the 3DS remakes: The 3DS is good with JRPGs and if Bravely Default is to be taken as definite proof of that, then it means that the classic JRPG style thrives on this handheld. This is the reason why releasing a completely remade version of Phantasy Star IV is a good choice for them since it is the most popular one of the whole classic rpg wing of the Phantasy Star series.

2) Remaster all 3 Shinning Force 3 Scenarios and release them as digital only: The original Shinning Force formula ended with the 3 scenarios that composed Shinning Force 3, so releasing a digital only remastered edition of all 3 in one would be a good seller not only for Sega fans, but tactic rpg fans everywhere in the world as 2 of those 3 scenarios never made it out of Japan.

3) The return of Shenmue: Be it on any of the 3 home consoles and with the current trend that favors open world games, Shenmue can make a good comeback if they spice up the formula a bit and give it a little more hand to hand combat action and more stuff to do in the cities Ryo visits.

4) Astal 2 made by an indie studio: Astal was quite a good platformer in its day and seen how some indie developers have made beautiful games like Braid and Dust: An Elysian Tale, Astal can also shine again and become even better if one of these talented studios takes the project.

5) The release of good arcade game ports into this generation of home consoles: Catering once again to the digital only market, some arcade games like Border Break, Initial D Arcade Stage 8 Infinity or Shinning Force Cross Raid can become addictive online experiences for any western player.

6) "Greatest hits" bundles of Sega Saturn/Dreamcast games: Storage media now permits it and because of this, some of the best games for both of these systems (Saturn and Dreamcast) can come back packaged in bundles sort of like they did with the Genesis games not long ago. Packages like these can find a home on any of this generation consoles or even on PC.

7) Skies of Arcadia 2: This one can be pretty much a long shot, but why not? Skies of Arcadia is one of the best JRPG games that Sega has ever made and it could be a hit, considering that the JRPG market has been starving for good epic titles for current-gen home consoles in the west.

8) Sonic Adventure 3: This is not a matter of nostalgia, but a matter of the Sonic Adventure series been the most acclaimed Sonic games since the franchise took a plunge into 3D. It doesn't have to be a AAA production, just make it as good as the previous too and it will be ready to go. I know that there is Sonic Boom to take account of, but this kind of endeavor would be something separate and quite capable of healing Sonic the Hedgehog's reputation as a franchise which would in fact help Sonic Boom.

9) Reboot of The Immortal: The Immortal was one of those hard and gruesome rpg games that captivated Sega Genesis owners in the early 90's and it could make a comeback as an alternative to Dark Souls. The game was dark, challenging and interesting and that is something many rpg gamers appreciate nowadays. Just turn it into an action rpg and it could be a hit. The only hard part here is convincing Electronic Arts to take that franchise out of its grave, but hey... It can happen!

10) Reboot of Eternal Champions: Gore has been in style again for a while now and Eternal Champions provided just that to fighting game fans in the past, even rivaling the all time favorite Mortal Kombat. A reboot of this once great fighting game could be released as a digital only game with an emphasis on competitive play. Give a short single player mode in order to show the character's storylines and let gamers destroy themselves online with all the gruesome moves and fatalities that this franchise can offer.

11) An Anime Series for any of their RPG game series: Going away from gaming a little and getting into anime, a good anime series can be possible with many of Sega's franchises and could even serve to promote a game. Phantasy Star is a very good candidate, but there could be others like Climax Landers, Legend of the Oasis, Skies of Arcadia and Panzer Dragoon Saga. Why a series from an RPG game? Because their stories are richer and would make for quite an interesting anime experience if done right. Sega worked as a publisher for Bleach so it is safe to say that they would know what to do.

12) Bring remastered versions of obscure titles of their popular franchises: When we think about obscure Sega games that most people haven't seen, it means games like Virtual-On Marz and Project Altered Beast which were PS2 games that were... You guessed it, only in Japan. Virtual-On Marz featured a deeper storyline which was a contrast when we compare it to its arcade style only predecessors and Project Altered Beast was a mix between adventure and survival horror that gave it a sci-fi twist to the franchise.

13) Their own game portal: This is an alternative to #7 and can be even better in some ways. If there is one thing that we can't deny is that Sega as a company has a lot of first party games, even surpassing Nintendo in this endeavor. Because of this, a cool thing for them to do is to make a PC game portal, sort of like Steam and pour all of their forgotten games there while letting people play online multiplayer with them. A place where you could find and play all the first and second party Sega games from the Master System to the Dreamcast and even games that appeared on other consoles. They could sell them separately or make it a pay per month service, it doesn't matter as this could become a big hit for them anyways.

14) Get a spokesperson character again: This is something that they tried in the past and had success because of it, so they need to stop been so silent and go make some noise in the industry. A good personality that can move an effective passive-aggressive marketing campaign can make all the difference in the world. If you don't believe me ask Nintendo how well Reggie has worked for them. Just to give you a short trip to the past, back when the Saturn was going head to head against the PS One, Sega managed to keep their console alive and kicking in Japan mostly because of their spokesperson character, which was an exaggerated version of a karate master that was called Segata Sanshiro.

15) Give some love to the west: No matter which of the previous 14 things in this list Sega makes, if it is stuck in Japan it wont serve them. Their current "stay in Japan and sometimes Europe" strategy has proven to be a failure and their financial reports are proof of this. Whatever they do next, they must include the west in it because it is a market that is slowly going old school again, so after its long absence, Sega could return and once again earn the prestige that they used to have. They just need to try and for once hear the fans out, yes those fans that have been left in the dark since the Dreamcast went down.

Wrapping it up:
The bottom line is that even though Sega is having a hard time right now, this doesn't mean that they can't make an effort to bounce from that. This list features some of the cool things they could do that could mend their torn reputation and even though some of them look difficult or even idealistic, they are possible and sometimes it just takes a fair amount of risk taking in order to make it big as real visionaries are a step ahead of everybody all the time. Most gamers have Sega strands on their gamer's DNA so they just have to look for a way to unleash all the hidden potential, especially from the fans.

What is your favorite item of the list? What other cool things you think that Sega could do? If you have any ideas share them with us in the comment section below.

5 games that could turn Sega into the best third party around.

Sega, a former industry leader and one of my favorite game development companies. It is a tragic tale, the one of Sega's fall from grace and how they went from been a world class enterprise to a simple third party company. The really perplexing thing is that even as a third party company, Sega still carries some of the power it had in the past and that power comes in form of games that on the most part are not been used. 

Don't get me wrong, the Sonic games are good, Bayonetta 2 looks great (and it's a must buy for any Wii U owner) and Alien: Isolation has the makings to be an awesome survival horror game, but deep inside we all know that there are some games that really define what Sega is as a game developer and would probably catapult them into gaming stardom again. Here are 5 of those games that would be part of a Sega's newly found awesome-factor if they were released:

1) A fully "AAA" Phantasy Star classic JRPG game.

The saga of Phantasy Star (online) games, born since the first Phantasy Star Online on Dreamcast has been going on for more than 10 years and they are all good games with a nice mix of action, exploration and looting, but it also has been more than 20 years since a full blown JRPG Phantasy Star experience has been released. We all know there have been some games attempting to tell a full new story in the series, but it is also very noticeable that they are still using the same style of the online games. Just imagine for a moment a new Phantasy Star game with the JRPG quality of Xenoblade Chronicles. Be it on Wii U or any other console, a game like that could pretty much become a genre leader just on name alone since deep inside, the franchise is still in pristine condition with the online games been clearly seen as spin offs.

2) Shinning Force IV or a bundle of the Shinning Force 3 series.

Shinning Force is another game that hasn't really gotten any love in its original form (which is a very dynamic tactics rpg). One thing Sega could do with the franchise, now that re-hashes and remakes are in style is to bundle the Shinning Force 3 scenarios on one game and sell them as digital on different platforms, they could even sell them separately if they wanted, just clean up the graphics a bit and there you go. Normally I am not a fan of re-hashes, but the Shinning Force 3 saga (which spawned 3 games) had only the first one coming to America because it was one of the last games made at the end of the Sega Saturn lifespan on our shores. They even have the translation work done for them by fans so it would be an even easier task to do.

The other way to deal with this franchise in its original form is to finally make a Shinning Force IV. It really doesn't matter if the game is released on handhelds only as it would compete with games like Fire Emblem, along with other tactic rpg games out in the handheld market and it has a great chance of winning if the game is well advertised.

3) Shenmue Chapters (or something like that).

First of all let's have a healthy dose of realism. A new complete game about a project as ambitious as Shenmue is simply not possible with Sega's current financial prowess, but it doesn't have to become a dead franchise either. One thing that would be cool is to make it a chapter based game. Let's say that when we first get the game, we have a all of the city to explore at our leisure with some storyline content as well as side-quests, mini games and stuff. 

Then, when we have completed a "chapter" the game would basically let us do whatever we want with all the side-quests and character development (practicing your moves), earning money at a job, etc, but leave the storyline at a "to be continued" state (for example let's say that the guy helping Ryo Hazuki (some kind of informant) dissapears for a while looking for information on the whereabouts of Lan-Di) and when he returns (a new chapter is released), giving Ryo new information with new stuff to do so the story continues.

It can even have PVP fighting if for example Ryo gets an apprentice (which would be fully customizable) and you can train him/her and fight with other apprentices online while new chapters are been developed. See? anything is possible with this game. Also throw in some micro-transactions like sets of clothing, pets, stuff for Ryo's room and the typical goodies (without the game becoming a pay to win) and you have a Shenmue game that kept the original formula, but evolved without losing its charm.

4) Revival of forgotten franchises from the Sega Saturn days.

The Sega Saturn was plagued by many things like the war between Sega of America and Sega of Japan, the fact that is was very difficult to develop games for the console and bad business decisions, but it never suffered any lack of games. Sure, most of the popular games were on other platforms, but the Saturn had a very strong library of its own and some of those games could come back from their slumber and still be as good as they were all thanks to the digital age. Besides, not many people got to actually play them, so showing them now would make them to be seen almost as new (unless you were a Saturn fan back in the day).

Many of those Saturn games could be brought up as re-mastered editions and sold as digital only on various networks. Games like Astal for example which is a beautiful platformer that has graphics that resemble many of the good indie platforming games of our times, Burning Rangers which was a short, but intense game with a style that can be used for leaderboards (time attack) and even be awesome with an online cooperative coop and Fighting Vipers which was a very good fighting game that could be revived as a free to play deal (sort of like Namco did with Soul Calibur). Other possible Saturn games that could use some revival are Mr.Bones, Mystaria, Die Hard Arcade, Legend of the Oasis, Dark Savior, Bug, Clockwork Knight and so on.

5) Skies of Arcadia 2

Of all the games mentioned on this article Skies of Arcadia is the most recent (coming from the Dreamcast days to the remake that they later released on Game Cube). This JRPG gem is one of those games that instantly became a respected name in the genre coming from the ground up and without any previous glory to back it up. It combined a great storyline with an interesting turn based fighting that consisted of fighting on the ground and epic airship battles even taking on a giant flying whale in Moby Dick fashion.

The game deserves a sequel in all its right and would be something big to see on next-gen consoles with its colorful visuals, extensive and cleverly designed dungeons/places, fun storyline and challenging battles. The really cool thing is that with the acquisition of Atlus by Sega, a Skies of Arcadia 2 game has never been more possible, so let's just cross our fingers and see what happens.  

To wrap this up

Sega is a company with so much hidden potential that you would be amazed of what they could come up with if they had the will to do it. Nowadays, between Pachinko machines and arcade spin offs, the Sega of old focus on games seems kind of lost, but in this industry anything can happen and who knows if on a near future we find ourselves once again chanting the the classic ♫SEGA♫ a little more often.

An alternate universe: Sony and Nintendo making the SNES-CD.

It is quite certain that most of you are well aware of what the gaming world looks like now. We have 3 major home consoles coming from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo, two handhelds coming from Sony and Nintendo and gaming PCs that have always been there. You know who are the top players and who are the underdogs, but do you know how different it could had been if certain decisions were made at specific points in time? Today we are going to look into one personal theory I have about a particular "alternate universe" that would had happened if:

If this had happened, maybe we would had played Donkey Kong Country as a 2.5D game.

Nintendo and Sony had kept their partnership (1991).

Note: This is just a personal theory so your own opinions may greatly differ from the ones expressed on this article, so bear with me and if you have any different ideas, leave them on the comment section as it is always interesting to talk about these things.

The classic champion of the 90's

The origin of the first Sony home console is a story of separation. It is said that at first, what we came to know as the PlayStation (or PS ONE) was just going to be a disc drive peripheral for the Super Nintendo, that would had enabled the console to jump to the next generation without having to actually make a new machine. For a while it seemed that Nintendo was going to take that path, until they decided otherwise and then Sony decided to go solo which led to the birth of the PlayStation which meant the end of Nintendo's dominance over the industry and the beginning of Sega's downfall.

What could had happened differently if the Nintendo/Sony alliance had been kept?

Imagine if this war had never ended...

(1991 - 1999)

•  The Nintendo/Sony alliance would had crushed the Genesis and later on the Sega CD even before it had a chance, because they would simply have the better games vs the unimpressive library of interactive movies that the Sega CD is known for. 
•  Sega would had realized that it wouldn't be wise to make the 32X because they would had been cut to size again, so they would had jumped straight to the Saturn, later on overtaking the SNES-CD because of having superior technology and more advanced looking games. Another important thing would be that because of the success of the Saturn, Sega of America and Sega of Japan would had most likely kept the peace instead of going against each other and because of that, promising games like Sonic Xtreme would had been released without any problems. 
•  Sega had become a fan favorite, but Nintendo was not stupid and had been in development of the Nintendo 64 all along so now the Sega Saturn and a disc based Nintendo 64 would lead another classic console showdown. With superb first and third party games evenly separated between the two platforms, this would had sparked a fan boy war that would had been worse than anything we had even seen.
•  Sony, seen that both the Saturn and the CD based Nintendo 64 were too far ahead for them to enter the competition, would had then began working on the PlayStation concept in complete secrecy, preparing for a later release (1998-1999), but it would had kept the CD format instead of jumping into DVD territory because the technology would had been too expensive to put on a console at the time. Also the machine itself would had been as powerful as a Dreamcast so this would mark a time of success for Sony as everybody would had been very impressed with their machine. Making the console market stand at a virtual tie before Nintendo and Sega unveiled their new consoles.

Because with disc media, size matters!

(2002 - 2006)

• After a long battle without a clear winner, Nintendo and Sega would had moved to release their new consoles which would had toppled the PlayStation in terms of power. Sega would had jumped to the DVD format while Nintendo would still had gone to the mini-disc because of fears of piracy and both consoles would had been released approximately in the 2002 to 2003 time span. 
• The battle would had been fierce and Microsoft would had come up with the original Xbox a lot earlier than they really did (2002), but would had been kept at a very distant third place followed only by the PlayStation who's original lifespan was at its end. 
• At the end of that generation, the battle would had been won by Sega (mostly because of the difference in disc format) with Nintendo learning its lesson and Microsoft gearing up for a second try while Sony who played the waiting game on that generation, would be ready to release the PlayStation 2 in the year 2007. 

War...War never changes...

(2007 to the present day)

From here on, there would had been a 4 way death match with all major companies having a console at once. This one would have Nintendo with a slight lead, with Sega and Sony almost tied at the second position while Microsoft stands at a 4th place and would be already showing signs of dropping out of the console race and sticking to PC gaming instead (quite possibly having a Steam like store or even making a partnership with Valve). At our present day, we would probably be seen the great presentation of the new Nintendo, Sega and Sony machines, with so much hype that we would be counting the days until the event.

To wrap things up:

Alternate universes... Sparking our imaginations like always.

Effects of this alternate universe on our present time:

• The tight competition would had left so little space for error, that companies would not had the chance to experiment into new audiences meaning that the casual gaming movement that the Wii started would not had happened at the gigantic scale it did on real life.
• Console gaming technology would not be as advanced as it is now so the PC gaming platform would be far ahead of consoles in terms of power, which would make gaming PCs to be even more popular than they already are.
• The indie gaming scene would be something that would be almost exclusive to the PC platform, with Microsoft and Valve at front.
• Formats like Blu-ray and HD-DVD would be something relatively new for consoles at the present time, but with the arrival of the digital game age, the use of physical media would not be as favored as it is now.
• Game exclusives would still be something that happened very often, while the multi-platform trend would be held back by the intense battle that the companies would be having to bring the best games into their platform.
• We would see a bigger number of localized games reaching our shores because the Japanese style of making games would had never lost its focus so American and Japanese types of games would still be separate things instead of one trying to imitate the other.
• The motion-controlled gaming craze would had never happened and we would be more inclined towards virtual reality and VR headsets a lot more early than we currently are.
• All major companies would had been forced to create at least twice the quantity of first party games while keeping their classic heavy hitters from becoming dormant. This because the market would had not become complacent, so companies would had felt pressured to outdo themselves at every chance they got.
• Much of the franchises we in reality see as dead or missing in action, would be pretty much alive and kicking.

Now imagine for a moment that this little alternate universe is real. Do you think that gaming would be better or worse? I leave that judgement call on your hands.