Hidden Treasure from Big N's eShop: Sega Ages

Classics games from Sega's early days when they're were toe to toe with Nintendo

Oct 05, 2024

The Nintendo eShop can be hard to navigate if you like to do some window shopping. It felt like I returned to the Wii days of how much shovelware there is on the eShop. There's only a little filtering besides the bare minimum, unlike Steam, which is at least going on the Switch, a laggy experience. Ironically, the official eShop website, My Nintendo Store, offers a smoother experience and better curated content.

I would look up what I want on my computer or phone, then purchase it on my Switch with as little deviation as possible. This is the “get what you need and get out quick” method if you will, and I have been doing that for some time now. However, somebody has to wade through the garbage pile to find gems! In that regard, I saw something nice to share with you all! I present to you Sega Ages!

What is Sega Ages?

Sega Ages is similar to HAMSTER’s Arcade Archives, as these retro labels are about bringing back classic titles to the current generation. As the name suggests, Sega Ages focuses exclusively on games from Sega's history. Besides some quality-of-life features, the games remained intact and can be played exactly how they were back in the day. Also, only digital downloads are available, so physical lovers are out of luck again. Sorry!

Sega 3D Classics Collection (Nintendo 3DS)

M2 was the developer handling this project, and as shown in their past works, this was their forte.

“Sega Ages will *continue* to develop…” is foreshadowing later on.

Have you ever noticed those retro game collections on whatever platform you watch/play on? (YouTube, official website, etc.)

Thanks to the people from M2. You have seen them a lot lately, so give them their flowers!

Catalog

Unfortunately, the selection of games that came onto Sega Ages is small. It’s a shame since they had a solid start for releasing classic Sonic The Hedgehog on September 9th, 2018.

It also doesn’t seem that M2 will be adding more with their last released game, Herzog Zwei, on September 24th, 2020. Herzog Zwei is a rare example of a real-time strategy game for consoles long before Halo Wars came into the picture.

I bought two of the nineteen games in the Sega Ages catalog: the JRPG Phantasy Star and the early arcade classic Shinobi.

Something I should mention about Shinobi is that you can’t buy it from the eShop at the moment.

I am still trying to understand why, beyond some educated guesses like Sega Genesis for Nintendo Switch Online, there is a conflict of interest. M2 stopped working with Sega, for they moved on to other projects. Of course, we couldn’t forget about licensing issues that might be hard to acquire for these old games. There are potentially many reasons, but we will never know for sure. Thankfully, there is a workaround in purchasing Shinobi, for I found that Best Buy, of all places, still has codes for it.

I bought it there, and it still works for the time being. That is very interesting, but with that out of the way, what are you getting when purchasing a game from the Sega Ages catalog?

Presentation

After downloading, you're greeted with an awesome intro when you run the game, which gets you pumped to play it!

The intro shows off the gameplay of whatever game you’re about to play. Sometimes, you’ll see a different set of characters holding the posters. Look out for that!

Similar to seeing a trailer in a movie theater, except the trailer is the feature film itself. Right before the title screen, Alex Kidd, one of Sega’s mascot characters from their early days, presents your game of choice.

Overall, the presentation was well-crafted, and I prefer it to HAMSTER’s Arcade Archives series.

Content

The features you get, besides industry standards, are unique to each game you purchase. Phantasy Star has a bestiary for every mob you have faced. Shinobi, meanwhile, has a toggle option called Time Reverse to rewind the game as you see fit.

From these two games I own, I see a lot of care being put into each of them. They could’ve easily just done what HAMSTER did for their stuff, which’ll be satisfactory for most. But they didn’t, and I appreciate the dedication to making each Sega Ages game feel unique. Lastly is the Ages mode, where you play the same game with modern enhancements, which is good to have options for getting a boarder audience. Old heads get to play the game as intended in one mode, while newcomers can play another with some quality of life changes. Win-win for everybody!

Final Thoughts

While it is a shame that only nineteen games, M2 managed to make before moving on. It would’ve made an interesting competitor to Arcade Archives, but alas... It wasn’t meant to be… Theatrics aside, despite its short run and exclusively on Nintendo Switch, it is still a nice collection of titles—similar pricing to Arcade Archives at $7.99 each or the equivalent exchange rate in your country.