Bring Back the Sega!
I currently include a hedgehog in my varied menagerie because it seems that my Great Dane has something seriously wrong with her lips – in that she has no feeling in them. I caught her a few weeks ago running around the garden tossing the hedgehog around, apparently in the belief that it was a spiky ball. I got it off her and, fortunately, it did not appear to be hurt. But it was seriously underweight, and the hedgehog rescue people told me that it would be unable to survive hibernating as a result. I therefore have to look after the hedgehog until it warms up in the spring, at which point I can let it go.
I have been calling the hedgehog Spiky Harold, which has got me thinking about the original Spiky Harold. For those who don’t know, Spiky Harold is a fiendishly difficult retro computer game back from the days when computers didn’t have mice. It’s the first computer game I can remember and, even now, just hearing the name of it gives me that childish excited feeling. Having said that, my brother and I could never get very far on it before poor Harold got killed.
But after Spiky Harold came the Sega. I know 99.999% of gamers will probably deride me for saying so, but I regard the Sega as by far the best games console. These were games that you could just sit down and play without having to spend hours and hours and hours practicing first. The original Sonic, for example – absolutely loved it. Spent many happy hours battling Dr Robotnik and co. But a while back I tried to play a new Sonic races game with my brother on his Playstation 2, and I couldn’t even finish the race. Stupid bloody New Sonic kept running off the edge of a cliff, damn him.
My eight year old cousin got a Wii for Christmas, and when I saw her playing on this recently I was like ‘jeepers!’ It all looks so complicated! A far cry from the pick-up-and-play games of yester-year. And I can’t help but lament the decline of the Sega because for people like me – who are not hard-core gamers but wouldn’t mind whiling away an hour every now and then – we need games we can just plug in and play. Things like old Sonic and the absolutely tremendous Castle of Illusion.
Perhaps the new games have better graphics, and the remote controllers vibrate now and all the rest of it, but I will always prefer the Sega, and I miss that clunky old games console even now. I could actually beat my brother in the occasional Sonic race or Bloody Roar battle back then (which infuriated him, and made me feel tremendously good about myself). Now if I ever try to play a game with him on one of these modern consoles, I get pitifully thrashed within minutes. Seconds, even. If I want to play a computer game now, it’s pretty much a question of tetris or nothin’. And - let’s face it - there’s only so much tetris a person can play before they get the urge to kill someone. So my plan is for the shops to scrap all this PS3/Wii/X-Box nonsense and just bring back the good ol’ Sega. Games ain’t so much fun when you have to spend hours perfecting your technique before you can even start. It was all so much better in my day . . .
Tags: Games
February 13th, 2010 at 8:26 pm
Maybe this’ll change your mind
http://www.sonicthehedgehog4.co.uk/en/
February 15th, 2010 at 1:39 pm
That’s a great little video, although there doesn’t seem to be much of Sonic 4 in there - it’s just recapping the old games! Still, hopefully this means they’re going to try to be a bit more faithful to the original, rather than jazzing up poor ol’ Sonic beyond all recognition!
February 15th, 2010 at 7:06 pm
Get a wii!-a whole range or awesome new games+a whole load of downloadable games from your beloved yester-year. Besides even you liked a bit of smash bros melee and loads of ps1 games like cool boarders. Im sure there would be next gen games you would enjoy, if you’re 8 year old cousin can do it without hours of practice you can too! Having said that there is no denying that there was a certain magic to the old games that the new ones don’t have but play something like final fantasy and theres a whole new magic!
February 16th, 2010 at 1:04 am
I just can’t believe that you’ve never mentioned you can play sega games on the wii before. Seriously, little bro, WTF?
I won’t deny that there were many excellent PS1 games - Wipeout, Bloody Roar, Jet Rider, Cool Boarders etc. It’s once it went on to PS2 that it all started to go down hill.
As for our little cousin, she *does* spend hours practising (from what I’ve seen). But now that I know you can play Sega games on the Wii, I do feel seriously, *seriously* tempted to get me one!
February 22nd, 2010 at 10:59 am
If madame will allow me to nerd out a little…
The Wii is pretty much *the* “pick-up-and-play” console. It’s as simple as swinging a remote around with no other goal than to act like a maniac. It’s also incredibly fun to do so. There is pretty much no easier game to beat.
It’s interesting, at least, to consider that a lot of games can’t boast the same kind of casual play due to the sudden importance of story to games these days. One never really wants to get into a game without knowing what’s going on. In a way, it’s sort of refreshing to know that each game has the potential to offer a novel’s worth of plot when before it was pretty much: “Save princesses, kill turtles.”
Also, Castle of Illusion was beyond boss-sauce. WORLD of Illusion, however, I must declare to be better, because Donald kicks Mickey’s ass any day of the week.
February 23rd, 2010 at 12:25 pm
The xbox live marketplace on the xbox 360 has a ton of the old sega games available including the original sonic the hedgehogs.
The new sonic 4 is already said to be a going back to the roots title but we will have to wait and see.
Also on the 360 there are a number of collection titles that have all the old sega games on a single disc.
http://www.sega-australia.com/games/sonics-ultimate-genesis-collection/
February 23rd, 2010 at 1:03 pm
Sam - I’m in the ‘save princesses, kill turtles’ group! Or, in Castle of Illusion’s case, ‘save Minnie, kill toy soldiers’. I don’t actually like too much plot in games unless they’re point-and-click (The Longest Journey was a great one). Don’t know why - I guess I just enjoy going through the levels killing stuff and collecting objects without having to give it too much thought.
As for the Wii, everyone says it’s easy to play but, having seen my cousin on it, it looked damn difficult to me! Maybe it’s just been too long since I played those types of games. However, now that I know you can play Sega games on the Wii, I may have to get a console and try it out for myself.
As for World of Illusion, I didn’t know about this game so didn’t have it for the Sega but I agree that the one thing that would have improved Castle was Donald!
Daniel - so the xbox can play sega games too? If and when I get a console I’m going to be torn between xbox and wii now!
February 23rd, 2010 at 1:10 pm
I think the point here is that, having never played on the Wii, the X-Box or PS3, and having only very briefly tried out PS2 and the Cube, I am entirely ignorant of this subject and, therefore, really have no right to be voicing my opinions at all. I realise now that this post is just the incoherent ramblings of an uninformed mind! I’ve become one of those grown-ups who used to look at the Sega when my brother and I were playing on it, and say, ‘That looks very complicated!’ Perhaps I really should take the plunge and buy myself a Wii rather than spending all my money on shoes.
September 24th, 2010 at 9:49 am
well, wii is good, but when you spent the money to buy a wii, you can spent more less money to buy a cheap one game to play all the same.
October 19th, 2010 at 11:59 am
very nice , i hope i can get one in some day !
March 7th, 2011 at 12:58 pm
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