The SEGA Forever website has just gone up, complete with a neat trailer (that apparently isn't on Youtube yet) nevrmind I take it back. Here are some facts: It's Free to Play, available for iOS and Android phones / tablets There will be classic SEGA games available from "all SEGA console generations" Right now it's Mega Drive games only, but they list "Master System, Dreamcast and more" on the page Online leaderboards Offline play (aka no Sonic Runners-esque bullcrap) Bluetooth controller support SEGA is promising new games being available to download and play on the service every month The "launch titles" are Phantasy Star 2, Sonic 1, Kid Chameleon, Altered Beast and of course Comix Zone
Again, if they're not gonna commit to Saturn/DC this is just a waste of time for me. Same games they've rereleased on other platforms (5 bucks says Thunder Blade is going to be next) except now they run in Unity. I read the interview, and if they really want to bring over stuff that wasn't on digital then I hope they're actually following through because right now all I'm seeing is "games you can buy off Steam as well but now they're on a phone." And judging by the statement that they want to make other consoles happen, I don't expect them to get there unless they have a low bar set for the app's sales or whatever. I hope they bring this to desktop because that would at least mitigate the fact that I've given up playing mobile games. Also, if they're releasing Master System games FM sound better be available for any titles that support it...
Altered Beast, Phantasy Star 2, Kid Chameleon, and Comix Zone are all unavailable in the US apparently?
It's the opposite for me in the UK. Those four games are all available, but Sonic 1 is not. EDIT: Just checked it out, it's very bare in terms of options, as in, there are none. Each game seems to have a free, ad-supported version with only cloud saves (seems to have a single banner add at the bottom when you first load the app, and then a static fullscreen Google Play Ad when loading the game which can be skipped immediately). You can buy an ad-free version with support for local saves for £1.99, but I believe this is per-game (not 100% sure about that). The games themselves are simple emulations (besides Sonic 1 I guess), but there's a forced bilinear filter that there is no way to disable. There also seems to be leaderboards, although I've not seen any actual scores on them yet. Framerate seems iffy but I am using a rather old phone (HTC One M7). Comix Zone uses a 3-button gamepad unfortunately, not sure why they couldn't just emulate a 6-button one like they did every other time they released the game (SMC+ for example).
And they think they're going to somehow get Saturn games on there if a barebones set of Genesis games somehow takes off. Granted there are people who will look past that but that's not a good start.
Oh christ, according to Twitter the additional Unity stuff/IAP is bulkware that causes the games to be 100+ MB. Also Virtua Tennis is probably the one mobile port or something.
It's pretty iffy on my Nexus 6p, too. Not sure how they managed this; it's not the most powerful phone around, but it's no slouch either, and it runs other genesis emulators with no such issues. Probably a Unity thing.
German Play store only has sonic as well. If they can't make all the games available in all regions immediately they should at least admit it.
The new version of Sonic 1 for SEGA forever on Google play (UK) for my Galaxy S7 fixes the sound-test issue. About bloody time! I just recorded footage showing that the sound-test works and the Super Sonic & Debug-mode cheats works (played through GH). The ads suck. At least you can pay to get rid of them:
Wait, how did you download it? I'm in the UK and I'm still getting the "unavailable in your country" error and I can't find any APKs online of the new version either.
Wait a sec. I thought they were releasing the games via emulation. So, Sega Forever's Sonic 1 is the same TaxmanRemaster© but with (ugly and intrusive) ads all over the place? Are the other games emulated, or they properly ported them like Taxman did?
I just tried Comix Zone on my Moto X Pure, and yeah, it's playable, but considering this thing emulates DS games with no hitches, the framerate REALLY should be perfect, and it isn't. EDIT: That said, I absolutely loved the ad they ran. From the SAY-GAAAH old-school logo transition at the start, to the "SEGA!!!" at the end, that was tonally perfect.
The other games appear to be emulated unless they already existed in a better form, like with the Taxman ports and Crazy Taxi. Only now they'll go under this pricing model and have ads if you didn't pay for them (if you pay for the game or have already paid for the game it'll remove the ads).
Well, the ads aren't really very intrusive. I watched a video ad when I started the game up, but I could skip it after 5 seconds. Then I think there was an ad on the file select menu. But they don't interrupt the game. Also, Sonic 1 asked me for my age when I started it up, whereas Comix Zone didn't. When I said I'd purchased the full version before, it took me to the Play Store page for the OG 2013 release of Sonic 1, and BOTH versions are now installed on my phone, with the only difference being that the Sega Forever version has that logo intro and ads.
Oh, good to know. I thought someone ported Comix Zone to modern platforms, I was about to jump in glee. Sorry, by "intrusive" I meant "plastered in every empty space of the UI". Nevertheless, you can pay for the ads to go away, so it's not too bad. Echoing that SEGA logo transition. I just love it.
So how are they going to do Saturn and Dreamcast games if they're struggling with framerates on Genesis games? This looks like it's going the Sega Heritage Collection route, lots of hype and then it's going away as soon as it came.
My man I'd be 100x more interested in this if it was targeting more than mobile. Mobile gaming is, in my opinion, only really fun or feasible when it's a game designed for mobile. I really, really don't like touch buttons. Bring it to the Switch, PS4, or PC, then we're talking.
