My Thoughts On Sega

That image is a little mean spirited considering my perspective on Sega. I just thought it was funny to include in this blog post but in my humble opinion, I don’t hate Sega or have any grunges against them at all. In fact, I would had preferred it if Sega had stuck around in the console sphere instead of Microsoft, who has done more harm than good to the gaming industry as a whole. Sega was the perfect middle ground between Nintendo’s Disney like Auro and Sony’s more open and mature philosphy to gaming. Sega in my view was the console brand suited to arcade experiences while also being the budget option between Sony and Nintendo.

Growing up as a Nintoddler fanboy, I’ve always seen Sega as Nintendo’s natural rival. They were a necessary opposition force that was necessary for the gaming market to function in retrospect. I didn’t own a Sega console until later on in my life but I did play a couple of Sega console in Elementary school, particularly with my neighbor at the time whenever I’d go over to his house. The two consoles he had a Sega Genesis and I thought it was really cool at the time and I had a lot of fun playing the Sonic Games, Vectorman, Street Fighter 2, NBA Jam, and even some of those bad Simpson games that he owned. His best game that he owned on the Genesis was actually Rocket Knight Adventures which was pretty unique in it’s own right, being a mixed of a beat-em up and Sonic The Hedgehog. That’s a game I’ve been meaning to obtain someday. I always felt like the controllers were a little too big for my hands but I liked the dpads on these controllers, more so than I do on the PlayStation or even Nintendo’s controllers for some instances.

Unrelated but back then, I always assumed music like this was always associated with Sega. I think it’s because on the Genesis, a lot of the music didn’t really have orchestral scores like SNES or N64. It wasn’t chiptune like the NES either. It was this slightly better chiptune with a heavy bass and distorted sound that made it suitable to Rock-esque stuff and electronica/techno/house music. I have no idea why I made that association. It must have been because I heard the song at a Toy-R-US or EB games at one point. But you have to admit it’s not entirely without merit to assume that right?

My cousin was never a Sega guy. At least not a first. So my other exposure with Sega came from my best friend in Elementary School. He had a Saturn and a Dreamcast which were pretty cool in their own right. He only had one Dreamcast game which was Sonic Adventures which I thought looked amazing. The controller was really weird and he didn’t have the VMU memory card. I knew this because I’ve seen Dreamcast demo booths at the stores where the controllers did have them. I thought the controller looked strange but it wasn’t uncomfortable to use. But other than him, I didn’t know anyone who had a Dreamcast growing up. I certainly didn’t know anyone with a Saturn either except this guy and he had a couple of games on that system like Daytona USA and Guardian Heroes. The later was what we played the most at his apartment. It felt like one of those arcade games but I also thought it wasn’t very advance considering Daytona had 3D graphics. The controllers for that console felt more like the Genesis controllers. It almost seemed like he was using the same controllers my neighbor had.

Fast forward a few years later and my cousin out of nowhere picks up a Sega Dreamcast. He had a tip from a friend that the Dreamcast was a pretty cool console and you could burn games to a CD-R so you didn’t have to go out of your way to buy the games. I originally started buying retro games at the later end of my high school years so I did pick up a Genesis and eventually a Sega Dreamcast when I was in Uni. I didn’t take either console to college but I had them back home whenever I would come home for the holidays. My Genesis collection is a little lacking and that’s because I’m still looking into games that I might enjoy on the console. Dreamcast is a little more interesting because the games on that console are kind of like a point in gaming history where everything started to modernize and it was Sega’s last console too. Later on, my disk laser died so I had to look into that mod where you use a sd card reader to read games off that instead. The Dreamcast is arguably the easiest console to mod and tinker with and is honestly my favorite console from Sega. It’s a shame it died so early and got replaced with M*crosoft.

A lot of my current consensus with Sega’s other consoles are through emulation sadly, but a lot of the stuff I’ve experienced were quite good. The SG-1000 to Sega Master Systems were interesting third generation consoles. They were kind of like an alternative NES. Supposedly the Master System is still relevant in the Brazilian marketplace since it was a really big hit over there. I kind of like how the console itself has some built in games so value wise it would had been really good for the time. I didn’t know anyone with a Sega Gamegear but Sonic Gems Collection had a few sonic games from that handheld. They were more akin to Sega Master System games. I would love to own a Saturn someday but the console flopped hard in the states and it’s arguably better to just import one from Japan along with some games (if I had the money) because the console had more releases and success over there. Granted, you probably are going to have to learn read some Japanese to play most of those games but a lot of the arcade titles can be played without reading anyways. Sega CD has some cool games too and it’s a pretty easy console to emulate. Other than emulation, I have played some of the Sonic Games natively on PC and Sonic Adventure 2 on Gamecube,

I find it funny that Sega’s own version of “Miyamoto” (Yuji Naka) went to prison because of insider trading. It’s ironic considering it was right after he released his biggest flop in his repertoire known as Balan Wonderworld which has become forgotten to many but not to me. I don’t know why I find the game funny. Maybe it’s the fact that there’s this angry Farmer (Who I call farmer Sneed) in the game or maybe perhaps it’s that secret ending you get after putting up with the hassle this game makes you go through. Again, a prime example of typical zesty Sega Music:

Sega owns a lot of IPS now and frankly I’m not sure how I feel about modern Sega. They are making a new Crazy Taxi game but it looks like Fortnite so I’m not creaming myself over it. That Sonic Racing Game series is pretty well like but the newest game in that franchise is so polarizing with character slop and balancing issues that it’s not even funny. Sega occasionally releases some really good games like Valkyria Chronicles and Yakuza but they always balance it off with mediocre releases and some outright horrifically bad and buggy games. I think their brand image is weaker now that they are just a publisher now. I personally wish they stuck around in the console market but I know why they aren’t. Sega is reckless when it comes to business strategy. Especially when they were split up between Sega of America and Sega of Japan. It’s a damn shame really. I really like how Sega names their different consoles too by the way (Mega Drive, Master System, Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast, Nomad, Game Gear, etc) . It's a lot better than just calling it Playstaion 1 ,2 3, 4 but especially better than Xbox's naming convention.