Cognition Dissemination: Sega Franchises I’d Like to See Revived

For years, Sega has outlined their desire to revive dormant franchises, to deserved skepticism from their intended audience. They have one of the biggest piles of unused franchises among video game industry publishers, perhaps only rivaling EA. This was a plan they’ve since proven they were serious about.

The biggest classic franchise revived in recent memory was side-scrolling brawler series Streets of Rage through Streets of Rage 4, thanks to the efforts of developer and publisher duo Lizardcube and DotEmu. Both previously teamed up for Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap, a remake of the originally Sega-published Wonder Boy III. This has led to more unlikely revivals, like the upcoming Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX, a remake from Merge Games and Jankenteam that will recreate the levels of the original 1986 Master System title and add new levels. The advent of digital distribution and smaller games has led to this trend, alongside Sega’s open-mindedness by working with indie development and publishing studios.

Alex Kidd shows how this good trend will be maintained. But you know what this was leading to: I have franchises I’d personally like to see return.

Shinobi

The Shinobi franchise was one of the most popular ninja action-platformer franchises of the 1980s and 1990s, with installments released in arcades and on Sega consoles like the Master System, Genesis/Mega Drive, and Saturn. (Not Dreamcast, though. Maybe that’s why it failed?) The 3D installments on PlayStation 2, Shinobi and Kunoichi (aka Nightshade), turned out okay but weren’t on par with other 3D action franchises of the era like the Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden games. The last attempt to revive it was through an iffy-looking and controlling 3DS game from Griptonite Games, incidentally their swan song.

Shinobi was one of Sega’s most popular franchises in the 90s, and should thus be a top contender for a revival. A number of indie developers could handle a new game, including those mentioned above. I’d prefer the aesthetics to be on par with Streets of Rage 4 or Wonder Boy, but I wouldn’t complain if its visuals were closer to the Alex Kidd game. Either result would look better than the 3DS game. I’m having a hard time thinking of a 2D ninja game that controls as perfectly as Shinobi III, especially with the six-button scheme that maps kunai and sword attacks to different buttons and allows for blocking attacks. They can go ahead and just reuse that. The levels should take inspiration from Shinobi III’s and The Revenge of Shinobi’s.

I’m aware of the other 2D ninja games on the way, like Cyber Shadow and Bushiden. The impending existence of those titles proves that demand exists for 2D ninja games on digital platforms, and a revival of a classic ninja franchise that both these titles are taking at least some inspiration from would only help.

There’s enough demand for a Shinobi game that I’d love to think plans are already underway to revive it. If not, hopefully Sega will start negotiating with other development and publishing houses soon. There are several who’d love to handle it.

Golden Axe

The Golden Axe series stood alongside the Streets of Rage series as one of Sega’s biggest side-scrolling brawler franchises of the 90s, though the former was a bit more prominent. In addition to receiving three Genesis installments, Golden Axe also received an arcade brawler installment, along with a Master System spinoff that resembled the old Legend of Zelda games and a fighting game adaptation. There was also a reboot released for last-gen consoles that I will not discuss any further. The Golden Axe series wasn’t quite as appealing to the worldwide audience as the Streets of Rage titles thanks to a slight consumer preference for urban brawlers at the time, but they were nonetheless popular.

Now that Streets of Rage is back, this should come with it. A number of games with old school medieval fantasy settings have been made in the last several years, including in the brawler genre like Vanillaware’s Dragon’s Crown. But the genre and setting aren’t so oversaturated that we can’t use more. Lizardcube and DotEmu again would be the top contenders to handle it, after working on SOR4. Heck, Lizardcube artist and Creative Director Ben Fiquet already provided fanart for Golden Axe’s Tyris Flare and the Ax Battler; it’s tough not to imagine them handling it after seeing them. That is, unless they’re busy with other projects.

A new Golden Axe game will hopefully happen sooner rather than later. In the meantime, it wouldn’t be too much to ask for Sega to port the arcade-only release of Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder to current platforms with online play. Feel free to throw in the obscure Golden Axe: The Duel alongside it if they don’t want to sell that game by itself, even though it received a previous console port to Sega Saturn.

There are too many Sega franchises that need successors, but I wanted to keep the focus narrow here. If you read this far and said “okay loser, what about [insert favorite Sega franchise here]?” I am very open to making a second post about more franchises. This highlights just how many great franchises Sega had and can have again, even if they let other companies handle them.