My Life As A Gamer: Sega's Anniversary Offerings

Niche Gamer put out a quick trio of newsbites on three games that Sega's going to release on Steam for a limited time to celebrate their anniversary. The games become available starting this Friday; check the links below.

And the Steam store links:

• Endless Zone
• Streets of Kamurocho
• Golden Axed

Golden Axed is explicitly free. The other two have no price mentioned yet, so cost is unknown. If you're interested, I suggest throwing them on your Wish List and mind your email Inbox starting this weekend for the emailed notifications that the game is available to acquire.

I do hope they're all cheap or free, especially the latter two as that sort of thing is right up my alley.

In particular I want to take a look at the last game, bugs and all. It's sad that we didn't get any serious follow-ups to the second Golden Axe arcade game (Revenge of Death-Adder), and if anyone wants to make their mark in indie videogame development making a spiritual successor to the original arcade games is a solid route to go.

And I do miss Capcom having competition in the side-scrolling brawler market just as much as I miss that being a staple of arcades generally. For me, side-scrolling brawlers are equal to the side-scrolling or top-scrolling shooter for that which defines videogames. I am glad that they are living on now in home-play, be it in emulation (MAME, et. al.), new sequels/spin-offs (e.g. River City Girls, Streets of Rage IV), or all new titles (e.g. Castle Crashers).

Some folks miss playing tournament fighters like Street Fighter II. I miss four and six-player brawlers. This isn't exactly the same, but I'm not a 10 year old boy in 1984 playing in the arcade while waiting for the pizza to arrive and ignoring the animatronics being all Uncanny Valley. (RIP Chuck E Cheese) It's fine, and I'm glad Sega's put these games--which in a better timeline would be global hits and acclaimed in gaming media--out for us to enjoy, even if they're doing the cynical thing and making it artifically scare via limited time availability.