Editorial: Why Sega Doesn’t Suck

Instead of going on and on… and on… and on like a fanboy and start raving about how the Genesis was ‘teh bestest system evur’ or how Shenmue is the ‘kewlest RPG evar madez,’ I attack the cynics by listing SEGA’s accomplishments these past five years. Though to effectively set the mood: I bought a DreamCast last year. Let’s continue.

So, who here remembers E3? Hands down; it was rhetorical. How could any one possibly forget Microsoft publicly announcing they’re greedy bastards, Sony’s own Kevin Butler’s grand monologue that many gamers will use to try out for their Drama classes, or Nintendo claiming their souls back from the casual audience better than Mario could ever reclaim his dear princess? I’m sure Will definitely hasn’t yet due to still swimming in loads of content from the event. Now, what does any of that have to do with the average headline above? Not much. In fact, the E3 event itself has nothing to do with any of this. What does though is the hype.

Back in May, every single gaming site (except us because we’re either hardcore or just incredibly lazy) were doing their part to hype up E3 through various previews, humor videos, editorials, predictions, etc. However, what caught my eye was a hype poll that IGN put up titled ‘Who needs to do well at E3 this year or will cease to exist?’ with choices being for the big three and all the major publishers. My first reaction to this poll was a chuckle because, quite frankly, the chances of any company going anywhere in the next few years are low. Still, I decided to play along and I voted for Sony. The reason? They’ve never had an OMGWOW press conference like Microsoft did in 2007/2008 or Nintendo in 2010. But, I digress. After voting, I got to see the current results, and, to be quite honest, I was shocked and appalled to see that the majority of people put aside their inner Console War 2010 soldier and voted SEGA. I was at least hoping that they would give rightful hate to Activision (it’s as I type these words, I realize I will never get a review copy from them… I’m cool with this).

I think people are misaiming their hatred because I will fully agree with them that Sonic and Sonic Team as a whole have fallen from grace, but SEGA as a whole? That’s saying a bit much. Yes, they do publish trash like the Iron Man games, but every publisher has their low moments. Heck, I’m still looking for an explanation from Bethesda for WET. Instead of focusing on their sellout titles and shovelware, I think people need to stop and give SEGA credit for the incredible publishing work and many fan-services they have done this gen. In fact, it seems when SEGA is trying, all they are doing is listening to the fans. Don’t take my word for it, just look at their accomplishments from over these past five years: 1. Employing PlatinumGames (formerly known as MUTHA-FUKIN’ Clover… give or take a few syllables) who have given us Bayonetta, MadWorld, Infinite Space, and Vanquish (which looks awwwesome). 2. They re-birthed once great franchises such as NiGHTS, Samba De Amigo, House of the Dead and After Burner. Most of which did well critically and the other (who shall remain nameless) was a fun game for the casual audience that used the essence of a once famed peripheral game 3. They developed Valkyria Chronicles which went down in the Guinness Books as the best strategic RPG of all time. 4. They worked with great developers like Tri-Ace and Monolith to bring us Resonance of Fate and Condemned respectively. 5. Unlike other companies, they do many fan-services such as bringing Dreamcast games into the land of glorious HD on the XBLA and PSN, bringing Yakuza 3 to the states, putting Mario and Sonic in, what is now, three games together (two of which are casual party games), listening to the fans of Sonic and returning him to a 2D side-scroller where he and speed are the only stars of the show, and many more. Instead of continuing this list, I’m going to cut this short because this article is already a tad wordy. Thus, conclusion time!

Every day while browsing the hundreds of gaming sites out there, I always seem to find one face-palm worthy slam to SEGA like the press still holds a grudge. If that is the case, I say they all need to grow up and look at what the house that Sonic built has been up to. Heck, even the now hated mascot still manages to give us good titles through the Sonic Rush games, Sonic 4 (we hope), Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing is actually a fun kart racing title for those who can’t get their hands on Super Mario Kart, and even Sonic Colors looks like it could turn out to be a pretty fun title if Sonic Team can keep their heads together. If anything, SEGA is one of the few third party developers that remembers what the hardcore gamer actually likes to play. I, for one, am thankful for this attention and can’t wait to get my hands on Vanquish. Till then, I’ll be playing more Super Mario Galaxy 2.