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Your home for Sega news, retros & guides

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Five Weekends, One Save File: How Blockbuster Taught America to Love Sega
Retrospective

Five Weekends, One Save File: How Blockbuster Taught America to Love Sega

Before digital storefronts and Game Pass, most of us met Sega through a plastic clamshell case with a rental sticker on it. This is a love letter to the rental era — the photocopies, the memory card panic, and the games we finished one weekend at a time.

Forget the Hedgehog: Nights, Ristar, and the Strange Genius Hiding Inside Sonic Team
Retrospective

Forget the Hedgehog: Nights, Ristar, and the Strange Genius Hiding Inside Sonic Team

Sonic Team built an empire on a blue hedgehog, but the studio's real creative soul lives in its weirder, less profitable experiments. From Ristar's stretchy arms to Burning Rangers' fiery corridors, these are the B-sides that deserve a spin.

Welcome to Your Sacrifice: Why Altered Beast Refuses to Die
Retrospective

Welcome to Your Sacrifice: Why Altered Beast Refuses to Die

The Genesis launch title everybody mocked became the Sega reference nobody can quit. From 'Rise from your grave' to三十年 of parodies, Altered Beast outlived its reputation — and maybe that was the point.

Hands on the Wheel: Rebuilding the Sega Arcade Ritual in My Living Room
Retrospective

Hands on the Wheel: Rebuilding the Sega Arcade Ritual in My Living Room

Playing Crazy Taxi on a phone screen is fine. Playing it on a real arcade stick, with a coin in your pocket and a deadline ticking, is something else entirely. Here's what it takes to bring that feeling home in 2025 — and what no setup can quite replicate.

Ninety Cents a Minute: How Sega Taught America to Pay for Help
Retrospective

Ninety Cents a Minute: How Sega Taught America to Pay for Help

Before YouTube walkthroughs and GameFAQs, stuck players had two options: squint at a glossy Genesis manual or dial a 900 number and watch the meter run. We look back at Sega's player support empire — the booklets, the hotline operators, and the strange economics of being told how to beat Ecco the Dolphin for the price of a combo meal.

The Arcade Cabinet Costs More Than a Camry: Inside the Strange Economics of Sega Collecting
Opinion

The Arcade Cabinet Costs More Than a Camry: Inside the Strange Economics of Sega Collecting

Model 2 racers are fetching five figures, sealed Genesis games are outpacing stocks, and yet Sega stuff still trades at a discount compared to Nintendo's vault. Here's why the gap exists — and why that might be the collector's opportunity of the decade.

Dust Off the Vault: Three Dormant Sega Series That Deserve a Like a Dragon-Style Comeback
Opinion

Dust Off the Vault: Three Dormant Sega Series That Deserve a Like a Dragon-Style Comeback

Sonic and Like a Dragon are carrying the company, but Sega's vault is stuffed with franchises fans haven't stopped talking about. Here are the three series we think deserve the full modern reinvention treatment next.

Insert Coin, Wait 30 Years: The Sega Arcade Classics Begging for a Second Life
Retrospective

Insert Coin, Wait 30 Years: The Sega Arcade Classics Begging for a Second Life

Sega's arcade catalog is a goldmine of ideas that never got the modern treatment they earned. We picked ten cabinets — famous and forgotten — and mapped out exactly how you can play each one in the US right now.

That Gritty Buzz in Every Genesis Game? Thank the YM2612.
Retrospective

That Gritty Buzz in Every Genesis Game? Thank the YM2612.

The SNES had more channels and prettier samples, but Sega's Yamaha sound chip had attitude. From Sonic's basslines to Yuzo Koshiro's club-ready bangers, here's why FM synthesis still hits harder than anything else from the 16-bit era.

Too Good for Its Own Launch: Sega's Long Habit of Releasing Masterpieces Nobody Bought
Opinion

Too Good for Its Own Launch: Sega's Long Habit of Releasing Masterpieces Nobody Bought

Ristar, Jet Set Radio Future, Panzer Dragoon Saga — Sega has a strange talent for saving its best ideas for games the market wasn't ready to buy. Here's why that pattern keeps repeating, and what it tells us about whatever Sega does next.

Waiting for the Bus, Avenging My Father: What Shenmue Understood About Open Worlds Before Anyone Else
Retrospective

Waiting for the Bus, Avenging My Father: What Shenmue Understood About Open Worlds Before Anyone Else

Before every open-world game handed you a checklist, Shenmue handed you a bus schedule and a curfew. Revisiting Ryo Hazuki's slow-burn revenge quest reveals the blueprint half the industry has been tracing ever since.

Plug It In Anyway: A Field Guide to Sega's Most Gloriously Doomed Hardware Experiments
Opinion

Plug It In Anyway: A Field Guide to Sega's Most Gloriously Doomed Hardware Experiments

Sega never met a weird accessory it didn't want to strap to your forehead. From motion-sensing rings to a Genesis stapled to a Genesis, here's our affectionately honest ranking of the company's most baffling peripheral swings.

Six Buttons, One Perfect Punch: How Streets of Rage Rewrote the Beat-'Em-Up Rulebook
Retrospective

Six Buttons, One Perfect Punch: How Streets of Rage Rewrote the Beat-'Em-Up Rulebook

From a Genesis cartridge with a killer soundtrack to a 2020 indie revival, Streets of Rage has spent 30 years defining what a great beat-'em-up sounds and feels like. This is how it happened.

Don't Buy the Originals Yet: How to Play the Dreamcast's Best Games in 2024
Opinion

Don't Buy the Originals Yet: How to Play the Dreamcast's Best Games in 2024

The Dreamcast died in 2001, but its library never really went away. We rank every modern reissue worth your money — and flag the ones where hunting down a disc is still the smarter play.

The Genesis Didn't Win: Ranking Sega's Consoles From Bottom to Top
Opinion

The Genesis Didn't Win: Ranking Sega's Consoles From Bottom to Top

Every Sega console has its defenders, but some defenders are wrong. We ranked the entire hardware lineup from the SG-1000 to the Dreamcast, and yes, we're prepared for the angry emails.

Ichiban Kasuga Is the Reincarnation of Everything Sega Used to Be
Retrospective

Ichiban Kasuga Is the Reincarnation of Everything Sega Used to Be

A series built on fan campaigns, a beloved hero's retirement, and one very enthusiastic bald protagonist saved Sega's willingness to gamble. Here's how Yakuza became the studio's true heir to its experimental '90s spirit.

Sonic Frontiers Was the Wake-Up Call Sega Needed — And It Finally Listened
Opinion

Sonic Frontiers Was the Wake-Up Call Sega Needed — And It Finally Listened

After two decades of 3D Sonic games that couldn't decide what the franchise was, Frontiers' open-zone formula finally cracked it. Here's why this one matters more than any Sonic release since the Dreamcast days.

Beyond Panzer Dragoon Saga: The Saturn Classics America Never Got to Properly Love
Retrospective

Beyond Panzer Dragoon Saga: The Saturn Classics America Never Got to Properly Love

The Saturn turns 30, and its library is still full of deep cuts that never found a US audience the first time around. From tactical RPGs to neon-soaked action, here are the games we'd love to see get the remaster treatment.