If you are a Sega fan that plays games primarily on PC, we have some good news for you. In celebration of its company’s 60th Anniversary, Sega is making a handful of games (both classic and brand-new) available to download on Steam over the course of the next five days that will be free to play and own “forever”. In keeping with Sega’s penchant for making erratic decisions however (e.g. none of these freebies will be available for console owners despite much of Sega’s legacy having been built atop its many years in the game console business), the release roll-out is equally sketchy, so here’s a breakdown of what will be available and when:
Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (claimable until Oct. 19th) was made available for free on its own last week before the 60th Celebration was announced and has since been retroactively to the festivities. This is of course the classic Sega Genesis/Mega Drive game that introduced Tails the fox as the titular Hedgehog’s sidekick as well as split-screen multiplayer to the franchise.
Armor of Heroes (claimable Oct. 15th – 19th) is a top-down, retro-style versus-multiplayer tank battle game which according to its Steam page write-up “(integrates) art and models from Relic Entertainment’s beloved Company of Heroes series”. Players can go solo, team up against AI opponents, or battle head-to-head in 4-player battles. The game also supports Steam’s Remote Play Together, enabling this exclusively local multiplayer title to be played with friends online as if they were all sitting on the same couch.
Endless Zone (claimable Oct. 16th – 19th) is a Fantasy Zone inspired shooter by visual way of Amplitude Studio’s Endless Universe strategy games. While retaining the former Sega game’s classic-arcade two-way scrolling action, it promises a good deal of depth and variety in terms of enemies, power-ups ship configurations and worlds to explore.
Streets of Kamurocho (claimable Oct. 17th – 19th) is a clever wink of a mash-up between the Genesis/Mega Drive classic Streets of Rage 2 and Sega’s popular Yakuza franchise, in which the latter game’s main protagonists Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima kick punch and slash their way across a 16-bit rendition of Kamurocho. The game shamelessly cribs off Streets of Rage 2’s backgrounds, move sets and sound effects, but all the same it’s a mashup that clearly needed to happen. The game advertises local-co op but according to its Steam page Remote Play Together is also supported.
Golden Axed (claimable Oct. 18th – 19th) is an unfinished build from the cancelled Golden Axe: Reborn game that Sega Studio Australia was working on a decade ago that never saw the “golden” light of day (get it, as in “gone gold”?). It serves as a remarkably interesting look into a game that could have been, with support for 4-player co-op and Remote Play Together no less! Not only is this buggy, single-level prototype likely to be the shortest game in the list, it also has the shortest availability window, which is just one day, so be sure to snag this up on October 19th if you’re interested.
Finally, the Sega Saturn classic Nights into Dreams is available free via Steam over the next two months to users who sign up Sega’s 60th Anniversary website (which includes linking your Steam account to the e-mail you sign up with). While the Steam promotions end on the 19th, Sega is promising even more content drops over the next two months (because 60 days, get it?) as well other events, including competitions, Let’s Plays and interviews.
