SEGA Ages in the West

Over in Japan, SEGA released a long and successful series of games for the Saturn under their retro SEGA AGES label: these were titles from SEGA’s rich back-catalogue of both arcade and home games.  All told, there were 13 separate Saturn releases, some being single titles and some being compilations. Alas, the vast majority of these throwbacks never saw the light of day in the West, which is a shame, because there were some extremely solid picks in the collection.

SEGA of America never made it a priority to localize and release any of these titles. Perhaps this was wise: retro gaming wasn’t big during the Saturn’s commercial lifespan and North American gamers were really skewing towards the latest, greatest polygon-pushing games rather than retro classics, no matter how solid they were.

SEGA Europe saw the commercial potential of some of the bigger titles that were making an appearance under the label, however they didn’t believe that any one title would sell as a stand-alone product. So, they took three of the biggies from the series – Yu Suzuki’s Super Scalers: Space Harrier, Out Run, and After Burner 2 – and packaged them all into a single disc which they released as a budget title: SEGA Ages: Volume 1. Sadly, no subsequent volumes followed in the West.

Sensing an opportunity to publish a quality title in the wait between their just-released Albert Odyssey and the (at the time) forthcoming Magic Knight Rayearth and Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, Working Designs approached SEGA Europe and licensed the game for release in North America. Simply titled ‘SEGA AGES’ (no ‘volume’ attached to the North American title), Working Designs positioned it as a budget title at USD $39.99 under their short-lived SPAZ sub-label.

In terms of presentation, the game disc is a bare-bones compilation. There is no fancy front-end, or any videos, interviews, artwork or any other bells and whistles to peruse. From the main menu, the player selects and launches a title – meaning, SEGA Europe literally stuck all three games onto the disc and built a minimalist front-end selection screen. Where Working Designs was able to improve here was with their customary deluxe manual and fancy disc art. The manual is foil and embossed and in full color, and there are three pages of translation notes, covering the three games across the various platforms where they made an appearance. For collectors keeping score, this Working Designs title does not have any disc art variants. As was standard for a Working Designs release, the manual is embossed and is of a heavier weight compared to the SEGA standard, and has that deluxe feel in the vein of all the other Working Designs releases.

With the games originally being separate releases in Japan, each title in the compilation produces its’ own memory file to keep track of high scores and such. The SEGA AGES compilation essentially crams the three Japanese original releases onto one disc, and due to the resulting lack of disc space, a few bonus, remixed music tracks that were included in the Japanese releases are missing. This is important for purists to note, as it may make sense for hardcore fans to track down each individual release, however for the vast majority, this is a minor compromise and the SEGA AGES disc is more than enough.

The quality of these three ports is excellent – Rubuto games did a fantastic job in bringing over the look and feel of the arcade originals to the Saturn. There is no slowdown here, as the Saturn expertly shifts sprites around without breaking a sweat. Further, the games support analog input, and therefore a variety of controllers. Aside from the standard Control Pad, each supports the 3D Control Pad; After Burner 2 and Space Harrier also support the Mission Stick and Out Run supports the Arcade Racer. These are very, very close translations of the arcade originals.

So far, so good… but is this game worth your time in today’s day and age? The simple answer is YES, it most certainly is! In fact, it is an easier recommendation today than it was back upon the game’s release, owing to the fact that folks today aren’t looking for cutting-edge gaming when they turn to Saturn like they were when Saturn was in retail. This allows us to more fully savor the timeless nature of these retro titles, because, let’s face it – at this point, ALL Saturn titles are retro.

Let’s have a quick look at each individual title…

Space Harrier (1985) – an excellent over-the-shoulder first-person on-rails space fantasy shooter, the player takes control of the titular Harrier and shoots (ha, ha) to free the Fantasy Zone from the evil forces that have overtaken it. The story may be a bit thin here, but that’s because this is a shooter! Enemies come at you in waves across colorful checkered landscapes, and it is up to you to be quick on your feet and even quicker with your shot to take them down. The enemies and the levels themselves are really imaginative, making excellent use of color and displaying great sprite art. The music is also very good – composed by Hiroshi Kawaguchi, it has a great beat and tempo that complements the gameplay very well. The game is tough but is a real joy to play through, in an adrenaline-rushing type of way. Space Harrier is one of SEGA’s most ported titles (coming soon to a Nintendo Switch near you!), including a solid port on the Master System, TurboGrafx-16, and an excellent Genesis 32X version as well. Revolutionary upon its’ release in 1985, the game remains a blast today, so you really can’t go wrong here. This game is extremely fun to play and is a worthwhile addition to the game disc.

Out Run (1986) – The second Suzuki Super Scaler, this was another winner for SEGA. Based on the same engine as Space Harrier, it again features brilliant music by Hiroshi Kawaguchi and a choose-your-own-adventure style racing experience. Your girlfriend and you jump into a red-hot Ferrari Testarossa Spider and feel driven (he, he) to complete 5 consecutive stages before time runs out. At the end of each stage, the road branches off into two choices, meaning there are multiple paths and many endings to see. There are other cars to avoid, and great driving and especially drifting is required to avoid crashing into the roadside scenery. The game is notable not only for the branching paths but also for the ability to select your background music, and for undulating terrain (both novel in 1986). The game is an arcade super-seller and again the Saturn translation is excellent. In fact, there is a hidden ‘smooth mode’ in the options which enables… 60 FPS MODE!! Yes: Out Run holds the distinction of being the only Saturn racing game to update at a glorious 60 frames per second. The game is really fun and, like Space Harrier, offers an excellent learning curve which challenges you and keeps you coming back for more. This is another winner and very worthy of being on this disc.

After Burner 2 (1987) – Another excellent translation by Rubuto Games (they did all three games on this disc), After Burner 2 is an update – not a sequel – to the original After Burner. Piloting an F-14, your aim (ho, ho) is to complete all the stages without being shot or crashing. Like the other two, this features fast, adrenaline-pumping gameplay that was revolutionary in 1987 and remains fresh today. You are equipped with an unlimited machine gun as well as limited heat-seeking missiles to take down waves of enemies that come at you head-on as well as fly in from behind you. You take off from the deck of the aircraft carrier ‘SEGA Enterprise’ and then you shoot everything in sight. Simple! It’s a classic SEGA experience and shows what the company was able to achieve using the limited technology of the day, and is also a worthy addition to the disc.

If there is one thing that these titles did really well, it’s the pacing of the learning curves. The player can get immediate satisfaction from playing for the first time, and that enjoyment will continue to climb as more skills are acquired and new levels open up. This is one of the more affordable Working Designs releases, so if you’re a hardcore Saturn gamer, you really can’t go wrong with this release. Folks, this is classic SEGA gameplay excellence that shines through in these decades-old games, and it’s this that makes these games worth going back to again. Recommended.

Shiro Challenges:

• Complete each game using only one life (i.e., one-CC it). That would be some serious skill, but the feeling is of accomplishment excellent, especially since some of the later stages in all three games move ultra-fast.
• In the Bonus Stages of Space Harrier (Levels 5 and 12), try to knock down a total of 6 large trees for a massive bonus score.
• Complete Our Run by always going for the harder route!
• Try and destroy the Natura end-of-level boss in Space Harrier. … … … JK. The boss is indestructible, serving only as a carrier of a wave of enemies. It eventually flies away.

 

Bonus tip: in Japan, you could get the Mission Stick and Space Harrier as a combo pack.

For the Nerds: The manual for the Working Designs games may be the only SEGA manual which mentions Nintendo and the PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 in it.

Factoid: The SPAZ label was meant to differentiate the shooter / action / arcade titles from the RPG titles that Working Designs was traditionally keen on localizing. SEGA AGES was the only Saturn title released under the SPAZ label; the other three titles in the short-lived series were all on the PlayStation: Silhouette Mirage, Thunder Force V, and RayStorm. These three titles were also available for the Saturn… in Japan only. Working Designs then abandoned the label, releasing Silpheed: The Lost Planet and Gungriffon Blaze on the PlayStation 2 under their regular label.