Retro Gaming Australia

You’d think in this day and age of digital goods and globalisation that everything would get released everywhere.

‘Fraid not.

Sega has decided not to release the Model 2 Collection games Cyber Troopers: Virtual-On and Virtua Striker outside of Japan, where they will be available together for ¥880 on PSN and 400 points on Xbox Live Arcade.

Of course you can get around that buy registering a Japanese account for either service and then buying region specific points. Something we should write a guide on one of these days.

Over the past year, Sega has been transitioning away from the standard box product model, instead opting to make the most of their back catalogue through digital distribution.

Sega Japan has launched the website Archives Sega to catalogue all of the games that have been released digitally, from the SEGA AGES Online service through to the new Model 2 collection.

There are currently no plans to replicate the website in English.

Via Segabits

As part of their evergrowing focus on digital distribution, Sega has announced that it will be bringing a collection of Model 2 arcade games to Xbox Live Arcade and PSN in the coming months.

The slate of titles, dubbed the “Model 2 Collection”, includes Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Striker, Sonic the Fighters, Fighting Vipers and Virtual On.

Word on the street is that these titles will boast improvements like online play and in the case of Sonic the Fighters, extra playable characters. We’ll have to wait and see. I doubt we’ll see Pepsiman in Fighting Vipers, but one can always hope.

Siliconera is reporting that a source close to Sega informed them that ToeJam & Earl and its sidescroller sequel Panic on Funkatron will be the next part of the next wave of Sega’s Vintage Collection releases. This seems to gel pretty well with the renewed focus on digital and heritage content Sega has been touting lately.

There are a few licensing hurdles to get over. While fans commonly associate the characters with Sega, they are not actually owned by the company, rather remaining the property of their original creators Greg Johnson and Mark Voorsanger (hence their omission from Sega Superstars/All Stars games to date).

If the collection is happening, you’ll hear about it soon.

Sega appears to have discovered the Saturn’s back catalogue with the announcement that NiGHTS into Dreams HD will be coming to the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC later this year.

The HD version of the game will include 16:9 support, trophies/achievements, leaderboards and Saturn Mode, which allows you to play the game in its original glory. One has to wonder if the prettier HD version is based on the PlayStation 2 release that was exclusive to Japan.

Whatever version it is, you’ll get the opportunity to see that NiGHTs is totally overrated later this year.