Retro Gaming Australia

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 are pulling out all of the stops with digital distribution this month. Hot off the heels of Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 comes the third round of Sega Vintage Collection games for PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade.

Twelve games will be released as part of this run – Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Super Hang-On, Revenge of Shinobi, Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Wonder Boy in Monster World, Monster World IV, Streets of Rage, Streets of Rage II, Streets of Rage 3, Golden Axe, Golden Axe II and Golden Axe III.

The games are packaged differently based on which service you decide to use. On PlayStation Network, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Super Hang-On, Revenge of Shinobi, Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Wonder Boy in Monster World and Monster World IV will be available May 22nd for $US4.99 each.

Meanwhile, on Xbox Live Arcade, the games will be available in packs of three – Monster World Collection (Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Wonder Boy in Monster World and Monster World IV) and Alex Kidd & Co. Collection (Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Super Hang-On and Revenge of Shinobi) on May 23, while Streets of Rage Collection and Golden Axe Collection will arrive on May 30. All Xbox Live Arcade collections will be 800 points.

Remember the Sega Vintage Collection on Xbox Live Arcade? It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Well, they’re relaunching it, starting with Monster World Collection, a three in one collection that includes Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Wonder Boy in Monster World and the previously Japan-only Monster World IV.

On top of that, the collection is being done by Japanese studio M2, a developer known for producing painstakingly accurate ports of old games to new systems. For those unfamiliar with M2, they were responsible for a lot of the emulation technology behind Virtual Console, and produced the lion’s share of the second half of the Sega Ages 2500 collection – which included Monster World Collection (but that version had Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap, which is not in this collection – Oh Sega!?!).

The collection is launching on April 25th, and will boast a few neat little extras.

With Sega acknowledging that Wonder Boy exists, could a revival happen in the future?