Sega Forever is Sega’s answer to the likes of Nintendo’s NES and SNES Mini and all those mobile retro game emulators clogging up app stores.
After dropping some cryptic clues on the rather obscure @SegaForever Twitter account, alongside sending cassette mixtapes to influential individuals, Sega finally unveiled Sega Forever as a treasure trove of its classic hits earlier this year. Available on Android and iOS, Sega Forever is a completely free collection of Sega’s back catalogue of games for you to enjoy on the go.
Yes, you read that correctly, it’s all entirely free. The Sega Forever app costs not a penny, and every game housed within it is also totally free to play.
The latest game to be added? Ristar. Known as Ristar the Shooting Star in Japan, Ristar is a platform game featuring a star who uses his hands to fight enemies. It was originally released on the Mega Drive, was part of the Sega Megadrive Collection for PS2 and PlayStation Portable and in 2006 it rolled out to Wii’s Virtual Console. It later launched on Steam in 2010.
Sega makes its money back on Sega Forever’s retro gems by playing a short advert before you launch a game. In the future, Sega has plans for a subscription service that removes all ads, but for now you can stop ads playing on a selected game by just paying £1.99 per title.
Every game is completely playable offline, comes with cloud saving, online leaderboards and support for Bluetooth controllers. Sega’s Mike Evans told Metro that there aren’t any plans to integrate new difficulty levels or game aids to these retro releases – these are, bar new control schemes, completely faithful emulations of original Sega games.
Sega Forever games
On launch, Sega Forever came with five Mega Drive games and more titles have been added since. Going forward, Sega plans to add both Sega Saturn and Dreamcast games alongside beloved Mega Drive and Master System gems. Every month a new Sega game will arrive on the platform.
Here’s a list of everything you can play on Sega Forever for free right now:
- Altered Beast (iOS, Android)
- Comix Zone (iOS, Android)
- Kid Chameleon (iOS, Android)
- Phantasy Star II (iOS, Android)
- Sonic the Hedgehog (iOS, Android)
- Virtua Tennis Challenge (iOS, Android)
- Revenge of Shinobi (iOS, Android)
- Ristar (iOS, Android)
As you can imagine, this is quite the all-encompassing project for Sega. Evans warned that, as a new title joins every two weeks, it’ll take quite some time to add Sega’s back catalogue to Sega Forever – Sega Saturn games could even be as long as two years away from release on the platform.
Those of you concerned about the purity, and difficulty, of playing retro titles on a smartphone or tablet with touchscreen controls don’t have to worry too much. As every game supports a Bluetooth controller, it also means that Sega Forever works on any Android device you have hooked up to a TV or screen meaning that Nvidia Shield TV or Android TV Box you’ve got tucked away could soon be an excellent retro Sega machine. Take that discontinued Nintendo NES Mini!
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