The Sega Genesis will forever be an absolutely essential part of my childhood. I had over 60 games for the system growing up, countless controllers and joysticks, and spent hundreds if not thousands of hours completing the Sonic trilogy, adventuring through all four mainline Phantasy Star games, adventuring through my favorite Disney films like Aladdin and The Lion King, and generally getting to enjoy doing what Nintendon’t.
Life as a Genesis kid in the 90s was great and now, thanks to the power of VR, it doesn’t just have to be a memory. Rather than simply simulating a large screen in a void like PSVR’s theater mode, the Sega Mega Drive and Genesis Classics collection on Steam has official and robust Steam support.
As a single new feature in a large update full of new, free enhancements, the VR support is at first-glance an afterthought. But the real highlight is that it lets you experience all >50 Genesis games from the collection as if you’re sitting in a retro 90s-themed bedroom reminiscent of the one you or someone you knew may have grew up in. It reminds me a bit of the living room from Duck Season.
It’s lacking some highlights from my own childhood of course, but it gets the job done. Sonic and Golden Axe posters adorn the walls, the trusty Genesis is stored below the old rounded-screen CRT TV, and with a quality Genesis-style USB gamepad you’d be good to go. Although, any gamepad would work just fine — or you can even use the Vive wands as well, but I’d recommend a gamepad of some kind with a dedicated d-pad on it.
This is a pretty cool, free update. Also included are new challenge missions for each game, leaderboards, online multiplayer, mirror mode, and other graphics options. This same bundle just launched on consoles today, but there’s no word of the PS4 version having PSVR support. It’s only listed as Vive support right now. Also worth noting is that a similar effect has been possible for quite a long time using New Retro Arcade: Neon or just an emulator inside of Bigscreen.
If you’ve ever dreamed of playing Sonic, Streets of Rage, or Phantasy Star in VR before, then here you go. Probably now what you had in mind, but it’s still a great blast from the past.
Let us know what you think of these revived classics down in the comments below!
