Sega hasn’t been shy about going in on nostalgia, but their latest bid for gamer attention is about as nostalgic as it gets: A detailed video game you play your video games in. No, really.
The Sega Mega Drive Classics Hub is basically an emulator you play Genesis games on, and it’s got some neat features under the hood. All the games available on the hub will have optional upgraded graphics and Steam Workshop support, so you can mod Genesis games to your heart’s content. Finally, that Sonic and Golden Axe crossover you’ve always dreamed of can be real!
But the emulator itself, clearly designed with VR in mind, is a video game. You wander around a bedroom from the 1990s that has time-of-day effects. You play games by pulling them off a shelf and slotting them into a Genesis underneath a CRT TV. It even appears to put an optional screen distortion effect on the games you’re playing if you happen to want that full-on early ’90s experience. Maybe your avatar can wear a pair of Zubaz with some Pogs in your pocket.
Joking aside, while it’s an odd way to present some classic games, the fact that you can mod the games is pretty cool, and you can’t fault Sega for wanting to have a little fun with what could be a fairly conventional piece of software. You can try it out for yourself next week when it arrives on Steam.
(Via Sega)