Sega has added three nice little first party titles to the Sega Genesis library of the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack.
ESWAT: City Under Siege combined the gameplay of Sega Genesis’ Shinobi games with inspiration from Robocop, and possibly the tokusatsu police officers of Toei’s Metal Hero TV series, like the Space Sheriffs and Mobile Cop Jiban.
You play a police officer taking down a terrorist robotic organization named E.Y.E. in side scrolling gameplay reminiscent of Shinobi. However, you have to successfully finish the first few levels as a plainclothes officer with a gun before you are given access to the mech suits from the cover that actually drew players in.
Super Thunder Blade was Sega’s ambitious attempt to bring over the fierce flight simulator action of is helicopter shooter Thunder Blade to the mighty Genesis. While they were able to replicate the experience of piloting a helicopter from a third person perspective behind the copter, most of the backgrounds are removed to retain the stage hazards and enemies.
Even with that in mind, the Genesis is simply not up to the task, with a lot of pop in as obstacles and enemies come into view. Sega knew this arrangement was unsuitable for the boss battles, so it shifts to a top down perspective for those parts of the game. While Super Thunder Blade falls to its ambitions, its still solid in terms of game design.
The real highlight of this batch is the first Streets of Rage, standing alongside Double Dragon and Final Fight as one of the most important games in the beat-em-up genre. It’s stellar graphics and presentation and contemporary soundtrack from Yuzo Koshiro proved the power of the Genesis, competing gamely against its arcade rivals.
If you may feel that you already own these games, there’s a huge chance that you do. Sega, of course, has been rereleasing their Genesis library more than their other games, across each console generation. All three are in Sega Genesis Classics, also available on the Switch, Xbox, PC and PlayStation.
Now, if you only heard about this collection, we unfortunately have to inform you that Sega Genesis Classics was already delisted last year. That delisting has likely come as Sega is planning to once again repackage these games in the next console generation.
If you can’t wait for that right now, and you didn’t already have Sega Genesis Classics, you can still access and play them through Switch Online’s Expansion Pack tier. You can watch the official Switch Online Genesis announcement trailer below.
