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Pleasingly, the recent Steam release of Freedom Planet strikes a virtuous balance. In retrospect, the publisher spent the succeeding decades trying to duplicate its Sonic-era glory, an endeavor as awkward as a middle-aged man trying to rekindle his high-school swagger. From Sonic Team’s eponymous series, as well as their work on Ristar, to Treasure’s string of stirring hits- Gunstar Heroes, Dynamite Headdy, Alien Soldier and Light Crusader, players saw a succession of truly superlative titles.Īnd while the following generation’s shift to polygon-pushing hardware produced a number of memorable games, few of these would match the charm and effervescent vitality demonstrated by SEGA’s sixteen-bit output.
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There’s a very good reason why the Genesis/Mega Drive is so revered by retro gamers: the console played host to several prodigious programing teams.
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