The Japanese publisher Sega has been around in the gaming industry longer than most of its competitors. The company was established in the 1960s and got its start making electro-mechanical arcade games for the American and Japanese markets. Since then, Sega has developed hundreds upon hundreds of video games throughout the ages, both for its consoles (during the 80s-90s) and other platforms. Taking that into consideration, it should come as no surprise that there are many Sega games that aren’t exactly easily accessible on modern platforms. Some of the titles that have been published by the company have been stuck on aging hardware, while others have been outright delisted from online storefronts.
Just a few weeks ago, Sega announced that it was removing several of its retro titles from modern platforms, such as Steam and the Microsoft Store. These games, which included iconic classics like Jet Set Radio, NiGHTS into Dreams, and Virtua Fighter 2, were swiftly delisted from all platforms on December 6. Even though the majority of these games can be accessed through other means like emulation, the fact that they were removed from sale is nonetheless a major blow to game preservation efforts. If Sega isn’t interested in keeping its older games available on digital storefronts, then it could at least try putting some of them in the Like a Dragon games.
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Sega Should Preserve Its Retro Titles By Putting Them Into the Like a Dragon Games
To the uninitiated, the concept of preserving classic Sega titles by placing them inside Like a Dragon games may sound absurd. However, for fans of the hit beat-em-up franchise, this probably won’t sound that strange. After all, if there’s one thing the Like a Dragon series is known for having besides crazy side quests and gritty crime stories, it’s arcade minigames. Ever since Yakuza 2, the Like a Dragon games have almost always had explorable Club SEGA arcades that players can visit in-game. These virtual arcades, which are based off of their real-life counterparts in Japan, typically include emulated versions of classic Sega titles, most of which are playable inside the game.
The Like a Dragon franchise was known as Yakuza in the West, prior to 2022. Like a Dragon is the original Japanese name of the series.
The early Like a Dragon titles only featured a few arcade minigames, but recent entries in the series have had many more of them. 2020’s Yakuza: Like a Dragon, for instance, includes six retro Sega games, such as Super Hang-On from 1987 and Space Harrier from 1986. Even the 2023 spin-off entry, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, contains a few classic gems, like 1996’s Sonic the Fighters and 1998’s Fighting Vipers 2.
The Ocean Hunter is Being Preserved on Modern Platforms Thanks to Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
The next installment in the Like a Dragon series, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, is going to continue the franchise’s tradition of featuring Club SEGA arcades. Interestingly, though, one of the retro titles that’s going to be included in this upcoming hack-and-slash game is 1998’s The Ocean Hunter. This Sega-developed rail shooter was released exclusively in arcades across the world, but it was never ported to any other platform. Therefore, The Ocean Hunter‘s appearance in Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii will be the first time the game will become playable on something other than a 30-year-old arcade cabinet.
Sega should repeat what it did with Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii by bringing other retro games to modern platforms in future Like A Dragon installments. While most classic titles from the publisher are better off being sold individually on digital storefronts, there are some niche games that are probably best suited as minigames in the Like a Dragon franchise. A 90s rail shooter like The Ocean Hunter, for example, is probably not something that most people would be interested in buying. However, by adding it to a Like a Dragon title, the game not only gets preserved on current-gen platforms, it also becomes a selling point for a new entry in the hit Sega series.
