Happy Holidays, from SEGA!

The SEGA Mega Sale is now on! Check our our promotional page with a full listing of discounted games.

The price drop clocks in at 40% — from 800 Wii Points down to 500 Wii Points, and lasts from December 24th until January 6th.

This is as exciting a group of Virtual Console games as I could imagine. Take a look at this quick community retrospective on the titles being offered:

Sonic The Hedgehog: Perhaps you may have heard of Sonic the Hedgehog? If you haven’t played the original in some time, it’s always awesome to revisit the game that started it all and more or less made the Genesis — and the bright graphics and exquisite level design of the original game still hold up today. Now you can snag it on the Wii for a bargain-basement price!

Sonic The Hedgehog 2: Faster, bigger and the game that introduced Super Sonic! The first time I ever collected all the Chaos Emeralds — this was before the internet told everyone what was coming in every game — I had no idea what to expect. The transformation of Sonic into Supersonic, flying around the screen in an invincible glowing-golden blur as the music sped up and the badniks withered before your awesomeness, represents, to this day, probably the best reward-to-work payoff of any video game I’ve ever played. Like seeing the Grand Canyon or the Great Wall of China, collecting all the Chaos Emeralds in Sonic 2 should be on everyone’s lifetime checklist. Also, check here for Clumsyorchid’s nostalgic retrospective on playing Sonic 2!

Sonic The Hedgehog 3: The first part of the sprawling Sonic & Knuckles adventure, Sonic 3 expanded wonderfully on the first two games, and introduced different kinds of shield spheres for increased strategy, and the graphically impressive “Blue Sphere” bonus stage which took place on a revolving 3D planetscape. In my opinion, this was also the most difficult of the original Sonic games (along with its companion game, Sonic & Knuckles), with highly imaginative and well-executed levels — a perfect challenge for old school Sonic fans!

Gunstar Heroes: Quite possibly one of the best looking games on the Genesis system, Gunstar Heroes is an exemplar of the best that 16 bits was capable of. Killer, incredibly fluid animation with creative weapons and an ultra-fast combat style make this one of the premier side-scrolling shoot-em-ups of the 1990s. Check out the piece in our own blog for more on this game!

Toe Jam & Earl: Yes! The original TJ&E is one of the most eclectic and unique titles to grace the Genesis. Featuring a well-implemented 3/4 scale view and a combination of wacky action and adventure/puzzle gameplay, ToeJam & Earl has a unique SEGA feel to it. It’s not an easy game to categorize — something like an action/adventure dungeon crawl in a funky space setting, with loads of tongue-in-cheek humor. Also worth noting — this is one of the rare games that’s worth picking up for the music alone. Most of all, we need the funk!

Puyo Puyo 2: An infectious, addictive puzzle game classic. Everything about this game, from the Columns/Tetris inspired gameplay to the animation of the little globular puzzle pieces, to the sound effects and music, is compelling and addictive. Did I say addictive? Addictive. Now at a reduced price!

Shining Force: Even with all the Sonic games on this last, this is my favorite of the bunch. It’s also one of my favorite games, period. In a fit of nostalgic love I titled my blog article on the Shining Force games “the legacy of tactical aweomeness”, after the subtitle of one of the original SF games. The strategy and squad-building in this game is dead-on perfect, and it is absolutely a spiritual ancestor to Valkyria Chronicles. I can’t say enough good things about this game: it’s one of the few games that, if you still have your Genesis, is worth the exorbitant fees people charge for the original cart. Thankfully you can pick it up now for this insanely low price, for your Nintendo Wii!

Golden Axe: The Genesis version — a truly spectacular port of one of the ultimate “must play” arcade games from my youth. The dark fantasy setting, dragon riding, and of course, gnome punting are all exquisitely done. These were some of the best graphics to show up on the Genesis — a terrific discount pickup for the Virtual Console! Check out my previous blog on the game, where I get to wax nostalgic about its many axe & gnome-related features.

Altered Beast: This side-scroller should hold a special place in the hearts of all Genesis fans for being the original game that was boxed with the system, and the game who’s dazzling 16-bit graphics and big sprites helped sell the 16-bit revolution. Read more in my original blog post on the game!

Streets Of Rage 2: Ahh. Did I say that Shining Force was my favorite game on this list? Well, I suppose it is, but it doesn’t get much better than Streets of Rage 2. There were a lot of excellent side-scrolling beat-em-up games from the 80s and 90s: Final Fight and, of course, Double Dragon come to mind, but I think I can safely say that Streets of Rage 2 was the best of the bunch. Just about everything in this game was perfect — a variety of difficulty levels made the game easy and fun or else incredibly challenging. The different fighters felt incredibly unique, and the music was some of the most awesome techno/electronic music to show up in games in the 1990s. But don’t take my word for it: Check here for Clumsyorchid’s blog, which confirms how awesome the game was. Oh, also, although it’s rarely listed as a feature for the game, it should be: In Streets of Rage 2, you can knock bad guys off of motorcycles with a jump kick. This alone is worth the price, and at a 40% discount, how can you say no?