I wish I could say this may be the first of many new titles for older hardware created by veterans that worked on that hardware but, I cannot. More on that in a minute. For now, let’s celebrate the new Sega Genesis, 16-Bit, scrolling shooter being released on modern consoles for fans to enjoy. What makes Earthion stand out is the fact that Yuzo Koshiro worked on it – if you do not know who that is, I must ask what generation of retro gaming fan are you?
Who Yuzo Koshiro Is
If you do not know who Yuzo Koshiro is, he is iconic in the gaming world, particularly the 16-Bit era. He was instrumental in creating many of the amazing tunes that gamers jammed out to on the Sega Genesis, specifically Sega release such as the Streets of Rage franchise. He would dip his fingers into game development with Story of Thor/Beyond Oasis in North America on Sega Genesis and the prequel released on the follow up console, the Sega Saturn, a title called Legend of Oasis.
The man is iconic for many gamers, even today. He is the driving force behind Earthion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWuqJQrU52Q
Scrolling Shooter Fans Unite
Earthion is a 2D side scrolling shooter. If you are not a fan of this genre, this release is not likely to do anything to change that fact. To Earthion’s credit, it is not intended to attempt that.
What you will find is literally a Sega Genesis ROM running on your modern console, or on Steam if you go that route. That brings me to the controversy.
When Earthion was released on Steam, some enterprising hackers figured out how to extract the ROM and released it on the Internet. Koshiro asked fans to not pirate the game as it was costly to create and it was a labor of love for fans.
Sadly, fans did not really listen and the ROM was made available in many places.
This means potential sales are not there. This means we could see less, if any, releases like this in the future. Honestly, at the end of the day, that makes me mad because it means we may lose out on more titles in the future.
What is the reasoning to get industry veterans to put their money where their mouth is and attempt to make classic games like this? There is none.
With that said, Earthion is now available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X and Series S in digital format.