Jaymo’s Sega Suicide Squad: Four Forgotten Franchises Rarin’ for a Reboot

Jaymo from The Old Switch-A-Roo Drops by for our second guest list!

December 7th, 2023 will go down in history not just as the day ursine-sex simulator “Baldur’s Gate 3” swept the Game Awards, but as the moment Sega made its triumphant return to the conversation. With the stylish “Power Surge” trailer (which as of writing has nearly two million views on YouTube), Sega showed off new games in the Streets of Rage, Golden Axe, Shinobi, Jet Set Radio, and Crazy Taxi franchises, while also promising “more” were in development.

While most are assuming these unannounced games will belong to one of the eight IPs for which Sega recently renewed trademarks, the house that Sonic built has a rich and varied catalog just begging for a second-look. So, in the spirit of championing the underdogs, here are four series that deserve a next-generation resurrection.

4. Baku-Baku

When people think of block-puzzlers, they tend to think only of Tetris or Candy Crush. However, back in the 90’s Sega released critically acclaimed “Baku Baku” for arcades, portable, and home consoles. Its premise asks you to imagine yourself as a zookeeper as you sort falling tiles that represent different animals or the food they devour (rabbits eat carrots, monkeys bananas, etc) What sets it apart is how little it asks of the player; it matters not what shapes you form or how many lines you clear. Everytime an animal comes into contact with its favorite snack, it will baku-baku (or chomp-chomp) its way through every connecting match on the screen. The result feels like a fast and addicting mix between Dr. Mario and Mrs. Pac-Man, especially in two-player VS mode.

A modern entry would make for a wonderful mobile title, especially if it recreated the original game’s cartoony graphics and catchy music. It would also be especially conducive to cosmetic microtransactions. It’s easy to imagine a colorful in-game store selling packs of animal-food combos, such as Hedgehog/Chili Dogs, Bandicoot/Wumpa Fruits, or Morty/Spaghetti. Well, maybe not that last one. This is a kid’s game, after all.

3. Shadow Squadron

The 32X, an ill-conceived add-on to the Sega Genesis, is remembered as little more than a footnote in Sega’s long tumble from the top of the 16-bit mountain. However, the “system” was not without its hidden gems, and Shadow Squadron is definitely one such space shooter. While competitors like Star Fox and Star Wars Arcade forced you to always move in a forward direction, Shadow Squadron allowed true 360-degree movement through outer space. As a result the game had a genuinely impressive sense of scale as you zipped through the architecture of massive enemy battleships, and it also came with an addictive two-player co-op mode: one player managed movement/shields while the other aimed laser cannons and missile attacks.

It’s this focus on co-piloting that would have massive modern appeal. Games like Starfield and No Man’s Sky have proven there’s an interest in the infinite (and beyond), so a Shadow Squadron reboot that allowed you to share the cockpit via online play would have an instant audience, especially if you could team up in multiplayer deathmatches. Shooting down randos from galaxies far, far away would be even more fun with a friend.

2. Skies of Arcadia

It’s not exactly a hot-take to say that SoA is an under-appreciated gem, but with the franchise only getting 1.5 games (and that’s including the Gamecube re-release), it can’t be overstated. The epic sky-pirate story combined anime-style turn-based combat, open-world exploration, and even some lite management sim elements; you were optionally invited to assemble a ragtag crew from the various villages and side quests you visited on your way to the next dungeon.

A graphically-enhanced retelling of the first game would be awesome (especially if the expanded Gamecube content was included), but this series would really shine as an asynchronous MMO. Let me explore a live open-world of floating islands, forming pirate guilds and trading cannon balls on PVP servers. In the original game you could entice NPCs into swabbing your poop deck, so how cool would it be if my friends and family could encounter my custom avatar out in the wild? Imagine someone’s delight if they ran across their favorite streamer’s swashbuckler and recruited them to their cause… or made them walk the plank? The meme-able moments practically write themselves.

1. Rise of Nightmares

It’s easy to think of Microsoft’s Kinect as a failure, especially since its Xbox One iteration nearly sank that entire console (it was a pricy and mandatory feature at launch). However, in the 360-era this motion-control peripheral was one of the top-selling gaming products of all-time. To wit, few games took advantage of the Kinect’s many features like the sloppy but ambitious “Rise of Nightmares.” As a one-and-done horror franchise, RoN’s primary gameplay had you exploring macabre environments and fighting off ghouls/goblins by swinging your actual fists. You could also wield a gruesome array of weapons like chainsaws or a massive pair of scissors, and in certain moments you had to avoid death by silencing your irl roommates (ala Lethal Company) or ducking out of the console’s laser-based line of sight. It was wildly inaccurate, yet that only added to the game’s charm. Love it or hate it, Rise of NIghtmares was one of a kind.

In 2024, technology has finally caught up to the dev’s twisted imaginations. Therefore, Rise of Nightmares would make a fantastic VR game. Streamers would cackle with delight as they sawed through zombies one push/pull at a time. A torture chamber full of swinging pendulums and falling spikes could become a 360-degree obstacle course when viewed through a Meta Quest headset. Everything Rise of Nightmares wanted to accomplish can now be done with confidence and accuracy, and thus it deserves its moment in the sun (or the shadows, more likely)

These are the four franchises that I can’t help but hope to see again one day. What’s on your reboot W\wishlist? Let me know in the comments, or send me an email/voicemail on my website, www.theoldswitcharoo.com, where I and my lifelong friend research & review retro games from the Nintendo Switch Online catalog. Game on, everyone.