Games Inbox: What is Sega’s best retro video game?

The Friday letters page is worried about how much the PS6 handheld is going to cost, as one reader celebrates the decline of the Japanese mobile market.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Golden update
Enjoyed the Shinobi: Art Of Vengeance review but I can’t pretend it’s anywhere close to my favourite old school Sega game. Problem is, so many of my favourites just wouldn’t make sense to update nowadays. Super Hang-On would just be MotoGP and OutRun feels less special the more you add to it.

We all know the trouble Sega has had making good modern Sonic games but making Streets Of Rage into a modern 3D game… I just don’t see it ever working that well. Golden Axe is their best bet, if you ask me. The original is great and it’s on their list of games to make, but they haven’t shown anything of it yet.

In my mind it should be a sort of open world co-op adventure, like a lite version of Elden Ring. Something fairly simple, and probably not too hard, that you can play around with friends and not have to worry about too many stats or super hard boss fights. Something with a lot of spectacle, but no complications.

Maybe that doesn’t sound too ambitious but at least I could imagine it as something people would want to buy. Or you could try Altered Beast. Same logic but you wouldn’t even need the open world.
Chainey

Sorry, not sorry
If it weren’t for the people losing their jobs I would be jumping with joy to learn that the bottom is falling out of the mobile market in Japan. And even then, I’m not sure how much sympathy I have for someone who grew up wanting to make gacha games. I think the fact that their skills aren’t transferable to making proper console games says it all about mobile.

It’s not going away, of course, because it’s too convenient for people that don’t use gaming for anything more than a few minutes’ distraction (which is the majority of people) but it’s definitely a good thing. I never really saw it coming though, so it is all a bit of a surprise.

I wonder if that means there’s a small group of super popular mobile games that are keeping everything else out, like Fortnite and Call Of Duty on console. If there is I haven’t heard about it but either way this is definitely good news. Now all we need is for live service games to go the way of NFTs.
Barry

The only way is up
The thing I cannot get my head around with the PlayStation 6 rumours is how much is this handheld going to cost? That new Xbox handheld, which is basically just a PC, is £800. £800! So how much is a super state of the art PlayStation 5 portable going to be? To say I’m not paying a grand or more for a handheld is such an understatement it’s not even worth saying out loud, because I’m not even paying half of that.

I guess that means the home version will be cheaper, but what does that mean? £600 or more? I’m not paying that for an improvement in graphics I need an hour long Digital Foundry video before I even notice the difference.

The whole games industry seems so directionless at the moment. There’s great games still being made but the people in charge are either just blindly repeating the same old tricks, not acknowledging things have changed, or have gone crazy and are making things even worse. I can tell them now, that making everything more expensive is not the answer.
Hooper

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Relatively Slim
From time to time, when I look at my PlayStation 5, which is the largest console I’ve ever owned (and I had an OG Xbox), I have to remind myself that it’s the slim version and there’s people out there with something even bigger!

There’s people out there suffering with entertainment units that weren’t designed for something so large but unable to justify getting the newer model.

For these people I say bring on the PlayStation 6 and make it smaller, so these people finally have an extra reason to move on. Or if it can’t be smaller release it anyway, because it’s then another four years before we get the not actually slim, slim version.
Tim

GC: Well, there is supposed to be a handheld model. Let’s just hope it’s not designed for The BFG.

Money talks
I really don’t see the point in remaking Metal Gear Solid games or trying to make new ones. Hideo Kojima was Metal Gear and whether you like them or not there’s no way of imitating that. If Konami wanted more games, they shouldn’t have got rid of him but that’s the decision they made and they’ve got to live with it.

It’s not a question of getting the gameplay right or improving the graphics. Those games were crazy and weird and stupid in a way that was very personal to Hideo Kojima and trying to copy that is just going to end up like a bad impression.

It’s not like they were massive sellers though, so they’ve just got to suck it up, admit they made a mistake and move on. Unless they want to pay his company to make another, which I don’t see why he wouldn’t. He’s said he’s never doing another one so many times I don’t see why they couldn’t talk him round again… if they drive a van full of money up to his house.
Hoffman

Poncho survivor
Just wrapped up Star Wars Jedi: Survivor on PC and I’ll say that it was quite the odyssey to play through. It literally took me days to finally complete this game, on handheld and with below par system performance. This game is horribly optimised, to be perfectly frank, and I’ll say that as much fun as I had with the exploration aspects, the combat system, and the narrative within the universe, it was a chore to see it through performance-wise.

EA absolutely have to nail the third game’s optimisation, because this is unacceptable in 2025. I’ll say the overall title is fantastic, as both a sequel and continuation of Fallen Order. It’s certainly an exploration heavy game, judging by the size and scale of Koboh. The traversal is excellent and frustrating, for lack of a better term; most deaths are via falling to your demise and not from your enemies. I’ll also state that I’m hoping Darth Vader is utilised more than just for a combat encounter, because that’s his modus operandi in these two games.

The third game deserves him as the main antagonist. Or even feature Palpatine himself. That’d be interesting to see Darth Sidious confront Cal and company. Overall, a fantastic sequel and I can’t wait to play the final title when it releases in the future. It’ll likely launch on PlayStation 6, so count me in. But seriously, where are the ponchos at? Give us our ponchos back EA. Cameron wants them back. So do we.
Shahzaib Sadiq

Occasionally horrifying
I see Bloober Team have been talking about working with Nintendo. It seems like they’re trying to just attract their attention with some publicity, but that sometimes work. I could see Nintendo going for it too. The obvious thing is to revive Eternal Darkness, but Nintendo has dabbled with horror before, with Project Zero, Giest, that new Famicom Detective. Even Luigi’s Mansion, kind of.

Eternal Darkness was a GameCube, so their interest goes way back. And I’m sure there’s some weird, forgotten NES game that counts too. I’d wait and see how Chronos: The New Dawn turns out first though, to make sure Silent Hill 2 wasn’t just a fluke.
Bronana

Games of interest
Hollow Knight: Silksong also has me wondering where all the hype has come from and why it’s the game of the moment.

Hollow Knight in general was by no means at all a bad game and it’s definitely one of my favourite indie games. I know its cult following has been successful and these games do sometimes have their spotlight, like Little Nightmares and Subnautica or something like them, but it’s still surprisingly unique to be the biggest game at Gamescom.

I was hoping for more on the James Bond game, as it’s hard to know what the general feeling is about a Bond game without a known iconic actor as an identifiable 007. But the new Silent Hill game was definitely giving me Project Zero vibes, being set in a creepy Japanese traditional village, with a seemingly slower pace. The school kids are also what is making me think of Project Zero 2: Crimson Butterfly and the two sisters being of a similar age.

The rest of Gamescom 2025 was pretty standard but still showcased a good crop of games, which will definitely be on my games of interests list, for sure. Much thanks also GameCentral for all the news and previews and interviews needed for the usual excellent service.
Alucard

Inbox also-rans
I don’t like Nintendo Switch Online. I just played Chibi-Robo! which I have memories of being great and now that I’ve played it again… I find out I’m wrong.
Tension

People talk about Sony not making enough games anymore but I’m still shocked there’s been no sign of an Uncharted 2 movie. Are they trying to grow Tom Holland into the role or something?
Banco

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The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.

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