San Francisco, CA – To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Sega Mega Drive, or the Genesis as it was known outside Japan, Sega has announced that it will release a Genesis Classic on Xbox Live. Furthermore, Sega allows fans of the Genesis to vote for which classic this should be. Most of the games have already been released on the Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console.
The seven contenders are: The classic beat-em-up Streets of Rage (1991), Shining Force (1992) and Golden Axe II (1991), all three of which have been available on the Virtual Console since 2007. Earthworm Jim (1994) which was released on the Wii’s Virtual Console last fall and The Revenge of Shinobi (1989), which was released for the Virtual Console last week. ToeJam & Earl (1991, on the VC since 2006) and Wonder Boy (originally in arcades since 1986, on VC since 2008) are final two contenders.
Currently, Earthworm Jim is by far the most popular, with 45% of the votes. Second is ToeJam & Earl, with only 17% of the votes cast so far. For those interested, voting can be done here, although it is limited to a single vote per day.
Though the winner will be announced next week, on the 22nd of August, it is unclear when the game will be available on Xbox Live Arcade. Also, Sega has made no statement regarding the fate of the other contenders and whether or not we can expect all of them to be released on the Xbox in the future.