Sega Forever: Sonic and other retro games coming to mobiles for free

Sega Forever collection, which includes the likes of Sonic the Hedgehog, will be free to download on iOS and Android from Thursday

Video game players, like music lovers and film buffs, are incurable nostalgics. And so are the games companies. Last year we had the cruelly hard-to-come-by Nintendo Classic Mini console, which took us back to the heady days of the mid-1980s, and earlier this week, Atari announced its decision to get back into the hardware business with a new machine. Now, Sega has announced its Sega Forever collection, a range of classic titles, which will be downloadable for free on mobile phones from Thursday.

According to Sega, the growing collection will be carefully curated to include hugely recognisable cult gems as well as obvious hits. In the first batch are the original Sonic the Hedgehog from 1991, the legendary 1989 role-playing adventure Phantasy Star II, Sega Mega Drive launch title Altered Beast and two offbeat console titles from the famed Sega Technical Institute, Comix Zone and Kid Chameleon. These are all 16bit titles, but Sega says future additions will be plucked from throughout the company's long history, from the Master System to the Dreamcast. This raises the scintillating possibility of playing everything from Wonder Boy in Monster Land to Crazy Taxi on your iPhone or Android. When asked about arcade titles, a spokesperson told us they are, "an opportunity that Sega hopes to explore down the road".