Grab These Free Vintage Sega Games on Mobile Before They Go Away Forever
Candy Crush, Angry Birds...whatever. My longtime mobile gaming go-to has been vintage Sega, as the company behind my first home video game console has proven surprisingly eager to port its classics to mobile as part of its Sega Forever program. Unfortunately, now that the program has been shut down, it seems that these titles are set to go the way of the Dreamcast. The upside? For a shot time, you can snag them for free—and keep them forever.
The games were part of "Sega Forever"
Sega Forever started in 2017 as a vehicle for the company to produce mobile versions of select titles, released for free. The catch was that the ports all came with ads, but you could pay around $2 (the exact price depended on the game) within the app to remove them. While there are other ways to play retro games on mobile, the Sega Forever program was certainly among the easiest. Technically, the program shut down in in 2023, and while it's delisted a few games since then (RIP Gunstar Heroes), other titles have stayed on storefronts and even gotten regular updates.
Now, Sega's pulling the plug on Sega Forever (almost) entirely. Across its suite of remaining Sega Forever titles, players are seeing new pop-ups warning them that support for the games that have yet to be delisted is being discontinued, meaning that they'll likely be leaving app stores soon. On the plus side, the pop-ups also tell players that they can "continue playing offline," which means that they will not only keep the games, but that, at least according to my testing, the ads will be gone too, even if you didn't pay to remove them.
It's a bit of a win/lose situation, but if you act now, you can get a good selection of pretty competent, ad-free mobile ports to keep for free. And based on the previously delisted games that I have on my phone, you'll still be able to access them even after they get removed from app stores (although that's not the case if you delete them from your phone, judging by my experience with Beyond Oasis).
Sega hasn't made any official announcements about this change, so the in-game pop-ups are all we have to go from for now. With that in mind, it's unclear exactly when the remaining Sega Forever games are set to leave app stores, so you should act sooner rather than later. Also note that while mobile ports of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 were eventually added to Sega Forever (they had an upfront price beforehand), they don't seem to be on the docket for delisting, due to a lack of warnings when opening them.
Here's a full list of the free Sega games you can now get now, on both Android and iOS:
Crazy Taxi Classic
Golden Axe Classics
Shining Force Classic
Sonic CD Classic
Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Ep. II
Streets of Rage Classic
Streets of Rage 2 Classic
Super Monkey Ball: Sakura
Virtua Tennis Challenge