In the past they've produced some right classics. There were the brill 2D Sonic games, Virtua Fighter, Nights: Into Dreams, Crazy Taxi and a host of fun arcade games. Now we Gamecube owners are getting ports of older games, and the blue hedgehog himself certainly hasn't taking brilliantly to an extra dimension.

Have Sega fallen from grace?

James: I have to agree that Sega are nowhere near at the standard they were, particularly Sonic Team. After purchasing Sonic Mega Collection, the flaws within the two ported Adventure titles (particularly Directors Cut) are now more obvious than before. Unlike Mario, Sonic did not transfer well into the 3D world, and while SA2B is entertaining, there are too many glitches and flaws. Games such as Sonics 2 and 3, however, are quality platformers, second only to Mario in greatness.

However, there have been great games from Sega recently too, particulary from Amusement Vision. Super Monkey Ball 1&2 are genuinely superb games, that last you ages, with a wealth of multiplayer modes and an extensive single player. Beach Spikers, while not as entertaining, is immense fun and a worthy purchase, especially for the multiplayer.

So yes, Sega aren't as good as they were before - but don't write them off yet.

Franklin: I don't think Sega are doing that great a job at the moment either. Off the top of my head the only original and new games they have brought to the GameCube are the SMB games and Beach Spikers. The rest are no more than ports, which is very dissapointing. When I found out Sega were going to go 3rd Party I was looking forward to some new orginal games from them. Maybe a Sonic Adventure 3. But sadly not yet.

Good times, good times

Link: I wouldn't say that Sega has really fallen from grace, but they aren't putting out the greatest titles right now. I think they're in a transition period right now (maybe they want to get back into the hardware business) and most of their titles have been ports. As far as I am concerned their best two titles for the GameCube are tow RPG ports from the DreamCast: Phantasy Star Online and Skies of Arcadia Legends. It will be interesting to see what they do with PSO: Episode 3 and it is rumoured that a Skies Of Arcadia sequel is in the works. That being said it seems that Sega is slowing down a bit, but only time will tell. I think we'll have to wait another year to pass judgement on Sega.

Javid: Promising new games in the future arising from Sega could be coming in the form of a Skies of Arcadia sequel and there's PSO Ep 3 of course as Link said, but their current perfomance on the Cube hasn't as such made a impression on myself. I guess you really need to be a Sonic fan to admire Sega thus far with their efforts because they have mainly focussed on the spikey blue freak and understandably so, he's their trademark and biggest seller. I did enjoy Beach Spikers however, i thought that game was great fun and certainly something originaly to me, though it has been reproduced on other consoles somewhat degrading its originality now. Still, theres no denying Sega's potential and i hold every hope that they can and will rejuvenate some originality in their game ideas past Sonic, nothing against the fella dont get me wrong but more fresh outbursts will amend their status as a more desirable developer.

Dominic: Sega are still bringing out good games, but the point is they are mostly for other systems (Panzer Dragoon Orta, Gungrave, Jet Set Radio).

The only teams that seem to like the Gamecube is Sonic Team and AV which have brought decent but not exactly awesome games to the system and as its been stated most of them are ports.

Hopefully in the future Sega will decide to make some nice new games for the Gamecube or its successor that won't just be ports.

We've big expectations for the apparent 'last' PSO game

Ash: I can't say I own a Sega game on the GameCube, I have played Sonic Adventure 2: Battle though, it was alright but not brilliant. Sega seem to have gone a bit crazy with what they're releasing, port after port of their mascot, sequels to so so games and not upgrading some of their old games such as Nights and Shenmue.

With that being said they have been doing great work with Nintendo on F-Zero and they can make good games but I think they've been plagued with bad decisions. Hopefully they can go back to the early 90's Sega we all knew and loved (or hated if you were an avid Nintendo fan).

Conor: I remember playing the original few Sonic titles on the Mega Drive absolutely ages ago. Although I can't recall a lot about the games, one thing does stick out in my mind in bold neon letters; they were brilliant. I don't know if was the speed, or the streamlined level design, or the artwork and animation, but something about them just grabbed me. Fast forward a couple of years to a play on Soinc Adventure 2 at my cousins' house. Horrible camera, sickly Americanised voices and cutscenes, boring gameplay sections and aunescapable feeling that this just wasn't Sonic.

I realise this is just one franchise in question, but I think it illustrates Sega's general fall from grace. It doesn't mean that we don't get the goods off them at times; the first Super Monkey Ball was a class act and I hear PSO is very good too. Panzer Dragon Orta was good, and then of course there's AV's work on F-Zero GC, which looks a blinder. But a large part of their latest release have either been straight ports of old games, or collections of even older games.

I welcome the chance to play classics again, but Sega are relying on them too much in my opinion. It's as if they're afraid they can't do the same again. But I know they can. They are not done, they are not past it, they are just missing that spark that earlier games showed off. We can get the 2D Sonic's again, they just have to find that spark again.