Genesis Classics Pack 4 launches on PC with Shining series, Gunstar Heroes, more

Ever since the first Genesis Classics Pack launched on PC, we prayed for the release of Shining Force II, one of our favourite games of all time, let alone RPGs. Today, Sega has finally delivered not only that title, but the original Shining Force and its cousin Shining in the Darkness.

If you don't yet know what makes the Shining games so great, and Shining Force II the pinnacle of the series, well, they're the whole package: a beautiful, unique art style, utterly memorable music, engaging and sometimes funny dialogue, wonderful characters with lots of life, oodles of cool weapons, but above all, a tactical and deep as hell combat system.

They're also the spiritual predecessors to the Golden Sun games, though oldschool gamers know these are far superior (good as the Sun games are).

Check out this great gameplay compilation footage from Shining Force II to give you an idea of what they're all about:

Gunstar Heroes is also available, the spiritual predecessor to the also excellent Sin & Punishment games. This one features vibrant graphics, rad music, balls out action, some of the coolest bosses we've ever seen in games, and a cool weapon system whereby you can mix and match weapons mid-game for a variety of effects. Consider it essential if you love action games.

Besides those titles, Sega is also delivering the underappreciated Zelda-esque RPG Landstalker, the first two Streets of Rage games (classic beat-em-ups), the Toe Jam & Earl series, Sonic 2, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and more.

All told, this is easily the best collection of titles Sega has released yet. They're only available on GamersGate as of now -- we'd expect them to release on Steam shortly as well.