Sega brings Genesis classics like Sonic and Streets of Rage to Amazon’s Fire TV

It’s hard to believe, but Gunstar Heroes is actually playable using an Amazon Fire TV remote control.

Sega is announcing a new collection of Sega Genesis classics that’s available on Amazon’s streaming stick starting today. And while it’s in no way the ideal way to experience these games, the bundle represents perhaps the most accessible way to play retro games on your television without the need for gaming-specific hardware.

The collection is available now for $14.99, and it includes the following games:

• Alien Storm
• Altered Beast
• Beyond Oasis
• Bio-Hazard Battle
• Bonanza Bros
• Columns
• Comix Zone
• Decap Attack
• Dr Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine
• Dynamite Headdy
• ESWAT: City Under Siege
• Gain Ground
• Golden Axe
• Golden Axe II
• Golden Axe III
• Gunstar Heroes
• Ristar
• Sonic CD
• Sonic Spinball
• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2
• Street of Rage
• Street of Rage II
• Street of Rage III
• The Revenge of Shinobi

It’s a pretty meaty collection, and while there isn’t much in the way of surprises, there are genuinely fantastic games that still hold up well, including the Streets of Rage trilogy and Comix Zone. Three of the Sonic games are actually remastered versions, while the rest are more traditional retro ports.

They’re all bundled together in a single app on the Fire TV. The menu is pretty simple, letting you filter games by genre, and there are a handful of visual tweaks as well. You can choose to display games in standard 4:3, or the “pixel perfect” mode, which offers a smaller, but crisper picture. There are also multiple borders to select. It’s all pretty basic stuff, but it’s more robust than Sony’s recent PlayStation Classic.

The customization options extend to gameplay as well. You can rewind a game a few seconds to redo a tough jump or to avoid an attack, and there are also multiple save slots for each game so you can record progress at any point. They seem like small things, but they go a long way toward making these games feel a touch more approachable and modern.

Of course, the biggest question is how these games control. While you can pair a Bluetooth controller with your Fire TV (and you will have to for multiplayer play), the default controller is the device’s remote control. You flip it on its side and use the round directional button as a D-pad, while the forward, back, and play buttons represent the Genesis controllers face buttons.

Now, don’t get me wrong: it’s not a great controller. You wouldn’t want to use one while attempting a Sonic speedrun. But after playing a chunk of the games, including delving deep into Golden Axe for some reason, I’m shocked at how acceptable the Fire TV remote is. The directional circle hurt my thumb after long sessions, but otherwise, things were, if not great, at least passable. Notably, you can also remap the buttons to make it work better for you. The remote is more comfortable than using a single Joy-Con controller to play retro games, and it’s a definite step up from touchscreen controls.

There’s clearly a big market for classic games, as the furor over Nintendo’s miniature NES and SNES consoles has shown. But typically these rereleases come in two forms: terrible mobile adaptations or collections that require game-specific hardware to play. Sega is offering something in between. Its new collection isn’t as authentic as an NES Classic, but it’s a lot better than using a touchscreen. It sits firmly in the “good enough” category.

And if you already own a Fire TV, it’s probably the easiest way to revisit The Revenge of Shinobi while rocking out to Yuzo Koshiro.