Think Sonic Advance was it huh? Think again…
It seems the Game Boy Advance will be getting a LOT of the classic Sega Genesis games as well – and hopefully there may be a few classic Sonic’s thrown in there as well!
After Sega’s big announcement, IGN got in touch with Charles Bellfield, vice president of marketing communications for Sega of America to talk about the company’s future plans with the Game Boy Advance. While he couldn’t go into specifics about what the company has in the works for the system, he was genuinely excited for the future with the handheld. The big question was asked – will Sega dig into its classic Genesis library and revive some of the best titles of the 16-bit days? “It’s a natural thing to do,” he told us. “Just look at the backlog of titles Sega has…there is plenty to work with.” 
Unfortunately, other of the hit games published by Sega may have to be left in the past, as many of them utilized licenses that weren’t directly owned by Sega itself. Six big titles from the Genesis era: Mickey Mouse: Castle of Illusion, Aladdin, and Donald Duck’s Quackshot were Disney titles, Gunstar Heroes and Dynamite Headdy are Treasure property, and Toejam and Earl is owned by…well, Toejam and Earl Productions. While Sega could work its legal magic with the respective companies, it may be easier just to work with what Sega has. Nothing is known if the games listed above will end up being ported. Time will tell. 
“But we wouldn’t just rehash our old software just to sell,” Bellfield told us. “If we didn’t add to the original as an incentive to buy it, we wouldn’t do it.” In other words, for those who remember it, you might not see >b>Altered Beast on the Game Boy Advance unless it was updated or enhanced in some way – such as new levels, new graphics, or new gameplay elements. Or, at the very least, included in a compilation pack similar to what Sega recently released on the Dreamcast as the Smash Pack. Something that would make the game less of a “shovelware” — something to give the title an incentive for folks to buy itIf the company doesn’t increase the value of the game with new elements, then folks might not buy it. It’s the “been there, done that” syndrome.
While Sega Enterprises (the Japanese branch) is responsible for the production of the first three games for the Game Boy Advance, Sega of America will also actively produce titles for the GBA down the road – just as it had for the Dreamcast, Saturn, and Genesis. The company’s both a publisher and a developer – and nothing has changed in this transition – several titles produced by Sega deserve a return, and with this recent turn of events for the company, the possibility has turned into a probability.
Source: IGN Pocket