If only every console had a book that captured its beauty, heart, and soul like Sega Mega Drive/Genesis: Ultimate Works.
Thames & Hudson
One of the best and most sought-after gaming art books has finally hit general publication, and you can now get your hands on something that’s among the best coffee table staples about the Sega Genesis, combining some of the best artwork, pixel art, interviews, and 16-bit hardware porn between hard covers.
Sega Mega Drive/Genesis: Ultimate Works, designed by Darren Wall and featuring words by veteran industry journalist Keith Stuart (of pop-up Sega fame), was initially published in limited numbers by Read-Only Memory (ROM) as Collected Works in 2014. It offered the definitive book for the console, while also helping to establish ROM as one of the leading companies to raise the standards of printed gaming works.
The original book now sells for three-figure sums on eBay, but finally, as with some of its other publications — notably the spectacular WipEout: Futurism, which is among my favorite gaming books of all time — the reins have been handed over to the trustworthy hands of Thames & Hudson, which aims to be London’s answer to Taschen. Credit where credit’s due — it’s up there.
It’s no surprise that ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ features heavily, but never at the expense of other games in the book.
Thames & Hudson
Over 384 pages, Sega Mega Drive/Genesis: Ultimate Works is an exhaustive collection of the games, creators, graphics, breakthroughs, innovations, and brilliance brought by Sega’s best (or, at the very least, most successful) console.
This expanded 2025 edition offers a never-before-seen collection of works, including some newly discovered box art paintings from Alien Soldier, Kid Chameleon, The Super Shinobi II, Sonic The Hedgehog, and Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium; Ultimate Works also throws in the original design documents for Streets of Rage 2 and Dynamite Headdy.
Admittedly, it does come at a small cost — instances of Wonder Boy and Ecco the Dolphin have been removed due to licensing issues, which is a massive shame, but certainly not surprising, especially in the case of Ecco and its creator’s long-running legal back-and-forths with Sega.
Sega Mega Drive/Genesis: Ultimate Works includes artwork discovered since the book’s original release back in 2014.
Thames & Hudson
It really does have nearly everything you’d ever want from a high-end art book at a very reasonable RRP of £50 ($67, and even cheaper depending on your chosen book supplier): high-quality logos, beautifully recreated covers, character sketches, pixel artwork, level stages, console and peripheral prototypes — the lot. Those pieces that require a more in-depth examination are presented in unfolding quadruple-page spreads throughout the book, and opening each one feels like unwrapping a present.
You can finally marvel at just how delightfully weird Kid Chameleon was, how clever Gunstar Heroes’ level designs were, or how questionable Duke Oda’s groin armor was in the Cyber Police ESWAT cover art. You’re repeatedly distracted as you frantically research the Japan-only Sega Mega-CD karaoke machine or Mega Modem you potentially knew nothing about until now. Even the typefaces of a dozen-and-a-half Genesis classics like Dynamite Headdy, Streets of Rage 2, and the original Sonic the Hedgehog trilogy prove just as evocative as the most iconic images that litter Ultimate Works’ pages.
It’s bookended by the ever-dependable Keith Stuart, whose opening “Arcade Perfect” essay better captures the Mega Drive’s life in 33 pages than many great writers could do in 330. A raft of Q&A interviews at the back — spanning 60 pages — feature conversations with the likes of Yuji Naka (Sonic The Hedgehog), Yu Suzuki (Space Harrier), Makoto Uchida (Golden Axe), and Greg Johnson & Mark Voorsanger (ToeJam & Earl).
The Mega Modem in all its glory.
Thames & Hudson
Throughout, the print quality is superb — easy to read, exciting to browse, and fundamentally well-made — with no telltale binding issues that make you feel like it’ll eventually snap in half, especially given how often you find yourself reaching for it. Admittedly, there’s one minor flaw: Sega Mega Drive/Genesis: Ultimate Works’ fold-out sections have a habit of creasing the edges of the pages that sit either side of them — a half-centimeter fold line persists throughout. However, I don’t think anyone would consider this a deal breaker.
If you’re still looking for something even more special from Ultimate Works, Volume — a Thames & Hudson imprint established in 2017 between Wall and T&H editorial director Lucas Dietrich — has also released two high-end reprints. First up is a £60 ($80) “standard” edition with bold printed covers; for the big bucks, there’s also a stunning £125 ($167) limited-edition deluxe version in a silkscreen acrylic slipcase; just over 260 of its 500 copies are available at the time of writing.
Still, the Thames & Hudson general release version is incredibly affordable and really should be on any Genesis fan’s wishlist. If every one of your favorite consoles had a book that captured its beauty, heart, and soul like Sega Mega Drive/Genesis: Ultimate Works does for the hero of the 16-bit era, you’d have a near-perfect shelf.