Sega serves up free PC mini-games, but you have to claim them fast

In case you missed the news, Sega is turning 60 years old this year, and it's celebrating not only by putting a number of its PC games on sale, but also by offering some curious freebies. The free games start arriving tomorrow on Steam and will only be available for a few days before disappearing entirely. If you're a fan of Sega's properties or the company's history, you'll probably want to have a look at these.

Of course, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is already free on Steam for those who want to claim it, and claim it you should as it's quite possibly the best Sonic the Hedgehog game ever made. Sega will also be offering a free copy of the Saturn classic NiGHTS into Dreams on Steam, but in order to claim that, you'll need to head over to the Sega 60th website and link your Steam account.

Beyond those two big names, Sega has several mini-game oddities lined up for us. The first is a title called Armor of Heroes, which goes live on October 15th and serves up some classic top-down tank combat that can support local PvP for up to four players. On October 16th, Sega will release Endless Zone, a shoot 'em up that pays homage to Fantasy Zone.

On October 17th, Sega will release Streets of Kamurocho, which is a mash up between the Streets of Rage and the Yakuza series with some solid pixel graphics. Finally, on October 18th, we're in for something very strange: Golden Axed, a one-level prototype of the cancelled Golden Axe Reborn that was once in the works at Sega Studios Australia.

All of these games will be free to claim (and subsequently keep forever) from the time they go live until 10AM PDT on October 19th. So, that means you'll have four days to claim Armor of Heroes, three for Endless Zone, two for Streets of Kamurocho, and just a single day to claim Golden Axed before they disappear for Steam's storefront forever. For more details on Sega's 60th anniversary, check out the website linked above.