6-Pak

"On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...this game!"

The Sega 6-Pak began life as a pack-in game with the Model 2 Sega Genesis in the early-to-mid 1990's. Sega evidently figured that people who were buying it at that point were buying it regardless of the pack-in game (And besides, the redesign of the Genesis allowed it to have a pack-in game and still be under $100, which was not done since the 8-bit NES), so why not give them 6 old-school games (Which would probably no longer sell by themselves) as opposed to a new game? Great concept, right? You get 6 games, and now you're a Sega customer, so everyone's happy.

So what do you get with this collection anyway?
Well, the Sega 6-Pak contains, as you might expect, 6 games. Four are action games--Revenge of Shinobi, Streets of Rage, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Golden Axe. One is a motorcycling game--Super Hang-On--and one is of the puzzle variety; that would be the game Columns. Looking at the games contained on this pak, it becomes clear that 1. Action was still the genre of the day, in whatever form (At least in America; other regions [such as Europe] got a soccer game on their 6-Pak), and 2. The Sega Genesis carts had limits. The fact that they couldn't even fit a smaller RPG, such as the 6-Meg Phantasy Star II, into the cart speaks volumes about this. But this is about what is in the game, not what isn't. So, that being said.....

Graphics, chocolate for the eye...
This pak's graphics, while not all that spiffy now, were utterly mind-blowing back in the day. In particular, Revenge of Shinobi was known for having spectacular graphics that elevated what was essentially an average game to must-buy status. And indeed, the detail packed into the backgrounds of this game is truly astounding for an early 16-bit game. The other games had their own graphical touches--Sonic the Hedgehog had bright, colorful backgrounds, in keeping with the mascot theme, Super Hang-On had its big-name company parodies and rolling hills, and Streets of Rage, like Revenge of Shinobi, had lots of detailed backgrounds and superior animation. Golden Axe, being a straight arcade port, was less impressive, but it too had its moments, such as the eagle's head about halfway through the game, and the stunning spell animations. As for Columns, well, it's a puzzle game, so graphics weren't all that important. It did have a very nice title screen (Two of them in fact!), though, and the jewels were easy to tell apart.

Sound, ice cream for the ears....
Two of the six games in this collection--Revenge of Shinobi and Streets of Rage--had music composed by one Yuzo Koshiro. If you don't know who he is, think of him as an old-school Nobuo Uematsu (The composer for the Final Fantasy series and some other games). These two games, as well as some games not on the pak (Or on the Genesis--Actraiser for the SNES and Ys I & II for the TurboDuo), proved basically that the man could do anything. And I mean anything. From the foreboding Japanese flavor of the first level of Revenge of Shinobi, to the pulsing urban style of Streets of Rage, Koshiro showed that the Genesis could overcome its limited sound hardware to produce truly memorable soundtracks.
The other four games, while not up to Yuzo Koshiro level, had very good soundtracks as well. Sonic the Hedgehog had a very poppy, upbeat style to it, and it drew from some unusual inspirations (Listen to the background flute part in the Green Hill Zone...for some reason it reminds me of the flute from ''There's No Business Like Show Business'' from the Irving Berlin musical Annie Get Your Gun). Golden Axe was likewise quite upbeat, with lots of bass involved. Super Hang-On had a piano-driven rock soundtrack that worked quite well, and Columns had music that had an ancient Egyptian flare to it. All in all, this is very good stuff.

Yeah, but how do the games PLAY?
''Okay, so the graphics and music are good'', you're saying to yourself. ''But it doesn't matter if the games don't play well. How do they stack up in that department?''
The good news is that the games play, for the most part, very well. Not only do the games control well, but the four action games feel different enough from one another that you won't get bored easily.
Sonic the Hedgehog is classic, hop-n-bop action in the Mario style. This makes sense, given that Sonic was touted as Sega's answer to the all-powerful Mario. But Sonic suffered from a degree of false advertising. A large part of Sega's advertising campaign for the game (And the entire series, really) was that Sonic could reach speeds that Nintendo's pesky plumber would never match. And while this was true--you could just blaze through some levels in under a minute if you wanted to--you had to stop and explore every nook and cranny of the levels in order to really get the full enjoyment out of the game--and to grab enough rings to have a chance at the better ending. But this was a minor quibble that no one really noticed, or if they did, they didn't care.
Revenge of Shinobi plays slowly, but still manages to be action-packed, with lots of enemies to kill, and even a maze or two to traverse. Joe Musashi (Joe? A presumably Japanese ninja's first name is Joe?) can leap high into the air and use shurikens to kill his enemies, and can also employ various ninja arts, ranging from summoning a lightning shield to literally exploding (Sacrificing a life, by the way) to kill all the enemies onscreen.
Streets of Rage, upon first glance, might call to mind Final Fight. But while the play is similar, it's also faster and more frantic than its Arcade and SNES cousin. You have your standard arsenal of moves--punches, kicks, grabs, suplexes--and, in addition, can call a Police backup to spray your foes with rockets or a bazooka (Depending on your controller) once a level. It's a nice alternative to the standard ''Spin around and take out all enemies around you but lose a part of your life'' special we see in most beat-em-up brawlers.
Golden Axe is a basic port of an arcade game. It plays something like a medieval Streets of Rage, except slower and with occasional pits to jump. It's probably the weakest--and the shortest--game on the cartridge, but it'll keep you entertained for awhile.
Super Hang-On is a motorcycle game with a slightly unusual control scheme--you have to lightly tap the direction you want to go in order to turn lightly. It takes some getting used to, but proves to work better for this game with its various degrees of turns.
Then we have Columns, where the object is to line up three jewels of the same color either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. You do this in a well. Sound familiar? Yeah, I know, it's Sega's answer to Tetris. But the play feels kind of limited, as you can't turn the jewel cluster on their sides; you can only switch their order.

Once Upon a Time....
Sadly, the stories in these games are indicative of their late 80s-early 90s roots. The action games all have the same basic plot of ''Save (World/City/Girl/etc.) From Evil Meanie(TM)'', though this is really to be expected. Still, it makes you wonder why some of these story developers couldn't throw in SOME elements of surprise. What there is for plot twists, we've already heard about a million times before. Super Hang-On really didn't have a story--unless you consider the Original Mode's ''Win money'' a story--and likewise, Columns' Egyptian setting seems basically to be a front for not being a complete Tetris ripoff.

I'll play this over, and over, and over....
The six games here do have some replay value, thankfully. Most of the games feature assorted difficulty levels, and Golden Axe and Super Hang-On add additional modes to their Arcade counterparts--Golden Axe gives us The Duel, where you try to fight a gauntlet of 12 enemies in a row, while in Super Hang-On, we get the Original Mode, where you attempt to win money and sponsorships by winning races. You use this money to buy upgrades for your bike so you can stay competitive. Also, just the fact that there are six games here provides replay value in and of itself. For the most part, though, other than difficulty levels, the games are kind of lacking in secrets and the like (Except for Sonic's Chaos Emeralds), which hurts some.

Worth its weight in gold, or not worth its weight in plastic?
Some have called this one of the greatest compilation games out there. Others have called it the biggest collection of bombs in history. As you might expect, the truth lies somewhere between the two. The games have nice graphics and sound, and good control, but it's obvious that the games have been surpassed in all areas by not only the next-generation games and system, but even by later 16-bit offerings.
So what's the verdict? Should you buy this game or not? And the answer is....maybe. Action gamers and those who have diverse taste in games will love it--four of the games are action-oriented, and those with diverse tastes but might find themselves taken with all six games on the pak. Likewise, video game music aficionados might find picking up the game worth it simply to hear the work of Yuzo Koshiro (Both Streets of Rage and Revenge of Shinobi have sound tests). However, the fact remains that even with six games, some genres were not represented on this collection. Puzzle and sports gamers would probably be better off picking up their games--Columns and Super Hang-On--as separate games, as it would probably be cheaper than the collection. Anyone else--Role-Players, Shooter fans, etc.--will probably be turned off by the emphasis on side-scrolling action. For what it is, though, it's a good buy.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/09/01, Updated 08/09/01