Sega Genesis Collection

"Top quality but incomplete introduction to Sega's finest hour"

Introduction

Putting this together was a good move on Sega's part, and it caters nicely for two groups of people: those hardened nostalgics who want to revisit Sega's glory days and those who missed the trip the first time. I fall conveniently somewhere in between these two camps, having loved many of these games in the past, but lacking both the time and money so far to get all the originals. It features 27 games that they've picked out as system highlights, a handful of very crusty bonus arcade games, and other extras including interviews and cheats. All for under £20! The compilation was developed by Digital Eclipse, who impressed me with their work on the Phantasy Star Collection and the Capcom Classics Collections, which proved they're more than competent at porting these types of games faithfully. I had understandably high expectations.

Game Selection (8/10)

Just scanning the box was all I needed to seriously consider buying this. A good portion of the major first party Mega Drive releases make an appearance here: Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle, original MD pack-in Altered Beast, Columns, Comix Zone, both Ecco games, the Golden Axe trilogy, Phantasy Stars II, III and IV, Ristar, Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master, the somewhat lazy inclusion of Sonics 1 & 2 (although there is a positive to this), the two Vectormans and a 16-bit rendition of Virtua Fighter 2. A few more lesser known titles find their way in too: Bonanza Bros., Decap Attack, Flicky, Gain Ground, Super Thunder Blade and Sword of Vermilion.

It might seem like a pretty well rounded Sega resume, but after a bit of thought there's an astonishing amount of others that would've been welcome too. After having been dropped from the Sonic Gems Collection outside of Japan, I was hoping the three Streets of Rage games would have showed up. After all, this collection was given the 12+ rating and wasn't the necessity of removing them from SGC to avoid having to put it up to that? The Revenge of Shinobi is another notable absentee, but that might be due to the copyright issues involving a certain boss character. Shinobi III is generally rated the highest of the early Shinobi titles though, so I guess if you only get one it might as well be the best! The excellent Shining Force and Toe Jam & Earl games wouldn't have hurt either, as both are highly critically acclaimed. There's more but I'll leave it at that for now.

Some inclusions are clearly dubious. Flicky seems like a right cop out considering it also appeared on every version of the Sonic Mega Collection and is by no means widely praised. Alex Kidd, despite being Sega's flagship character until Sonic took the helm, didn't exactly have a well received Mega Drive outing. Virtua Fighter 2 also feels very drab in 2D, failing to stand out in any way except to make it evident why it was 3D in the first place. It could have been dropped in favour of the cult Sega developed fighter Eternal Champions, and I doubt anyone would have complained. The DVD could have fit them all on with ease, but then again many factors may have meant they couldn't be included.

Emulation Quality (9/10)

I've got to hand it to Digital Eclipse, as everything looks, sound and play near identically to the Mega Drive originals (that I know of). Some sounds are a little off though (not a big deal for me, but I know some folks find this irritating) and the Sonic games retain the problems of the versions on the PS2's Sonic Mega Collection Plus. So back to my earlier point, why be lazy and include these two if they are available in so many other places? Here's what's good about it: the original Sonic houses a nice surprise. The original PAL conversion was painfully slow, even though of course most of us were none the wiser. Each version of it on the various Sonic compilations was the same, until now. A friend of mine initially complained saying that it was now too fast, but this is actually closer to how Sonic originally played. The only game that suffers marginally annoying graphical issues at times is Comix Zone (one of my faves as it turns out). I can't be sure if those nasty lines that occasionally show on the screen are just my copy, but from what I remember the original doesn't look like that!

Extras (8/10)

There are a good deal of extras to be unlocked, and in just the way I thought the Sonic Mega Collection should have approached it, through completing objectives in the various games. For example, getting 1000 coins in Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle unlocks an interview with Phantasy Star creator Rieko Kodama. It's more rewarding than having to go through the tedium of opening two games 50 times each to unlock another. The interviews with various Sega staff are interesting, from insights into individual games to a general overview of creating games in the 16-bit era. Also available are several early 80s arcade games, I'd be stretching it a fair way to call any of them a "classic". Most are very basic and aren't worth spending much time on considering the rest of what's here.

Your greatest prizes are being able to unlock a cheat sheet and the original arcade version of Altered Beast, hmm... Okay, if you like the Mega Drive version then it sounds like a great reward. But I've never been all that keen on the game, and the arcade version is not much different to me. The ability to create save states anywhere in a game are handy as the originals didn't feature battery backups in their cartridges (bar the longer RPG games). I found it helped best in chewing the horrors in some of Ecco's depressingly difficult levels down into more bite size chunks. They are optional though, so they won't reduce the challenge of these often tough Sega gems.

Play Time/Replayability (9/10)

If you're a retro nut there's a lot to discover here, and most games are good enough to warrant going the whole way through. Only some like Virtua Fighter 2 will have most people playing just long enough to unlock the Virtua Fighter 5 trailer, and then never again. As far as the objectives that unlock extras go, most are ridiculously easy to accomplish (some being as simple as just opening a game), and you'll have them all in no time. Replayability depends entirely on the individual game, but as a whole it's kept me busy longer than the time it's taken me to beat several more modern games alongside it.

Conclusion (8/10)

It's worth it due to both the price tag and the sheer quality of the games. It misses out on a higher score mainly in what it neglects to include, rather than in the quality of what it does. Depending on opinion there's a varying amount of throw away material though only a handful for me, and even some of them were worth at least making an effort to play. Oh, and it's more cost effective than downloading the games individually from the Wii's Virtual Console. A solid recommendation from me!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/05/08

Game Release: Sega Mega Drive Collection (EU, 02/02/07)