Sega Classics Arcade Collection 4-in-1

"One of the finest collection games ever."

Sega Classics: Arcade Collection was released in early 1992 for the Sega CD. It is a collection of four of Sega’s biggest arcade smash hits ever. Those games you ask? Streets of Rage, The Revenge of Shinobi, Columns, and Golden Axe. This game was released in VERY limited quantities, so you’ll need to do some tracking down to find it, this game came with a special bonus game: Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective. This collection is worth tracking down, that is, unless you own the Sega 6-Pak that was released for the Sega Genesis. All of these games are direct ports of the Genesis games. I will divide the reviews up by game. First up, The Revenge of Shinobi.

The Revenge of Shinobi

The Revenge of Shinobi was originally released in 1990 for the Sega Genesis. RoS is a 2D side-scrolling action game that pits you, as Shinobi, against a plethora of no-goodniks and other EVIL people. In RoS, you have a nice little arsenal of attacks to use to vanquish your EVIL opposition. This game is notorious for allowing you to fight a couple of comic book heroes as Bosses, most notably Spider-Man.

The gameplay consists of you using your ninja powers in an attempt to vanquish your foes. You can throw shurikens (throwing stars) at your foes in order to kill them, or you can call upon the use of any one of four special ninjitsu powers. Each of these powers can give you an edge in the game, one of them will enhance you defensive strength, one of them gives you greater jumping ability, the other two of them take the form of long range attacks that dole out tons of damage. The gameplay is very fast and frenetic and will get your blood pumping.

The control in RoS is very crisp. The controls are very responsive and make every move, from the simplest summoning of ninjistus, to the most complicated jump a breeze. Another little pluss is that the button configuration makes sense and isn’t cumbersome. This may seem like a mild advantage, but in the heat of battle, it makes a world of difference to have an easy to remember control scheme.

The graphics in the game were awe-inspiring for their time, and still hold up favorably today. The characters were large and extremely detailed, they were also animated amazingly well. The in-game environments were, much like the characters in the game, chock-full of details, this helped to give the game a very unique look and really enhanced the “Ninja” feel of the game. The character design in the game was very innovative because of the rather unique look of the game’s enemies, and, of course, it’s protagonist, Shinobi, who was replete with so many little touches that you’d never mistake him for another game character. All of these things combine to give the game a certain visual charm that really makes the look of the game timeless.

The sound in RoS is amazing. The in-game music has an oriental sound to it that fits the game’s theme perfectly, and it adds quite a bit to the ambiance of the game. The same goes for the sound effects, all of them are clear and fit their actions perfectly.

This is one of the most difficult games that I've ever played. You aren't given much life to begin with (one hit deaths rule the roost) and enemy assaults come from all over the place. Consider it a small miracle if you can beat the game without losing your mind. Because of the game’s mind-numbing difficulty, replaying it can be a chore for some people, but the truly hardcore will play it over and over again just to learn something new from the game.

The Revenge of Shinobi is one of the finest action games I’ve ever played. The gameplay is very frantic and keeps you on your toes, the game controls like a dream, the music gives the game a very unique ambiance to it, and the graphics give the giame a timeless charm that has yet to be matched.

Golden Axe

Golden Axe was originally released in 1989. It can best be described as Streets of Rage with mythological characters. There are three characters to choose from in this game; a male warrior, a female warrior, and an elf. The gist of the story goes like this: Dark Adder is EVIL and is killing
off people, it is your job to stop him and bring his EVIL tactics to a halt. Now then, without further ado, let’s get onto the review.

There are two modes of play in Golden Axe: Arcade mode and Battle mode. Arcade mode pits you against the minions of the evil Dark Adder in numerous levels. This mode is identical to the arcade game, you go through numerous levels vanquishing enemies of various types. You can use magic to aid you, or you can just beat the crap out of everyone ala-Streets of Rage or Final Fight. This mode is a blast to play and is simple, mindless fun. Battle mode is a rather unique (for it’s
time) one-on-one fighting mode pitting you against one of Dark Adder's many minions. This mode can be really fun, in small doses, I wouldn’t recommend spending hours on it, or else you’ll get sick of it.

The control is very responsive, it is never sluggish. Sometimes, it's a little too responsive, case in
point; doing combo moves, the control may lead you to do a move that you didn't want to do. Thankfully, this is the only control issue in the game, and it isn’t all that major because you’ll still do damage no matter what.

The character designs were pretty cool for their time (hey, who can’t love a game with an elf in it?), and they were all packed with details, and rather large in stature. Even the enemies in the game have tons of details, you’ll be able to distinguish snouts on some of the enemies, as well as mouths. This might not sound like much now, but then it was amazing, it still is actually. The in-game environments were beautiful, all of them featured a unique look and feel that set them apart from the rest, and they were all full of tiny details that added to the level.

The music fits the game’s theme perfectly, all of the songs have a heroic sound to them. The sound effects are, for the most part excellent, but some make no sense (the attacking sound is just one example.) Thankfully, the excellent music more than makes up for some sub-par sound effects.

Golden Axe is packed to the gills with replay value because the game is always a blast to play. You’ll probably never want to beat the game more than a few times with each character, but no matter what, it’s always fun to plow through a few levels, just for old time’s sake. The Battle mode adds another link to the chain and is also a blast to play. That is, as long as you don’t expect a ton of depth and you take the mode for what it was, a fun little add-on.

Overall, Golden Axe is a must-buy game for any gamer. It’s got great graphics and sound, exquisite control, and, most importantly, fun, addictive gameplay that will keep you glued to your seat for years to come.

Streets of Rage

Streets of Rage was released for the Sega Genesis in late 1991. Many people wondered if this game could achieve the same success as Final Fight. Thankfully it did, and a new classic series began.

The characters are of average heeght, and contain sub-par, but are animated excellently. One excellent point in the graphics is this, the backgrounds are diverse and are very well designed and animated, for example, the flyers blow in the wind in the rundown city area. Overall, they are excellent for their time.

Sound-10/10- If any series showed what the Genesis could do sound-wise, other than the Sonic games, this was it, this series would known for its excellent music, and this game started the tradition. The music is excellent, very clear and fits each level perfectly. The sound effects are great, each is crystal clear.

SoR features basically the same story that’s been used in these types of games for years, an evil psycho comes to a town and terrorizes it, the good guys try to stop him. Yawn.

The game has three characters to choose from, each with their own unique characteristics. You use one of the three characters in the game and beat the living hell out of anything in your way. There are many levels in the game and each of them are capped off with an end boss of varying difficulty.

The control is great, it’s not as good as the other games in the series, but it’still good, most moves can be pulled off without a second thought, but the grapples are a pain to execute.

The presentation of this game follows the beauty of smplicity, nothing fancy, just enough to get the job done.

It’s one of the best side-scrolling beat-em-ups out there, it started the seires and set the standard of excellence by which all others were judged.

Columns

Columns was originally released in 1990 for the Sega Genesis, it was considered to be Sega's answer to the legendary puzzle game Tetris. This game involves placing gems of the same color in rows to score, not much different in theory than Tetris, but the execution is excellent.

The graphics do what they need to. They’re very basic, but they fit the game perfectly and are better than Tetris, graphics don't really matter much in puzzle games anyway, so it's not a disappointment.

This game has some excellent music, this feature of the game is easy to notice because of the high quality of the music and because it fits the setting perfectly, truly the dark horse strong point of the game.

Seeing as how the only real controls in the game involve the Directional-Pad and one button, they're perfect, it doesn't take any practice at all to learn the controls, then again it's a puzzle game, you shouldn't have to.

The gameplay is very similar to Tetris, yet different in its own right, the gameplay is very simple at first, but then the gems' fall progresses to an alarmingly fast rate causing you to react accordingly, it's much harder to do than Tetris due to the color coordination.

The presentation is about as good as one would expect from a puzzle game. The menus fit the game's Egyptian theme perfectly and are easy to navigate through.

I wouldn’t feel comfortable rating the challenge, it’s adjustable, at the earlier levels, the game is a
cakewalk, at the later ones, it’s a mad dash to get rid of gems.

Like most puzzle games, they take a lifetime to master. Believe me you'll be addicted to this game.

The game is just as good as Tetris and stands the test of time well also, it deserves to be played by everyone, especially those who love puzzle games, it has many good points, among them the music and gameplay. It's too bad that this series will probably not see the light of day on the Dreamcast, it would be a great addition to the system's library. The last game of the series was Columns III on the Sega Genesis, the first game is also available on the Sega 6-Pak Genesis cartridge, and on, obviously, the Sega Classics: Arcade Collection Sega CD game.

Overall, I’d have to say that this CD is a must-buy for any Sega CD owner. It might be hard to find, but you’ll feel a certain satisfaction when you find it. All of the games on it are certifiable classics.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/19/01, Updated 08/19/01