 If there is one thing I never was, it was a Sega fanboy. As a matter of fact, I was quite the opposite. While every so often I would get a chance to play on a Sega Genesis, I never owned the system. However, I always stood in awe of the ability of Sega. There was a certain attitude back during the Sega/Nintendo feud that was clear. Sega was the new kid on the block, and as such thought that they could roll with the big boys. Nintendo was clearly a dominating figure, but that did not scare Sega. Sega created their mascot who would define the company to this very day: Sonic the Hedgehog. It is with this knowledge that I came into Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection. When you look at this collection of 49 games, you need to look at the history of the system and of the company. If you were too young to know the system, then this collection is going to offer you very little. However, for people who grew up during this generation, or any retro gamer, this collection may be something you will want to buy.
Do what Nintendon't after the jump.
Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection is, at its core, a collection of 40 Sega Genesis games, 7 arcade games and 2 Sega Master System games. These games range from the great, to the bad, to the just plain strange. With a price tag of $29.99, it's not an easy deal to pass up. However, there are some flaws that hold this collection completely back.
While the collection itself is nice to have, at times it feels like there is filler within the collection in order to inflate the number of games included. The best example this is Sonic 3D Blast. While I never played the game on a Genesis, I can't imagine any reason anyone would want to. This piss-poor attempt at 3D made the graphics of Donkey Kong Country look like Transformers: The Movie and the gameplay is particularly awful. The game is an attempt to play Sonic on an isometric view and it fails miserably.
There are other games included that simply do not work as well as you may hope. In my first attempt to play Shining Force, my character became stuck because an NPC would not move out of the way. Phantasy Star has an especially annoying habit of having the characters flicker out completely. While it is understandable that Sega wanted pixel-perfect emulation of these games, at some point someone needed to say that these games needed to be fixed.
This is not to say that the collection is all bad. Included with this package is Sonic 1, 2 and 3, along with Sonic & Knuckles, the Streets of Rage trilogy, Vectorman 1 & 2 and Ecco the Dolphin 1 & 2 (hey, this is my review, I don't care what you think of me). There are also games that you may have never even played. During my time with this collection, I got my first chance to play "Decap Attack starring Chuck D. Head", a game in which you play a mummy who throws his head as a weapon. It is these pleasant surprises that made me go through the games just to discover what they were.
As an added incentive to keep playing, there are some unlockable additions to the game. These include Interviews with producers of the games and the aforementioned Sega Master System and Arcade games. While it may keep some people interested, the odds of me ever playing the arcade version Altered Beast is slim and nil...in fact, the odds of me playing Altered Beast again in any form are about zero. Another problem that is notable in playing on an SD TV is that all of the subtitles for the Japanese producers are nearly impossible to read, unless you have a large TV.
It should also be noted that the game incorporates save states and will naturally run in their original 4:3 format when you load the game up. You can choose to play in 16:9 format if you have a larger television, but the games look a bit ugly if you do choose to do this. In addition, you can choose to turn on smoothing to the games graphics, however if you are a traditionalist, you will most likely keep the 4:3 ratio and never even consider smoothing.
While the collection itself is decent, there are some things that could have made this collection much better. While I do not like to fault a game for features that it doesn't have, it seems like games such as Streets of Rage and Alien Storm needed to have online co-op play. While it is always fun to play with people locally, it seems like this minor addition could have made this collection much better.
Overall, this is exactly what the package advertises and not much else. If you have any plans on buying 5 or more of the games featured in this collection, you will most likely be better served buying this collection. It's a decent collection of Sega Genesis games and at its low price, it's a bit of a steal. If you do not own these games, there are very few collections that will offer you this much at anywhere near this price.
Final Score: C+
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