List Price: £19.99
Our Price: £13.73
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: Sega
Average Customer Rating:
Manufacturer Maximum Age: 18 Audience Rating: Parental Guidance Binding: Video Game Brand: Sega EAN: 5060004769476 Label: Sega Manufacturer: Sega Manufacturer Minimum Age: 132 Platform: PlayStation2 Publisher: Sega Release Date: 2007-02-02 Studio: Sega
Customer Rating: Summary: Great Retro Gaming Comment: If you have ever owned or played on a Mega Drive / Genesis console, you have got to buy this. I think this is one of the best retro classic compilation's for the PS2 around, a great collection of game's suitable for all ages and tastes and a must for Sega Fans. I just purchased this and I am very impressed with it, even my 11 year old son love's it too, and he's never played on a Megadrive. Great fun all round. Customer Rating: Summary: Nostalgia not always what it's cracked up to be. Comment: Although found this good value for money, with hours of nostalgic fun to be had, I must admit I felt a little let down overall. Mainly because of how much I was looking forward to getting it, but also becasue a lot of the games have not aged well at all. Indeed some of them, for example Golden Axe, look so bad part of me thinks it is the old 8 bit Mastersystem version on there. At the time it came out I was convinced it was a perfect copy of the Arcade, but playing it now it is far from the case. Some of the other games, including sonic, I feel have lost alot through time. If you really liked any of the games, then by all means this is a good offering, but for me, it was about briging my megadrive back to life. I ended up thinking I should have left it to rest in peace. Mind you no doubt I will purchase another classic collection again in an effort to bring the memories flodding back. Customer Rating: Summary: It Could've Been So Much More Comment: The Sega Mega Drive is the jewel on the Gaming Crown in my household, my mother bought one when she was pregnant with me and it's been part of our family since then. Even though I've moved onto bigger and better consoles such as the PS2, Gamecube and so on, the Sega Mega Drive still holds its own and is the home of some of the best games ever.
When I heard of this release, and pre-ordered it, I had high expectations. Sadly, most of them were crushed.
A good 70% of the games available on this release are the same genres, most of them are platforms. Sonic is easily the best available on this disc, but others such as Altered Beast and Alex the Kidd have small likeability factor and short lifespans. The only thing that divides the platform games up is the character being controlled and the graphics.
However there are several other titles that shine and are a welcome addition to this collection; The Phantasy Star games (great RPGS), Golden Axe (platform based but with 2 player action and variation in gameplay), the Ecco series (one of the most original and hardest game ever created) and the puzzle based games such as Columns offer variety for this title.
Despite the above mentions, there are many other titles that are easily top of the Sega Mega Drive library and yet are not seen on this collection. Other reviewers on this site have said many good examples (namely Streets of Rage); mine include `Wonderboy in Monster World', `Soleil', `Quackshot' and `Dynamite Headdy'. To me, these games are the cream of the Sega Mega Drive crop, unlike some of the titles in this release.
One thing I noticed is the flow of gameplay, if you have "Sonic Mega Collection" you'll also pick this up. Sonic the Hedgehog on the PS2 moves much slower and is less fluid compared to the Gamecube version or even to the original version on the Sega Mega drive. Maybe this comparison is unfair and is only minor but if fluid motion is important to you, be aware.
The audio for all games have been enhanced and is still a joy to hear if you loved the audio score for its original release. But the fault I found is the sound effects, these have increased in volume and pitch. So instead of a simple attack from a small enemy in Phantasy Star 3 which was barely noticeable before, now sounds like nails on a chalk board. Even the jumps and ring collecting from Sonic make me whence for the first time in gaming history.
The biggest problem I have with this release is that most of the games available have already been re-released before!
The Sonic games, Ristar and Flicky were re-released first on the Sonic Mega Collection, which was released on all major consoles (PS2, XBox and Gamecube). The argument here could be that not everyone likes Sonic so not everyone would've purchased it. But who, with a Sega Mega drive, would have NOT played any Sonic titles? It's like purchasing a Nintendo games console without playing Mario, or buying a Playstation without touching Tomb Raider or a Final Fantasy game! It just doesn't happen! (Or if it did it's an EXTREMELY small percentage).
Phantasy Star 3 was released on the Gameboy Advance as "Phantasy Star Collection", which contained the first three games of the RPG series and was a very worth while release. In addition, Ecco was released as part of the "Sega Smash Pack", also for the Gameboy Advance and is available to download if you own a Wii or Xbox 360. So basically if you're a die-hard sega fan and have bought previous incarnations of your favourites, you're basically paying for more copies of the games you already own!
I recommend this to those who've never touched a Sega Mega drive, yet want a glimpse of its library and gameplay. Others who want to relive their golden sega years should take a look at this title as well. However if you have watched closely and bought pretty much every sega mega drive compilation that's out there - this title will have little to offer.
Customer Rating: Summary: What were they thinking. Comment: I recently purchased this sega collection based on passed experiences from the late 80s which is when i got my first megadrive.
To say the games havent aged well is a understatement and can be expected with them being over 10 years old, but this collection is a big disappointment.
Just about every game is average or rubbish, the only exceptions being, sonic 1 & 2, shinobi 3 and ristar.
Sega have taken liberties and deliberately left out the obvious, streets of rage 1 + 2 + 3, sonic 3, sonic & knuckles, gunstar heroes, dynamite headie and many more.
Im more than knowledgable having played every system released and thousands of games this is only recommended if your desperate for 2 or 3 of the games. Customer Rating: Summary: A Great Value Retro Collection,only with a few flaws.. Comment: If you ever owned a Megadrive,or are looking for a value packed collection of 16-bit classics (albeit Sega branded not Nintendo :P ) then look no further here .
*Some* of the finest SEGA franchises are represnted here,and pretty faithful emulations of the originals.Sonic the Hedgehog is finally playable at full 60 Hrz mode,after being reduced to the measly 50 Hrz on the 1st Sonic Mega Collection ,screen sizes can be adjusted,extra games can be unlocked and short but intresting interview segments of the original programmers/designers (bar Sonic creator Yuji Naka ).
However,perhaps due to licencing problems,some classics are not in this compilation-NO Streets of Rage 1-2-3,E-Swat,Allisa Dragoon,Mickey Mouse Castle of Illusion ,Super Hang On,Super Monaco GP,Shining Force etc.
A real shame,but maybe if there's a second compilation...
And why..OH GOD WHY!! Is Altered Beast here..?? Arggh!!!
