With the successful release of the NES Classic Edition and the SNES Classic Edition consoles, a huge want for easy to access retro games has come to the forefront. You would think that every old console would start preparing their own miniature version but Sega has decided to take a different path once again with the release of Sega Mega Drive Classics (Sega Genesis Classics in North America).
It seems that Sega wants their retro games on every console generation ever made. It all started with the PS2 & PSP releasing a bundle of 28 Sega games. Following that came the PS3 releasing a bundle with 49 Sega games. We now come to the time of PS4, Xbox One, and PC and we see the newly released Sega Mega Drive Collection with 53 games.
This collection comes with a variety of titles from previous bundles but also includes some new ones as well. Let’s break it down.
Games that are commonly seen from other collections included in this one:
- Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle
- Alien Storm
- Altered Beast
- Beyond Oasis
- Bonanza Bros.
- Columns
- Comix Zone
- Decap Attack
- Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine
- Dynamite Headdy
- ESWAT: City Under Siege
- Fatal Labyrinth
- Flicky
- Gain Ground
- Golden Axe
- Golden Axe II
- Golden Axe III
- Kid Chameleon
- Phantasy Star II
- Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom
- Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium
- Ristar
- Shining Force
- Shining Force II
- Shining in the Darkness
- Shinobi III: return of the Ninja Master
- Sonic 3D Blast
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2
- Streets of Rage
- Streets of Rage 2
- Streets of Rage 3
- Super Thunder Blade
- Vectorman
- Vectorman 2
Games that are NEW to this collection:
- Alien Soldier
- Bio-Hazard Battle
- Columns III: Revenge of Columns
- Crack Down
- Galaxy Force II
- Gunstar Heroes
- Landstalker
- Light Crusader
- Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi
- Space Harrier II
- Sword of Vemillion
- The Revenge of Shinobi
- ToJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotown
- ToJam & Earl
- Virtua Fighter 2
- Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair
- Wonder Boy in Monster World
This is a pretty hefty list with some great games included but it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. The collection omits some titles previous seen in the last generation of consoles. These titles are:
- Alien Syndrome
- Altered Beast
- Congo Bongo
- Fantasy Zone
- Golden Axe Warrior
- Phantasy Star
- Shinobi
- Sonic the Hedgehog 3
- Sonic & Knuckles
- Space Harrier
- Zaxxon
As you can see there is definitely a mixed bag of goodies here to play but the omission of certain titles is definitely a head-scratcher. Why include the first two “Sonic the Hedgehog” titles but remove the third? Interesting choice and I am sure they have their reasoning but if these are such vast collections why not just go above and beyond and add everything that you possibly can? This almost smells like a cash grab where the “less is more” mantra comes into play and some people didn’t want to put in the extra work for the extra titles. It really is too bad.
The games play perfectly fine and seem to be exact replicas of the Mega Drive versions. I would always like to see graphical updates with flashing animations and blotchy textures but I know that is asking a lot coming from a collection of games. They are true to their originals and I am guessing this is exactly what a lot of people ask for in these types of bundles. Those who want the smaller tuning options for emulation can do so with some option changes. There are multiple pixel scaling options, various filters such as adding scan lines or curving the screen for a more original look and feel. You can also stretch the screen to full if you really want or go out of your comfort zone and enable mirror mode for an added challenge.
The menu system for this collection definitely needs some rethinking. It is so difficult to navigate between what you want to do because of the layout. You are inside a bedroom with text overlays across specific objects scattered throughout. You can go to the bookcase to view the game cases to choose what you would like to play but accessing each title is slow and painful. You can go to the television set and see what you are currently playing or remove a cartridge from the console (for some reason this is something people would want to do in a video game). Moving around to each object can be frustrating when you know where you want to go but the system goes somewhere else because of the sensitivity of the controller joystick. I think a much simpler menu with lists and options would have been wonderful for this. I get what they were trying to do with nostalgia purposes but they made a poor choice in my opinion.
Where I find this collection shines is in the Extras section. I have no idea why they would call it Extras and hide this away but there are some gems in here. Extras are where you can find the trophy list (and know exactly what you need to do to achieve the trophies) and a Challenge list. The Challenge list takes specific games and gives you a challenge in them that you can skip directly to the part. For example, one of the challenges in Comix Zone asks you to win the Temple Tournament with low health. Another challenge asks you to defeat two minotaurs in Golden Axe III without using a continue. I absolutely love these challenges especially since they take you directly to where you need to be in the game. It is an added challenge that they should have gone farther with. It is unfortunate there isn’t a challenge for each and every game but there is enough there to satisfy the craving for more for the time being.
Online functionality appears in two forms: multiplayer and leaderboards. Multiplayer games include a whopping 21 titles including Golden Axe, Gunstar Heroes, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Streets of Rage, Virtua Fighter 2 and many more. In-game voice chat is available making it easy to party chat with any random player. This is a great addition and will surely add some great times to these retro games. You can select which titles you want to search for a player on and go from there. Leaderboards will allow you to compete against friends and others around the world for top scores. If you have a competitive edge than you will check this Extra sub-section frequently.
Overall, the Sega Mega Drive Classics collection is a decent addition if you are craving some more retro game time. Unfortunately, the omission of a lot of really good titles hampers this collection as a whole. Of course, there are licensing issues but you can easily see where they tried to cram titles in just to fill the collection up. There are a bunch of new titles to this collection that was not in the previous generation’s collection and that may be enough for some people. The challenges, options, and nostalgia factor are terrific but once again the main focus is always on the games and I believe this is where the collection falters.
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