Sonic Ultimate Genesis Collection

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List Price: $19.99
Sale Price: $14.96
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I never had a Genesis, so I missed out on a lot of great games. I've played the first Sonic, and some of these games in the arcade, but overall, I never got to experience the glory days of Sega. Also, it's hard to find PS3 games that appeal to my fiance, and she was excited at the prospect of playing Ecco the Dolphin & the Sonic games again.

There are nearly 50 games on here, and when you consider how much the various games would cost on the Wii virtual console, or Xbox Live arcade, this is an amazing deal. Even at $60, this would be a great deal, but at $30, it's a no brainer.

The presentation is pretty slick, the main menu looks like a Genesis unit, and the games are a stack of cartridges you sort through. You can rate games on a 5 star scale, and then sort them in the order you rated them, so your least favorite games will fall to the bottom of the list.

The only complaint I have is that the line "all titles have been converted to high def" is wrong and misleading. A filter has been applied to make the games look better at a higher resolution, nothing has been reworked or remade to take advantage of HD. The good thing is you can switch between 4:3 and 16:9 on the fly, and turn the filter off if you want. I will say that the games on this collection have looked a lot better than their Virtual Console counterparts on my TV.

Overall, you can't go wrong with this collection. Whether you're an old Genesis lover wanting a trip down memory lane, or someone who missed out on Sega's golden age and want to see what all the hype was about, this is a must-buy.

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+ Pros:

+ 40 Genesis games and 9 extra games for less than a dollar apiece

+ Setup options including widescreen, graphic smoothing, and button configurations

+ 3 Save slots per game

Cons:

No "Lock-on" option to play as Knuckles in Sonic 2 or 3

Ahh yes, the 1980's and 1990's. Two great periods of video games for the Sega franchise.

First, the arcade stand-ups their machines called out to be filled with quarters offering level after level of difficult challenges to overcome. When the 1980's were drawing to a close and people were ready to move beyond the limits of 8-bit Nintendo games, Sega introduced their 4th generation home video game console, the Sega Genesis. This 16-bit system offered better graphics, longer Role-Playing Games, and one speedy hedgehog that tested the patience of even the most seasoned gamer.

This compilation combines 40 games from Sega's Genesis library, 7 of their stand-up arcade ports and 2 games from the Sega Master System, all on one disc.

Games:

Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle

Alien Storm

Altered Beast

Beyond Oasis

Bonanza Bros.

Columns

Comix Zone

Decap Attack

Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine

Dynamite Headdy

ESWAT: City Under Siege

Ecco the Dolphin

Ecco: The Tides of Time

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: Ancient Sealing

Shining in the Darkness

Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master

Sonic & Knuckles

Sonic 3D Blast

Sonic Spinball

Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Streets of Rage

Streets of Rage 2

Streets of Rage 3

Super Thunder Blade

Vectorman

Vectorman 2

Alien Syndrome

Altered Beast

Congo Bongo

Fantasy Zone

Golden Axe Warrior

Phantasy Star

Shinobi

Space Harrier

Zaxxon

Some of these games are initially locked, but they can be unlocked without much difficulty.

Graphics: First off, let's be honest since these are 3rd and 4th generation video games, graphically they are not "cutting edge". If your earliest gaming console was a Sony Playstation, these games will look pre-historic to you. Most of the games have a faux background and the gameplay is centered in the middle of the screen in a 4:3 default format. The aspect ratio can be changed to letterbox (16:9) and there is even an option to smooth the graphics but with games like these, smoothing actually takes away from the nostalgia.

Options: I love the options this compilation offers! Not only can you set your own button layouts and turn on/off the rapid fire option, but you can save your progress on every single game! Games like Sonic the Hedgehog were very unforgiving and had no save points when they were first released...but with 3 save slots at your disposal, you can take your time to complete the games at your own pace.

Gameplay: With 49 games to choose from, there are several genres at your fingertips:

Want a platformer? Try Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle.

Fancy a beat `em up? Altered Beast is calling you.

Itching for an epic RPG? Try Phantasy Star III.

How about a puzzle game? Stack up the Columns.

Maybe an action game? Suit up with ESWAT.

Side Scroller fan? Ecco the Dolphin needs your help.

Hack & Slash, eh? Grab some grog and try out Golden Axe.

Perhaps you prefer a shooter? Space Harrier is all about the bullets!

You'd like a good old fashioned Run `n' Gun? Look no further than Vectorman 2.

Whatever type of gameplay you like, it can be found in this collection.

Extras: There are interviews with several Sega employees made specifically for this collection. You can tell each person put their heart & soul into their game of choice...it was a different time. Nowadays, people like Hideo Kojima have 200 people at their disposal, whereas most of these games were made by very small teams. There is a brief history and graphic artwork for each game, a nice piece of nostalgia.

Trophies: The trophies for this game are a mixed bag. Some trophies are laughably easy (such as Ecco the Dolphin this trophy is earned by simply talking to another dolphin!), while others like Dr. Robitnik's M.B.M. trophy (beat the game) are tooth-grindingly difficult. I thought the trophy for "Final Oasis" was a good example the goal to free the water spirit took some time, but didn't require completing the entire game. I loved the trophy requiring every game to be played at least once.

As far as negatives, there is only one that comes to mind, the exclusion of the "lock-on" gameplay for Sonic 3, Sonic 2, and the Blue Sphere levels. This allowed gamers to play as Knuckles instead of Sonic, which could not be done at the time due to software/hardware limitations. Since the Playstation 3 is a 7th generation video game console, I was surprised these were excluded. I hope they will show up as a download from the Playstation Network before too long.

Conclusion?

If you want to take a trip down video game memory lane for a great price, this is the best collection to do it with it breaks down to less than a dollar per game. For your portable needs, I strongly recommend the Sega Genesis Collection for the PSP.

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Spot on emulation and save states certainly equals 5 stars in my book! Aside from eagerly anticipating Volume 2, I can't think of anything lacking from this collection!

Simply stated, superb... the first review captured most of what I want to relay about this, so I won't belabor the situation.

5 stars, my highest recommendation!!

All 3 Streets of Rage games are here, too!!! A first!!

Read Best Reviews of Sonic Ultimate Genesis Collection Here

Well allow me to start out by saying that has a child I was an SNES kid and later migrated onto Sony's consoles,I knew a little about Sega but never wanted there stuff enough to bug my parents to buy them for me.

Fast forward 12 years and I'm playing catchup with all things Sega!

This Genesis collection contains a whopping 49 Sega games (I think 9 of them are unlockable mastersystem games) What I like about this bundle the most is that a lot of the games are RPG's (there is about 8-10 RPGs in here,that's worth the price alone)

Another good thing about this collection is that you don't have to have 49 carts across 2 systems to play them! And also some of these games used battery backup to save the games,and we all know a battery will only last so long before it dies and all your precious data is gone,or when the carts wear out from old age!

A really cool feature is you can save anywhere in the games (it saves in in a 'state' just like the SNES emulates) and there is also a smoothing option witch makes a HUGE difference in image quality.

The interface is also pretty cool,it shows an old model 1 genesis as your picking your game to play,another nice touch is that when you save your games it shows the Sega genesis cart with an original art of the game cart-nice touch!

there is also a whole whack of extras to watch and unlock,it will keep you very busy for a long time guaranteed!!!

Edit: After playing the game for more than a week I've decided to comment a little more on the games offered,the more influential ones.

The first one that comes to mind would be Phantasy Star 2 the game has won numerous awards on many gaming sites and was one of the first (if not THE first) game to have a deeper storyline and was also the first game to kill a main character,it also paved the way for many more RPGs to come after it including FF7.

Another honorable mention would be Phantasy Star 4,not only was it the final chapter in the long running series (1987-1994)but it offered a new art direction (it's an example of very early anime cut-scenes,at a time when anime was still young in North America) It should be noted that this game originally retailed for $79.99 that was very expensive back in '94 and it should be noted that I have seen no game more expensive than this that wasn't a collectors edition (to put it into perspective the most expensive playstation games were never more than $59.99)

The Sonic series: This is easily what helped the Genesis keep the lead it had over the SNES for so long (1991 till early 1994) but when Sega's support was waning due to the soon to be release of the doomed Saturn,the SNES got those last few punches to earn a victory in the 16Bit era with some last minute blockbuster releases,Had Sega not dropped support so early it would have won that console war,and the Sonic series would have been to thank.

That's about all the games I can think of at the moment,you may have bought a Genesis for different reasons but but if you really look at it,the majority of people bought a Genesis for Sonic. I do however have a lot of older friends who originally bought a Genesis for that arcade-y experience with out wasting there entire allowance on quarters (remember: Arcades were all the rage in the late '80s to about 1997)

Want Sonic Ultimate Genesis Collection Discount?

This package is easily worth the $30 asking price for anyone with even a slight knowledge of Sega Genesis games.

Looking to replay some Sonic from back in the day, they're all here. Jonesin' for a quick game of Altered Beast? How 'bout some Golden Axe? All classics, all here. As someone who grew up with these games, this package is a treasured blast from the past. And since another reviewer so nicely went into the details of every game, I will withold. Needless to say there is something for everyone here.

As previously mentioned, the ability to save real time is a valuable added bonus. That said, I particularly would have appreciated adding specific cheats into the actual games, e.g. unlimited lives/continues, but most of these can be found at GameFAQ's anyway. A couple printed pages and you're good to go.

Now some caveats, these games are from the late 80's early 90's, and the graphics/music are representative of the era. Some look decent, some are looking a little worse for wear. If you are accustomed to post PS2/Xbox graphics, picking up this might seem like a terrible idea.

But, if warm fuzzies are generated just by hearing the old "Say-ga" on console startup, then this package is for you. Highly recommeded. (Four stars for fun only because the older controls can require some "reacquainting").

Last note, when entering codes, it appears that the button mapping is:

A = Triangle

B = Square / Circle

C = X