As technology progresses, our ability to reconnect to the things we have loved and lost becomes easier. Friends and families are only a phone call away, our favorite songs can be downloaded for a dollar or less, and fifty retro games from our childhood fit onto one disc. Since our nostalgia meter can be fueled through legal and illegal ways for free (emulators, pirating…etc), why should we pay for an album or video game compilation? The economically sound answer is that we shouldn’t, however, I have brought along my friend, Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection (SUGC), to argue for the other side. If you take a look at the complete list at the bottom of this review, you will notice that this collection has some serious classics that we have seen before in other collections: Vectorman, Ristar, the Golden Axe Series, the Ecco series, and the Sonic the Hedgehog (and its spin-offs) series. These games are always welcome but as I stated earlier, we have already seen them before. SUGC lives up to its namesake because it includes games we haven’t seen in other collections or games that where cut out when a collection was ported overseas.
Other game classics include: Dynamite Headdy, the Shining series, Beyond Oasis, the original Phantasy Star, Golden Axe Warrior (Zelda clone, literally), the surprisingly fun Alien Storm, the unlockable arcade games, and last but not least, the Streets of Rage series. Some of the titles haven’t been seen in a collection on American soil and before SUGC, where only available as either virtual console downloads or emulator downloads. If this isn’t enough for you the game also lets the player view the original box art for almost every game, (the unlockables don’t have art choices), there are little facts for each game, and you can unlock interviews with original staff members of classics like the Phantasy Star series and the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Be warned, unlocking some of the games or interviews may take a bit of work, but this just adds to the challenge and replay value of the collection. SUGC sports a slick menu system. It looks like the top-down view of the Sega Genesis with the games in a list on the left side and the right side has a genesis cartridge with a video that loads up for each game you scroll over. To top this off, you can also organize the games as you see fit. They start out alphabetical but you can arrange them by date, alphabetical, genre, or favorite. Favorite works by ranking the games in the list with a 0 to 5 red light meter. The higher the rating, the higher the game will be on the list when you set the organizer to favorite. This is an awesome way to make sure the games you love playing are accessible right when you fire up the game.
The games look and feel the same way they did years ago, playing the game on the Xbox 360 controller actually makes them a bit easier since the Genesis’ controller was a callous generating monster. The sounds have been faithfully reproduced and the menu music is an awesome compilation of retro sounds. SUGC has also updated the graphics and options for the titles. When you load up a game it will start out in a box format but by pushing select and selecting the video setup, you can stretch the screen to fit almost any TV. Playing it on a 46in 1080p HDTV, I was able to manipulate the game to the size of my TV without losing visibility. There is a button that automatically switches the screen to 16:9, but this cuts out the bottom and sides of some games. After maneuvering the screen as you see fit, there is an option to smooth the graphics. This delivers a slight graphical upgrade for some titles but most of them look ridiculous with the effect on. The select menu also offers a myriad of choices besides screen size. You can change the controls, save your game at any time, load a saved game, reset the game, or exit back to the menu. This offers a lot of flexibility that the older titles lacked thanks to the inability to save at all, or only at certain points.
I stated earlier that all of these titles where first party Sega titles, this means that Sega published the games for their system. I appreciate everyone’s desire for Boogerman or Rocket Knight Adventures, I want them too, but I can’t hold it against Sega when they offer titles like Beyond Oasis and the original Phantasy Star. There are also some titles that could have been swapped out for others but I appreciate what is included, not what was excluded. The only complaint I have with the game is its lack of online multiplayer. Some of the XBLA counterparts of these games let players team up online, so it would seem an easy port. However, playing these games together on the same console increases the nostalgia factor, so the inability to play online is noticeable, but excusable.Should we still pay for games that we can download for free? Absolutely. For starters, buying the collection is the legal way to do things. These games may not compare to the powerhouses of today, but the extra content, eclectic selection of games, the low price tag, and no fear of jail time, almost every video game fan will find something they love in Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection.
Weighing in at $30, SUGC contains 49 Genesis titles, here is the complete list of games: · Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle
· Alien Storm
· Altered Beast
· Beyond Oasis
· Bonanza Bros.
· Columns
· Comix Zone
· Decap Attack starring Chuck D. Head
· Dr. Robotnik's MBM
· Dynamite Headdy
· Ecco the Dolphin
· Ecco II: The Tides of Time
· E-SWAT
· Fatal Labyrinth
· Flicky
· Gain Ground
· Golden Axe I
· 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 in the Darkness
· Shining Force
· Shining Force 2
· Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master
· Sonic 3D Blast
· Sonic and Knuckles
· 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
Plus 9 UNLOCKABLE GAMES: · Golden Axe Warrior (SEGA Master System)
· Phantasy Star (SEGA Master System)
· Alien Syndrome (Arcade)
· Altered Beast (Arcade)
· Congo Bongo (Arcade)
· Fantasy Zone (Arcade)
· Shinobi (Arcade)
· Space Harrier (Arcade)
· Zaxxon (Arcade)
