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.

+ 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 releasedbut 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 choiceit 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.

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)

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!!

Sonic's ultimate genesis collection is a collection of 40 genesis games and 9 other unlock-able classic Sega games. All the games have been remastered to 720p so its a must have for Sega nuts who want to play these on the newer tv screens. My only problem with it is sometimes mostly on sonic 3 the sound may crackle a little bit and theres no lock on for sonic 3/knuckles, but other than that its the best classic games compilation to ever be released. Sega has also rereleased many other games that were on the disc separate on the psn/live arcade but if you buy them seperate it will cost more but the trophys are different for achievement hunters I think but I would still recommend this over the psn releases. but anyway I'll give a short review for the games

GAMES:
Alex Kidd- I never was a big alex kidd fan its good its on here for the hardcore sega fan but theres better games 2.9/5
Alien Storm- Good Game 4/5
Altered Beast- Really Hard game fun if you can manage to master it 3.9/5
Beyond Oasis- never played it enough to judge it
Bonanza Bros- Very odd game 3.5/5
Columns- Pretty much a tetris knockoff but I still like it 4/5
Comix Zone- dispite the difficulty I used to love this game back in the day 5/5
Decap Attack- odd but good 4/5
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine- More forgiving version of Columns and I like this one more 4.9/5
Dynamite Headdy- Never played it enough to judge it
Ecco The Dolphin-not a fan of these games 1/5
Ecco: The tides of Time- same 1/5
E-SWAT-Pretty good game 4/5
Fatal Labyrinth-Pretty confusing game but fun if you can manage it 3.5/5
Flicky- A very fun and challenging little game 4/5
Gain Ground- Fun 3/5
Golden Axe- Streets of rage but more medieval 5/5
Golden Axe 2- Same 5/5
Golden Axe 3- Weakeast link of the 3 but still good 4.5/5
Kid Chameleon- Underrated sega game this one needs a sequel on psn 5/5
Phantasy Star II-IV: Good RPGs I can't say the aged well but still fun 5/5
Ristar- This game is surprisingly pretty good needs a sequel 4/5
Shining Force-in the darkness: good rpgs like Phantasy star the haven't aged well if you weren't born in the early 90's 5/5
Shinobi III- One of my personal favorite old school games of all time 6/5
Sonic 1- The original sonic game these are worth buying the collection alone for 5/5
Sonic 2- The best sonic game ever made 6/5
Sonic Spinball- Its either a love it or hate it game with sonic fans I personally love it 4.9/5
Sonic 3- Probably my least faviorite of the 2d genesis sonic games but still excellent 4.5/5
Sonic & Knuckles- Part 2 of the 3rd one this is were that one gets good 5/5
Sonic 3d Blast- Dispite the controls its not to bad great soundtrack as well 3/5
Streets of Rage 1-3: Best Genesis games ever expecilly the 1st 2 10000000/5
Super Thunder Blade- Space Harrier with a helicopter 3.5/5
Vectorman 1-2: very hard but fun platformers

UNLOCKABLE GAMES
Golden Axe Warrior
Phantasy Star
Alien Syndrome
Altered Beast (arcade version)
Congo Bongo
Fantasy Zone
Shinobi
Space Harrier
Zaxxon

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

Ah yes, the ol' Sega Genesis, beloved originator of "blast processing" that "does what Nintendon't." You gotta love the great console wars of the early 1990's. They truly gave birth to some epic moments in gaming. For those out there like myself who grew up playing Sega Genesis games at home and have a weakspot for nostalgic blasts from the past, this collection is a Godsend. There isn't much to say about this collection that hasn't already been said in great detail, but I felt it to be a worthy endeavor to add my voice to the legion that is Sega fans.

What you get when you pay for this collection is essentially 40 Sega Genesis classics, as well as 9 extra bonus games you can unlock, some of which are arcade titles and others of which are Sega Master System games. Most of these games really are timeless classics too: Sonic 1-Knuckles, Ristar, Shining Force 1 and 2, Phantasy Star 2-4 (and the Sega Master system version of 1), Vectorman, Ecco the Dolphin, Dynamite Heady, Comix Zone, Golden Axe 1-3, I mean the list goes on and on. The games here range from serious smash hit titles to very obscure, lesser known gems that should have been hits. It's a great collection that will offer hours and hours of nostalgic fun and truly memorable experiences. There's also a large variety of games here, taken from all sorts of genres that were prevalent at the time.

The Genesis was a system with fantastically unique hardware. I mean, the music alone is magic in electronic form, truly. Obviously, the graphics have aged and some better than others, but like a fine wine, most have aged quite well and that adds to their charm. What's even more amazing is just how timeless the gameplay is in most of these gaming darlings. To be honest, I'm quite stunned at just how much most of these games have retained their "freshness." Granted, most games are over two decades old, but still, these games play way better than I expected them to. That could be attributed to the stupendous work done to port these games onto the disc. The games have been worked on so that they output in HD. Now, the graphics aren't better, but the colors are definitely very vibrant and you don't have the infamous SD lines going across the screen. Beautiful, colorful games like Ristar never looked so good. The controls also work very well on the PS3 controller too. Sega and Backbone Entertainment did a very good job making sure these games play and control exceptionally well. Bravo!

Also worth mentioning is the fact that there are quite a few extras you can unlock. There are nine additional games that are quite easy to unlock. These range from arcade games that eventually became Genesis titles, such as Altered Beast, as well as some famous Sega series that started on the Sega Master System, such as the first Phantasy Star. That was really nice to see on here. There is also a gallery of sorts on the disc, where you can view nice little advertising/marketing pictures of each game, as well as neat, informative fun-facts about each game and its history. There are also bonus things such as interviews that give insight into that time period in Sega's history. All of these are really nice extras for Sega scholars out there. Overally, Sega really went all-out to give one of their shining achievements the treatment it deserves, and I really respect that.

The very first video games I ever played as a child were on the Genesis my family had at home. I grew up with a healthy diet of awesome Sega treats. Now, all these years later I have my own home with my own family, and to play these titles on my PS3 at home really packs a nostalgic punch in the heart. I have such a soft spot for those old classics. My wife, on the other hand, grew up with a SNES at home instead and was blessed with all of the truly magical titles that graced Nintendo's awesome 16-bit counterpart to the Genesis. Even she, who has never really known Sega's quality first-hand until now, has loved becoming acquainted with it with me from this collection. Two very different experiences, same great opinion of this collection. That's just awesome.

This disc was truly a divine gift. To top it all off, this collection is a mere $20 these days, sometimes less. That's less than 50 cents a game! What a fantastic value! I really can't recommend this collection enough, whether you're a gamer who was significantly impacted by this sweet system of blast processing, or you're a gamerly scholar who is interested in a genuinely thrilling and fascinating pocket of video gaming history, this is a great purchase. Buy it, crank up your speakers and put on your early 1990 goggles, and travel back to a truly wonderful, memorable era in gaming.

"Genesis Does!! 16 Bit Arcade GraphicsYou can't do this on Nintendo!!"

Well, as a matter of fact, you can reproduce some of what this collection offers on both 360 and Wii, but you're going to pay north of 100 dollars (Probably over 200 or 300 dollars actually). On Sonic's Ultimate Genesis collection you receive spot on emulations of 40 plus games from the Genesis era. Being a person who grew playing a number of these games, I can say this purchase is easily worth the 30 bucks they charge.

Altered Beast, Shinobi, Streets of Rage 1, 2, and 3, Phantasy Star 1, 2, 3, and 4, Sonic 1, 2, 3, Golden Axe 1, 2, and 3, ESWAT, Ristar, Vectorman 1 and 2, DeCap Attack, plus more. As other reviews mention, you unlock a few of these games by meeting certain scores or by completing certain criteria in other available games. This helps introduce you to some games you may not have given a second thought to initially (aka..Flicky). The games automatically save, so this is great for keeping high scores and for keeping your progress in other games up to date. **ALSO** A big bonus imo is that you can adjust the video output for each game in the options to either 16:9 widescreen or 4:3 regular screen, and additionally adjust the smoothing so you don't have to see all the jagged edges, unless you choose to. I hate borders around my games, so this feature was quite appreciated.

Overall, Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection is easily worth the purchase price. 40 plus games, of which nearly all of them provide some, if not quite a lot of enjoyment. It's a great collection to just kick back and enjoy playing while you remember the good ole' days of the 16 bit wars or if you aren't familiar with these games, it gives you an opportunity to play some games that were far more about gameplay, memorization, and fun, than today's wow-factor graphics based powerhouses. As I said before I grew up playing the NES, then the Genesis, and this collection introduced me to a few games I had never played before that are quite fun (aka..Alienstorm, DeCap Attack) so I think there's something in this collection for everyone (Casual to hardcore, new-school to old-school gamers). Ultimately, there's really no reason you shouldn't get this game. 30 bucks for 40 plus games is just too good of a deal to pass up. You'll easily get your money's worth and hours of fun.

This is the biggest collection of games to come out of the 16 bit era on a collection (I think anyway) and it has some amazing titles that are simply too rare to buy the originals on other sites, almost every Sonic game released, all of the Phantasy Star games, Shining Force, Streets of Rage etc, you know the list it's huge and worth a lot more than they sell it for. All games are scaled up to HD and you can apply a smoothing filter that doesn't effect gameplay, if you have a wide screen you can have the image stretched to fit your screen.

I personally bought it for the Streets of Rage/ Shining Force games because I already have all of the Sonic games, Phantasy Star IV, Beyond Oasis, Vector Man for my real genesis. But this collection is massive containing a lot of great classics you might not remember.

Though as great as it is, there's a few games missing for no reason. Most notable is Sonic 3 and Knuckles (when they're locked on), it has Sonic 1,2,3, Sonic and Knuckles, Sonic 3D Blast, Sonic Spinball, but..not Sonic 3 combined with Sonic & Knuckles, a game that can't be more than 2 megs was left off the disc for what reason? None. It is Sonic's ultimate Genesis Collection, they have the games separate, but not combined so why not include his best run? Disc Space isn't a issue when dealing with games that came out nearly 16 years ago.

Anyway you can't find much of a better value, they have a LOT of games on here and most are simply amazing, for very cheap. Some sounds are a little off, but again, it's a great deal and it's a must have in my mind. I probably have half of these games for my genesis and I got it anyway. It just loses a star for not having Sonic 3 or Sonic 2 combined with Sonic and Knuckles, it's Sonics best game in my opinion and it's insane not to put it in. (Thinking about it now, I'm sure they'll just release it for download on PSN/XBL)

To sum it up, there's a lot of great games on here and a few not so great, but are still worth the nostalgic value. You can't get these games for a better deal, some are worth 80 bucks alone on cartridge form, and they're at least 10 dollars each on virtual console each. So 49 games (including unlockable games) times ten is 490 bucks vs Genesis collection for 30, can't beat this great deal.

Growing up, I never got the chance to own a Sega Genesis being an SNES owner myself in the 16 bit era. So naturally I did not get to experience all of the great Sega games that were out there. With this Collection of games, I was able to relive that part of my childhood all over again.

This game contains almost all of the best Sega games that there were on the Genesis as well as some other classics. Featuring such classic games as Sonic 1-3, Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic Spinball, Streets of Rage 1-3, Comix Zone, Vectorman 1-2, Altered Beast as well as many other great games.

This game is fun for everyone and even for the whole family. This is one classic collection of game that delivers and I strongly recommend that you buy it.