45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
Great collection at a great price
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.
A wonderful deal
Relative to purchasing each title individually on Wii's Virtual Console, this title is a huge, huge deal. Plus it has trophies. How can you go wrong?
This review is from: Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (Video Game)
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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This review is from: Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (Video Game)
+ 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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This review is from: Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (Video Game)
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!!
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This review is from: Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (Video Game)
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)
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This review is from: Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (Video Game)
When it came down to video games back in the early to mid 90's, video games have started to become much more aminstream with its core audiences. Nintendo really had dominated at the beginning with the continued success of the NES and the start of what became the Super Nintendo. As for Sega, they had much more out there that seemed to dominate at the beginning with the success of the Sega Genesis, and the portable Game Gear system. But at the midway point of the decade, their systems were losing appeal from overexposure, which cause them to lose sales for the Genesis, Saturn and Dreamcast systems, and gamers were going to Sony and staying at Nintendo for their gaming needs. Now, Sega's glory days are returning to the Playstation 3.
Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection is really something that delivers well for nostaligic fans of the classic Sega Genesis era of the 90's. The game compilation contains over 40 classic Sega games that have been the constants of the Sega Genesis library, and what made Sega so dominant to hard cpore fans today. The game have all been remastered beautifully from top to bottom, and redesigned to give it a new introduction in High Defiinition. The compilation includes a lot of classic games including the original Sonic The Hedgehog, and its sequels 2, 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, as well as other great Sega titles like Columns, the addictive puzzler that was Sega's answer to the addictive Tetris, the epic Golden Axe, the innovative Vectorman, and many other greats. The control is just as simple to pick up as it was made years earlier, and the gameplay is just as exciting as has been years ealier. Sadly though, I do feel a bit upset though that there could've upset that there could've been some overlooked greats here like the innovative 3-D Virtua Racing here, as well as Earthworm Jim to just name a few.
All in all for what it is worth Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for the Playstation 3 works very well for Sega as a strong and innovative reintroduction to what Sega had made special for video game fanatics young and old back in the 90's. While it is sad that Sega will never be able to duplicate those days with making new systems, they still are showing they still have the stuff with what their classics are absolutely made of. If you have never owned a Genesis system, or are just looking for something completely different, than I absolutely recommend this as a must buy for PS3 owners.
Graphics: B
Sound: B+
Price: B+
Fun & Enjoyment: B+
Overall: B+
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This review is from: Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (Video Game)
As SEGA told me while growing up, Genesis Does what Nintendon't. That much was true for some of their older games, and this collection has most of the games that helped mold that campaign.
The graphic smoothing option is really nice, and anyone familiar with emulators (not that I am) will remember the Super-Eagle modes in emulation. It basically takes the pixels and smooths them out, making it look like a flash game rather than a 16-bit pixel game. A good example is that of Double Dragon for Live Arcade. This feature is eye candy for some, but others may want to just leave this option off. I prefer it in some games, and some I'd rather have the graphics a little pixelated because the feature smooths things to a point were it just looks to different. No sound enhancements, thank goodness!
The games all have individual options. For instance, if you like the graphic smoothing for Golden Axe but would prefer to have Sonic in his true graphic format, you don't have to swap manually between the two. Another nice thing is each game has a save file, not a built-in save slot. So if I'm late for work and I'm on the end boss of Streets of Rage, I can save, quit, and load later.
While there's several really terrific games, including most of the Sonic games, the one thing that should have been added is the Toe Jam & Earl series, as well as a few others. SEGA has some of 16-bits finest games, and there were certainly a lot more than 49 exclusives. Also, given the fact that the PS3 supports Blu-Ray and even the Xbox 360 has a disc capacity of 8GB or more, I'd have loved to see some 32x games or even some of SEGA CD's really good games (Night Trap, anyone?). Anyway you shake it though, this is a terrific collection, and thank goodness for Trophies! The Trophies in the game are pretty easy to get and there's only one per game, but those are just added bonuses to a killer collection. I just hope they have some DLC soon.
My only big complaint is the lack of online play. Sure, lacking this feature keeps the games true to tradition, but c'mon! It's the 21st century!
This is the SEGA collection to get, although I'd have loved to see a "Collection, Vol. 1" so I could expect to see another one in this same category. There's a few things missing from this library to call it perfect, but overall, 49 games for $30 is a killer deal. Add that to your trophy collection. Now, where's the "Beat-em-Up Arcade Collection" featuring The Simpsons Arcade, X-Men, and the many, many other great co-op beat-em-ups of the 90s?
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This review is from: Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (Video Game)
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
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This review is from: Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (Video Game)
There are 40 SEGA Genesis titles as well as nine SEGA Master System and arcade games in this collection, That would cost you $365.00 to download on the Wii. This is a sweet deal you can't pass on, if you grew up in a SEGA-lovin' house like I did, many of these games are going to bring back warm and fuzzy memories.$30 That's a steal, and I can't recommend picking this one up enough.
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This review is from: Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (Video Game)
I won't let nostalgia blind me, and end up being one of those 'I played these when I was little, so they're good games' people. But the funny thing is, playing the first few Sonic games, I felt like a kid again. It's been years since I really played through each one, the last time being on the Sonic collection for the Xbox, though I didn't spend much time with it. Getting to explore all the areas, trying to get the emeralds, it felt great to play good Sonic games again, and it makes you wonder why the developers screwed him up so bad after the first Dreamcast game. But here, you're getting much more than Sonic. And you know what the best thing might be? It's something overlooked by many- the ability to save at any time. This is basically a giant emulator package, and now you can save anytime you want when playing any game here. If only we were so lucky to have that feature with Ecco the Dolphin back in the early 90s...
You can see the list of games here on the product page, so I won't go into detail about them- you either know the games or you don't. And truth be told, a lot of them don't deserve to be in this collection. A few are so generic that I had a hard time believing that Sega couldn't have picked any other game to fill in the blanks. Those ones are Fatal Labyrinth, Beyond Oasis, E-SWAT, Gain Ground, Super Thunder Blade, Alien Storm, Kid Chameleon, Flicky, Ristar and Alex Kidd. Some of you might be wondering why I included Ristar, because it has a cult folllowing, but the game doesn't hold up very well in this day and age, and I had a hard time playing for even 3 levels before the sound effects gave me a headache. Most of the other games here though, still hold up well, even if a lot of them are simple. The Streets of Rage and Golden Axe series were classic brawlers in their time, and while there's barely any skill involved now, it's good for a run down memory lane to see just how far action games have come since then. I was really surprised to see Decap Attack on this collection- it was one of my favorite games for the Genesis, and held up reasonably well when I played it on here. Who knew that a game about a decapitated mummy could've been made back in the days when Mortal Kombat drew more attention than the Grand Theft Auto sequels have in recent history? I had fun playing through most of the better titles on here, but I probably won't be going through them again unless someone comes over and we want to just mess around in one of them. The Sonic games are always good for a quick go, and beating either Ecco the Dolphin title is a challenge only those with high levels of patience should attempt.
The game's load times are quick, and the longest loading times are those when you quit a game and when the title screen starts up. Otherwise, once you select a game, you get right into it. Saving is quick as well, and you can even set the controller to whatever works for you, though most of these games used three buttons when they came out, and I can't see any point in changing preferences for the ps3. The games are all presented in HD, but come on, there's not much point in doing that given how old they are. Still, things look as good as they possibly can, and they sound great too.
Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection also has some neat bonuses to unlock as you progress through each game. There are a few extra games to unlock (the first Phantasy Star being the main one people tend to go for), video interviews with some of the game creators, and artwork. To me, the greatest bonus was hearing one of the developers talk about how much gamers are going to love the new Sonic game (at the time, Sonic the Hedgehog for ps3 and 360) because of the story and new characters. This made me laugh because those are the two things that everyone hates about the new Sonic games, and here he is, with a straight face, talking about how great they are. That's always good for a quick laugh. The other interviews are worth a watch, and you learn a lot from them about what they wanted to create, and what they hoped people playing their games would get out of them. Finally, there are lots of super easy trophies to get in the game. Actually, you could probably get most of them in one sitting since the majority only require you to complete 2 or 3 levels in a game. Others require other things, like getting a Chaos Emerald in Sonic 1, getting 100 rings as Tails in Sonic 3, or just eating 200 fish in Ecco 2. The only two that will give people problems are those in Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine and Columns.
I'm glad I got this collection, but I can't stress enough how I doubt I'll play most of the games here ever again. Some of them, like Fatal Labyrinth and Beyond Oasis make me wonder why they were even included, and how anyone could think these games were good when they first came out. But this is a good history lesson for people who missed the Genesis, though there are a lot of great non-Sega games you should check out too that couldn't be featured here. For the current price, you could do a lot worse than this...like the DS Sonic collection that has all of 4 games and costs a few bucks more.
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