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Product Features

Genre
Arcade and Platform
Publisher
Sega
Release Date
February 20, 2009
Available Platforms
PlayStation 3, XBox 360

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SEGA Mega Drive Ultimate Collection

Calling all retro-game lovers! Here's the change to play some of your Mega Drive favourites on your new consoles. Perfect for anyone taking a step down memory lane or for gamers who missed them the first time around - you're sure to get lots of fun from this great compilation! 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.

  • Dave Wallace July 21, 2012 PS3
    ****

    It was a sad day when my old Sega Mega Drive finally gave up the ghost and died. Having served me well for over a decade, I couldn't really complain - but I was disappointed at having lost the capability to re-engage with the cherished childhood memories that so many of the system's old games represented. Thank goodness, then, for this compilation, which arrived some years later, and which gives me the chance to tap back into the heady days of 16-bit gaming: when all titles came on chunky plastic cartridges and six-button controllers were considered the pinnacle of videogaming technology.

    Make no mistake, this compilation is all about catering to nostalgia for late-twentysomething-early-thirtysomething gamers like me. I wouldn't recommend showing a young gamer of today the likes of Altered Beast or Kid Chameleon for fear of being laughed into an early grave. But if you were around in the early '90s, you'll be blown away by the classic franchises that this single PS3 disc allows you to re-experience.

    First and foremost, Sega's mascot Sonic the Hedgehog gets the royal treatment here, with the compilation collecting all four of his standard platforming titles, as well as the isometric Sonic 3D, the novelty pinball game Sonic Spinball, and even the offbeat puzzler Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. For me, it's the four core games that truly make this disc worth picking up, still standing up today as some of the most perfect platformers ever devised. Even if it feels somewhat unsettling to view these grainy old 16-bit games on today's high-definition flatscreen TVs, those feelings are soon washed away as soon as you hear the familiar melodies of the Green Hill Zone and get dragged back to the mindset of your nine-year-old self. My only complaint about the Sonic games is that 'Sonic 3' and 'Sonic & Knuckle's are presented completely separately here, rather than as the single giant adventure that they became when you plugged the original cartridges into each other. It's not a deal-breaker, but it would have been nice to have the complete version.

    The second great franchise that can be found on this disc is the Streets of Rage trilogy. A series of gritty scrolling beat-em-ups populated with retro thugs, cop-movie clichés and oddball end-of-level bosses, they were some of the most endlessly entertaining games I remember playing as a kid - although strangely, revisiting them today they seem a lot slower and more sluggish than I recall. Still, with all three games to get through - as well as a two-player vs mode - there are plenty of fun retro-gaming hours to be had here.

    Elsewhere on the disc, we see the likes of the Golden Axe franchise - never a top favourite of mine, but something I remember enjoying nonetheless - as well as a handful of top-quality titles that could easily have been overlooked by a less thorough compilation. These unexpected but welcome additions to the compilation include the likes of Comix Zone, Decap Attack, Dynamite Headdy, Ecco the Dolphin, Ristar, Shining Force 2 and Vectorman. All of these are great, innovative games in their own way, and I'm impressed that the care has been taken to remember them and include them here. (It certainly helps to make up for the baffling inclusion of Shinobi III without including the superior Revenge of Shinobi alongside it).

    For fans of the megadrive era of gaming, I can't really find fault with this compilation. Of course, it isn't able to offer some of the classic non-Sega titles that you might wish to replay (such as EA's Desert Strike series, Shiny's Earthworm Jim, or the original home ports of Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat), but that's to be expected given the licensing nightmare that that would probably present. What it does manage to do is provide a selection of the top Sega titles that you'll probably remember playing back in the day, in a format that doesn't require you to dust off a two-decades-old piece of machinery to enjoy, and at a price that's frankly a steal for so many top games.