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Sonics Ultimate Genesis collection (named Sega Mega Drive: Ultimate Collection in Europe) features 40 of Sega’s most classic games from the Genesis/Megadrive. Theres not much to say here as for all my fellow ol’ skool gamers, these games speak for themselves, but I’m here to fill you in on how the collection translates over to the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

If you, like me owned a Sega Genesis/Megadrive back in the day then you’ll know what to expect when purchasing this game, and for such a cheap price you defiantly can not go wrong with this jam packed box of goodies. Hell this collection even includes some games I really wanted to play back then but never got the chance, the rest of them I basically grew up on.

I was hoping the games would be fully upscaled for those of us with HDTV’s, and they are to an extent, however they only fill up a huge square in the middle of your tv, and on the left and right sides of the main game display there are bordered graphical themes. So yes, by todays standards this game is no looker, but it is more than forgivable as back in the day these games were stunning enough.

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

Also theres the ability to save a game at any point and then come back to it later, just like what you can do in many of those emulators out there(not that I’ve ever had one of those, I swear I haven’t Sega!). Of course we all know there was never any save feature back in those days, therefore you literally had to be glued to your TV screen for hours to finish off a game.

A great feature about this game is that you also unlock arcade versions of games just by playing, how great is it to play arcade versions of Altered Beast and Shinobi knowing how rare they may have been all those years ago. This game does well to reward you by giving you even more great classics to play, its just a shame that the rewards that matter now a days are not very well represented in this game.

The Trophies and Achievements in this game are absolutely terrible, for example, you can unlock a silver trophy in Streets Of Rage 3 just for unlocking Roo, which I’m sure I could do playing with one arm. The Trophies/Achievements on this game suggest that Sega are just trying to get people to play every game, even ones they might not have an interest in. They are ridiculously easy to the point I may just earn my first platinum trophy, I mean hell, you get a trophy/achievement for getting one hundred rings in Sonic 3, WTF!? It really would have been nice to be finally rewarded for putting so much time and skill into these timeless classics, but I guess just playing them again will have to do.

Sound wise you cant complain here, the original score from all the games are in. Trust me, these games had some classic soundtracks, you don’t hear these kind of scores in games anymore. Another great shocker was that the Playstation 3 version actually supports custom soundtracks, the only upsetting thing is that when you do this it overrides the sound effects as well as the original music score, so in the end it is not really worth it. I guess its just great to see more developers using this feature, its just sad that this isn’t the kind of game you would use it in.

Another small let down is the fact there is no online support, the Xbox live arcade version of Steets Of Rage allows you to play online co op. Why it was left out here is way beyond me, It would have been nice to see online features added so that new memories could be created with these timeless gems.

Overall I am more than happy with this game for the price, had it been a full priced purchase this would be a huge let down. But for those out there like me who appreciate classic gaming, and want to redeem themselves for all those downloaded emulators and roms, this is the perfect purchase to make. It’s not a game that will have you taking out Killzone 2 or Halo Wars, but when your bored and just want something simple then these games are perfect. The letdowns in this game however force me to not score it as high as it could have gotten.

Written By Gary A Swaby

Deeper than the words embedded in somebody's wedding ring