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Wonderful

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 15 / 16
Date: November 14, 2006
Author: Amazon User

There's a steady list of classic compilation games coming out these days, and the Sega Genesis Collection brings nearly thirty classic Genesis games to the PS2, and they all look, sound, and play like their original, 16-bit counterparts. Many of the games here we haven't seen on previous Sega compilations, like Alex Kidd, Bonanza Bros., Shadow Dancer, Ristar, Decap Attack, Sword of Vermillion, Super Thunder Blade, and Shinobi 3 to go along with faves like Sonic 1 & 2, the Golden Axe trilogy, Comix Zone, Altered Beast, Flicky, the Ecco trilogy, and the Phantasy Star games, which thankfully includes the overlooked classic Phantasy Star IV, which along with II and III, is worth the price of admission alone. Vectorman 1 & 2 are here as well, and so is the Genesis version of Virtua Fighter 2, which is the only real weak spot of the compilation as it is just as muddy, slow, and buggy as it was when released on the Genesis years ago. There's a good amount of extras as well, including many interviews with developers, and unlockable games like the arcade version of Altered Beast and Zaxxon. Sadly though, some games which longtime fans may have wanted to see here, like the Streets of Rage trilogy, Revenge of Shinobi, Shining in the Darkness, Shining Force, Landstalker, and Eternal Champions would have been more than welcome, although many of them are available on previous compilations. All in all, the Sega Genesis Collection is a wonderful compilation of some of the best Genesis games ever, and for longtime fans of the classic console, this is a must have.

An AMAZING collection of Genesis games.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game caught me by suprise. I saw it in the store, checked out the back and I ended up purchasing the game later on. I figured it was going to be one of the old school collection games that has mostly garbage with a few good games strung in there. I couldn't be more wrong... this is mostly amazing games with a few not-so-great hits strung in there.

Once I got this game home I decided to pop this game into the PS2 and see what was on the disk. I was amazed to see so many games - but not only that... I was amazed to see so many GOOD games. These are the games I used to play as a kid. I recognized quite a few of them.

My favorite games on the disk are Altered Beast, Alex Kidd, Decap Attack, Golden Axe Series (I, II and III), Phantasy Star II, III and IV. Sonic The Hedgehog 1 and 2, Shinobi III, Vectorman 1 and 2. That's a total of 14 games that I absolutely loved as a kid and still love to this day. The other games in this collection are good too, such as the Ecco series, Comix and a few others... most of the other ones are games I haven't played before (except Super Thunder Blade... but that game is a bit iffy in my opinion). Another reviewer here provides a good breakdown of all of the games in this collection.

The biggest suprise was the Phantasy Star series. You get II, III and IV!! Phantasy Star IV is considered by many to be one of the greatest RPGs of all time. Just this series is worth the measley $20.00 price tag. There are hundreds of hours of nostalgic gameplay in this collection. All games are emulated very well and look fantastic.

If you are looking for a great collection of old-school games then look no further. It's hard to beat this package. With so many great games in here you are sure to be playing with this collection for hundreds of hours. If you aren't familiar with any of these games then I still urge you to pick this up. A lot of games in this series have stood the test of time and are still very fun - even by todays standards.

Genesis STILL does what Nintendon't.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 06, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Stepping into the retro-gaming craze is Sega, collecting 28 Genesis titles on one PS2 disc for your classic gaming goodness. For old school Genesis fans like me, this is a chance to relive the good ol' days, while for others who missed out, you can see why us Sega loyalists are so fanatical about the 16-bit era. The games include (with 10-point scale ratings):

Alex Kidd In The Enchanted Castle: Cartoony graphics, questionable controls and silly paper/rock/scissors battles plague this game, the only 16-bit appearence of Sega's original mascot. Great for historical buffs and the kiddies, not much else. 5/10.

Altered Beast: The original pack-in game, an arcade port of a simple side-scrolling action game. Doesn't quite hold up to the test of time for noobs, for alright for a nostalgic dip. 5/10.

Bonanza Brothers: Two thieves trying to steal various items in mansions, casinos and high-rises. Graphics are odd, controls peculiar, but the game is strangely addictive. 6/10.

Columns: A puzzle game, matching colored gems in rows of three or more. The original Tetris killer. You'll spend hours on this. 8/10.

Comix Zone: AWESOME concept, as an artist of a comic is sucked in while the comic's main villian escapes and tries to keep the artist trapped. A precursor to cel-shading, the gameplay is amazing for the time period (1995). Only flaw? Difficulty, which is INSANE. You NEED the cheats. 8/10.

Decap Attack starring Chuck D. Head: Insipid action platformer in the vein of Sonic, with a mummy who can throw his head (get it? Chuck D. Head?). Many lame puns abound. 4/10.

Ecco the Dolphin: Many a Genesis controller was thrown against the wall in this visually stunning, complex and difficult game. You play as Ecco, a dolphin searching for clues as to where your dolphin pod has vanished to. If you have patience, you'll be delighted. 8/10.

Ecco: The Tides of Time: Sequel to the first Ecco, just as difficult. Now includes time travelling. 8/10.

Ecco Jr: Kid-centric sequel, designed for the Sega Kids line. Much easier, much simpler. 4/10.

Flicky: You're a bird, saving your babies from cats. You jump on shelves and kick flower pots at the cats. As simple as I just said, as dull as you can imagine. 3/10.

Gain Ground: Bad graphics, bad controls for this generic, dumbed-down Gauntlet clone. Avoid at all costs. 1/10.

Golden Axe: Take a side-scrolling brawler, make it medieval, add axes and swords and there ya go. A classic. 7/10.

Golden Axe II: More of the same. 7/10.

Golden Axe III: Third in the series, unreleased in the States, rumored to be due to it's horrible quality. Seems just like the other GA's to me, save for the two new characters (a weaponless giant and a clawed animal-man) and the removal of the dwarf. 5/10, only for the premise getting a little tired.

Kid Chameleon: Over 100 levels, 10+ different power-up masks, non-linear gameplay (you can jump levels thanks to multiple level exits) ... a true unappreciated gem. 9/10.

Phantasy Star II: One of the greatest role-playing games of all time. Also one of the hardest, but don't let that deter you from this hallmark game. 10/10.

Phantasy Star III: Phantasy Star freaks hate on this because of it's shallow character depth and tenuous connection to the prior two PS games, but beyond that is a good role-playing game. 8/10.

Phantasy Star IV: Considered the best of the four PS games. I prefer 2, but still ... classic. 9/10.

Ristar: An odd Sonic-esque platformer, with a living star with stretchy arms. Seems unnecessary with so many other similar games on here, but it's passable enough. 6/10.

Shadow Dancer--The Secret Of Shinobi: The gameplay is closer to the original Shinobi then Revenge Of Shinobi. Good game, but I prefer the RoS engine. 6/10.

Shinobi III--Return Of The Ninja Master: Back to the Revenge engine. Superior in every way to Shadow Dancer. 8/10.

Sonic the Hedgehog: Everybody knows this one. Looks and plays just as good as ever ... but with Sonic Collection available, why include this?!? 8/10.

Soinc the Hedgehog 2: One step forward: bigger levels, new Spin Dash attack. One step backward: Miles Prower, a useless tagalong that more often then not hampers gameplay. 8/10.

Super Thunder Blade: Built on the Space Harrier engine, although not nearly as smooth. The barrage of sprites (enemies, gunfire) makes gameplay difficult, as do controls. 5/10.

Sword of Vermilion: Nowhere near the 300 hours of gameplay promised in the original ads, but fun nonetheless. Uses FOUR perspectives in gameplay: first-person for exploration, 3/4 overhead for in-town, a 3/4 side-scrolling of sorts for enemy battles and strict side-scrolling for boss battles. Unique, but good. 8/10.

Vectorman: Slick-looking action platformer. Not as kiddie as the others on this collection ... but not as engrossing either. 7/10.

Vectorman 2: See above. 7/10.

Virtua Fighter 2: On any other platform, this was an amazing game. What made it awesome was stripped away for the Genesis, leaving a glitchy, hard-to-control, 2-D nightmare. Pretend you're a camp counsellor and this game is Jason Voorhees: run away quickly. 0/10.

Unlockable bonus games:

Altered Beast (arcade version): Plays just like the Genesis version, with slightly better graphics.

Future Spy, Tac/Scan, Zaxxon, and Zektor: Early 80's shooters. REAL early 80's.

Other unlockables: Trailers for Phantasy Star Universe and Virtua Fighter 5, interviews with many of the programmers and 41-page cheat sheet with codes and tricks for the games on the collection.

Overall, the great outweighs the bad on this collection. One can't help but wonder about the exclusions ... Streets Of Rage trilogy, any Shining games, Eternal Champions, Space Harrier II, Fatal Labrynth, and a few of the sports games (Pat Riley Basketball!). And why Sonic games were included when they're available elsewhere? Or Ecco Jr., a game that is NOT appropriate for the audience of this collection? Eh, quibbles aside, this is a MUST HAVE for old school Sega fans or people who wanna check out what us Sega fanatics are so ga-ga for.

RETRO GAMES DEFINITIVETLY RULES!!!!!!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 6
Date: November 13, 2006
Author: Amazon User

NO NEED TO DESCRIBE THIS GAMES!! THESE GAMES ARE THE LOST TREASURES!!!!

I LOVE Altered Beast, Alex Kidd, Sonic, The Golden Axe serie and Shinobi 2 and 3!!

P.S: Who need new games???!!! These games are even better and funnier than the new ones!!

Adios.

Lost treasures

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I lost my Genesis back in the late 90s, and I've been debating for the past couple of years if it was worth it to buy a new system to replay some of my old favorites, especially Phantasy Star II. I actually came close a couple of times, but spending a couple of hundred bucks to play some old titles from the past just wasnt worth it.

Thats no longer an issue thanks to this title. I love the Phantasy Star series, they are some of the greatest (given the limitations of the technology) RPGs ever. The inclusion of those three games makes this a well spent $20 for me no matter what else is on the disk.

Luckily, the disk also has some very good games including Sonic, Altered Beast, Golden Axe (an old quarter sucker from the late 80s), the Ecco series and a Shinobi.

If you're nostalgic for the early 90s console wars and dying to take a shot at Dr. Robotnik, Death Adder or Dark Force again, save yourself some money and trouble and pick up this disk.

On the odd chance anyone from Sega reads this and is considering Sega Genesis Collection II, give me Centurion: Defender of Rome, Desert Strike, Warsong, Shining in the Darkness, Starflight and some of the sports games next time around.

Sega Genesis gaming heaven !

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

As someone who has most of these games in it's original cartridge format,
let me just say this compilation is amazing.

The Golden Axe series, The Shinobis and Vectorman series alone make this
a must have !! And who can say no to Altered Beast?!
The sound is crisp and the graphics nice and clean.

PS2 over component cables and optical beat Genesis over composite
any day! and the fact that you can choose to run it in Progressive Scan and resize the pic is awesome too!

order this now !

Unbelievable collection on one disc.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: January 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Looking at the prices of just downloading one of these games more than justifies the price of this collection. I was a Genesis owner when I was a teen. Many of my memories were good around many of these games and many are still timeless classics. Playing several of these games has shown me that it's not graphics that make greatness but gameplay. Games were still quite innovative in the early nineties and game making ideas were still fresh. Game Developers now should take a clue from these creative giants about how to bring gameplay back to the game.

It's worth it, if only for Phantasy Star...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 20, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Having recently purchased "Sega Genesis Collections", I can say that I haven't been this pleased with a $19.99 game in a long, long time. As the title of this review indicates, this collection would have been worthwhile if it only included Phantasy Star II, II and IV, all of which are good (although II shows its age significantly). However, there are 28 other games present here. A reviewer above had given his opinion of the games; I think I'll give mine as well:

Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle:
I'm stunned that this character got so many Sega games - I find this game incredibly annoying. Controls (as is the case for many genesis games) are incredibly dicey, and the game itself seems rather insipid (rock, paper, scissors? I'll pass). It's fin for a moment, but like arcade hits of the past, quickly loses its charm.

Altered Beast:
The cheese factor alone makes this a fun game. Some of the worst voices ever to grace a video game. This game is so-so, but nothing to write home abou (the arcade version, which can be unlocked after a painful ordeal, is much better).

Bonanza Bros:
I don't get this one at all. Terribly unsatisfying - I feel for the schmoes who paid big bucks for this in the 90's.

Columns:
Decent Tetris knockoff, but gets difficult quickly. The 2-player versus is a lot of fun, though (although it's no "Puzzle Fighter"). I found this game incredibly frustrating after the first few levels.

Comix Zone:
One of the surprises of the set. A later Genesis game, you travel through comic panels fighting bad guys that you created while in the real world. Stylistically, it is incredibly nice. The voices again are incredibly painful (particularly the "See ya!" spoken after defeating any character), but I found this one to be a hidden gem.

Decap Attack:
Another game I don't remember from back in the day, you play as a mummy attempting to thwart an evil underworld denizen. A pretty good game.

Ecco the Dolphin:
I liked this game when it came out, and I like it now. Although the undersea graphics aren't so impressive now, the game remains original and fun to play. Two of its sequels, present on the game, are also OK.

Flicky:
Platform game. I'm not a big fan of the genre in general, and this game did nothing to really make me one. It's cute saving your young chicks, but only OK overall.

Gain Ground:
Essentially, you run around shooting enemies and saving hostages. The fact that you can ultimately play as 20 different characters gives this game some interesting history, but it's not all that great.

Golden Axe:
Why is a sword fighter named Ax Battler? And why is "ax" spelled two different ways in the game? I'm sure scholars will ponder these questions for eons. As for the game, Golden Ax is incredibly frustrating now (depth issues of which the AI is a master is the main foe) - at the time, I accepted bad controls as part of the game. There is significant improvement in the sequels, however (GA 2 and 3 are also present).

Kid Chamelion:
I found this game to be kind of charming. An obvious Mario knockoff, you play as a kid in a virtual world, who can...that's right...hit blocks with his head to acquire helmets that will give him new powers, while hopping and bopping enemies. It pales in comparison to Mario, mind you, but it's got its moments.

Phantasy Star:
Is it Parma? Palma? I sure remember "Palma" from my youth, but "Parma" seems to be the name now. In any case, great games, WELL worth the price of admission. No, they're not as good as "Final Fantasy", and never were, despite the yelps from the games' fans. But nonetheless, these games had excellent stories, with great plot twists (even for today).

Ristar:
Fun little game where you play as a guy with a star for a head. Resembles "Sonic" too much to warrant exceptional praise, but it's a fun game.

Shinobi:
There are two "Shinobi" titles on this disc. "Shadow Dancer" stinks, in my opinion. "Shinobi III" is still a lot of fun.

Sonic the Hedgehog:
Oh yeah, THAT guy makes this collection, too. Both "Sonic" and "Sonic 2" are present here, and both remain excellent. My only gripe (which was the same as when the game was released) are the controls are too fidgety for such a high-speed game. But both games are still excellent to play.

Super Thunder Blade:
Going WAY back into the Genesis library(I didn't play this version, although I played the original arcade version), STB is an OK game (for an early 3-D shooter), but it's not my style.

Sword of Vermillion:
Ummm, well, this game is baffling to me. The game tells me that a 106-page hint book was included with the original release because "Americans weren't used to RPG's". Thank God all RPG's weren't like this one. Essentially, this game manages to mix all that was wrong with many of my favorite games ("Ultima: Exodus" comes to mind, as does the far less-well-known "Dungeon Magic"). This one is the stinker of the bunch.

Vectorman:
Late additions to the Genesis library, and both games were very good. The environments still look kind of trippy even today. I was happy to see these appear here.

Virtua Fighter 2:
Don't be fooled - this was a horrible port of a great game. Nothing about this game is VF2 other than the characters' names. Released near the end of the system's life, this game has "We want money for a shoddy product" written all over it.

So that's my take. Happy gaming!

If more people knew about this collection, Wii's Virtual Console and Xbox Live Arcade would go extinct

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 28, 2007
Author: Amazon User

It's important to keep in mind that many of these games are now selling for $8 a piece on the Wii's Virtual Console. Also, Sega recently released the first Sonic the Hedgehog game for $20 on the GBA. So you're getting huge value for your money by buying this collection instead.

I never played any of these games before (I was a Nintendo kid), so nostalgia isn't clouding my view. I just like a good game, and I can appreciate gaming history when I see it.

Ths slow platformers I could do without - Alexx Kid, Decap Attack, Ristar - they're just not my thing.

But everything else is just top-notch, whether you're in the mood for a fun, co-op multiplayer game, a hardcore action game, an epic RPG, or just a mesmerizing puzzle game.

On top of all the fantastic games, you're also getting interviews with the developers, pictures of the box art, and little "Did You Know?" facts about each game. The whole thing also runs in Progressive Scan, which is nice (although hardly noticeable, for obvious reasons).

Overall - this is not just a collection for Sega fans, nor just a cheaper way to get all these old classics in one package. It's just a great buy for anybody who loves games, and understands the fact that what makes a game "good" isn't bump-mapping or high-def output.

Sega does it again.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: April 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I was always a Nintendo fan, ever since the NES days.But after buying Sega Genesis Collection for the PS2, I'm totally amazed by the numberof fun games on thisdvd. My faves are the 2 Shinobi games,a side scroller Ninja game, Sonic, Phantasy Star 2,3, and 4, and the Golden Axe series. The other games are fun as well, more than worth the $[...] price for this dvd. Go back in time when the NES and Sega Genesis were battling for home video game supremacy. Well worth the money.

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