Sega Mega Drive Collection - PS2 /PSP

[Kotatsu Neko]

I was playing Spiderman and Virtua Racing emulated on xbox via NEOGENESIS and it appeared to be 100%.

I need to play a 100% perfect version of VR though now - PC must be doing it by now ???

The PS2 port of Virtua Racer was pretty close, certainly the closest one yet. The sound mix was off though, quite dramatically off if memory serves, and it had some hideous environment mapping on a few objects.

Last time I checked Virtua Racer in MAME was still very broken.

[SqueakyG]

Kotatsu Neko: save states are in the game. It seems you already found "save" in the Select menu of each game. Well, to load a state you saved, load up that particular game, go to the Select menu again, and choose "load". The PSP seems to have 16 save blocks per game, 256kb per save.

Onto my impressions:

I never had a Mega Drive. I was an Amiga owner and I was blissfully unaware of what consoles were doing at the time. All my friends had Amigas too, so I never got to play consoles. So this collection was a good way to finally catch up on the Mega Drive without having to fiddle with emulators, and also a good way to remember the 16-bit era.

Firstly, I'd forgotten that the whole style of gameplay was different back then. Modern games have spoiled me. Games are now an entertainment experience that offer a narrative; where saving your game is essential, and you progress gradually and steadily as you constantly save, not having to replay early levels more than necessary.

Most of these games, on the other hand, didn't even have a save function. You played them from scratch every time you switched them on; inching forward more and more with each play-through, to the point where you learned every trap, trick and enemy movement of the early levels, to pass through them quickly on autopilot. Reaching a new level was scary and exciting. New graphics! New enemy sprites! Your unfamiliarity with the harder level putting you on shaky ground.

The added save states given to us by emulation are a blessing and a curse. They undoubtedly spoil the experience described above. But do I have time to play these games like they were played in 1993? Do I have time to play the early levels over and over again, mapping them to my memory? My brain had room for such things when I was an adolescent with no deeper concerns. But now? Hmm.

My second big impression: pixel art, oh how I've missed you! It seems the Mega Drive wasn't capable of the sprite scaling and rotation of the SNES, and some of the earlier games look more like Master System games than 16-bit, lacking even parallax. But still, these games had real hand-made artistry. (So do modern games I guess, but in a way that's harder to appreciate.)

I've read reviews and personal opinions on the game lineup here, and it's interesting that people have so many different likes and hates. Ristar is either "an overlooked masterpiece" or a "generic plaformer, pass." Sword of Vermilion is either "an outstanding RPG" or "a complete disappointment." Golden Axe III is either "an improvement in every way" or "the worst of the series." Some people even like Super Thunderblade, despite it being so unplayable it looks broken. The only games everyone unanimously loves are the Phantasy Star games; but fess up... how many of you will actually play them, given this opportunity?

So yeah, it's been fun seeing which reviewers played this collection properly, and which ones just used their teenage memories, or read general opinions on the internet.

I haven't formed my opinions yet, I've only played 10 minutes of each game. But so far these are my impressions:

Alex Kidd In The Enchanted Castle: Ugly childish graphics, but may be a platformer of some depth. Not a priority but may play later.
Altered Beast: Seems a bit simplistic and short, but could be 2 or 3 hours of fun. Interesting what arcade games were like back then.
Bonanza Bros.: Took an instant dislike to this. I don't like having half the screen wasted because it's saved for player 2. Hard, quirky, don't like.
Columns: After 10 minutes of play it seems almost as good as Tetris; but after another 10 minutes you realise it has none of the depth and is strangely unaddictive.
Comix Zone: Looks great. Great concept, great execution, I'll definitely play this properly. However, I got stuck in one panel with nothing to do and no way out, and had to quit. Hmm.
Decap Attach starring Chuck D. Head: Seems like an average "character" platformer. May be fun, but not a priority.
Ecco the Dolphin: I love the atmosphere of this. The music is so haunting, being under the sea feels dreamy, and the sound Ecco makes when he runs into jellyfish is heartbreaking. I can see why people found this game scary as children. The well-reported high difficulty puts me off though. I'm a rubbish gamer.
Ecco II: The Tides of Time: As above.
Ecco Jr.: This is the Ecco game I may actually play, if the others are as difficult as people say. I know it's for kids. But I suspect my 16-bit difficulty tolerance will suit this game best.
Kid Chameleon: Nother platformer. Sprites are small. Nothing exceptional. Might give it a proper go.
Flicky: Looks horrible and old on first impression. Hard as nails unforgiving arcadey game. It's addictive though.
Gain Ground: I thought this looked awful, but it proved strangely addictive. I don't know what genre to define this as. You just want to get to the next screen, even though it's a bit fiddly and not attractive.
Golden Axe: Well it's a classic. Can't go wrong. The moves are a bit clunky now, and despite what people say, the graphics are way poorer than the arcade.
Golden Axe II: Looks like more of the same. Graphics are better but also grainier. I'll enjoy playing through it.
Golden Axe III: Seems like more of the same again, but I guess I'll see why most people slate it.
Phantasy Star II: I understand that it's a classic masterpiece RPG. I just know I'm not going to play it. I was never a fan of Japanese RPGs, and the graphics aren't attractive enough to persuade me. I can be playing Oblivion instead.
Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom: Ditto.
Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millenium: Ditto. But I've read all about them, and appreciate them academically.
Ristar: Looks excellent. Second best platformer behind the Sonics. Colours are a bit too garish, but I love the style and the arm articulation of the title character. This one is a priority.
Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi: Not in the UK version!! Why not?
Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master: Looks decent. I never played these kind of games at the time, but I like the look of it. Bit dark on the PSP screen though.
Sonic The Hedgehog: I'm going to sound like such a noob casual gamer (I probably have throughout), but this is the first time I shall be playing the Sonic games. Mock me. Like I said, I never knew anyone with a Mega Drive as a teenager, and somehow never tried retro gaming much since then. So Sonic is new to me. It looks excellent, but I have a question: are you supposed to take the levels fast or slow? They look designed for slow careful exploration of secrets, yet also designed to fast-track you forward on rails. I don't quite "get" it.
Sonic The Hedgehog 2: As above, looks even better.
Super Thunder Blade: Looks so utterly rubbish and unplayable that I'll never load it up again. Was it supposed to look like this, on a machine that couldn't do sprite scaling? I couldn't tell what was happening on the screen, and I crashed.
Sword of Vermilion: I was actually looking forward to this as a lighter RPG than the Phantasy Stars. But it looks a bit rubbish actually. The top-down real-time combat is awful, like a retarded Link fighting in treacle.
VectorMan: Supposedly amazing pre-rendered graphics for sprites, but it looks a bit basic and ugly to me. I'm sure the gameplay is pretty decent platforming and gunning, I'll try to enjoy it.
VectorMan 2: Same as above, but Level 1 is so dark I couldn't see a thing. That would make the game unplayable, hope it brightens up.
Virtua Fighter 2: Seems like a completely pointless idea to make a sprite-based 2D version of this game, but it doesn't actually play too badly. One to tinker with, though I doubt it has quite the depth of more dedicated 2D fighters.

Whew. Sorry this is so long.

I got the PSP version, because I figured 320x224 pixel-art would look better on a handheld than a hi-def TV. I think I made a good choice. At "normal" size, every pixel of the game matches the screen, which looks pin-perfect but a bit small. Enlarging the game softens things nicely, but makes text in the RPGs hard to read. In some games the background noticeably darkens when the screen scrolls.

Um... am I done? I am done.

[SUMIRE]

I think a lot of the reason why people will buy this is a combination of nostalgia and the fact that it is great value for money gameplay wise.

I for one owned a Japanese Megadrive at launch, so of course rate this collection a lot higher than most would I suppose. Yes some of the games are bad (Super Thunderblade) but it was bad in its day, some are simply awesome for a retro gamer though, and the good far outweighs the bad in this collection.

[ryodi]

Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi: Not in the UK version!! Why not?

Consider it a blessing. It's absolutely terrible.

[SuperBeatBoy]

its a shame alisia dragoon isn't on it. was it published by sega, anyway?
the psp version looks really nice and sharp, the only thing that spoils it if there is movement on the display it will cast a sheen of black over it. ive noticed it in some other psp games and not others. anyone know why?

[AllYourBase]

Consider it a blessing. It's absolutely terrible.

Shadow Dancer is top banana. How could you say that?

[dvdmike]

its a shame alisia dragoon isn't on it. was it published by sega, anyway?
the psp version looks really nice and sharp, the only thing that spoils it if there is movement on the display it will cast a sheen of black over it. ive noticed it in some other psp games and not others. anyone know why?

I noticed that thought my psp was busted !

[Dogg Thang]

That's a side effect of the poor refresh rate of the PSP. There are quite a lot of high contrast areas in 16-bit games and that causes trails. When this happens with the backgrounds, as only the dark areas leave shadows, suddenly everything seems darker as you move. A bit pox really.

[SqueakyG]

I think all the games in this collection were developed and/or published by Sega. I hope that fact isn't responsible for the exclusion of other great games that weren't developed or published by Sega.

There's definitely room for a second collection. I think they must have chosen only two of the four primary Sonic games so that the next collection can have the other two, Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. Then there's the Streets Of Rage games of course. But they'd also have to delve into third-party titles to make up the numbers. I wonder if that would cost them more than their own titles. I don't know how it works.

It may be true that they had to leave off the Streets Of Rage games to get a lower rating. But hopefully if this first collection makes enough money, it will make a second Teen or Mature rated collection financially viable.

[JazzFunk]

Anyone know if Shadow Dancer is in the PAL PS2 version?

[Mad Gear]

Anyone know if Shadow Dancer is in the PAL PS2 version?

Nope

I think it's one of the best games on there too. A nice variant on the Shinobi theme. Also the music in the bonus stage is legendary.

[JazzFunk]

^Bah! Is it 'emulation probs' or because they wanted to keep the age rating down (but, then again, doesn't Shinobi 3 feature similar levels of carnage...)

It's like that time when they left Alien Syndrome off that slightly manky Sega Classics Collection comp.

Pity, Shadow Dancer was the main reason I was going to buy this compilation (though I've got the game on Jap MD.) Still gonna buy it, mind.