Great value for SEGA MEGA DRIVE/GENESIS fans.

User Rating: 8 | SEGA Mega Drive Ultimate Collection PS3
Sonic's MEGA DRIVE ultimate collection contains 40 SEGA MEGA DRIVE games that are regarded as classics by many people.The SEGA MEGA DRIVE games included in this collection include:-

Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle

Alien Storm

Altered Beast

Beyond Oasis/The Story of Thor

Bonanza Bros

Columns

Comix Zone

Decap Attack

Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine

Dynamite Headdy

Ecco the Dolphin

Ecco: The Tides of Time

ESWAT: City Under Siege

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: The Legacy of Great Intention

Shining Force II: The Ancient Seal

Shining in the Darkness

Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master

Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Sonic 3D Flickies Island/Blast

Sonic Spinball

Streets of Rage

Streets of Rage 2

Streets of Rage 3

Super Thunder Blade

Vectorman

Vectorman 2

The games are emulated quite well and play quite similary to how they did on the MEGA DRIVE console.


The 2D Sonic games for the SEGA MEGA DRIVE are widely regarded as the best Sonic games,as well as being amongst the best 16- Bit platformer games ever made and they're all included in this package.Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is one of my favorite 2D platformers of all time because it blends speed and gameplay perfectly and it's included in this package.I also like Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic and Knuckles more than many of the 2D and 3D platformers that were released in later generations of gaming because they have great level design,and gameplay that blends speed and platforming in a way that makes the gameplay feel so fun and playable.

Phantasy Star II was an important game because it played a big part in making JRPGs popular in the west.It was actually released in the west before Final Fantasy and was the first 16-Bit JRPG to be released on a console.It set a new standard as far as emotional and character driven story telling was used for RPGs as well as using a battle system that was more strategy-based than the likes of Dragon Warrior or Final Fantasy.It's story/setting also had a nice blend of Sci Fi/fantasy.It's story is unique in other ways that I don't want to spoil for you but I will say it has humans and aliens.At the time of it's release,Phantasy Star II was rated as one of the best games ever made and even more than 2 decades later it is still regarded by many people as one of the best JRPGs ever made and one of the top 100 games ever made.

Phantasy Star III's is a prequel to Phantasy Star II and is set in a more medieval style world roughly 1000 years before the story in Phantasy Star II.Phantasy Star III was a fairly unique RPG in that it's story carries through multiple generations of characters,allows the player to choose who they want to marry and had different possible endings and received a lot of praise.

Phantasy Star IV is set 1000 years after the story in Phantasy Star II and it has a more flowing battle system while still being very tactical for turn-based standard.The game is less difficult than the other Phantasy Star games to allow newcomers into the series easier.It's story,battle system,improved graphics and manga style visuals for cutscenes are/were highly praised by RPG fans and game critics and PSIV was regarded as one of the best RPGs of the 16-bit generation.

Shining Force 1 and 2 are also great old style JRPGs that are set in fantasy/medieval worlds and use a more charming style of story telling/characters and the developers of Shining Force 1 and 2 Camelot developed the much loved Golden Sun game for Gameboy Advance.

Beyond Oasis AKA Story of Thor was SEGA's answer to Nintendo's famous The Legend of Zelda series.Beyond Oasis has Zelda style gameplay in that you'll travel to different towns/landscapes/dungeons and fight enemies,interact with NPC's and find your way through dungeons.Beyond Oasis's graphics use character models that make the people in Beyond Oasis's world look more like real people than in the Zelda games during the 8-Bit and 16-Bit generations.Beyond Oasis has a nice colorful,cartoony artstyle and it's world has a tropical feel to it(reminding me somewhat of Zelda Wind Waker).Beyond Oasis is probably the best SEGA MEGA DRIVE title ever released.

Shinobi III has a great mix of run and shoot gameplay blended with ninja style action(you have to use your ninja skills to jump or crouch to avoiding getting hurt or to dodge enemy attacks).It's difficulty was toned down greatly compared to how difficult it's predeccesors are and it's gameplay focuses a lot on speed and feels very smooth and most importantly is very fun.It's artstyle has a nice blend of traditional Japanese environments as well as very Sci Fi concepts and the level when you ride the horse gives a nice traditional ninja feeling and the game.Interestingly,the game has a level where you surft.The game is quite short but the final level is very difficult.

The other games in this package are well liked by many other people and were popular during the 16-Bit generation such as the Streets of Rage games(enjoyable beat em up games for their time),the Golden Axe games,Ristar,Vectorman 1 and 2 etc.

If you were to purchase each game seperately off virtual console or from PSN store you'd pay much more than the 25 Australian dollars I paid for this collection.The game also has trophy support,including the possibility of earning what is an easy platinum trophy to earn.

Playing these games with a PS3 controller is much better than playing these games using a keyboard on a PC emulator and I haven't been able to get a controller to work well with a GENESIS emulator that I've downloaded from the internet,but with this collection I don't have to worry about that problem.

Sonic's Ultimate MEGA DRIVE collection also allows you to unlock some arcade games and Master System games,

The arcade games include:-

Alien Syndrome

Altered Beast (arcade version of it)

Congo Bongo AKA Tip Top

Fantasy Zone

Shinobi III

Space Harrier

Zaxxon


SEGA Master System games:-

Golden Axe Warrior

Phantasy Star

I'd like to say that Tip Top is a pretty poor Donkey Kong rip off but it's interesting to play nonetheless.rnrnGolden Axe Warrior is a Zelda/RPG style Golden Axe game.rnrnThe only reason I haven't scored this collection higher is it doesn't have the MEGA DRIVE version of Aladdin(the second highest selling MEGA DRIVE game and my favorite platformer game of all time)and it doesn't have the MEGA DRIVE version of Jungle Book,Lion King and Earth Worm Jim although there might be copyright reasons for this.But overall a great package of classic games and emulated very well.