www.Multiplayergames.com – Multiplayer Games

Despite the opportunity to release each of these games individually on the Live Arcade, Sega has instead packaged a ton of games onto a DVD as Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection. Why the need for “Sonic” in the title is anyone’s guess.

A massive 47 games reside in this set, the vast majority obviously being from the Genesis. A few Master System and arcade games are unlockable to round off the disc. Classic names like Golden Axe, Sonic (duh), Phantasy Star, and Shinobi are present. Lesser know but vastly underrated titles like Ristar, Beyond Oasis, and Vectorman nicely keep the hardcore fans satisfied.

Of course, a few duds are included for the sake of trying to appease those who see nostalgia before quality. Altered Beast remains a travesty to this day, Alex Kidd is a punishing dud of a platformer, Kid Chameleon has to be one of the worst controlling games in history, and Decap Attack’s roots as Psycho Fox show through for the worse.

Bonuses on the disc include interviews with designers and various artwork. Stupidly, since the interviews have to be subtitled, the Xbox Live message pop-up happens right over the words, blocking them from view. Nothing here is particularly exciting and most of the information is readily available online if you have any interest in learning the factoids presented here. It’s a shame some classic commercials couldn’t be included, or even some Game Gear titles (only one of the Master System games, Golden Axe Warrior, was on the Game Gear). The bonus content is a disappointment.

Emulation is clean for the most part, barring some occasional sound problems. In another rather odd move, Sonic & Knuckles cannot be linked with Sonic 2 or 3. They’re stand- alone games in this compilation. Achievement fans will love the ease of securing many of the points the game puts out, particularly the one for Shinobi III that asks you to complete the first level without continuing (despite a menu option that allows you to have up to nine lives).

While the case may state these games have been upgraded for hi-def, they don’t look like it. That’s nothing against the graphical quality, but the sprites appear soft and out of focus instead of sharp as they should. That said, it’s still a better option than the garish smoothing you can add.

Regardless of the small nitpicks, it’s hard to argue with 47 games for a meager $30. For those that missed this generation, this is a solid primer of Sega’s output from the 16-bit era. For those that did live through this and still have the urge to scream “Sega!” in the middle of the night while their dreams blow by thanks to blast processing, this is a satisfactory set of nostalgia.

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