| Sega Mega Drive Collection | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Digital Eclipse Software Inc. |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2 PlayStation Portable |
| Release date(s) | |
| Genre(s) | Compilation (various) |
| Mode(s) | Single-player multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | |
The Sega Mega Drive Collection (known in the USA as Sega Genesis Collection) is a video game compilation for the PlayStation 2 and PSP, compiled and emulated by Digital Eclipse and released in the U.S. in 2006 and Europe and Australia in 2007. The collection includes twenty-eight (twenty-seven in the PAL versions) Sega Mega Drive/Genesis games from a variety of genres, as well as unlockable classic Sega arcade games, with different sets of arcade games for the PlayStation 2 and PSP versions.
Contents |
| # | Title | Release | Additional information |
|---|---|---|---|
| #01 | Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle | 1989 | |
| #02 | Altered Beast | 1989 | |
| #03 | Bonanza Bros. | 1990 | |
| #04 | Columns | 1990 | |
| #05 | Comix Zone | 1995 | |
| #06 | Decap Attack | 1991 | |
| #07 | Ecco the Dolphin | 1993 | |
| #08 | Ecco: The Tides of Time | 1994 | |
| #09 | Ecco Jr. | 1995 | |
| #10 | Flicky | 1991 | |
| #11 | Gain Ground | 1991 | |
| #12 | Golden Axe | 1989 | |
| #13 | Golden Axe II | 1991 | |
| #14 | Golden Axe III | 1993 | |
| #15 | Kid Chameleon | 1992 | |
| #16 | Phantasy Star II | 1989 | |
| #17 | Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom | 1991 | |
| #18 | Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium | 1994 | |
| #19 | Ristar | 1995 | |
| #20 | Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi | 1990 | unavailable in the PAL release |
| #21 | Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master | 1993 | |
| #22 | Sonic The Hedgehog | 1991 | |
| #23 | Sonic The Hedgehog 2 | 1992 | |
| #24 | Super Thunder Blade | 1988 | |
| #25 | Sword of Vermilion | 1990 | |
| #26 | Vectorman | 1995 | |
| #27 | Vectorman 2 | 1996 | |
| #28 | Virtua Fighter 2 | 1996 | Mega Drive/Genesis version |
This collection also features more than thirty-five minutes of unlockable interviews from SEGA of Japan, a "museum" with facts about the games, strategy tips and cheat codes for each game, a "Sega Cheat Sheet" that consists of cheat codes for most games, and a set of unlockable arcade games, (some of which are from the early Sega/Gremlin era).
The PS2's unlockable arcade titles are:
The PSP's unlockable arcade titles are:
| Sega Genesis Collection | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Aggregator | Score |
| GameRankings | 81.12%[1] |
| Metacritic | 82 out of 100[2] |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| Eurogamer | 8/10[3] |
| Game Informer | 8.75/10 |
| GameSpot | 8.1/10 |
| GameSpy | 4/5 |
| GameZone | 9/10 |
| IGN | 8.6/10 |
| X-Play | 4/5 |
The game won the award and Reader's Choice for Best Compilation Game on GameSpot's "Best and Worst" 2006.
The European version does not include Shadow Dancer. However, it does fix previous speed problems concerning Sonic the Hedgehog which plagued the game's original PAL Mega Drive incarnation and most home console emulations of the game.
This is the first time Golden Axe III has been released in Europe and Australia and the second in North America, as it was briefly available in the U.S. on Sega's Sega Channel.
This collection marks the first appearance of the two Vectorman games on the PS2 in North America, since Sonic Gems Collection has remained unreleased Stateside on the console, with the exception of the GameCube version.
According to ToeJam & Earl Productions, they were going to include ToeJam & Earl and its sequel, ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron as well, but Sega wasn't very fond of the series, so they included Sonic the Hedgehog and its first sequel, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 as well as Flicky, Ristar, and Comix Zone instead, to make up for the emulation issues of the PlayStation 2 version of Sonic Mega Collection Plus. The reason is listed on the bottom of this section.
It is of note that the Streets of Rage trilogy is also absent from this collection in the wake of its removal from Western versions of Sonic Gems Collection.
Although mentioned in passing, the collection does not include the first Genesis Shinobi game, The Revenge of Shinobi, possibly due to copyright issues surrounding the inclusion of Spider-Man as a boss character at the end of Stage 6.
The absence of the Streets of Rage-series as well as The Revenge of Shinobi might also have to do with all those games featuring soundtracks by Yuzo Koshiro. It is especially notable because unlike Streets of Rage where he contributed the soundtracks for all three games, The Revenge of Shinobi was the only game in the Genesis-incarnations of the Shinobi-series he composed the music for, and it is the only game of that series missing from the collection. This makes licensing-issues concerning his work seem like a possible reason for leaving these games (which are among the most popular on the Sega Genesis) out. These licensing-issues would be eventually solved, however, as all three Streets of Rage titles appeared in the follow-up compilation, Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection and The Revenge of Shinobi would be released on the Wii's Virtual Console with an altered version of the Spider-Man boss.
Similarly, this collection is the first release of some Mega Drive titles, especially Phantasy Star IV, on a non-Sega console, as it has only been seen twice before – on its native Mega Drive, and in the Phantasy Star Collection on the Sega Saturn (available only in Japan).
While for the most part emulation of the games themselves have no defects, some people have noticed that sound emulation in some games is not exactly the same as their Genesis incarnations. This compilation was developed by Digital Eclipse, whose more recent compilations have become known for emulation problems. Regularly noted examples are the "Spindash" sound in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 fading out in a peculiar way, sound effects in Sonic the Hedgehog and "Columns" sounding slightly off, the special stage victory theme in the Sonic games missing, as well as no change in tempo when obtaining Power Sneakers in either game, wrong/missing death screams in Golden Axe and the sequel, a bizarre sounding Star Handle noise in Ristar, in addition to Awaueck's "bad singing" being muted when Ristar fights him as the game's fourth boss and the "Victory Theme" in Phantasy Star IV not stopping the battle music. It should also be noted that Golden Axe 3 suffers badly from poor sound emulation compared to all the other games, and a few games had minor graphical modifications, such as in Sonic the Hedgehog when the screen sometimes flashes when Sonic is underwater and in Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium when the screen sometimes flashes when a character was poisoned. Some of the sound effects in Altered Beast Arcade are off too, including the effect when grabbing a spirit ball power-up, hitting most enemies, and some of the beast secondary attacks (such as the Weredragon laser barrier).
Most of these errors have been fixed in a new enhanced version Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection in Europe and Australia) for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, which allowing high definition playing through scaling-up and filters.
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