Plus XP

Whilst waiting for all those games on the horizon I stumbled across the Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection which instantly took me back to my childhood. I grew up in what we call the ‘console wars’ today, the great 16-bit battle between the Sega Mega Drive and the Super Nintendo and playing both I felt I had some input here. The Sega Mega Drive was released in Japan in 1988, North America in 1989 and Europe in 1990. When the console was released in North America Sega couldn’t get legal use of the Mega Drive name and renamed it the Genesis. The Sega Mega Drivewas the most popular console of its generation and even outsold its rival competitor the SNES selling 29 million units worldwide. Later the Mega Drive II was released which was a smarter version of the Sega and the European version had Sega’s very first mascot Alex Kidd built in.

The collection contains the classic essentials as well as a few classic series such as golden axe 1-3, the likes of streets of rage 1-3 and not forgetting Sega’s mascot which lives on today, Sonic the hedgehog. There are seven Sonic titles in total including Sonic and Knuckles but sadly you can’t play the Sonic 2 and 3 combination games like you could by slotting them into the Sonic and Knuckles cartridge. I read in a few places that if this was the case there wouldn’t havebeen so many titles on the ultimate collection.

The game features titles released over the consoles life from the early games such as Altered Beast and Golden Axe to the later games such as Sonic 3 and Shinobi 3. The game consists of 49 games in total with 40 playable from the start and the others unlocked as you progress through the game. Playing these games again made me realise how much harder gaming used to be and how we’ve grown soft in our old age (22), but the game does offer some nice features such as the ability to save progress to the Xbox hard drive, any game and anywhere in the game, so there’s no need to fear those nasty bosses or those skin of the teeth jumps! You can access the menu any point during the game by pressing the back button which is a nice touch so you’re completely in control at any point. The game also features a rendering option to smooth out and slightly updates the graphics although I find this takes away some of the detail, and these games should be played in all their original glory. The ultimate collection features a simple rating system so when scrolling up and down through the games you can simply press left or right and give the game a rating from one to five which I thought was a nice touch.

This title gives gamers of all generations the chance to either re-live their past or experience the forefathers of gaming and appreciate what we have today. Some titles feature a nice co-op mode such as the Streets of Rage series and the Golden Axe series to name a few. The Streets of Rage series has always been a favourite of mine; the only downside is we still have the European versions which means in Streets of Rage 3 we miss out on a extra boss/playable character and we don’t have the characters original colours - but the game itself still stands as a classic fighter. We also have the Golden Axe series which includes the rare Golden Axe 3

The Sega ultimate collection also features unlockables, such as other Sega classics, interviews with some of the Sega team and also earlier arcade and Sega Master System versions of some of the games from the original roster.  The interviews are in japanese with english subtitles and give an insight to what its like working for Sega and bit more of an insight to some of the games.  There are 9 games in total to unlock - Alien Syndrome, Altered Beast, Shinobi, Phantasy Star 1, Tip Top, Space Harrier, Golden Axe Warrior, Fantasy Zone and Zaxoon. They are simply unlocked by playing through the games and earning various achievements which aren’t too hard to pick up and quite enjoyable.

Here is a list of the contents of Segas Ultimate Collection:

Streets of rage 1-3
Golden axe 1-3
Sonic 1-3
Sonic Spinball
Sonic and Knuckles
Dr Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine
Sonic 3D
Comix Zone
Alex Kidd
Alien Storm
Altered Beast
Bonanza Bros
Columns
Decap Attack
Dynamite Headdy
E-swat
Ecco the Dolphin  1-2
Fatal Labyrinth
Flicky
Gain Ground
Kid Chameleon
Phantasy Star 2-4
Ristar
Shining Force 1-2
Shining in the Darkness
Shinobi 3

The Streets of Rage series is about the evil Mr X who has taken over the city with his evil crime organization. His vicious syndicate has the president and even the police force under their control and it’s up to Axel and co, who are ex police officers to clean up the streets and put an end to Mr X once and for all. Mr X somehow finds ways back through the series but Axel and friends are never far away. There are new characters in each game and they just get better and better. Streets of rage 3 is my fave boasting more moves, characters and better visuals.

Sonic the Hedgehog is Sega’s biggest hero and involves him and his sidekick Tails saving the day from the evil Dr Robotnik.  Sonic 2 and 3 offer co-op play allowing an extra person to play as Tails to aid you in your quest through hills, volcanic mountains, over ice caps and into space to put an end to Robotnik’s madness. My youth came straight back after playing these games and I couldn’t put Sonic down like I couldn’t fifteen years ago. I’m a huge fan of the series and own nearly all the original cartridges as part of my collection, my most prized being the Sonic and Knuckles cartridge.

Comix Zone is one of Sega’s most impressive titles, playing the role of Sketch Turner, a comic book artist who gets sucked into his comic book as a bolt of lightning strikes New York city - releasing and giving life to the evil villain of Sketch’s comic who now has control of the comic world and wants Sketch out of the picture. Aided by his trusty rat sidekick, Sketch must escape the comic book and stop his evil creation from taking over the world. This game is visually amazing, very clever and well thought out. A little hard but thanks to the save function some of the stress can be taken out.

Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection is a nostalgic treat; enjoy!

-Ray