Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection (Xbox 360)

...first ever games console. The Sega Mega Drive. After years of Acorn Electrons and Spectrum 128k’s, having to load cassette tapes with games on and listening to the horrible screeching noises the television made whilst loading them I finally had the future of gaming.

I remember the hours spent shouting and balling that day because no matter what my dad and I tried we couldn’t get a damn picture on the TV. When we finally did it was ...
...360 and came across the Sega Mega Drive ultimate collection. It was only priced at £24.99, so it wasn’t as expensive as games usually are. It took me back. I had already downloaded Sonic the Hedgehog off Xbox live and had enjoyed playing that so I thought why not pre-order it.

My game arrived on the day of release and I was quite excited. I opened the package and put the disc in my Xbox. The list of games are as follows:

more

One of my most vivid childhood memories involves Christmas day 1990. It was one of the happiest days of my life. It was the day I got my first ever games console. The Sega Mega Drive. After years of Acorn Electrons and Spectrum 128k’s, having to load cassette tapes with games on and listening to the horrible screeching noises the television made whilst loading them I finally had the future of gaming.

I remember the hours spent shouting and balling that day because no matter what my dad and I tried we couldn’t get a damn picture on the TV. When we finally did it was all worth it. I got 3 games as well that Christmas, Last Battle, Altered Beast and Super Thunder Blade. Playing these games that Christmas day I thought to myself, a 16 BIT games console, life cannot get any better than this. As all gamers know, the life of the gamer is getting better all the time.

I usually pre-order a lot of games off play.com. Last year I was looking through the coming soon section for the Xbox 360 and came across the Sega Mega Drive ultimate collection. It was only priced at £24.99, so it wasn’t as expensive as games usually are. It took me back. I had already downloaded Sonic the Hedgehog off Xbox live and had enjoyed playing that so I thought why not pre-order it.

My game arrived on the day of release and I was quite excited. I opened the package and put the disc in my Xbox. The list of games are as follows:

Alex Kidd In The Enchanted Castle
Alien Storm
Altered Beast
Bonanza Bros.
Columns
Comix Zone
Decap Attack starring Chuck D. Head
Dr. Robotnik's MBM
Dynamite Headdy
Ecco The Dolphin
Ecco II: The Tides Of Time
E-Swat
Fatal Labyrinth
Flicky
Gain Ground
Golden Axe I
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 In The Darkness
Shining Force
Shining Force 2
Shinobi III: Return Of The Ninja Master
Sonic 3D Blast
Sonic And Knuckles
Sonic Spinball
Sonic The Hedgehog
Sonic The Hedgehog 2
Sonic The Hedgehog 3
Streets Of Rage
Streets Of Rage 2
Streets Of Rage 3
Super Thunder Blade
Vectorman
Vectorman 2

I was really pleased once I switched the game on to find my 3 favourite ever games for the Mega Drive were on the disc. E-Swat, Decap Attack and Streets of Rage. One other game on the disc stood out at me as well for totally different reasons, Alex Kidd and the enchanted castle. A few months after getting my Mega Drive I borrowed the game off a friend, I played it that long I blacked out and was woke up by my mum frantically screaming at me, I have never played a game for such a long amount of time since and wouldn’t be rushing to play Alex Kidd again now. I am not going to bore anybody by describing every game one by one. Lets just say that compared to gaming today they are all extremely basic and exactly how I remember them.

The game has a PG rating. There isn’t any swearing or violence like there is in todays games so it is suitable for children, although I doubt that they would want to play the games anyway after growing up on Xbox, Playstations and Wii’s.

The games menu consists of a list of games, the list can be sorted in different categorys. Alphabetically, by year of release, by Genre ( platformers, brawlers, shooter, combat, puzzle and Roll playing games). There is also a favourites category you can list the games in. Next to the name of the game there is a gauge where you can rate the game from 1 to 5 and it would sort the games from best to worst.

The games themselves are very playable but as I said before very basic, graphics are very poor compared to todays standards (even if you can play in HD) and music on most of the games is just down-right annoying. Every game in the different categories are pretty much similiar. For example in the brawlers section there is Streets of Rage and Golden Axe. Both are quite similar in the way that you walk forward, more enemys come towards you and you hit them, that is how basic the games are. The most advanced games on the disc are probably the Sonic the Hedgehog games. I think I am right in saying that when the Sonic games were released they were ahead of their time and the hype surrounding them were unbelievable. Again though Sonic 1, 2 and 3 are all very similar.

On the title menu screen there is also an extras section. This section is a list of interviews with the programmers of the games and some extra bonus games. Most of the games and videos are unlocked by completing levels on the games you had in the first place. The games I have unlocked up to now are no better than the original selection so I don’t really see the point.

To be honest I was excited when my game arrived, after playing the games it did take me back. It did occur to me after a while, why am I playing these games when I could be playing Call of Duty or Gears of War. The games aren’t terrible but if you have a Ferrari why would you drive around in a Skoda. At £24.99 it isn’t terribly expensive. I would recommend renting this title, it doesn’t really have any long term appeal, I was soon very bored of it.

One thing that might appeal to some is, if you are like me and like to get achievements and boost your gamer score, the games would definitely be worth playing. As I said before though, renting would be the better option Within 2 or 3 nights you could add a few hundred points to your gamer score. A lot of the achievements are really easy to get and it doesn’t take that long.

Anyway it was good to go back to 1990. For all of about 3 hours I remembered that Christmas day. I will now consign the Ultimate Mega Drive collection to the bin (well, Ebay anyway). Don’t get me wrong, a lot of people might enjoy this title but I think that you could better spend your £24.99 elsewhere.

 

...less