If you are a fan of video games, it is likely that you have taken part in the Great Console Wars. I earned my stripes early, when the war was really just kicking off during the 16-bit era. Sure, there were small battles before then but it wasn’t until the 16-bit generation when the war really got going. SEGA released volley after volley of shots at Nintendo, portraying themselves as the cool kids on the block with a heavy dose of attitude while Nintendo was diperville. A line had been drawn and you were either on one side of it or the other.
Despite having loved my Nintendo Entertainment System and the collection of games I had amassed, I wanted to be on the train heading towards the next wave of gaming. And that next wave was the TurboGrafx-16.
Wait, what?
OK, I admit it. I made some bad choices as a kid and when the TG16 released the day before my birthday in 1989 and the newly released SEGA Genesis was nowhere to be found, I went with what I thought was the better option. I was 11.
Needless to say the TG16 did not satiate my desires as a gamer so I packed it up less than a year later and traded it in towards a, now available, SEGA Genesis. The thing about the console wars, that often gets passed over, is that our allegiance was often decided for us by which console we were lucky enough to be able to have. Obviously I had the best console because it was what I had and nobody had better stuff than I did. Sonic was faster (he was) and better (he wasn’t) than Mario.
Eventually, after three tours in the Console Wars, I dishonorably discharged myself (from the Sony army) and went multiplatform. But despite my current love of all gaming, I do hold those early days of the Console Wars dear to my heart. And the Genesis closer still. Some of my fondest memories of gaming come from that generation of games and of course they come from the Genesis.
So I was excited when SEGA announced that they were going to release a budget priced collection of Genesis games on the PS4 and XBOX One. Excited despite the fact that this is another in a long line of Genesis compilations that dates back two generations. And excited despite the fact that this is again the same general list of games that has been released before. If you’ve played a SEGA Genesis compilation before, you’ve probably played most of these games.
All the usual suspects are here. The big name games everyone knows like Altered Beast, Golden Axe, Phantasy Star II, Sonic the Hedgehog, Space Harrier II, and Streets of Rage. The mid-tier gems like Comix Zone, Gunstar Heroes, and Shadow Dancer. And the filler garbage like Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle, Bonanza Bros., and Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair (not to be confused with the excellent Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap).
The reality is that if you like the Genesis, you’ve probably already played the Sonic and Streets of Rage games multiple times, and for as great as the Phantasy Star and Shining Force games are, you probably aren’t sitting down to play 100s of hours of nearly 30 year old RPGs. The other big name games are not that great. Altered Beast is a shit show and always has been. Space Harrier is super repetitive. Toe Jam and Earl kind of sucks. And Columns isn’t as fun as I remember.
This isn’t to say that the collection is bad though, that middle tier of games is actually pretty well populated and games like Comix Zone and Gunstar Heroes were eye openers for me with their interesting design choices and fun gameplay. Shadow Dancer was another one that I normally wouldn’t have given much thought to but due to the addition of achievements, I played it to get the accomplishment and then kept playing because its a damn good arcade ninja game with some cool boss fights. Unfortunately the achivements don’t present much of a reason to touch a lot of the games. With only 25 total achievements and over 50 games in the collection, not everything is going to get its due. Most of them are aligned with the most iconic titles, like Sonic, Streets of Rage, or Golden Axe but I really just wish that Toe Jam & Earl didn’t get two achievements while the Phantasy Star games got none.
In addition to the achievements, there are also seperate challenges to complete. These challenges require you to complete a level in a certain amount of time, get a certain score, or defeat an enemy a certain way. These challenges offer something different than the standard game but I can’t say they held my attention long. Neither did the other big bonus in the collection, online multiplayer.
About 1/3 of the games in the collection have the enhanced ability to enable online multiplayer. On the surface that’s a great addition, who doesn’t want someone to help them out in Golden Axe or Streets of Rage? The way matchmaking has been implimented in the collection though is utterly insane. You select a group of games you are willing to be matched to others with and then it will pair you with someone that has similar games. Except if you want to play Golden Axe II and that is the only game you want to play but the person you get paired with doesn’t feel like playing Golden Axe II right now, they can say no to the matchmaking and it is back to square one. It is a really dumb solution.
The lack of any other real special features, especially in an generation which has seen some great compilations from Rare and Capcom, doesn’t help this one’s case. But not being filled with super iconic titles is actually a larger issue for this collection as a whole. The reality is that while SEGA did create some amazing and iconic games for the system (most of which are present here), the most iconic game for the system were made by third parties. Games like Mortal Kombat, Disney’s Aladdin, and the EA Sports games were best on the Genesis and their exclusion is completely understandable but I for one would rather be playing NHL ’94 instead of Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle.
If you don’t already own a Genesis collection and you want some of the best games SEGA made during that era, then the SEGA Genesis Classics collection is a fine purchase at its budget pricing. But it is hard to recommend rebuying these games again when other, better versions of this exist out there.
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