So I just picked up the recently released Sega Mega Drive Ultimate
Colleciton, as well as a totally sweet blue vinyl featuring some
classic Sega tunes...with none from any of the Sonic games. That's just
one of many disappointments, but hey, beggers can't be choosers. I
mean, the fact that Sega actually put out a bloody vinyl is rad enough.
But after playing through the collection for a couple of hours or so,
there's just one thing that comes to mind throughout.

Sega Europe/Backbone are bloody lazy.

Now
don't get me wrong, the collection is definitely worth it. I mean, on
what other compilation do you have all three Streets of Rage games, all
four Phantasy Star games, all of the Shining games (with the two
fantastic Shining Force games) and almost every Sonic game on the Mega
Drive? Fantastic value, but there's just loads of stuff in that
collection that just reeks of pure laziness, and you'll know this the
instant you turn the game on.

For starters - the legal text at
the start of the game lets you know that all of the artwork (boxart and
cartridge) is taken from the North American versions of the games. Big
problem from the get go...since all the games are labelled as Genesis
games...when the Mega Drive was NEVER referred to as the Genesis in
Europe. It's even more of a slap in the face when you factor in two
other reasons. Firstly, the game "Beyond Oasis" is referred to as "The
Staff of Zeus". Stupid title, but that's what it was referred to here.
No use in changing it, but the compilation shows off the American art!
And what's worse? The previous collection? The PS2 and PSP's Sega Mega
Drive Collection? It had art from both the NA and European Versions of
all the games! No, scratch that. What's worse is that upon booting up
the game, what's the title screen show? Two worsd: BEYOND FUCKING OASIS.

In
fact, that leads onto my next point - the fact that this conpilation
essentially apes the crap out of the previous compilation. Never mind
that 26 of the 49 of the games on the disc were already present on the
previous compilation. I can understand why, since most of those games
are some of Sega's biggest titles and all. But really, do we TWO
versions of Altered Beast? That game is unplayable aged garbage, both
the arcade and Mega Drive versions.

As well as that, the video
interviews present on the disc further show just how lazy they are.
Because they are lifted exactly from the previous compilation. It's
annoying to have to watch one of the developers behind Sonic 2006 have
to explain why Sonic 2K6 will be awesome, when it's 2009 and we know
how that game turned out. What's hilarious is that all the videos
aren't even edited out, they leave them EXACTLY as they were. Hell, the
only new thing that the game does regarding the videos is the ability
to restart them!

Then there's the emulation issues that people
are having, but really, I won't get into too much here. Why? It's more
personal preference than anything else. I mean, it's fine and all, but
too many people are having issues with loads of various little things.
Honestly, I've had a few sound issues, but that's just about it. Though
what kinda got to me was that everytime the game would make a battery
save (well, emulating a battery save, anyway), the game would pause
momentarily and show 'Saving' on the bottom lefthand corner of the
screen.

Don't let all this convince you that it's not worth
buying, because there's plenty of good in here. The
trophies/achievements are easy to get and nicely tied into the
unlockables. There's also custom soundtracks on the PS3 version, which
is fantastic, making even the worst sounding games (like Altered Beast)
sound even better....even if it drowns out all the other sounds in the
games. And it's fantastic value - especially if you never owned the
previous compilation. But at the same time, there's just plenty of
things that just scream lazy!

Later.