joeblow69

I know there have been a bunch of Genesis Collections put out, but this one is pretty cool. I just picked it up this weekend:

Genesis games:
Alex Kid
Altered Beast
Bonanza Bros.
Columns
Comix Zone
Decap Attack
Ecco
Ecco 2
Ecco Jr.
Flicky
Golden Axe
Golden Axe II
Golden Axe III
Kid Chameleon
Phantasy Star II
Phantasy Star III
Phantasy Star IV
Ristar
Shadow Dancer
Shinobi III
Sonic
Sonic 2
Super Thunder Blade
Sword of Vermillion
Vectorman
Vectorman 2
Virtua Fighter 2

Sega Arcade Games (require unlocking):
Altered Beast (Arcade)
Future Spy
Tac/Scan
Zaxxon
Zektor

I'm finally getting a chance to play Phantasy Star IV, and it's awesome!
Never played Ristar before either, and it's pretty cool too. And they finally let you save any game at any point as well!

Unfortunately, I did notice a little bit of slowdown on Sonic 2, and at least 1 graphical glitch in Ristar. Still, at $20, it's a great deal, and is way cheaper than going the Wii VC route!

Noonan

A friend of mine picked this up and said it's a great set for the price. I'd love to play Sword of Vermillion again.

PerryD

Wonder why it is missing the Streets of Rage series? Has it been released in another collection already?

joeblow69

Not sure why Streets of Rage is missing ... maybe for volume 2? I'd also like to see the Shining Force games (or were they Shining in the Darkness back then)? And where's Toe Jam?

Oh yeah, there's another game in the collection that's not listed: Gain Ground

printerati

It was Shining Force. Was there more than one on the Genesis?

No Thunder Force series (especially III and Lightening Force) and Gunstar Heroes, no sale!

joeblow69

According to Wiki, Shining in the Darkness was the very first game in the "Shining" series.

toogood

Picked up the PSP version just for Phantasy Star IV. Paid $80 for the cart when it first came out. I love this game.

kvrdave

Wow, that is a great list. Might actually make me buy a PS2 just for it.

joeblow69

I'm having a great time with it too. It's kind of difficult, though. I mean, the battles aren't, but the play mechanics are kind of weird. Like the spells? Who the hell came up with those spell names? Ganar? Foi? Zan? How the hell am I supposed to keep track of what those mean? I miss the days of early final fantasy, where you had spells with names, Fire1, Fire2, etc...

And from browsing through one of the walkthroughs, it sounds like there are some special combos that you can use? Like if you program each person to use a specific spell, in the correct order, a super spell happens. Is that something that someone will eventually tell me about in game? Or am I supposed to figure those all out by myself?

One last comment about the actual collection ... it's annoying, it doesn't save the Progressive scan: ON setting. So I have to turn that on everytime I start it up.

PixyJunket

Does this collection have a 240p option?

joeblow69

The only video option I see is progressive on/off, and it let's you stretch the screen a bit in any direction in case it isn't fully filling up the screen. I play all the games stretched to widescreen. I know that's not how their supposed to be played, but I've got a native widescreen projector, and I like it that way.

I don't see any of the bluriness you mentioned in one of the other threads, if that's what you're hinting at.

Jtnguyen12

Bonanza Bros.
Comix Zone
Kid Chameleon
Phantasy Star IV
Ristar
Shadow Dancer
Super Thunder Blade
Sword of Vermillion
Vectorman
Vectorman 2

It's good collection.... Also, do not forget Capcom Classics Collection 2 for $10 at Target this Friday & Sat. I wonder where's Taito collection 2 ??

joeblow69

I was suprised they include Shinobi 3 instead of Revenge of Shinobi. I don't even remember there being a shinobi 3 on the genesis. Revenge of Shinobi was the cool one, where you got to beat up spiderman

Superboy

Comix Zone - this is one of the most overrated Genesis games ever. I remember renting it back in the day and was astonished - even though i grew up with tough games - at how punishing this game is. It's almost as if they didn't have a very good game so they only way they could get some substance out of it was to make it obscenely difficult.

Flicky
Phantasy Star II
Phantasy Star III
Phantasy Star IV

-It's about time they re-released Phantasy Star IV. It was one of their greatest RPGs back in the day. Even eclipsed II as the best on the Genesis.

Shinobi III - Where's Revenge of Shinobi? it was a far superior game to III...

Sword of Vermillion - Am I the only one that doesn't have fond memories of this game? Sure it has it's place in history as Yu Suzuki's first Genesis game...but it was so obtuse as to render it almost unplayable. Still, the variety is almost unmatched, even to this day.

Virtua Fighter 2 - Why not just release the Saturn version of VF2? that was arcade perfect.

joeblow69

Holy cow, you weren't joking! It's a cool concept, but they give you 1 guy, and when you die, that's it, game over. No continues. What the hell? I made it 1/2 way through the second level, and I didn't see a single opportunity to get more health. Here's the weird thing, the PS2 controls for this game uses 5 buttons! How did you play this on the Genesis with only 3 buttons?
I remember renting this back in the day ... it was ok, I guess. I remember hitting some weird bug... somehow my sword got cursed, and in the process of uncursing it, it ended up so strong, it killed every enemy with only 1 hit (even bosses)!

shumway

Sega released a new controller with 6 buttons, an XYZ to go with their ABC buttons when they were able to release Street Fighter II:CE. Funny thing about that game, if you played it with only the 3 button controller, you had to press the 'start' button to change from punches to kicks w/ the three buttons. It was interesting, to say the least.


I remember borrowing Sword of Vermilion and wandering ahead of where I was supposed to be somehow by sheer dumb luck then dying every time I would try to go back to where I was supposed to be. Needless to say, that was the end of my playing that game.

Chris_D

I loved Sword of Vermillion, and the real time action battles seemed quite novel at the time. Also the boss battles looked really impressive, although the actual gameplay was somewhat simplistic. One other fun thing was that there was a point where you could just skip ahead through the game, although you didn't always have a map so you kind of had to navigate yourself. But you could access the later towns, get vastly more powerful weapons etc., then continue the plot later . Kind of cool at the time, since not a lot of console rpgs allow you to do this.

As for Sonic 2 slowdown, it might just be a case of accurate emulation, because the original did have occasional slowdown I think, especially in 2 player.

fujishig

Wow, in all the Wii/PS3 madness, I totally missed this game coming out. Getting it for the PSP, even if it's 10 bucks more, just to play Phantasy Star IV on a portable...

It's 30 bucks, but I figure that's a steal compared to how much I would've spent for them on the virtual console for the WII...

dom56

I got this for Xmas and really enjoyed it.

If Sega decided to do a volume 2 then I like to see these titles on it.

Landstalker - I loved this game!!
Streets of Rage
Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse
Shining Force 1 and 2
Thunder Force 2
Wonder Boy in Monster World
Dynamite Headdy
Toejam and Earl

Bluelitespecial

I have been looking for this series on one of these collections as well, I hope it gets included if they release a volume 2.

superdeluxe

Best buy had this in a clearence section for 9.99$

fujishig

really? I guess I'll pick up the PS2 version too then.

I'll echo the statement made in the Capcom Classics 2 thread... these old games are way harder than I remember. I don't remember Golden Axe being so cheap, but that could be my faulty memory. And some are really, really bad. I don't think I ever played Alex Kid or Bonanza Bros. before, but man are those crappy games. I never had Kid Chameleon either, but I always thought it was a decent game... not so.

I still love Gain Ground, and having the three Phantasy Stars is great.