This is a great compilation by Sega. It has lots of great games from the past, many of which I have not played. I played through some that were meh, but then there were others that were gems that I've never experienced. For $30, this is great deal, and the only reason I almost rated this as 4 stars instead of 5, cause of the lack of Sonic 3 & Knuckles lock-on. I don't know the reasoning behind this, but its exclusion is unacceptable. Regardless, this is still a 5-star product with great games like Sonic (all of them), Streets of Rage (all of them), Shining Force (all of them), Phantasy Star (all of them), Gain Ground, Kid Chameleon, Altered Beast (lol jk, that game sucks), and many more.
I've never played Shining Force before this compilation and it was a great experience overall. Took me ~20 hours to beat the game, which is almost the amount of time one might put in for current-gen games running at $60.
I've also never played Gain Ground before and very quickly fell in love with it. I remember thoroughly enjoying Smash T.V. as a child, and this game is similar to it, but is a much deeper experience (and more enjoyable).
If you like Retro games, and prefer gameplay over graphics, then get this. It will easily be money well spent.
First let's talk about the value of this game. Essentially, it's 49 Sega games (including the unlockable titles) for about 20 dollars! If I was buying these games separately, it would be well over 100s of dollars because these titles tend to go for 5-6 dollars each. And some are not available on the wii, ps3, or xbox live outside of this disc. Good luck finding a genesis and cartridges too. I most likely would have never played most of these titles if it wasn't for this compilation. Example: Alex Kidd, Bonanza Bros. and Dynamite Headdy. I never even heard of these games but I love them so much after I played them.
This game is great for its nostalgia factor too. I feel like a gaming archeologist playing Flicky and the arcade version of Altered Beast. It's like exploring your grandparents attic for the first time. There's so many interesting things inside this disc. Playing Alien Storm for the first time was crazy cause I didn't expect to play a robot that self-destructed. There were moments in Streets of Rage 3 where I couldn't stop laughing at the sheer silliness of the game.
I also love the multiplayer games like Golden Axe, Streets of Rage, etc. There were times when my husband and i were just "accidentally" beating each other up in Streets of Rage and it was so hilariously fun. I loved every minute of it.
Here's my only problem with the game. The manual isn't really complete. You need to go to [...] to download a complete game manual. I understand this because it is 49 games, and I think if they had to re-print all the manuals to each game, it probably cost a heck of a lot more than 20 dollars. The HD graphic improvements are hit or miss for some games, but it's OK cause you can turn that option off. It's kinda sad that you can't lock Sonic and Knuckles with Sonic 3, but I'm fine with that cause this has 49 games!
Finally, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine just makes me angry.
This is a must for any old school Sega fan! All the best games one package.
"You have to unlock the games that are really cool by playing the crummy ones."
"Some really nice classics from sega. If you had a sega genesis you would enjoy this game."
