Sega Genesis Collection
 

I recently picked up the new "Sega Genesis Collection" - a collection of about 30 games - for PS2. I mainly wanted it for the Phantasy Star games - 2, 3, and 4 are all on it. I also was having some side-scroller yearnings and wanted to play Sonic (1 & 2 are included).

Most of the other games didn't interest me at first, but as I started checking them out I became intrigued by a couple.

Ristar is a late 16-bit era side-scroller. The main character is a walking star who can extend his arms out to climb, swing, and grab enemies - like a cutesy Bionic Commando. Seems cool, I'll definitely try to get through it.

Comix Zone is a very stylish beat-em-up. It has the best 16-bit graphics I've ever seen - Donkey Kong Country and Super Mario RPG are technically superior, but Comix Zone just looks so cool. Each level is set up like a couple of pages of a comic book, and you jump from panel to panel and interact with items and the page itself.

The Vectorman games (1 & 2) are also extremely good-looking, but they don't appeal to me as much as the others. We'll see whether or not I play those.

Overall, the Genesis was capable of much better graphics than I gave it credit for - I'd really never seen any of these games in action.

In this collection you can save your state just like with emulators on the PC, so if you don't feel like going through Vectorman 20 times until you beat it, you can still see the whole game by using saves.

I'm on the fence about save states though. It just seems "wrong" to use them, like you're not giving yourself the full experience of constant 8/16-bit game restarts. I will definitely not use them for the Phantasy Stars. I guess it just depends on if you like the particular game enough to get the original experience.

Re: Sega Genesis Collection
 

Interesting what you say about save states. I'm actually the opposite, I would use them on the Phantasy Star games but not on the others. Reason being that because the PS games require basically no player skill, I wouldn't feel like I was making the game easier than it was intended to be. Whereas in an arcade game I'd feel like I was cheating.

Other than that, I just want to second your implicit recommendation of this collection. Maybe best retro compilation ever? Yes you can play most/all of these games as ROMs, but it's so much nicer playing the games on a console. Plus you don't have to deal with bugs or feel guilty for ripping off the people who made and published these amazing games. Of course the developers have probably been screwed out of their royalties somehow, but hey, at least the fatcat producers are getting richer.

Re: Sega Genesis Collection
 

I forgot to mention that there are also a handful of interviews and other bonus materials as well. Another excellent game collection is the Activision Anthology with 40+ Atari games.

The Phantasy Stars may require no physical skill on the part of the player, but they do require strategy and "hard work". You have to make sure your characters are strong enough and properly equipped enough to go where you're going. If you weren't prepared and die halfway through a dungeon, you have to restart at the beginning, or wherever the designers wanted you to restart. Using save states would allow you to donk around and not put as much time into the game as you're "supposed" to, basically the same as with an action game.

Re: Sega Genesis Collection
 

Eh, I dunno that I really buy that. Part of the reason is that in an RPG game you can save almost any time. True, you have to hoof back to town (or teleport there if you're lucky), but aside from a few special cases (e.g. middle of a boss fight), you never have to accomplish X goal before being allowed to save. Compare this to action games, where you constantly have to achieve certain goals (beat the level, reach the checkpoitn) to earn the privilege of saving your progress.

I also don't think it's really accurate to say that games like Phantasy Star "require" strategy. It's possible to make an RPG quite hard by imposing arbitrary limitations on yourself or your characters, and to take this to the point where advancing in the game does require careful planning. But you always have the option of simply leveling up your characters until they're powerful enough to advance through brute force. Compare this to action games, which make skill and/or strategy inescapable requirements for advancement.

I agree that RPGs require "hard work" of a sort, but I don't think it's anything like the work that goes into beating a hardcore action game. To me the work in RPGs is kinda like doing 100s of curls with a 3lb weight, whereas an action game is like straining to 3-4 reps at your limit. RPG "work" is less painful but also less rewarding.

Re: Sega Genesis Collection
 

What all does it have?