It is my love for the Megadrive that hinders my enjoyment of this

Firstly- I'm British. Its the Megadrive. OK? Good.

While I do not usually waste money on games I can get from- other methods- seeing the inclusion of some of my all time favourite games in this persuaded me to get this latest collection. While this is a excellent collection, it is bogged down by a series of incredibly stupid decisions on part of Backbone Entertainment.

While I would love to dwell on how much I love some of these games, particularly the criminally underrated Dynamite Headdy and Streets of Rage 2 (the latter of which I already owned on XLBA) I don't see much for the sake of this review. You only need to look at a list of the included games to decide whether or not this interests you. I seriously doubt this would drag in people who have never played ANY of these games (although I welcome as many new people to try Dynamite Headdy as possible). I'm not faulting this particular collection, I'm talking about retro game collections as a whole. They rely on nostalgia.

So to sum up the positives of this game- its a great collection. Just for the games, I would give this four stars. Of course, you're buying this for the games, but when you discovered the sheer amount of stupidity surrounding these excellent games, it drags the whole experience down. Does it make Sonic 2 any worse? No. But for those who truly loved the Megadrive and believe it commands respect, booting this disk in your 360/PS3 subjects you to a lot of fustrating niggles. The games are nearly emulated perfectly in my eyes, or at least to the point where any niggles don't matter. The collection isn't quite as ultimate as could be (Revenge of Shinobi would have been nice) but you can't complain that much. Well, unless you're a whiney git like myself.

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Alright, here goes.

Sonic games on the collection include 1, 2, 3 and Sonic and Knuckles. While I welcome 1 and 2, I see no real point in playing Sonic 3/Sonic and Knuckles by themselves. As any decent Sonic fan knows, these two games were originally one huge Sonic game, seperated at the last minute. However, this big Sonic game can still be played by connecting Sonic 3 to Sonic and Knuckles. The complete game is "Sonic 3 and Knuckles" AKA "The Best Damn Sonic Game Ever Made" (ignore people who claim Sonic CD is- they don't have a clue what they're talking about). If you're reading a user review of a Megadrive collection, I'll assume you're familar with S&Ks Lock-On technology. If not, look it up using that Giant Bomb search up there. The fact that they excluded this baffles me especially considering it was kept in previous Sega collections as an unlockable. Originally I assumed this was just clever marketing- keeping the best Sonic game for its own independent XBLA release to make some extra cash from the fans. However since then, both Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles have been announced for XBLA- as seperate games. Backbone even aknowledge the lock on technology in the facts sections in Ultimate Collection. You may not understand my fustration, but when you've been playing S3&K for years then the seperate games feel like mere demos of the larger game in comparison. Oh yeah and no Knuckles in Sonic 2 either.

Another far less serious nitpick is the presentation. As the game starts up you are given the disclaimer that all game art is from the North American versions. ... why? How hard is it to change some box art? Like I said, it doesn't effect the game experience, but it makes the collection reek of laziness. So in the "Ultimate MEGADRIVE Collection" you'll have "GENESIS" shwipping around in the background as you select your game. I

ts just a jarring experience that could have been avoided.

The menu music blows. I shouldn't be so direct and forceful with my opinion in a review but it really does. It has no relation to the Megadrive whatsoever. Would have been better just to have the Streets of Rage theme on loop instead.

Oh, got to love this gem in the collection. In the trivia section for "The Story of Thor" we are told that "The Story of Thor" was known as "The Story of Thor" in Europe and Japan. Great stuff Backbone, replacing all the instances of "Beyond Oasis" with "The Story of Thor" only goes so far. This goes a step further when you load Story of Thor- its the American version so you get the wrong name. Here, I can't moan too much as I'll assume swapping the emulated rom for another is more trouble than its worth to bring this to PAL gamers.

Yeah, American players aren't going to have this problem but they do get a much bigger one- one of the most stupid game names in history. "S

onic's Ultimate Genesis Collection"? Why the hell is it Sonic's collection? He isn't even prominment in the collection (going back to the lack of S3&K again). It just strikes me as a cheap marketing gimmick for the country where the Megadrive (Genesis) wasn't quite as popular as it was in Europe. Better slap on Sonic just so people remember what the Genesis was mostly about (which it bloody wasn't by the way).

One benefit of getting these games again for this generation of consoles are the utterly useless but always fulfilling achievements. But the ones in this collection are absurd. Now this of course does affect gameplay. You may have played these game before, but achievements can give you specific goals you would have otherwised ignored. "Ultimate Sega Megadrive Collection" ignores this possibility.

Firstly, there aren't even achievements for all the games, despite there being enough to go around for even this huge collection. Instead, you are rewarded for viewing all the art work. Why they just threw away some extra gameplay goals in this manner blows my mind. Who gives a damn about the art? Even the video interviews are just recycled from the previous Megadrive collection. Make sure not to miss the discussion of game of the year Sonic the Hedgehog 2006!!!

Ugh. I was enjoying Sonic 2 a minute ago, I don't need to be reminded of how vastly the games have since fallen from grace.

One achievement requests that you complete the first level of Shinobi III WITHOUT USING A CONTINUE. Sorry for the all caps, but I can't stress that enough. Even if it was for just 5 points (which it isn't), there is no challenge here whatsoever. Completing the level without getting hit would be more acceptable, just to explain exactly how easy this level is once you've got a basic grip of the game. Get a single chaos emerald in Sonic 1? Seriously? Even my emerald loathing self can manage that in about under a minute.

I noticed that most of the achievements also unlock videos and extra games. So these achievements are double awards, which sounds good but then you realise that there could have been double the number of challenges on offer. I know I'm stressing this a lot, but I do feel that achievements add a lot to a game particularly those we've played a million times before.

Like I said, most of these don't have an effect on the games. I'm just annoyed by laziness. If not for this, this could have been one of the best game collections of all time and its spoiled just because of sheer laziness.

Wait, so if they've got one Treasure game, then why not included Gunstar Heroes as well?

Gahh, better stop.