SEGA Genesis Classics (Reviewed PS4 version)
This isn’t the first time SEGA has brought us a collection of their classic games on our consoles and PC. This is the first time I ever grabbed one for myself though. I wasn’t too sure what to expect outside of just getting a collection of old games which some I loved as a kid. They have certainly outdone themselves here though. Not only do they present you 50 games to choose from with classics like Sonic the Hedgehog, Altered Beast, Vectorman, Streets of Rage, and Phantasy Star II. They do it with a lot of charm.
The UI menu is a bedroom with all the games lined up on a shelf to select from the boxes. You can even select favorites that will stack in the top corner of the shelf. Any games that have multiplayer will support online play with friends and online searches with random players. You’re also able to filter which games you want to search an additional player for. I have pretty mediocre internet where I’m at so my experience on that is not really fair to judge it on. You have options with the emulator for different types of pixel scaling, display in original format or stretch the video out to fill your TV. There are some border art when playing in the original full screen but there aren’t more than 9 to choose from. You can also add scanlines and have the screen appear to curve to give it that authentic look like you’re playing on an old tube TV, which was a very nice touch. After you select a game, the cartridge gets put into the console in your menu and you can even keep the display where it shows the TV in the room and play off that instead of going full screen.
While playing a game you have one single save state available to use for every game and it’s as simple as holding the right thumbstick down to save or up to load. You’re able to load your save state immediately after selecting your game. There is also a rewind and fast forward feature placed on the R2 and L2 triggers in case you need to go back on a part you messed up on or to help skip through scenes quicker. Exiting the game is done by holding down the trackpad or right thumbstick. There is also an online leaderboard for high scores along with challenges to complete for select games.
The only negatives I really have are a that I wish there were more controller button layout options or even customize the button layout, especially for us that have gamepads or fightsticks and not just the regular DualShock 4 controller. The only other thing really missing are just a few games from this awesome collection which I’m not sure why they didn’t add over certain ones that they do have here. Why do we have Sonic 3D blast instead of Sonic 3 & Knuckles? Where is Echo the Dolphin? Rocket Knight Adventures isn’t here either (Thanks Konami).
Aside from certain game selection choices, limited button layouts to choose from, and a very small number of border art to choose from. SEGA Genesis Classics embraces it’s retro roots with so much charm and will give any gamer hours of fun whether playing a single player adventure or with second player next to them or across the internet.