Sega SmashPack Volume 1Released in 2001Object of the Game: To play 12 classic Sega games for the sheer old school pleasure of it all.
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Loop the Loop!
What a disk this is... Sega has this great idea of releasing 12 of its classic hits on one disk. Some you may have played before, others you may have not. But these are 12 of Sega's best, and you would be foolish not to check this game out. Unless of course you already have all 12 of these games, which is unlikely. First we review every single one of the 12... Sonic the Hedgehog: Yes, I admit one of the reasons I have this game is because it includes the original Sonic the Hedgehog. I remember playing this game for hours when I was younger and the fun still seems to be here. The game is the same. Blast through 6 Zones and defeat Dr. Robotnik while trying to collect the 6 Chaos Emeralds. While the game is fun, some Sonic fans don't seem to like it very much because the game is nowhere near as fast as the other Sonic games. This game is less on speed and more on platforming jumping, although there still are times where you get speed. If you have 50 or more rings at the end of a Zone and you don't have to fight Robotnik, you can enter a hidden stage to collect a Chaos Emerald. Trust me and try tp collect them all or you won't get a good ending when you finish the game. Altered Beast: The Genesis launch game. An arcade perfect port. You play as a hero who has rised from the grave by the will of the mighty god, Zeus. Anyway, you have to defeat the evil Neff who is god of the underworld. What is the big deal you say? Well you have to rescue Athena, daughter of Zeus. You move foward punching and kicking you way until you find a spirit ball. After collecting one of these you power up. You become massively buff and think you can not power up no more right? Wrong. After 3 spirit balls, transform into a near invincible beast. This game is still fun to play even after all these years. Now get out there and WRISE FROM YOUR GRAVE!. Sorry, but someone had to say it. And I wanted it to be me... Columns: The incredebly old puzzle game. Although I am a fan of puzzle games, this one never really took my intrest. All you have to do is line 3 jewels of the same color horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. A good game, but not one you will play all the time with all the other better games on the disk. Golden Axe: The game in which you play as 3 characters in order to kill the evil Death Adder. Wierd. Even wierder that that is the fact that you also fight Death Adder Jr before Death Adder. Forget about the wierdness of the game, this is beat em up action. Not as good as Streets of Rage 2, but fun anyway. Phantasy Star II: Sega's trademark RPG. Warp back before all the Final Fantasy games became mega popular to a time when RPGs were like this. A classic game with over 60 hours of gameplay, and maybe even a sleepless night... Revenge of Shinobi: As the ninja Joe Musashi, you must defeat the Neo Zeed. One of your greatest weapons are you different forms of Ninjitsu or Ninja Magic. You must use these in order to finish levels easier. You also can throw shurikens, but be carefull not to run out of them. It was always fun to play as a Ninja. Double jumping to greatness on this disk. Sega Swirl: Another puzzle game. Featuring Sega's Swirl, this is just another puzzler I think was included so the disk would have an even 12 games. I never heard of a puzzle game with turn based multiplayer until this game. You can also play real time, as well as by e-mail. Thats right, e-mail... Shining Force: Another great RPG complete with everything an RPG has. Leveling up, a story that makes sence, and deaths of people you know but don't really care about. Streets of Rage 2: Walk foward, fight a few guys, repeat until the game is done. Sounds boring but this game made it fun. And it still is. Fighting in the Streets of Rage sure is fun. But there are better games on the disk. Vectorman: The vector graphics man! A shooter really. The only real rule in this game is to never stop shooting. If you stop shooting, then you will be heading for an early grave. You would not want to make Vectorman fall apart now would you? Virtua Cop 2: I expected a port of the arcade game. It was not. Instead it is a port of the PC version, which is based on the Saturn version. The result is some shooting action, but not the same as in the arcades. At least you now have a reason to use your light gun for another game. This is what, the second game to support DC's light gun? Ouch. Wrestle War: Alright now here is something odd. The game is not bad, but it is not very good either. You play as a wrestler who travels around the USA and wrestles people. If only the actual wrestling was not so mediocre. Plus, the camera has this anoying thing of changing its place at the worst possible times. Here is an example. You are doing well, when you go to the left side of the mat. The camera does not shift, it jerks back so quickly you need to figure out where you were. Not something good.
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WRISE FROM YOUR GRAVE!
Graphics: The graphics are good, the graphics are also old. Altered Beast has some very old graphics while Virtua Cop has fairly good graphics. This settles the question once and for all over graphics vs. gameplay. The gameplay always wins no matter what.6/10 Sound: Who here doesn't love the Green Hill Zone theme? Shining Force and Phantasy Star II have memorable music as well. The other games are also very good. There is just one problem with the sound though. Because of the Dreamcast's more powerfull sound processer, Genesis games have a weird almost echo like sound. I guess that is what happens when you throw 16 bit sound into a 128 bit sound processor. It is not really that pleasing to the ears.9/10 Control: Well, some games have perfect control like the RPG's, while other games like Wrestle War may take time to get used to. Altered Beast's control also feels weird but that is because it is a 12 year old game. I play these games with an Arcade Stick, and I suggest you do too. A lot of these games such as Altered Beast, Golden Axe, and Wrestle War were arcade games, so a stick is great for the real experience. But using a controler to play Virtua Cop is not as fun as playing it with a light gun. It is very hard to give a control rating to this game. 8/10 How Fun Is It?: You will have as much fun with these games now as you did back then. And if you are playing these for the first time, then you will an even greater time. They don't call them classics for nothing, and you get 12 of them too.10/10 The Fruit: Sonic has no fruit. Altered Beast has no fruit. None of these games have fruit in them. Streets of Rage 2 has apples for extra health but it is still not as fruity as it could have been. The RPG's may have fruit, but I have yet to finish them. Hopefully there will be fruit up the wazoo, but I doubt it. 2/10 Final Score: 9/10 |
I remember this...
12 classic games on one disk make me want another collection. Just remember that this is only Volume 1... |