Sega Genesis Collection for PSP and PS2

An anonymous reader writes "Sega has announced what may be the coolest retro collection yet in a compilation of 30 Sega Genesis games for the PSP and PS2. 1up has a great breakdown of the games in the collection, which features everything from the Phantasy Star games to the Golden Axe games, to the Shinobis, to the Vectormans. Pretty cool stuff." From the article: "Sega's doing its part to give these games context with numerous unlockable interviews with the original developers and a museum with trivia on the disc. According to Sega, the games will be reproduced with 'the utmost accuracy to the originals as possible' by developer Backbone Entertainment. And as a special cool bonus, the PSP version will allow -- for the first time ever -- wireless multiplayer for several of the games. "

Comments

Mixed feelings

[BertieBaggio]

I'll admit, when I saw this I thought "Excellent, a chance to do what I really want: play the classic games I love, portably". Then I realised that Sony wasn't doing a Good Thing (TM) at all. The Good Thing would be to stop messing with the firmware with every damn update and let the homebrew developers in. Give me the ability to run a Genesis emulator without jumping through contrived hoops (which are really holes in Sony's attempted patching), and without a chance of bricking an expensive piece of kit. Hell, I'd be willing to pay a reasonable amount, say $5-10, to 'unlock' the PSP to do homebrew stuff. I don't think such a move would be morally right (and probably not financially right for Sony, what with support), but I *really* like the old Genesis games.

As for the game lineup itself... well, it's good, but they could've done better. Golden Axe is plain fun, and Phantasy Star will keep you entertained for quite a while. Sonic 1 and 2 are *excellent*, but they missed the best of the lot: Sonic 3 + Sonic & Knuckles. I can't believe this is by accident. I smell a "Genesis Collection Vol II" in the works.

Will I buy this collection? Nah. true, it's the right sort of idea -- and multiplayer makes it *almost* worthwhile -- but I just don't agree with either the method or the game choice. So come on Sony, let us use our hardware the way we damn well please, and do what we will with emulators and other nice things.

(...and while you're at it, let us rip UMD games to memory sticks. Those things are sloooow. kthxbye)

Re:Mixed feelings

[BertieBaggio]

Sonic Mega Collection Plus (PS2) has both of the games you mentioned, plus many more

I appreciate the sentiment, but this announcement is newsworthy (to me) mainly because of the announcement of these games for the *PSP*. The PS2 is a neat system, but if I'm playing a fixed console, why don't I just fire up the games on my original Genesis (à la Mega Drive over here)? Better still, I can play them on my PC, and take advantage of save states and save state 'hacking' to make the game do interesting things. I can also take screenshots / recordings easier on the PC, and I can store my *entire* game collection in a fairly small space, and take it with me on a USB stick. Plus, I'e seen (though do correct me if I'm wrong) that you need to play game X for Y number of times before you can 'unlock' other games. Artificial restrictions suck. NB I came across this on GameFaqs for some Sonic-related + other classics game collection if you want to look before I'm refuted.

Now, playing on the PSP is a different matter. It's better than a USB stick since you can play *anywhere*, so long as you have power. I'm sure there are smart homebrew developers that were able to port all the handy features (eg savestates etc) of the PC emulator counterparts. That is exactly the kind of thing I want from my PSP, and part of my rationale for buying one when they came out.

I guess what irritated me about this collection was: 1) Sony wanting to say "Hey, we're into classic games too!" whilst trying frantically to lock out homebrew developers (wouldn't it be apropos to have a further lock-out firmware update included on the UMD with this collection, mandatory to play the games?) and 2) No Sonic 3 + K :'(

Re:Mixed feelings

[Babbster]

I guess what irritated me about this collection was: 1) Sony wanting to say "Hey, we're into classic games too!" whilst trying frantically to lock out homebrew developers (wouldn't it be apropos to have a further lock-out firmware update included on the UMD with this collection, mandatory to play the games?)

Wouldn't it be Sega saying that they're "into classic games," given that they're the ones making this game? If Sony is saying anything by trying to lock out emulators, it's "Hey, Sega, we're trying hard to lock PSP users out of emulators so that you and other companies can actually make money off the games you own."