Ever since I started this show, I’ve been wrestling with the issue of collection games. I just kept asking myself if I should actually review them or if I should just review the games within them. Finally, I decided; I am going to review them, but only based on how well they collect the games and what else they offer, reviewing the games included at another time. This means that I am unable to give a rating to the collections since how much you like a collection will depend on how much you like the games they make up. Because of all of this, the reviews will be so short so I’ll have to review a bunch at time, a collection of collection games if you will. Here are some of the Mario and Sonic compilation games in this first collection collection.
Super Mario All Star has become a definitive must have for anyone’s super Nintendo game library. Not only does it collect Super Mario brothers one, two and three, but also introduced North American to Super Mario Brothers: The Lost Levels. (I suggest you check out the Gaming Historian’s video explaining what that’s all about, while you wait for my review on that subject). This game also offers the ability to save four game files in each game, which was appreciated. It also featured improved graphics for all the games. It was kind of like they used Super Mario World as the base, but then added more details and shading into it. Speaking of Super Mario World, there is a collection called of Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World which brought the awesome factor to a whole new level.
The Sonic Mega Collection for the Nintendo Gamecube came out a decade later than most of the games included in it. It assembles most (if not all) of the Sonic games originally for the Sega Genesis. You only start with 7 of the 12 games found within this disk though and will need to unlock the others. The graphics remain true to the original game and there is no save feature unless the original game also had one (in other words: Sonic 3). This game does have some cool bonus features, such as a gallery where you can see the covers of all the Sonic comics (I won’t mention Linkara here) and features that better explain the evolution and history of Sonic. This pretty much confirms that this game was marketed towards people, who stuck with Nintendo growing up and didn’t experience Sonic’s growth first hand. When this game was brought to the other consoles of that generation, it became the Sonic Mega Collection Plus. This featured 2 games that were originally found on the Japanese version of this game, but omitted for the North American release, and 6 more Sonic games on it from the Game Gear.
The Game Gear games gets me to my next compilation: Sonic Gems Collection, also for the Gamecube. Following the success of Sonic Mega Collection, Sonic Gems Collection compiled many of the Sonic games not featured in it. This includes Sonic R, Sonic CD, Sonic the Fighters and several games for the Game Gear, excluding the ones feature in the Sonic Mega Collection Plus. Also, there were the two Vector Man games added in the mix. However, I have to shake my head to how Knuckles Chaotix was excluded (I wish it were released on the Wii Virtual Console at least). This time, you also had the option of saving at any time and as many game files as you want to each game, given you have the space on your memory card. The gallery in the game is also really big, with a total 320 items to unlock and view (this itself can keep you busy for a while). Despite this game having more to offer then Mega Collection, I like this one less since I find the games it has in it obscure as far as Sonic goes, but since that’s all subjective, I must say this is a really well done collection game.
There you go, Level Up’s first collection collection. I want to remind everyone that in most cases, how much one likes these games will normally depend on how much one enjoys the individual games included. All this just to say though, sometimes compilations are more than just the sum of their parts. Some have special things to offer, like saving features, improved graphics or galleries, while other just concentrate on staying true to the original games. Once again, no scores this week since how much most people like the collections will depend more on the individual games included and not the collection itself.
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