Level Up: Collection Collection 2

Well listeners, it’s finally time for another Collection Collection. Let’s start off with *Capcom time* and go with one I’ve already mentioned I owned before.

The Mega man Anniversary Collection came out for the blue bomber’s 15 birthday for the X-Box, PS2 and GameCube (which I’m playing, but I don’t think there are any differences). It collects together Mega man 1 through 8 and the 2 arcade fighter games which were never released in North America. There are new options available for each game, such as a save feature, navi mode (which changes some graphics and gives you hints as you play), sound options and adjustable difficulty. But I think the main attraction (other than the games) will probably be the unlockable artwork, information, interviews and retrospectives on the Mega man series, really highlighting the fact that this is an anniversary collection. And yes, you get most of these by beating the games. However, I need to talk about the menu. Capcom decided to be a little creative, so you use Mega man to walk around and go to “doors” for what you want to select. This would be neat, if it didn’t feel so slow. Other than that, it’s a pretty good collection.

Going from Capcom to Nintendo now, let’s take a look at Kirby Super Star originally for the Super Nintendo (but I’m playing it on the Wii Virtual Console). Kirby Super Star (or Kirby’s Fun Pack in Europe) is different because most of the games featured on it were made for the collection (this allowed it to get a DS upgrade a few years back, but I haven’t played that one yet). The only exceptions are Spring Breeze, a remake of Kirby’s Dreamland (which I reviewed), and the Samurai Kirby mini-game, apparently a remake of Quick Draw from Kirby’s Adventure.  All the games are similar, but most have small game play elements that make them unique. Since these games were all made for this collection, I can’t judge this one on how good a job it does a collecting them. However, I will say that you need to beat certain games before you can play the others and they do a good job of putting them in order of difficulty, but I would like to have the choice from the start. And, as I’ve already mentioned, there are a couple of mini-games, but they’re nothing to brag about, especially since all the games already have the 2 player option.

Last collection I have for you today is the Metal Slug Anthology on the Wii (but also available on PS2 and PSP). This game collects Metal Slug 1 through 6 and Metal Slug X (which is basically a tweaked Metal Slug 2). Like with the Mega Man collection, this was released for the series’ anniversary (it’s 10^th to be specific). Also like the Mega Man collection there are new options to mess around with, my favorite being limiting your continues. See, Metal Slug was originally an Arcade and made so you’d die easily and would have to pay more money to keep playing. You have one option to just be able to put in a “token” every time you die, or you can give yourself the extra challenge by limiting them. This is a GREAT option that I wish more arcade-to-home ports had. Speaking of that, since the controls are naturally going to change and the Wii has many ways to play, there are A LOT of controller options. I suggest playing around and finding what works best for you, but I personally enjoy the Wii Remote on its side. And of course, this collection (like all disc based compilations I’ve reviewed so far) has extras, such as galleries, sound tracks and interviews. But here’s where it gets interesting: after you’re done playing one of the games, you’ll be given tokens to spend to unlock this stuff. I went through and beat all the games and guess what? I wasn’t given enough tokens to unlock everything. This means they thought ahead of a way to keep players playing even after they beat ALL the games. Clever.

So those are collection games from some series brought to us from Capcom, Nintendo and SNK respectively. Mega man Anniversary Collection is a great game, save for odd choices with its menu. Kirby Super Star is a really interesting compilation, being that it’s mostly original. It is fondly remembered, making it one of the most highly regarded titles of the Kirby series. And the Metal Slug Anthology does everything right and keeps players coming back; the only thing it lacks is an in-game save feature, but the games are so short, I can see why it was left out. These games are pretty easy to find still (since Kirby Super Star is on Wii Virtual Console) and allows gamers to play games that are hard (or impossible) to play again now. Once again, no scores for these collections, since how much you like the collections will be based on how much you like the individual games, but I will tell you, these collections would not fail.