Sega Classics Collection (PlayStation 2) review "A bland main dish served without appetizers, dessert, and little seasoning"

Sometime in the 2000s, Sega incorporated a new line to revive some of its Sega Genesis/Mega Drive and Master System titles with updated graphics and sound for the PlayStation 2. This line was called Sega Ages, which uses its own name backwards mirroring the premise of having said 16 bit titles incorporated into the updated format. Sometime later these updates would see the light of say in the US as the Sega Classics Collection which featured some of these games into a single disk. The game made little impact coming out seemingly, and with good reason. While some games looked good with the graphic overhaul, others were made quite poorly and would also suffer from lackluster gameplay to boot.

On the PS2 compilation there's not much to feature other than the core games included. Each game has a few features integrated such as playing such as the 2500 remakes or using their classic modes, which are still the same graphic wise but looking a bit more like their 16-bit counterparts. Besides that there are no unlockables of any kind, extra features like sound tests or history of said games or a gallery of concept art of any sort. Pretty much a bare bones collection and not much else.

Some games are quite entertaining however, I had fun playing Virtua Racing which here feels a lot more closer to its Arcade counterpart than any version before it, and Outrun which is also a nice conversion overall. Other games like Space Harrier suffer a bit from this 3D graphical update, but it still plays moderately well. However games like Golden Axe suffered a lot in terms of graphics and gameplay, and are quite a chore to play to say the least. I can say out of all the games featured, Golden Axe is pretty much the sole game that did not translate well into it.

The compilation doesn't seem to offer too much of a variety on the titles picked, and I could speculate that there would be still more space used to feature more games from the 2500 series into it. Quite frankly 9 games is just too small of a number for something like the PS2 to feature. With all this I would imagine that games like Phantasy Star I and II could never be featured into this compilation, but it is something to dream about anyway.

Is the game worth buying even with such a diminutive selection? Well yeah, some of its titles are still enjoyable and fun to play, at least with anyone who enjoyed such on the Genesis or Arcade cabinets. I will state that this collection might not be suitable for everyone other than fans of the titles featured, whether said games did good or poorly in the remakes overall. On the other hand there is really not much to feature in said collection and quite frankly you would not miss on much if you decide not to acquire it in the long run, as harsh as this sounds. Again one of the problems being not many games being featured and with the power capacity that PS2 offers this feels like a rip-off considering how many more titles we could had the chance to try out of the 2500 series line.

But it is something of a collectible that could go along with another Sega compilation game for the PS2 that focused on the Genesis titles, that one being the Sega Genesis Collection, and the other being Sonic Mega Collection Plus. I would only recommend this game as a companion for the other Sega-oriented titles to fill up your nostalgia fix.

Community review by CptRetroBlue (November 14, 2018) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.