Sega Mega Drive Classics (Switch) Review

Classic mini consoles have made a name for themselves over the last few years. Nintendo really got it right, Sony has just released theirs, and Sega has had third parties trying and not managing to make the same impact. But Sega has been bringing their old games out in compilations before Nintendo or Sony got it together. The other current gen consoles got this a few months ago, and now finally the Mega Drive collection has made its way to the Switch.

Like the Mega Drive collections before it, Sega has dusted off a lot of the usual suspects. 51 classics including Comix Zone, Streets of Rage (1-3), Shinobi, Phantasy Star (2-4), Vectorman, ToeJam & Earl (1&2), and of course Golden Axe (1-3). I could go on and on, if you’ve got one of these collections over the years you’ll be very familiar with a lot of these titles.

There are of course a bunch of Sonic games on there; Sonic 1 and 2, spinball and 3D blast (and Doctor Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine at a stretch). Now I’m sure you’ve noticed the obvious exclusions, and no, there is no Sonic 3 or Sonic & Knuckles in this collection. It’s a shame these two games seem to be MIA due to licensing issues still. Not only that, there is a lack of the Ecco the Dolphin series. While I don’t enjoy them much myself, they’re well known Mega Drive games. Another strange exclusion from the Switch collection is the Wonder Boy games, though they are present on the other consoles Mega Drive Collections. Never fear though, Sega is still including the Mega Drive version of Virtua Fighter 2 as part of whatever deal they made with the Devil back in the 90s.
 

Here’s the thing, even if half the games in the collection aren’t much fun, there is still about 25 other games to pick up the slack. With Sega bringing the Sega Ages games to the Switch, it feels like they’re missing a chance to make a collection that gives that care and attention to individual games. Regardless, this collection can easily keep you busy with Sega games for well over 70 hours, given the RPGs on there. While I’m not a fan of the quantity over quality approach, it’s hard to fault the collection given it still has some real potent nostalgia and fun games in there.

The Mega Drive collection has been given a new interface this time around. You have a 3D Sega themed room complete with TV, Mega Drive, and shelves of games. It looks neat, but soon as you want to play a game it needlessly makes it a slower process. Instead of a list of games to select from straight away, you have to select the games collection and then go through the shelves to pick out the game you want. Given they’ve gone to all this effort to make this retro room for your games, it’s a shame they didn’t try to recreate the box art or cartridges or give a basic synopsis for the game let alone a manual.

Way back when there was a Mega Drive collection for the Xbox 360 (and PS3), I remember there being extras. They contained unlockable games from the Master System and arcade. It’s a real shame that they’ve taken another step backward and haven’t included this in some form again. In the way of extras this time there are achievements and challenges. Challenges chuck you into the game often into a tough spot or require you to hit a certain goal. This is a fun way to add some extra play into these games, but it depends on how much you’ll want to go back to some of these games.

While it’s awesome to have access to such a hefty collection of games in one bundle, it was difficult to make the most of having them on the go with the lack of a D-pad on the Joycon controllers. I would recommend using a Pro controller or a third party controller with a D-pad if you can. Don’t get me wrong, no game is unplayable in handheld because of it. It can feel awkward, although the control sticks also work if you don’t mind using those.

When it comes to the Mega Drive Collection emulation, it has really varied in the past. It’s hard to know how every game in this version holds up given the sheer volume of games. The biggest glitch I came across actually happened outside of the games, when I was trying to open the extras option for individual games to bring up a challenge. This caused a sound glitch that sounded very unpleasant briefly.  This could be patched out at some point you’re reading this. If the biggest glitch doesn’t even occur within the games then the collection must be alright.

While the collection does lack extras outside of challenges, it does offer some extra options when it comes to enjoying these games. There are multiple visual filters that cover the usual like the usual CRT filter, and few that smooth out the pixels. Some actually do a good job of making games look nicer than they are at pixel perfect. You can also have the game be in a mirror image so everything’s the opposite way, or turn off the sprite limiter which could have unintended effects on games. The additions that help make these games easier to go back to is the addition of save states (even better a quick save state option), the rewind and fast forward buttons. If you make a wrong move or are punished by some old school difficulty spikes, you can just rewind your way back out of it until you get it right. The Fast Forward can turn out to be just as helpful when tackling some of those RPGs with a lot of slow text or slow battles. It’s great to have options like this in old game collections, although it is always at risk of seeing what’s behind the curtain. Rewinding can help you avoid any damage as you make your way through the levels of games that are purposefully difficult to keep you gaming for longer. When you’re not being held back some games don’t last long at all, or turn out to be boring without that challenge.

Online play is available and it looks like a neat set up. While the matchmaking searches for someone to join you can start up another game until it finds someone. There are also online leaderboards you can aim for.

At the end of the day, even with the lack of notable Sega classics, games removed from previous collections and the weaker titles chucked in there, there is still a lot of good Sega games and some oddities worth playing at least once. There are hours upon hours of gameplay here, all the RPGs could keep you going until the next time Sega re-releases them. For the price, you’re getting a lot of great Mega Drive games. Hopefully, any future collection will give us games from other points of Sega history (Jet Set Radio Future please).

Rating: 3.5/5