The great console/computer wars were great fun in the nineties, weren't they? Oh, the merciless mocking of Jaguar and ST owners. I wasn't excused from this as I managed to convince my Dad that the Amiga CD32 was where it was at. Oops.
Our house was all about Commodore and Nintendo to be honest... Sega didn't get a look in. But it didn't stop me playing on my mates' Mega Drives and Game Gears though. So this 30+ game compendium of the Mega Drive for the Sony PSP is not just a great blast from the past but also an introduction to many a game I missed out on from yesteryear.
I'm not going through every game on here (are you mad?) but merely the highlights and lowlights. The obvious highlights are Sonic The Hedgehog and Sonic 2; these games just haven't aged at all within their genre. Even if you compare it to something like Viewtiful Joe which is the best pacey side-on platformer I've played since, well, Sonic! These games are so much fun and transport me back to being 12 years old when I was playing it on the Game Gear. Skill!
The biggest shock on here is another platformer called VectorMan. It came out in 1995 and has graphics more reminiscent of the PlayStation than the Mega Drive. Plays very nicely too, and reminds me of under-rated Amiga "hit" Zool. Also enjoyable are a great 2D version of Virtua Fighter 2, the robbing excellence of 2D scroller Bonanza Brothers, the chopper hi-jinks of Super Thunder Blade and my favourite ever game of the puzzle genre (yeah, BETTER than Tetris) - Columns.
The games that haven't stood the test of time are enjoyable in a way for about five minutes as you point and laugh at the jerky gameplay and bogus graphics. Top of this pile is Shinobi 3. It's an uncontrollable mess, and I have no idea how this series was ever popular if this steaming turd is anything to go by. Alex Kidd is cutesy but the collision detection seems pretty bad and I never liked the character much to be honest; I was always quite pleased when he got killed, which isn't so good. Flicky is an awful Chuckie Egg-ish clone. And Altered Beast is pretty poor but mildly entertaining, mainly for when the character upgrades to the beast and the player can shout "I AM BEAST NOW! ROAR!" That'll be just me that does that, then?
Other games featured that I'm sure other people love but don't click with me: the Golden Axe trilogy (too slow... swing the sword, already!) and the Ecco trilogy (I can't get past the opening levels and never could as a kid either! What gives?) And there are a load of unlockable mini-games and interviews and a most excellent feature that allows the player to save their progress on every game separately.
Basically, this is essential for any PSP owner over the age of 25. It's ideal for those ten minute blasts that you bought the PSP for, and at it's current retail price of just under £15 you can't go wrong. One glaring omission: it doesn't sing "SAYY-GAAAR" in a robotic voice at me when it loads. I was sad for a couple of seconds anyway.
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