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I just wanna for starters that Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection, as a whole, is a great piece of software. It takes almost everything worth a damn (and a few things that aren’t) that Sega did in the 8 and 16 bit eras and throws it onto one disk. I am totally fine with this. Everything looks and plays just as it did back on the Genesis/Arcade/Master System.Some might look even better, As there is a “filter” that smooths out the games. It probably makes them look better if you have an HD TV. I don’t, but the filtering is still somewhat noticable on a standard definition TV too. I found that in certain games it made the text too hard to read. Again, probably would be fine on an HD TV.
That being said, I decided to review each of the games I play through on the collection individually. This will consist mostly of the RPGs, but there could be something else thrown in for good measure every so often.
So lets begin! First up to bat is Phantasy Star, a game that was released on the Sega Master System back in 1988. Its the game that proves, for me at least, that the old ways are not always best. The tricky thing about reviewing games like this is that you have to look at how it would have been viewed back in 1988 and compare it with what the RPG standard was at that time.
Alot of RPGs at the time played in a similar way. They were all pretty simple, both from a story and game play perspective. Phantasy Star is fairly light in the story department. You’re given a splattering of plot at the beginning, and a little bit at the end. I realize that most RPGs at the time were like this, it just seems like Phantasy Star had even less.
Also, like many other RPGs of the time, it was never clear as to what the player was supposed to do next. I guess this is supposed to encourage exploration, and thats fine, but when you encounter monsters every other step, and you don’t know if you should go east or west...it tends to wear on your nerves. A general direction would be nice every once and awhile.
Another thing I just could not stand about this game was the sound effects, of which there were three: Bleep, Bloop, and Screech. This is not acceptable even by 1988 standards and after awhile made me want to mute my TV. The only redeeming factor is that the musical score was actually quite good. I really enjoyed the overworld theme on the first planet.
I will say this game does have something over the original Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, and that is battle animation. Ok, so you can’t see your characters like you can in Final Fantasy, battles are first person like Dragon Quest. However, unlike those two, the Phantasy Star monsters are animated. Decently well too, I might add. The backgrounds for battles are also quite nice for the most part, which I guess is good because you’ll be seeing them a lot; Random encounters are quite frequent.
Then there are the dungeons, which was my least favorite part of the game. They are first person, which I suppose could almost be a marvel that they achieved a semi-3D effect for the game. Back in ‘88 it probably blew our minds, and they still look alright. They’re kinda drabwith little detail, but they look fine. It’s from a bygone era, though, The kind of era where gamers did their own mapping. No minimap or anything to help you. What is this HUD you speak of? It does not exist within this game. Other than that, I found the dungeons rather boring, and often times confusing.
So I admit I didn’t wanna spend hours mapping everything. Thankfully we have Gamefaqs, Where other people do that work for us.
After every battle instead of just getting your cash or loot, the enemy drops a chest, which could sometimes shoot a dart, or explode damaging your entire party. It got to the point late in the game that I didn’t even wanna open chests for fear of them exploding. And they do ALOT of damage. I found this incredibly annoying.
Phantasy Star is a game I really wanted to like. However, everytime I did something would come along to slap me in the face and give me a reason not to. Actually somewhere in the middle, I actually did start to enjoy it. Joe said that this could be a form of Stockholm Syndrome. He might just be right. Other than that small part in the middle there was barely a time I wasn’t praying that the game was almost over.
So, I guess I don’t really need to add this final part. If you read the rest of the review you should pretty much be able to guess my opinion on this game. However, I really can’t say to buy it, rent it, or avoid it. As it comes with almost 40 other games. So I’ll say this: by all means, buy Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection. Its great! Phantasy Star however. I’d avoid it unless you enjoy mental anguish, or are just a long time fan of the series.
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System: |
Xbox 360
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| Genre: |
RPG
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| Experience: |
Finished the game
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