RB Community List: 30 Best Retro Gaming Compilations

[jmbarnes101]

Off the top of my head I would go with a couple of things; all Wii related and Data East should be included as well.

Kirby's Dream Collection
Kirby's Adventure
Kirby's Dreamland 1-3
Kirby Super Star
Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
Plus Kirby's Return to Dreamland Challenge Stages and bonus features.

Metroid Prime Trilogy
Metroid Prime
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

SNK Arcade Classics vol 1
King of Fighters Anthology
Metal Slug Anthology
Samurai Shodown Anthology
I'm too lazy to list all these out on my phone

[alienjesus]

Silly question maybe, but would Animal Crossing count? If you use one of those online code generators or an action replay you can get like 15 NES games in no time, plus, y'know, Animal Crossing.

Maybe a seperate article on games within other games is something we should consider too?

[Tanooki]

Here's a different one, both PSP based, Capcom stuff.

Capcom Classics Collection Remixed

1941: Counter Attack
Avengers
Bionic Commando
Black Tiger
Block Block
Captain Commando
Final Fight
Forgotten Worlds
Last Duel
Legendary Wings
Magic Sword
Mega Twins
Quiz & Dragons
Section Z
Side Arms: Hyper Dyne
The Speed Rumbler
Street Fighter
Strider
Three Wonders
Varth

Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded

1942
1943
1943 Kai
Commando
Eco Fighters
Exed Exes
Ghosts'n Goblins
Ghouls'n Ghosts
Super Ghouls'n Ghosts
Gun.Smoke
The King of Dragons
Knights of the Round
Mercs
Pirate Ship Higemaru
SonSon
Street Fighter II: The World Warrior
Street Fighter II′: Champion Edition
Street Fighter II′ Turbo: Hyper Fighting
Vulgus

These were really fantastic to have on the go back then, and given the ease of getting one, and hacked no less today it wouldn't be hard to dig into.

Considering it has never really been put into an official package before with licensing, wouldn't the 30 game collection on an unhacked NES Classic Edition count for this too?

How about a Humble Bundle? A year and a half ago they put out the Neo Geo 25th Anniversary bundle. There were over 20 games, each had individual installers, some added SNK music soundtracks were included, and best of all they sold the actual arcade ROM sets to each of those titles all bound up in a convenient ZIP file too! Here's the games:
- Art of Fighting 2
- Baseball Stars 2
- Blazing Star
- Fatal Fury Special
- Garou: Mark of the Wolves
- Iron Clad
- King of the Monsters
- Metal Slug
- Metal Slug 2
- Metal Slug 3
- Metal Slug X
- Neo Turf Masters
- Pulstar
- Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers
- Samurai Shodown II
- Samurai Shodown V Special
- Sengoku 3
- Shock Troopers
- Shock Troopers: 2nd Squad
- The King of Fighters 2000
- The King of Fighters 2002
- The Last Blade

Seeing the history here pop up as I'm still writing this, I 100% vote across the board for everything jmbarnes just posted as I was going to actually write all that down.

[Ziggy]

I might be a little off here, but in my mind the greatest game compilation of all time is...

Super Mario All-Stars (SNES, Wii)



Four of the greatest games of all time (five if you count the Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World version on the SNES) in glorious 16-bit graphics. Nuff said. And with the Wii version getting a Nintendo Selects reprint, it's an absolute steal right now.

~20 games on one disc is great, but sometimes less is more. Ever find when you have too many things to chose from that it's harder to pick one?

[retrosportsgamer]

I think the Genesis collection is of course worthy.
I also think the PS2 Capcom Classics Collections vol 1 & 2 are great as well

Vol 1
1942
1943: The Battle of Midway
1943 Kai
Bionic Commando
Commando
Exed Exes
Final Fight
Forgotten Worlds
Ghosts'n Goblins
Ghouls'n Ghosts
Gun.Smoke
Legendary Wings
Mercs
Pirate Ship Higemaru
Section Z
SonSon
Street Fighter II: The World Warrior
Street Fighter II′: Champion Edition
Street Fighter II′ Turbo: Hyper Fighting
Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts (SNES)
Trojan
Vulgus

Vol 2
1941: Counter Attack
Avengers
Black Tiger
Block Block
Captain Commando
Eco Fighters
The King of Dragons
Knights of the Round
Last Duel (video game)
Magic Sword
Mega Twins
Quiz & Dragons: Capcom Quiz Game
Side Arms Hyper Dyne
Street Fighter
Strider
Super Street Fighter II Turbo
The Speed Rumbler
Three Wonders
Tiger Road
Varth: Operation Thunderstorm

Good support for these, and I would list these over the PSP versions (Remixed, Reloaded), which are almost all the same games (although not split by date like Vol 1, 2 are) with a couple missing in the portable.

PSP versions are great, but definitive would be the console versions imo.

[jmbarnes101]

I was going to mention Mario All-Stars as well plus the Gamecube Legend of Zelda Collector's Edition.

@Tanooki - that Humble Bundle pack was too good of a deal to turn down.

[retrosportsgamer]

I'd like to suggest the first Taito Legends. A very solid collection featuring:

Battle Shark
Bubble Bobble
Colony 7
Continental Circus
Electric Yo-Yo
Elevator Action
Exzisus
Gladiator
Great Swordsman
Jungle Hunt
The New Zealand Story
The Ninja Kids
Operation Thunderbolt
Operation Wolf
Phoenix
Plotting
Plump Pop
Rainbow Islands
Rastan
Return of the Invaders
Space Gun
Space Invaders
Space Invaders Part 2
Super Qix
Thunder Fox
Tokio
Tube It
Volfied
Zoo Keeper

Arkanoid and Chase HQ could not be on this, because according to Empire Interactive (the devs), there was a pending lawsuit/issues with Atari & Breakout on the former, and car licensing issues on the latter. But for what it's missing, it still features a few rare titles that were only available in Japan such as Plump Pop. I got to play a lot of these in the arcades and it was nice to see them here. I'd also go with the second one but the PS2 and PC (Xbox in EU only) versions have different games, due to porting issues.

Taito Legends 1 makes my short list, making a separate post for 2, which has all those quirky differences, which we'll probably just detail out in any published piece.

[ExedExes]

Intellvision Lives on the DS is probably the best version, because of the things BSD had said about it - better "pad" emulation and the D&D games under different names, makes it the one with the most games on it too!

I was going to say MAT1-3, but I really do NOT like the menu interfaces on the first two at all (Gamecube), button presses can be counter-intuitive at times and doesn't take you where you need to go. Plus starting/continuing a game can be awkward as the Start button on the controller is used and it also PAUSES the game. I feel the emulation is a little uneven in spots, at least on the GC version. Avoid MAT 1 on the PC too; it's just a repackaging of older Midway compilations from the Win 95 era. Sadly, even though MAT 2 on PC had the original Mortal Kombat (the console versions only had 2 & 3), it suffers from that evil StarForce DRM (which also plagued the PC ports of Taito Legends 2 and Namco Museum 50th Anniversary), AND you have to get a patch to fix an error with nearly all the games having no sound. The only thing right about the PC version is that Wizard of Wor runs at the speed it is supposed to, the Gamecube and PS2 emulation is way too fast on that game, and therefore is totally unplayable. Unsure on the Xbox version.

Aside from SF Rush having issues, the PC version of MAT 3 really isn't that bad. I still have to get that on the Gamecube.

Taito Legends 1 makes my short list, making a separate post for 2, which has all those quirky differences, which we'll probably just detail out in any published piece.

As for those quirky differences, let me channel my inner CRTGAMER and direct you to a piece I found straight from the devs as to the "porting issues" they encountered with TL2 - at this post here.

[Ziggy]

Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles (PSP)



The back cover states, "Together... At Last!" Indeed. Two games that belong together, but never were. While it's not my personal favorite, many agree that Rondo of Blood was the pinnacle of the original Castlevania series. And for good reason. Symphony of the Night, often imitated but never duplicated, and on many people's greatest games of all time lists. This game was big enough to define it's own subgenre: Metroidvania. So, two of the greatest games of all time in one collection. And, oh yeah, a 2.5D remake of Rondo and some mini games for good measure.

This was the first and only time that Rondo saw a release outside of Japan. It's a crime that it was only released on the PSP. Konami should be brought up on charges for not releasing this collection on a home console.

And again, yeah, 20 games on one disc is great and all. But this time I argue quality over quantity.

[retrosportsgamer]

Considering it has never really been put into an official package before with licensing, wouldn't the 30 game collection on an unhacked NES Classic Edition count for this too?

How about a Humble Bundle? A year and a half ago they put out the Neo Geo 25th Anniversary bundle. There were over 20 games, each had individual installers, some added SNK music soundtracks were included, and best of all they sold the actual arcade ROM sets to each of those titles all bound up in a convenient ZIP file too! Here's the games:
- Art of Fighting 2
- Baseball Stars 2
- Blazing Star
- Fatal Fury Special
- Garou: Mark of the Wolves
- Iron Clad
- King of the Monsters
- Metal Slug
- Metal Slug 2
- Metal Slug 3
- Metal Slug X
- Neo Turf Masters
- Pulstar
- Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers
- Samurai Shodown II
- Samurai Shodown V Special
- Sengoku 3
- Shock Troopers
- Shock Troopers: 2nd Squad
- The King of Fighters 2000
- The King of Fighters 2002
- The Last Blade

Has to be a physical collection you can own for the shelf. NES classic is a neat suggestion, but doesn't fit the scope of the project. Humble bundles certainly don't (although I appreciated the idea that the staunchest physical non-vaporware supporter would be a proponent for digital titles).