The greatest compilation ever?

[RadarScope1]

I am bored right now and so in the interest of sparking discussion amongst us retro junkies, I am going to write an overly long and ridiculous post. Racketboy - you might even get a story idea out of this.

This post is in praise of possibly the single greatest game cartridge ever created. Of course, it's a compilation so it really cannot count as the greatest "game" ever, but as a comp or an actual, physical game it's got to be right up there near or at the top of the list.

It's the Super Mario Allstars + Super Mario World cart for the SNES. Think about it.

There's a number of ways you can slice this. Firstly, SMB and SMB3 are generally regarded as extremely influential games and 2D masterpieces. They're both touchstones in the gaming cannon. So two of the most important games of all time are on this cart.

Second, every one of these games would be at or near the top of most people's list of some of the most fun games of all time. Not to mention some of the best/most fun 2D games. They're certainly the cream of the crop among platformers.

Third is the inclusion of SMW, which really took all the good stuff from the 8-bit games and refined it to 96 levels of near perfection IMO.

Fourth, is the Japanese version of SM2, which can't be found anywhere else in North Ameria but on this cart (and the first SMAS).

Finally, everything is in full 16-bit, colorful glory and was updated by Nintendo itself, not a second party developer.

So is the single greatest game ever or what? ... Like I said, I'm pretty bored right now. But this is something I've actually thought about before. And I felt like starting something that might turn into an actual thread here.

My question/story idea for Racketboy is, what are some of the greatest compilations out there? There's been a lot of good ones in the last several years for a variety of platforms. What do you guys think?

[racketboy]

The SMW/SMAS cart is high on my list -- it's the first one that came to my mind.

The Sega Genesis Collection for the PS2 (and PSP, I guess) has a great selection of quality titles for a reasonable price.
The Sonic Mega Collections are highly recommended too -- if only Sonic CD was on them instead of the separate Sonic Gems.
The Capcom collections on the PS2 and XBox look quite nice as well with lots of arcade-accurate titles on there.

I'll probably be doing an article on this later on.

[The Apprentice]

Sonic Jam is a good one, I hear. Especially with it's 3D lobby where you run around doing minigames as Sonic and Tails.

[d123456]

My vote would probably go to Sega Ages: wonderboy for PS2 and some of those Dreamcast discs that have like 4 or 3 shmups on them.

[gradualmeltdown]

I agree Super Mario Allstars is hard to beat. Perfect upgrade of great games and nice bonus content. For me Street Fighter Collection 2 on Playstation has spot on ports of WW,CE, and Hyper SF2. Others I like :

Capcom Classics Collection PS2 awesome value!
Street Fighter Alpha Anthology PS2 does anyone know if these are the best ports?

[racketboy]

some of those Dreamcast discs that have like 4 or 3 shmups on them.

Those are hacked ISOs -- not official compilations

[Ender]

Megaman Anniversary Collection is just awesome in my opinion.

You get all the original series ones and few options to help (remember difficulty was crazy) Now you can save, choose diff. level etc)

A must have I think.

[fastbilly1]

My gripe with Mario Allstars is that they modified some of the timing in Mario 2 just enough to throw me off. A small problem that does not effect most people, but dont get me started on Mario Advanced.

For compilations, other than those previously mentioned, I would say Mother 1&2 for the GBA. Its Earthbound Zero and Earthbound for those of you who dont know the series. The games are not your typical rpg. They look like a modern day Dragon Warrior, but the level of comedy and pure "what the hell is going on moments" make up for any folly they may have. I mean when was the last time you were fighting a hippie and a possess car? Granted there was that town in Mother2/Earthbound that is what the world would be like once the Blue Man Group started their world dominance (they had their base of operation just hadn’t installed the pvc drums yet).

Whats the biggest problem with this one? Well it’s a Japanese only release, even if starman.net is trying to change that. And I would say that 90% of the modern video game audience have not heard of it outside of Super Smash Bros where Ness is an amalgamation of all the other characters, except Jeff, and we all know how well non-Square Japanese rpgs sell in the US.

[GagaMan]

Sonic Jam may have less games than mega Collection, but it's much better value for money. Each game has three difiiculty modes, a special zone only mode, and a time attack mode for every game, as well as manuals and that awesome 3D Sonic World section with all the artwork, videos and music you could want. The games it's missing (Spinball, 3D, Mean Bean) are nothing special anyway.

[kinn]

All Stars + Mario World would be class.

Actually suprised that Nintendo hasnt made another compliation pack since All Stars. Could have All Stars + Mario Wold + Yoshi's Island all in one package. Then again I guess they probably make more money by selling them seperately on VC.

Would love to see some sort of Square-Enix compliation as well. Maybe a Blu Ray disk containing the first 10 FF games perhaps? But again I doubt they would offer that much when they can try and sell remakes in single game packages...