Sonic Mega Collection + ~ This is the best there is?

Post by **Mozgus** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 3:02 am

So this is widely considered to be the best Sonic compilation ever. I think I tried it on gamecube long ago, but I just got it on PS2 and wow....I can't play this. Maybe I'm pickier than most, but these sound effects are horribly emulated. Practically everything is off pitch to the point that it hurts my ears.

My main reason for downloading this was in preparation for Ristar being one of the next Together Retros here. Fortunately it doesn't sound too bad here. For some reason, the noises sound accurate and there's no other issues. Good to know. A shame that all of these games are actually playing with thick black frames on all sides, and not truly in fullscreen. Genesis was beautiful when properly scaled up. I don't know why they couldn't offer that here.

The worst offender here, out of what I've tried, is Comix Zone. No only does it sound bad, but it has additional frame rate dips and looping stutters (visual and aural). I'm not joking. It's total garbage here. I can't enjoy it at all. I might as well be playing the European GBA port. What a shame...

Overall, you'll get about the same disappointing experience if you were to emulate these on PS2 with the homebrewed Gens. I expected Sega to do better than an unpaid single developer did in his free time, but I guess I was wrong. I just fear that when Sonic newbies bought this game, they realized there were emulation faults, and that this does not truly represent these classic titles.

Post by **Doctor Fugue** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:44 am

I have the Xbox version and found it to be off as well. Comix Zone is definitely top 5 for me on the Genesis and I was disappointed with this version.

I would rather they put in some other good games instead of the Mean Bean and Game Gear games.

The best compilation I've seen was the Japanese GameCube release of Sonic Gems Collection. It has Sonic CD, Sonic the Fighters, Sonic R, both Vectorman games and ALL THREE STREETS OF RAGE games. They took out the Streets games for the NA release to keep the ESRB rating lower, apparently. The disc also has some GG games, I think Sonic 2 is one of them. Anyway, not a lot of pure classic Sonic, but a great mix of games. I can't remember exactly how the emulation was, but I remember the Sonic CD game being the PC version.

Post by **Espio 1919** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 5:45 am

Ya, I have read that the PS2/Xbox ports of the game suffer from a lot of problems derived from poor emulation of the games themselves. I've owned the GC version for years and don't recall ever having any problem with stuff like framerate/graphical problems, I'm thinking it may be because the PS2/Xbox ports were rushed (even though they came out nearly two years later) to respond to multi-platform Sonic games becoming the norm; seeing how the first couple of years after Dreamcast's death, Sonic was exclusive to Nintendo hardware.

Post by **Mozgus** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:04 pm

Anyone try Megaman Anniversary Collection on PS2? I had it on Gamecube before and remember it being pretty solid, although they swapped A and B controls, which totally fucked me. I heard PS2 has the proper button mapping.

Post by **Flak Beard** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:19 pm

Mozgus wrote:Anyone try Megaman Anniversary Collection on PS2? I had it on Gamecube before and remember it being pretty solid, although they swapped A and B controls, which totally fucked me. I heard PS2 has the proper button mapping.

I had pre-ordered the GCN version of MMAC, only to find out about the button switching a couple days before. I switched over to the PS2 version and the buttons are mapped just fine.

As far as the Sonic Collection goes, I believe it's an issue with the PS2/Xbox ports. I have the GCN version and the sound seems pretty solid. You might want to try the Sega Genesis Collection for PS2, as Ristar is on there as well. The emulation is good, and you can save your game anywhere like an emulator save state.

Post by **Mozgus** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:50 pm

Flak Beard wrote:I had pre-ordered the GCN version of MMAC, only to find out about the button switching a couple days before. I switched over to the PS2 version and the buttons are mapped just fine.

As far as the Sonic Collection goes, I believe it's an issue with the PS2/Xbox ports. I have the GCN version and the sound seems pretty solid. You might want to try the Sega Genesis Collection for PS2, as Ristar is on there as well. The emulation is good, and you can save your game anywhere like an emulator save state.

Ok I'm getting the Genesis collection then. Does it display in full screen? Shame it doesnt have Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

Post by **Flak Beard** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:56 pm

Mozgus wrote:
Flak Beard wrote:I had pre-ordered the GCN version of MMAC, only to find out about the button switching a couple days before. I switched over to the PS2 version and the buttons are mapped just fine.

As far as the Sonic Collection goes, I believe it's an issue with the PS2/Xbox ports. I have the GCN version and the sound seems pretty solid. You might want to try the Sega Genesis Collection for PS2, as Ristar is on there as well. The emulation is good, and you can save your game anywhere like an emulator save state.
Ok I'm getting the Genesis collection then. Does it display in full screen? Shame it doesnt have Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

I'm pretty sure it's full screen, but I will check when I get home. The sound is not 100% perfect, but I think it's better than the Sonic Collection. I agree it stinks that Sonic 3 & Knuckles aren't on it, and it's missing the Streets of Rage games as well.

Post by **Scooter** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 5:15 pm

But the Sega Genesis Collection does have an arcade accurate version of Zaxxon as a hidden treat and all you have to do to access it is finish one level on Sonic 1!

I haven't tried all the games on the disc, but I found the Sonic and Ecco emulations to be pretty well done.

It absolutely blows my mind that any company such as Sega that is making such a large portion of it's livelihood based on the legacy of their old games could put out an emulated collection that doesn't do the games justice such as on Sega Mega Collection.

Post by **ott0bot** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 5:28 pm

Flak Beard wrote:
Mozgus wrote:
Flak Beard wrote:I had pre-ordered the GCN version of MMAC, only to find out about the button switching a couple days before. I switched over to the PS2 version and the buttons are mapped just fine.

As far as the Sonic Collection goes, I believe it's an issue with the PS2/Xbox ports. I have the GCN version and the sound seems pretty solid. You might want to try the Sega Genesis Collection for PS2, as Ristar is on there as well. The emulation is good, and you can save your game anywhere like an emulator save state.
Ok I'm getting the Genesis collection then. Does it display in full screen? Shame it doesnt have Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
I'm pretty sure it's full screen, but I will check when I get home. The sound is not 100% perfect, but I think it's better than the Sonic Collection. I agree it stinks that Sonic 3 & Knuckles aren't on it, and it's missing the Streets of Rage games as well.

Most games are full screen, and it has alot of good titles. What's especailly nice is that it has alll the Phantasy Star games from the Genesis. Too bad there's no Shining Force!!!! It's got some cool production videos as well, and you unlock more by playing the games. I think the emulation is pretty decent, sound can be a bit off in places, but the controls feel solid.

Post by **Mozgus** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 5:40 pm

Oh god what the hell? I finally tried Sonic 1 in the Mega Collection. Right off the bat, the sound goes nuts into a static mess for 3 seconds, and then the rest of the stage, the sound effects were randomly falling offsync by a half second. Pathetic.