SEGA MegaDrive Classics – Xbox One

Get those rose-tinted glasses on and delve back into your childhood with the selection of great classics in SEGA MegaDrive Classics.

Ah, Memories

Ah the good old days. When games were on cartridges, DLC wasn’t a thing and Woolworths was. SEGA Megadrive Classics will transport you back to the early days of console gaming with a great selection of titles. You can play games at the original size, stretch it 4:3 image to fit the screen or blur them across a 16:9 fill if you prefer. Choosing to stretch the image rather than being forced to oddly makes it more palatable. You can eliminate borders and play at 50 or 60Hz too. Everything plays at full-speed. Analogue sticks and the D-pad both work with each title. You can now save and load anywhere in the game, which is excellent albeit not in keeping with the nostalgic spirit of the collection.

Things get even better when studying to comprehensive list of games. There are over 40 titles, almost all of them are icons of the time with only a couple of filler titles. The Virtua Fighter 2 port will just remind you of how irrelevant it was back then. But all the great are here – Streets of Rage, Golden Axe, Toejam & Earl, Bonanza Bros, and the unforgettable Gunstar Heroes. Three Phantasy Star RPGs and two Shining Force game are in there too. They might not have aged well, but it easy to lose hours upon hours completing them all. Sword of Vermillion is a welcome addition. Columns and its lesser known sequel even get a look in.

Each game comes with “Museum” prompt. This allows you to read about how fun little facts about the games. “Extras” includes interviews with a range of SEGA programmers including Rieko Kodama, Kataoka and Katagiri.

There’s so much to love about this compilation. Even the price is reasonable. Sure the latter-day Sonics are absent and Ecco the Dolphin is nowhere is sight. But with a host of memorable and fun titles it’s hard to dwell on what’s missing.

Final Thoughts

SEGA Mega Drive Classics is a great package, offering over 40 titles for a very reasonable price. The quality of life improvements such as game saves make the often tough titles more accessible. Online play and leaderboards give a decent amount of extras on top of the broad range of action games, RPGs, platformers, and everything in between. For many, the nostalgia will be enough to give it your money. But it’s also the best way to experience some of the Megadrive’s best titles for those who may have missed out.