Classic Gaming Compilations

With the increasing complexity and cost of modern games, sometimes it's nice to kick back and relive older, simpler days. But buying aging consoles and games can be a risky business, particularly when some of the classic systems (such as the Super Nintendo) are more than a decade old at this point - systems can break down, save batteries die out, and sometimes games just plain don't work. Classic game compilations for modern systems, however, are an excellent way of getting around this. For a reasonable price you can get a collection of classic games on a single disc - aside from being more reliable, it's also a lot more convenient than hooking up old systems and digging through your collection of old game cartridges. Here's a look at a handful of the more notable classic collections that have hit the market in recent years.

First up we have Sonic Mega Collection, released for a variety of systems, such as the Playstation 2 and Gamecube. It compiles all the main original Sonic games from the Sega Genesis, as well as some spin-offs and completely unrelated titles. The emulation quality here is excellent, and it's hard to argue with the selection. But one annoying quirk is that not every game is available at first - you have to unlock certain games by playing others X amount of times. Thankfully, the collection counts every time you load up a game as "playing" it, so you can load up a game, then exit, and repeat the process until you unlock the hidden game you want. Still, it's a very repetitive, tedious process, and the collection would be better if it did away with it entirely. But this is the only sour point of an otherwise excellent deal.

Another compilation from Sega is the Sega Genesis Collection (also a multi-platform release). This includes the first two Sonic titles in addition to a much wider range of material. There's everything from fighters to role playing games here, and while the quality of the games themselves is hit or miss the collection still has some real gems. Unfortunately, the sound emulation leaves something to be desired, especially compared to the quality on Sonic Mega Collection. The music sounds distorted and tinny, and some games even have problems with their sound effects (like with the Sonic games, where some of the sound effects don't even play when they're supposed to).

Finally, we come to Mega Man: Anniversary collection, released for the Playstation 2, Xbox, and Gamecube. Like the Sonic collection, this compiles all of the entries in this series' original games. Unlike the Sonic collection, this release is (thankfully) mostly devoid of the need to unlock things - all of the main games are available from the start, with the only two unlockables being two arcade spin-offs which most people will likely not care about anyway. Extra features include an episode of the old Mega Man anime (for the PS2 version) and an interview with series creator Keiji Inafune (for the Gamecube version). The Xbox version, released after the PS2 and GC versions, combines both of these extras.

This is just a very small sample of what's out there. Classic compilations are thankfully becoming more and more common. In addition, for more recent systems such as the Wii and PS3, there are download services available which feature many older games. But as one concern I mentioned earlier was the rising costs of games and consoles, I wanted to focus more on compilations for last generation consoles such as the PS2.