You can’t help but admit you like the benefits of newer consoles: wireless controllers, better video connections, faster load times. So is it so wrong to want to be able to play a bunch of old games on your new hardware? Of course not.

With classic game compilations you can easily get a solid collection of retro games without spending a lot of cash. In fact, picking up one of these retail packs will be much more cost effective than picking out just a few Virtual Console games on the Wii. Here is the original XBox’s compilation library.

Sonic Mega Collection Plus

If you are an old-school Sonic fan and want a way to play the collection on newer hardware, the Sonic Mega Collection Plus is the way to go. Unfortunately, this collection only includes the vanilla Genesis games as opposed to its successors on the Sega CD, 32X, and Saturn. However, most of the good stuff was on the Genesis, so there isn’t much to complain about. Sonic Mega Collection is a top-notch Sonic anthology with plenty to keep you busy. The only disappointment is the lackluster interface when compared to Sonic Jam on the Saturn. It does however, have a wealth of extras such as Sonic Comics, Illustrations, & various Video Clips. This “Plus” version includes the mid-game saving feature that was missing in the Gamecube’s original release.

The Games

Conversion Quality: Excellent
If you’ve experienced many of the commercial attempts at emulating Sega Genesis games in the past, you can appreciate some of the high-quality emulation demonstrated in this package, particularly in the sound department.

Price Point: $13

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Capcom Classics Collection

Given my interest in 2D fighting and side-scrolling brawlers, it should come as no suprise that Capcom is one of my favorite arcade publishers. Their strong presence in the 1990s arcade scene brought us a number of solid titles that hold up quite well more than a decade later. Many of Capcom’s best titles have resurfaced in the Capcom Classics Collection. Volume One of the Classics Collection is actually an emulated reproduction of the games from the Capcom Generation series that were released on the Sony Playstation and Sega Saturn plus a few additional titles. As with the Capcom Generations titles, all games contain extra features (but requires unlocking in CCC), which consists of gameplay tips, artwork, listenable music and cast profiles (in Volume 1 only), although the contents are not identical.

The Games

Conversion Quality: Above Average
Other than a few minor flicker issues, the games are pretty much perfect representations of the original arcade versions. For vertically oriented games, you can opt for an alternate display mode that shuffles the score information off to the side, giving you a larger view of the action. And some games have a “sound remix” option, which usually replaces the music with an arranged version of the soundtrack and cleans up the sound effects a bit by bringing them up to a higher, cleaner bit rate.

Overall, the games all control just fine, though some compromises have been made in Forgotten Worlds’ case. The game had a joystick that you could twist in order to rotate your firing direction. Here, the rotation has been replaced by two buttons, one for each direction.

The general consensus is that the ports of Street Fighter II on this compilation are pretty good, but are a few tweaks away from being arcade perfect. Some of the places this version comes up short is the brief load time before and after each fight, incorrect sound effects, speed discrepancies in Hyper Fighting w, and music cutting out as soon as a round ends, rather than continuing on and gradually fading out as your score is tabulated. None of these are deal-breakers, but seem like things that would typically be resolved in a modern compilation like this. I’m guessing this is a limitation due to it’s emulation of the Capcom Generations version.
Price Point: $9

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Capcom Classics Collection 2

Capcom continued on their success by bringing another solid collection of arcade classics. This second installment doesn’t have as many blockbuster titles to boast, but none of them were previously on Capcom Generation releases and will round out a classic gamer’s collection quite well.

The Games

Conversion Quality: Excellent
Since this new installment is made up of fresh ports/emulations, everything runs at near perfection. Volume 2 retains the original look of its titles, down to the last pixel and there isn’t any noticeable slowdown, audio problems, or video hitches to speak of whatsoever. As for as audio goes, every bleep and track has been faithfully retained to add authenticity. Much like the first volume, remixed audio tracks are an optional addition for a modern twist.
Price Point: $18

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Namco Museum

I’ve always had a soft spot for the newer Namco Museum packages as the offer a number of my old favorites put together in a modern interface and usually include some enhanced modes to make it worth buying for fans of the originals. The game selection won’t blow anybody away, but the quality makes up for the lack of quantity.

The Games

Conversion Quality: Excellent
With the simple nature of the original games and Namco’s commitment to quality, you can rest assured that these games will play, look, and sound just like the originals. Nothing to worry about here

Price Point: $7
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Namco Museum 50th Anniversary Arcade Collection

If you already own the original Namco Museum release, you probably won’t find much reason to pick this newer version up. This 50th Anniversary Edition drops the modernized “Arrangement” versions and adds a bunch of not as popular Namco classics in their place. Rolling Thunder is a common favorite, but most of the other may draw a yawn. If you only want the most arcade authentic games on one disc, this is your ticket, but if you like the “Arrangement” remakes, you will want to go with the original release.
Games

Conversion Quality: Excellent
With the simple nature of the original games and Namco’s commitment to quality, you can rest assured that these games will play, look, and sound just like the originals. Nothing to worry about here

Price Point: $13
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Midway Arcade Treasures

Midway Arcade Treasure gives retro fans a heaping spoonful of lots of great arcade classics. Unfortunately as a first effort, Midway didn’t seem to put in as much effort into creating an authentic experience as they could have considering the power of the XBox. If you can find it cheap enough, it isn’t a bad addition to a classic collection. Just be warned of it’s shortcomings (see below).

The Games

Conversion Quality: Below Average
Given that a large portion of the games in Midway Arcade Treasures feature some sort of nonstandard controller, be it a trackball for Marble Madness, a set of handlebars for Paperboy, a 49-position joystick (as opposed to the standard eight) for Sinistar, or the steering yoke for driving games like RoadBlasters or Spy Hunter, the developers had to make a few changes to make the games playable on a standard controller. For the most part, every game is laid out as logically as possible and can simply be picked up and played. However, games that feature analog input feel very loose and are hard to control, especially when compared to the original games. While you can expect that some sacrifices have to be made when adapting an existing game to play on an entirely different set of controls, it feels as if the developers paid very little attention when it came to making sure the games played accurately. In spite of that, almost every game in Midway Arcade Treasures is completely and totally enjoyable once you get a handle on how they play.

Furthermore, many of the games don’t produce the same sounds that they did in the arcade. With the sound, you would have to be very familiar with the original to notice, let alone care, but it is worth mentioning.

Price Point: $7
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Midway Arcade Treasures 2

Arcade Treasures 2 follows up with more of a fighting them in addition to some other arcade favorites. Unfortunately, much like it’s predecessor, Midway Arcade Treasures 2 isn’t perfect. It has its little glitches and problems here and there. However, the bonus material is nice and most of the games are nearly identical to the arcade originals that they’re trying to duplicate.

The Games

Conversion Quality: Below Average
Many of the games in Arcade Treasures 2 are emulated versions of the arcade games and not actually ports. As a result, some of the games (Mortal Kombat II, Mortal Kombat 3, Pit-Fighter and NARC in particular) have some obvious sound and graphical glitches. Every sound effect in that game plays at the wrong times (for example the original shooting sound effect has become the original “enemy defeated” sound effect, and vice versa), and the game has a very inconsistent framerate, slowing down at almost all times. luckily, the control schemes for most of these games are simpler than those found in the original Arcade Treasures, so there are not as significant issues in that area.

Price Point: $7
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Midway Arcade Treasures 3

Midway decided to take a different approach with their third Arcade Treasures installment. This time around that stuck to an actual theme (in this case, racing games) and they brought in some more modern titles to round out the retro-ness. While most of the games in this collection are emulations or recreations of the arcade versions, Hydro Thunder and Rush 2049 are based on the console versions. Both games don’t run quite as well as their Dreamcast counterparts, but having these all on one affordable disc is a nice option.

The Games

Conversion Quality: Below Average
The XBox version of Treasures 3 (along with the PS2 version) suffers from a few minor and major emulation glitches in some of the games. The Gamecube version is the best port of this compilation.

Also, like I mentioned up top, if you want the best experience with Hydro Thunder and SF Rush 2049, you might want to go with the Dreamcast version if you have that console. However, this compilation does a respectible job and having them running off one disc on the XBox (with quicker loads and wireless controllers) is compelling. It’s all up to your priorities.

Price Point: $6
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Atari Anthology

If you want to relive your Atari days , the Atari Anthology may be worth looking into. It reproduces both Atari arcade games and titles for the Atari 2600 games console. With 85 different games on one disc, it is a very good value and serves as an instant collection on one well-produced disc. As well as the games themselves, the collection includes extras such as original arcade artwork and scans of the instruction manuals for the Atari 2600 games, as well as video interviews with Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari.

The Games
Atari Anthology features a a ton of great games, so I won’t list them all here. But the complilation does include a number of Atari’s best games such as

Conversion Quality: Average
The 2600 games are emulated pretty well, but the arcade games can be a little spotty. Some of the vector-based arcade titles like Tempest, Battlezone, and Major Havoc have spotty and unfaithful and graphics that are frequently out of proportion. For the most part, the traditional raster-display games, such as Centipede, are reproduced the most accurately, with graphics and sounds that are very close to those of the originals. Since these games originally used special monitors that produced graphics with rays of light rather than pixels, the versions of these games in Atari Anthology are more of a simulation than anything else.

While Tempest, Battlezone, and Red Baron resemble what you might see in an arcade, Gravitar produces graphics so small that they are nearly impossible to see, regardless of what viewing mode you select. Across the board, the vector games also have the most inaccurate sound, at times sounding nothing like the real thing. If you grew up playing these games in arcades, you’ll be pretty disappointed by these re-creations.

Many games have features to play each title at varying speeds, time limits or with a shifting colour palette, depending on the game; some of these modes must be unlocked by reaching predetermined goals in other games.

Price Point: $11
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Taito Legends

Taito’s arcade library gives old-school gamers a different type of gameplay experience in comparison to Capcom, Namco, and Midway and the Taito Legends compilation offers both a large selection of games and a variety of genres. Some of my favorites such as Bubble Bobble and Elevator Action headline Legends, but there are many other great games for you to explore.

The Games

Conversion Quality: Above Average
The emulation of these game are top notch and will play just like the originals. The only exception are the light-gun games, Operation Wolf, Operation Thunderbolt, and Space Gun. Instead of being able to shoot with a gun, you have to move a cursor around with your controller. Not nearly as much fun that way. If you can get past this limitation, Everything is top notch.

Price Point: $8
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Taito Legends 2

This Legends follow-up received a US release on the PS2, but for the XBox, it was only a PAL and Japan release. This is a real shame as there are some nice titles in there.

The Games

There are a ton of great games on this compilations with a variety of oldschool genres. Somewhat controversially, 8 of the 43 games were split across the platforms due to porting issues, forcing players to buy more than one version to get every game available. The XBox got Bubble Symphony, Cadash , Pop’n Pop, and RayForce as a console exclusive, but if you want Balloon Bomber, G-Darius, RayStorm, or Syvalion, you’ll have to get the PS2 version.

Conversion Quality: Average
For the most part, the emulation of the games is pretty good, but there are some noted issues with the compilation.

This compilation has no screen options other than resize, so you’ll have to play them with bug black bars on the side or  stretched out.  However, I would assume this is how most people play vertical shmups on a console anyway.

Also, on the screen resize option there is no indication of the texture mapping resolution. You can’t choose what hardware filter to use or disable filtering and the games are forced to run on flicker filter level 5 just like any Xbox game dispite this being old 2D games that benefict from disabled flicker filter.

The sound of the games and menus aren’t normalized, the menu chimes are very lound while the game sound emulation volume is quite low (Darius Gaiden being a perfect example of this)

To make things worse there is a emulation problem on Elevator Action Returns that indicates without doubt this compilation is running possibly unlicensed) MAME code (even the filenames of the ROMs are exactly the same as MAME ROMset).  (Thanks to Timerever for this info)

Price Point: $20
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Tecmo Classic Arcade

Many classic gamers consider Tecmo Bowl to be the best football video game of all time. That sporting classic is the headlining title of this modest compilation. But other favorites such as Rygare and Solomon’s Key are also included.
The Games
There isn’t a huge selection here, but fans of Tecmo’s old games might find it a worthwhile venture.

Conversion Quality: Excellent
Tecmo’s older games aren’t very complex, so everything has translated pretty well.

Price Point: $6
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Intellivision Lives!

The Intellivision is pretty old, even by my standards and many of its games have a hard time holding up to modern standards (even in the “retro” world). However, there are still a few people out there that get a kick out of some of the Intellivision’s better games. Intellivision Lives! offers a wealth of titles that will keep Intellivision enthusiasts busy for a while. Unfortunately, there are no licensed titles or any third party software lurking within the 60 included titles. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, Burgertime, Microsurgeon, Masters of the Univerese, Zaxxon, Tron are all missing.

The Games
Intellivision Lives! features a rather large number of titles, so I won’t list them all here. But the complilation does include a number of the best Intellivision games such as

Conversion Quality: Excellent
The emulation runs wonderfully on the XBox hardware, offering the same graphics and sound of the more than sixty games from the Intellivision library. Unfortunately, regardless if the gameplay can or cannot hold up to today’s standards, the XBox’s controller absolutely cannot represent the complex Intellivision controller, and many games in this compilation are absolutely unplayable because the shortcuts for keypad presses on the controller are no substitute for the real thing.

Price Point: $6
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Smaller Retro Compilations

• Metal Slug 4 & 5
• The King of Fighters 2002/2003
• Street Fighter Anniversary Collection

You can’t help but admit you like the benefits of newer consoles: wireless controllers, better video connections, faster load times. So is it so bad to want to be able to play a bunch of old games on your new hardware? Of course not.

With classic game compilations you can easily get a solid collection of retro games without spending a lot of cash. In fact, picking up one of these retail packs will be much more cost effective than picking out just a few Virtual Console games on the Wii. Here is the Nintendo Gamecube’s compilation library (which is also playable on the Wii)

Sonic Mega Collection

If you are an old-school Sonic fan and want a way to play the collection on newer hardware, the Sonic Mega Collection is the way to go. Unfortunately, this collection only includes the vanilla Genesis games as opposed to its successors on the Sega CD, 32X, and Saturn. However, most of the good stuff was on the Genesis, so there isn’t much to complain about. Sonic Mega Collection is a top-notch Sonic anthology with plenty to keep you busy. The only disappointment is the lackluster interface when compared to Sonic Jam on the Saturn. It does however, have a wealth of extras such as Sonic Comics, Illustrations, & various Video Clips

The Games

Conversion Quality: Excellent
If you’ve experienced many of the commercial attempts at emulating Sega Genesis games in the past, you can appreciate some of the high-quality emulation demonstrated in this package, particularly in the sound department. With the emulation spot-on, I’ve been more than pleased with the results.

Price Point: $10

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Sonic Gems Collection

Sonic Gems makes up for most of the deficiencies of the Sonic Mega Collection by adding Sonic CD (the main attraction here) in addition to the Saturn racer, Sonic R, and the arcade rarity, Sonic the Fighters (previously unreleased on a home console). Sonic Gems also gives you access to the Sonic Game Gear collection and a few other enjoyable Genesis unlockables.

The main disappointment here is the Knuckles Chaotix from the 32X is not included as it is one of the only Sonic games from the era not re-released and has not been experienced my most gamers due to the obscurity of the 32X.

The Games

Conversion Quality: Excellent
When it comes to the main attractions (Sonic CD, Sonic R, and Sonic The Fighters), you can’t get much better in terms of quality. Everything runs and looks great. If you are like me and are used to the Sega CD version of Sonic CD, you may be a bit thrown off by the brief but odd-looking loading screens that pop up on Sonic CD. Apparently, these were a part of the PC version, which the Sonic Gems edition is based off of.

The decrease in load times on Sonic CD is incredibly significant (thanks to faster optical drives) and the framerate is always steady. Since the game was CD based to begin with, the audio holds up quite well, though I would have loved to have seen an option for you to listen to the Japanese soundtrack, rather than the one in the domestic release. It’s petty, but it’s better music. The animated intro, which was presented in a small box in the original game, is now presented in full screen glory and is still as impressive today as it was twelve years ago.

If you want to spend time with the portable Sonic games, be aware that the Game Gear emulation isn’t the best in the Gems Collection. From what I can tell, all of them are hampered some frustrating frame rate issues.

Price Point: $15-20

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Mega Man Anniversary Collection

This is a fine example of how to put together a game compilation. Mega Man Anniversary Collection includes all the games from the original series on the NES and SNES plus a couple of games previously unreleased on a US console.

Mega Man Anniversary Collection is simply one of the richest, most well-put-together classic compilations ever made, and it manages to not only refrain from sacrificing key elements of gameplay for the sake of making the hardware transition process easier but also makes improvements that are not only great but practically seem like common sense. Perhaps the handiest feature Atomic Planet has incorporated into this great compilation though is the new Navi Mode, which basically allows you to use the great menu from Mega Man 8 in all the other titles and also gives you handy hints throughout the game.

The Games

Conversion Quality: Excellent
The games in this set are not emulated, but instead ported. However, the ports are not perfect. For example, some controversy exists in the fact that Mega Man 7 has its ending (sans closing credits) removed due to Atomic Planet having a hard time getting the Mode 7 effect to work properly. Mega Man 7 also had a few framerate issues when the screen automatically scrolls (usually when the player climbs a ladder to the top of the screen), which do not exist in the original SNES version — however, the Gamecube version is not as noticeable as the PS2 version. The game is also slightly blurry, due to the use ofanti-aliasing, but is very noticeable only on the weapon energy bars on the weapon sub-screen.

The the quality in Mega Man 8 has decreased in some areas; there are noticeable slowdowns in boss battles, and the final four Robot Masters have their voice clips sped up outside of their introduction.

The final complaint (to Megaman veterans) The original functions of the B and A buttons have been reversed in the GameCube release: B jumps while A fires, whereas it was the other way around in the original NES versions. If you haven’t played the game in a while, you probably won’t notice.

Price Point: $10
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Mega Man X Collection

As the logical complement to the Mega Man Anniversary Collection, Capcom later released a similar compilation of the Mega Man X series. It includes all of the installments that showed up on the SNES, Sega Saturn, and/or original Playstation. (The first two games are ports of SNES versions, while the others are based on the original Playstation versions)

Mega Man X Collection doesn’t have the polish or emulation quality of the the original compilation, but it is a respectible effort that fans of the Blue Bomber should enjoy.

The Games

Conversion Quality: Average
Overall, the games transition to the Gamecube is of high quality, but it is not without its issues. Some examples include the lack of rumble support in Megaman X5 and X6, the use of streaming soundtracks in X and X2. There are also some minor glitches here and there, but nothing deal-breaking.

The original three games also have a save function which allows the player to load files rather than necessitating a password (though essentially it will simply save and recall passwords, and can be skipped to input passwords directly)

Price Point: $15
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Namco Museum

I’ve always had a soft spot for the newer Namco Museum packages as the offer a number of my old favorites put together in a modern interface and usually include some enhanced modes to make it worth buying for fans of the originals. The game selection won’t blow anybody away, but the quality makes up for the lack of quantity.

The Games

Conversion Quality: Excellent
With the simple nature of the original games and Namco’s commitment to quality, you can rest assured that these games will play, look, and sound just like the originals. Nothing to worry about here

Price Point: $9
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Namco Museum 50th Anniversary Arcade Collection

If you already own the original Namco Museum release, you probably won’t find much reason to pick this newer version up. This 50th Anniversary Edition drops the modernized “Arrangement” versions and adds a bunch of not as popular Namco classics in their place. Rolling Thunder is a common favorite, but most of the other may draw a yawn. If you only want the most arcade authentic games on one disc, this is your ticket, but if you like the “Arrangement” remakes, you will want to go with the original release.
Games

Conversion Quality: Excellent
With the simple nature of the original games and Namco’s commitment to quality, you can rest assured that these games will play, look, and sound just like the originals. Nothing to worry about here

Price Point: $15
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Midway Arcade Treasures

Midway Arcade Treasure gives retro fans a heaping spoonful of lots of great arcade classics. Unfortunately as a first effort, Midway didn’t seem to put in as much effort into creating an authentic experience as they could have considering the power of the Gamecube. If you can find it cheap enough, it isn’t a bad addition to a classic collection. Just be warned of it’s shortcomings (see below).

The Games

Conversion Quality: Below Average
Given that a large portion of the games in Midway Arcade Treasures feature some sort of nonstandard controller, be it a trackball for Marble Madness, a set of handlebars for Paperboy, a 49-position joystick (as opposed to the standard eight) for Sinistar, or the steering yoke for driving games like RoadBlasters or Spy Hunter, the developers had to make a few changes to make the games playable on a standard controller. For the most part, every game is laid out as logically as possible and can simply be picked up and played. However, games that feature analog input feel very loose and are hard to control, especially when compared to the original games. While you can expect that some sacrifices have to be made when adapting an existing game to play on an entirely different set of controls, it feels as if the developers paid very little attention when it came to making sure the games played accurately. In spite of that, almost every game in Midway Arcade Treasures is completely and totally enjoyable once you get a handle on how they play.

Furthermore, many of the games don’t produce the same sounds that they did in the arcade. With the sound, you would have to be very familiar with the original to notice, let alone care, but it is worth mentioning.
Price Point: $14
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Midway Arcade Treasures 2

Arcade Treasures 2 follows up with more of a fighting them in addition to some other arcade favorites. Unfortunately, much like it’s predecessor, Midway Arcade Treasures 2 isn’t perfect. It has its little glitches and problems here and there. However, the bonus material is nice and most of the games are nearly identical to the arcade originals that they’re trying to duplicate.

The Games

Conversion Quality: Below Average
Many of the games in Arcade Treasures 2 are emulated versions of the arcade games and not actually ports. As a result, some of the games (Mortal Kombat II, Mortal Kombat 3, Pit-Fighter and NARC in particular) have some obvious sound and graphical glitches. The GameCube version of Wizard of Wor game (which is the oldest game in the collection) suffers from some issues as well. Every sound effect in that game plays at the wrong times (for example the original shooting sound effect has become the original “enemy defeated” sound effect, and vice versa), and the game has a very inconsistent framerate, slowing down at almost all times. Luckly, the control schemes for most of these games are simpler than those found in the original Arcade Treasures, so there are not as significant issues in that area.

Price Point: $9
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Midway Arcade Treasures 3

Midway decided to take a different approach with their third Arcade Treasures installment. This time around that stuck to an actual theme (in this case, racing games) and they brought in some more modern titles to round out the retro-ness. While most of the games in this collection are emulations or recreations of the arcade versions, Hydro Thunder and Rush 2049 are based on the console versions. Both games don’t run quite as well as their Dreamcast counterparts, but having these all on one affordable disc is a nice option.

The Games

Conversion Quality: Average
The Gamecube has the best versions of Arcade Treasures 3 as The PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions suffer from a few minor and major emulation glitches in some of the games. The GameCube seems to struggle just a little bit more with frame rates in S.T.U.N. Runner and Off Road Thunder, but it’s a difference that’s hardly detectable, and it’s really the only difference.

Like I mentioned up top, if you want the best experience with Hydro Thunder and SF Rush 2049, you might want to go with the Dreamcast version if you have that console. However, this compilation does a respectible job and having them running off one disc on my Gamecube (with quicker loads and wireless controllers) is compelling. It’s all up to your priorities.

Price Point: $15
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Intellivision Lives!

The Intellivision is pretty old, even by my standards and many of its games have a hard time holding up to modern standards (even in the “retro” world). However, there are still a few people out there that get a kick out of some of the Intellivision’s better games. Intellivision Lives! offers a wealth of titles that will keep Intellivision enthusiasts busy for a while. Unfortunately, there are no licensed titles or any third party software lurking within the 60 included titles. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, Burgertime, Microsurgeon, Masters of the Univerese, Zaxxon, Tron are all missing.

The Games
Intellivision Lives! features a rather large number of titles, so I won’t list them all here. But the complilation does include a number of the best Intellivision games such as

Conversion Quality: Excellent
The emulation runs wonderfully on the GameCube hardware, offering the same graphics and sound of the more than sixty games from the Intellivision library. Unfortunately, regardless if the gameplay can or cannot hold up to today’s standards, the GameCube’s controller absolutely cannot represent the complex Intellivision controller, and many games in this compilation are absolutely unplayable because the shortcuts for keypad presses on the controller are no substitute for the real thing.

Price Point: $10
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Nintendo Puzzle Collection (Japanese Import)

This Puzzle Collection was originally slated to be released in both the US and the European markets, but Nintendo apparently didn’t think it was worth the effort. I was greatly disappointed with this decision as this compilation includes three excellent puzzlers. If you are a puzzle fan and have a way of playing Gamecube imports, you may want to look into this gem. Otherwise, the closest thing you can get is a Gameboy Player and the Dr. Mario/Puzzle League GBA cart.

The Games

• Dr. Mario
• Yoshi’s Cookie
• Panel de Pon (aka Tetris Attack/Puzzle League)

Price Point: $40
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Ok, this announcement not only got me excited, but kinda freaked me out…

Just two weeks ago to the day, I published my DS Wishlist, which contained a consise list of some classic games and compilations I would like to see come to the DS.

I mentioned that I enjoyed the Namco Museum Collection GBA cartridge but would like to see a port specifically for the DS. Now Namco Museum is ported to almost every handheld and console, so this wouldn’t normally be that big of a deal. But in my wishlist, I decided to raise the stakes a little by asking for a port of Pac-Man Vs. a killer multiplayer game that took advantage of the Gamecube-to-GBA connectivity. I thought the DS’s wifi support would be just the thing that would make a remake worthwhile, however, at the same time, I figured this was just a pipe dream for the most part.

Well, today, Namco Bandai has announced via press release that they plan on releasing a $20 Namco Museum on the DS this Summer. As I browsed the list of the eight games included in the compilation, I saw they everything was standard fare. It didn’t seem like anything to get terribly excited until I took a second glance… WHAT’S THAT??? Pac-Man Vs????

See for yourself… here’s the list of games from the press release:

• Pac-Man
• Pac-Man Vs.
• Galaga
• Xevious
• Dig Dug II
• Galaxian
• Mappy
• Tower of Druaga

At first, maybe I thought I read it wrong. Or maybe there was some other Pac-Man variation that went by the name “Pac-Man Vs.”, but my quick scowering of Google and Wikipedia didn’t find anything I didn’t already know. So it looks like the Pac-Man Vs. that has been the hit of many a gaming party will be going portable and wireless.

Bringing it to the DS would definately bring the game to a much larger audience. Not only is the DS selling MUCH better than the Gamecube did, but you won’t need any relatively obscure link cables to play. And of course, having online multiplayer will increase the possibilities of finding three other people to play against.

On a side note, with such an otherwise light list of games, its a good thing Pac-Man Vs. is included to make this a better value. More recent releases of Namco Museum like the one on the PSP has many more games to choose from.

BTW: Thanks to DS Fanboy for the heads-up

Related Posts:
Play Pac-Man Vs. Without A Gameboy Advance
Review: Pac-Man Vs. – Nintendo Gamecube
The Nintendo DS Wishlist

Game Selection: 9
The Gameworks Dreamcast disc serves as one of the best compilations of old-school Sega arcade games to date by including

• Space Harrier
• Hang On
• Afterburner II
• Out Run
• Power Drift

If you have played through Shenmue and Shenmue II extensively on the Dreamcast, you may notice that these games were playable in the in-game arcade. If you enjoy traveling to the Shenmue arcade, you may be content playing these games there. However, if you would like a more convenient way of playing excellent reproductions of these arcade classics, Gameworks serves as a great solution.

Port Quality: 9
As far as I can tell, every game seemed to be very close to the arcade counterparts. These did not feel like a cheap arcade remake at all, but instead felt like I was playing the games on a rock-solid version of MAME.

The only thing that might throw some people off is a few little adjustments in the game such as the Shenmue billboards on Hang On. It takes a bit away from the arcade authenticity, but it’s easy to overlook.

Affordability: 4
Since Yu Suzuki Gameworks was a limited Japanese release with a book, there aren’t a lot of copies floating around these parts. Lately the package has been selling at the $85 mark.

Conclusion
Not only does the Yu Suzuki Gameworks disc serve as a wonderful compilation, but the complete book and disc package serves as treasured collector’s item.

The Sega Genesis Collection has apparently emerged as one of the best classic game compilations of all time. (If there was a Gamecube version, I would buy it for myself). I was pretty happy to see our friends at X-Play have taken the time to share the Genesis Collection with its television audience and provided some relevant commentary on the compilation itself.

Both games will receive a graphical upgrade (mainly Rondo of Blood), but the compilation will also include the original version of Dracula X: Rondo of Blood for all the Castlevania purists.

Even though the upgrades include some 3D wizardry, from this video it looks like Konami did an excellent job in keeping the old school feel.

Even with all its Castlevania goodness, the DS can’t help but be a little jealous at this announcement.Similar Posts From These Categories:
PSP