I have been off in wonderful Idaho for the past month, with wonderful Ben. Hooray! Unfortunately I had to come home for an impertinent test — on a Saturday afternoon, no less. Can’t beat a whole month away from home with your sweetie pie, though… unless it was two months.
Of course, there was no shortage of gaming during this time. We played a crapload of Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection (X360), which is far and away the best Genesis compilation money can buy. Eccos! Streets of Rage 1-3! Phantasy Star 4! Sonic x 4! The only conceivable ways they could improve on it for a future release would be to:
1) ditch Super Thunder Blade for After Burner or Space Harrier 2… or anything, for the love of god, just do away with that piece of prehistory,
2) reinstate Shadow Dancer and remove E-Swat (seriously, when did that become better than a Shinobi game?),
3) get the license or whatever rights they need for Toe Jam & Earl 2, and
4) stop trying to capitalize on Gunstar Heroes by releasing it separately for 10 bucks a pop.
Then we would behold perfection.
The emulation on Xbox360 is solid, with what minor errors there are mostly affecting that funky Genesis sound chip, which shouldn’t be noticeable to any but the most devout Genesis zealots. Thinking back to the PS2 predecessor, Sega Genesis Collection, which has mostly the same games (and, I suspect, code), the emulation had a lot more holes — the single male scream for both genders in Golden Axe, for example. So yeah, not perfect, but pretty damn close.
What else? There was the co-op in Fable III, which provided hours of amusement, particularly when it came to spinning your character in place during long dialogue sequences. I made a red mage, and her coattails flared around like helicopter blades! …maybe I should pursue an ADD diagnosis. GTA: China Town Wars provided a pleasant distraction while I studied, and Sonic 4 had its hard-to-master iPhone features. Later on, I rediscovered Chibi Robo: Park Patrol… which, incidentally, is no less Machiavellian than Fable III.
It goes without saying that we had ourselves a grand olde tyme. We’re hoping to repeat it shortly. On the subject of Chibi Robo, though, I think that would make a fine topic for an upcoming episode…
problemgamer
