Dreamcast User Reviews

So, SEGA Smash Pack... I'm a bit of a mixed bag about this one. I have a lot of positives and a lot of negatives. Starting with the game distribution, it's a brilliant selection of brilliant games! SEGA Smash Pack Volume 1 consists of Sonic 1, Revenge of Shinobi, Streets of Rage 2, Phantasy Star 2, Altered Beast, Virtua Cop, Columns, Shining Force, Wrestle War, Golden Axe, Vectorman, and, as an added Dreamcast exclusive, Sega Swirl. Heck, this game got me introduced to Golden Axe, which is now one of my favourite Genesis/Mega Drive games. Now, how do these cult classics play out on the Dreamcast? Well... this was still early days of emulation, I fully get that, which is why the emulation is not the greatest. I mean, most of the time it looks 100% accurate to it's 16-bit counterparts, aside from a few palette glitches from time to time, like Labyrinth Zone in Sonic 1 always having the underwater palette, even when you're not in the water, but that's not too big a deal. But the music? Well, they took the 16-bit classic tunes and recomposed them as 8-bit chip tunes! I'm no technological mastermind, but even though this is early emulation, surely they could've taken the time to just record the original songs and put them in each of their respective games? Shouldn't be too hard, right? But I digress. So, how do the chip tunes sound? Most of them sound pretty gosh darn terrible, especially for people who are used to playing on their Genesis or Mega Drive. I kind of like Spring Yard Zone from Sonic 1's 8-bit recomposition, And the Columns main theme still sounds pretty good, but other than that, it's a crime on your ears to listen to. So, do I recommend it? Well, unless you're a serious collector and you simply must have it to complete your Dreamcast collection, then no. Don't get me wrong, it was brilliant for it's time but nowadays, there are cheaper emulations and far better ways to play all the games included in this compilation.