- Hey y'all, Scott here. (gentle music) Whoa. It's almost that time again. Summer's almost here and you know what that means? (appliance clatters) Yeah, I have chocolate and marshmallows. I don't have graham crackers though. I'll have to do with the saltine crackers I have in the cupboard. But it's amazing when
you think about s'mores, it's three different things
combined into one big thing. (gentle music) Game compilation, such a comforting region
of titles on a console. You're probably bound
not to give too flicks about 70% of the games included, but, My God, you get multiple
games for one low, low price. Even as somebody who loves collecting the
original releases of games, there's something about compilation discs that are just so compelling. Owning a multitude of classics on one single disc, on
more modern hardware. So why not casually take a
look at just a few I own. I think they're just
interesting to look at, to see how the games
included are presented. And by the way, let me
just jam in your skull. This isn't a comprehensive list of all game compilations or anything. Like I said, I just wanna talk about a handful of the ones I own. But, I have many more game
compilations than just these. So who knows, maybe we can
revisit this topic in the future. But for now, Sonic Mega Collection. This was my childhood right here. I received my cousin's
hand-me-down Sega Genesis with Sonic 1 and later got Sonic 2. One day while perusing Toys "R" Us, I decided to pick up
this game on GameCube. This was many kids first
experience with Sonic, and what an introduction. This collection mainly focuses on the Genesis titles in the series. 1, 2, 3, Knuckles, 3D Blast, Spinball, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean
Machine, it's all here. With some bonus unlockables
thrown in there as well, like Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Knuckles & Sonic 2, etcetera. Emulation seems to be pretty spot on here. If you play these versions, you're playing these games pretty much the way they always were. They run absolutely fine and give you the full
experience in my opinion, but what this compilation does so right, is the presentation and the extras. The menus and music that
accompany them are amazing. They have this sense of nostalgia and just pure emotion to them. The loading screens are these stars, like you're blasting to
the past, it's great. Extras wise, we get all
the games original manuals, a bunch of Sonic comics, concept art, promotional art and a few videos. Sonic CD's intro and outro are included, even though Sonic CD isn't
playable on this collection. It was originally going
to be, but was scrapped. This history of Sonic video was a fun retrospective on the character's
journey from point A to B, to Jesus Christ, to this point in time, which was Mega Collection's
release in 2002. This was such a well-made
and just good collection, and still is, in my opinion. The game was only available on the GameCube until a few years later, when an expanded version was released on PlayStation 2 and Xbox, with a Windows port coming later. Sonic Mega Collection Plus
is just Mega Collection on the other consoles, but
they changed up a few things. The menus are completely different. They have more of an
archival feel to them, like they're flashing
elements of Sonic's past and development in the background. The same games are all here,
but with a few bonus ones namely Sonic titles on the
Game Gear, also Comix Zone and The Ooze are unlockables
for no discernible reason. The extras are here as well but all the original videos were scrapped in favor of sneak peaks at Sonic heroes. We see stuff like the
opening movie in production, where some scenes have
barely even been completed. That's cool, but for
a collection like this I prefer the videos from
the GameCube version. They have this sense of history. These just feel like bonuses. You can't really go wrong with either version of Mega Collection but I'll always have a soft
spot for the GameCube one, I grew up with this little guy. (coin dings) Super Mario All Stars was a compilation of four 16 bit remakes of
all the 8 bit Mario games, Mario 1, 2, 3 and The Lost Levels. The first time the original version of Mario 2 was playable outside of Japan. These are excellent versions of the games but the changes in All-Stars
can be a bit jarring. Mario One's physics are very
different from the original. So it takes some getting used to at least for me personally. But hey, you can save in all the games now and they all lookin' some great. Now this was released
on the Super Nintendo, a version of Super Mario
All-Stars was released on the Wii. So let's take a look at that one. Yeah, this is lame. For Super Mario brothers,
25th anniversary, Nintendo released Super Mario
all-stars on a Wii disc. Literally, nothing was changed. They didn't even bother to change the Super
Nintendo controller graphic in the game to a Wii remote plus Super Mario All-Stars
was re-released later in the Super Nintendo's life with Super Mario World included. Why didn't they use this version? That would have been nice. What the Super Nintendo
version doesn't have though is the commemorative packaging
the Wii version comes with. For 30 bucks, you got
Super Mario All-Stars on a Wii disc, an art
book and a soundtrack CD. The goodies are included
in a separate DVD case and they're both nice inclusions,
but don't go all the way. The art books scratches the
surface of what I wanna see. It shows off all this cool concept are in these history tidbits, but
they don't show enough of it. This is just the size of a
standard video game manual. It's just not enough to satisfy me. The soundtrack is even worse. It only includes one track
from each main Mario game. And then the last half of the CD is just one second sound effects. It has elements of cool in it, but Mario All-Stars on Wii
is just a disappointment. Even worse is that this was a high ticket item a few years ago going for around 70 bucks or so. Recently, Nintendo re-released it under the Nintendo Selects line and I found this tattered
up copy for 12 bucks. Yeah, the box is in pretty lamb shaped but the contents inside
looked pretty sharp. But, leave it to Nintendo
to oust themselves, two years after the pitiful showing for Mario's 25th Anniversary, Nintendo celebrated Kirby's 20th with Kirby's Dream Collection on the Wii, last Nintendo published
game on the system. This is how you do a collection. We have six Kirby games. Kirby's Dreamland, Adventure, Dreamland 2, Superstar,
Dreamland 3 and 64. Each game has been programmed to work with just the Wii mode on
its side, which is nice. But this collection does
what all good collections do which is just shower us in extras. We get new challenge stages which are continuations of what we saw in Kirby's Return to Dreamland,
which is really cool. And we have a history section, displayed as a really nice timeline, not only showing the history of Kirby, but showcasing other random world events. It's now official that Barack Obama is a part of the Kirby Canon. We can also select Kirby games and ogle the box arts in 3D, see videos of all Kirby games even the ones not playable
in this collection. There's also a few episodes of the Kirby: Right Back At Ya! TV show. Outside the game we get a history booklet and a soundtrack CD. And this right here is how you not only
celebrate an anniversary, but also make a great collection. Now, if you're in the market to play some stellar Atari games, what's wrong with you? I mean, Atari games still have their charm and in my opinion, the main way to play them these days
is by using compilations like what we're about to look at. Yeah, many purists will say the only way to truly appreciate Atari
is to hook up an Atari 2,600 to an old TV and play
a game with the static, the noise, the bad picture, it's a part of the experience. Playing them in crystal clear definition kind of de-values the experience. It showcases just how totally
bogus the games can be. Like, what is this? But, come on. It's getting increasingly harder to nab a working 2,600 and
a working old school TV. Most people have to experience this age of gaming through collections like the Atari Anthology. I really quite like this collection. It does have a few control issues, for one, the menus can only
be traversed with the D pad and games that use the pedal
controls for precise movement are a bit jumpy using the Xbox controller. But other than that this is an excellent Atari crash course. You get a little bit of everything. You get the classics and you get the Atari flavored meta-pause but that's a part of the Atari experience, you have to include some
lame things in there. But the fact that we have Breakout, Centipede, Pong, Adventure, I mean the mainstay Atari made games are all here and accounted for. We also have a wide array of bonuses, specifically some really
interesting scans and photos of behind the scenes and historic material like promotional products,
arcade flyers, all that stuff. Included as well are these interviews with Atari founder, Nolan Bushnell. It's definitely a must have
if you're interested in Atari, but this is only one half of the story. Activision was a major
player on the Atari 2,600. They were the first third-party
publisher being formed by x-Atari employees
who wanted more credit for the games they made. Okay, example would be Pitfall, it's often labeled as
David Crane's Pitfall. Activision made some of the most iconic and popular games on the 2,600. So it's only fitting that they themselves came out with a collection
of their classics, the Activision Anthology. The presentation is a lot cooler here, bringing us back to the
horrors of the early eighties. Included are some all-time
greats like Pitfall and Kaboom. But in my opinion, the list of games here isn't as compelling as Atari's offerings. The menu system also isn't as intuitive, it's really style over substance. Part of me likes the aesthetic
of a room from the eighties and the other part of me wishes it was just a simple
menu like the Atari one. We have eighties tunes
blasting in the background while we can look through
the tape deck of games and examine stuff like the
boxes, cartridge, and manual. But, this is the extent of the extras. We don't get the sheer abundance of bonus material the Atari Anthology got. Overall, both collections are pretty good. I personally prefer the
Atari Anthology though. Ah, the most prevalent game
compilation series out there. For years after oxygen stops circulating, there'll still be a new
Namco Museum coming out. Namco created some of my
personal favorite arcade games so it's always nice to have a good chunk
of them in one package. Here's a pretty vanilla release
Namco Museum on the Xbox. Now this is my collection of games. We pretty much have my
mainstay Namco games here. The tried and true Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Dig Dug, Pull
Position One and Two. And, who the hell likes Galaxian? Also included are arrangement versions of Pac-Man, Galaga and Dig Dug, which are updated remixed
versions of the games. I personally have a ton of nostalgia for Pac-Man Arrangement. I played loads of this
on the Pac-Man collection on GameBoy Advance. It's basically Pac-Man with new gimmicks and weirder controls. It's much faster and
smoother, a bit jarring but a really good version of Pac-Man. You can unlock Pac-Attack and Pac-Mania after obtaining high scores in the games. And that's it for this release, nothing else just the bare minimum. You get a handful of Namco games, have at it, a bit disappointing. For a game called Namco Museum, I kind of wanted a bit more history, a bit more bonus material,
actually, any bonus material. Other older Namco Museums had this so why not this one? Well only a few years later Namco struck back with Namco
Museum 50th anniversary. It's basically a much, much better version of
the last one we looked at. The presentation has just
been completely buttered up. Everything looks way cooler, but still no bonus material. At least we have Mappy
and Rally X included now, thank God. The only thing we can do
outside of play the games is check the controls. For example, let's check Pac-Man controls. Huh! Moving on to the most recent release, Namco Museum on Nintendo Switch. And holy (beep), Pac-Man's
an actual circle. Yeah, this is probably
the best these games have ever looked. And the closest we've gotten to them being perfect transitions
from arcade to console. We have so many options here. Just loads of customization. I think the game
selection's a little weird. We have three mainstays, Pac-Man, Galaga and Dig Dug and the rest are a bit
on the more obscure side of Namco's history. Still fine game, but we
don't have Mappy or Rally X or specifically Ms. Pac-Man. I think there's some legal
mojo going on with that since recently Namco
has been playing it safe and hasn't re-released
the game all too much. Basically, if you didn't know, Ms. Pac-Man was originally developed as a rom-hack fundamentally. Originally named Crazy Auto
made by two college kids. Instead of suing them midway, the original distributor of
Pac-Man made a deal with them and they released the game as Ms. Pac-Man. I guess they just don't
wanna touch the game nowadays just to be safe, which is unfortunate. Now, if we wanna completely
avoid the Sonic part of Sega, we can go for some pure Sega compilations. Like Sonic's Ultimate gamut. Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for X-Box 360 and PS3 is phenomenal. Almost 50 games including
some unlock-able master system in arcade games. This is a great way to experience a lot of what made the Genesis
Library so distinct. So much variety and so many solid games. I mean, we have freaky Ristar, Vector Man, Comic Zone and more of this. Extras galore and the
games look pretty good. However, they don't seem as
sharp as I like them to be. There's something about them that looks a little
too soft, I don't know. You also can't turn off
the border on the games, which is annoying. They don't give you the choice
to just have black bars. I never found the borders to be that distracting or anything,
but what of like the option? Like imagine if there was a small blue border
on everything you played, things would definitely get ride inducing. Now, Sega often pushes the Genesis in terms of their game compilations. What about their other
systems like the Dreamcast? Well wonder no more because
here's the Dreamcast collection for Xbox 360 and it deserves a solid ARG. This is just a hastily
slapped together collection of four Dreamcast games. Basically, they took the
HD ports of these games that were available on Xbox Live Arcade and put them all on a disc, that's it. Just look at this menu. It just reeks of, we didn't care. I mean, we have some really
good games on this desk but it lacks the love and attention that other Sega of collections received. Like the Sega classics collection. A bit of an odd one to single out, because I'm a bit mixed on this one, but you can say they didn't
put effort into this. This is a collection of Classic Sega games remade in 3D. They're by and large the
same games they always were just presented in a modern way or modern for PS2 standards. You see I'm mixed because I personally
think this makes games like Golden Ax way lamer. Golden Ax already hasn't aged the best, you put it in 3D and it
just kind of highlights how poorly its mechanics have held up. You get a better experience
playing the original. It just feels better that way. There were other games like Columns which is fine in this collection. They updated its visuals, I think, but it's still columns and it holds up fine. V.R., what is it? Oh, Jesus Sega, just call it
virtual racing, go lay down. The Sega Classics collection
is a really interesting release but personally I'd rather play
the originals in most cases. SNK, the Nintendo Switch's
number one supporter. They're no doubt best known
for their Neo Geo hardware, keyword being no. Not a ton of people got
to experience the Neo Geo so thankfully we have a few compilations. SNK Arcade Classics Volume One of One. Yeah, the series never
went past Volume One. Unfortunate because this
is still a good collection of games with loads of variety, everything from Metal Slug
to King of the Monsters to Shock Troopers to the
best game of the bunch, Neo Turf Masters. No joke, I love Neo Turf Masters. You have loads of fighting
games here as well. Easily, the genre Neo Geo
was known for the most. If you're more of a Metal Slug guy, the Metal Slug Anthology was
released around the same time which exclusively focuses
on SNK's Metal Slug series. It's basically SNK's version of Contra. And dare I say, a better
version of Contra. Lots of quality games here and extras like this
interview with the Dev team, that's really anti-climactic. Now, apparently there are
some emulation problems. No, I wouldn't know
because I've never touched or even seen a Neo Geo
system Arcade Home console, none of it. Games at least play and look fine and that's all I can say on the matter. Mega Man, Mega Man, Mega Man. If you take one solid look
at the prices of his games. Oh, I'll take three, please. The Mega Man Anniversary
Collection originally released on PlayStation 2, Game
Cube, and X-Box a bit later. It includes the first eight Mega Man games and a few unlock-able arcade games. First off, this ain't the most
pure way to play these games. A good chunk of edits to the
graphics and the sound occurred as well as a few hiccups here and there. Like the title screens
look a bit different. There's no difficulty select
on Mega Man Two's title screen, you have to go to the
collections options for that. It's all right, playing
them on this collection felt a bit off to me though. I can't really pinpoint why. It's still a pretty good value but in my opinion, I'll take the Mega Man
Legacy Collections nowadays. Yes, the entire series
was split into two parts but I'll take it. All games are presented in HD including music players,
art challenges, the works. Plus, there's a far less
amount of differences between the original games
and the version shown in these collections. Legacy Collection One
focuses on One through Six, the series entire run on the NES. You can pick between the Japanese and North American versions and pop on some filters like the CRT one. Does anybody actually
like using these filters? I've noticed a lot of retro collections include this as an option these days but personally I'd rather just
have the game the way it is in its original aspect ratio. There's also these borders,
which I always turn off. I think they're a bit distracting and I personally don't need
the entire screen filled. Legacy Collection Two
include Seven through Ten which makes it definitely the
more interesting collection. Opinions on these games
are a bit more divisive than One through Six. I always see people saying Seven's bad slash the best one in the series. Eight's weird and sloppy
slash a hidden gem. Even though you may not
like every game included, you do get a cooler variety here. It's three different styles of Mega Man. My main problem with these collections is that they don't go the extra mile and include extra games, I think would really be at home here. Mega Man and Base, the Sega Saturn version of Mega Man Eight, the Game Boy games, the Game Gear game,
Mega Man The Wily Wars. Come on, those would have
been great inclusions or even just unlockables. It's whatever, these are
still really great values. So those are just a few compilations. Definitely some of the cooler titles you can nab to your collection. I left the s'mores maker on. (fire flaming) I deliberately left this one out to avoid this from happening. (retro game music playing)
