Games have come a long, long way since the early ’90s, and yet, even as many developers aim to advance the medium as much as they can, still others try to recapture that retro pixel look and feel. I fondly remember the Sega Genesis. I didn’t have one myself, but a good friend of mine did. What I did have was a Game Gear, Sega’s handheld that essentially took some of the most popular Genesis games on the go. Because of my history with the Genesis, I was eager to get my hands on the Sega Genesis Classics, a brand new PS4 collection of 50 classic Genesis games. Sometimes though, the past is best left in the past.
What’s the first game you’d go for when booting up an enormous library of Sega Genesis games" There are a number of notable entries worth of that pole position, but of course the old staple is Sonic the Hedgehog. And it certainly is Sonic, yet again. The original outing video games’ original speedster has been updated and brought to modern consoles more times than I care to count, so it’s hard to really get excited by playing it again. After gliding through Green Hill Zone Act 1, I quickly ejected the cartridge and went to the shelf to search for another game.
No, that doesn’t mean I stopped playing Sega Genesis Classics. The retro games collection’s main menu is set up like a ’90s gamer’s bedroom, complete with CRT television, gaming posters on the walls, and a shelf that holds the 50 game cartr...