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   [4667390.stm~RS~r~RS~(none)~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~07~RS~]
      Last Updated: Friday, 3 February 2006, 11:57 GMT

   E-mail this to a friend Printable version
   Sega nostalgia trip goes wrong

   By Neil McGreevey
   BBC


                                                  Sega Classics Collection
                  Classics like Outrun have suffered unnecessary facelifts

   Players who first dipped their toe into the world of gaming in the 8
   and 16bit era would be forgiven for riding a wave of nostalgia with
   this collection of hits from the golden age lovingly slapped onto one
   disc.

   Yet a wave of nausea is more likely after playing Sega's Classics
   Collection for the PlayStation 2. Simply culling the classics that fed
   your Megadrive and Master System seems a simple enough money-spinner to
   task Sega with.

   Yet while gaming glitterati such as Outrun, Golden Axe, Space Harrier,
   Columns, Fantasy Zone, Monaco GP, Virtua Racing and Bonanza Bros are
   all here in name, they have suffered such unnecessary facelifts as to
   be barely recognisable.

   In most cases the 2D graphics and levels you know and love have been
   dressed in a shabby 3D coat and crippled with clunky control systems.

   The resulting halfway house between pixel-perfect original and
   bona-fide remake will have you fetching the Megadrive from the attic.

   Space Harrier is stripped of its manic charm, Outrun is a mere shadow
   of the sun-kissed arcade original, while Golden Axe is just plain
   sloppy.

   Bad trip

   The games that survive with their dignity intact are those that have
   been interfered with the least.

                                                  Sega Classics Collection
                                 The games are hampered by clunky controls

   Hallucinogenic shooter Fantasy Zone can still raise a grin through its
   pastel haze.

   Sega's 1990 answer to Tetris, Columns, is a passable enough puzzler,
   although the one area they should have changed - the infuriating music
   - remains in all its cacophonous glory.

   Rather than the joypad greats that ushered in the turbulent early
   nineties, we have a less than rose-tinted collection that gives
   nostalgia a bad name.

   When a simple collection of the originals would have sufficed, you have
   to ask yourself why?
   E-mail this to a friend Printable version
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