Sonic Mega Collection (Genesis related)

[dougfunnie]

Anyone played this? I've got it on the PS2 and am seriously considering selling it.
Don't get me wrong, the games are excellent as always, but something
went wrong with the sound emulation or whatever they did.
I can't stand the sounds for hitting baddies and other things,
its just so...wrong. If you put this and Genesis versions next to
each other you'll see what I mean.

It happens on all the main 4 games, haven't tried the others.

[Alianger]

Yeah, I read this same thing over at videogamecritic's site. He says the GC versions is much better though.

[oneupthextraman]

I heard the ps2 has general sound problems.

[Vyse of Arcadia]

I've noticed that PS2 ports in general suck.

So, no thanks.

[TidalTempest]

I've noticed the sound emulation problem in all ports of the original Sonic games. Sonic Jam was the first that had problems, and now Mega Collection. I say stick with the originals, as this way you get to play the game they way it was meant to sound, look, play, etc.

[HolyBloody16Bitter]

this game is cheap ass! I also bought it, but i bought the original instead. That awful sounds you hear in the game comes because ports are always like this. The original game always stays better. I also may see that Sonic is becoming extinct. Maybe we will see a bright future for the hedgehog, but maybe it's better to stay in the past!

[dwitefry]

I like Mega Collection and Mega Collection Plus simply because they're handy, similar to comic book collections, it's not as good as having the original but it's handy.

Mega Collection Plus was good enough to give us Comix Zone and The Ooze which we got robbed of on the Gamecube original which was nice.

That's about all I have to say on the matter

MeX

[Elusive]

I've noticed the sound emulation problem in all ports of the original Sonic games. Sonic Jam was the first that had problems, and now Mega Collection. I say stick with the originals, as this way you get to play the game they way it was meant to sound, look, play, etc.

I know the 'spike' sound is off a little in the Jam collection, as is the 'spindash' sound. Did you spot anything else?

Surprisingly enough, I like the 3D world as much as the 'real' games - particularly the entry for 1997 in the 'Sonic Museum' section, it's so happy and promising It's just a shame the Genesis manuals were used, not the European originals.

The draw distance is incredible for a late Saturn game, too. I swear that must be a tweaked version of the NiGHTS engine.

[ary incorparated]

The ooze was on mega collection right who loves it it has some heavy sound to it.they are the assraped origenals and why these games on a 128 bit system how origenal for the somany of these.

[j_factor]

I know the 'spike' sound is off a little in the Jam collection, as is the 'spindash' sound. Did you spot anything else?

The jump sound is a bit off. Also, when you get super shoes, it plays the music fast from the beginning rather than from where it was at the time, and then when they wear off, the music restarts again.

Surprisingly enough, I like the 3D world as much as the 'real' games - particularly the entry for 1997 in the 'Sonic Museum' section, it's so happy and promising It's just a shame the Genesis manuals were used, not the European originals.

I didn't know your version had the Genesis manuals in it. Damn, Sega Europe sucks even more than SoA.

But yes, the 3D section is what made Sonic Jam worth it for me. Mega Collection just has a menu you select stuff from, and not nearly as many extras as Jam. Lame.

[Nazza]

I have Mega Collection Plus, at first I had some sound problems with it but I found out later on that it was because the sound was only coming through one of the stereo channels instead of two.

[dougfunnie]

I've noticed the sound emulation problem in all ports of the original Sonic games. Sonic Jam was the first that had problems, and now Mega Collection. I say stick with the originals, as this way you get to play the game they way it was meant to sound, look, play, etc.

Hmmm, it's a shame about the sound problem, glad I wasn't just imagining it!
I'll stick with my original MD Sonic games.
My nephew got the PS2 game first and I helped him unlock all the other games via one of the guides on Gamefaqs. I may copy his memory card, but I think I've got all the games for MD except The Ooze.

I also noticed that Sonic CD on Sonic Gems Collection has different music than the version on Mega CD, any reason for that?

[Vyse of Arcadia]

I also noticed that Sonic CD on Sonic Gems Collection has different music than the version on Mega CD, any reason for that?

Some age old conflict involving copyrights to the music in different countries.

Everyone says the original Japanese is better, and for the most part it is, but there are a few tracks from the American version that I love. Palmtree Panic, anyone?

The jump sound is a bit off. Also, when you get super shoes, it plays the music fast from the beginning rather than from where it was at the time, and then when they wear off, the music restarts again.

I just brushed that off as a limit of Saturn audio hardware, but I have to wonder if it really is.

[TidalTempest]

I know the 'spike' sound is off a little in the Jam collection, as is the 'spindash' sound. Did you spot anything else?

The speed-up music issue that J_factor mentioned already.

The electric sheild sound effect in S3 and S&K has the wrong sound effect mapped to it. The proper sound effect is available in the sound test, yet a different one is programmed into the actual game.

The collecting of blue spheres sound odd as well. I think this problem was in Mega Collection too.

Most of the sound effects in Sonic 1 & 2 are pretty accurate to the originals, but there's a lot of dodgy ones in S3 and S&K.

[Elusive]

The jump sound is a bit off. Also, when you get super shoes, it plays the music fast from the beginning rather than from where it was at the time, and then when they wear off, the music restarts again.

I didn't know your version had the Genesis manuals in it. Damn, Sega Europe sucks even more than SoA.

But yes, the 3D section is what made Sonic Jam worth it for me. Mega Collection just has a menu you select stuff from, and not nearly as many extras as Jam. Lame.

The jump sound, that's it - it sounds like the Sonic CD sound, rather than the 'classic' sound. As for the BGM errors, I'd guess the way they ported it was so that the chiptunes were all labelled as 'tracks' on the disc - for Game A, Level C Sound X was played, for example (That'd certainly explain how easy it is to play them in the 3D Museum - it's the same 'go to this track and play' code, I'd wager). Rather than go through the hassle of speeding up the music, playing the appropriate sound effect, then calculating when to play the original BGM at the correct rate, they just took the afternoon off

I guess the manuals are a result of lazy localisation, too. Why scan at high-res (by 1996 standards) another set of manuals, when you can simply use the American Genesis version? They're all in the same language anyway, what's the difference ho ho ho.

And to be honest, I'm not surprised S3&K doesn't work totally accurately; the game can only currently be run in emulators thanks to a special measure (melding the Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles ROMs - hardly an accurate emulation) until someone works true 'Lock-On' capability into an emulator. I'd imagine picking apart the games and reworking them for a foreign system without the luxury of emulators like Mega Collection and Mega Collection+ would be a nightmare.