Sega Nerds

Worst review ever: GamePro reviews Sega Genesis Collection

Posted by Chris. Filed under News, Review, Sony PlayStation 2. Tagged with Sega Genesis Collection.

I fully realize GamePro isn’t the foremost leader in video game journalism, but their review of the newly released Sega Genesis Collection on the PS2 is one of the worst reviews I’ve ever read. Now, I’m not upset with the score at all, which was a 3.5/5; I can accept a low score as long as the reviewer properly justifies it. However, GamePro’s Reviews Editor Ahoy_and_Avast, who even proclaims “I know everything” on his profile, gives some pretty incredulous reasons for his score.

Here are some of his points:

• His first gripe with the game is that there are too many filler games and not enough good games to flesh out the collection. He even mentions such obscure games as Ristar, Flicky and Bonanza Brothers. However, these games are, by far, the exception since around 19 of the games 28 are easily recognizable and widely accepted as good-to-great games.
• Not only does he misspell Ecco (No, Mr. Ahoy, it’s not spelled “Echo”), he also says the franchise is B-level. I’m not sure which games you’ve been playing, but Ecco has been one of Sega’s best franchises for a long, long time.
• But wait, it gets even better. He says Sega “clearly scraped the bottom of the barrel in an attempt to beef up the number of titles.” He then goes on to say what Sega should have done, “If Sega really wanted this compilation to matter, it should have included hits like Road Rash, Contra and Streets of Rage.” Well, I’m sorry to tell you this, Ahoy, but Sega doesn’t own the rights to Road Rash or Contra, that would be EA and Konami, respectively. Plus, EA is releasing Road Rash on the PSP as part of EA Replay.
• The icing on the proverbial cake would have to be him rating the game’s graphics a 3.0. Okay, what did he expect to see going into the game here? Most of these games are about 15 years old! Yeah, I guess a 16-bit platformer just doesn’t hold up very well with the likes of Final Fantasy XII. Also, the game supports progressive scan, so these oldies look even better than the originals do.

I’m sorry Ahoy, but it’s painfully clear you don’t know everything like you say you do. You spent the better part of the review talking about which games should have either been cut or included but failed to mention more important facets of the game like how well the games are emulated on the PS2. I really hate to see such shoddy journalism, especially in one of the bigger and more established outlets out there.

Oh well, please excuse me while I go play some “Echo the Dolphin.” Oh yeah, you can read his masterpiece here.