I never owned a Sega Genesis. I was a Nintendo person and never really got into the Sega system. Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast was the first Sonic the Hedgehog game I ever played. I know, I lived a deprived life. I wish I got a chance to play Genesis games.

     Well, guess what? The Dreamcast system is now the home of the Sega Smash Pack, a GD-Rom containing some of the best damn Genesis games with a few great surprises. Boy was I happy to sink my teeth into this baby. After hours upon hours of playing, I was upset; upset that I had to go to sleep and not play anymore. Damn job! There is always another day, and you bet I will be playing video games on that day, specifically the Smash Pack.

     Now, the first game I played from yesteryear was Sonic the Hedgehog, the game that started it all. This game was mad fun. I never realized what all the hype was about until now. It reminded me of Super Mario Brothers, only faster, and more innovative. There are so many intricate levels and ways of getting through it all. You have to be careful not to move too fast, or risk losing all the rings you collected, as well as one of your lives.

     Sonic's graphics still stand up today. I mean, they are drawn on, but they are still nice to look at and bring back a feeling of a time when games were a whole lot more fun to play and geared towards kids. This game came out before Super Mario Bros. 3, but for some reason, the game reminds me a lot of it. This just goes to tell you how inspiring it was. Besides the graphics and easy playability, Sonic was just a whole lot of fun, occupying much of my time with the Smash Pack. If this one was so good, I could only imagine how great the other games were.

     Revenge of Shinobi was a game I have always wanted to play. I remember playing Ninja Gaiden and that game was great. I was really looking forward to seeing what Shinobi was all about. While Gaiden was a whole lot better, but Shinobi was not too shabby either. Pretty cool opening sequence followed by a side scrolling fighting game reminiscent of Bad Dudes and especially Bayou Billy (I don't know why, but it just does). It is hard for your character to do much and after playing games like Tenchu, you really realize how limited games were way back when. What was cool was the ability to chuck knives at your opponents and kick some ass. Still, the graphics were okay, but the sound was not so good, and the game was too stiff. There was definitely something missing, and I was hoping to find out what it was from playing the rest of the games on the GD-Rom.

     A lot of these games didn't do anything for me though. Golden Axe was way too difficult and equaled Shinobi in stiffness and awkward game play. Another game, Altered Beast, was just a disappointment. I heard so much about this game, but got nothing but a limited fighting game where you can barely do anything, but gather power-ups and turn into a super powered werewolf that can still barely do anything. I will stick with Bloody Roar when I want half-human/half-beast gaming.

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