Take a trip through gaming history

Travel back in time to the dawning of the 16-bit era with the Sega Mega Drive Collection.

Super Sonic 

The Sega Mega Drive Collection includes 27 games ranging from all-time classics, to lesser known gems that you might have missed first time around. Of course, Sonic the Hedgehog is represented here, both in the original (and some still say, the best) and its sequel, the Mega Drive's best selling game ever.

Also flying the flag for platforming is Ristar, starring an anthropomorphic star with extendable arms and Decap Attack, where you control a mummy called Chuck D. Head who can throw his skull at enemies. All are still great platform games that belie their age thanks to some timeless gameplay.

The beat 'em up genre is also well spoken for, with no less than three Golden Axe games, as well as the fantastic Comix Zone, a fighting game set within the panels of a comic book where you can knock bad guys through the pages and even rip shreds out of the backdrop and fold them into paper planes to throw at enemies.

Museum piece 

Each game also has its own "museum" section that gives you a brief history of the game, as well as some fascinating trivia. Did you know that Tails' real name is Miles Prower? Or that the Japanese version of Decap Attack was called Magical Hat Flying Turbo Adventure and didn't feature mummies at all? You do now, thanks to a museum feature that manages to be informative and funny at the same time.

There's also a massive collection of extras, including interviews with some of Sega's key developers and designers as well as complete arcade games like Zaxxon, Future Spy and Zektor.

One drawback to the 16-bit era was that some of the games were just so unforgiving. Some came with password systems but a lot of the time, die and it was game over. The Sega Mega Drive Collection lets you save at any point in the game, meaning you might finally have a chance of finishing those games you never could back in 1991.

There are too many great games to go into here, and we haven't even touched on the Ecco the Dolphin series, any of the Phantasy Star RPGs, Shinobi 3, or classic block puzzler Columns. The sheer number of games included means that there really is something for everyone here, and with Sonic the Hedgehog soon to make an appearance on PS3 along with next generation updates of Golden Axe and Virtua Fighter in the works, there's no better place to start for anyone wanting to bone up on their gaming history.