I was a multi-system owner back in the day. I still am, but it took me much longer without the aid of parents. As such, I don’t have much loyalty for systems. There are good and great games on all systems. One just has to have the patience to look for them. The advantage of living in 2010 is that certain game systems have collections their publishers believe to be their “greatest hits.” Those who want to have a strong idea of what Sega Genesis owners had at their fingertips can look no further than Sega Genesis Collection on the PSP.

Here’s the million dollar question: What games are you picking up? There’s the first two Sonic the Hedgehog games, Decap Attack, Sword of Vermillion, Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle, Bonanza Brothers, three installments of the Ecco the Dolphin series, Kid Chameleon, both Vector Man games, Altered Beast, all three Genesis installments of the Phantasy Star series, Columns, Gain Ground, all three Golden Axe games, Ristar, Shadow Dancer: The secret of Shinobi, Shinobi 3, Comic Zone, and Virtua Fighter 2. Most of these games are available on the Wii’s Virtual Shop and are 800 points ($8) a piece. So from a purely financial standpoint, this compilation is a deal, as it would total about $224 to purchase each game individually.

The nice thing about Sega Genesis Collection is rather simple: It emulates the old Genesis system rather well. The sprites move nicely across the screen and respond when the appropriate button is pressed, the music is remembered in all its 16-bit glory and controls do just as well as they all did years ago. Here’s the perfect opportunity for those who did not grow up with the system to find out some of the reasons gamers still like the system. Sonic’s speed flows just like it should, Ecco solves underwater puzzles, Ristar’s grabby ways knock-out the competition, Phantay Star II and IV represent some of the best role-playing games ever created, and then there’s the forgotten platforming of Kid Chameleon.

But not all is perfect with this collection. Sega unabashedly shows players some of its proverbial “dark side.” Some of the sound effects for Phantasy Star II is a bit off compared to its Genesis twin. Altered Beast is one the most boring games created as the game forces the player forward and repeats the gameplay in an excruciatingly obvious way. Vector Man is a bit too loose and lacks the fine controls required. Comic Zone is a brawler that is out for your blood and does not respond as quickly as it should. Columns is fun in short bursts and shows the beginnings of the casual gaming market’s obsession with jewels. And the Golden Axe games are now painful for me to play, even though the second installment was one of my favorite games from my youth.

The rest of the games are just mediocre. They’re not bad, just mediocre. But the collection is missing several games. For example, where are the Streets of Rage series? (Answer: on Sonic’s Ultimate Collection.) Where is Landstalker: Treasures of King Noel? How about the original Toe Jam & Earl? Or even the Shining Force series? I bet if you ask 20 different Genesis owners, you’ll get a lot of the same games on the list and a lot of different games as well.

One major problem I have with the collection is the lack of multiplayer accessibility. Yes, I can imagine it being a pain using PSN to connect to other players as the PSP does not have the best track record of downloading info (PS3 works much better on downloading games). Instead, you have to have the PSP’s wireless connection to connect to other local PSP owners. The catch of this setup is simple: You need a friend with a copy of the game. Part of the fun of those old-school games was just kidnapping a friend for an afternoon and chilling out. The only extra component (besides water or pop) needed was that second controller. This is something I know the PS2 collection can simply do by plugging in a second controller.

It doesn’t help me much that the system spoils me with save states. So I’m no longer chained to a seat for the required time to beat a game in one sitting (such as Sonic 2) or when I’m too far away from a save point. As such, a lot of the difficulty could be considered removed as a few minutes here and there slowly add up to a completed game. I blame it on being portable.

So yes, I might be waxing and waning about the games a bit too much. The Sega Genesis Collection is a solid collection of old-school games. Although only a handful of them are worth the investment, it is hard to beat the value of a UMD or PSN download of $15. The main advantage over this collection on the PSP is portability. So if you missed out on some of these games, then here’s a pretty good reason to discover them yourself the way they were intended. This is one of the geneses of gaming and inspired a multitude of gamers.