PS2 Sega Ages... is it just me or is something not right about them?

I don't know what it is. Nights and the Duel Shock are not a match made in heaven, Space Harrier's 3d port is MEH you can't run on the ground in this version, Virtua Fighter 2 seems slower than I'm used to it being. Fighting Vipers besides missing Pepsi man is a bit odd to be playing on PS2 as well.

It's been 10 years since Sega went 3rd party... and playing their classics on a Non Sega System still seems weird.

Unless that system is XBOX.

Then again sonic on Gamecube didn't feel that weird either.

 

Out of all the PS2 Sega Ages, I only played Phantasy Star II. I didn't really like it. I always wondered why Sega didn't bring it over in English, then when I got a chance to play it I found the answer. It felt extremely cheap, like it wasn't actually made or endorsed by Sega. I'd even go as far to say it looked like it was made using RPG maker. The Genesis version was far better.

 

Some of them came over in a compilation. Sega Classics collection.

Nights wasn't a Sega Ages title, it was enchanced for 16:9 screens and included Christmas nights But didn't feel right with the PS2 controller.

The Best port of the bunch was Virtual On which for once actually felt like a natural fit for the PS2 controller plus you can adjust the Resolution.
Gunstar Heroes Treasure Box was a pretty sick Compilation though.

 

x

 

I thought Nights could already do 16:9 on the Saturn. Wasn't it one of the first console games capable of widescreen? Or do you mean that the PS2 version's 16:9 was improved somehow compared to the Saturn version?

 

I'm not sure actually.

 

Nights and a handful of others have widescreen support.

 

I think virtua fighter on the 32X was the first console game to support widescreen.

 

The mid/late Sega Ages stuff is awesome. I'm glad sega is throwing them up on J-PSN for cheap.

 

Hardcore gaming 101 did an article on all the Sega Ages.

For the most part I agree with their assessments.

http://hardcoregaming101.net/segaages/segaages.htm

 

Had Virtual On and Treasure Box. Happy with Both.
Also Have Dragon Force, but its still sealed.

Id love to get my hands on Dynamite Deka. That seems to be one of the best ports.

 

For the most part all the "improved" modes I've played have been terrible.
The outrun, space harrier and golden axe ones are especially dire.
Its strange however something does often just feel wrong about them...
The ps2 VF2 seems to suffer hard from the strange dull way the ps2 outputs colours.
The sega ages Sega Rally seems rather cool however.

 

As subbie already said, they improved the quality massively in the late volumes. The Sega Ages-releases of Fantasy Zone, Tetris, Phantasy Star Collection, Virtual On, Space Harrier Complete, Treasure Box and so on are probably the best form in which they've ever been released, period. If you look at the cheap crap like Vol. 1-15, you'll be disappointed to say the least but that's old news.

 

As somebody who Grew up playing Outrun I don't mind the 3d ages version but it does seem off. One of the reason I got a 3d Pad for my saturn was to enjoy the Saturn Port of Outrun. So I'm set as far as Outrun goes.

I concur with Viruta fighter 2 as well what should have been the definitive port was a slow movie clunky mess. yet Sega Nailed it with VF4

Viruta Racing though, for the first time ever actually has a decent frame rate so it's got that going for it and Yeah Sega Rally was a really nice port. I wonder if Sega was at some point planning a Daytona USA port...

This includes the XBOX live port of Gunstar Heroes too. It was a good port but for some reason the PS2 version is better.

 

Different studios did the emulators I think. M2 did the Sega Ages version.

 

As was mentioned earlier, the earlier ones are definitely off (though I thought Puyo Puyo was done well), and the later ones are pretty good. I have Puyo Puyo, Fantasy Zone, Galaxy Force II, and Monster World and think they're all great.

 

Oh right, I forgot about the amazing Monster World collection and Galaxy Force II - also late releases.

Puyo Puyo Tsuu wasn't bad in the SEGA Ages series. If someone is really into PP though, I'd recommend the 15th Anniversary Puyo Puyo for PS2 (not part of SEGA Ages and a late release). It's really awesome.

 

There are good Saturn Puyo Puyo options too though sun and.. what was the other one?

 

From what I can recall, the washed out look of Virtua Fighter 2 for the PlayStation 2 was the result of Sega (or at least the programming team responsible) having to replace some lost elements with emulated code... in fact, I've noticed from personal experience that Model 2 Emulator v0.9 looks almost too similar for this to be coincidental - maybe they "borrowed" this particular revision to help realise their conversion? Also, I once read somewhere that the occasionally rough textures were caused by not properly optimising the original arcade data for the PS2's memory, which although higher in bandwidth has other bottlenecks AM2 didn't have to worry about with the coin-op's hardware.

 

Sun and Tsuu are the only ones on Saturn.