When the auction began it was listed at $.99 AU. Blame the collectors and first adopters for driving the bids up.

Anyhoo: So what's the deal with this, then? Is the LP going to be a preorder bonus too?

From what I've gathered, the vinyl a pre-order on a website in Australia to Australian residents only, and is being given away in a contest in the UK.

Being in the US, I'm a little peeved about my inability to order the game from the website and have it shipped to the states.

I, like many others, will be keeping my eyes peeled on eBay.

Ruh-roh!

I'll answer this then… Sonic & Knuckles is not combinable with Sonic 2 or 3 in the collection I'm afraid.

Also Sonic CD is a Mega CD/SEGA CD game so perhaps it will materialise another time should SEGA do a compilation of games that were launched with the console add-ons. I'm sure lots of you would like a chance to play some of the 32X titles for instance.

Sonic CD is also available on the Sonic Gems Collection incidentally.

Source: http://blogs.sega.com/usa...ames-and-new-screenshots/

And this person who replied works at Sega of Europe: http://blogs.sega.com/europe/author/keva/

Good to see Backbone screw up again. How the hell did Sega let this happen?

Good to see Backbone screw up again. How the hell did Sega let this happen?

Unless sega decides to go along the dlc route, "800 points to activate the lock-on technology"

You know I was so giddy with delight over the awesomeness of this collection that I didn't think about the slight possibility that S&K wouldn't be able to lock-on with other games. I just sorta assumed you would be able to do that.

This is ridonkulous.

I never played any of the Sonic compilations save Sonic Jam. Was S3&K ever included in these new-fangled collections? I'm going to venture 'yes', seeing as how this news is coming as a bit of a shock to some people.

I never played any of the Sonic compilations save Sonic Jam. Was S3&K ever included in these new-fangled collections? I'm going to venture 'yes', seeing as how this news is coming as a bit of a shock to some people.

Yes, indeed. Mega Collection. It was an unlockable.

I wasn't planning on buying this anyway, but that just takes the cake.

Wow did they fail hard here.

Bah, you crazy people wanting S3&K in everything. Is it really necessary? It's not like it's gonna kill you if it isn't in this one. Especially since there's already Mega Collection and Plus. Play S3&K on one of those.

What about the other Genesis games, damnit. D:

30 dollars for some really incredible games, and people are crying over no lock-on? I'm sure that the addition of Phantasy Star and Space Harrier don't make up for it. You still get Sonic and Knuckles; its just missing a small feature that so many people get worked up over. Is it really that big of a deal to say the whole collection sucks because of that?

To be fair, if it doesn't have Sonic 3 and Knuckles it isn't "Ultimate".

I do believe Creo has called DLC for lock on. I dare say he is going to be proven right. Especially seeing as there are gaps between the PS2/PSP Sega Mega Drive Collection and the 360/PS3 Ultimate Mega Drive Collection.

I'm still disappointed there isn't an achievement for getting past the barrel room in Carnival Night Zone.

According to the latest Retronauts podcast, Sega made a big deal about putting Sonic on the cover and emphasizing his games for this collection so I have to say it is hilarious that they overlooked something as big as this for the series when in previous Sonic collections, Sonic 3 and Knuckles as well as the other unlockable &Knuckles titles were available. That's just really lazy on Sega and Backbone's part. Is it that hard to include a perfect ROM dump of S3&K, S2&K, and Blue Sphere?

Now I'm concerned at what other possible things went wrong with this collection.

^^^

Ashide about summed it all up there.

Sega, you almost had me fooled. I really beleived that maybe you knew what the fans wanted, and that you'd changed. I can never love again after you've broken my heart like this. I'll buy this collection, BUT, only so I can play Shining Force II on a nice TV. =(

...And so I can get my cool vinyl.

You make them sound like an abusive boyfriend or something.

Which they actually kinda are...

I'm still pretty excited about this collection and I really don't think anything can take away from it.... even if I CAN'T GET A BLUE RECORD. ^_^

No lock-on? Meh. If I wanted that experience I can just load up any of the previously mentioned games.

Really I'm psyched a game is coming out that my girlfriend can play and not complain about the difficulty or complexity. She may even enjoy it.

Well, no, what really stinks about this is that it's Super Hyper Sega Milks You For All You're Worth By Rehashing Genesis Titles They've Rehashed A Hundred Times Over Instead Of Putting Forth Any Effort Alpha 2' Turbo X Legends Zero: Third Impact: HD Remix, and they can't be bothered to actually include one of the best titles of the console's library. It's not like this is even hard to do! You have Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles on there already. You know how you get Sonic 3 & Knuckles? You concatenate Sonic 3 onto Sonic & Knuckles. Sega can't even concatenate two files together. I mean, Christ, all you do is paste every byte of Sonic 3 onto the end of Sonic & Knuckles' ROM! This takes all of two seconds to do!

This package always screamed of being a sham, but I cannot emphasize just how awful an impression the fact a company can't cut-and-paste one file onto the end of another gives you.

Lack of Sonic 3 & Knuckles = EPIC, EPIC FAIL!

Oh well, at least I've already got Sonic 3 & Knuckles anyway. And I'll still get this game for Shinobi 3, even though I already have a rom of that.
You win this round, Sega!

A bread roll is cool, bacon is cool but combine the two to form a bacon roll finished off with hp brown/tomato sauce (etc) then you have one of the greatest and most awesome invention known to mankind! I know I'd be disappointed to have the roll and bacon as separate entities...

And in this post I present weakass BS of why Sega didn't includes the lock-on games.

http://blogs.sega.com/usa...s-it-has-sonic-games-too/

This 'Sonic 3 + Knuckles' feature wasn't included for Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection. I spoke with the producer for Sonic's UGC, Ethan Einhorn, who definitely understands the nature of hard-core Sonic fandom. We had a good conversation about the game, and I got Ethan's official explanation for why Sonic 3 + Knuckles wasn't included: "To shore up the development time necessary to get "Lock-On" to work in Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection, we would have had to drop all of the bonus games from the disc. Faced with an either/or scenario, we chose to retain our title lineup in its entirety."

Riiiiiiiight....

Bonus picture:

Riiiiiiiight....

Yeah people are already commenting on that all in a huff.

On the plus side, the worst thing about S&K was the inability to save files on it's own when not locked with Sonic 3, and we can do that now! Woo!

Here's hoping again for a patch to play the lock-ons, but really I'm not too upset because I'm just excited for all these games in a game!

Any one get the game? I was around a Gamestop yesterday, but there was some really bad weather, so I didn't get the chance too. Since I have a Gamestop gift card that almost pays for the whole game; I just ordered it online.
Really can't wait for it.

I'll be picking it up around 4:30 or 5 today. I plan on playing everything for a few minutes (aside from maybe the RPGs) and then sitting down with my favorite Sonic title (Sonic 3), and attempting to beat my personal record of one hour for that game. It's gonna be a good ol' nostalgic time. I can't wait!

And in this post I present weakass BS of why Sega didn't includes the lock-on games.

http://blogs.sega.com/usa...s-it-has-sonic-games-too/

This 'Sonic 3 + Knuckles' feature wasn't included for Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection. I spoke with the producer for Sonic's UGC, Ethan Einhorn, who definitely understands the nature of hard-core Sonic fandom. We had a good conversation about the game, and I got Ethan's official explanation for why Sonic 3 + Knuckles wasn't included: "To shore up the development time necessary to get "Lock-On" to work in Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection, we would have had to drop all of the bonus games from the disc. Faced with an either/or scenario, we chose to retain our title lineup in its entirety."

Riiiiiiiight....

They didn't have the 48 or less hours to copy paste a couple more roms and knock up a few instruction/graphic logo to the mega screens? silly sega and their contracting out of jobs. Also £25 for 40ish md games? nah not yet, especially when argos had a handheld portable version with 20 games for less than 15 notes, which is more a technical feat than "Ethan Einhorn's" teams half arsed attempt, especially since the emulator already exists (360 md sonic games anyone?).

Well. I haven't played the collection nearly enough to write a review, and I honestly don't plan on writing one just because life will get in the way of that.

I played through Sonic 3 and noticed some glitches with the sound. The game seemed to have a hard time keeping up with my ring collecting and only "blinged" every other or every other other ring. Very minor, but I noticed it because I love hearing the many rings when I collect them all. Other things with the sound bugged me, but not enough to ruin any aspect of the game.

ANYWAY! Having now played Alex Kidd for the first time ever I can say that I am in love with the game no matter how unfair it can be at times. The plot cracks me up, and someday I want to visit planet Rockpaper. It seems like such a happy place.

Also, the ability to save at any given moment will be the only way I complete the majority of these games. Thank goodness for that.

But, you don't have to take my word for it! Rent/buy it and see!

Only a few rings bling?

...sounds like the audio system is mono... by dropping out an entire channel of sound?

The game seemed to have a hard time keeping up with my ring collecting and only "blinged" every other or every other other ring.

You know what? I just realized I'm playing the game on a TV with a broken left speaker, so that's probably why I'm not getting as much bling. I don't have time before work to test it out on another TV, but that's probably the issue.

Oops! Silly stereo default setting.

Yeah, in stereo, all the classic Sonics alternated speakers with each ring pickup.

Looks like the lack of Sonic 3& Knuckles didn't affect Sonic Ultimate Collection in the sales department.
Let hope this convinces Sega to do a Saturn or Dreamcast Collection .

Looks like the lack of Sonic 3& Knuckles didn't affect Sonic Ultimate Collection in the sales department.
Let hope this convinces Sega to do a Saturn or Dreamcast Collection .

or most people didn't know that s3&k would be missing/wanted the other games in the collection/a turd with sonic still seems to seem.

Looks like the lack of Sonic 3& Knuckles didn't affect Sonic Ultimate Collection in the sales department.
Let hope this convinces Sega to do a Saturn or Dreamcast Collection .

I'm disappointed at the lack of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, but not excessively so since I've already got both the individual and locked-on versions of those games. I'll primarily be getting Ultimate Collection for Shinobi 3, Dynamite Headdy and the Streets Of Rage trilogy. Oh, and I'd love a Saturn Collection (if only for NiGHTS Into Dreams). If Sega are gonna keep on pulling more and more 'collection' games outta their ass, they might as well make them EPIC. Also, I don't particularly care whether or not a Dreamcast Collection is made.

Theres no real point in a Dreamcast collection. Sega are just adding waggle to all Dreamcast games and porting them over to Wii. Soon they will get to the games that count.

But yeah, It seems a decent collection of games, its just very stupid that there is Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles but no Sonic 3 and Knuckles.

Nice. That's absolutely amazing the collection sold so well in the US. I can't wait to rub that in my friends face who worships Gears 2.

Speaking of my friend. When I was talking to him about the lack of lock-on he mentioned that Backbone are idiots and probably didn't even know S&K could lock on with other games originally, and when they learned of it it was too late add that into the game.

When I was talking to him about the lack of lock-on he mentioned that Backbone are idiots and probably didn't even know S&K could lock on with other games originally, and when they learned of it it was too late add that into the game.

Yeah, that's what I think probably happened as well. >_>; lol

SEGA wanted easy money, and they got it.

I have my vinyl, and it is oh so epic. =D

Haven't played the game yet, but thinking about it, I'm far more dissapointed by the lack of online play or Toejam And Earl than I am S3&K. Don't get me wrong, it still should have been included, but those two other things needed to be on there more.