Summary
Buying a single game these days will run youmore money than it ever has before. And sometimes, it can feel like a bad deal. Compilation games, therefore, are becoming more appealing, offering a range of titles for a usually discounted price to keep you coming back.
Recent years have featureda pair of PlayStation-era iconsgetting their own compilation remasters. But they’re not the only ones that have received full-on compilation releases celebrating their histories. These other multi title game collections feature enough content to keep you coming back time and time again.
10Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Cue The Theme Song
Halo: The Master Chief Collectionstarted life in a rough state upon its 2014 launch. In the decade that has followed, the greatest hits collection of Master Chief has seen numerous updates, including the eventual release of all games in the collection to the Steam platform and the Xbox Series X.
With a grand total of six games, The Master Chief Collectionpacks in hours of content for fans new and old to dive into. Explore the campaigns that defined a generation with all-new ways to play, including speedrunning if you’re up for obtaining the achievements. The genre-defining multiplayer is also retained for even more high-octane Halo action.
Clementine’s Journey In a Hopeless World
WhenTelltale Gamesshut its doors in 2018, few would have thought that work onThe Walking Dead’sfinal season would have ever been completed, let alone this compilation becoming possible. Skybound Entertainment rushed in to help not only complete The Final Season,but to then also assist in releasing The Walking Dead: Telltale Definitive Series within the next year.
Start from any episode you wish, or go back to the beginning to guide Clementine from the scared child we find her as in A New Day, all the way up to the ultimate conclusion of the series. Alternatively, you might also want to pick up the side series involving Michonne. The art gallery and model viewer also offer glimpses into the history of the series and take you on a trip down a decade’s worth of the series that made Telltale into gaming icons.
Zombie Killing Delights
TheDead Islandseries has endured a long and sometimesquite troubled historyin the development of its titles. Nonetheless, Techland’s 2011 zombie-killing title and its 2013 sequel-before-the-sequel received a 2016 compilation re-release in the form of Dead Island: Definitive Collection.
Remastered for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles, this collection of both the original Dead Island and Riptidetosses in much-needed Quality of Life changes that the original versions desperately needed. Along with bug fixes, the Ryder White storyline builds on the plot of Dead Island and is included entirely for free to keep the zombie-killing action flowing.
7Crash Bandicoot: The N-Sane Trilogy
Party Like It’s 1996 Again
TheCrash Bandicootseries had laid dormant for most of the decade prior to the N-Sane Trilogy release, after continuing declines in the reception of the series. However, continued calls for a return led to the eventual development and release of this long-anticipated collection.
Spanning Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, and Crash Bandicoot: Warped, the N-Sane Trilogy was first released on the PS4 before eventually seeing Xbox One, Switch, and PC versions. Rebuilt from the ground up, this compilation also added in substantial improvements that the originals could not have, such as checkpoints and bringing a save system to the first game. On top of all of this, two new levels were created for the trilogy: Stormy Ascent, a level that had to be cut from the original game, and Future Tense, a wholly new experience for Warped.
6Spyro Reignited Trilogy
Following In The Footsteps Of Crash
Just one year after the release of the N-Sane Trilogy, Toys for Bob went up to bat with the release ofSpyro’sown compilation of remasters. The Reignited Trilogy similarly brings Spyro’s first three games: Spryro The Dragon, Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage, and Spyro: Year Of The Dragon to the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC platforms.
Much like his fellow PS1 icon, Spyro’s remastered trilogy also features important changes and improvements to make the experience much less daunting, including bringing the map from Ripto’s Rage across the trilogy. Graphical and soundtrack overhauls also make the games feel more alive than they ever had before.
5Rare Replay
Banjo-Kazooie Isn’t The Only Game Here
Rare’slong and storied history is captured in Rare Replay, a collection of 30 games spread across the then 30-year history of the developer, fromPerfect DarktoBanjo-Kazooie.
And why stop there? Rare Replay doesn’t just cover Rare titles, but even stretches further back to when the developers were known as Ultimate Play the Game. There are games that cover every decade of Rare’s extensive history within this compilation which runs up to 2008.
4The Orange Box
Valve’s Mid-Aughts Classics In One Package
Valvehas remained a titan of the gaming industry for decades. From the release ofHalf-Lifeto 2023’sCounter-Strike 2, it may not be prolific, but it is consistent in quality and value.
This compilation re-release assembles some of Valve’s must-play classics from the mid-2000s.Half-Life 2andTeam Fortress 2are here, alongside the then recently-releasedPortal. Half Life 2’s Episode One and Episode Two are included in this release as well.
3BioShock: The Collection
Would You Kindly Play This?
2K’sBioShockseries may be dormant, as no new releases have hit store shelves since 2013’s BioShock Infinite. But that did not stop developer Blind Squirrel Games from teaming up with 2K to bring BioShock: The Collection to life. The Collection brings together the first two games, alongside the third title, Bioshock Infinite, together for a definitive experience of playing the trilogy.
Above anything else, the changes to this compilation (which includes a pair of remasters of the first two games) mostly centered on bringing the graphics up-to-speed with modern consoles. The Museum of Orphaned Concepts alsotakes you down a rabbit hole of ideas that could have existed in the original BioShock games, but ultimately were not included. Infinite’s Burial at Sea DLC is here as well, returning you to Rapture after the events of the first two games.
2Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
The Original Six Films In One Package
By definition, you might say thatLegogames are always meant to be compilations, bringing together several movies from classic series into one package. The Complete Saga, on the other hand, brings the original six Star Wars films into one package, with both the original Lego Star Wars: The Video Game and Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy into one package.
The biggest change here is bringing all six movies into one central hub means you’re able to play in any desired order. Some levels, particularly in the Prequel Trilogy, were changed from their original variants, but can still be played as bonuses. And during your journey through the game, you can also find and unlock a certainIndiana Jones, which at the time foreshadowed his own entry in the now long-running Lego series.
1Sonic Origins Plus
The Blue Blur’s Best Brought To Life
Whether you love or hate what has come since his original classic series of games,Sonic The Hedgehoghas seen something of a revival since 2017’sSonic Mania, culminating in this collection of his original adventures.Sonic Origins, and its Plusexpansion, bring more to the table for Sonic fans than ever before.
You can take a stroll down the classic trilogy, comprising of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic The Hedgehog 2, and Sonic 3 & Knuckles as well as Sonic CD. Origins Plus also includes the twelve classic Sonic Game Gear titles. The museum is also filled to the brim with content for you to unlock as another reminder of how far the Blue Blur has come in his three decades of existence. And that’s not even mentioning the gameplay changes for you to explore as well, including being able to turn on Anniversary Mode, negating the need to hunt for extra life boxes.
