Since practically the beginning of time - or, at least, the free market system - men have labored to discover the secret of quick, easy money. Medieval alchemists strove to discover the secret of turning lead into gold. In the mid-1800s, some wiseguy got the bright idea to use high-powered water hoses to wash away the California hillsides in an effort to reveal the veins of gold that lay beneath the tons of rock and dirt. In the 90s, dotcoms and eBay were the name of the game.

However, Nintendo's latest handheld, the GameBoy Advance, clearly puts them all to shame. It's a no-brainer, really; some of the best-loved games of all time have their roots in the 16-bit era, and the enduring popularity of the Sega Nomad and the GameAxe are proof that there are people willing to shell out hard coin to take childhood nostalgia on the road. Small wonder, then, that the GameBoy Advance has thus far seen a veritable flood of NES and SNES ports, with Nintendo's Mario Advance games leading the way.

The basic problem is that too many of these conversions are straight, quick-and-dirty ports that don't even take contemporary trends and desires into effect. I mean...no save battery in Earthworm Jim? That's just inexcusable, especially when the average price of a new GBA game seems to hover between $25 to $40. Clearly, while nostalgia is a good thing (mostly), it doesn't have to mean a port that's completely identical to a 10 year old game.

However, that aside, it's also worth noting that the GameBoy Advance is also quickly becoming the first hybrid machine with respects to classic games. That is, for the first time, we're seeing not just Nintendo and Sega games on the same hardware, but classic Sega games on Nintendo hardware. The Phantasy Star Collection looms in the near future as an example of such intergenerational synergy. In the meantime, however, we have the Sega Smash Pack, which might be more accurately termed the Sega Fairly Decent Pack.

Let's not quibble here - Sega has a portfolio full of good-to-spectacular games in their archives, and a suprisingly large percentage of them hail from the Genesis days (perhaps not so surprising when you consider the relatively swift demises of the Saturn and Dreamcast in the States, but I digress). With games like Sonic the Hedgehog, Streets of Rage, Shinobi, and Altered Beast to choose from, among many others, Sega decided instead to mostly spurn that list for this compilation.

I say "mostly" because Sega Smash Pack isn't completely Sonic-free; no, we're graced with the presence of the mostly obscure Sonic Spinball as one of the three titles on the cart. However, there's no ToeJam & Earl, no Altered Beast, no Shining Force. Instead, the final two thirds of the trio are Golden Axe and Ecco the Dolphin.

Now, don't get me wrong. I have absolutely nothing against those two games, and I do agree that they must be included whenever one is listing the all-time Sega Classics. However, I can't help but think that unless Sega have no plans whatsoever to release future Smash Packs, it might have been a better marketing idea to release some of the better Classics first, so as to build market desire for future compilations. That said, despite their status as Sega Classics, these three games really had mixed results in the translation from Genesis to GBA.

Golden Axe is a faithful reproduction of the Genesis original in nearly every sense of the word. You have the ability to choose between the Dwarf, Amazon, and Barbarian, and happily, the two-player link cable allows you to enjoy the original two-player mode as well. Unfortunately, Golden Axe is the only one of the three with that capability. The biggest drawback, gameplay-wise, is the relative lack of responsiveness from the buttons. One of my old tactics for taking on multiple enemies on the Genesis was to alternate whacks, hitting first one bad guy, then the other, in an effort to keep both of them stunned so I could finish them off. Unfortunately, on the GBA, that tactic is more than just useful, it's absolutely essential. The combos respond slowly enough that if you DON'T use that method to keep the bad guys off balance, you're going to get knocked around quite badly.

Graphically, Golden Axe is average. It doesn't suffer compared to its Genesis predecessor, but like Altered Beast, it will never be remembered for its graphical prowess. All of the graphical quirks that plagued the original, including attacks from off-screen, are present here, further reinforcing the quick-and-dirty feel. The music is as decent as it ever was, but you'll never mistake it for the haunting harmony found in Castlevania: Circle of the Moon.

Ecco the Dolphin fares somewhat better; graphically, it's the clear leader of the three, although like Golden Sun, it's no more than a reproduction. None of the three games have been touched up any, although in Ecco's case I don't know that much more could have been done in the first place. The controls, too, are faithfully ported, allowing Ecco his signature dash attack, as well as the ability to jump out of the water and over obstacles (including small islands!). You can also use his sonar as a means of communication with the various intelligent marine creatures you'll encounter. Ecco's biggest flaw, however, has always been the fact that nobody ever really knows what the hell is going on. The Dreamcast version suffered the same fate, with a plot so vague and obscure that a strategy guide is practically necessary in order to complete the game. Granted, the Genesis version is far easier than the Dreamcast version, but Ecco is still obscure enough in that sense that you aren't likely to spend much time playing this one.

Sonic Spinball is perhaps the least deserving title, as it never really enjoyed the same smash status as the Sonic platformers. Graphically, it really isn't much to look at in the first place, and the difficulty involved in collecting the Chaos Emeralds on each of the tables takes what began for me as a fairly addicting handheld pinball experience, and quickly turned it into a source of frustration. It's ironic, then, to note that of the three games in the compilation, I spent the most time on Sonic Spinball. This is partly because, as I say, the pure pinball elements of the game have an addictive quality on a handheld, particularly the GBA. More importantly, the ability to recover and avoid having your ball (err, Sonic) drop completely out of the table when he falls past the flippers is one of the more innovative (if simplifying) variations on pinball I've seen in some time. Of course, as I said, the frustration also played a role, spurring me on to try and find exactly the right path to get that final emerald on a table so that I could move on. Eventually, I just gave up. There's a fine line between channeling frustration into patience and endurance, and just pissing off the gamer to begin with. Mario Sunshine understands the former, while Sonic Spinball embraces the latter.

The bottom line is, with more than 10 years' worth of games to choose from, Sega could surely have chosen a better trio of games for their initial GBA Smash Pack. Sure, two of the three are almost certainly worth owning, with the third debateable, but the lack of any meaningful additions or upgrades, combined with the fact that these games, while solid, are far from the best of the best, relegates this one to the bottom of the purchase queue. Hardcore Sega fans will likely want to add this one to their collection regardless, but for those of you craving a better nostalgic experience, go with the Mario Advance games or Sonic Advance. The latter may not be a classic, but it serves up a better helping of old-school goodness than Smash Pack does.