"Let's be honest, everyone in the world knows the level select cheat for Sonic 1, dont they!"

Nostalgia is a dangerous thing. Legions of fans will sometimes spend bucket loads of money trying to reclaim the unparalleled joy they got from playing age-old computer games when they were young. I'll never forget the fun I had playing Sonic 2 when it was first released, who knows how old I was, but I'm pretty sure I was under 5 foot at the time. Obviously, having got past that vertically challenged stage of my life, I'm now free to reach to all manner of high and exciting places that my tiny infant self could but dream of reaching, and it was my immense height that allowed me to spot a copy of “Sonic Mega Collection” being sold for £20 as part of the Players Choice Range. Naturally being a fan of the old Sonic games, as indeed we all are, I harnessed the power of my student loan and treated myself to a copy. Naturally, due to the huge amount of titles included in the collection (about 7), I thought I'd individually review each one for your reading delight! Away we go!

Sonic the Hedgehog: Ahh, this was the game that really got peoples attention all those years ago. Originally Sega's answer to Mario, whilst Mario was more about exploration, secrets and, dare I say it; good level design, Sonic instead focused more on speed. What you're basically getting in this game is the Sonic Team finding their feet and laying down the foundations, which they would continue to build on in each sequel. It's actually quite amusing to note how little the entire sonic series has moved on since the original, but one of the things this game doesn't have is the ability to make Sonic do the spin dash move, the one where he rolls up in a ball before releasing himself all over the nearby scenery at an extremely high speed. It was included when Sega released their collection of Sonic games on the Saturn, but for some reason, perhaps in an effort to port the original in its untouched form, they have removed this helpful feature. Whilst you may think I am making an issue out of a relatively small and perhaps unimportant element of the gameplay, until you actually go back and play the original Sonic game, you've no idea just how much this restricts you in terms of what you can do. If you happen to approach a slight hill at anything less than top speed, Sonic will be unable to reach the top, meaning you'll have to go back down and give him a run up. This restricts exploration, if you happen to be zooming along and notice something interesting, more often than not you'll be unable to go back due to a small hill which a two year old would be able to climb.

Apart from that, it's all pretty much standard platform stuff. You run around, you jump on things; you get crushed because you can't escape from bizarre traps in time, you enter the level select cheat that everyone in the entire world knows, regardless of age/location/whatever. It's classic Sonic fun, good for a few minutes, but I was unable to sit through anything more than the first couple of levels without getting bored with the entire thing, but that's just me. Everyone's played Sonic, you already know whether or not you like this game.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2: To say this is anything other than more of the same would be a dirty lie, but this was the sequel that everyone was waiting for at the time. Whilst keeping the basic formula the same, because that is the Sega way, they managed to increase the general fun level by lowering the difficulty slightly and introducing far more complicated levels, with many more routes to take. Perhaps the most important addition was that of the spinning Sonic dash attack, which speeded the gameplay up no end, with Tails, a brand new character, coming in second place at the “brand new update” awards. The graphics, whilst considered superior than the originals when this game was released, are a lot less impressive now. Still, they maintain their sonic trademark charm, and that's all that matters really. All in all, it's a reasonably good effort, and it'll take you about an hour and a half to play through the entire game, but with no password system or save feature, unless you're willing to sit down and play it from start to finish, you'll end up playing the same few starting levels time and time again. The two-player mode has maintained the low res pig ugly graphics that featured in the Mega Drive version of the game, with Sega choosing not to update them in any way, which in my opinion is a criminal offense which stinks of quick easy cash in, but hey maybe I'm just bitter because everyone always beats me on the two player mode.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3: This is where the series, in my opinion, reached its peak. Introducing a save game feature, as well as the new character: Knuckles, this was probably the biggest step forward in terms of gameplay, especially seeing as now you could save your progress and not have to play through the entire game in one sitting. The whole emerald collecting was taking to a new level too, which adds a large amount of reply value to the entire game, and despite some really awful bonus games, it's alright stuff. One thing that's always plagued the entire Sonic series in my opinion, and one that is never more apparent than in Sonic 3, is the slightly unfriendly level design. Having run over a particularly fiendish set of loops at high speed, Sonic 3 often delights in placing a spring, which sends you catapulting back the way you came. Its intensely annoying and the more I played the Sonic games, the more I noticed it.

Sonic and Knuckles: Taking a step back from Sonic 3 by removing the save game feature, this really is a bit of a step back. Whilst you can play as Knuckles, and link up the game to a lot of the other sonic games, allowing you to play many of the older sonic levels as this character, he is far slower than Sonic and by this stage it must be said; The Sonic series was starting to run out of steam.

Sonic 3D Blast: In a frantic attempt to introduce fresh new ideas into the Sonic series, the Sonic Team came up with this dreadful title. Taking Sonic out of his 2D platforming home and placing him in a bizarre ugly isometric series of levels, where the emphasise is on finding lost animals rather than just finishing the level, this game is really awful. Sonic slides around, making it extremely hard to gauge your attacks, and the levels, which are bland and quite large, must be searched at length in order for the player to locate all the little animals, before taking them to the exit. A terrible and boring game which tries to offer something new, but fails at pretty much everything.

Sonic Spinball: Once again trying something new, Sonic, known for his bouncing around, is turned into a ball and introduced to a series of pinball machines, each of them with a vague Sonic theme. It's a pretty good idea, the traps and ramps are a little small though, which can mean multiple attempts before Sonic goes where he is supposed to, the truly awful, soul destroying music, what can only be described as trash metal, requires immediate turning off, but overall the game lacks the polish of previous Sonic games. But I guess you have to tip your hat to the Sonic Team for trying something new.

Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine: Pretty much the dark horse of the collection, and a completely unexpected, utter delight. It's pretty much Tetris, but with you trying to link beans instead of blocks. The graphics are amusing and clear enough, and the two player mode is splendid, which is probably why I spent most time playing this game and choosing to shun a lot of the others (I'm looking at YOU, Sonic 3D Blast!) This was, in my view, the best game of the lot.

So: Sonic Mega Collection. In my eyes it's all a bit of a let down. The Unlockable games are for the most part completely disappointing, consisting mainly of variations of minigames featured in the games already unlocked, which didn't please me at all. The way they are unlocked is also a bit suspect, I wont spoil it for you, but lets just say it doesn't reward those that actually complete the games, which is a bit of a shame, instead giving up its secrets in more unexciting ways. The comics and instruction manuals are interesting for perhaps 20 minutes, but its not exactly something you'll return to again and again, which can be said for the whole game really. The Sega Saturn version had a 3D version of Sonic, which was amazing at the time, and I cant help but wonder why Sega didn't add the 5 or so other Sonic games (Sonic CD, etc) that are absent here, its not that what's on offer here is particularly bad, its just that this all could have been so much more, and a lot of these games really haven't aged well at all. To conclude, what could have been the ultimate Sonic collection turns out to be a bit of a lazy way to make a bit of money, you have to feel sorry for Sonic really. Although at least Sega released all these games together, you wont see Nintendo release a huge collection of their Mario games, not when there's money to be made!

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 10/07/04