Sonic Mega Collection

"Classic! Worth $40 just for Sonic 3"

Sonic Mega Collection

The modern computer gaming scene has been crying out for a port of these babies for a while now. Not many of us nowadays can find a Genesis that works. Some of us sold ours years ago to buy the new Playstation. Some of us gave it away to our younger little cousin because the N64 was “more than enough to play on”. Some of us were actually fortunate enough to be able to keep our Genesis, but it ‘died' of old age. Well fear not my computer gaming comrades, Sonic Mega Collection is here, and is fantastic.

On this tiny little disc of loveliness, we have Sonic The Hedgehogs 1, 2, 3 and Knuckles, as well as Sonic 3D Blast, Sonic Spinball, Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, Flicky and Ristar. On the main menu, we have direct access to all these games as well as Blue Sphere (100,000+ special stages from Sonic 3 & Knuckles), Sonic 2 with Knuckles and Sonic 3 with Knuckles. All games are direct ports and are very true to their originals. Some of these games are hidden at the start of the game and must be unlocked.

Also, we now have a whole host of extras, including images, Comic Strips and promo videos from throughout the Sonic era. They all add together to form a nice little bundle. All of the games can be exited by simply pressing Z at any time.

Sonic 1

This game spawned a whole console's worth of platform games. Its graphics were groundbreaking for it's time. Here, we have a hedgehog, a blue, speedy hedgehog fighting against an egg-hybrid professor to save the world. Nice. Sonic The Hedgehog played better than most platform games did back in those days and flowed better than most did too. The controls were simple, up, down, left, right and jump. This simple concept proved lucrative. The game was a huge success. A sequel seemed almost inevitable.

Sonic 2

Sonic The Hedgehog was back, with a sidekick, Miles “Tails” Prower. Sonic The Hedgehog 2 was again, a groundbreaking game. Graphically, it was stunning; the textures were lush and colourful. The game handled better. Now, a second player could join in and play as Tails. The game was longer than Sonic The Hedgehog 1, the levels now more diverse and challenging than ever. The game seemed unbeatable, until Sonic Team gave it their all and blessed us with another sequel.

Sonic 3

I believe that Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is without doubt the best game on the Genesis. I could even go as far as saying it is the best game ever made when locked-on with Sonic & Knuckles. This was the first platform game to really have a good-ish plot. The story picked up where Sonic 2 had left off. With the Death Egg gone, Sonic travels to Floating Island with the Emeralds in hand, only to be apprehended and stripped of them by new villain Knuckles the Echidna – Guardian of the Floating Island.

New to the Sonic series, we have a save function, which enabled us to go to the start of the zone we left it on, with our chaos emeralds restored fully. This was to some a good thing, while others frowned upon it, thinking the game was made too easy by this addition.

Zones were now longer, but less in number. Of the 6 in Sonic 3, all had their own character and persona. They all had astounding musical scores which added to the feel of each zone dramatically. With added multiplayer modes, one could argue that Sonic 3 was the total package, until the expansion was released.

Sonic & Knuckles

Sonic & Knuckles was revolutionary in its own right. It utilized a lock-on feature which allowed the player to ‘lock-on' another cartridge in the top of Sonic & Knuckles. When Sonic 1 was placed in the top, the player had access to hundreds of thousands of Sonic 3-style special stages (all playable in Sonic Mega Collection) each one restorable by password. With Sonic 2 in the top, you could play the whole game of Sonic 2 as Knuckles. Yeah, nice. It was when Sonic 3 was put in the top when the real fun began.

With both Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, the player could play through both games as though they were one, each one merging seamlessly into one, long story. Knuckles, before was only playable in Sonic & Knuckles, could now play through Sonic 3. Where Sonic & Knuckles couldn't store progress, Sonic 3 & Knuckles could. Where before Tails could only play through Sonic 3, he could now go through the levels of Sonic & Knuckles as well. These two games together created in my opinion, possibly the ultimate gaming entity. It was perfect.

Take nothing away from Sonic & Knuckles on its own. In terms of zones, it had as many as Sonic 3, and the ones it had were better, much more atmospheric. They were longer too. The multiple endings depended upon several things, and playing through the whole game just to see another ending was still very rewarding.

Bottom line: Sonic & Knuckles was the single most entertaining game of the 90s. Period.

Sonic 3D Blast

Despite taking a step towards the future, Sonic 3D Blast was not the best game in the world. In 3d, the game didn't play as fast, it wasn't as playable, and above all, it wasn't as fun. Now, the way to finish each zone was to free 6 little birds called Flickies from Robotnik's bag hench-robots, then send them through a huge ‘dimension ring'. Sonic games haven't been the same since. I don't think Sonic ever truly survived the transition to 3d was well as other games like Mario did. Shame really.

Other Games

Also on here is Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, Flicky, Sonic Spinball and Ristar. Whilst not exactly Sonic games, all are reasonable. They won't keep you occupied for a tremendous amount of time, but are quite good. Most are simply Sonic rehashes of Tetris and Pinball. Nice, but no thanks. Ristar is an exception, and is a nice additional bonus to this wonderful package.

Final Verdict. This package of games is wonderful. It is worth the money just for Sonic 3 alone. This nostalgic trip down memory lane will keep you drooling for a long time. Sonic games are those wonderful sorts of games that you can just pick up and put down at your will, fantastic. I believe if you played the original, then this collection wouldn't be out of place in anyone's Gamecube game collection. Well done Nintendo.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/25/04