Sonic Mega Collection Plus

"Just.. wow."

Growing up, I started gaming on an old NES then traded it in for a Genesis. Bought all of the Sonic games I could (with the exception of 3) and played it til the "blow in the cartridge" method couldn't work anymore. The fateful day when I turned in my Genesis to get the new N64 at the time was the worst decision I have ever made. When I was out late at night at Walmart, I stumbled upon this title, read the back and was convinced that I had to have this.

Obviously, this game (or rather, collection of games) will truly peak the interest of those of us that are in our late teens/early twenties (people who played these games on the Genesis) but Sega did a good job with bundling all of them together as to make it seem more marketable. Like I said, it would only be of interest to us that are around 18-24 or so right now, but I showed this to my sister when I was in town (who is 14) and basically had to rip the disc from her hands to take it back to my apartment.

The thing I like most about this game are the titles represented. The original Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic 2, Sonic 3, Sonic and Knuckles. The whole Sonic saga, if you will, is represented in it's true colours. All of them still as playable as they were 10-15 years ago. Putting this in and playing Sonic 1 brought a smile to my face. There was even a brief second that I had "up up, down down, left left, right right, a start" spoken through my head. Through this era of "retro" there hasn't been a title that made me think of the cheat codes on the main screen.

Playing this has really brought me back to my childhood, a carefree time when the only frustration and stress was from not being able to either blow in the cartridge correctly to play the game or trying to beat the Casino Night stage in Sonic 2 without getting triple Robotniks in the slot-type game in the beginning or trying to beat Robosonic in Sonic 2 when it was thought to be an impossible feat to accomplish.

Since playing the original Sonic games, there has never been another game released, with the exception of some Final Fantasy games, that has brought me so much frustration that I'd throw the controller to the ground, swear and turn the system off. In my opinion, that's what makes a good game, great.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/22/06