Sonic Mega Collection Plus

"At a budget price, you can't pass up on Sonic 3 and Knuckles"

The original Sonic Mega Collection for Gamecube was a breath of fresh air for most "port-tastic" compilations, due to its great selection of titles and extras. My only real complaint with the first collection was the dubious title unlocking system (which, sadly, is still present in SMC+) and the Gamecube's rather disappointing controller (for a 2D side scrolling game, at least). The buttons just didn't feel right for Genesis games, and the lack of the Game Gear titles didn't exactly make the game a complete Sonic package. On the Xbox, the controls have definitely been improved and, it seems, so has the emulation. A lot of the sound problems have been alleviated this time around, and there's a considerable amount of new content (including some pretty surprising additions to the game lineup). The Xbox version of Sonic Mega Collection is not quite as good as the PS2 version, primarily for the fact that the PS2 controller more closely resembles (and feels like) a 16 bit era controller. A surprising addition to the compilation is the ability to save anywhere, anytime, in any game. It's a nice addition for games like Sonic 1 and Sonic 2, which lacked save states.

Graphics

Absolutely flawless graphics emulation and, in some cases, it even seems to look better than the original games. All of the graphical glitches and slowdown have been left intact, so be prepared for some truly authentic Genesis visuals.

The Sonic games were always better-looking and more vibrant than most other Genesis games, and they're still much more eye-pleasing than most Gameboy Advance titles. To say they've aged well is an understatement.

Gameplay

The Xbox controller, whether you're using the Bulkatron 9000 (the original), Controller S, or the Xbox 360 controller, just isn't as good in the D-Pad department as the PS2. That said, it's worlds better than the Gamecube's D-Pad.

There's a lot of gaming to be had, especially for the purists. Now that you've got practically every Sonic-related GameGear game (though the inclusion of the GG version of Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine is questionable at best, given the presence of the far superior Genesis version) as well as some new, non Sonic-related additions like The Ooze and Comix Zone.

As stated earlier, every game can be saved and, of course, Sonic 3 can be saved in the traditional manner.

The Genesis Sonic games are classics in every way, but many of the Gamegear games are excrutiatingly bad now (and were quite bad back in the day), but their inclusion is clearly for the purists.

Overall

This is the best Sonic compilation you can buy, and even though the Xbox version is mildly inferior control-wise to the PS2 version, it loads faster and seems a bit crisper on an HDTV.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/25/07