Sonic Mega Collection

The Sonic Mega Collection was recently added to the GameCube Player's Choice line. So for twenty dollars it's now possible for gamers everywhere to take the original Sonic the Hedgehog games for a spin, just like they used to do on their Genesises (Genesii?) way back when.

By now everyone has heard of Sega's lightning fast, blue haired, red sneaker pimp known as Sonic the Hedgehog. But back in the beginning nobody had heard of him and he was the wet behind the ears upstart that Sega planned to use to prove that their new 16-bit Genesis was superior to Nintendo's familiar (and oh-so underpowered at 8-bits) NES. It's actually interesting to see the influence that a plumber named Mario had on the first Sonic the Hedgehog. The game's focus on platforming and less on Sonic's speed is the most obvious, but it's also fun to see the game's use of Mario's "block" pattern in many of the levels. As opposed to the more outdoorsy and technicolor levels that Sonic would travel to in later sequels.

But Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is truly the crown jewel of this set. When it was first released it was one of the few Genesis games I had ever played and it was one of, if not, the best game for the system. Gone were the platforming elements as Sonic 2 is built almost entirely around speed. Gone was the first game's blocky and kinda drab color palette. Sonic 2 was bursting with color and gave the video game world the fantastic Casino Night stage, a Vegas nightmare that set the standard for all Sonic levels after it and the obvious genesis (snicker snicker) of the Sonic Spinball game. It also introduced the world to Miles "Tails" Prower, Sonic's flying chum, and the pseudo-3D chase camera bonus runs.

Sonic 2 was one of the few perfect platformers out there. The levels designs turned over quickly so players are always exploring a new world. Whether it's Casino Night, the Mystic Caves, Metropolis, the Chemical Plant or any of the rest. They were interesting and while they seemed linear, there was always someplace new to wander off to from the main path. The music was memorable and catchy and the game was just hard enough to be difficult, but easy enough that you're always willing to go back for more.

The rest of Sonic's collection doesn't look quite the same as Sonic 2. Sonic 3 is more of the same with an enhanced graphical style. Sonic and Knuckles introduced everyone to Knuckles, a nasty red echidna. And if you work hard enough you can unlock the "Knuckled" versions of Sonic 2 and 3. Quick history lesson; back when cartridges were the preferred media choice for consoles, Sonic and Knuckles was a lock-on cartridge. This meant that it had an open end that people could attach a second cartridge too. So if you owned Sonic and Knuckles, you could lock-on Sonic 2 or 3 and play as Knuckles in those games.

The one great thing about Sega and the Sonic Team was that they were never afraid to make Sonic branch out and the Sonic Mega Collection includes several other games besides Sonic's side scrolling originals. I find it very interesting to see things like one of the first stabs at pseudo-3D gaming with Sonic 3D Blast. 3D Blast may not look like a next generation 3D behemoth with it's use of patterns of lines for the background, but it is a different way to play Sonic. And it's actually a lot of fun to play an "on-rails" Sonic game. So while it manages to look 3D, the 2D styled gameplay shines through.

Sonic Spinball was the next natural evolutionary step for Sonic, a Platform Pinball game. It's like pinball, but you still have enough control of Sonic that it performs very much like a platformer. It's unique and it's different, but you also have to be in the right mindset to play it. A nice addition, but give me real Sonic. Or give me...

Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, which can roughly be considered a Dr. Mario and Tetris hybrid. Players must face off against Dr. Robotnik's robot creations in bean sorting. Each bean comes down in a block of two and can be rotated 360 degrees, much like the pills in Dr. Mario. Unlike Dr. Mario, each side of the bean will split off if there's nothing below it to support it. Matching four beans of a color will cause them to disappear and cause junk to appear on your opponents side. Last one standing is the winner. It's an addicting little addition and while it has almost nothing to do with Sonic, a good puzzle game is never a bad thing.

All of these games are recreated flawlessly on the GameCube system. They even include the savage slowdown that would grind the games to a halt when Sonic was hit and lost a lot of rings. The Sonic games have always had great and colorful graphics, which I've already talked about, and once again I can say that they are recreated perfectly. All the 16-bit eye popping visuals are rendered well. And then there's the music. Sonic's music has just the right bounce to it for a mascot that was built around speed. And the level themes are so great, sinister yet fun at the same time. Just listening to a few bars of the Chemical Plant theme from Sonic 2 and it's stuck in my head for days.

And now it's now it's time to talk about the extras, as is customary to end a compilation review, and Sonic Mega Collection is no different. In addition to bonus unlockable games, the collection includes comic covers (and one complete comic that you can read on screen), full instruction manuals for each game, concept art, and movie features including the History of Sonic. All in all not a bad package, but none of it is compelling enough to pull people away from the greatness that are the Genesis Sonic years. You'll come for the games, you'll look at the bonus stuff once and you'll stay for the games.