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 Ricardo Torres
Platform Editor
Most Anticipated: Splashdown, Shadow Hearts, Kingdom Hearts
Most Wanted Panzer Dragoon Orta, Project Ego, Shinobi, The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Sunshine, Metroid Prime, Sly Cooper, Primal, Metroid Fusion

Where's the Love?

So Sega just officially announced the Sonic Mega Collection for the GameCube at the recent World Hobby Fair in Japan. While there hasn't been any official word on whether it's coming here yet, you can bet your Sonic Jam that it will eventually find its way to these shores. It should anyway. But there's one little thing I'd like to see added to the compilation before it hits the US--namely, Sonic CD. I was pretty annoyed when the excellent game was passed over again for inclusion in a Sonic compilation. Sonic Jam stopped short of including it back in the day, and the only compilations available with it are on the PC--which makes me wonder if there's any gaming justice in the world.

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A nice little gem in Sonic history.
For those who missed it, Sonic CD was one of the last, best 2D Sonic games to hit in the era of sprites, blast processing, and Sega scream ads. The game introduced Sonic's love interest, nay, stalker, Amy Rose--as well as robotic nemesis Mecha Sonic--and managed to refine Sonic's 2D gameplay and add the element of time travel. I'm pretty sure Sonic CD was also the first time you could save your progress in a Sonic game. On top of that, thanks to the boost the Sega CD offered the Genesis hardware, it was easily one of the best-looking and best-sounding 16-bit Sonic games. The rich color palette and CD-quality audio really set the game apart from its cartridge-based cousins. The end result was a very tight game that kept the series evolving.

There were only two real downsides to the game. The first, and most heinous, was the blasphemous replacement of the excellent Japanese soundtrack with generic, fist-pumping rock music. The second, less-dire problem was the fact that it was on the Sega CD. The CD add-on to the Genesis, regarded by many to be when Sega "jumped the shark" (although some of us still say the 32X was when the company caught some Chondrichthyes air), kept the game out of reach of many gamers thanks to its steep price point. Back then it usually ended up being one of the games I carted around to friends' houses since I was the only one in my circle who had a Sega CD. People who played it loved the hell out of it, but it was never enough to get them to buy the peripheral to play it.

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"Hi kids! Sonic CD was my first appearance in a game!"
The game did OK saleswise and went down well with critics, so you'd think Sega would actually want to include it in a Sonic compilation. Looking at what the Mega Collection is offering, I'm torn on complaining about the inclusion of Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. While the game was fun as hell, like any Puyo Puyo game, it doesn't really qualify as a true Sonic game, you know? But if it's a space issue to get everything on a GameCube disc, I could do with less Robotnik and more hedgehog content. If Sega really does want to include everything, then it should make the compilation two discs big and include everything, like Sonic R for the Saturn. And, if it's really in a retro mood, Sega could go ahead and release a collection on the GBA of all Sonic's Game Gear games too (maybe with some kind of crazy GBA-GC link action).

So if Sega does hear my plea for Sonic CD love, I'd hope the company would take some time to add the game to the Mega Collection's US release with the original soundtrack. Right, so I'm sounding like a fanboy. I should stop. At least I didn't ask for director's commentary. Although...
 

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