Sonic Mega Collection is a steal for many of the best experiences in gaming history on just one disk.
(-) a few of the game's aren't so great
When Nintendo took over the 80's with their plumber mascot, Sega was the competitor that dared to take the challenge of outdoing the giant that is Mario with their own mascot character. And so in 1991 Sonic has made his first appearance, winning over people because not only was it simple tried-and-true platforming, Sonic ditched the clunky exploration for some dazzling fast speeds. Couple that with some great visual effects, which the Genesis back in its heyday was a pretty powerful system, and a cheery soundtrack, and that made Sonic what many consider the true icon of video game history. But many of his newer iterations, starting on the Dreamcast, were less than ideal, and it seemed that Sonic was wearing out his welcome. But for nostalgics that want to yearn back to the earlier days of gaming, or even someone who never heard of Sonic who wants a good 2D side-scrolling platforming game, look no further than Sonic Mega Collection.
The game presents itself fairly well. You don't just have a list of the games and a brief description of the controls and plot, you also have some rare artwork, comic strips, and some videos that will please the eager Sonic fan, all unlock-able as you play. Everything from the menu music to the selectable icons try to pull you in further to the 1990's, so you can almost forget that you're not playing a Sega Genesis when you fire one of the games up. This is because the emulation is nearly perfect. The graphics and audio are almost identical to what you heard on the original system, which is great because changing up the slightest detail will distort a luring fan's sense of connection with the game and their fond memories.
The 1991 game that was Sonic's debut was of course included, where you only control as Sonic with a single jump button. You run through cheery green meadows that were a starting trend for future Sonic games, with three zones each with a boss in the final. If you gather enough rings, you can do a bonus mini-game at the end of the level where you jump Sonic against a rotating stage to get the six chaos emeralds, which him and Eggman continued to fight for those long after. But getting hit once will lose all your collected rings, unless you get a shield which can take one hit for you, and will make you speed past the risky parts of levels with more confidence. Most of Sonic 1 is exceptionally challenging without being problematic, until you make your way to Scrap Brain Zone where there are litters of hazards that won't be shy of seemingly appearing out of thin space. Especially in Zone 3 where Eggman steps on a lever and drops Sonic down back to the Labyrinth Zone, the only one with water, which made the running joke on Sonic how he can't swim. This requires a lot of memorization, because the entire stage is designed that you'll make a close call to drowning. The final boss isn't so bad though, Eggman alternating among four crushing levers and activating two at a time, but you'll need to pause each time he comes out to find which one he hides in, otherwise it will take you a long time to destroy him.
Sonic 2 was a big step up from its predecessor. What mainly draws Sonic 2 up above it was the inclusion of his sidekick, Miles "Tails" Prower, a young and slightly feminine fox, who another player can play co-op with you the entire game. There are only two zones per level, but each one is much longer and has much more elaboration and interactive elements. From the green meadows, power plants, casinos to caves, the environments have personality to spare and they're a joy to spring through. Gathering all the chaos Emeralds this time around involves running through a tube to gather a certain amount of rings before a time-limit, but avoiding the bombs as they can decrease them from your supply, thus making you lose. These can be overly difficult at later levels, demanding another player to control Tails, but if you can manage to do that then Sonic will become Super Sonic, where he turns yellow and gets a stylish dew and runs at lighting speed and is completely invincible. But you lose one ring every second, so staying super will demand you intently collecting every ring you can find. Sonic 2 does have a slightly harsh final boss, where you have no rings and you must hit a specific spot on Eggman's robot, which requires an increase level of precision, and it will take over ten shots to destroy the beast. Sonic 2 also has some multiplayer races for two with Sonic and Tails on three specific stages and a special stage. Sonic 2 is definitely one of the best of Sonic's adventures.
Sonic 3 had some various little improvements which all summed to make it a much more engaging experience. It still played nearly the same way as the two games before it, with the same run and jump formula and running through loop-de-loops. But it has more of a story than ever, this time Eggman has tricked Knuckles, a headstrong red Echidna, into thinking Sonic and Tails are trying to steal the Emeralds themselves, and he acts as a nuisance to hamper them throughout the entire game, first punching Super Sonic at the beginning to take the Emeralds out, then attempting to knock Sonic off Eggman's ship at the final zone but falling into water. Sonic and Tails also have special abilities, Sonic can do a temporary slash to attack enemies or projectiles, Tails can fly and even carry Sonic for a limited time, and there are three different types of shields. When Sonic gets a fire shield, he can shoot like a rocket and withstand fire attacks. When he gets a bubble, he can bounce it as well as live underwater without drowning until he loses it. When he gets an electric shield, he can double jump and attract rings to him before even reaching them. Chaos emeralds this time around involve a four direction on-rails sprint to get blue spears, while avoiding the red ones. And getting a boarder of blue spears around others will turn them into rings, and thus getting a perfect, which can be helpful in getting a higher score, extra lives, and continues. Like Sonic 2, Sonic 3 also has some competition for two players on a number of different stages. This was also the first of any Genesis game to allow a save feature.
It's difficult to think of Sonic & Knuckles as just a spin-off rather than the spiritual successor of Sonic 3, because its largely more of the same with a slightly higher difficulty and some continue to the storyline. On its own, you can only choose as either Sonic or Knuckles, who doesn't jump as high but can glide a distance and climb walls. On the Genesis the game could lock onto Sonic 2 and 3 and deliver an enhanced version of the game. Through Mega Collection, you can also unlock the Knuckles in Sonic 2 spin-off, which is interesting how Knuckles can function through the game despite that the levels weren't designed for him in mind. And even better, the epic combination of Sonic 2 & 3 with more save files as well as the complete well-balanced team of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. Playing the entire game as Knuckles brings a totally different angle to the same levels, and the bosses are also slightly harder. Locking Sonic & Knuckles to any other Genesis game though would lead to a "NO WAY!" screen where you play up to a hundred Blue Spears levels, and that option is available here, but it requires quite a bit of memorization and most of these are throwaways and aren't much fun for very long.
There's also Sonic 3D Blast, which sounds suggesting from the title that it was the first 3D Sonic game. But in reality, it's only a 65 degree camera angle and allowing Sonic up to eight turning increments, with wide open areas and having to defeat enemies and free little animals from the evil robots. It's a frustrating and tedious experience, because you always have to be extra careful and you just don't get to put Sonic's incredible speed to good use. It at least looks likes and sounds like a Sonic game though, with colorful cartoon characters localized into the new perspective without horrendous results, and the same cheery music you'd expect from a Sonic game. However, it still fails to hold a candle to Sonic's 2D adventures and you probably won't bother with it for longer than thirty minutes.
Sonic Pinball fared better, but was still a hit-or-miss. As you probably already assumed, you use Sonic himself as a pinball in a stage to collect the chaos emeralds. He can defeat enemies that appear as well as activate switches and other parts of the level, until you gradually make it to the emerald. But this is ridiculously difficult and it feels rather pointless after a while. It also seemed to have some pretty generic music as well as a slightly strange art style for Sonic and the environments, making it also such a departure that subtracting the iconic blue hedgehog from the screen and another character could easily take his place, because there is very little Sonic specific through the visuals, audio, or game-play.
It includes a few more games, like Dr. Robotnick's Mean Bean machine which is a puzzle game where you're supposed to line up four block of the same color to make them go away. That was the only game where Eggman's sidekicks, the bird and the robot, ever made an appearance, and it was nice to see them there. There's also a platformer known as Flicky, where you control one of the little animals you freed as Sonic to avoid cats and other monsters in a house that looks like something you'd see on an earlier Donky Kong game. Many of these games don't have nearly as much grace as the main Sonic series, but their inclusion was nice. But Sonic CD would have completed the package very well if it was included, but it's a shame that Gamecube owners will have to purchase Sonic Gems to play it, because chances are they already have ports of almost all the other content, the Master System Sonic games done in 8-bits, on Sonic Adventure DX.
Judging this game through graphics and sound should be done differently here, as to how well they were emulated as well as how they hold to today's standards. The fast-paced action and colorful environments pushed the Genesis to its limits, and they still look great even today. Even better was the music, with intelligent and appropriately cheesy tunes with personality, like Green Hill, Scrap Brain, Metropolis, Angel Island, Lava Reef, Hidden Palace, Sky Sanctuary, and more. You'll be humming many of the tunes unconsciously after you turn the game off. You still have the familiar chime of the rings, that funny sharp shrill when you hit a spike, and everything else sounds about like you remember, maybe a slight difference in its clearness.
All of the games were emulated well, even keeping the jumping glitch at Oil Ocean Zone and the underwater world you could glide to with Knuckles in Hydrocity Zone. But what's even more amazing is how well these games have held up. A lot has happened since then, and these classic deserve their legacy because they are still fresh and fun to come back to. They're each gems in the video game industry and have had influence on many future games to come. You could still dust off your old Genesis and play them through there, but having each adventure on one disk is very convenient and it all adds up to something overwhelmingly better than the sum of its parts.