GameSpot editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Very good
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 11/18/2002
- Released on: 11/10/2002
- Originally published on GameSpot: Sonic Mega Collection (GameCube) Review
It seems the retro game compilation trend is trucking right along--plenty of companies are taking the time to mine their back catalogs for their previous hits and are bringing them to modern systems. While some companies take the bare-bones approach to compilation design, the better packages toss in a handful of extras along with the games, such as old commercials, manual scans, video documentaries, and more. Sonic Mega Collection has a few of these sorts of extras, but more importantly, it combines most of the core 16-bit games from Sega's long-running and popular Sonic the Hedgehog series of fast-paced platformers onto one disc. And while it certainly could have benefited from the inclusion of a few key Sonic games that are missing from the collection, the games on the disc are well emulated and still play as well as you remember.
Sonic Mega Collection packs most all the classic Sonic games, and a few others, onto one disc.
When you first open up the games menu in Sonic Mega Collection, you'll find the basics right there in front of you. Right off the bat, you can play Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic 3D Blast, Sonic Spinball, and the Puyo Puyo-style puzzle game with a Sonic makeover, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. Five unlockable games are also available after you play the initially available games a specific number of times. While some of them--the lock-on version of Sonic 3, for example--fit in nicely with the rest of the Sonic games, there's also some non-Sonic-related filler here, namely Flicky and Ristar. Not that there's anything wrong with Flicky or Ristar, but considering this is supposed to be a collection of Sonic games--and it's missing at least one key game in the Sonic series--the inclusion of these seems a little cheap.
All the games play just fine with the GameCube controller, even if you're using the analog stick instead of the more accurate D pad. The game defaults to using the B, A, and X buttons as the Genesis' A, B, and C buttons, respectively. You can choose from a few different control options, but the default works just fine.
In addition to playing the actual games, you can also flip through scans of the original manuals for each game. There's an illustration gallery filled with various pictures of characters from the Sonic universe, as well as a handful of movies--including the intro and ending from Sonic CD--which are otherwise missing from this compilation. There's also a brief "history of Sonic" video taken from a showing at a Japanese trade show, but it's woefully underproduced, consisting mostly of game intros and scrolling text. It would have been cool if there were more of a retrospective slant to the extras, complete with print ads, commercials, and more.
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