Gamecube - Sonic Mega Collection

Format
Gamecube
Publisher
Sega
Developer
Sega
Country of origin
Japan
Genre
Platform

Sonic Mega Collection

By David Rasmussen
6th Oct 05

If you owned a SEGA Genesis in the distant past of the 90’s (Bush I vs. Saddam, the Clinton Era, Star Trek was still worth watching, etc.) then you might have been playing Sonic!
Known for having the world’s most famous fans in the ladies of CLAMP, Sonic blazes it’s way from the old Genesis to the new GameCube in this collection of classic Sonic games in Sonic Mega Collection.
Enjoy it, for you’ll be hard pressed to find much coming out of SEGA these days that don’t suck. Did they just do Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg?!? WHAT THE (BLEEP)!!

Well, not focusing on the dark dark thing that is SEGA’s less than sterling game releases, let’s look back at the good old days when SEGA didn’t make (bleep) like Billy Hatcher… and whatever else they’re making that should have never been made.

Consisting of seven classic games AND a buttload of extras (including hidden games that I have yet to unlock after all the gameplay I’ve done so far on this game) this is just a tasty treat that’ll remind you what a good classic collection of games is… unlike SEGAs recent classic collection of games (including arcade fave Golden Axe) which also sucked abit. What gives!

If I can temper my “enthusiasm” for abit let’s talk classic Sonic! Seven games means lots of fun!

Sonic the Hedgehog (June 1991)
The classic original is back! Dr. Ivo Robotnik (aka Dr. Eggman, the incredible edible megalomaniac) is snatching innocent animals and turning them into (gasp) robots! Robots!! That… well, it’s not as horrible as shoving a cat on the end of a shotgun by the “business” end as a “silencer” as in Postal 2 for the PC so… well, forget I said that! Forget about it… though where is PETA when games like THAT come out.

Anyway as Sonic you’ll have to fight evil enemies, rescue innocent animals and stop the evil Dr. Robotnik (Eggman) from succeeding in his evil plans!
Sonic is easy to learn! Just dash through each level, pick up rings (flick lampposts to pick up the game from here if you should perish), avoid hazards and destroy enemies, and reach the end of each act… in 10 minutes or it’s lose of one life!

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (November 1992)
Dr. Robotnik (Eggman) is back, over a year after the original’s release, and once again he’s bent on world domination via animal abuse. Join Sonic and -- ugh -- Tails… Tails! Is Tails really useful? I don’t like Tails… uh, well join the (ahem) “duo” as they once again work to stop the evil Doctor of cholesterol badness by discovering “chaos emeralds” and stopping his “Death Egg” (served up over easy)!
I like the game… I just don’t like Tails, though in this game you can play as Sonic/Tails in two player.

Sonic Spinball (November 1993)
A whole year after Sonic 2 we have a brand new Sonic, and… geh… it’s a PINBALL GAME!
Forget the story, you’ll have to figure out how to work a Sonic that is sometimes a pinball… or all the time… I haven’t tried this yet, it didn’t leap out at me as a game I wanted to try. Go figure.

Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine (November 1993)
Eh?!? Two games in one month?? Yeah. Released two weeks after Spinball, Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine proves that you can’t have enough Tetris clones… well, you CAN but don’t tell anyone ‘cause there doesn’t seem to be an end to the endless Tetris clones. Kinda makes you want to find the creator of Tetris and have him spade/neutered so he’ll never have heirs to create the “next Tetris” doesn’t it.

In this not so original game, Dr. Robotnik (Eggman) has fallen off the edge of all sanity as he has declared war on the jolly non-humanoid folks of Beanville! Why? Because he can, and because he’s stupid.
These “people”, these beans who are more like liquid jelly beans than the kind of beans you find in, say, chili or Portuguese bean soup, fight back by engaging in Tetris style action against the robotic enemy.

In a bout of gameplay that smacks abit of a newer clone, Medeos for the Nintendo DS, the way you play can affect your opponent. Here, in order to clear “beans”, you need to join four beans of a color in a row (up and down and left and right touching beans only) to make them vanish. Make combos of beans (more than one batch at the same time) and you’ll form a combo that sends “refuge beans” into your opponents field. These cannot be linked to any beans, and will only disappear when beans around them vanish. This’ll jam up your opponent since it’ll keep your opponent from making combos faster and mean a quicker victory for you. Of course the same is true of your opponent. The more multi-combos your opponent makes will make it harder for you to win. This, as you might know, smacks of Medeos’ system where the more Medeos you send blasting off comes down on your opponent’s playfield and hastens your opponent’s defeat.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (January 1994)
In what must be the shortest turnaround for a game, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 hit’s a mere 2 months after Sonic Spinball, and this one is more playable than Spinball… unless you‘re into pinball, which I‘m not.
‘Cause you can’t keep a bad egg down (unless you eat said egg and… ugh… forget it) Dr. Robotnik (Eggman) is back! After the Death Egg crashes on the “Floating Island” (about over a year ago in realtime), the bad egg that is Robotnik tricks fan fave character Kunckles the Echidna that Sonic/Tails are his enemies… the rest is history. New things abound here so be on the lookout for them!

Sonic & Knuckles (October 1994)
This time out no Tails, that’s all you need to know… that and the plot.
Nine months after Sonic 3 we return to the Floating Island, and the story from the last time.
After smashing the Death Egg from last game, Sonic returns to the Floating Island determined to locate the Chaos Emeralds, but it looks like Knuckles is just as determined to stop him. However rivalry takes on a new dimension since they will also have to tend to a new Dr. Robotnik (Eggman) scrambled world domination plot while competing against each other. The game is upgraded once again with new things and, yes, no Tails.

Sonic 3-D Blast (November 1996)
Departing from the usual side scrolling action, Sonic 3-D Blast takes the game into the action genre as you take control of Sonic on a new world where speed has been replaced by strategy and platforming action.

Sonic has traveled to Flicky Island, to see his friends the Flickies. Too bad for Sonic the Flickies are in danger! It seems that once again that bad egg Dr. Robotnik (Eggman) has been turning innocent animals into robots, and it’s up to Sonic to save them. To do this Sonic has to find them, destroy their monster forms to free the animals, then gather them up so they follow him and lead them to a ring portal and safety.
This is more about platforming action than speed so if you feel the need for speed you should play the previous Sonic games, but if your looking for something with a little more strategy in it than this is going to be for you.

That’s the games, but how does it play? It plays well.
It’s a nostalgia blast that brings you the best, and not so best, of the Sonic series and gives you it, hidden games (unlocked as you beat the games available), and illustrations and comics to look at which is nice.
My one complaint about the comics is that they’re the Archie Comics and not any Japanese manga Sonic. Sorry, folks.

For someone who is a fan of nostalgic gaming, the Sonic series, or just wants something out of SEGA that isn’t the same retarded stuff this might be the game the Doctor Eggman ordered.
Breakdown time.

Sonic Mega Breakdown
What’s Hot?
In comparison to recent games Sonic Mega Collection is a bright spot in the SEGA arsenal worth checking out. You might not be totally entranced with some of their latest “hits”, but you can’t go wrong with the classics from that bygone era of the 90’s! Sonic Mega Collection is one of those nostalgia hits worth owning, and worth playing in my opinion! Fun! Fun! Yaah!!

What’s Not?
Hmm… what gives sticking us with Sonic Spinball and the Tetris clone Mean Bean Machine!
Still I guess they’re not totally bad, and Mean Bean Machine is harder than it looks so it’ll challenge you.

Moments to Remember?
There’s a ton of extras here, including a few I didn’t mention in this review, and you’ll never be able to go through them on one sitting (mostly because you want to get to the gameplay and start spinning that Sonic) so you’ll have lots to look through, and abit to unlock as you master the games. That’s memorable in my opinion don‘t you think? I think so.

What to Ignore?
I’d like to ignore Tails, please. Tails is not my favorite Sonic character. I’d tell you what Tails is good for, but I couldn’t get away with that even on my own blog since it mostly involves his “role“ in Sonic hentai and… uh… cough cough… I think I’ll keep that to myself… yeah, it’s better that way.

Overall?
Getting past my dislike of the strange Tails with the helicopter butt attachment, I like Sonic Mega Collection. I don’t know if it’s enough of a like to get me to buy Sonic Gems Collection (the newest collection) but I think I’m getting there in terms of liking the Sonic series to be lured into buying it soon… then I’ll review it. Yeah, I’ll review it sooner or later, promise.
But for now? Check out Sonic Mega Collection for the GameCube. The present stuff from SEGA might suck, but Sonic Mega Collection will make up for it… or at least make you not want to send SEGA more hate mail for the near and foreseeable future.

-- David Rasmussen 6th Oct 05

Gamecube Sonic Mega Collection Images