Developer: The Creative Assembly Australia.
Publisher: SEGA.
Platform(s): DS.
Release Date(s): March 2nd 2010 (US), March 12th 2010 (Europe).
Reviewer: Graham.

I got to say, this is possibly one of the hardest titles I have ever had to review.  Not for any personal or political (can games be political?) reason, but rather because I have to ask myself the question; “How can you review a selection of games that have been reviewed about 100 times before?”

Sonic Classic Collection features the four (well technically three*) original Sonic the Hedgehog games that appeared on SEGA’s 16-bit Mega Drive/ Genesis console; Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. [*Sonic 3 and S&K were originally planned to be part of the same game].

But also SEGA/ The Creative Assembly Australia (the team behind the DS collection), put in the ‘lock-on’ feature from Sonic & Knuckles into the collection, allowing for Knuckles to be playable in both Sonic 3 and also Sonic 2.   That might not sound too impressive, but the feature was missing from the SEGA Mega Drive Ultimate Collection (Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection).  So essentially it’s like having six Sonic games in one pack.

The thing about the early Sonic games is that they have been ported onto so many different systems now and reviewed over and over again, so is there anything new for me to say on the games themselves?

[Image Source: IGN]

Handheld things are always smaller:

The first thing you notice about Sonic Classic Collection (SCC from now on) is just how basic it looks.  Take a look at some of SEGA’s previous game compilations, like the SEGA Mega Drive Ultimate Collection or (especially) Sonic Jam on the Saturn.

Quite a lot of effort went into the presentation of the Sonic Jam, such as fancy menu screens, plenty of unlockables and even featured the fully 3D over world for Sonic to explore and do small missions, whilst also gaining access to the different games, the video clips and artwork – if only SEGA had ported that to Nintendo’s handheld, (it would have been off the hook!).

There is nothing as cool as this on SCC, just a simple menu screen greets you, with “Games,” “Illustrations” and “Credits.”  Credits is obvious, it plays the list of credits for the games.  Illustrations is pretty much the only ‘bonus’ SCC has to offer, giving you a chance to look at some classic Sonic-based bits of artwork/posters.  But as far as I can tell you don’t unlock anymore pictures or anything else to view.

And then you have “Games” which (obviously) takes you to the selection of games to play.  Again the actual games selection screen isn’t anything special.  It does the job, allowing you to pick the game you want to play; with “Knuckles in Sonic 3” and “Knuckles in Sonic 2” as two separate playable titles.

The whole presentation of the collection wouldn’t be much of an issue, if it wasn’t also that SCC is missing some of the things from the original 16-bit versions of the games.

There are no longer any options at the start of the games; like Sonic 2 usually has sound options (which is how you activate the cheats), but that is no longer present.  Also missing are the multiplayer options.  Ok split screen multiplayer would be impossible to do on the DS, but would it have been too much effort for them to include a Wireless multiplayer mode? 

Things like this aren’t usually an issue, I didn’t buy Sonic 2 for the multiplayer – but the little things that are missing are noticeable and it feels like there isn’t a valid reason for their absence.

Genesis does what Nintendon’t:

So far the annoyances and absences from the game don’t really affect the actual game play of the games, but SCC is far from perfect when it comes to actually playing the games.

First off, it seems that the DS’ screen resolution cannot handle the visuals of the game, as there is a noticeable graphical difference between the SCC titles and the original Mega Drive titles.  Thankfully it shouldn’t ruin anyone’s experience too much – but Sonic purists will not be so happy with the decrease in visual quality.

Something that definitely does affect the game play is the amount of slowdown in the games.  I tend not to notice slowdown or frame-rate issues much in 2D titles, but after playing the Mega Drive Sonic titles for so many years, the slowdown is very obvious.

Oddly though the games seem to slowdown the most in Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 – I say ‘oddly’ because Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles have more complex visuals and game play elements, so it would make more sense if they had the most slowdown, but they don’t.

However, I should clarify that the slowdown isn’t enough to completely ruin your enjoyment of the games; it will only be for a second here and there and it’s not on every level. But it is there.

Another thing I noticed was that Sonic 1 had some minor sound issues. It only seems to be on Sonic 1 and it’s certain sound effects that are off – like on the bonus levels when you hit the ‘reverse’ switches and sometimes when you collect rings.

The thing that gets me the most is that the DS is capable of handling fully 3D 64-bit titles, such as Mario 64, Mario Kart and Diddy Kong Racing - yet for some reason The Creative Assembly Australia can’t get the DS to run these 16-bit 2D games properly.  What’s with that?

So, you’re like a hedgehog that runs really fast:

As I said at the start, it’s a bit tricky to go into much more depth about the Sonic games in the collection; just because they have been reviewed so many times over the last 25 years and hopefully pretty much everyone will have played at least one of these games by now.

Well, apart from the niggling issues with some of the slowdown and the sound, the games’ single player modes are all fully intact and still just as fun as they ever were.

The great thing is that with SCC you have the Mega Drive Sonic titles available anytime, in a portable format. I’ve got Sonic the Hedgehog on my iPod Touch and, even with some of the problems, the DS version is just so much better.

It mainly boils down to the physical controls on Nintendo’s handheld - having proper buttons and d-pad makes all the difference compared to the annoying fiddly touch screen of the iPod/ iPhone.

Summary:

It’s not a perfect port of the Mega Drive classics but despite some problems, Sonic Classic Collection is still very good fun.   My biggest complaints would be the lack of extra features and bonuses, one would usually expect from a compilation such as this.  It feels very lazy on SEGA/The Creative Assembly’s part.

It would have also been even better if SEGA opted to have all the 16-bit Sonic titles, including Sonic Spinball and Sonic 3D Blast.  Or (even better) would be to include every main 2D Sonic title – like the Game Gear and Master System versions and exclusives; that would really make it into a proper ‘Classic Collection.’

For what it is, Sonic Classic Collection is a good buy, but not essential for most gamers.  If you are a big Sonic fan, or just haven’t had a chance to play or buy the games before, then it is a worthwhile purchase.  But Sonic Jam is better... just harder to get and not portable.

 Pros:

Arguably the best and most popular Sonic games together.
The 16-bit classics on a proper (current) handheld system (Nomad doesn’t count).
After 20 years on the market, all four games are still great fun.
Sonic 2 & Knuckles – it’s great.

Cons:

- Noticeable slowdown.
- Some sound issues.
- Lack of overall effort in the presentation.
- No unlockables or extra content – what’s up with that?

~G~

[Edited By Moderator]