Before I begin, I must first give one of the founding rules of Mario's NES/SNES side-scrolling games:
-If Mario takes a hit from an enemy or loses a life, he does not lose the coins he has collected.
Also, a lesson learned from Super Mario Sunshine:
-No matter how cool or complex a level looks, if the gameplay is frustrating, it doesn't mean anything.
These two things are major factors into
the way I feel about Sonic Mega Collection, a game I had very high
hopes for. This GameCube game contained
seven Sonic titles from the start (with four others that could
possibly be unlocked). While I've always
hated Sonic, I've never been able to back up my reason for disliking the
blue, "cool" hedgehog. The reason of "he's Nintendo's rival" didn't work
anymore when Sonic Adventure 2: Battle and Sonic Advance came out. When
asked why I thought Mario games were better than Sonic games, I said, "What
Mario games lack in graphics, Sonic games lack in gameplay." (This was
before Super Mario Sunshine, of course, which is the opposite of what I
said.) This I said without playing any Sonic
games (I may have played five minutes
of a Sonic Adventure 2: Battle demo by then, but maybe not). So,
when Christmas came, I decided to buy
a whole bunch of Sonic games in one package. At the time, it looked
like the Sonic version of Super Mario
All-Stars, except on the GameCube. I couldn't go wrong with this
purchase, I figured, especially considering
how I like side-scrollers.
This Review is on the scale of 0-4 stars,
with no stars being very poor and **** being excellent. Also, each section
will be broken down into parts, as follows:
Sonic 1, Sonic 2, Sonic 3, S&K
(Sonic & Knuckles), Sonic 3D, Spinball, Mean Bean (Dr. Robotnik's Mean
Bean Machine)
Graphics:
Sonic 1: **, Sonic 2: **1/2, Sonic
3: **1/2, S&K: ***, Sonic 3D: ***1/2, Spinball: *, Mean Bean: 1/2
Sonic 1, 2, 3, and Sonic & Knuckles are very similar in graphics, though they slowly got better in graphics as time went on. They are all notably very good graphically for side-scrollers of the time. Sonic 3D Blast had excellent graphics, even if it was on a more powerful system. Sonic Spinball did not look good, and Mean Bean Machine is very similar in looks to Dr. Mario, as it is not very graphically advanced. Ignoring those final two games, the first five are very good when it comes to graphics. Let's keep this in mind later.
Sound:
Sonic 1: ***, Sonic 2: *1/2, Sonic
3: **, S&K: *1/2, Sonic 3D: *, Spinball: 1/2, Mean Bean: ***
The music is not that great in most
of these games, except for Sonic 1 and Mean Bean Machine. Sonic 3 at
least has a good boss theme for some
of the mini-bosses, while Spinball has just plain annoying sound effects.
Sonic 1 has a great tune (which I feel is the best in this game) in the
cavern zone, which I think is Act 3. For some strange reason, I found the
Mean Bean Machine background music addictive. Maybe it just got stuck in
my head, I don't know.
Difficulty:
Sonic 1: **1/2, Sonic 2: ***, Sonic
3: ***1/2, S&K: ***1/2, Sonic 3D: ****, Spinball: ***, Mean Bean: *
And now the "fun" of this game begins, or more accurately, ends. Sonic 1 and 2 are fun for a while, but the water levels are near-impossible, and the game's fun ends there. In fact, Sonic 1 and 2 were both shaping to be pretty good games, but those stupid water levels (reminiscent of Super Mario Sunshine's secret levels) ruin the fun of the game. Sonic can't swim (well, at least not swim like Mario can), and he can't be underwater for too long. And, of course, there are levels where either Sonic must travel underwater for a while or the water rises (a la Boss Bass levels in Water Land in SMB3). With an agile jumper and swimmer like Mario, these levels would be fun. With Sonic, these levels are annoying.
Sonic 3 is pretty confusing, and quite
annoying as well. Sonic & Knuckles and Sonic 3D are so confusing,
I can't find the exit in early levels
in these games! In these two latter games (S&K and Sonic 3D), the
enemies aren't the problem, but the
levels themselves are too confusing, to the point where I can't find the
exit, not like I know where I'm going
and can't get there. They make Sonic 1 and 2 look brilliant.
Sonic Spinball... well, am I supposed to be accomplishing something, like collecting Emeralds? Because if I am, I obviously have no control over whether I can or not. It's not hard to keep Sonic in play, but it's hard to get Sonic to where you want. This leads me to believe that they ought to stop making pinball games in general, as they are practically all luck and no skill.
And then we come to the case of Dr.
Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, which is actually quite easy. In fact, it's
actually nice to have a very easy game when there are six other extremely
difficult games. More on this
game as I go on.
Characters:
Sonic 1: **, Sonic 2: **1/2, Sonic
3: **1/2, S&K: ***1/2, Sonic 3D: **, Spinball: **, Mean Bean: **
I never really got into Sonic, though I've learned to not hate him as much as time goes on (as I've turned my hate towards Bowser Jr., Young Link, and Peach). Sonic 2 and 3 contain the lovable Tails, who at least made the games a little more enjoyable because of the dumb things he would do, like run off edges and jump in the water constantly. I like Knuckles as well, with his different abilities, but the fact that the gameplay and levels were no fun pretty much ruined whatever enjoyment he brought to the game.
Controls:
Sonic 1: ***1/2, Sonic 2: ***1/2, Sonic
3: ***1/2, S&K: ***, Sonic 3D: *, Spinball: ****, Mean Bean: ****
The controls to practically every game
are great, as they are practically all easy to control. One problem
with Sonic & Knuckles: there are
stupid spring things that get my character stuck. I don't actually know
how
to get free from them, but I just start
pushing practically every button at once in desperation, and I get free.
As for Sonic 3D, the slightest tap of the Control Stick sends Sonic running.
The Control Stick is too responsive. That adds to the frustration of that
game.
Gameplay:
Sonic 1: *1/2, Sonic 2: *, Sonic 3:
*, S&K: 1/2, Sonic 3D: no stars, Spinball: no stars, Mean Bean: **1/2
The number one problem in the first
five games? The stupid ring thing. If you get hit, you lose all your rings.
Oh, sure, you can get back 3 or 4 of them, but what if you've gained 80
or so, as I have? Imagine this in a Mario game. The game would be completely
frustrating, and you may not end up with 99 lives in SMB3, as I have, many
times. When the game is hard, as it is in these five games, it's even worse.
Nintendo Power bragged about the fun, frenzied action of Sonic games. I
started to enjoy how Sonic could go through all those cool-looking loops
and corkscrews. Then, at the end of a whole string of them, Sonic would
hit an enemy and lose almost all the rings he just collected, because he
hit an enemy I could not stop from hitting,
because I didn't see it until the last
second. Please try to tell me that's "fun".
That, of course, is only the tip of the iceberg. In Sonic 1, I made it pretty far before the water levels. Sonic can't swim, or at least his way of "swimming" is pretty pathetic. If you get hit once underwater, chances are, you're not going to make it back to the top in time. You may say, "If little Mario gets hit, he gets killed too!" Of course, Mario has power-ups usually nearby, not to mention the fact that Mario can swim and doesn't run out of breath underwater.
After playing Sonic 1, I said to myself,
"How did this Sonic phenomenon catch on? That game wasn't too
great!" Then, I played the rest of
the platform games and had a new thought: "Hm... that first game wasn't
too bad after all."
Sonic 2 actually wasn't that bad, at least not at first. With Tails, I had some humor watching him act like a helpless imbecile. I think he also killed a couple of enemies for me, or maybe collected a few rings (which I lost within moments anyway, of course). Of course, that was until a level with a ton of water in it, not too far into the game. After lots of trial and error (and finding a 1-Up multiple times to keep the game going), I made it through most of the level before a very tough boss kept me from beating the level. After running out of lives on that boss, I was too sick of the game to want to continue on with it. Much like what happened in Super Mario Sunshine, although to a lesser extent, I lost all patience with Sonic Mega Collection. That was after only two platform games out of five.
Sonic 3, I thought, would right the wrongs of the first two games. Maybe, just maybe, Sega would have put an end to the misery of the gameplay of the Sonic series and turn it around in the third Sonic side-scroller. Hey, after all, third time's the charm!
... Or not. Sonic 3 did not have any water levels early on, but more frustrating stuff. There were places where I'd have to perfectly angle Sonic in order to get him to run through these metal crates, going up and down through them in order to move on in the level. Unfortunately that led to more madness, with strange platforms supposedly known as flying batteries. I think I survived those, but then there was something else that made me terminate my playing with Sonic 3. I can't remember what it was, but most likely it involved hard jumping, loss of rings, or a very hard boss.
So it was on to Sonic & Knuckles,
a game that let me play with either Sonic or Knuckles. Knuckles had a lot
more moves, and these moves added to
the gameplay for a while. However, it wasn't long until a couple of
imbecilic things ruined this game.
How about these spring things that my characters would get attached to?
They were very fun. I'd get stuck to one, and I still have no idea exactly
how I'd get off. I'd start pounding on all the buttons and moving the Control
Stick, and somehow my character would escape. That isn't too fun, when
you have no idea how to do something except just hope for a miracle. Of
course, later on, I ended up not finding the exit to a level. For some
strange reason, I made it farther with Sonic than with Knuckles,
as I couldn't find an exit with Knuckles. That was where Sonic & Knuckles
ended.
With S&K failing even more miserably
than the first three had, I found Sonic Mega Collection's seven
unlockable games to be 0-for-4 when
it came to fun side-scrolling games. Maybe Sonic games were meant to
be played in 3D. While only Mario 64
totally captivated me in the 3D world, perhaps Sonic 3-D Blast would pull
off an upset.
Okay, that was wishful thinking. From
the first time I touched the Control Stick, I knew the game was doomed
to failure. I tapped the Control Stick,
as I wanted to walk slowly at first. Instead, Sonic took off running. Wow,
I actually found a way that Super Mario Sunshine could have been worse,
make Mario too responsive so
that he runs even when you merely tap
the Control Stick trying to walk! Sorry I started to daydream there...
anyway, Sonic 3-D Blast got worse. I found out that Sonic still lost all
his rings. No surprise there, of course. Then I found out that I was stuck,
in the first level, no less. None of the springboards led me to the exit.
I went around and found no way out. How much fun is that?
So, let's go to the non-platform games. First, there's Sonic Spinball, which continues in the running tradition of pinball video games being useless (remember the NES Pinball [*] and Pokémon Pinball [1/2]?) This one has more to it than those other two, but it's more boring. I think I'm supposed to be doing something, but it takes a long time to get anywhere I want to go, and if I get on the wrong train track in one part of the pinball board, I'm back to the beginning. Even worse, there's times where I'm doing nothing but gaining useless points, but it's too easy to keep Sonic in play so the game goes on. Of course I could always just not hit any buttons and lose, but I'm too competitive to throw a game.
Finally, we have a puzzle game. Yes,
after six disappointing games, all that's left is Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean
Machine, which is very reminscent of Dr. Mario. This game is actually pretty
fun. Playing against another live opponent is even more fun. Put it this
way: I had more fun playing this game than any
other in this game. That has to be
the ultimate insult to Sonic Mega Collection, the very fact that I liked
a
puzzle game more than all the rest
of these games (especially since the highest score I've ever given a
puzzle game is **1/2).
For the final three sections of this Review, I've combined the scores into one score for each section.
Replayability: *
4 of these games (Sonic 3, S&K, Sonic 3D, and Spinball) I really don't feel like playing again. Sonic 2 isn't too attractive to me, either. The only games I may want to play again are Sonic 1 and Mean Bean Machine. That's 2 out of 7 that may warrant another play, possibly 3. In reality, with Mean Bean Machine being the only one I have a positive opinion about, it's the only one I actually would enjoy playing again.
Fun Factor!: *
Well, each platform game has its 30
seconds of fame. That's the amount of time while you're going through
those loops and corkscrews, until you
end up losing all the rings you just collected on one bump by an
enemy. Mean Bean Machine actually raises
this rating. That's amazing, considering I had the lowest
expectations for it, of any of these
games.
OVERALL: *
You may reason, "If one game's worth
**1/2, how is the overall rating lower than that?" The reason is, this
game is supposed to have seven great
games on it, with four more unlockable. However, since six of them were
disappointing, and I would have never paid $50 if I knew Mean Bean Machine
was the only good game in this, it's a waste to me. 1 good game out of
7 games equals out to about 1 out of 4 stars (actually, maybe I'm being
a little generous). Anyway, my suggestion to you: unless you've got a lot
of more patience than me, Sonic Mega Collection will frustrate you and
annoy you. It's not worth buying all over Mean Bean Machine.
If you're not getting it for $20 or
less, you're not getting your money's worth. Sonic Mega Collection suffers
from losing all rings on one hit and poor gameplay despite good graphics
and cool-looking levels. I guess I can now truly say, with the exception
of Super Mario Sunshine, "What Mario games lack in graphics, Sonic games
lack in gameplay."
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