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Nice Collection

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 11, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I never jumped at the original Sonic Collection, but when I saw the Plus collection on sale I picked it up finally. The few extras you get in the Plus collection are negligible, but it is nice to get them. This collection spans many years and systems. 20 Sonic games in all from 7 Genesis games, 3 Sonic&Knuckles lock-on games, 4 unlockable Genesis games, 6 Game Gear games. Also contained are The Ooze, Comix Zone, Flicky, and Ristar. The Sonic museum is a little bonus filled with lots of interesting stuff. The only thing that really shows some age is the Game Gear titles. Blocky and sluggish, they make me appreciate my PSP a lot more. All in all, it is a fun collection with hours of entertainment and replay value.

The "Old-Fashioned" Sonic, Some May Say (by Laura)

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 22, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Ah, yes. Where would any videogame star be without his beginning games? That's exactly what your getting here; the beginning adventures of the famous character known as Sonic the Hedgehog. Other characters like Robotnik (a.k.a. Eggman), Miles "Tails" Prower, and Knuckles the Echidna also have their introductions in this series. Before I say anything else, I want to let you know: the characters I have already mentioned are the only actual Sonic characters that are playable and/or make an appearance (I'm not including some of Eggman's robots like Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts; who never appeared again after Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine). If you're looking for the playability or participation of characters like Amy Rose, Bean the Dynamite, Tails Doll, or anyone else of the like YOU HAVE THE WRONG GAME. Purchase Sonic Gems Collection if you're looking for stuff like Sonic CD (where Amy plays a role). Even if you're here for the correct reasons, it's advisable that you check Sonic Gems Collection out anyway; it practically goes hand in hand with this game. With that out of the way, I would like to mention I'm not comparing this game with any of the newer games. Obviously, the graphics aren't going to be quite up to par on Genesis and Game Gear (which is where these games originally came and were preserved from) as they are on the Wii/Playstation 3/Xbox 360/Whatever newest system you own. Also, if you're an old hat on Sonic's newer games (Sonic Advances 1-3, Sonic Heroes, Sonic Adventures 1 and 2, etc.) then much of the music (no matter how good it is) may be heard of and/or may sound out of date or even glitched to you (the remixes of the music from the newer games hold more differentiation from the older games than the Mario series, however). One more thing; I'm not rating this as one game. I'll give you information on all the little games you get in this box separately. Since I'm not doing comparison, graphics, or music, I'll simply tell you the storylines (if there are any), and whether or not it plays well. I'm strictly commenting on how fun these games are to play, and may drop an interesting tidbit of information if I have it, as well as the basic controls, and type of game it actually is. The games are listed like the main game has them listed.

The Genesis games:

Sonic The Hedgehog: Dr. Ivo Robotnik (AKA Dr. Eggman), the mad scientist, is snatching innocent animals and turning them into evil robots! Help our hero to fight enemies, rescue the helpless animals, and stop Dr. Robotnik from succeeding with his evil plot.
*This storyline is a quote from the manual.
I guess what newbies might call interesting, is that Sonic didn't always have to collect 7 chaos emeralds. Indeed, this game only has 6 emeralds. That doesn't make the game that much easier, though. This is as old school as you can get; not even the character Tails (the two tailed fox) existed yet in this game. This is a good classic Sonic game (not to mention probably the first Sonic game ever), but it's relatively boring to those interested in more characters and storyline. The controls are simple: X, Circle, or Square to jump, down (on control pad or left analog stick) X, Circle or Square to prepare a spindash. Watch out for spikes.

Sonic The Hedgehog 2: Ever since Miles was a little fox he always wanted to be like Sonic. Know to the forest animal as Tails, for his two tails, he always tried to keep up with his hero. Sometimes, Sonic would let Tails keep up with him; other times, he teased him and sped away (not out of malice, or meanness, just playfulness). One night, when Sonic was performing, Tails couldn't help showing off. Using his two tails as a propeller, he increased in speed to where he could even keep up with Sonic. Later, the same animals that had watched them were disappearing, and evil robots were taking their place. Upon further inspection, Eggman was behind it; and your job is to collect the chaos emeralds to keep him from completing his ultimate weapon; the "Death Egg."
*This storyline is partially from the game and partially from the manual. Obviously, this is the first game where Tails is introduced. He's a great character; he can also fly like a helicopter with those two tails. He's also the reason I really fell in love with the Sonic series. It's a great variety of play between only two characters. This may not interest you, but the first time I played this game was when I was a little girl; I got to play it in a small game room at a dentist office (the waiting room). It was one of the many games you could play; and I found the special stage to be a lot of fun. What will interest you is: if you're controlling Sonic, and the CPU is controlling Tails, a SECOND player can take control of Tails with another remote. Furthermore, Tails is invincible as a partner; so it offers great two player capabilities. The controls are the same; if you want to fly with Tails just press the jump button repeatedly to make him rise. Again, watch out for spikes; and be warned that Tails will get tired, and must land after some time in the air.

Sonic The Hedgehog 3: Continuing from the previous game, Eggman's "Death Egg" has crashed on floating island and is unable to fly. In order to fix his ship, he calls on the guardian of the floating island, an echidna known as Knuckles, to gather the chaos emeralds necessary for repair. Eggman doesn't stop there, he also deceives the guardian into thinking Sonic and Tails are the villains...
*Main idea from the guide, slightly re-worded
Firstly, for those who are new, Knuckles isn't evil; he's gullible (meaning easy to fool). It's a huge difference, even if it doesn't seem like it for the time being. Fun facts time! Did you know an echidna is actually a type of Australian anteater? Oddly enough, many sources peg Knuckles to like fruit "especially grapes." Strange, huh? Either way, even though you still only control Sonic and Tails, Knuckles makes his first, and very prevalent, appearances here. He'll show up often to activate traps and laugh at you (fun, huh?). The controls are the same for Sonic and Tails. As always, watch out for spikes. You may want to be watchful for squishy deaths too (you know, like getting crushed?).

Sonic & Knuckles: Continuing from the last game, Sonic destroyed the "Death Egg"...again. This time, he is looking to find all of the emeralds hidden in the Floating Island for safety's sake. Knuckle's, however, still thinks he's a villain; and wants to keep the emerald's away from him by all means available. But while Sonic and Knuckles argue, who's going to stop Robotnik?
*The main plot idea is taken from the manual.
Time for more fun facts. Did you know that this game along with Sonic 3 was intended to be one game? However, not only was it really difficult to pull off (and the release date put off a couple of times in production), but fans were demanding it; one diehard fan even hurt production by hacking into the corporation and stealing a rough level design for the Hidden Palace Zone. The combination of all these things caused it to become two separate games. Anyway, this is the first game that allows you to control Knuckles, a pretty cool character; but it comes at a couple of prices. The first price is the game becomes more difficult; the second price is that you won't get as many, if any, cutscenes. What makes Knuckle's cool, however, is he can use his dreadlocks to glide. Press the jump button twice to initiate a flight that slowly descends you to the ground. If you bump into a wall, you can climb it by pressing up on the d-pad/analog stick. Press down to climb down, and a jump button to get off. Cool, huh? Sonic's controls are still the same.

Blue Sphere (Not Available from the Start): There isn't really a plot unless you use the ones from Sonic 3 and/or Sonic and Knuckles. This game is the special stages from those games. They're fun, but can get tiresome. If you don't want to start at level one every time, then either write down the numbered passwords as you progress, or find codes for all the levels at various game websites. As mentioned, this isn't a game that comes out of the box; you must unlock it first.

Knuckles in Sonic 2 (Not Available from the Start): Do you like Sonic 2? Do you like Knuckles? Well, here they are together... That's really all there is to it. No plot mentioned or anything. Personally, I think controlling Knuckles makes this game hard for some reason... Again, you need to unlock this game first.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles (Not Available from the Start): This is just like it sounds. It's Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles combined. Obviously you can control Knuckles in the Sonic 3 levels now. I'm not sure if this is how the two games were supposed to be one, originally, but something like this was most likely the original plan (see Sonic & Knuckles if you're lost); you can see how and where the two stories fit together (if you last that long). It's quite impressive. This is also the first time the super emeralds come into play.

Sonic 3D Blast: Sonic goes to Flicky island only to find that Eggman has turned the mysterious birds known as Flickies (kind of a duh), into, guess what, vicious robots! Help Sonic rescue the Flickies and foil the evil doctor's plan.
*Main plot idea from the manual
As the title suggests, this game is in 3D. The D stands for dimensional in case you didn't know, and were looking for a fun fact (the same truth pertains to 2D, etc.). Controlling Sonic is still the same; but the new perspective in this game makes it difficult to judge distance and move correctly.

Sonic Spinball: Once again, Eggman is turning animals into robots (seriously, will they lock this guy up, or something?); and this time he is using his Veg-O-Fortress (basically, a giant pinball machine minus the ball) to do so. Only Sonic can penetrate the pinball defense system, free the animals, and collect the chaos emerald to put an end to the evil doctor's scheme.
*Main Plot idea from the manual
The controls are the same for Sonic as always on regular ground; but that isn't often this time. This is almost exactly like a pinball game. The square button controls the left flipper, X controls the right, and Circle controls both. You can use any mentioned buttons to shake the bonus round boards. While I applaud Sega for their original idea of using a hedgehog as a pinball, I've had a enough doses of the pinball phase from when I was little. I was never that good either...

Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine: Dr. Robotnik is changing the jolly folk of Beanville into devious little robots that will help rid Planet Mobius of music and fun forever. Group the beans together to help them escape while working your way up to the wilier henchbots.
*The plot is quoted word for word from the instruction manual. I'm not kidding.
Actually, Sonic doesn't really make an appearance in this game. It truly is up to you. This is a fun little puzzle game and, unlike previous Sonic games, Eggman's robots have been given personalities. These personalities were shown by the cutscenes before the level (where they say a sentence or two toward you) and during the level (when you're winning or losing). It makes some of them endearing (like Coconuts), and others annoying (like Grounder); but it was actually a great concept. I wonder why it disappeared in later games... Either way, you play by trying to get four or more beans, of the same color, together; but there are some strategies to it. You use the d-pad/analog stick to move the beans as they fall, use square/circle to rotate them clockwise, and X to rotate counterclockwise. That's it.

Flicky (Not Available from the Start): I don't know why this is here, unless it's because Flickies are in Sonic 3D. Either way, it's here when you unlock it. It's basically about a blue Flicky who's trying to save yellow chick-like birds called Chirps, while avoiding Tigers and Iggys (think Iguanas). A Flicky controls just like Sonic, save for being able to double jump using it's wings. If you find a pot plant (or another object) use the jump button to throw it. Get as many Chirps to the door as possible for the highest score. Don't let Tigers and Iggys touch them, or they'll wander away from you.

Ristar (Not Available from the Start): This is probably the cream of the crop of the non-Sonic games here. This game alone is worth getting the entire collection for. Unfortunately, it'll be the hardest game to unlock, and the last game you'll get; so patience will be required. The story is simple, but entails a cool intro. A villain known as Greedy conquers all of the planets by taking control of their leaders. A legendary hero rises to defeat them, but gets captured himself by this villain. The last hope is his son, Ristar, who gets called into action during one of his peaceful aquatic naps. It's up to you to help Ristar save the day.
*Plot roughly from the game, maybe a bit from the in-game manual.
I finally have more interesting facts for you. Firstly, in this country's game's intro, it's a light that calls Ristar into saving his dad; but originally, it was Ristar's mom, who apparently was a well-known goddess. The pagan deity was taken out to avoid offending people. Here's something else: Ristar's sprite was originally always smiling. Ours has a more serious look but if you pause RIGHT after he lands, you'll see the original smile that he had. Finally, even though this is a great game, it was one of the last ones to be produced before the Genesis system went extinct. Because of this, it probably didn't get it's deserved fame; thus, no sequels were ever made and this game fell into almost obscurity (some still talk about it, but not many). This apparently made it into the collection because some of Ristar's designs were originally supposed to belong to Sonic; but it didn't work out, and those qualities became part of completely different character. Ristar moves exactly like Sonic with two differences. One, he can't spindash. Two, instead of Square being another jump button, it uses Ristar's grab ability; which makes the game more various then you think. If I didn't stress it enough, great game! You must look into it.

The Ooze (Not Available from the Start): The plot is more complicated than most. A wonderful and brilliant scientist (or so says the in-game manual) known as Caine does research for a corporation; but one day, he suspects a scandal being planned behind his back. So, he hacks into a computer to learn that the corporation is hiding a deadly hybrid plague that could wipe out humanity in just a few days. The corporation itself has the only known cure and is planning to release the disease into water supplies everywhere; thus, infecting the entire planet, and forcing governments to pay them billions for said cure. During Caine's research, the director barges in with a goon on each side and Caine is discovered. The goons hold him down while the director takes out a huge syringe full of hideous green goo and injects it in Caine's arm. The director's intent was to kill Caine, but something went wrong and Caine survived; instead of dying, he became the Ooze, a green liquid monster. With the only traces of his humanity being his head and a fist, Caine swore revenge on the corporation.
*Plot mostly from the detailed in-game manual.
Aside from the detailed story, there really isn't anything I like about this game. It's completely disgusting as you're a green blob that burps every time you defeat something mutant (like rats). You move around toxic dumps, and go through toilet pipes... Eww! Whether this game is easy to unlock or not depends on whether or not you have a Sonic Heroes save file. If you do, it should already be unlocked (if not the first time, exit the game list and enter again). If not, it'll be a little harder to unlock. I had a Sonic Heroes file, so I'm unsure of how hard it is to unlock without it. If you need help, there are plenty of ways to get it online. You make the Ooze punch with the Square button (maybe X too, I don't know that could also be for spitting), spit with the Circle button, and move him with the d-pad/analog stick.

Comix Zone (Not Available from the Start): This is a great game, but it's hard. It's about a comic book creator named Turner, who gets trapped into his own comic book world by means of a villain (that he created) who somehow escaped that world. Now, it's a fight to the finish. Will Turner escaped and teach his own villain a lesson? Or will his villain finish him off; leaving Turner trapped in his own comic book adventure forever?
*Some of this information may be from the in-game manual; if not, it came from the actual game.
I don't really do the story justice. It'll be a lot better and climatic when you see it for yourself. The in-game manual has the storyline like a comic book, and the game is like a comic itself (hence the title). It's really awesome. I wish I could tell you what the controls are from memory; but, for just a few buttons, this game has complicated controls. You'll be better off learning from the manual, or trial and error, than me telling you wrong.

Game Gear Games:

Sonic The Hedgehog: Uh, same plot as the one from Genesis. It's pretty different in gameplay from it's counterpart, though. No special stages (the emeralds are out in the open), and cheerier music. The controls are the same. I still like it better for some reason...

Sonic Labyrinth: Eggman was thinking one night, "Why does Sonic always beat me?" He thought and he thought. "Why does he always speed past me?" That's when it came to him: Sonic's speed and jumping abilities! "Yes! I'll develop shoes that'll slow him down AND keep him from jumping! It's brilliant!" Next morning, Sonic woke up and put on his shoes, as usual, but noticed they weighed him down considerably; and he couldn't get them off! On top of all of that, he was caught in the evil doctor's newest trap: a labyrinth. Can he escape with just his spindash ability remaining?
*Plot mostly from the in-game guide.
This isn't a very good game. Your goal is to find the three keys needed to exit the level within the time limit. You control Sonic a lot like you do in Sonic 3D Blast. The only difference is the buttons activate your spindash instead making you jump (you can't jump, remember?). Apparently, you hit those buttons again to make him stop. This is a bad game because not only do you have that bad perspective from Sonic Blast 3D, but Sonic moves really slow; and you don't have that much time. Some time can be gained by defeating enemies and finding keys, so that helps. But your spindash is hard to control, and normally does more harm than good. This game is hard to say the least.

Sonic Drift: Sonic and his friends seek even greater speed on the race circuit. Aim to become the winner of the Chaos Grand Prix with your high speed race machines.
*Plot quoted directly from the manual
That's all I really have on it. They don't even have an English manual available in the game (it's all in Japanese). Each character slows his/her rivals down in his/her own way. Use the d-pad/analog stick to steer, Circle to accelerate, and X/Square to break. Combine these controls to do Drift Turns. This isn't a high quality racing game; in fact, Sonic Drift 2 (from Sonic Gems Collection) is better.

Sonic Chaos: Sonic's sidekick Tails made his first appearance on Game Gear in Sonic Chaos. Choose Sonic or Tails-two playable characters means, double the fun!!!
*Plot is quoted word for word from the manual (it's not really a plot, though)
If you want something interesting, I learned from the main game itself that this game was originally going to be Sonic and Tails. The controls on both characters are the same as Sonic 2. This game is fun. That's it.

Sonic Blast: Knuckle's made his first appearance on the Game Gear in Sonic Blast. Anyway, Eggman built an island just like the Floating island in order to harness the Master Emerald's power. Now, Sonic and Knuckle's are teaming up to collect the chaos emeralds and destroy the fake island.
*First line from the manual. The rest of the plot is mostly from the in-game manual.
You control Sonic and Knuckles just like you do in the game Sonic & Knuckles. It just looks different. With different music. It's still fun.

Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine: The plot's pretty much the same. This game doesn't sell the personality of Eggman's robots nearly as much as it's counterpart, nor does it look anywhere near as good; but it gives you the benefit of a "Puzzle Book" for beginners. The Puzzle Book (for robot's only, it says) gives you special situations in it's "Lessons" that you have to solve with specific moves; this can help you strategize better. Other than the Puzzle Book, however, you're better off playing the counterpart. Go to this one if you need to brush up on your skills.

Conclusion:
Whew, *massages wrist* that was the last game. I hope rating each game individually helps you decide if the overall collection is right for you. Sure, there are some bad apples; but there are really good ones in here, too. One more important thing before I close: a couple of the Sonic Genesis ones can get boring, especially if you can't get past a certain level; if you want some real fun, search online for level select and debug mode codes. It's fun because then you can control Super Sonic on Green Hill, or warp to Lava Reef where you fight Knuckles; really cool stuff that you can't do in today's games. Don't worry if you find tricks only for the Genesis version of these games; they'll work here too. Just replace A, B, and C with Square, X, and Circle. That'll be all.

Hyper Cool

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 16, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This is one of the best games that was ever made and to have this collection is just cool. I mean you can't get better than this, it brings back great memories!

This is SOOOO Cool !!!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 07, 2008
Author: Amazon User

We Still have are sega games. This is so cool to play these games on playstation2... IS BUBSY NEXT. Thank You, Bill

Great 'old school' fun!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 17, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game is great - I enjoy having the old game style while playing. Nice selection of games all together. Kids love it and I enjoy it, too. Noticed some lag but didn't really bother me, much.

A great game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: September 28, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I had a great time playing the game, it was a big part of my childhood and it brought back lots of memories. It has every sonic game that came out and it has a bunch of extras as well. If you liked the first two sonics or any other sonic game, then you will love this collection

Possibly the best reason to own a genesis back in the day

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: August 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This was a great idea to bring the Sonic games to the next generation systems. You get a large variety of games to choose from. They were perfectly translated over and the controls are still just as responisve. I don't play all of the games. For me The Mean Bean Machine is the only reason to own this. The first 3 Sonic games is a great change of pace from the next gen. games coming out now. Alot of games are playable from the start and there's a few more to be unlocked.

Bottomline if you loved those old school side scrolling adventures or just loved Sonic. This is a great buy. Even kids who weren't around during the Sega Genesis period get a huge kick out of these games.

sonic mega collection

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: May 14, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I used to like sonic, but now I like 3D games better, and this title is a bit too repetitive. 2D is not the same as well I guess. It is a classic though, but not the best game.

Classic fun

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: May 07, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Can't get more campy fun for this much money.

Hours and hours of fun down memory lane.

Enjoy!

Glorius Sonic Memories Relived

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: April 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I really loved this collection of sonic games. It was perfect. Its just like having an emulator, except all the games are already on the disk and you get to play through your TV. It even has the "quicksave" feature that emulators have, letting you load to any point in the level if you choose. The only slightly negative part is, how you attain some of the bonus games, like knuckles in sonic 3 or knuckles in sonic 2, is you just have to open and close some of the other games you dont really play about 20 times. A stupid way to earn the bonus games, but it didnt take very long. To sum up, its exactly how i remembered it on genesis, except i'm holding a ps2 controller, not genesis.

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