Sonic Classics

Genre: Compilation Developer: Sonic Team Publisher: Sega Enterprises Players: 1-2 Released: 1995

Sonic the Hedgehog is, in my mind the coolest, and most bad ass video game character ever. Yes, beating out Ryu Hayabusa, Samus, Link, Dante, and even Master Chief. Sonic just isn’t as cool as he used to be though, and the last few generations of games shows it. What made this ultimate video game hero into such an average mascot?; I think it may be the over-flooded market of compilation games with the Blue Blur pasted on them. So how is Sonic’s first compilation of games-the first of thousands it seems? Read on.

First of all, you need to know how much bang you’re getting for your buck. Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic The Hedgehog 2, and Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine (aka Puyo Puyo) are what’s included, so if you don’t like those games then stop reading now. Story never was the main draw of the Sonic games, and it shows… Sonic 1 and 2 have more or less the same story. You know, evil scientist captures friends, you free friends, beat bad guy, etc. Mean Bean goes a different route than those two. Sonic never appears, and the game is based off of the more childish Sonic cartoon of the early 1990s (the one with Scratch, and Grounder). All in all, the story just dosen’t move any of the games at all, but then platformers never did distinguish themselves for their awesome plots.

In terms of gameplay Both Sonic games have the same structure: run right, collect rings, smash robot, collect more rings, and then smash Robotnik. There is actually MUCH more to it than just that, but you would really only understand if you have ever played a Sonic game before. Mean Bean is another genre altogether, and as such plays different in every single aspect; The object of the game is to move two beans at a time downward into more beans, while trying to get same colored beans to touch, so they will blow up. Simple and fun, it’s kind of like Columns mixed with Tetris.

If there ever was a game series that had amazing music, it would be the Sonic series. While not as nice to the ears as S3&K, it will keep your Genesis filled with joy. I have no complaints about the BGM, except that in Mean Bean it can get a little repetitive. Graphically, they’re the same way, Nothing bad can really be said about any of these games, but in Mean Bean, there should be more diversity.

The strange thing about this compilation is that Sonic 1 seems to be a version found on all collections, and the version of Sonic 2 seems to be different from any other I’ve ever played. Thats okay, because even the biggest of Sonic veterans would have a hard time trying to figure them out, as they are amazingly subtle changes (if you are wondering, the enemies are slightly faster and the “Oil Ocean” stage has a very minor change to the height of the oil).

People who own a Nomad will be disappointed with this compilation, as the Blue Blur is nothing else but a big blur. For some reason, the game is still playable, just rather hard to see on the little screen. Mean Bean, however, is excellent on the Nomad, and is very easy on the eyes. While Sonic Classics isn’t as easy to find as all the other Sonic games, just keep in mind that it is totally worth it, unless you already own them all, in which case you should have known from the beginning that this would get a perfect score. So all I have to say now is…Genesis does what Nintendon’t!