After my Megadrive review it was evident many were fans of Sonic and the franchise, so here is a review of 4 Sonic games on 1 cartridge.
Sonic classic collection was released on the 2nd March 2010 and features Sonic 1 to 3, Sonic and knuckles. What I should point at this point is that this collection really adds nothing special and new, its just the games, a few pictures and thats it.
But if thats all your looking for then let us move on......
For any Sonic fans, most will agree that the games featured on the catridge are the best of the Sonic series.
But those who are new to Sonic may want to know that the games revolve around you controlling a very speedy hedghog and flying through levels, filled with gold rings to collect and obstacles to avoid. I'll give a short rundown of the 4 games below, it is primarily a 2D side scrolling platform game.
Sonic the hedgehog is the origional title, released in 1991 and featured stunning 16 bit graphics, which are ported over directly to the DS from the Genesis with very little loss.
The game involves you speeding through six areas each with 3 acts, In Sonic 1 you are trying to stop the main antagonist of the game Dr Robotnik from getting the six chaos emeralds and bringing destruction to the world, with every end level of the act seeing you try and beat the DR in his rather funny Eggmobile.
Sonics main ability is running, but he can also jump and roll which comes in handy when your faced with a plethora of loops and ramps throughout the levels.
The story never holds up much for me in Sonic, it's more about the speed and action which entices me. This doesn't mean it wont keep you intrested as the game will definatley have you on the edge of the seat.
Graphically the game used very vivid colours to attract attention to it, but everything is easy to see even at pace. The world is full of green grass and palmtrees, with a cool sea background which really suited the game.
Control wise it is extremely simple to pick up and play , being one of the reasons it is so popular, it mainly comes down to your ability to react to whats on screen more than anything else.
Sonic the hedghog 2 is the sequel and came 1 year after the origional title.
Much of the previous information widely applies here too , but the game did bring a few new peices.
Firstly we met Tails, Tails is a fox and mechanic with 2 tails. He is Sonic's sidekick and able to use his 2 tails to hover in the air like a helicopter for a few seconds.
Secondly the story is slightly different, in this title Sonic and Tails must stop Dr Robotnik from stealing the Emeralds which would power his new weapon, the death egg. Not only this but Sonic's freinds are captured and so it's his and tails job to save them.
The game levels were upped to 11 zones bringing new areas to both explore and defeat, this both increased the longevity and made it a little more intresting.
Sonic also has a new move named "spin dash", this made him spin at high speed before moving off in a certain direction at even faster speeds.
There was the option to play as either Sonic or Tails, this added a bit more variety and difficulty as Tails wasn't as strong as Sonic.
But the biggest addition in this title has to be the entrance of Super Sonic, by collecting all the Emeralds Sonic would turn a yellow colour. Following this he would become enhanced in every way as well as being invincible, however this increase made jumps incredibly difficult so you had to be very skilled in timing the movement.
Sonic 3 was released in 1994, carrying on the story from Sonic 2.
After defeating Dr Robotnik, Sonic lands on a strange floating island. Unfortunatley it's not "The Island" which would of been much more intresting. But anyway, crashing on this island we meet a new character called Knuckles and a new drama to evade.
Knuck