Sonic Classic Collection

Throwback feel but lacks love!

Posted 3 years ago By - Jay Acevedo

SEGA, creator of many great game franchises, remains one of the videogame companies closest to my heart. Not necessarily for what they have done in the current console cycle but mostly due to its massive contribution to the gaming industry in the nineties. So I was curious to see this new Sonic Classic Collection (which includes Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic 2, Sonic 3, and Sonic & Knuckles) in action on my DS. Can you believe it’s the first time these classic Sonic games have appeared on the Nintendo DS?

Recently, those titles hit the Wii’s Virtual Console, Xbox Live Arcade, Playstation Network, and even those standalone consoles that come pre-loaded with Genesis games in them. Truth is, aside from re-playing them on my Genesis or more recently on Xbox Live, my biggest pleasure came from playing Sonic 1 and 2 on my good old Game Gear. Why? I can’t really explain. The smaller resolution made it easy and more enjoyable I guess. I know that Sonic 1 was available for download over PSN for the PSP a while back but I never really sought it out.

And while my interest in the newly re-imagined Sonic games never surpassed the “meh” status, I’ve been stuck watching SEGA rerelease the classic Sonics on a bunch of platforms when they should have done it on the DS first. Let’s face it, playing the original Sonic The Hedgehog nowadays on a 40” HDTV makes your eyes bleed after 30 minutes. High definition only highlights all the imperfections and low resolutions of older games. Plus, it’s not like the Classic Sonic install base isn’t there. Most videogame nuts like me, between the ages of 25-35, have a DS at home. All the signs were there, I’m just surprised it took them this long to do it.

Carrying a CDN $35 price tag, which, when you break it down, means that each game featured on this collection carries an approximate $8 price tag. This, by todays standards, is very expensive for games available nearly everywhere else and over 10-something year olds.Think about it, each of these four games carries a $5 price tag on XBLA.

How many Genesis games fit on a DS cart? I’m no tech expert but seeing what SEGA was able to do with the great Sonic Genesis Ultimate Collection they released last year, I’m sure they could have put more than just four games onto a DS cartridge, especially if they are identical unmodified ports of the Genesis games.

Okay, they aren’t exactly the same. Each game has a save feature but it doesn’t even save state, it just brings you back at the beginning of the last level you saved. However, the collection does include the “lock-on” feature that allowed you to use data from Sonic 2 and 3 in pairing with Sonic & Knucles. Aside from this, there’s nothing else to say. I mean, I guess you get a very simplistic illustration gallery that feels more like a last minute addition. Right.

It makes me wonder why SEGA didn’t think to release these four titles as DSiWare?

And it also begs the question of whether they’ll bring more classic SEGA games to the DS in the future. I wish they would, but just not the way they did with this. As a fan of the classic Sonic games, I find it difficult to recommend at this price. SEGA missed a golden opportunity to release a $20 DS budget title that could have sold extremely well.

Don’t get me wrong, playing these games on the DS is awesome (especially if you are a DSi XL owner) but the price and the way it feels like everything was just shoved onto a DS cartridge with no love kills it. I would strongly recommend waiting until SEGA tells retailers to chop the price or actually read this review and re-release something that’s easier to recommend, like all SONIC handheld games on one cartridge maybe?

If you are a die-hard Sonic Classic fan that owns a DS and you have managed to avoid every single re-re-release of Sonic The Hedgehog known to man, yes, this DS collection might be worth checking out. Just be prepared to see your heart break into little pieces of disappoinment.