Sonic Classic Collection Nintendo DS Review

Have you ever wished you could play the Sonic the Hedgehog Sega Genesis/Mega Drive titles on the go, whenever you wanted? Sonic 1 Remastered was recently announced for the 3DS eshop so I wanted to write a quick review of the classic handheld offering for those who may not have a 3DS at this point, or maybe for those who don't want to wait on the other genesis titles to be released. Though likely, there's no guarantee at this point that they'll do a remastered version of the other titles.

Sonic Classic Collection for Nintendo DS, as the title suggests, is a collection of the main entries of the 16-bit Sonic the Hedgehog series. The collection includes Sonic 1, Sonic 2, Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles, and also features the "lock on" technology of the Sonic & Knuckles cartridge, meaning you can play as Knuckles in Sonic 2 and the complete Sonic 3 & Knuckles experience. It would have been nice to have the other Sonic genesis titles such as Sonic Spinball or 3D Blast but if you ask me it has the essentials covered.

The games feel nearly identical to their original 16-bit versions save for a few minor things that I believe to be hardware related.  For example, there appears to be a slight amount of slow down in the Labyrinth zone of Sonic 1 in the submerged underwater areas due to the "wavy" effect on the background. In Sonic 3 & Knuckles there appear to be some layering issues with some of the sprites on a few occasions.  For example near the end of the game in the emerald chamber when Knuckles grabs onto the master emerald Dr. Robotnik just snatched he goes behind it rather than hanging on to the front of it.

There have been no touch ups to the graphics themselves, which is great for the purists out there but again there are some hickups caused by the DS hardware itself. The DS does not support the original aspect ratio of the Genesis, so the overall image of the game appears to be slightly distorted. It's not terribly noticeable, it just appears like there's no antialiasing going on and thus more jaggies appear. The only instance I can think of where this seems to affect the in game graphics themselves are in the lampost magnetic sphere bonus games of Sonic 3 & Knuckles where the walls appear to have black diamonds or holes due to the adjusted resolution. Note that I have played the game on the original DS model, DSi and on a 3DS and this issue persists.

There are also some slight differences in sounds due to the hardware emulation.  Each game seems to have a few sound effects that sound a little off from their original 16-bit versions. Thankfully all of the music in the game sounds pretty much exactly the way it did on the Genesis, with the exception of Launch Base zone in Sonic 3. It's not tremendously different, it just sounds like the pitch is up a bit.

Aside from the games themselves there are very little extras included, which is disappointing compared to the console Sonic collections that have released over the years. Where the console versions include rare artwork, prototype designs and even creator interview movies, in this version all we get are some lack luster clip art quality Sonic images from various games.

The menus themselves are pretty dull too. Nothing animated or even colorful, just the image of the games you have to select from. While this isn't that big of a deal (I mean I bought it to play the games, not surf menus) it does make the project seem a bit lazy.

My biggest gripe with the collection are two important missing features from Sonic 2 and 3. In Sonic 2, the options menu is missing and instead you toggle through your character selection on the title screen. This is significant because without the sound test menu you are unable to enter the level select or any other codes for Sonic 2. The inability to jump to your favorite stage means you'll always be left playing Sonic 2 from the beginning or from where ever your last save state left off.  Sonic 2 had some really neat codes too, such as the debug menu. The only way to level select in Sonic 2 now is if you're playing as Knuckles because his code must be input on the title screen. Sonic 3 is missing access to the multiplayer levels. It's clear that they had no intention of multiplayer support for this game, but in the original Sonic 3 you could at least practice on these levels and try to best your own times.

Aside from the above mentioned hickups the speed is there in full force and you'll find that these titles play admirably close to the original cartridges. Until we see some sort of re-releases of the remaining games, this collection is the best way to be able to play the classic Sonic games on the go.

Pros:

- Nearly perfect ports of Sonic's main adventures, fully accessible out of the box.
- Save state feature lets you pick up your game where you left off (It does not save your exact position but will start you at the beginning of the last level you saved in. The save feature for Sonic 3 and Sonic 3 & Knuckles functions exactly the same as it did on the Genesis)
- Level select codes and other "cheats" are still in tact and input the same way as on the Genesis, except for Sonic 2.

Cons:

- Some minor flaws in the aspect ratio and the occasional sound effect.
- Multiplayer levels missing from Sonic 3.
- Options menu/sound test missing from Sonic 2.
- Menus and extras are bland and add nothing to the overall package.