Sonic Mega Collection (GameCube) Reader Review

The summery: 'If you want Sonic on your Wii, this is the route to go. Forget the Virtual Console (and forget any new Sonic games as well. ), this is the best way to enjoy Sonic on your Wii. End of.'

Right off the bat there's a choice of 7 games to choose from: Sonic 1, 2 and 3, Sonic and Knuckles, Sonic 3D, Sonic Spinball and Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine.

I'm sure you're all familiar with the 2D Sonic platform games, so I'll just say that they're all ported pretty flawlessly. No problems at all. Surprisingly using a Cube controller isn't a major problem either, and you get a choice between D-pad and Analogue stick.

Sonic 3D has you running around finding flickies. The isometric viewpoint can make it difficult to see exactly where enemies are in relation to you, which is irritating. Also the game is unlike most Sonic titles, and Sonic jogs around as if he's been smoking a relaxing drug, rather then running in his foot-blurring normal fashion. Overall it's a mediocre addition, but it's definitely playable.

Sonic Spinball is a pinball game with elements of strategy stuck in. Some things have to be destroyed in a specific order, and you can often propel yourself onto different pinball tables. The game is decent in short bursts, but generally doesn't appeal in large doses.

Mean Bean Machine is a puzzle game similar to Tetris, where 4 beans of the same colour have to touch to eliminate them. It's a great laugh and by far the best non-2D platformer game on the disc. It is also a multiplayer, which is pretty decent as well. It also features Scratch and Grounder (drill and chicken robots from the TV show! ), which is a plus in my books.

Along with the 7 titles from the get-go there are various unlockables. Most are just comic covers, or similar that only the most hardcore fans will really appreciate, but there's also a few other games to unlock as you go along. They're pretty simple and serve as mini-games more then anything, but they're appreciated non-the-less.

All-in-all Sonic 1-3 + Sonic and Knuckles are the meat of the game, and anything else is just a bonus. I know I haven't really talked about the meat, but that's because everybody knows what it's like. Jumping, grabbing rings, curling into a ball and zooming around loop-the-loops is still as awesome as it was in the early 90's, and that's all there is to say on the subject really.

Graphically the games were generally great for their time and still hold up well enough (save for the slight issues with Sonic 3D). You can see enemies, spikes and gaps clearly and the games appear to have aged remarkably well. They still sound good, too. Okay, perhaps they don't hold up by today's standards, but the tweedy tunes still stuck in your brain more then most.

And that's it basically. A quick note that the game was rereleased for PS2 and X-Box with a few additional games (non of which I have played), so perhaps the Gamecube version isn't the best choice if you've got more then one console. Also there's no feature to use the GBA as a controller, which would have been nice. But basically, if you want to play some classic Sonic on your Cube or Wii, this is a great title that you should be able to find cheap as chips now-a-days.