3RRSS Sonic Jam

All right let's just face it. If you like Sega you probably like Sonic. In
fact, I'm sure Sonic not only made a lot of people Sega fans, he made
them videogame fans. He did it for me back when the original Sonic the
Hedgehog hit the Genesis. I remember being a small lad playing the
game at a toy store and just being blown away by how fun and cool it
was. Of course, the little blue hedgehog would come back to grace the
genesis a number of times, and his reign is still going strong today
across all the major platforms. What we have here, is a really solid
collection of those classic Sonic games, with a very nice amount of
bonuses stuffed in to please the long time fans.

Sonic Jam has damn near perfect ports of Sonic 1, Sonic 2, Sonic 3,
and the magnum opus, Sonic & Knuckles. Of course, the lock-on
technology options are available here to get the most of that game.
These are arguably some of the best Sonic games around, and some
would say some of the best videogames around. But Sonic Team was
not content with just brining out a compilation of ports. No instead,
they also gave us the "Sonic World" a brand new portion of playable 3D
Sonic. Sure, the environment was really small, but back then this was
sweet.

I don't think I need to explain how Sonic plays, or how the old games
looked and sounded. You can consult my previous reviews of those
individual titles. I will say, that the ports here hold up amazingly well.
Remember that awful port of Sonic 1 on the Sega Smash Pack Vol. 1 on
the Dreamcast? Well, it's nothing like that. Some of the sound effects
do sound a little off pitch from what I remember, but the music has
remained the same.

Making the jump to CD, I was a tad bit worried if loading times would
ruin the old games. Thankfully, loading times are non-existent once
you start playing. The load times in the menus for selecting the games,
and the options, are very long, but once you select a game, that's it for
loading. No loading between levels or anything, it's just as I
remembered. The Sonic World extras do take a long while to load up,
but thankfully the actual games do not.

Let's see what has been added to the games here. For one, you can
look at the instruction manuals in the game and zoom in to read them.
What's cool is that you can select to look at the American or Japanese
manuals. Very nice to compare how Sonic was showcased in both
countries. This also brought back some heart warming nostalgia, as
even the back cover scan of Mickey's castle of illusion is on the back
of the Sonic 1 manual. Now that is some fine reproduction on Sonic
Team's part. Just as I remembered it.

Sonic Team has gone in and added Time-Attack mode to all the levels,
and you can play the bonus stages from the menu. So that's a neat
little plus right there. They've also given new difficulty levels 'normal'
and 'easy' to the games. For first time Sonic fans, this makes things a
little easier. But I tend to just stick to original mode.

There are two more things I'd like to add about the ports of the games.
For one, you can save in all of the games. Which is good, because
Sonic 2 is massive. Also, you have the option of using the spin dash in
Sonic 1. That was cool to see that feature placed into that game, and it
fit in quite nicely. So these ports are very nice, even all of the old
glitches are back. All of the old codes are back, so these games are
just as you remembered them, now with a few more options.

As for the Sonic World portion, that is a very interesting little beast. It's
a small 3D world where you run around as Sonic and go into 5 different
buildings to learn more about Sonic's past. The graphics for this
section look really sweet, and everything is very detailed. There are
flicky birds flying everywhere, even Tails flies around; and just like in
Sonic 3, you can jump up and grab his hands for him to lift you in the
air. Very sweet.

The first building is the character house. Just some drawings of Sonic
and his friends, as well as Robotnik. Nothing too fancy in that house.
The music shop is sweet. Here, you can listen to the full soundtracks
of all the games. It takes a little while to load up the first track, but
after that every piece of music loads automatically. There are also all
the sound effects in here.

Building 3 is an art gallery Lots of drawings of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles,
and their friends. You can zoom in and view them up close, so it was
pretty neat. I remember seeing these pics online like 7 years ago, so it
was a sight for sore eyes to see some of them again. The hall of fame
building is home to history entries on the Sonic franchise. If you have
the limited edition birthday book from Sonic Adventure 2, it is almost
identical to that. It lists and shows all the Sonic games, and when they
came out, and also highlights some of Sonic's career triumphs.

The final building is the movie theater. The best darn building in the
game. First up, are the opening and closings of Sonic CD. These have
the original Japanese songs with them, not the American Sonic boom.
Next, is a trailer for the Sonic anime. This is all in Japanese and very
cool. (The anime is also quite nice, you should track it down). There is
a short animation with Robotnik dressing up as Sonic and terrorizing
the town. There are also previously unpublished CG movies that
showcase Green Hill zone and more.

But the crown of the theater belongs to the commercials: the
Japanese commercials for the old Sonic games are just classic. I could
not stop laughing at some of them. The clay Sonic dancing on the car
is just priceless. The funny Sonic 3 commercial with the kid who can't
stop running is also a classic. These commercials were a very
welcome bonus.

Finishing up the Sonic World are the "world missions". I believe there
are 20 in all, and they involve you finding things in the 3D over world. I
guess, if you beat all the 20 missions you get something, but I'm stuck
on mission 5. The bonuses here separate Sonic Jam from the more
current Sonic Mega Collections. Yes, Sonic CD would have been
welcome back then (look for it in Sonic Gems), but what we have here
is still great. Awesome ports of the games, with bonuses, and a very
nice plethora of extras make this a Sonic title you cannot pass up. This
is not only essential to Sonic fans, but I think every Saturn fan should
have this game in his or her collection. It's very simple. Sonic Jam is
Sonic and Sonic equals fun.

Review by: Orochi Sonic