Sonic Mega Collection

So I once got this game. I went to my cousin's house and his kid had a gamecube and we decided it'd be fun to trade a game or two for keeps. I gave him a James Bond and he gave me this. It's a compilation of Sonic games

There's over 7 Genesis games on this, and a number of unlockables.

I can name a few:

Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic 2

Sonic 3

Sonic Spinball

Sonic 3D Blast

Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine

Sonic & Knuckles

Here's the only one I had ever played before

Sonic the Hedgehog

I used to play this as a kid at my kid cousin's house. This game has not aged super well, but. I played it till the end. No, I didn't bother getting all the Chaos Emeralds. 

There's a few issues with it. You can't save. It's not super long, but it's not super short either. Plus, Sonic doesn't really do very much. Sonic runs. Sonic jumps. He's super fast when he can go, but it takes him a long time to build up speed. So, what do you do with a character like that? You give him a few levels where he can run a lot, and then you put him in endless caves where he can't build up speed worth a crap. Yay!

This is pretty much the only game in this compilation that I give any crap about. The music has a special place in my heart. Some of the graphics bring back memories. It's fun, but its fun factor is limited.

I tried Sonic 2 and I put it down almost immediately. I don't have any special feelings for it.

Oh! I also played Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine for a while but it's hard :(

There is something a little cool about this compilation. You see, back in the day, Sega was crazy, and thus did a bunch of crazy things. Case in point, Sonic & Knuckles

Allow me to show you a picture of the cartridge.

What's that? You don't think it looks weird? Have you noticed the lid on the top?

Okay, so you bougt Sonic & Knuckles. It's a game. A full game. Kinda. You see, Sega ran out of time when they were making Sonic 3. They cut that game short and released it as Sonic 3 leaving out some of the ideas they had for it. Later, they released the unused ideas as a game called Sonic & Knuckles; however, it was all supposed to be one game. This is how they took care of that problem:

Sonic & Knuckles had a second port and you could plug in your copy of Sonic 3 and it made a whole 'nother different game! Combining them would cause changes in Sonic & Knuckles and it would also give you the ability to play as Knuckles in Sonic 3, something that was always intended, but impossible before. And that's not all! If you plugged in Sonic 2, that caused changes in that game, too!

Well, you might be thinking what's that got to do with Mega Collection? This is a gamecube, disc-based game. There are no cartridges to stack. Well, there kind of is! They built in Knuckles compatibility into the ports of the games! You have to launch specific games in the collection something like 20 times each and it creates the links so you can unlock Knuckles in the other games. I was wondering if that sort of thing would be possible, and I was pleaseantly surprised... Well, google told me. I didn't actually do any of that myself. I'm keeping this game. I don't know, maybe one day I'll care. Right now, I have other fish of more substance that require dumping into hot oil. People love these games. Too bad that most Sonic games after Sonic 3 were mostly terrible. Even still, lots of people keep buying Sonic games like they're expecting the return of the One True Sonic game, like a Sonic Messiah. I think this is as good as it got.