Introduction
When people thought of the console battle in the 16-bit era, they thought of Sonic and Mario. Which game was better? No one was really sure. Now with the power of the Gamecube, Sega has brought a collection of the best Sonic games (excluding Sonic CD) to Nintendo's system. They are still great games, yet showing their age.

Gameplay
Even though you can use the analog stick or the d-pad to play the games, the analog feels much better to use. For the four regular Sonic games, You can use any of the body buttons to jump, spin while on the ground, and use special moves in Sonic 3 and Knuckles. These three games are as fun as they were back then, and its a great challenge trying to play through them all in one sitting. They will take about 3 or 4 hours to beat, but there is plenty of incentive to play them over to get higher scores, chaos emeralds, and open up new levels.

Fun
There are quite a few extras in the game, but not as many as I hoped. There are about 150 Sonic comic covers. There is also one full Sonic comic, although its a little bit hard to be able to read it. There are several movies, like the opening to Sonic CD, and the History of Sonic. Lastly, there is a bunch of artwork of Sonic and his pals. While these extras are cool, they could of done so much more then this. Sonic Mega Collection is a great deal for old school gamers, so I would pick it up right away if you consider yourself that. For people new to gaming, they might be turned off by the old graphics, and will not find the game too much fun. Rent before buying if you are one of those people.

Story
There are seven games that you start the game with, and five more that you unlock. Sonic the Hedgehog introduced the popular hedgehog. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 brings Tails to the scene, and is a solid upgrade over the original. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 brought upon a much improved graphical engine, plus a save feature that fans wanted for years. Sonic & Knuckles let Knuckles become playable, and is the best 2D Sonic to alot of people. Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine is a Puyo Puyo type of game, with blocks falling down that you need to get rid of by connecting the same colors with eachother. Sonic Spinball is a pinball Sonic game, but utterly failed back then, and isn't any better now. The worse of the group is Sonic 3d, which was a novel idea, but also failed.

Graphics
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine is the best of the games on the CD (except for a certain hidden game) that isn't a regular Sonic game. It is really addicting, and can keep you trying to get the high score for a good while. You can play a against a friend, or do the story mode that you play about 12 different characters, each getting harder in difficulty. Sonic Spinball is a horrible attempt at making Sonic into a pinball game. There is lots off odd animation, slow gameplay, and bad level design. If you thought Sonic Spinball, think again. Sonic 3D is one of the worst games I have ever played on the Genesis. You play Sonic from an isometric view, and you go through levels trying to save little birds. The isometric view makes it so hard to control him, don't be surprised if you keep on jumping off cliffs while trying to reach places.

Sound
The graphics were great for their day, but now they are absolutely horrid. This shouldn't make people avoid it however. The Sonic games have never been about graphics, they are about gameplay. All the music you've grown to love with the Sonic games are here, and sound perfect. These are some of the best tunes during their time, so its great to see that the sound wasn't messed up, like it was in Sega's last compilation.