People have by now played on "Sonic Mega Collection" on the Gamecube (and "Mega Collection +" on the PS2 and Xbox), and compilations of Sonic games aren't uncommon (S&K pack for the PC; "Sonic", "Eccho" and "Golden Axe" on the GBA; Sonic classics collection on the Genesis; etc) and many fans are highly anticipating the soon to be released "Sonic Gems Collection", with its amazing line up of games that fans have been dying to master with their next-gen controllers, headlining as the 'gem' of the compilation is certainly "Sonic CD", the blue hedgehog's greatest outing in a 2D aspect.
But none of these come close to the Sonic Team masterpiece that is "Sonic Jam" on the SEGA Saturn. It had media from America and Japan, pictures, movies, music, all by the brimming bucket-full; and access to these was the adventure field-esquire 3-dimensional world that introduced how pointy a rendered 'hog can really be, and saw Tails flying mindlessly around and around and around. Fans rejoiced and went all-out in trying to complete the few missions available in that world. To me, this was better even than poorly devised Sonic 3D and its horrible isometric hell (my poor, innocent eyesight T-T) and the 3D world of "Sonic Jam" itself certainly went forward into becoming the Adventure Fields of sonic's first Dreamcast outing, and even triggered the idea of "Mission Mode" in the Gamecube re-release.
Moving away from the jaw-dropping world of "Sonic Jam", we come closer to the retro aspect. The greatest thing since sliced bread. Not only could you play Sonic 1, 2 and 3, but you could also go for S&K lock-on, and choose whether to play "Knuckles in Sonic2" or "Sonic3 & Knuckles" or even "Get Blue Spheres" Oh, the hours of my life gonna into that one... ^-^ And Knuckles being my all-time favourite character only added to the excitement! Then along came something that revolutionised the classic Sonic titles; a difficulty option for the lesser experienced player, and the ability to spin-dash in Sonic 1; oh, how we rejoiced (of course now you can spin-dash in the recent mobile phone remake of Sonic 1 also). A new wave of players could enter the best game series of all time, and really get to grips with the genre by kicking Dr. Robotnik's egg-shaped behind in easy, then once again in full-scale normality. Bliss - Perfect bliss.
Another advantage of "Sonic Jam" over the next-gen collections is the controller pad. Xbox, Ps2 and certainly Gamecube pads were not intended for sonic games and couldn't be more far off from the Genesis controllers of old (unless you modded your PS2 out to look like the low-bit wonder). But Saturn controllers had all the right buttons in all the right places, thus making it far simpler to pick up and play and understand what on earth you're meant to do. If I could start off my 7-year-old sister on "Sonic Jam", then I'm sure she'd be just as hooked on the 2D as she already is on Sonic and friends' 3D outings, but alas; my Saturn is no more T-T (Same goes for my Genesis and Dreamcast, which can only show why SEGA left the console race).
"Sonic Jam" may not have all the comic covers from the Archie Comics, and it may not have Sonic CD or Chaotix (then again that was only ever released once and isn't going to appear on Gems Collection either T-T), and it may seen rather outdated, but I can assure you that what it lacks in, it makes up for in every single other aspect it has jammed forcibly into that Saturn Disc. Just play it and find out why. If there was a choice between any Sonic Compelation available and the console to play it on, I'd still go for "Sonic Jam" and the Sega Saturn, cos even if that game disc dies on me or something, I still got NiGHTs, Bug!, and a whole lotta great classics available to me. The Saturn wouldn't even be a true SEGA console without that crucial 'Jam' that still out-shines compilations 8 years on...
Thank you Sonic Team, and Thank you SEGA.
-z3ph
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