Review: Sega Ages Sonic The Hedgehog 2

In the 80’s and 90’s I was a Nintendo Kid, my Dad only allowed me to have one console per generation (even though we didn’t call them that back then) so I picked Nintendo’s. These Sega Ages ports are oddly enough allowing me to enjoy these classics on my Nintendo Switch Lite. They are available on other platforms but I wanted to point out the irony here. So, I’ve never REALLY sat down and spent a good amount of time with any mainline Sonic game. I have played the BioWare developed Sonic RPG The Dark Brotherhood; but that’s my extent of knowledge about this hedgehog.

PLOT

Dr. Robotnik is back to his pesky ways and it’s up to Sonic and his new pal Tails to stop him. Once again he’s attempting to use the Chaos Emeralds and trapped animals in robots to take over the world. However he really wants to make his world domination stick so he’s also making a “Death Egg” to help keep him in charge. Sonic and Tails cannot stand idly by and watch this happen, so they jump into action to try to defeat Dr. Robotnik.

GRAPHICS

M2 really made the game pop on the Switch Lite’s screen, it looks great on the big screen too! The developers also let you chose how the game is displayed, you can leave it as they intended, or stretch out the new version. You can also make it look like an old CRT television with the scan lines and everything. To be honest, that’s how I played the game, that alone for me is worth the price of admission. I miss gaming on those old televisions, certain consoles look the best on them and even though you connect a classic console to a flat screen with A/V cables, I just don’t feel the magic. I think I’m just getting old.

CONTROLS

The controls are quite simple in this game you use the D-pad or thumbstick to move in the desired direction. Y is the pause menu and the other three buttons are jump. Not too difficult to learn, but I’m still not very good with Sonic games, I always get stuck in a wall or I am going to slow to make the roller coaster circle. To get Sonic revved up hold down down on the D-pad and he’ll spin himself until you release it. The controls are the same with Knuckles, but instead of going super fast, he floats when you hold the any button but Y. It’s neat to play this addition to the title, but I was underwhelmed. Playing as Sonic was so much more fun and satisfying.

ADDITIONS

In addition to all the screen changes and adding the old school Knuckles DLC to the game without the cumbersome cartridge, they had a few more aces in the hole. They added a Challenge Mode that pits you against certain tasks in a time limit. You can play the games with the original intent in mind or there is Ring Keep Mode that makes the game a little easier if you’re bad at Sonic games like me. There’s also a Ranking Type that counts how long your Ring Chain lasts before you get hit. Nothing too spectacular, but they make the game more interesting and give you more reasons to play.

OVERALL

There are many ways to play the original Sonic games, I’m beginning to believe that Sega Ages is the best way. I love the fact that this is portable, changeable and can be made a bit easier for people who didn’t grow up on the original Sonic games. This is probably the best port of the game out there, I wouldn’t grab one of those Xbox or PlayStation 2 collections now, this is where the fire is at. Fans of the game should add this to their collection, and people just curious due to the fact the movie is making tons of money should download this onto their Switch. You will not regret it!

This review is based on a review key provided by SEGA