Sega Nerds

The Port Report: Sonic Pocket Adventure (NGPC)

by Warren on February 4th, 2007

Not every Sega Arcade game is available at home yet, so some times us Sega buffs have to find the best version available if we don’t want to turn to Emulation. Thus, the Port Report was born. Seganerds.com will brave the endless sea of Sega ports so you don’t have to! Keep in mind that the final score is not an overall game score, it’s a score comparing the game to it’s Arcade original.

I’m not going to lie to you: this weeks Port Report is a total cheat. It’s not a port of an Arcade game. It’s not even a true port at all, really. Our “port” this week is Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure for SNK’s Neo-Geo Pocket Color. While it’s not exactly a port per se, a good chunk of the game comes from Sonic the Hedgehog 2. So, I’m gonna have to qualify it as a port. How is Sonic Pocket Adventure? Let’s check it out.

Back in 1999, I bought two new game systems. The first being Sega’s mighty Dreamcast, which we all know and love. The second was a platinum silver Neo-Geo Pocket Color. This little handheld could do it all. It could tell you what time it was in London or Tokyo, give you horoscope advice, play great Neo-Geo games in full glorious color and it was just 70 Dollars! It even had a pack-in game! That game was Sonic Pocket Adventure. You have to be kidding me! Sonic!? So how was I, a Sega Nerd, going to pass that up? Exactly. I couldn’t.

So, I picked up the Neo-Geo/Sonic pack along with a few other games and had a grand ol’ time. You could even use a special (when I say special, I mean overly expensive and almost useless) cord to connect the Dreamcast to the NGPC and exchange points on King of Fighters. Life was all blue, blue skies and yes, I could feel the sunshine! But, Neo-Geo Pocket Color was eventually crushed by the gaming juggernaut that is Nintendo, but it had a good 11 month run. The point of this story being that Nintendo ruins all my fun If you’re looking to buy a Neo Geo Pocket Color, you simply must get Sonic with it.

Sonic Pocket Adventure is basically a port of Sonic the Hedghog 2 for Genesis/Mega Drive. It is very different in many aspects, however. The first being the music, which is almost all from Sonic the Hedgehog 3. I think this may have been done because Dreams Come True’s Masato Nakamura composed the soundtrack of Sonic 2 for Genesis and Sega didn’t feel like ponying up the dough to get his music on this version. It’s a big loss since Sonic 2 has the best music of any of the 2D Sonic’s. If you like Sonic 3’s music, you’re in for a treat, however.

Another aspect of the game that is different is the total lack of Tails in single player (aside from him flying the plane in the Sky Chase level.) This can be a good thing depending on who you ask, but some times you miss seeing him fall to his doom like he does so often on Sonic 2. Tails does appear in Multiplayer, however. Co-op play from Sonic 2 has been removed, but Pocket Adventure does include the Race mode and a new ‘Ring Collect’ game too.

The biggest difference between both titles is the level arrangement. Almost all the levels have been changed in some way. Some portions of levels are gone completely, while others are taken right from Sonic 2. Levels are all named differently, but it’s easy to tell which stage they are based upon. Cosmic Casino is obviously Casino Night Zone, for example. Sonic 2 features 11 Stages, where Sonic Pocket Adventure only has 9. The zones omitted from this port are Hill Top, Oil Ocean and Death Egg. I don’t really feel anyone is missing them since all the classic Sonic 2 zones are included, but, it would have been nice to get a more complete port.

The graphics aren’t quite up to the Genesis, but they look better then the 8-bit Game Gear Sonic’s do. The sprites look a lot more simple then any of the Genesis games, but they are well animated and have absolutely no flicker. I had to check the specs for NGPC to see if the system had Blast Processing because this game is blazing with no slowdown, very surprising for a portable game. Over all, the game is very well done and plays smoothly.

Fans of the original Sonic the Hedgehog 2 should have no problem finding the game. It’s available on Genesis, Saturn, Xbox, Gamecube, PSP, PS2 and PC. Plus with a Sega Nomad you can bring your original Sonic 2 cart where ever you go. Which is good because Sonic Pocket Adventure plays more like a ‘Best of Sonic 2′ then a true port.

As a port, Sonic Pocket Adventure simply doesn’t cut it. Almost everything is different. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad game, far from it. This is the best Sonic game created for a portable system. But, because the Port Report is an evaluation of how true a port is to the original game, Sonic Pocket Adventure gets a 4/10. Please don’t let the low mark throw you off, this is a top notch game. Had this been a normal review I would easily give it a 9/10.

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