Background

Sonic Jam wasn't just another Sonic compilation; it was Sega's attempt to wrangle their spiky blue superstar into 3D, to some degree.

Sonic Jam arrived during the crazy development of Sonic Extreme and Nights into Dreams. The Saturn was struggling and Sega threw this game to buy time. Instead of a full-fledged new 3D Sonic adventure, Sega opted for something of a hybrid approach: a collection of classic 2D Sonic games ported to the Saturn, alongside a mode called "Sonic World" that included minigames, commercials and manuals, even if the core gameplay remained rooted in his 2D past.

The fast

• Playing through Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic 2, and Sonic 3 & Knuckles feels remarkably close to the original Genesis experiences

• The ports are really well made, they aren't emulation, they are ports made for the Saturn. They are very close to the original games on the Genesis, I couldn't find any notable difference between them except for some visual glitches like sprites showing up in the foreground instead of the background. The music is the same, the animations are the same, everything is the same; but every game has new difficulty modes, easy, normal and original.

• In Easy mode, you play an act per level, progressing to the next level upon completion. Normal mode lets you play through all acts, but with subtle tweaks to make them slightly less challenging. Original mode delivers the classic, unaltered game experience, straight from the Genesis. Also in original mode for Sonic 1, you can't use the spin dash, in the other two modes you can.

• You can use the lock on technology to play Knuckles in Sonic 2, Blue Sphere and Sonic 3 and Knuckles.

• It adds time attack mode. Beat the level as fast as you can.

• Every game comes with the digital manual, in full color and in high quality.

• Sonic World allows you to watch videos, trailers and listen to music. Like commercials, Sonic CD's videos, the trailer of the Sonic OVA, the soundtrack of the game. The world is very cute but small, the music mostly does it for me; it is a nice proof of concept to show how could the Saturn render a 3D area.

The slow

• Sonic World is barebones, you can only do some small missions like collecting objects or catch Tails. What do you get from completing this mode? The credits and that is all. It was impressive and it is very cute, but it just feels "tacked on"; they could have ported Sonic CD if they removed Sonic World (With compressed audio, it might fit barely) or added the game gear/master system ports plus Knuckles Chaotix which would fit easily.

• It has a bizarre bug where the music will not start when it should, like you could be 3 seconds into a stage and suddenly the music will play.

Conclusion

While "Sonic World" feels like a missed opportunity that could have been replaced for something else, it a tantalizing glimpse of what could have been rather than a fully realized 3D Sonic experience. The inclusion of new difficulty modes, time attack, the digital manuals, the videos and the ability to use the lock-on technology make this collection more than just a simple re-release.