Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure

Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure
Sonic's debut on a non-Sega console.
Genre(s): Platform Platform(s): Neo Geo Pocket Color Release: December 4, 1999 Developer(s): SNK Publisher(s): Sega Series: Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure (usually shortened to Sonic Pocket Adventure) is a platform game for the Neo Geo Pocket Color. It was developed by SNK and published by both SNK and Sega. The game is heavily based on Sonic the Hedgehog 2 with similar zone themes, but have different level design and certain gimmicks, most of which are borrowed from the other Sega Genesis Sonic games. Sonic Team supervised over production.

Many members of SNK who worked on this game eventually went on to form Dimps, the same company behind the Sonic Advance and Sonic Rush series.

Good Qualities

1. Unlike many of the handheld Sonic games, this game captures the speed that the series is known for.
2. Good remixes of music from Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles.
3. One of the first original (and good) Sonic games on a non-Sega system. This was when Sega was still making consoles, no less.
4. While the levels are mostly based on Sonic the Hedgehog 2, they do add some new things to the table.
5. One of the first Sonic games to have a Time Trial mode, where you replay the levels and beat them as fast as possible. There is also a Ring Time Trial mode, where you have to collect and keep 50 rings in order for your time to count.
6. There are puzzle pieces that are hidden in the stages. If you find all of them and solve all of the puzzles, you will unlock a Sound Test.
7. There is a versus mode brought back from the second installment.
8. Good boss battles.
9. The cutscene where Knuckles punches Sonic high up into the air is funny.

Bad Qualities

1. The zones are just repeats of Sonic 2 and the soundtrack is borrowed songs from Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles and Sonic Jam.
2. The Special Stages from Sonic 2 are back, and they can only be entered via the giant ring at the end of Act 1 in each zone (and Sky Chase Zone), therefore only giving the player exactly six chances to get a Chaos Emerald, and failing one Special Stage will give the player the bad ending. Fortunately, the Special Stages are a bit more forgiving in this game.
3. The game is pretty short, even for Sonic standards.
4. Gigantic Angel Zone (This game's equivalent to Metropolis Zone) is fairly annoying, especially if you're going for the Chaos Emeralds.
5. Tails and Knuckles are not playable in the main game, though the former is the second player in the versus mode.
6. For some reason, Chaotic Space Zone, the game's equivalent to the Doomsday Zone from Sonic 3 & Knuckles, plays the music from Sky Sanctuary Zone, which is very unfitting for a final battle set in outer space. The Doomsday Zone theme is reserved for Silver Sonic in Aerobase Zone, the game's equivalent to Wing Fortress Zone from Sonic 2.
7. You cannot play as Super Sonic in the regular levels, although, unlike the later handheld Sonic games, the exclusion of Super Sonic in regular levels is justified, as Dr. Eggman has the seventh Chaos Emerald, which is later obtained by Sonic in the Last Utopia Zone after defeating Eggman.
8. The game over sound is literally an earrape!