A perfect tasting menu of Sonic.

Genuinely stunning considering that, on paper, none of Sonic Pocket Adventure's quirks should be conducive to a good Sonic experience. Being made in conjunction with SNK to be purpose-built for the Neo Geo Pocket, there's a greater understanding of the hardware on display here than in the Game Gear titles or the Sonic Advance series. There, speed becomes a burden. Here, speed comes naturally just as in the mainline titles. There, the screen is cramped. Here, despite the square display, you don't feel the need to cautiously inch forward out of fear for what lies ahead. Not once across my two playthroughs did I feel like I got hit because of something outside my control.

Stages are all derivative of previous titles (primarily Sonic 2) but they've been scaled down or reworked to accommodate the handheld experience. Despite this, levels still contain alternate paths and an incentive to explore (especially if you're going for puzzle pieces). Not only are levels themselves transplanted, so too is the vast majority of the soundtrack. Rather than take, say, Casino Night Zone's music from Sonic 2 for Pocket Adventure's Cosmic Casino Zone, the tracks are taken from Sonic 3 & Knuckles' Doilus Bonus Stages. Those tracks are then de-made for the Neo Geo Pocket's sound capabilities. In effect, the soundtrack is an official remix of Sonic 3 & Knuckles by SNK's Maitaro.

Nothing on offer here overstays its welcome with shorter levels that work for quick sessions, and a stage select that means putting the game away won't hamper progress. Unlike other 2D Sonic titles, here I actually wanted to do the Time Trials to see how fast I could tear through the stages. Clocking in at about an hour and a half per full playthrough, you get a delightful morsel of your typical Sonic zones without ever thinking how desperately you want out of Chemical Secret Plant. There's even a little Sky Chase! You get to fight Knuckles and Mecha Sonic! Eggman is seen in his classic and Adventure outfits! Hot damn!!!

Let me tell you a story.

One day, I went on the trail by our local community center with some friends. And then on the trail was this weird stone wall and my friend climbed on it and he was like "hey watch this" and did a sick ass backflip off the wall. It was honestly the coolest shit I ever saw. Not to mention the floor was like three inches thick full of granite so if he fucked it up he would have went home without a skull that evening. We were all pretty shook from that, that was really cool. And then it started raining, mf flipped so hard he made the earth cry. But anyway yeah this is a pretty good game

Is what it says, I can put it in my pocket and it can certainly take me on an adventure

Sonic Pocket Adventure takes Sonic 2 and 3, blends their level themes together, yet creates unique 8-bit level layouts. But this game isn't perfect at all.

The screen crunch makes this title unsatisfactory in many ways, an example of this is in the aerobase zone where you can't really see where to go for most of the jumps that leads to death, nor can you figure out shortcuts without taking the risk and just diving off the stage.

Special stages are in the deep end as it only gives you one shot to beat the stage if you fail you lose the chaos emerald making you unable to get to the true final boss, so be prepared to tear your hair out.

Overall though, I think this title captures the classic titles perfectly by providing its pocket-sized adventure that takes elements of its predecessors before Sonic Mania, keeping the speed of the hedgehog but be prepared to tackle this game more than once for some of the unfair challenges ahead

I remember watching a review where someone said the Game Gear Sonic games were good enough to warrant a playthrough, and I couldn't agree. 8bit Sonic 1 and 2 were pretty forgettable to me, despite some original levels and gimmicks. They just didn't feel very good to play at all.
But Pocket Adventure? That's a different story.

Sure, the NGPC is a 16bit handheld, but you could fool me into thinking this is actually a well made 8bit Sonic game. It looks great, really. Sounds great too, although the music choices for certain zones were kind of weird. (Hydrocity playing in Chemical plant...?)

But actually controlling Sonic is what makes this game the only "early handheld" game in the series that's really worth checking out. Great sense of speed, tons of air time by spindashing+jumping off a slope, it all just feels right.

Oh, and no Oil Ocean Zone, so this is the definitive way to play Sonic 2. /s

I think its funny that this is one of the few games IGN has given a 10/10 to in it's lifespan, and I can kinda see why they would rate it so highly. This game is very interesting in its circumstances of development and release. It is a 2D sonic game that had released in 1999, right as sonic was about to enter the 3D era, it's developed by dimps, who would later go on to make all the 2D sonic games for roughly next decade, and it functions as both a early glimpse into that kind of gameplay while also providing a decent compilation of classic sonic zones from sonic 2 that all play rather well. For its time, its a very solid game. Nowadays though, especially considering the fact this game hasn't been rereleased ever and you need to go hunt down a neo geo pocket color to actually play it, its not really worth that kinda hunt. While the rehashed sonic 2 levels were likely fresh in its time as a way to get portable sonic on a system that doesn't drink batteries like water, in todays day and age there are much better ways to get your 2D sonic on wherever you want. If you are curious enough to be looking at this review, then by all means go for it tho, games solid.

This game, for some reason, kinda intrigued me for a long time, so, obviously, i had to emulate it to see why i was

And after playing it...it was alright

Sonic control pretty decently and he is enjoyable to play in those sort of remix of level from sonic 1 and especially 2 (something odd that i noticed is that sonic 3 music are the one remixed in this game, oddly enough): we have a remix of green hill, chemical plant, casino night, aquatic ruin, sky chase, wing fortress and a sort of mix between scrap brain and metropolis zone

So basically this game is doing a similar thing that sonic mania and....sonic 4... ugggghhhh

Fortunatly, the level design is decent in this game, not amazing, but this game made the smart move to take only one zone from sonic one (the only good one), and to not entirely take metropolis, so yeah, well played dev

This game is honestly kinda cool, but its about it, its just a nice but really short game, that doesnt have a lot of issue (except the hitbox detection that can be really jank in some place), but doesnt have outstanding element

A Very Underlooked But Remarkable 2D Platformer

Sonic Pocket Adventure is the perfect game for anyone who enjoyed the genesis classics even remotely as it captures the spirit of those games well.To the point of reusing level themes in a inoffensive way as it takes the themes but brings completely new level design to the table in a Sonic Mania like fashion.I think its really impressive how good the spritework is in this game considering its limited hardware and its less screencrunched than the "Advance" games ontop of having airtight controls.And for a very out of the blue handheld game the bossfights are very creative sporting many unique gimmics my personal biggest problem about the game is that it really had to reuse Metropolis Zone.Conclusion is if you have access to this game by the limited various ways to play it I cant recommend it enough for a genesis sonic game fan as its everything that made those games good.

TRIVIA
There is a playable prototype for the game that you can find on the internet that has a few minor differences if you want to do so!

I got Sonic in my pocket. Shrunk him down, been feeding him grains of rice and water from a thimble.

It's 1999 and Dimps is given their first 2D Sonic assignment, and what do they come up with? An 8-bit game released for the Neo Geo Pocket Color that remixes Sonic the Hedgehog 2 levels with Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles music. It almost feels like a ROM hack or a practical joke, because it's just so weird. And yet, it kinda works?

Naturally, Sonic Pocket Adventure suffers from some of the same problems as the Game Gear games. The screen crunch is still pretty bad and level designs are dumbed down, but it makes up for these shortcomings by providing a good sense of speed and spectacle. Yeah, you might not feel particularly inclined to explore, but levels do have a good sense of flow, and it's impressive to see how well the Sonic 2 special stages are carried over here. It's a sort of half-step between the original 8-bit titles and the 16-bit classics, not quite what you'd want from a 2D Sonic but a definite improvement from the Master System days.

I kind of miss this period in the late 90's and early 2000s where other companies were (again) trying to break into the handheld market. Much of this era was defined by the tastes of Japanese consumers, which meant you got a lot of strange, varied devices with shells that played to the unique aesthetic of the early aughts, which is to say they looked a bit over-designed and gaudy in a way that was wonderfully charming. And then the Gizmondo came along like an out-of-control Ferrari Enzo and fucked it all up.

There have been others since who have tried to take some of Nintendo's marketshare, but as time goes on these wouldbe competitors are offering devices that all feel very homogenized - especially as performance starts to intersect with home consoles - resulting in handhelds that are far less unique and lacking in the sort of personality characteristic of those in the early 2000s. What I'm saying is, you can't just emulate Sonic Pocket Adventure on your Steamdeck and get the same experience. You'll think you have experienced it, but you'll be cheated. It's such a sadness that you think you've played Sonic Pocket Adventure on your fucking Steamdeck. Get real.

Pocket Adventure é literalmente Sonic 2 fumado pra caralho com algumas coisas do Sonic 1-3 e até mesmo fodendo CD.

O jogo é simples e daora, nada de mais, acho que não vale a pena jogar se você não for real FANZÃO da franquia, é daora ver as mudanças que fizeram adicionando coisas dos outros jogos, e também o level design modificado das fases do 2... mas ainda é muito coisa pra fã mesmo.

O que impressiona MESMO são os gráficos, o Neo Geo Pocket Color realmente é INACREDITAVEL em poder, parece um jogo de NES, o bagulho é lindo e extremamente estiloso, principalmente nos menus, queria ver um joguinho assim hoje em dia KKKKKKKKKKKK

Joguem se forem fãs, mas vão sabendo que esse é um dos mais simples da franquia, mas ainda com muita qualidade.

This might be my favorite portable sonic game (although I haven't played Rush). It's an odd mishmash of sonic 2 and 3 primarily, with level themes from 2 with new designs, gimmicks from 3, and music from all over the place. It's pretty fun, and the screencrunch doesn't really hurt the game suprisingly, spare one or two times a bottomless pit comes out of nowhere. Even then, the level design is fairly forgiving, where falling often leads to a path that takes the player back up to where they fell rather than instant death. Boss fights are rather fun too. It's a great time and an easy recommendation for sonic fans.

Cool novelty, not much else.
It being a sort of "Sonic 2 Remix" is a very neat concept although it doesn't really do too much in this area, would've loved to see them be more explorative. NGPC music conversions are always great to hear so I love what it does to the 3&K OST. Game controls well, level design is pretty good till you hit Sky Chase/Aerobase where it feels like the team really just gave up, thankfully Gigantic Angel brings it back in line with the rest of the game. Boss fights are exceedingly average except the Gigantic Angel boss which is actually abysmal. The special stages being the halfpipe really doesn't work well with everything else going on, doesn't help that your reward is extremely boring due to it just being their Doomsday Zone with no way to go Super in the actual levels. Overall, very cool novelty and definitely one of my preferred handheld Sonic games but not much outside of that.

i can't tell how much the concentrated cruelty i experienced was just because sonic 2 was like that [haven't played in ages, can't tell] or because of screen crunch. probably moreso the latter mixed with the secret third thing of new dr. suess logic. get the 7th emerald by making sure to bump it off the final boss even after the torture of the downscaled special stages? you have to step on tiny atomic explosions to reach eggman? applying sonic 1's special stage access method to a game that doesn't have three acts in a zone, in a game that otherwise is just Mini Sonic 2?? oh brother.