As we move toward a world where our console games get ported even to our smartphones, the art of capturing the essence of a home-console game on a handheld is becoming a lost art. Sonic the Hedgehog has some history with this topic, but it all begins with a game that takes the wheels of familiarity off, setting the stage for how future handheld Sonic games approach connections with their older siblings.

A pleasant surprise from the Sonic camp! It's a bit weird evaluating this one given its small size and how it was done for an April Fools' joke. That said, I don't take this as a jokey ironic game either; there's stuff in this game that is great. I said last year that SONIC FRONTIERS was my favorite characterization of the Sonic crew yet. Somehow, SEGA has done this again for the second year in a row! The soundtrack is my favorite from a game in this franchise since SONIC MANIA six years ago. The artwork is pleasing, and the mystery is pretty cool! The THINK minigame sections seemed a bit strange to me at first but got quite fun and more difficult than I would have expected for a game like this! I like that.

My only qualm with the game is that I feel like Tails kinda strings along the logic more than I would have liked. I think the game kind of acknowledges this a bit that you're pretty much a bumbling dude and that Tails is doing a lot more of the actual detective work, but this kind of thing happens in the Ace Attorney series too and I don't feel like I'm being strung along a logic path there. Yeah, this game isn't exactly trying to be the best point-and-click adventure game in the world, but I do think it's worth evaluating on its merits when it's a product of clear quality like this. I would have preferred if there was more for the player to figure out themselves, without the goading of a detective. There are moments though where the game does encourage you to figure something out your own way though! I do think my perspective likely stems from how this is a genre I'm familiar with, so I do think it's perhaps appropriate given this is for a platformer franchise. I'm curious what people who aren't very experienced with point-and-click adventure games might think of this one.

I am not much'a an April Fools fan, but this is exactly the kinda fooling I can get behind and I hope to see more like this from SEGA and others. As a University student, I don't get to play as much as I used to or would like to, so it makes me happy to play a small treat this after a long day of schoolwork and a long time of Not Gaming.

A solid collection, it just isn't quite ready for release yet due to a pile of small issues that add up
Despite that, I had a blast and I suspect the same would be true of most players, especially since many of the issues are stuff that most people wouldn't know about
Still, these things should get fixed in a patch, and I fully expect them to be

Officially, these are the definitive versions of the games and I would recommend them to folks, though I may also recommend that folks wait on the inevitable sales and patches it'll get. Even for the wonderful S3&K, this is asking for a lot
It definitely should not have shipped now but later
A price that I paid for, evidently!

Will update and place higher in my game rating if and when that update happens

Also, first