Sonic Jam (Saturn) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
588A playthrough of Sega's 1997 3D platformer/compilation title for the Sega Saturn, Sonic Jam.
Sonic Jam was a title Sega released to celebrate the massive success of their flagship franchise, and to get players hyped about the upcoming (but eventually cancelled) Sonic sequel that was planned for the Sega Saturn.
There is a ton of content in this package. I did my best to be thorough in showcasing it all, alternating between the game's missions and its special features. For the sake of convenience, here is a list of all of the things I included with time codes:
-=Sonic World=-
The 3D platforming section of Sonic Jam. Features 8 missions and several galleries of bonus content.
1:04 Mission 1
1:53 Character house, artwork collection for the good guys
3:54 Mission 2
4:43 Character house, artwork collection for the bad guys
7:32 Mission 3
8:49 Music house, sample tunes from each game
15:08 Mission 4
16:08 Movie Theatre - clips from the Sega CD game, CG demos, TV commercials, etc. Videos from Sonic CD are of much higher quality than they were on the Sega CD.
29:41 Mission 5
30:41 Art Gallery: collection of promo images and artwork
33:44 Mission 6, followed by showing all of the "cheat" cards
36:34 Hall of Fame, includes time-line of all Sonic products through mid-1997 with related media
57:14 Mission 7
58:57 Mission 8
1:01:31 Ending credits
-=Game Mode=-
Features (nearly) perfect ports - not emulations - of the four Sonic the Hedgehog titles that originally released on the Sega Genesis. They feature bug-fixes and performance improvements over the original versions, but otherwise play identically (take that, GBA Sonic 1!).
1:04:41 Sonic the Hedgehog with digital manuals
1:08:57 Demo play of Sonic the Hedgehog, Marble Zone Act 1
1:11:52 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 with digital manuals
1:16:55 Demo play of Sonic 2, Chemical Plant Zone, Act 2
1:22:56 Sonic the Hedgehog 3 with digital manuals
1:27:38 Demo play of Sonic 3, Angel Island Zone, Act 1
1:31:46 Sonic & Knuckles with digital manuals
1:36:26 Demo play of Sonic & Knuckles, Mushroom Hill Zone Act 1
The game does allow you to play with Sonic & Knuckles using "Lock-On Technology" with all of the other Sonic titles, but I didn't show that in this video.
Whew. That's a ton of content. Sonic Jam represented an incredible value when it was first released (especially given that the oldest game here, Sonic 1, was only six years old at the time!). The games alone were worth the price of the disc, but the massive amount of bonus content make this an absolute must-buy for series fans. The artwork is all of high-quality scans rendered in the Saturn's high resolution mode, the Hall of Fame makes for an uber-thorough look at Sonic's early years, and the sound gallery is amazing for just how much Sonic chiptune-age you get access to in one place.
When you add in the Sonic World 3D segments, you really get a glimpse of what a full-fledged 32-bit Sonic might have looked like. With the exception of the spastic camera that loves looking at the floor, the entire thing works extremely well. The missions are fun, the 3D take on Green Hill stays true to the 2D source, and it controls better than you'd expect - at least it does if you are using a 3D pad. This self-contained "sandbox" stage is small and doesn't feature a ton of content, but its inclusion alongside the four Genesis games only helps to make the game even more of a must-buy for Sonic lovers.
If 16-bit platformers are your thing, you really can't go wrong here.
If you'd like to see playthroughs of the games, I've done many of the games featured here. Just search my channel for Sonic - you'll find all sorts of odd and unexpected things ;)
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