| Introduction
THQ bills the three games on the SEGA Smash Pack
as the "greatest SEGA games together on one cartridge",
which would be true if we were back in the 16-bit era.
Now that SEGA is intent on its transition from hardware
company to leading publisher of interactive entertainment,
we can expect to see more titles from the SEGA stable
on the GBA - which shouldn't be a problem as the GBA
has a proven track record of comfortably dealing with
these 8 and 16 bit conversions. The question, however,
is whether GBA fans actually want these conversions,
more so if they are outright ports with nothing new
or enhanced. Let's see then if the games on the Smash
Pack has stood the test of time.
GamePlay
ECCO THE DOLPHIN is probably the best of the
three games on offer here. Veteran gamers will remember
the attention it received on its release because of
the unique game concept. The game itself has you taking
on the challenge of controlling a friendly dolphin in
his quest to find his missing family. This is achieved
by exploring various undersea caverns, solving the odd
puzzle and defeating a whole host of aqua enemies. You
only have one mode of attack which is to simply charge
other objects with a quick burst of speed, which unfortunately
causes some screen problems as the scrolling doesn't
always appear to be able to keep up with Ecco. It's
the only one of the three titles that features a password
feature, which is essential as you're highly unlikely
to complete the game in a single session. It's all still
fun and challenging, proving once again that good ideas
do indeed last.
SONIC SPINBALL is the tried and tested formula
of taking a well-known gaming franchise and placing
them in a pinball game (Muppets, House of the Dead,
NASCAR, etc). It was also originally released at a time
when all things Sonic were much sought after regardless
of content or quality. The actual game is a strange
mix between a pinball game and a platformer and while
reasonably large in play area, the design is not as
immersive as other Sonic games. It does, though, have
an options menu where you can change the difficulty
or even increase the number of players from one to four.
This is much like a real pinball table in that it is
turn based and as one player finishes they simply pass
the GBA onto the next. The obvious problem here is that
the console is far too small for others to view the
action if they're not actually playing. Overall, Spinball
feels very dated and really is for Sonic fans only.
GOLDEN AXE is undoubtedly the weakest of the
bunch in terms of game play, although it's the only
one of the three which has any sort of link cable support.
Don't get your hopes up though, as link-up or multi-player
options are not available during the actual adventure
but relegated to a much smaller mini game where two
players can fight head to head. The game itself allows
you to select one of three warriors and then battle
it out over eight levels of Dungeon and Dragons inspired
locations. By today's standards the combat is basic
to say the very least but it does allow for some fun
button bashing with easy navigation during the initial
stages of the game. The game does get progressively
harder, and during the later stages, downright frustrating
as you get attacked from several assailants and from
all directions. Honestly, it would have been a much
better experience if the developers had implemented
multi-player option instead of two-player head to head
mini game.
Controls
The control varies from game to game. The good news
is that it's all been reasonably well implemented. There
are some rather disturbing collision issues particularly
in Ecco and Golden Axe but nothing that really makes
the games too frustrating to play. On the plus side,
everything is very intuitive and there's practically
no learning curve at all for any of the games.
Graphics
The GBA really is capable of far more than this and
it appears that the developers have done a straight
port of the original visuals with little thought as
to their presentation on a handheld format. Ecco probably
comes off the best but as this was always a reasonably
good-looking game anyway it's no real surprise.
From this point it's steadily downhill, so whilst
Sonic Pinball boasts very average graphics, Golden Sun
has really suffered. The years have not been kind to
this aging slash 'em up. They are all held together
with a less than inspiring front end and the most appalling
title screen yet to grace a major GBA release. A real
mixed bag overall where you continually get the feeling
that a little more care would have produced a far better
looking product.
Sound & Music
As with the visuals, the cart's audio aspects differ
from game to game. Again Ecco is the highlight and while
it isn't the original soundtrack. you do get a clever
looped sample which does a fairly good job of recreating
the atmosphere.
After this the general standard of the audio plummets
and the music which accompanies the menu, Sonic Spinball
and Golden Axe, can best be described as average even
for the GBC. Only a couple of years ago this would have
been adequate given the hardware limitations but the
GBA has featured some stunning audio in its short history
which goes to show that the SEGA Smash Pack simply hasn't
fully utilised the GBA's audio capabilities
Final Comments
This title should have delivered a value selection
of retro games but instead only manages to bring us
three lackluster conversions of aging titles. The biggest
problem is that they all appear to be straight conversions,
which may be fine for the GBC, but the GBA can handle
so much more.
There is still some enjoyment to be had and if you
long for the days when SEGA reigned supreme right up
there with Nintendo, then there's probably enough nostalgia
in the cart to at least put a smile on your face. If,
however, these three games are completely new to you,
then I'd urge you to give the package a try before you
buy. Value doesn't always mean quality.
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