While the title states "Pocket Adventure", don't be fooled by the name. Sonic is a pure platformer at heart and follows suit of my personal favorite Sonic title, Sonic the Hedgehog 2. None of this RPG, exploration, and story stuff to get in the way. There's just pure fast paced, quick twitching platformer action here. Sonic Pocket Adventure is composed of six zones which each have two areas as well as a final stage to give you a total of thirteen levels. When you get to the end of the second area of each zone, you'll take on a boss. Most of the time it's Dr. Robotnik, but you will get the opportunity to take on Knuckles and Mecha Sonic. If you maintain at least fifty rings at the end of a stage, then you'll be taken to a bonus level. If you pass the bonus level, you'll be awarded a Chaos Emerald. After you finish a stage, the game will automatically save your progress so that you don't have to play the game all the way through in one sitting. When you continue on, you not only get to play on the last level you left off on, but you can also select any of the existing levels you've passed so that you can explore and even earn that Chaos Emerald you missed.

In addtion to the regular game mode, there are four different play modes to choose from: Time Attack, Advanced Time Attack, Duel, and Puzzle. While the Time Attack mode is fairly self explanitory, the Advanced Time Attack is the nice bonus in these set of game modes. Within this mode, not only do you have to pass the level as fast as you can, but you also have to pass the level with fifty rings. Both modes will rank and rate you based on how fast you complete the level. If you have a group of friends, you can even compete against your friends as you're able to link up and synchronize your best times. In the Duel mode, you'll link up with another NGPC unit to compete against a friend. The Puzzle mode is pretty pointless though. As you play through the normal game, you'll earn puzzle pieces for different puzzles, and you'll have to put them together in here. But enough with the basics, let's move on to what makes this game good.

What makes Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure so good and nostalgic is the colorful vibrant graphics and classic style gameplay. Each zone contrasts the rest of the zones with a unique theme and use of color. Since each theme is different, as a result you also inherit some small twists to the gameplay. For example, in the first zone, Neo South Island, you'll be able to run and twist through the corkscrews that were introduced in Sonic 2. In the Cosmic Casino zone, several parts of the stages mimic pinball machines by having bumpers that you can bounce off of and working flippers. We even get a zone that half of it's design is composed of water in which you'll need to make sure that you don't run out of air as you make your way through. None of this may be new in concept, but surely the level designs themselves are completely new. To top this all off, like previous Sonic games, the levels aren't completely linear. You still may have to go from the left part of the level to the right part, but the levels give you a few options in how you want to attack the level in a vertical sense.

Because the graphics and design work so well together, you'll most likely not notice the absense of parallax scrolling, as it won't stand out at all. In fact, it didn't even dawn on me until someone had pointed it out. If you're worried about how the screen looks while moving fast, worry no more. There isn't a hint of blur to the scrolling as you speed by. However, there are some times where there is a tad bit of slowdown when moving at fast speeds. Most people won't notice this either, but it is present. There is only one case that comes to mind when there is slowdown and you're not moving at high speeds, and that's due to the number of objects on the screen. The most impressive graphical achievement is actually the bonus level. Like Sonic 2, you run down a tunnel trying to grab a number of rings before you meet a check point. The pseudo 3D look has translated quite well, and surely represents the graphic quality of this game.

To add to that nostaligic feel, the opening logo has the classic vocal "Sega" that was introduced in the original Sonic the Hedgehog. With that comes several sound effects that you're sure to recognize if you've played Sonic before. The most important sound effect that has been brought over is the chime of the ring as you grab it. Unfortunately not all the sound effects sound right, such as when you charge Sonic up for his Speed Dash. Another unfortunate detail is that none of the classic tunes have made an appearance either. However, Sonic's new and original soundtrack surely fits the mood and style of the series and certainly doesn't detract from it.

One of the most surprising elements to the game isn't realized until you've actually beaten it. While it may look, sound, and play exactly like the Genesis versions, it was actually SNK who designed and developed this game. What leads to Sonic turning out so well is that Yuji Naka monitored its progress over the course of development. However, with all the glowing talk about the game, you might be scratching your head right now and wondering why it got a B+ instead of something in the A range.

While Sonic is a great game, it also has a few faults. The main problem is the length of the game. Thirteen levels won't take you very long to play through. On top of that, the replay level isn't very high. Sure the Time Attack and Advanced Time Attack modes are nice, they do fall short in comparison to the extra replayability found in Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. Deluxe. A few more extras, or even more levels would have surely pushed this over to a higher grade and it really just fell barely short of making that level. Another aspect that brought it down a bit was the sixth zone was pretty uninspiring for being the last major area. It's not that it was bad, but I had hoped it would be something better. It almost felt like there should have been another zone. Also, the last battle with Dr. Robotnik was simply too easy. As mentioned before, bosses became progressively more challenging, with the sixth boss giving me the most trouble. And finally, the lack of a major appearance from Tails. He makes a brief apparence in the first stage of zone five as he flies you through the level on his plane, but beyond that he's non-existant.