Sonic and Garfield Pack

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Review: Sonic & Garfield

In fact, it's five games. The Sonic end is, in fact, the Sonic & Knuckles Collection-consisting of three pleasant side-scrollers: Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Sonic & Knuckles. (If I was the greedy type, I might wonder what happened to Sonic 3D Blast.) I played them a couple of years back, and they're as colorful, speedy, simple and fun on a 133 mHz system as they were on the Genesis.

Unfortunately, as game speed apparently is processor-dependent, they're also almost unplayably fast on the PIII-500 in my office.

Just as Sonic isn't simply Sonic, Garfield isn't just Garfield. This cartoony platformer contains (it says here on the box) a level that wasn't included in the original release.

This did somehow failed to register with me. An extra level becomes meaningful only if it's an extra level of something special. This isn't something special. Garfield is a particularly mundane cartoony platformer, whose sole novelty is that it has Garfield in it.

Finally, Sega has roped in Baku Baku Animal, which somehow escaped the Falling Objects-fest that was Puzzle Pack, and fits neatly into the S&G's mammal motif.

It's the best thing here. This cult hit is Yet Another Tetris, but with a wrinkle: The blocks consist of five animals and five foods those animals eat. Throw an animal and the appropriate food together, and the animal will go Big Head on you and eat it, along with any other adjacent food of that same type. It's cute, natch, but also broadens strategy a notch. You have to think a little more, but not to the point at which the game loses its essential simplicity.

Unfortunately, I also have to think about whether I'm pressing the right keys to move and rotate the blocks. They've put some of them in inconvenient places, and provided for only the most limited remapping.

It's a shame, because, with a little work, this could have been an unemcumbered, fun time-as could much of Sega & Garfield.-- Peter Olafson / GamePro