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Sonic Jam is a video game from the Sonic the Hedgehog series released for the Game.com in 1998 exclusively in North America. It is a loose adaptation of Sonic Jam for the Sega Saturn. Though advertised as a compilation like its Saturn counterpart, it only features three Zones, each representing stages from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic 3 & Knuckles, with layouts that vastly differ from the original levels.

The Game.com version of Sonic Jam is often considered one of the worst Sonic games ever made; it has been criticized for its monochromatic visuals, poor gameplay and repetitive music, as well as its lack of content compared to its Saturn counterpart. It is also notable for being one of the only two Sonic games that were released on a non-Sega console prior to the company going third-party, alongside Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure (1999) for the Neo Geo Pocket Color.[1][2]

Premise and gameplay[]

SonicJam Title

The title screen for Sonic Jam.

Sonic Jam is a 2D side-scrolling platforming video game, loosely based on the Sega Mega Drive Sonic platformers. It features three playable characters: Sonic, Tails and Knuckles. Tails retains his Propeller Flying from Sonic 3 & Knuckles, but Knuckles loses his signature glide and climb abilities. The gameplay in the Game.com version of Sonic Jam is also notorious for being much less optimized than its Sega Saturn counterpart, with the objects having poor collision detection and the playable characters moving much slower than usual.[1][2]

Though advertised as a compilation like the Saturn version, the Game.com version of Sonic Jam has a premise with little relation to the Mega Drive games; the manual claims that Sonic, Tails and Knuckles must "defend the Floating Island" from Dr. Eggman when the notorious scientist makes his return.[3] Rather than porting the 16-bit Sonic games like its Saturn counterpart, it only features three Zones, each representing the first stages of the Mega Drive games (with the original Sonic the Hedgehog being omitted). The Zones are:

The three Zones have five Acts and two or three boss fights each. Despite sharing aesthetics and enemies to their original counterparts, these Zones have completely different level designs. Players can collect Rings, which work as their main method of protection. If a playable character is hit while carrying at least one Ring, they will not die and instead just lose all their Rings. Otherwise, getting hit without Rings will cost the player a life, or a Game Over if they do not have any lives left.

Controls[]

Button formation Movement[4]
SJam.com sonic-life Sonic SJam.com tails-life Tails SJam.com knuckles-life Knuckles
Controlpadds left/right Run
Controlpadds up Look up
Controlpadds down Crouch
Sega Genesis A Button Spin Jump
Controlpadds left/right + Controlpadds down Spin Attack
Controlpadds down + Sega Genesis A Button Spin Dash
Tapping Sega Genesis A Button N/A Propeller Flying N/A

Objects[]

Items[]

Gimmicks and obstacles[]

Characters[]

Playable characters[]

Non-playable characters[]

Enemies[]

Bosses[]

Special Stages[]

Sonic Jam features a set of Special Stages, which are reworks of the Special Stages from Sonic 3 & Knuckles. In a Special Stage, the playable character will find themself running endlessly on a large planetoid. The player's objective is to collect all black spheres and avoid the white ones.

Reception[]

Unlike its Sega Saturn counterpart, Sonic Jam for the Game.com received poor reception by critics and fans alike, with many citing it as one of the worst Sonic games ever made.[1]

Trivia[]

  • Sonic Jam is the only Sonic game to be presented in monochrome, as the Game.com does not have a color screen.
  • Most of the sprites used for this game are reused from Sonic the Hedgehog 3, though some of them were originally unused in that game, such as Sonic falling asleep and whistling.
  • Originally, a version of Sonic 3D Blast was supposed to be in Sonic Jam and was even promoted through a screenshot of Sonic going through a Game.com version of Green Grove Zone in early promotional booklets of the game.

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Jackson, Doug (March 17, 2010). Hands-On: Sonic Jam (Game.Com). Sega-16. Retrieved on April 25, 2018.
  2. 2.0 2.1 McFerran, Damien (June 11, 2009). Portable Pedigree: The handheld history of Sonic The Hedgehog - part two. Pocket Gamer. Retrieved on January 24, 2024. "Although Sonic Jam purports to contain Sonic 2, Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles (thereby aping the contents of the full-scale Sega Saturn compilation of the same name), what you’re getting here is so far removed from the original releases that the game practically qualifies as an all-new Sonic adventure – albeit one with crippling motion blur, terrible looping music and dodgy collision detection."
  3. Sonic Jam (Game.com) United States instruction booklet, pg. 3.
  4. Sonic Jam (Game.com) United States instruction booklet, pg. 6.
Sonic Jam (Game.com)

Main article · Manuals
Sonic the Hedgehog handheld games

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