The art is mostly in the new Adventure style, although the on-screen Sonic sprite is of yore. Silver Sonic is back in his original model (with all the same moves), and Tails' plane also happens to be the Tornado 2, although it never does that cool transforming thing.

   Level-design is completely new and original, although in terms of decor, the Zones are a lovely medley of classic Sonic elements. Here's how things stack up:

• Neo South Island -- Visually, it's the Green Hill Zone. The level layout, contrarily, seems to be a draw between Emerald Hill and Palmtree Panic. The music in Act 1 is from Sonic Jam's Sonic World, and Act 2 sports the tunage from Act 1 of Angel Island.
• Secret Plant -- The successor to Chemical Plant, both in looks and design. Act 1's music is Angel Island Act 2, while Act 2's is Hydrocity Act 1 (confusing, isn't it?).
• Cosmic Casino -- Like Casino Night on steroids. The Photo Pieces you'll find around here aren't difficult to spot...getting to em's the trick. The BGM in Act 1 is from Sonic 3's Gumball Machine bonus, and you'll be jammin' to an upbeat remix of the Slot Machine bonus in Act 2.
• Aquatic Relix -- The mandatory water level, following the rules set by Aquatic Ruin. At the end, you'll fight Knuckles in a Hidden Palace-ish arena. Knux attacks just like he did the first time around, with Spin-Dashing and gliding. The music in Act 1 is from Act 1 of Mushroom Hill, while Act 2's is derived from Hydrocity Act 2 (without the sublime second movement, sadly). The Knuckles boss music is, oddly enough, from Flying Battery.
• Sky Chase -- The third appearance of Sky Chase, securing it with Green Hill, Death Egg, and IceCap as an official recurring Zone! It's just as it was in Sonic 2, only you're wing-walking on the Tornado 2 (as portrayed in Sonic Adventure). The Photo Pieces are hidden at the upper-most and lower-most levels of the screen. The BGM is that of Azure Lake.
• Aerobase -- A variation on Wing Fortress, where the biggest danger frequently proves to be falling off the bottom of the screen (don'tcha just hate that?). The boss is Silver Sonic, who attacks just like he did in Sonic 2. The Zone's BGM is derived from Death Egg (the Sonic & Knuckles version).
• Gigantic Angel -- Gigantic Angel is the lovechild of Scrap Brain and Metropolis. Visually, the graphics are straight out of the definitive "factory" Zone in Sonic history (that's Scrap Brain, in case you're new). The level-design, however, utilizes all the tricks of Metropolis. The music in Act 1 is that of Desert Palace, while Act 2's is Chrome Gadget (one of my personal favorites).
• Last Utopia -- The "final" boss match and nothing more, taking place on a platform identical in appearance to the one at the end of Death Egg in S&K. The music is, appropriately enough, that of the Doomsday Zone.
• Chaotic Space -- The "extra" stage...you only get to play it if you've collected all seven Chaos Emeralds. It's just like the first half of Doomsday: Robotnik fires missiles at you from his hovercraft, and you've got to knock them back at him by ramming the suckers on the wide end. The music is that of Sky Sanctuary.

   Special Stages are entered as in Sonic 1: reach the end of Act 1 with 50 Rings, then jump into the giant Ring. There are six Special Stages, and each can only be accessed by its respective Act. Neo South Island will take you to the same Special Stage everytime, even if you've already obtained the Emerald from it, so there's no taking the easy way out.

   The stages themselves are of the Sonic 2 strain: you're running inside a giant half-pipe, collecting a quota of Rings and dodging Bombs. It's really pretty slick, and looks three times better than its blocky, choppy Genesis counterpart. The control is closer to that of the Saturn 3D Blast Special Stages, however...it's quite sensitive, making it easy to oversteer. Another difference are the flashing flowers. In each stage, you'll find a color-changing flower somewhere in the center. Touch it, and you'll earn a Continue, whether you complete the stage or not. If you do complete the stage, you're naturally awarded with a Chaos Emerald. There are six Emeralds to be obtained this way, leaving you one short. Knuckles has possession of the white Emerald, but Robotnik nabs it from him at the end of Aquatic Relix. He uses it to power his machine in Last Utopia, and you've actually got to knock the jewel off the machine, then grab it before you finish Eggboy off. After that, you're given access to the true final boss round, Chaotic Space. A new "Sound Test" feature also opens up in the options screen.

   Oh yeah, and the classic five-flavor item assortment is here:

• Super Ring -- Worth 10 Rings
• 1-Up -- Gives you an extra chance
• Power Sneaker -- Temporarily raises your speed
• Invincible -- Makes you invincible for a short time
• Shield -- Protects you from one hit

   So make no mistake about it, "classic" is the theme in SPA. But with all this "classic" all over the place, you may be under the impression that there's no NEW stuff, in which case you'd be wrong. There are a number of different gameplay modes, or "Rooms."

   The Trial Room is, simply enough, a Time Attack. Go for the best time in any Zone that you've already cleared in the actual game. If you do well enough, you're given an award based on your performance: Platinum, Gold, Silver, or Bronze. There are two ways to play the Trial Room: "Time Trial" or "Advanced." What's just been described is the standard Time Trial. In Advanced mode, you must finish the Act with at least 50 Rings for your score to be recorded. Mommamia, that's a spicy meatball! When you access the Trial Room for the first time, you're required to enter a name (up to five characters). All your best times will be scored under the name you enter here. This comes into play when you trade data with friends.

   Duel Room takes you to the two-player mode, where you can go head-to-head against a friend/enemy/rival/lover/relative, or who the heck ever you know owns a NeoGeo Pocket Color and his own copy of SPA. There are two versus games to play: "Sonic Rush" and "Get the Rings." Sonic Rush is simply a race to the finish...if you "die" at any point, your opponent automatically wins; and if neither player finishes before the time limit runs out, the contest is a draw. In "Get the Rings", the challenge is to be the first to collect a randomly-chosen quota of Rings. The quota is decided upon by spinning a roulette disk. In either versus game, I believe one player controls as Sonic and the other as Tails, although I am unable to confirm this.

   The Puzzle Room is SPA's coolest feature. Hidden in the Zones throughout the game are 96 "Photo Pieces." Collect a Photo Piece in a level, then complete the Act (otherwise it won't be recorded). The piece(s) you collected will be transported to the piece pool in the Puzzle Mode. From there, you can attempt putting them together to form six different pictures: one of Sonic, one of Tails, one of Sonic & Tails, one of Knuckles, one of Tails in the Tornado, and one of Robotnik. The pieces are color-coded so it doesn't become too difficult, and once you've completed a puzzle the picture becomes full-color. I suppose something happens if you complete all six, although I've yet to achieve that goal (a mere three Photo Pieces yet elude my grasp, but I'm working on it). You can "Initialize" the puzzles at any time and send the Photo Pieces back into the levels in case you want to hunt 'em down again.

   Like Sonic CD, Pocket sports a flash save function, so once you've reached a Zone, you can return to it at any time via the "Continue" option on the title screen. It also records the Emeralds you've obtained, and the Photo Pieces as well (quite thankfully). On the options screen, you can choose to have the difficulty set on either "Easy" or "Normal." On Easy, certain obstacles are absent and the bosses require less damage to defeat. You're also given the option to turn the timer off (handy for those Photo Piece-hunting excursions), and set the amount of lives you wish to work with to 1, 3, or 5.

   The announcement was originally made in February of '99, when SNK revealed Sonic to be among the upcoming titles for its fledgeling handheld system. Most folks didn't know what to make of it at first...a mistranslation maybe, or a game with "Sonic" in the title, but not Sonic the Hedgehog. The game was first unveiled in early August of the same year, revealing plenty of the game's first level (Neo South Island) as well some of the various gameplay modes (with the misnomer "Pazzle Mode"). More of the game was revealed shortly afterward, along with a project Japanese release of December 1. Later, that date was moved to the 16th, and finally to January 13; although the game was released in the US on December 3. Upon its release, SPA met with rave reviews, and understandably so. Without question, it remains the best reason to own a NGPC, and is a celebration of classic Sonic along the lines of Super Mario Bros. Deluxe.

   A couple of weeks later, SNK released the NGPC/SPA bundle for $99. The bundle included a NeoGeo Pocket Color unit (in either Platinum Silver or Blue) along with a Sonic Pocket Adventure pack-in. On January 11, 2000, Pocket was released in Japan. As far as I know, the only difference between the international versions are the graphics in the selection screens.

• In the US graphic for the Trial Room "Advanced" mode, some schnook colored Sonic's legs the same flesh tone as his arms. In one of the puzzle photos (the green-bordered pic with Sonic & Tails), his arms are blue. Call me a stickler for details, but if I wore one of the suits over at SNK, I'd fire that graphic artist along with the director who allowed it to pass.