The 3D Classics series of downloadable games for the Nintendo 3DS are pretty much exactly what they sound like: classic games from Nintendo’s back catalog “remastered” in 3D. Early adopters of the system may have received 3D Classics: Excitabike for free, and since then, Kirby’s Adventure, Kid Icarus, TwinBee, Urban Champion and Xevious have been added to the 3D Classics lineup. These games have been pretty hit and miss, and with the exceptions of Kirby’s Adventure and Kid Icarus they are all games only the most oldest of school care (or know) about. That’s set to change, with a 3D remake of the original Sonic The Hedgehog due out for the system later this month.
3D Sonic the Hedgehog is pretty much a straight port of the original game, with just a few extra tweaks. You can spin dash just like in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and save states have been added. If you want to play without the tweaks, there’s an option to turn spin dashes off and remap the buttons to the Genesis layout.
If that’s not old school enough for you, players can switch between the Japanese release and International version to see the minor differences between the two versions. You can even choose the sound emulation based on the Sega Genesis or the Sega Genesis model 2. Sega has also included an “Faux CRT” option to play the game with a warped screen that looks like you are playing on a 90’s style CRT screen. You can set the 3D graphics to depth or zoom, and you can of course turn them off completely if you want the full old school experience.
The bad news is that only the Japanese release date and price (May 15 for 600 yen, which is about $6 US) has been revealed for now, but as Sonic is such a huge character worldwide, it probably won’t be long before this game sees an English release.
