=============================================================================== SONIC JAM For Saturn A Guide to Playing, and Walkthrough for, Sonic Jam by Tim Miller v1.2 12 April 2006 =============================================================================== TABLE OF CONTENTS ----------------- 1 - Introduction 1.1 - What is Sonic Jam? 1.2 - What's the point of this guide? 1.3 - Contact questions 2 - An Introduction to the Game's Sections 2.1 - Where to go from the Title Screen 2.2 - The 3D Sonic World 2.3 - The Sonic Games 3 - Game Controls 3.1 - Game Controls in the 3D World 3.2 - Game Controls in the 2D Games 4 - The Museums in Sonic's 3D World 4.1 - The Character House 4.2 - The Music Shop 4.3 - The Movie Theatre 4.4 - The Art Gallery 4.5 - The Hall of Fame 4.6 - The Exit 5 - A Walkthrough to the Missions in Sonic's 3D World 5.X - A Walkthrough for Task X 5.9 - The Unlocked Ring by the Waterfall 6 - Walkthroughs for the Sonic Games 6.1 - Sonic the Hedgehog 6.2 - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 6.3 - Sonic the Hedgehog 3 6.4 - Sonic and Knuckles 7 - Cheats and Tips 8 - Acknowledgements 9 - Contact Details and Legal Stuff 9.1 - Version History 1 - INTRODUCTION ---------------- 1.1 - What is Sonic Jam? ------------------------ Sonic Jam was released, by Sega, on the Sega Saturn in Japan In June 1997. It was released in the US and in Europe in August 1997. It was marketed mainly as a collection of the first four Megadrive¹ Sonic games in one package - that is, - Sonic the Hedgehog - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - Sonic and Knuckles There's a lot more to it that that, though - there's a 3D world for Sonic to run around in, and big archives of stuff relating to Sonic and his games from Japan, the US and Europe. Information on Sonmic Jam is available on GamerWiki at http://www.gamerwiki.com/index.php/Sonic_Jam ¹ I'm British, so I call it the Megadrive. Americans call it the Genesis. It's the same thing. 1.2 - What's the point of this guide? ------------------------------------- There's nothing out there yet, quite basically. There are individual guides to each of the Sonic games included within Sonic Jam, but not to the overall package. This FAQ aims to redress the balance. In this FAQ you've therefore got as much information as I can provide about all the parts of Sonic Jam which aren't included in other FAQs. There are good FAQs for each of the Sonic Games on the GameFAQs site, so I won't be concentrating as much on these. 1.3 - You've got it wrong! Can I email you? Can I use this FAQ on my site? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- See Section 9. I have no idea why this should be at the beginning, but people seem to look for it here ... 2 - AN INTRODUCTION TO THE GAME'S SECTIONS ------------------------------------------ When you first run Sonic Jam, you'll be setting up a file on the Saturn's internal memory. This takes up 23 blocks of the memory, so if you haven't got that much free, you'll get a message telling you of this. If you have got this much free, the game will start without telling you. Being a Sonic Team game, Sonic Jam is a simple game to get into. After a brief introduction, you get a title screen, on which you press Start ... 2.1 - Where to go from the Title Screen --------------------------------------- You now have two options: - Game - Sonic World The first of these is where you can choose to play one of the four Megadrive Sonic games (or, more accurately, the seven games, but I'll come to that later). This is covered in section 2.3. Sonic World is a brand new section, written for the Saturn. This is covered in section 2.2. 2.2 - The 3D Sonic World ------------------------ Welcome to Sonic World! It's not really a world, to be honest, but more a little enclave betwixt mountains, with one exit and a lovely little river running through it. Within this world, Sonic can run around to his heart's content, jump on springs, collect rings, and there's no baddies to hurt him. There's a couple of things to do though ... Controls for Sonic in his 3D World can be found in section 3.1. 2.2.1 - The Museums Scattered around the 3D world are five museums detailing aspects of Sonic's life and work. These are: - The Character House - The Music Shop - The Movie Theatre - The Art Gallery - The Hall of Fame Detailed explanations of these can be found in section 4. To go into a museum, walk up to the door and press A, B or C. 2.2.2 - The Missions Near the exit (and near to where you start) is a red and white platform (described in the manual as a "trampoline" ... it's not a trampoline). If you jump on this, it'll give you a task and a time limit. Complete that task within the time limit, and you'll get another task. There are eight "missions" in all, and detailed explanations of these can be found in section 5. 2.3 - The Sonic Games --------------------- Included in the package are the four main Sonic games that were released for the Megadrive. From the menu that appears, you can choose: - Sonic the Hedgehog - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - Sonic and Knuckles and the last one gives you a new menu: - Sonic the Hedgehog - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - No lock-on The latter may need some explaining. Sonic and Knuckles was released as a special "lock-on" cartridge which allowed you to play any other game through it. Most games came up with a "no way!" message, but not the previous Sonic games ... Note that the Sonic the Hedgehog included here is Version 2. This includes slightly altered backgrounds compared to the first version, including more animation and slightly clearer details. Details of these games can be found in section 6. 3 - GAME CONTROLS ----------------- Within menus, the following controls apply: Directional pad (or d-pad) move cursor A or C select option B cancel last selection 3.1 - Game Controls in the 3D World ----------------------------------- Moving Sonic into the third dimension has meant an overhaul of the control system. There's still the typical run-and-jump structure to it though ... If you have the Saturn analogue controller, I would thoroughly recommend it for this section of the game, it makes it a lot easier to control Analogue stick or d-pad move Sonic relative to camera A, B or C jump Y far view Z near view X TV camera view* Left/Right Trigger rotate camera around Sonic Start pause *(after all missions complete) 3.2 - Game Controls in the 2D Games ----------------------------------- Sonic the Hedgehog is the ultimate in easy-to-play games. In effect, there is only one button - jump. Used in different ways, however, there are many actions: Analogue stick or d-pad move Sonic A, B or C jump When running, down makes Sonic roll When standing, down makes Sonic duck When standing, down then A/B/C rev up a spin dash* When in air, A/B/C ** instant shield if no powerup held fireball if fire shield held bubble bounce if water shield held double jump if electric shield held *(in Sonic 2 onwards, and Sonic 1 if turned on in options) **(in Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles only) When playing as Knuckles: When in air, A/B/C glide Knuckles can grab hold of walls if you glide him into them, and can climb up and down by pressing, you guessed it, up and down. To get off the wall, jump. When playing as Tails: When in air, A/B/C fly (keep tapping A/B/C) 4 - THE MUSEUMS IN SONIC'S 3D WORLD ----------------------------------- Our tour looks at the museums in a clockwise order, starting from the red and white platform. Follow the path around, and you'll come to the first museum. Also note that scattered around are "code cards" which give details of cheats that can be used in the Sonic games. See section 5.6 for the locations of these. 4.1 - The Character House ------------------------- This museum has two entrances - one good, one bad. These refer only to the things contained - you won't get punished for going in the bad one! The good has a golden statue of Sonic outside, and a picture of Sonic above the door. The bad side has Robotnik in Sonic's place. We'll start with the good side. Enter here, and you'll be given a menu: Sonic Miles Knuckles Friends Each of the first three options brings up an information page and sketches of the character you've selected. The last option brings up a few pages of sketches of the little animals Sonic rescues from Robotnik's badniks. In the bad side of the museum, the menu reads: Robotnik Badniks: Sonic the Hedgehog Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Sonic and Knuckles The first option gives an information screen and sketches as with the good side; the last four options show badniks from the selected game along with their names. 4.2 - The Music Shop -------------------- This museum has all the sounds from the four Sonic cartridge games and Sonic Jam, for both background music (BGM) and sound effects (SE). The first menu lists the games, and when you select one a second menu opens up inviting you to select a BGM number or SE number. Some highlights: Sonic the Hedgehog - BGM - 000: Sega! 001: Green Hill Zone, it all started here 004: Starlight Zone, maybe the best tune 007: Invincibility 009: The Special Stage 013: The best boss music SE - 018: Sonic drowns 043: To the special stage Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - BGM - 002: Chemical Plant Zone 008: Casino Night Zone 013: Wing Fortress Zone 018: The Special Stage 021: The ending music SE - 051: I have no idea! Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - BGM - 001: Angel Island Zone 007: Carnival Night Zone 028: The Special Stage 030: Bonus stage (gumball machine) 048: Launch Base Zone (come on!) 050: A very triumphant theme SE - 030: Fall, Sonic, fall 112: Warming up a motor Sonic and Knuckles - BGM - quite a lot is the same as Sonic 3 SE - 155: Rushing wind Note that Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles often have two sounds for one event - two sounds for collecting rings, for example. There are more sound effects in Sonic 3 than in Sonics 1 and 2 combined! 4.3 - The Movie Theatre ----------------------- This museum contains animated excerpts from Sonic's life ... er, OK, it's just films of Sonic. Included are the following: - The opening and closing films from Sonic CD, with the original music: - opening: You Can Do Anything - closing: Believe in Yourself These are quite possibly the best Sonic songs there are - only Supersonic Racing and Open Your Heart come close! - "Sonic*The*Hedgehog" - a Japanese advert/trailer for an animated series - all the voices are in Japanese so I've no idea what they're saying. - "Sonic the Animation" - A short American animation about Sonic being named 'Man of the Year'. Partly computer generated, and set to music. - Sonic Ride - an 'unpublished' CG animation which really hasn't dated very well - Commercials - Japanese adverts for Sonic the Hedgehog (2), Sonic 2 (2), Sonic 3, Sonic Spinball (with "funky action"!), Sonic CD, Sonic Chaos, Triple Trouble, and Sonic Drift 4.4 - The Art Gallery --------------------- You really won't want to spend much time here. Pictures of: - Sonic - Sonic and Tails - Sonic and Friends sound OK, but when you see Sonic looking at a snail with a rainbow in the background ... pass the vomit bucket. 4.5 - The Hall of Fame ---------------------- This is up on the central island, if you're having trouble finding it! The museum is a history of Sonic (it's called "The Tracks of Spin" - I'm assuming that's some sort of pun). Listed in the museum are: - trivia on Sonic appearances and miscellaneous facts - release dates and box art for all games* *(including Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, in the US and Europe only. This is a conversion of a Japanese game, Puyo Puyo) *(also including Chaotix on the 32X. One day I'll find a copy for sale!) Note that dates are in US format next to the game, but in Japanese format in the top left corner of the screen. 4.6 - The Exit -------------- Not strictly a museum, but bye! This'll take you back to the title screen. 5 - A WALKTHROUGH TO THE MISSIONS IN SONIC'S 3D WORLD ----------------------------------------------------- Sonic's 3D world isn't just used to look at the museums, oh no. It's also home to a very basic set of games which just go to show that the Saturn can just about handle a 3D Sonic game as well ... To play each of the missions, go to the red and white platform near the entrance. Jump on the platform, and instructions for the next mission will appear. You have to jump onto this platform when you've finished to stop the timer, so don't forget where it is! You can tell when you can go back to the platform as a brief sound effect will signify the end of a mission. However, this does play after you get 20 rings every time, even if you're on mission 6, so beware. Before you try any of the missions, make sure you know your way around the area. Have a good explore. For each mission I've included my time for it, which I set while compiling this walkthrough. This is not the best time you can get, it just indicates what's easily possible. So go to it, and jump on it, and start the first task ... 5.1 - A Walkthrough for Task 1 ------------------------------ Task 1: Get 20 Rings! Yes, it really is that simple. You have 60 seconds to pick up 20 rings, and then return to the platform. This is pretty easy, really - you can get roughly 20 rings by just running down the path, over the bridge, and to the character museum, if you collect the rings surrounding the golden statues. My time: 27"58 5.2 - A Walkthrough for Task 2 ------------------------------ Task 2: Hit the three red lampposts! The best thing you can do here is to look for the lampposts before jumping on the platform and starting the task. Once you know where the three are, it's relatively simple to jump on the platform, run to them all, then back to the start within the 60 seconds time limit. The lampposts are positioned in these places: - right next to the platform - over the bridge towards the character museum - on the path outside the movie theatre. This is probably the best order to do them in. When finished, you may find it quicker to run along the river bank to get back to the platform. My time: 37"58 5.3 - A Walkthrough for Task 3 ------------------------------ Task 3: Get 50 rings! This is rather a lot more difficult than task 1, as you'd imagine. Again, run around the world to see where rings are a few times before you try and complete the task. It is possible to complete this task simply by running around the central island and pick up the rings as you go, ensuring you pick up all the ones on the path and outside the museums. Hopefully you'll then be able to then return to the red and white platform before your 60 seconds runs out. My time: 47"32 5.4 - A Walkthrough for Task 4 ------------------------------ Task 4: Touch Tails! This mission is either very simple, or very infuriating. Normally the latter for a few tries, then the former ... Tails flies around the level to a set pattern, normally around the central "island", and this is the ideal place to catch him. There is a bit of a problem though, in that the game camera is *dire*. You can normally only know when Tails is near you from listening for him - he sounds like a helicopter. The clever thing to do, therefore, is to get up onto the central island, and watch out for him. When you see him, wait until he's near, and jump towards him. If all goes well, he'll catch you. You've completed your objective now, so jump down and run to the red-and-white platform to finish within the 90 seconds time limit. There's a cleverer way though. Jump on the start platform so it shows your objective, but don't move off it. Wait until you hear Tails, then jump off to start the timer, and Tails will be flying right next to you. Jump up and touch him, then run back to the platform. Easy! My time: 03"38 5.5 - A Walkthrough for Task 5 ------------------------------ Task 5: Hit five blue lampposts! Some of these are really difficult to get to, so you're going to have your work cut out to finish in 90 seconds. If you've spent too long on any particular lamppost, you'll probably need to start again. The lampposts are positioned thus: - a platform to the left of the character house - under the bridge between the raised islands - a platform to the right of the movie theatre entrance - a platform to the left of the gallery entrance - on the central island, on the same side as the hall of fame and I'd suggest you try them in this order. Don't forget to go back to the platform afterwards! My time: 52"34 5.6 - A Walkthrough for Task 6 ------------------------------ Task 6: Find the seven secret cards! This is quite an easy task to complete in the 120-second time limit, assuming you can remember where they all are. If you can't, well here's a handy list ... - at the end of the river, on the bank behind a bush - under the bridge on the way to the character house - around the back of the character house - on a high platform to the left of the movie theatre - use the tree next to it as a platform to jump that high - in the river at the waterfall end, a little way along the riverbed - around the back of the art gallery - on a very high platform, to get to which you must use the moving platform to the right of the hall of fame on the central island You do not to actually activate the cards, you just need to run over them. I would recommend doing them in the order above; then you can do a stylish jump from the high platform onto the end-point! My time: 1'11"12 5.7 - A Walkthrough for Task 7 ------------------------------ Task 7: Pop the three balloons! What's that? You haven't seen any balloons? I'm not surprised. They're up high, you'll have to use springs and platforms to get them. More specifically, they're placed in the following locations: - between the stone arch and the character house - via two moving platforms off the central island on the side opposite the hall of fame - between the red and white platform and the exit To get the first, you will have to hitch a lift with Tails - you can spend all day jumping but it won't do you any good! As with task 4, wait at the start until you hear Tails, then jump and get him to carry you. Make sure the camera is directly behind you, and when you get to the balloon, jump straight at it. For the last balloon, you will have to jump onto a tree top, then onto the platform, and then onto the balloon. It is quite tricky to finish this in the two-minute time, but once you've worked out all the balloons, you'll have no trouble. My time: 47"04 5.8 - A Walkthrough for the Final Task -------------------------------------- Task 8: Get 100 rings! Yes, indeed. It's hard. You've got two and a half minutes to get every single ring on the level. It's hard, but it's not impossible. It'll take you a few goes to work out where the rings are, but after that you're laughing. Here's a handy guide as to what order seems optimal: 22 on the way to the character house, including around statues 10 on the path to the music shop, including outside the music shop 5 outside the movie theatre 3 under the arch between the movie theatre and the river 9 near the waterfall on the same side as the movie theatre 2 near the arch but slightly further "downriver" 6 above the spring by the arch 4 on the way to the gallery 7 on the path to the right of the gallery entrance 3 in the air (you have to jump to collect) on the way back to the platform 3 by the exit Now run back toward the art gallery, and use the platform to get up on the central island ... 7 on the central island on the same side as the hall of fame 5 on the bridge 8 on the central island on the opposite side to the hall of fame And finally there's a few bits and pieces ... 2 on the island with the tree that we used to get the second balloon 2 collected while on the moving platform used to get the last card 2 over the spring near the gallery which is jumped onto from the central island Now run home! My time: 2'01"32 5.9 - The Unlocked Ring by the Waterfall ---------------------------------------- When you finish task 8, you'll see an animation of a giant ring appearing by the waterfall. Well, you know all about Sonic and giant rings, don't you? To jump through it, you'll have to jump onto one of the revolving wind turbines, then onto the raised platform to the left of the waterfall. From here you can jump into the ring. You'll then see the credits for Sonic Jam - watch out for some of the artwork, including Sonic with his Mega-CD-style "infinity" legs, and Tails carrying Sonic while flying. 6 - WALKTHROUGHS FOR THE SONIC GAMES ------------------------------------ There are already good walkthroughs for the actual Sonic games on the Internet. In this section, therefore, I will explain only the options made available through Sonic Jam. The subsection headers below give details of the game you have selected from the "game" main screen (see section 2.3). 6.1 - Sonic the Hedgehog ------------------------ The Options menu gives the following: View manual (Japanese or US) Time out on/off Spin dash on/off In the original Sonic game, there was no spin dash move. For authenticity you can turn it off here. There are few places it comes in useful, however, so you might as well leave it on. "Time out" refers to an overall time limit of 10 minutes for each stage, as existed in the original games. If you want to explore more, turn this off. The Extra Game menu has two options. "Time Attack" is a game where you choose your level, and get the best time you can. Remember the days of trying to beat 29 seconds on the Green Hill Zone Act 1? Now you can save your time for posterity (mine's 28"93 at the moment)! Note that you can only play on those stages you have reached in the normal game. "Special Stage" allows you to play through the special stages one at a time without going through the main game. The idea is to get all six emeralds in one go - it's harder than it sounds! If you choose "Game Start", get ready to play Sonic the Hedgehog! Not just yet though - one more menu to go through, which has either three or four options. The three default options are: Normal Easy Original which all refer to difficulty levels. The harder difficulties have more enemies and different object placement. You will also sometimes have a fourth option: Saved Game which only appears if you've played already and exited a game from the pause menu. Once you've chosen your difficulty, the game starts. One final note - in-game there is a pause menu which appears when you press Start. This allows you to: - continue the game - start the game from the beginning - exit the game to the title screen If you choose the last option, the game will record which level you're on, and you'll be able to restart there (with the same score, number of lives and chaos emeralds) through the "Saved Game" option mentioned above. If you want to see the paused game without the Sonic Jam menu box, press X+Y+Z. 6.2 - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 -------------------------- All the options for Sonic 2 are the same as for Sonic 1, but the spin dash is always on. 6.3 - Sonic the Hedgehog 3 -------------------------- All the options for Sonic 3 are the same as for Sonic 2, but the saved game method was included in the original Sonic 3 cartridge, so it is accessed through the game's menu. 6.4 - Sonic and Knuckles ------------------------ Sonic and Knuckles was released as a special cartridge which had connectors in the top to which another cartridge could be added. When you plugged Sonic and Knuckles into the Megadrive, and another Sonic game on top, you got a whole new game. You could also play Sonic and Knuckles on its own. 6.4.0 - Sonic and Knuckles With No Lock-On All the options for Sonic and Knuckles solus are the same as for Sonic 3. 6.4.1 - Sonic and Knuckles with Sonic the Hedgehog Locked-On When Sonic and Knuckles first came out, people soon noticed that you could just plug any cartridge into the top. Doing so got you a screen with the four Sonic characters, and a scrolling message: NO WAY? NO WAY! This was true with the original Sonic game too - try it now by choosing Sonic as the lock-on cartridge. However, with Sonic as the lock-on, the characters were brighter and more colourful than normal. And with good reason - there's a hidden game here! Press C and you'll find a game which basically consists of bonus levels from Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles. When you get through a level, you'll get a code to let you continue from that point in future. 6.4.2 - Sonic and Knuckles with Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Locked-On When Sonic 2 is plugged into Sonic and Knuckles, you get to play the whole of Sonic 2 as Knuckles, including his gliding move. There's some places you'll never see otherwise! There's a good FAQ for "Knuckles in Sonic 2" by Aster Azul. The options available are the same as for Sonic 2, but you can't view the manual since there wasn't one! 6.4.3 - Sonic and Knuckles with Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Locked-On This is it - the biggest and best Sonic adventure there is! There's no "extra game" mode here - basically this is Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles rolled into one, so the games haven't been duplicated. Options are as Sonic 3, but with the view manual removed as well. Just play the game! 7 - CHEATS AND TIPS ------------------- To view all the films in one go, go into the movie theatre in Sonic World and hold down X+Y+Z while pressing C. All the films will be shown in order. If you put the Sonic Jam CD into a PC CD drive, you'll find some good images that you can use as backdrops for whatever operating system you use. Once you've completed all eight missions and seen the credits, you can watch yourself running around the 3D world from a "TV perspective" by pressing X. When you've paused the game, you'll have a big pause menu in the middle of the screen. To make this vanish, press X+Y+Z. To skip straight to the last mission in Sonic World, hold down A+start when selecting "Sonic World" from the title screen. 8 - ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -------------------- Thanks to: Sonic Team for making something that I can complete Tamsyn Heritage for pointing out rings to me Tails for the lift 9 - CONTACT DETAILS AND LEGAL STUFF ----------------------------------- The email address associated with this FAQ is sonicjam@economic-truth.co.uk - you should use this for all correspondence. I (Tim Miller) retain all copyright over this document, since I wrote it. If you want to use it on your website, email me and ask. I will probably say yes, and specify that the actual content is not altered in any way (formatting will probably be OK - not changing to American spelling though ...). However, you must ask first. If you notice any errors on this FAQ, please email me. If you have any suggestions to additional material, please email me. If you have any questions that aren't answered, please email me. In all cases, don't be offended if I don't get back to immediately, or don't take your comments completely on board. I'm just like that. 9.1 - Version History --------------------- v0.1 : 13 March 2002 - Added everything and sent to GameFAQs v1.0 : 5 June 2002 - Finally tidied it all up and finished checking details v1.1 : 27 February 2003 - Added information about the version of Sonic 1 v1.2 : 12 April 2006 - Added GamerWiki information