"A game carried solely by the amusement of watching Sonic whack himself in the throat."

I really don't know what to say about this game. What were they thinking? This game is so poorly conceived, it actually fascinates me.

I guess there's a reason this game was so illusive until fairly recently... The basic premise is pretty simple. Like every other puzzle game ever ever, this game consists of you guiding blocks down the screen and eliminating them for as long as you can. However, it has a more aggressive approach than the majority, since instead of just trying to beat your best time, you will instead be trying to outlast your opponent.

You will have to match up at least two like blocks to make them disappear. The blocks come down in waves of four, and consist of all the shapes in Tetris with the exception of the "zig-zags," and you can shift the shapes around to fit your needs. As you eradicate the troublesome triangles, squares, 'slanted' squares, and many other geometric figures (as well as the occasional "mystery" blocks), you will begin to do battle with "the enemy!" Since this game came out before Sonic 2, and Robotnik wouldn't fit on the screen too well, you will be fighting against... yourself? Yes, you, as Sonic, will be battling it out with the computer, as Sonic. You'll throw punches, you'll spin dash, you'll spin dash with an Invincible shield, you'll- oh wait... I guess that's about it. Not that any of these varied attacks matter, since they all do the same thing: stun.

This all sounds fine at a glance, but it can make the game pretty antagonizing to make a comeback in. You see, when your Sonic is stunned, he cannot control his blocks. Therefore, there's a great chance that you won't be scoring many points for the duration (around 10 seconds). Meanwhile, your opponent will continue to amass the points he needs for another assault. Indeed, I often found myself succumbing to the computer's attacks mere seconds after recovering from his previous attacks. This can be especially problematic when you're in the danger zone, since three or four rows waves of blocks could easily land before you recover, and that could be the end.

Of course, there's really nothing to lose. After all, there's a total of ONE level in the 1P mode. If you lose, you are taken back to the main menu, where you could easily replay the "last" level of the game without having to hassle with some sort of deep adventure mode. To the game's credit, there are 10 difficulty levels, measuring from 0 to 9. At 0, the game barely crawls along, and can be quite boring. At 9, the game is damn near unplayable, thanks to the horribly quick pace that makes seeing what you're doing a chore (not that playing this game isn't one to begin with).

The graphics in game aren't horrible, but that's only because of the excellent Sonic sprites pulled straight from the previous game. The new sprites aren't even worth noting, since Sonic's punch is essentially one of his running sprites, and his "stunned" sprites aren't as good as the others, nor do they animate well. The various blocks in the game look boring, and there aren't any shapes memorable. It seems like the perfect opportunity to bust out the Chaos Emeralds and make Sonic combine those, and since the Chaos Emeralds looked miles above this trash, it's just that much more astonishing; not to mention they could've recycled those.

The game furthers itself from the original once again by being the polar opposite as far as sound design. I don't really recall any sound effects, but I'm sure that Sonic's spin dash sounds as he attacks with it. The only other sound coming out of your TV when this game's on is its one song. I don't know how to describe it. It's kind of like walking in on your mother and father having sex, in the form of "music." The guy who created this 'astounding' score actually allowed the staff to add his name to the credits. That's like bragging about writing "Uptown Girls." I wonder if he killed himself...

There's really nothing more to say about the game. I didn't have the "privilege" of having another human participate with me in the playing of this game, but quite frankly, I don't NEED to experience the multiplayer mode, because though it would undoubtedly be more fun than playing by myself (with this game, that is), that would mainly be because I'd have somebody to laugh with about how terrible the game is, and how amusing it looks when Sonic punches his foe in the throat. On a positive note, the game controls just fine, but that's like saying that "Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing" would have been a good game if it weren't for the same thing (sorry Sonic Eraser, even you don't deserve that comparison). This game is a dud, and is only worth hunting down the ROM so that you can say that you've played every Sonic game.

GAMEPLAY: 4/10
GRAPHICS: 3/10
SOUND: 1/10
REPLAYABILITY: 1/10

OVERALL: 2/10

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 04/09/07, Updated 04/10/07