Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis

"Sonic did not deserve this."

Sonic. What a guy. He is Sega's prime contender in platforming, helped sell consoles, and even kept going after the Dreamcast. And for over fifteen years, he's been an amazing character. Dashing, jumping, racing, fighting, and blasting through game after game with his famous name. Sega noticed that and decided to bring Sonic's original adventure to the GBA, along with a few new special features. The Spin Dash, among other inclusions, are here to mix up Sonic's classic adventure. Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis is here: is it worth it?.

Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis is a port (not remake) of the original Sonic game for the Sega Genesis. At least, that's what you're supposed to think. As someone who grew up playing this game on the Sega Genesis, then later on the Sonic Mega Collection for the Gamecube, I honestly cannot remember playing this game before. Sonic the Hedgehog was known for running at a blinding speed, rushing over loops, jumps, and at a velocity unseen by any other platformer characters. Sega hasn't offered this classic its dues, because the game is just plain slow. A chuggy framerate cannot follow Sonic through his adventures and eventually everything becomes a slow mess.

To the game's credit, this is the original game. All six zones, all three acts in each zone. Nostalgic gamers will be pleased to see Green Hill Zone once more...after a while. Pop-up graphics are constant. The game cannot keep up with itself, and it shows by not developing the level quick enough. Just stopping and standing around for a platform to appear is not fun, and was not part of the original. There's also a ridiculous amount of glitches, causing the fast-paced gameplay to be interrupted by confusion. Half the time you won't even know what happened after you hit a spring or fall. It's just insulting that this port is this bad.

The minute additions to the game are practically irrelevant after considering the many problems. Sure, you can now use the Spin Dash, something that Sonic couldn't accomplish until Sonic 2, but moving faster just makes the framerate issue more apparent. A sound test mode is definitely there, but isn't enough of an inclusion to port this game one more time. Some changes include some bosses, where Robotnik shows to be even more of a pushover. A new save system is good, as going through the levels altogether can be pretty exhausting, but there's too many technical problems to overlook, leaving the game barely playable.

The graphics and sound, clearly, are not as they should be. Graphics, at times, look good, but really don't offer the clean and vibrant experience of the game. They look low-tech, something that shouldn't happen on a GBA port of a Genesis game. The sound is slightly changed. More sounds in the themes is okay, but effects are low-tech and uninteresting. The presentation, though not completely awful, is just poor and annoying.

Quite possibly the worst part of Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis is the fact that this game goes for $20. While that may sound like a deal, consider the fact that the Sonic Advance games go for that much, and are cleaner, smoother, and better games. The Mega Collection games go for that much or slightly more, and include MORE than the original. The gameplay in this game should not be so blatantly low-tech. This was an easy task for Sega: remake Sonic the Hedgehog with a save system, Spin Dash, and a little extra content. But the game suffers too much from some simple equations that were supposed to be completely easy to deal with.

Pros
+ An original classic
+ Save system is pretty cool
+ Sound test

Cons
- Poor graphics
- Slowdown is downright awful
- Full of bugs and glitches
- Much better ways to play this game

Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis is like an empty pinata. It's a messy, broken piece of trash with all of the good stuff bludgeoned out of it. The minor changes in the gameplay cannot help the fact that Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis is a lackluster port of an amazing game that basically takes all the fun out. A Sonic game with glitches and slowdown is not a good Sonic game, and Genesis proves it in spades. The graphics and sound aren't any better, and with this being based upon a Genesis game, the game's credit just doesn't hold. It's definitely a nostalgic classic, but this port of the game plays nothing like the original. If you desperately need a Sonic game for a handheld, pick up one of the Sonic Advance games for the GBA or Sonic Rush for the DS. If you absolutely need the original Sonic, buy one of the collections for the consoles and ignore this port. Not even a price point of $20 can save this awful port. Ignore it, forget it, do not play it.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 11/21/06