Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis

"Genesis Does What Nintendon't. This game is proof of that."

Sonic the Hedgehog... we all know him, we all know what he's about, we all know the history behind Sega's most familiar mascot. So let's forget about preliminaries and get straight to the point.

For the fifteenth anniversary of the blue rodent, Sega has decided to remake the original Hedgehog classic on the Game Boy Advance. The game would not only play as it did on the Sega Genesis back when it was released, but it would allow you to save your progress, listen to the game's soundtrack, and even allows you to perform the Spin Dash Attack, a move that was introduced in Sonic 2... Okay, so it isn't much to brag about for such a milestone event, but Sonic fans could cry in joy as they would finally be able to play the very first game that started it all in portable form and at a very tempting budget price. This would definitely be the beginning of what is hoped to be a series of remakes of all the old Genesis games, similar to what was done with the Super Mario Advance series. Finally, a newer generation of gamers would be able to play Sonic's early adventures. It is definitely a dream come true.

But there's just one problem. One problem that keeps the game from being anything but a hideous nightmare. The problem is so simple and yet so crippling of the entire experience.

So here's the problem with Sonic The Hedgehog Genesis: this game is horrible. Just plain horrible.

STORY: Evil scientist Dr. Robotnik (now Dr. Eggman... why did we change the name again? Someone enlighten me please... but I digress) is turning animals into robots and it's up to Sonic to save them. Simple stuff and it works... that's the only thing this game has going for it. 7/10

GRAPHICS: The good news is that the graphics are more or less exactly the same as they appeared on the Genesis and the nice thing is that these graphics still hold up: bright, colorful, and detailed. Not bad for a game system considered to be weaker than its 16-bit rival, SNES. The bad news is that every one in a while the broken gameplay will kick in and for a short instance, garbage will replace the backdrops of each level. Also, various stage items such as enemies or even entire inanimate platforms will pop in and out at times. These sorts of problems are expected from a poor man's fan game made from Clickteam's Multimedia Fusion series of game creation tools, not from a professional video game maker. 4/10

SOUND: When you turn on the cartridge, you can hear the familiar SEGA chant that has adorned almost every side-scrolling Sonic game on the Genesis. Then the title music hits and it sounds horrible. I mean... the Genesis' sound capabilities weren't powerful, but they were able to make wonderful soundtracks in Sonic and they sure sound a heck of a lot better than this. And it gets worse, as the in-game sound effects sound awful... absolutely nothing like the original Genesis SFX. What happened here? Did the development team take the night off when composing the sound? The really sad thing about this game is that you had the actual sound effects in the newer Sonic Advance games that was really YEARS PRIOR TO THIS RELEASE and all of a sudden, the GBA can't reproduce those classic sound effects? That's just a disappointment in and of itself. 2/10

GAMEPLAY: Sonic Genesis offers two modes of play: Original Mode and Anniversary Mode. Original Mode is the original Genesis game as it was then (in theory anyway) while Anniversary Mode is the exact same game as Original Mode, but with the addition of the Spin Dash ability. In any case, it doesn't really matter which mode you choose because the addition of the Spin Dash, while a nice concept, is more of a hindrance than a benefit as far as this game goes and eventually becomes an afterthought the farther you go into the game. Of course, it doesn't help that the game is a malfunctioning piece of code that plays rather awkwardly. In addition to magically-appearing enemies and platforms, there's also some lag when things get heavy. The physics, speed momentum, and even hit collision is way off. I could have sworn I took damage standing NEXT to the spikebed instead of landing on top of it... a rare occurance, but these things shouldn't have happened to begin with! 7/10

CHALLENGE: Sonic 1 was fairly challenging back in its day and while it was still straightforward in terms of level progression, it had its share of secrets... and there was the challenge of nabbing all six Chaos Emeralds (later games would add a seventh) in the special stages. Now take the challenge of that game and glitch it all kinds to the point where it's barely playable and resembling the game I had described a few lines ago and you have your Sonic Genesis challenge description... To be fair, the game is beatable thanks to some other glitches, but that's about it. 8/10

REPLAY VALUE: Gaming bugs aside (because that alone is enough to merit a low score), there isn't much to Sonic Genesis once you beat it. The game doesn't offer much in terms of extras and the two play modes are similar enough that it isn't worth venturing through twice. 4/10

OVERALL: An old tagline Sega used to promote their 16-bit console was "Genesis does what Nintendon't." That sentiment perfectly describes the shipwreck known as Sonic Genesis. Granted, it's not a straight-up emulation and the intentions were noble, but ultimately the final product is a bug-ridden, lag-infested port that is Sonic The Hedgehog in name only. I really wanted to give this game a chance... no, I really wanted this game to be a good port, but alas it was not to be. If you really need Sonic on the go, you'll have better luck with the Sonic Advance series of games. This is a sad way of celebrating Sonic's 15th birthday. Avoid. 2/10

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 12/04/06