Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis

"Get Ready for a LAG FILLED Adventure!"

This is my first review so go easy on me...

To celebrate Sonic's birthday, SEGA decided to remake the classic Sonic the Hedgehog for the Genesis onto the GBA. While this is a great way to celebrate, apparently something went wrong in the porting of this game. Many expected it to be a flawless port, but what they received was a game that was full of glitches and changed sound effects. This review will clearly define what was great and what was wrong with the game.

Story: 8/10
There wasn't much of a story then, there isn't much of a story now. Why rate it so high? The game focused on gameplay rather than story so it would be harsh to rate very low. The story, taken directly from the instruction manual, is:

Dr. Ivo Robotnik (AKA Dr. Eggman), the mad scientist, is snatching innocent animals and turning them into evil robots! Only one tough dude can put an end to the demented scientist's fiendish scheme. It's Sonic, the real cool hedgehog with the spiky hair and power sneakers that give him super speed.

Help Sonic fight hordes of metal maniacs and do the loop with his patented Spin Attack. Speed down twisting tunnels and swing over dangerous booby traps. Leap across lava pits and dodge burning rocks. Then splash down through the chilling waters in an underground cavern. And if you're lucky, you can warp to the secret zone where you spin around in a floating maze! your greatest challenge lurks in a secret lab where you come face to face with Dr. Robotnik himself.

Spin through space, loop 'til you're dizzy, save the animals and become the super hero. Be Sonic! Be atomic!

Nothing groundbreaking, a couple of twists could have made it better, but it works.
Notice the way the instruction booklet makes it sound cool.

Graphics: 10/10
IDENTICAL to the Genesis version. Some slight changes here and there, but nothing horrible.

Audio: 6/10
Here is where it didn't do so well. While most of the music has be retained, such as the classic Green Hill Zone all the way to the Final Zone. The sound effects however, have been altered. Collecting rings and losing them still sound the same, but jumping and stopping have been completely altered. The sound for hitting an enemy has changed as well, but its nothing too different. Fans of the original may be disappointed, but it shouldn't detract from the overall quality of the game.

Gameplay: 7/10
Here is the meat of the game. The gameplay has, more or less, been retained from the original. There is one major difference in gameplay however. It is LAG. This game is relatively full of it. The game IS playable, though, unlike how many people will lead you to believe. Every time Sonic picks up speed, the framerate cannot keep up with him, causing lag. It isn't noticeable much in the first three zones and the final. It becomes very noticeable in the fourth zone, and slightly noticeable in the fith and sixth zone. There is no lag in the Special Stages, but Sonic is rather, for lack of a better word, slippery to control. His jumps are inaccurate most of the time so it's very easy to screw up here. Also the Chaos Emeralds are harder to get now because of this, but it's not impossible. At least now they included a save feature.

There is a way however, to reduce the amount of lag you'll experience. Truthfully, I discovered this on accident when messing around with the options. Simply turn off the BGM and SM. This will cause much less lag in the game, making certain areas much more bearable. The Labyrinth Zone is still laggy even with this trick though, but not as bad.

However, it really makes the game really dull without music and possibly the sound effects, but if you want a relatively lag free adventure, then you have to settle with this set up. I would recommend you get music of each zone and boss music and put it an MP3 player or CD player so you can play them while in that level. If only there was a way to turn off certain sound effects, I would at least keep the ring noise.

Replayability 4/10
Unfortunately, this game lacks a lot of replayability, more so because of the lag. You probably would only replay this if you wanted to collect all the chaos emeralds to get the better ending. Once you do that, there really isn't much else to do after beating it. The unlockables aren't anything to write home about either. All you get is the Jukebox, which lets you hear all the music and sound effects from the game. That's it.

Story: 8
Graphics: 10
Audio: 7
Gameplay: 7
Replay: 4
Overall: 7

While not a perfect port of a classic game, Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis deserves at least a playthrough, maybe two in case you missed that one chaos emerald.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/03/07

Game Release: Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis (US, 11/14/06)