Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis

"The worst Sonic game ever."

Intro:

You remember Sonic the Hedgehog for the Genesis(US/Canada)/Megadrive(Elsewhere). Do you remember how fast he went? How good the audio was? The fun you had with debug mode? Do you forget those awesome special stages that were cool, fun and challenging and fair to beat and to access? You're probably happy that you can play Sonic the Hedgehog in the palm of your hands and that it will be much better than the original. Well, get ready to be disappointed.

Story: 10/10

A person named Dr. Ivo Robotnick (a.k.a. Eggman) has turned a happy land where animals rejoice into a filthy, ruined and polluted land and trapped animals in capsules and robots that wreak havoc onto the land. Now only one fast, blue hedgehog can save them. Sonic ventures through several levels, gaining 6 Chaos Emeralds and destroying robots to save all his animal friends.

The story is completely unchanged from the original, but the outcome in the end is disappointingly different. I'm not going to spoil the end for you, so look up a video or something.

Graphics/Viewpoint: 1.5/10

From the original, the sprites have been resized and the screen has been cropped. On top of that, there is a choppy framerate, which affects the controls and the gameplay itself. Sometimes, the framerate goes at a fast pace. Other times, it goes extremely slowly, which counteracts Sonic's trademark speed.

Gameplay: -100/10

The game is the original Sonic formula. You run through the level, collecting rings, destroying enemies and making it to the end. If you get hit, you lose all your rings. If you get hit without any rings, you die. Things that hurt you are enemies, spikes and several hazards. There are also bottomless pits where if you fall into them, you die, regardless of your status. The same rule applies if you get crushed between a wall (horizontally or vertically) or if your 10 minute time limit runs out. There are checkpoints along the way, when if you die, you return to that point. If you lose all your lives, the result is a Game Over (obviously). There are 3 acts in a level. At the end of act 1 and 2, there is a sign, and in act 3, there is a boss and a capsule you need to destroy. When you pass the sign, you complete the act. Jumping before Sonic runs off screen, increases your score. If you collect 50 rings, there will be a giant ring right in front of the sign. If you jump into it before running off screen, you enter a special stage, where you can obtain a Chaos Emerald.

The Special Stage is a ever-rotating labyrinth. There are several types of walls that do certain things. Some will change the direction the labyrinth rotates. Another will just block your way. If you touch the flickering wall that reads EXIT, you fail the special stage and get sent to the next act. When you find the Chaos Emerald, you need to continually touch the diamonds surrounding it to destroy them and touch the Chaos Emerald in the center. If you do that, you get the Chaos Emerald.

There are alternate endings. The regular ending is when you don't get all the emeralds in the game. Getting all 6 Chaos Emeralds gives you the Good Ending.

Now about the GBA version.

Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis is remake of the original Sonic the Hedgehog, as opposed to a port, which is probably why it turned out to be just plain awful. Similar to may other GBA ports of games (like Rayman Advance), the screen has been cropped and the sprites have been resized. In most of them, it actually worked, but in this game, it just rendered it frustrating and unfair. Some enemies attack from above, so you can't see their aerial attacks, as opposed to the original, where you could see them from above. Since the screen is cropped, you won't have enough time to move away, resulting in an unfair death.

The gameplay has been drastically changed in the GBA remake, and I mean in a negative way. The only positive thing is that they added a save feature, but seriously, you didn't need the save feature in the original. There are 2 modes: Classic and Anniversary. Classic doesn't have spindash but Anniversary does. But that's basically all they added.

The controls in the original were tight and responsive. Now in the GBA remake, the controls are too responsive. Just holding down the D-Pad for less than a second will send Sonic flying in one direction even after letting go of the controls. He will crash into obstacles and enemies, injuring himself and thus causing clunky controls. He can even do a loop-de-loop after 5 seconds without holding the D-Pad down (if there are no obstacles)! He won't stop until you collide with an obstacle or a few seconds after getting hit by an enemy.

There are also several glitches that are detrimental. Some include being stuck in the wall and instant deaths. There's one that renders the Special Stage near impossible. The wall that rotates the Special Stage will keep switching directions until you move off it. In the original, you just need to land on it and it will change the direction once and it won't change until you jump and land on it again, but in this remake, the direction keeps switching until you get off it.

Sonic runs at a slow pace at maximum, and even when you get a speed up boost, you only run as fast as Sonic's medium pace in the original.

The gameplay is just terrible. That's all I can say to finish this section off.

Music/Sound: 2/10

The music has been ruined. If you compare the original to this, the music is just ruined. The quality sounds like it's in between SNES and NES quality. The GBA's speaker is better than the Genesis/Megadrive's speaker, so I am not impressed.

The sound has also been ruined completely. The SFX sounds like it came from a NES. The jumping, spinning and inhaling sounds sound incredibly inferior to the Genesis/Megadrive counterpart. The only sound that hasn't been ruined is the ring sound.

Overall:

Pros:

+Spindash added in Anniversary mode.
+Save feature
+It's the original Sonic

Cons:

-Clunky controls
-Inferior sound and music
-Loose controls
-Cropped screen
-Incredibly glitchy
-Good Ending has been ruined
-Incredible choppy framerate
-Special Stages don't work properly
-Sonic doesn't have adequate speed
-Sprites are too big

Story: 10/10
Graphics: 1.5/10
Gameplay: -100/10
Music/Sound: 2/10

FINAL SCORE: 0/10

Rent or Buy: NEITHER

Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis is, without question, one of the worst, if not the worst, GBA titles ever made. The physics don't work and they removed more things than they added in a system more powerful than the Genesis/Megadrive. Stick to the Genesis/Megadrive version, or get it with various compilations such as Sonic Jam (Sega Saturn) or Sonic Mega Collection(Gamecube; Sonic Mega Collection Plus for XBOX and PS2). It's also avaliable on some cellphones and on the Wii's Virtual Console. Those versions are far superior to this abysmal GBA remake.

Reviewer's Score: 1/10, Originally Posted: 10/01/08

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