We got the big ones everyone!

The Game Gear Classic's Blast & Labyrinth are up next for the retrospective and......they aren't that horrid :l.



Okay, they are bad games.....well, only Blast really is. But they are worse things with Sonic's name on it. *Cough* Chronicles and Sonic 06 *Cough*

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Lets go into the Labyrinth!

Sonic Labyrinth tells the grand tale of a lost story where our Blue Blur.....was slow?! Yes, Sonic lost his great super speed thanks to a lovely pair of Slow Down Shoes thanks to Robotnik and he has to collect Chaos Emeralds to restore his speed and stop Robotnik by beating his great labyrinth. Now one must ask, why not take the shoes off? Well, he cannot, as they weigh him down and prevent him from running. But he can still use his super spindash. Using this, he spins into the Labyrinth!

Firstly, like the move on Sega's part for explaining why Sonic is slow. Makes more sense then.......this:


It also gives us a decent enough reason to spin our way into this adventure .

Sonic has a slow walking speed he can rev-up into a spin dash and controls like a pinball. He bounces all over the place and can make some great trick shots to fly though the stages faster.



You can charge it up to four levels, with the highest sending you flying. I like this set up, as Sonic controls well walking or rolling around. While I liked how 3D Blast played, having a more controllable option for my movement via Sonic moving slow (walking) and fast (rolling) helps a lot to make things fun.

You're goal is to collect three keys before entering a goal doorway and you do this for every level in the game. You can also collect power ups to make you invincible, increase your walking speed or even pulling a key toward you!



The game has some boss fights but they are simple. You roll down a half-pipe and collect rings before heading to the boss. Once you beat them, you get a chaos emerald!



The game is sadly short (12 levels, 4 boss fights) but is it a fun ride ? Note how I am being quite kind to the game? Its due to it being okay.

Its not horrid, bad or great. Its just 'good', with it being a fun little puzzle adventure for Sonic.

The soundtrack is solid too:
Level 1 Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfvzTSAKzbQ&list=PLnZc6WBQn4V_9igUESBcTTff-aSQRppfr&index=4
Level 2 Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXFSPmN9Ni8&list=PLnZc6WBQn4V_9igUESBcTTff-aSQRppfr&index=6
Level 3 Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TipHW2sg7lQ&list=PLnZc6WBQn4V_9igUESBcTTff-aSQRppfr&index=8
Before the Boss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTwIMNzJs4Q&list=PLnZc6WBQn4V_9igUESBcTTff-aSQRppfr&index=12
Boss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfAQRqp0gNo&list=PLnZc6WBQn4V_9igUESBcTTff-aSQRppfr&index=14
Final Boss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI0AClI8ikw&list=PLnZc6WBQn4V_9igUESBcTTff-aSQRppfr&index=15

Its not amazing, but its perfectly enjoyable .

I had a nice time playing this and was surprised with how enjoyable the game ended up being to me. Far, FAR from it being next to Sonic 06, Shadow or Chronicles for me. I recommend you give it a shot on your 3DS if you have the time ! Worse ways to kill a half hour.



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Blast from the Past

Boy......where do I START with this one :l?

Um, Sonic Blast released not long after the launch of 3D Blast. So, Sega thought "Lets make a Sonic 3D Blast like game for the Game Gear! It's more then powerful enough to ru-"





"Oh my......lets just toss this out to the masses."
"But sir! This looks horr-"
"PUT IT OUT NOW!"

*Cough* And thus, Sonic Blast, the treasured gem of a game, was graced amongst us mere mortals. Let its amazing pre-rendered visuals, short length and amazing level design shine us through the battle against the lone Boy of Games.

......I'm sorry XD! That was too much fun to write :').

Okay, Sonic Blast is a 2D action platformer like past Sonic games before but it went all Donkey Kong Country on us! Pre-Rendered sprites and more realistic visual style replace the iconic classic era style and its......really ugly . Unlike the DKC games which aged quite well or even 3D Blast which looks fine today (heck, they did a great job with the Saturn version of it!).

So, with the fuggy visuals, is their a good game here?



Guess not, huh?

The game has two playable characters, Sonic (who can double jump) and our boy Knuckles (who can climb up walls....and chuckles from the fact he is in this mess). The level design tries to be interesting but the art style the game uses restricts what it can do.

Remember my Sonic 1/2 GG and Sonic & Tails threads, with me talking about the level design in a great light? That isn't carried over here, likely due to the horrid art direction using too much memory from the Game Gear.

This comes to a head with THIS zone.


Blue Marine Zone.....one of the worst underwater Sonic stages in history. Air currents pushing you all over the place, Sonic/Knuckles controlling like tanks and the horrid physics not working well.



The games physics are quite bad to begin with, due to everyone moving like rocks but its even worse here. I got stuck for a good five minutes in a loop from the currents.....in Act 1. And you know what? The zones tend to last only 30 seconds or so. So that fact that I got so stuck is a problem .

The rest of the game is just 'meh' honestly but the visual style and horrid controls really cement it as a bad Sonic. The classic era isn't perfect and this game is a clear example of this.

Lets move on to the soundtrack, one area where this game does some things right.

Green Hill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxV5owWu3AI&list=PLqdEmXrfcw96DlM3SFoqUI9p5Y0yK0X4C&index=4
Yellow Desert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZmufq_ZE7U&list=PLqdEmXrfcw96DlM3SFoqUI9p5Y0yK0X4C&index=5
Silver Castle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8DcLR8tbCE&index=8&list=PLqdEmXrfcw96DlM3SFoqUI9p5Y0yK0X4C
Red Volcano: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDDS3fyG42s&index=6&list=PLqdEmXrfcw96DlM3SFoqUI9p5Y0yK0X4C
Blue Marine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97JBs5vzEVg&index=7&list=PLqdEmXrfcw96DlM3SFoqUI9p5Y0yK0X4C

You got that right, only five zones and they have such creative zone names. I do enjoy this version of Green Hill Zone at the very least . Nice beat and melody.

Is this a bad game? Yes. Is it a horrid waste of your time? YES! Should you play it? It depends :l. This is the worst Classic Era game, so if you want to see the worse of this era of Sonic (The Golden Age for the series in many respects), then why not . Its on the 3DS E-Shop (for.....some reason :l).



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Story Time's Over Kids!

Both of these have issues but I can easily recommend Labyrinth over Blast in a heart beat. The stronger game and one that has a bad rap.

Hope you enjoyed diving into some of the more 'infamous' adventures of the Blue Blur and next time on The Sonic Retrospective is......our good friend Tails. He stars in two interesting Adventures, so lets join him on his two journey's soon .

Sonic Labyrinth gets a bad rap. It's not a good game by any means, but it's fun enough until you get to the actual... well, labyrinths.

Sonic Blast, however... I think it's legitimately the worst Sonic game of all time. Even with save states in Mega Collection Plus I couldn't be bothered to finish that hellish creation they call Blue Marine Zone. There's no redeeming factor to it, at least games like Chronicles and 06 are funny-bad.

Camjo-Z said:

Sonic Labyrinth gets a bad rap. It's not a good game by any means, but it's fun enough until you get to the actual... well, labyrinths.

Sonic Blast, however... I think it's legitimately the worst Sonic game of all time. Even with save states in Mega Collection Plus I couldn't be bothered to finish that hellish creation they call Blue Marine Zone. There's no redeeming factor to it, at least games like Chronicles and 06 are funny-bad.

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Even when you get to the Labyrinth's, its still an enjoyable game . I beat it in 40 minutes yesterday and beat Blast in a half hour (I could of spent more time getting the Chaos Emeralds for the good ending......but I didn't want to play it anymore ).

Blast isn't the worst Sonic, but its up there for sure.

Some more information about both games:
-Labyrinth is quite short, only lasting about a half hour if you are good at the game.
-Blast looks to have a rushed development cycle; no Sonic game has fewer then six zones
-Different Sign Posts in the Game Gear games unlocked extra points/lives/rings when you clear a zone. Blast has a Super Sonic Sign, despite him not being unlockable in the final game.
-Sonic and Knuckles' models appear to be ripped right out of 3D Blast.

So Sonic became slow because of his shoes? Why didn't he just change them, are those his only pair?

TriggerShy said:

So Sonic became slow because of his shoes? Why didn't he just change them, are those his only pair?

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He couldn't take them off his feet, as he only can once he collects the Chaos Emeralds. I will edit the OP clarify the story a bit more. Thank you for the heads up buddy .

You are not joking about Blue Marine Zone. The first few zones aren't too bad, even tricking you into thinking the game is enjoyable. Then you hit Blue Marine Zone Act 2 and it all falls into place on why Sonic Blast is not a good Sonic game. You spend most of your time getting caught in currents while the timer ticks down to your death and sonic moves as slow as molasses underwater. Awful stuff.

firebricks3 said:

You are not joking about Blue Marine Zone. The first few zones aren't too bad, even tricking you into thinking the game is enjoyable. Then you hit Blue Marine Zone Act 2 and it all falls into place on why Sonic Blast is not a good Sonic game. You spend most of your time getting caught in currents while the timer ticks down to your death and sonic moves as slow as molasses underwater. Awful stuff.

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I feel the image I picked to introduce the zone speaks for itself; Sonic looking horrified, scared and a lone. Trapped in an endless cycle of going back and forth in the place he loath's the most; the deep abyss. Considering how the Game Gear Sonic's tend to have decent water zones, its a strange situation where the last Game Gear 2D Sonic platformer has one of the worse underwater zones in the series :l.

If you think Sonic Blast is bad, you should check out the Brazil-only Master System port--the reduced palette makes it look even worse and the conversion was fairly sloppy so a lot of menus and other screens have huge black borders (and the ring counter just sits in the middle of the screen because they didn't bother to adjust it for the bigger screen).

@MUWANdo said:

If you think Sonic Blast is bad, you should check out the Brazil-only Master System port--the reduced palette makes it look even worse and the conversion was fairly sloppy so a lot of menus and other screens have huge black borders (and the ring counter just sits in the middle of the screen because they didn't bother to adjust it for the bigger screen).

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O_O!

.........

Oh, these games.......zzz

Ok, serious discussion time lol.

Sonic Labyrinth to me was an interesting, experimental concept that flipped what Sonic was about and gave puzzles and whatnot. It was an alright game, not really my cup of tea but I can respect what it was trying to do.

Sonic Blast is NOT a blast. In fact, it's garbage. Just not fun at all. =/

J@hranimo said:

Oh, these games.......zzz

Ok, serious discussion time lol.

Sonic Labyrinth to me was an interesting, experimental concept that flipped what Sonic was about and gave puzzles and whatnot. It was an alright game, not really my cup of tea but I can respect what it was trying to do.

Sonic Blast is NOT a blast. In fact, it's garbage. Just not fun at all. =/

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Thank you for your thoughts man ! Labyrinth is interesting despite it being just 'okay' while Blast is.....ugh X(.

RK128 said:

He couldn't take them off his feet, as he only can once he collects the Chaos Emeralds. I will edit the OP clarify the story a bit more. Thank you for the heads up buddy .

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I kind of like my idea better. I imagine that Sonic spends all his money on chili dogs so he only has one pair of shoes. Robotnik then slows him down and Sonic finds the Chaos Emeralds because he's broke, but keeps those shoes on since running around barefoot is just weird. That said, this whole scenario seems like a silly prank from Robotnik.

to this day i think that cgi thing from sonic unleashed is actually really good, holds up very well. its just the facial expression that kills it.

Hero Prinny said:

to this day i think that cgi thing from sonic unleashed is actually really good, holds up very well. its just the facial expression that kills it.

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I love the Unleashed intro and praised it in the thread I made on the game......but I love using that image .

Such a perfect image for the word "WHAT?!?" XD.

TriggerShy said:

I kind of like my idea better. I imagine that Sonic spends all his money on chili dogs so he only has one pair of shoes. Robotnik then slows him down and Sonic finds the Chaos Emeralds because he's broke, but keeps those shoes on since running around barefoot is just weird. That said, this whole scenario seems like a silly prank from Robotnik.

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I have to agree with your idea XD! Robotnik just messing with Sonic is a really funny idea that I could clearly picture him doing :').

I played the hell out of Sonic Blast as a kid. Mainly because I was so excited to see a "Blast" title on Game Gear.

... yeah, it's not a good game, lol, but when what you own is of limited selection of games.

And those currents... ugh..

I dont have anything nice to say about these games mainly because i never played them
Good insight on them tho, mate.

You are really being generous to some unfathomable shit games when comparing them favourably to Sonic 06. As bad as Sonic 06 is, there are several Sonic games worse than it and Sonic Blast is a prime example for one. Yes, no other one is a buggy as Sonic 06, but I'd rather take buggy mess with horrible overworld, shit alt-characters, non-functional high speed sections and leveldesign that varies between atricous and mediocre (really, Sonic 06 does hit mediocre levels, sometimes even slightly beyond!) over a complete shit show with absolutely no redeeming qualities. The enjoyment from "it's no use take this" and "that tornado is carrying a car" alone beats Sonic Blast, Sonic 3D Blast and Sonic Labyrinth combined.

Screw Labyrinth. I know you're extremely limited when your premise is "What if Sonic was slow?" but that game was misery for me as a kid.

Tails' Adventure next time should be interesting, one of my favorite GG games along with Sonic 2. No way in hell it holds up for someone who hasnt played it before, lol

Yoshi said:

You are really being generous to some unfathomable shit games when comparing them favourably to Sonic 06. As bad as Sonic 06 is, there are several Sonic games worse than it and Sonic Blast is a prime example for one. Yes, no other one is a buggy as Sonic 06, but I'd rather take buggy mess with horrible overworld, shit alt-characters, non-functional high speed sections and leveldesign that varies between atricous and mediocre (really, Sonic 06 does hit mediocre levels, sometimes even slightly beyond!) over a complete shit show with absolutely no redeeming qualities. The enjoyment from "it's no use take this" and "that tornado is carrying a car" alone beats Sonic Blast, Sonic 3D Blast and Sonic Labyrinth combined.

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You've read my threads, so my thoughts on 3D Blast and 06 are quite clear; the former is a game I honestly enjoy quite a bit thanks to its music, level design and presentation while the latter has a handful of bright spots but its whole is garbage.

I said Labyrinth is the better game compared to 06 and Blast, but I never said Blast was a good game at all :l. Its a shit game and the worse Classic Era Sonic.

I dislike 06 and Chronicles so much for different reasons. The former due to it trashing the name of the Sonic series forever (people still use the game as reference to the series in present day) and for almost killing the series. The latter, which I will get to latter on, scrams lazy and "I don't care" all over the place. Its presentation is laughable, the musical score horrendous, the combat gimmicky and it having Bioware's name on it is more of a joke then anything else.

Chronicles is a bit more offensive to me as its Bioware's first 'horrid' game, and they allowed it to be a Sonic game. Like they didn't care about the series when making it and just walked away with the pay check from Sega and EA :l.

Chronicles and 06 were 'big' games, so them failing is more impact then the games you listed as horrid.

A fun side title with Sonic saving some birds, a isometric puzzle game that gets more hate then it deserves, and a lazy thrown together tie-in game that is 'only' a cheap handheld game doesn't compared to one game killing a series and another being a hack job from talented developers that just don't care about Sonic.

RecRoulette said:

Screw Labyrinth. I know you're extremely limited when your premise is "What if Sonic was slow?" but that game was misery for me as a kid.

Tails' Adventure next time should be interesting, one of my favorite GG games along with Sonic 2. No way in hell it holds up for someone who hasnt played it before, lol

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I enjoyed my time with Tails' Adventures so far, so expect my thoughts on it to be positive . It is far from a bad game, just a bit tricky at times .

Sky Patrol has a few more issues, but the game is so short and its gameplay so simple, its hard to be that mad at it.

Thank you all for reading my thread !

I know these two games are far from the most 'interesting' in the series, so I appreciate you all talking about them here .

Still have a lot to cover but Tail's pair of games is our last Classic Era venture with the Blue Blur. Because of this, have something special in mind with the Sonic Jam thread, so hope you all look forward to that .

Celebrating remixes the community made of tracks in this era of Sonic, some fan videos, Fan games like Sonic Before/After the Sequel & fan hacks like Sonic Megamix, JP/NA/EU Sonic commercials, some of the 'lost' Sonic games (scrapped or trapped in Japan) and of course, detailed breakdown of the quality of the ports of Sonic 1-3&K alongside Sonic World; its going to be quite the grand celebration!

The Classic Era is the golden age and while Sonic's future is a bit more 'mixed' to many, the game after Sonic Jam is one I greatly enjoy .

I had Labyrinth for my Game Gear as a kid. Yeah it wasn't very good, I didn't even finish, thanks god I didn't bought Blast.

Although, truth to be told, I still rather play Blast than 06, sorry Yoshi

RK128 said:

Thank you all for reading my thread !

I know these two games are far from the most 'interesting' in the series, so I appreciate you all talking about them here .

Still have a lot to cover but Tail's pair of games is our last Classic Era venture with the Blue Blur. Because of this, have something special in mind with the Sonic Jam thread, so hope you all look forward to that .

Celebrating remixes the community made of tracks in this era of Sonic, some fan videos, Fan games like Sonic Before/After the Sequel & fan hacks like Sonic Megamix, JP/NA/EU Sonic commercials, some of the 'lost' Sonic games (scrapped or trapped in Japan) and of course, detailed breakdown of the quality of the ports of Sonic 1-3&K alongside Sonic World; its going to be quite the grand celebration!

The Classic Era is the golden age and while Sonic's future is a bit more 'mixed' to many, the game after Sonic Jam is one I greatly enjoy .

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Looking forward to it man! You made me remind when I was a lot into trying hack roms of Sonic (Megamix was really good) and doing/listening music mashups lol

And the music in AtS is so damn good...

I didn't mind Sonic Labyrinth so much, probably because it doesn't really drag since it's so short. I didn't have a crazy good time or anything, but I thought it was fine for a portable puzzle game.

Blast though... can't say I remember too much about that one other than those, uh, graphics. I probably quit that one after a short while

Ferr986 said:

I had Labyrinth for my Game Gear as a kid. Yeah it wasn't very good, I didn't even finish, thanks god I didn't bought Blast.

Although, truth to be told, I still rather play Blast than 06, sorry Yoshi

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In the same boat Ferr986 :l. Worse then 06 but more playable.....as sad as it is to say.

Edit: Saw your edit ! Happy you are looking forward to it . I loved playing through Before/After the Sequel not long ago and might just 'lump' them in with the Classic Era (as I really feel they are up there with the Classics honestly, despite some issues here and there) XD. Even made a thread covering both games last year, so just consider that (after some edits to the OP latter on) part of this Retrospective .

The music remixes and fan recreations of iconic tracks will be a ton of fun to share, as YouTube is FLOODED with amazing Sonic remixes .

Beren the Empty-Handed said:

I didn't mind Sonic Labyrinth so much, probably because it doesn't really drag since it's so short. I didn't have a crazy good time or anything, but I thought it was fine for a portable puzzle game.

Blast though... can't say I remember too much about that one other than those, uh, graphics. I probably quit that one after a short while

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It being short helps alot. If it was a lot longer, I likely wouldn't of sung its praises much at all. The concept works in short bursts, not for long game sessions.

Blast looks 'interesting' to say the least XD.