Just.......how, HOW do you mess up Sonic 1? I'm jumping right into bashing this, as there really is no defense for this horrid version of an iconic classic. I loved playing through Sonic 1 for the retrospective and it holds true as a honored gaming classic.
So, how could Sonic Team make such an horrid port that only insults the series legacy in such a insidious way
. Lets jump into the blast that is Sonic Genesis on the Game Boy Advance.
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This game is a port of Sonic 1 running on the engine of Sonic Advance. Sonic Advance is a great looking and running game, so it should run Sonic 1 with no problem, right? Well.....Sonic 1 had its core gameplay engine in the original version but Advance had two engines; a core gameplay one and a graphics one. However, Sonic 1 only runs on Advance's gameplay engine, leading to that portion of the engine to do EVERYTHING. This leads to the game struggling to run on the Game Boy Advance and despite running off Genesis coding, its still using the Advance gameplay engine for everything.
So, one must ask, they could of just had a rom of the game and used a Genesis Emulator. Or just ported the game to the Nintendo DS with the other Classic games or something. But they didn't, leading to this.....'mess' of a game happening.
How this game came about was....I suppose an 'effort' quote on quote to celebrate the anniversary. Sure, spread your team thin Sonic Team when 06 was struggling to come along, Naka leaving Sonic Team still lingering in the studio and Sonic Team USA being scrapped after Shadow the Hedgehog launched.......great idea.
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I'm going to lump the presentation, gameplay, music and level design into one section as they can all be summed up like this; butchered. The game's level backgrounds flicker frequently, the frame rate is very erratic, the momentum physics are broken leading to the game being needlessly annoying or downright soul crushing, the music and sound effects sound nothing like the original Genesis game..........
Everything is wrong here and its like Sonic 1 was put through a grinder, with every good element cut up into tinny pieces and sprinkled into the stupid grey cart that Sonic Genesis is.
Sorry I'm so bitter but nothing compares to Labyrinth Zone in Sonic Genesis. The game is slow as it is but how does it fare underwater?
SONIC MOVES WORSE THEN HE DOES IN SONIC BLAST!!!!!
And......it makes Labyrinth Zone worse then Blue Marine Zone in that same game. Just.......how do you do that X(!
.......If I can say one thing good about the game, is that the game is Sonic 1. That would be saying something, but with the game released on the PSP that same year with Sonic 2 joining it, with the game running great on the PSP hardware......that little bit of praise means nothing.
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Lets have a good laugh with the music, as we all love to hear our favorite Sonic 1 tracks sound worse
. Right 
?!Spring Yard Zone - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwlaS6lJ_qw&index=17&list=PL51750F0DEE78D848
Green Hill Zone - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICHz0wnPqPg&list=PL51750F0DEE78D848&index=10
Starlight Zone - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEiW6aJOv2Y&index=18&list=PL51750F0DEE78D848
Scrap Brain Zone - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ytqCNfl-aA&list=PL51750F0DEE78D848&index=15
Marble Zone - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfCRQcI8BMM&list=PL51750F0DEE78D848&index=14
Just......come on
. The GBA sound chip made great tracks across the Advance series. Hell, Sonic Team made the GBA sing with Pinball Party's OST X(. How could they mess up bring over Sonic 1's tracks over to the GBA.......- - - - - - - -
I wanted to cover this game for the retrospective because of one thing; this is embodiment of Sonic Team being lost during 2005-2008. They didn't know how to manage the team, they didn't know how to develop games, and they were forced by SEGA to keep pumping out Sonic game after Sonic game with little regard to quality.
Say what you will about Adventure, Adventure 2 and Heroes, but they felt like polished, complete games to me. They had weak points but they were fun experiences. Their co-developed games with Dimps turned out great. And they even managed to make a great new IP for the GameCube with Billy Hatcher.
But then Shadow hit in 2005 and this came out not long after. The Dark Age of Sonic had bright spots, like Sonic Riders and......Sonic Rush.
That is the game coming up next and after seeing two threads covering horrid Sonic titles, we need to return to covering quality XD!
Lets boost our way through with Sonic Speed.
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