3RRGG SonicGG

Sonic's debut on Sega's handheld system was a big deal. In many
regards it really proved what the game gear was capable of, but also
what it wasn't capable of. Instead of just porting the already released
on the genesis Sonic, a new one was made that for the most part was
unique. It still plays like the original sonic, and looks like the original
Sonic, even sounds like the original Sonic. But it sure wasn't as easy as
the original Sonic. One of the hardest Sonic games ever, let's run into
Sonic's small screen debut.

I'm not positive if the game gear games happen in the official Sonic
time line, or when they may happen, but the story here is very similar
to Sonic 1. In fact it's just about the same. The evil Dr. Eggman is
kidnapping animals and turning them into evil robot slaves. So Sonic
has to stop him. Being that this game was released before Sonic 2,
Tails is no where to be seen. So it's the original Sonic story. But the
levels take a few new twists in telling the story.

The levels are called zones, and they are divided in 3 acts. In the third
act you will battle the Eggman. Now then unlike the original Sonic, the
third act is mostly just the battle, and a little path to get to Eggman.
There are no rings in the third act so one hit from anything and you die.
This is very hard sometimes. The first boss is easy, but later bosses get
plain out annoying. However, the blue shield item that can be found is
kept over from act to act. So get it in the 2nd act, keep it, and get it in
the third act.

The chaos emeralds are also back. This time though, they aren't found
in the special stages. They are found hidden in places in the acts
themselves. This is the first reason why the gameplay becomes slower.
It was a cool idea, but it compromises speed, for exploration, which
isn't too much of a bad thing. Just put with other things later on it it
does mean a bad thing. The special stage has returned in a new form.
Now get 50 rings by the end of the act to go into a bumper filled fun
house and try to collect all the rings. You have a time limit, and some
rings are very hard to obtain. I can only see that the main point of this
was for Sonic to collect rings to gain lives. Which he will need in this
hard game. You can also obtain continues here.

Your first zone is the green hill zone from Sonic 1. Besides sharing
similar themes and music, the game gear one is set up differently. This
will lead you into the next few zones that aren't called zones. They just
go by the name of "bridge" and "jungle". Then you will see two more
Sonic 1 zones (I'll keep hush on which ones) and the last zone is an all
new on game gear. So that's 6 zones in all.

Graphics are colorful and look very good. Not as good as Sonic 1, but
still good enough. Many of the same robots from sonic 1 appear, but a
new enemy rears its head. Motion blur. When Sonic is running at top
speed, the game gear will blur and it will become harder to see what is
on screen. That's the second reason why you'll wanna have Sonic go
slower. Overall though, the graphics look good and the new stages are
interesting. Bridge looks similar to green hill, but Jungle was really out
there.

The stages are set up so that you have to think. Sonic 1 on genesis
was a fairly easy game. Here if you were to just run right you will die
many deaths. There are more holes, more spikes and more dangers to
avoid. So you will walk quickly to avoid them. Now I don't know about
you but in my Sonic games I like to run full tilt. And there are instances
when this happens, but many times you have to be careful. I'm not
asking for a cakewalk, I just wanna have one of the classic Sonic
elements in a Sonic game. Speed.

The sound is actually rather good. Upbeat and clear, Sonic sounds
good. Green Hill zone has the same music as the genesis one. The new
levels sound good, not as memorable as the genesis games, but I can
still remember the music for the bridge level. All the sound effects are
here, plus a new one. When sonic is hit it makes this buzzer noise that
makes things seem worse then they really are. I don't know it was just
weird. Many of the same jingles like the one played at the end of the
level. Eggman has new music that sounds weird and out of place.

Sonic fans will want to replay the game because of their love for Sonic.
You can also get all the hidden emeralds. I assume this will get you a
new ending that is slightly different (by the way the ending isn't worth
it). If the blur and occasional slowdown was reduced, and so was the
difficulty, I could see myself playing this one a lot more.

So is this game essential to your Sonic library? It's nice to have but
nothing I'd go out of my way to hunt for. If only it was a little easier. In
fact when I was playing it yesterday, I died many times at the Jungle
boss. Eventually I started shaking the system in anger and the game
froze. Had to start all over. But I did, because even though the game
gets frustrating at times, it still has some classic Sonic charm that
keeps me coming back for me. Strange love. Will Sonic give it to me?

Review by: Orochi Sonic