This game was recommended by radicalraisin and Mellorine, except instead of a recommendation it was more like a "hey this game is short, why don't you just get it over with?"
In retrospect, everything about this game is hilarious. Sega makes a big deal about how they're making the Sonic game fans have been waiting for, a side scroller that will bring it all back to the Genesis, except if it's made by the people who've been making the modern side scrollers since the GBA and not actually Sonic Team or anyone who cares that much. Also it'll have an aesthetic that I would call "XBOX Live Arcade Vomit", and the music will be composed by someone who heard of what Genesis music sounded like and ended up deeply misunderstanding what he heard.
Sonic controls like a boulder, he controls like what people who hate the first Sonic the Hedgehog think he controls like. Takes forever to get any momentum, and anything at all can kill it instantly. The level design is attempting to trick you into thinking it covers Sonic 1-3, but it's all just the worst of Sonic 1. Despite having Sonic 1 level design, the way enemy placement and the homing attack work in this game is attempting to create the fast, quick reflex oriented playstyle of previous Dimps Sonic games, and it doesn't work at all. There is no opportunity for flow here, it feels unnatural. So what we end up with is a game trying to be Sonic 1 but also be a modern Sonic side-scroller, and it ends up being far worse than any of the other games in those categories.
That homing attack might be the worst part of this game. The way it works is that when something has a reticle over it, you can homing attack to it. The problem is if you miss the timing, you don't homing attack it and instead just, flip over to it. This means you'll go from being able to attack an enemy to just, immediately get hit by it. It just constantly sets you up for failure, it's worse than just having a normal jump attack like an actual Sonic game.
I should note that on a slight technicality, I did not actually beat this game. I got to the very last part of the final boss, and then didn't realize what I had to do before I died and was sent back to the beginning of the final boss. I then accidentally hit Reset Act in the start menu and it sent me to the beginning of the boss rush before the final boss. Fuck you, I beat that, I'm not going back just to prove it to the game. That final boss is awful by the way, it takes way too many hits and just goes on forever. An important thing to know is that using the homing attack knocks you back way farther than just jumping on an enemy, so despite the game constantly showing you a reticle in order to make you use the homing attack, it's better to just completely ignore it when it comes to boss fights.
This was a pretty miserable time to be a Sonic fan, huh? Thankfully Colors and Generations are just around the corner from this game's release date, but damn, this was brutal. Sonic-Mania truly was a godsend.
In retrospect, everything about this game is hilarious. Sega makes a big deal about how they're making the Sonic game fans have been waiting for, a side scroller that will bring it all back to the Genesis, except if it's made by the people who've been making the modern side scrollers since the GBA and not actually Sonic Team or anyone who cares that much. Also it'll have an aesthetic that I would call "XBOX Live Arcade Vomit", and the music will be composed by someone who heard of what Genesis music sounded like and ended up deeply misunderstanding what he heard.
Sonic controls like a boulder, he controls like what people who hate the first Sonic the Hedgehog think he controls like. Takes forever to get any momentum, and anything at all can kill it instantly. The level design is attempting to trick you into thinking it covers Sonic 1-3, but it's all just the worst of Sonic 1. Despite having Sonic 1 level design, the way enemy placement and the homing attack work in this game is attempting to create the fast, quick reflex oriented playstyle of previous Dimps Sonic games, and it doesn't work at all. There is no opportunity for flow here, it feels unnatural. So what we end up with is a game trying to be Sonic 1 but also be a modern Sonic side-scroller, and it ends up being far worse than any of the other games in those categories.
That homing attack might be the worst part of this game. The way it works is that when something has a reticle over it, you can homing attack to it. The problem is if you miss the timing, you don't homing attack it and instead just, flip over to it. This means you'll go from being able to attack an enemy to just, immediately get hit by it. It just constantly sets you up for failure, it's worse than just having a normal jump attack like an actual Sonic game.
I should note that on a slight technicality, I did not actually beat this game. I got to the very last part of the final boss, and then didn't realize what I had to do before I died and was sent back to the beginning of the final boss. I then accidentally hit Reset Act in the start menu and it sent me to the beginning of the boss rush before the final boss. Fuck you, I beat that, I'm not going back just to prove it to the game. That final boss is awful by the way, it takes way too many hits and just goes on forever. An important thing to know is that using the homing attack knocks you back way farther than just jumping on an enemy, so despite the game constantly showing you a reticle in order to make you use the homing attack, it's better to just completely ignore it when it comes to boss fights.
This was a pretty miserable time to be a Sonic fan, huh? Thankfully Colors and Generations are just around the corner from this game's release date, but damn, this was brutal. Sonic-Mania truly was a godsend.
FrozenRoy
2 years ago