It's hard for me to talk about the early Keens because they were some of the first video games I ever played -- this one in particular may have been THE first, I'm not sure. So there's a lot of nostalgia there.

Trying to separate myself from that somewhat, I think it's fair to say that this is a competent if simplistic platformer for its day. It's definitely better than a lot of its PC contemporaries, even some of the other ones from Apogee or iD themselves. And I'd say it's more charming.

The very basic gameplay kind of works in its favor, giving it a stark, no-frills focus. And although I can see how some might bristle at how the jumping/physics work, I like the sense of weight and momentum and having to sort of plan your jumps beforehand. But then again, maybe I've just played a lot of it. Less up for debate is how awesome the pogo stick is - truly an excellent powerup.

I probably remember these games a lot more fondly than most people do just because they were so foundational for me. PCs were a little behind in this era when it came to platformers, obviously, but I still managed to develop a love for the genre by finding the stronger titles, like this one. It's good clean fun.

Lots to like, but it's hamstrung by pervasive bugs, shit console optimization, fussy mechanics, and one or two very questionable design decisions. A little bit more polish would have gone a long way, as small things like the ship controls or the 'level design', if you will, of enclosed areas or structures are startlingly amateurish. On top of that, despite the game having an actual plot with required milestones, there is essentially zero quest design AND no map of any sort, and both of these things cannot be true if you expect your player to not have to check a guide to see what to do next in your open world game. And that kind of spoils the fun!

Didn't finish, couldn't be bothered wandering aimlessly to find the next new mineral after a certain point.

Pretty good! Excellent meat and potatoes racing and great damage modeling on the cars. There's nothing particularly groundbreaking and the career/progression is only serviceable, but in its best moments there is an exhilarating sense of destructive mayhem that I've never quite gotten from any other racer^. Careening around tracks littered with the burning husks of the other competitors, watching their numbers dwindle as they wreck (or you wreck them) -- it's a good time!

^I'm not exactly a big racing game guy though, so take this whole review knowing that it might just be that I'm an easy lay in this category.

Works from the template of the previous Master System Sonic but tries to focus more on speed and gimmicks as in the 16-bit versions. The increased pace in a lot of areas works fine, although it often makes levels feel very short. The gimmicks, however, like hang gliders, controllable air bubbles, and zipping through tubes, are almost all busted, and make much of the game feel like a janky hodgepodge.

By this second one I think they should have realized that they were better off making the 8-bit conversions their own thing instead of trying to haphazardly mimic the Genesis games. With a shift in strategy they could have made something a lot more fun.

P.S.: Additional half star off for -another- intolerable underwater zone. Even the real SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2 had the sense to not do one!

A respectable simplification. Because of the Master System's limitations, the focus here is on much more simple platforming challenges, as in a Mario game. In fact, the whole thing very much reminds me of SUPER MARIO LAND and how that game related to its big brother. Judging it by that framework, it's competent but not particularly impressive. The controls and physics are good enough (and familiar enough, to players of the Genesis version) that you can pull off some daring jumps, but the level design isn't all that exciting. In fact, it ranges from run-of-the-mill to bad, with autoscrollers (which feel verboten in a Sonic game), janky vertical levels (where you can't fall back down past the screen at all or you instantly die) and, yes, Labyrinth Zone (you would have thought most of the levels being original to this game would have meant they could leave it out!! But no, here it is!! And it's even worse!!) The signature speed does show up from time to time, but mostly you'll be plodding along at a plumber's pace, carefully jumping and dealing with one enemy at at time.

Probably the most impressive thing about this is how much of Sonic's charm they were able to capture in this format. It can't live up to the big boys but they gave it a good shot.

Gotta say, I really don't get it. It looks, sounds, and feels like a fangame, and I don't mean SONIC MANIA.

Features probably the worst Sonic level ever (Wacky Workbench), DEFINITELY the worst Sonic bonus level ever, and the music (US version, I guess) ... isn't even that good!

Weird. And weird that everyone loves it.

The best Genesis Sonic game by just a hair. The levels are back to being a more tolerable length and even though some of them are slower-paced, each is quite memorable in its own way. The big standouts are Sky Sanctuary -- brief but truly fantastic, and the hellish Death Egg, which you finally get to infiltrate after three games of talking about it. It doesn't disappoint as a finale, and neither does the massive final boss.

The music is great again (thankfully), the art is as bold and colorful as ever, and Knuckles is a surprisingly fresh alternative playstyle. On the whole, it's easy, and the levels aren't quite as memorable as the first half of SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2, but this is the peak of the first series for me.

This is a strange case. Given that it's essentially the first half of something that had to be hastily expanded upon (the original plan was apparently for this and SONIC & KNUCKLES to be one game), it makes sense that it feels both bloated and yet incomplete.

The biggest change here is that the levels are huuuuuuge -- around two to three times bigger than usual. Unfortunately, I think this was kind of a serious mistake and it singlehandedly torpedoes the whole game. If they had had some more interesting new level ideas/gimmicks^ they might have carried it off, but as they are, most of the stages end up getting dull by the end. Sonic levels should not be pushing ten minutes long! Especially when they're just kind of ... there. Not that hard, but not that exciting either. Feels like going through the motions. For a LONG time.

^(a couple of the new level thingies are pretty cool, mostly the ones having to do with momentum and getting sprung upwards)

The graphics feel a bit uninspired -- there is no standout level, really, like Green Hill or Chemical Plant. And also, the new Michael Jackson-style music isn't very good. It mostly amounts to a lot of crappy voice samples and repetitive hooks that don't feel particularly 'Sonic'. Whether it was actually written by him or not, it's kind of a weird fit and I miss the older stuff.

There are some great new powerups and the Chaos Emerald stages are a fun new type of puzzle, but I'm surprised by how weak this one is overall.

Carries over everything wonderful about the aesthetic from the first game but also instantly remedies almost every outstanding issue. Right off the bat, you've got improved physics, a fun and useful new move to get the character going from a dead stop, and most importantly, a wholly new level design philosophy that finally uses Sonic's potential for speed in fun ways.

Many of the first few areas are more like playgrounds than dangerous obstacle courses (as opposed to the punishing gauntlets of cheap shots from the first game), but at the same time they're not just rollercoasters where you hold forward and watch the show. They're very vertical and have tons of different paths and rewards for taking your time and exploring. It seems like they spent a lot of time making the levels and had a lot of fun doing it.

The sense of speed is somehow still impressive, and the Green Hill Zone equivalent from this game very obviously has early moments designed just to show off. And guess what? It works! Any time Sonic starts going fast enough to almost beat the horizontal scrolling of the screen or gets fired vertically hundreds of feet into the clear blue sky, you just can't deny it. Anyone who played this in '92 probably remembers being blown away by it, and for good reason.

It's got some problems -- lame bonus level, wonky enemy hitboxes (still), but it's honestly almost perfect up until the last stretch. Unfortunately the endgame features a very bad, slow, punitive area that feels like it's straight out of the first game (and which is, inexplicably (or, I guess, fittingly) the only area to have three levels instead of two) and then at the VERY end, you face a monstrously mean-spirited pair of final boss battles that you are forced to play in a row with no rings. Yes, the unique health mechanic you've come to know and rely on for two games is entirely cut out of the ending just because I guess they couldn't figure out any other way to make it more challenging. Disappointing! And unfortunately it is annoying enough to bring the whole thing down a tad. They'd fix the final bosses in later games, though.