Always been quite the 8-bit Sonic 1 enjoyer. Love its ost cause Yuzo Koshiro can't miss, and in spite of not all its zones being hits (Bridge and Jungle Zone's third acts know what they did), it's one I've gone back to every now and again just to kill the odd hour every now and then. My total hours pails in comparison to the 16 bit release, but I honestly go back and forth on which version I prefer. So hey, a fanmade remake of the game, akin to the Christian Whitehead remakes of the 16-bit quadrilogy, sounds awesome!
And it leaves me very conflicted.
Okay, let's start from the top. Sonic 1 SMS Remake is still 8-Bit Sonic 1, highs and lows included. You've got your entire zone lineup from Green Hill to Sky Base, and most of what made the original game what it was is still here. But there's also plenty of new stuff here; to start off with, the remake's now offering widescreen. Nice! Though, I swear they removed the ability to angle the camera downwards by crouching, so I had to make a few more leaps of faith in Jungle Zone than I was comfortable with. Gave me unfortunate memories of the Game Gear version, but alas. Widescreen in 2D Sonic being a standard now is swell. Sonic's got the spin dash, super peel out and drop dash, all is well on that front; it can kinda break stages if you know how to use them, but Sonic speedrunning is always enjoyable, so I see it as a win. There's also the inclusions of Tails, Knuckles, Mighty and Ray, all incredibly welcome additions who all play just as they did in Sonic Mania. Speaking of, Encore Mode is on offer, as well. No palette swaps, but it effectively allows you to play 16-Bit Sonic 1's level lineup, including little 8-bit demakes of Marble, Spring Yard and Star Light!
And it's here that we start getting into changes I'm not really big on. The game offers a classic and remixed mode, the latter throwing the aforementioned levels into the campaign at various points. These being less like truncated versions of 16-Bit Sonic 1's missing half, and more the devs trying to imagine how they'd fit in alongside the rest of the 8-Bit version's lineup. To give credit to Spring Yard, it's fine! Didn't have any real issues there! Marble Zone is whatever, had some annoying sections, a blindside here or there, and I even had a run end with me softlocked as I got stuck inside one of the chandeliers after accidentally jumping as I was taking damage from losing an invincibility powerup. That sucked.
Star Light is just straight ass, though. There's a section where you're riding on top of a platform you can only stop via jumping, while flamethrowers sit above you and will drop fireballs down on top of you. It's annoyingly tight, but get through it, and you're presented with a slope. A slope that, should you roll down if, leads you right into a bottomless pit, as you're expected to anticipate a brief platforming section immediately after it. Really made me exasperatedly sigh when that kicked me in the balls. Then act 2 is just a Mega Man X ride bike section, so you know what to expect if you're familiar with that series. To give the devs credit, they offer the aforementioned classic mode, which I'd assume lets you skip right past them, but I was playing on the default selected remix mode, and I'd want to have seen them all to get at least a decent assessment on the new content on offer.
New content that isn't up to snuff in a remake, fanmade or otherwise, is one thing. It's disappointing and lame, but as long as the original experience is there as intended, it's all good! So when they start making tweaks to the base game, I really start to gripe. Maybe I was just losing my mind, or it's been a while since I last played the MS original, but I swear Sonic felt more slippery to control; I was jittering back and forth like a motherfucker during Bridge Zone's tighter jumps. A 1:30 timer gets added to Scrap Brain Act 3, as do doors that, unless I missed something, just seem to permanently close behind you and lead to total dead ends? Fuck that shit, the game even goads you in by offering item capsules.
It's been some time since I played 8-bit Sonic 1, so I might be blanking on some things I bring mention to in the event they existed prior. For all I know, the team might go back and fix them, maybe I was playing an older version and didn't realise it. The most egregious change of this remake, however, is one I noticed immediately, and it's the changing of how chaos emerald collection works. Rather than have special stages accessed via collecting 50 rings at the end of the stage, 8-bit Sonic 1 had an entirely unique approach with having the chaos emeralds be hidden throughout the game's stages, encouraging exploration. Sure, the Labyrinth emerald can go to hell, but the direction, I felt, was a nice change that gave the game more of its own identity. Bonus stages existed via the previous 50 ring method, but they were used for gaining extra lives and continues.
So this remake? Yeah, it scraps the emerald search entirely and throws them haphazardly in the bonus stages. These special stages are mindless bouncefests as is, but throw an emerald in and you've also made them incredibly easy, while stripping away some of the original game's uniqueness and making it way easier in the process. You also get Super Sonic, but weirdly he makes every level start with a giant 50-ring drop spawning behind you. Cause the game wasn't easy enough already.
All this to say, I've got nothing but respect for the dev team giving some love to one of the series more underappreciated titles; just the principle of having a Sonic 1 8-bit in the vein of the Christian Whitehead remakes is amazing to me! But when I disagree with the choices being made within the remake, it makes it impossible for me to look at this and say it's the version of 8-bit Sonic 1 you should be playing, or that it replaces the original wholesale. It's a give and take with its new inclusions, and that really bites. It's not an outright bad game or anything, and again, the devs making this at all is commendable! I just think the more succinct Master System version, warts and all, is the better option of the lot. Disappointing, but it is what it is.
And it leaves me very conflicted.
Okay, let's start from the top. Sonic 1 SMS Remake is still 8-Bit Sonic 1, highs and lows included. You've got your entire zone lineup from Green Hill to Sky Base, and most of what made the original game what it was is still here. But there's also plenty of new stuff here; to start off with, the remake's now offering widescreen. Nice! Though, I swear they removed the ability to angle the camera downwards by crouching, so I had to make a few more leaps of faith in Jungle Zone than I was comfortable with. Gave me unfortunate memories of the Game Gear version, but alas. Widescreen in 2D Sonic being a standard now is swell. Sonic's got the spin dash, super peel out and drop dash, all is well on that front; it can kinda break stages if you know how to use them, but Sonic speedrunning is always enjoyable, so I see it as a win. There's also the inclusions of Tails, Knuckles, Mighty and Ray, all incredibly welcome additions who all play just as they did in Sonic Mania. Speaking of, Encore Mode is on offer, as well. No palette swaps, but it effectively allows you to play 16-Bit Sonic 1's level lineup, including little 8-bit demakes of Marble, Spring Yard and Star Light!
And it's here that we start getting into changes I'm not really big on. The game offers a classic and remixed mode, the latter throwing the aforementioned levels into the campaign at various points. These being less like truncated versions of 16-Bit Sonic 1's missing half, and more the devs trying to imagine how they'd fit in alongside the rest of the 8-Bit version's lineup. To give credit to Spring Yard, it's fine! Didn't have any real issues there! Marble Zone is whatever, had some annoying sections, a blindside here or there, and I even had a run end with me softlocked as I got stuck inside one of the chandeliers after accidentally jumping as I was taking damage from losing an invincibility powerup. That sucked.
Star Light is just straight ass, though. There's a section where you're riding on top of a platform you can only stop via jumping, while flamethrowers sit above you and will drop fireballs down on top of you. It's annoyingly tight, but get through it, and you're presented with a slope. A slope that, should you roll down if, leads you right into a bottomless pit, as you're expected to anticipate a brief platforming section immediately after it. Really made me exasperatedly sigh when that kicked me in the balls. Then act 2 is just a Mega Man X ride bike section, so you know what to expect if you're familiar with that series. To give the devs credit, they offer the aforementioned classic mode, which I'd assume lets you skip right past them, but I was playing on the default selected remix mode, and I'd want to have seen them all to get at least a decent assessment on the new content on offer.
New content that isn't up to snuff in a remake, fanmade or otherwise, is one thing. It's disappointing and lame, but as long as the original experience is there as intended, it's all good! So when they start making tweaks to the base game, I really start to gripe. Maybe I was just losing my mind, or it's been a while since I last played the MS original, but I swear Sonic felt more slippery to control; I was jittering back and forth like a motherfucker during Bridge Zone's tighter jumps. A 1:30 timer gets added to Scrap Brain Act 3, as do doors that, unless I missed something, just seem to permanently close behind you and lead to total dead ends? Fuck that shit, the game even goads you in by offering item capsules.
It's been some time since I played 8-bit Sonic 1, so I might be blanking on some things I bring mention to in the event they existed prior. For all I know, the team might go back and fix them, maybe I was playing an older version and didn't realise it. The most egregious change of this remake, however, is one I noticed immediately, and it's the changing of how chaos emerald collection works. Rather than have special stages accessed via collecting 50 rings at the end of the stage, 8-bit Sonic 1 had an entirely unique approach with having the chaos emeralds be hidden throughout the game's stages, encouraging exploration. Sure, the Labyrinth emerald can go to hell, but the direction, I felt, was a nice change that gave the game more of its own identity. Bonus stages existed via the previous 50 ring method, but they were used for gaining extra lives and continues.
So this remake? Yeah, it scraps the emerald search entirely and throws them haphazardly in the bonus stages. These special stages are mindless bouncefests as is, but throw an emerald in and you've also made them incredibly easy, while stripping away some of the original game's uniqueness and making it way easier in the process. You also get Super Sonic, but weirdly he makes every level start with a giant 50-ring drop spawning behind you. Cause the game wasn't easy enough already.
All this to say, I've got nothing but respect for the dev team giving some love to one of the series more underappreciated titles; just the principle of having a Sonic 1 8-bit in the vein of the Christian Whitehead remakes is amazing to me! But when I disagree with the choices being made within the remake, it makes it impossible for me to look at this and say it's the version of 8-bit Sonic 1 you should be playing, or that it replaces the original wholesale. It's a give and take with its new inclusions, and that really bites. It's not an outright bad game or anything, and again, the devs making this at all is commendable! I just think the more succinct Master System version, warts and all, is the better option of the lot. Disappointing, but it is what it is.