A game with a lot of heart and sweet passion put into it. All the characters are well represented (outside of the cast of Frontiers probably the best they have been in a long time). The plot, whilst it is lighthearted and humorous, is interesting and gives the writers plenty of room to play with these characters in a different setting.

As someone who is most invested in the characters and world of this series this was a pleasant change of pace from the main series and I hope we get more little things like this in the future (I'll even be willing to pay next time).

This is an absolutely stunning ROM hack. It has a level of polish with the artwork, gameplay and sound that, in combination with the liberal use of graphical effects, make it feel like an official, late release, Mega Drive game.

This is a relatively short hack but it makes up for that with it's fair but difficult challenge. This extends to the bosses, which are well telegraphed and have attack patterns that are easy to learn whilst still offering a challenge.

Definitely give this one a go, there are difficult options to help you find tune the challenge if you desire them.

I have tried this game multiple times in the past but never really stuck with it, but last week I got a DS Lite and a few game so I decided to give it another shot.

Gameplay wise this isn't that different than the classic trilogy. Physics and other minor things aren't completely one to one, but the levels were designed around them so that isn't really an issue. I found it was a pretty solid experience until the final normal Zone (technically 2 Zones but they are similar enough that they are effectively Act 1 and Act 2 under different names). It suffers a lot from enemies and hazards that hit you before you can notice them.

The biggest problem with the game is probably Amy. She doesn't play like the others, instead she is a very combat heavy and works best if you take things slower. The problem is the game isn't designed to accommodate her, so either the level design will put you in a position where you are going too fast to defend yourself or can't get enough speed to get through some sections of the level without issues. Overall leading to a janky feeling playthrough. Thankfully you don't need to play as her to get the good ending.

One thing I initially wasn't looking forward to was collecting the Chaos Emeralds, because of their bad reputation. So I was surprised to find that I enjoyed it. To enter the special stages you need to find the giant springs hidden in 7 of the 12 acts in the game. This wasn't as hard as I thought because due to being springs they were placed somewhere on the top route, usually with a platforming challenge that is easier to spot than the spring itself.

As for the Special Stages themselves? Well depth perception is definitely an issue, but with enough practice I adapted to it. Initially I thought the stages were too hard, until I realised 2 key things. First of all if you start diving you get pulled into the middle of the stage and can get through smaller gaps than if you were falling normally. Secondly, with the trick Rings you need to do a trick right after passing through it to get the rings and not as you go through like I originally thought.

I will definitely be adding this to my regular rotation of classic Sonic games, although probably just as Sonic, Tails and Knuckles.

PLAYED THE SONIC ADVANCE 2 SP MOD

I have tried many a time to get into Sonic Advance 2 but found that the vanilla game just never clicked with me. Due to how hard it is to get a chance to get the emeralds I never felt motivated to learn the game and get good at handling the speed the game gives you, so I would just end up barrelling forward and damage boosting until the bottomless pits in the later stages made me give up.

This mod has honestly changed all that for me, and has elevated Advance 2 to being one of my favourite Sonic games. I think the biggest reason is the changes to the Emerald Challenge, in the original you needed to get all 7 special rings (SP Rings for short) in a stage which required taking a very specific and perfect rought through an act and a lot of memorization or following a guide (neither of which are all that fun). With two simple changes this is now one of my favourite Emerald challenges, SP Rings are both more plentiful and the requirement has been dropped to 5. Add to that some really solid Special Stages that revolve around managing ring chains and multipliers to get the required number of rings to succeed and you have a winning formula on your hands. It's not all completely easy though as you need to get a good handle of the games controls and tricks to get the SP Rings as they aren't just handed to you.

The other thing that helps is a lot of the cheapness has been removed from the game, particularly in the case of bottomless pits and enemy placement. Not enough to completely throw off someone familiar with these Zones, but enough to give the game a fairer and more reasonable difficulty curve.

Both of these things have actually given me the motivation to actually "git gud" as some might say thanks to the game not kicking me when I am down and giving me an attainable goal to work towards. And thanks to this I have discovered an exhilarating platformer that eschews the manipulation of moment present in the classic games and Advance 1 in favour of fast paced reaction based platforming with an emphasis on movement options.

So far I have only played as Sonic, and have not yet got all the Emeralds to reach the true final boss (only 6 so far), but I will certainly be returning to this game to change both of those things.

I was enjoying this game, I felt that the short but challenging nature of the stages was fun. But then the stage design started getting a bit sketchy around World 6.

I was not prepared for World 7.

Every level was a slog, each one threw so much stuff at me that there wasn't any chance for me to stop and process what is going on. It got to the point that I was dredding staring another level, not helped by getting a Game Over every other stage. It may not effect progress but it sure was demoralising.

If this game had ended at World 6 I probably would have marked it down as good but not my favourite.

Amy's Sonic Advance 1 moveset makes for a good fit in the original Sonic the Hedgehog, it may even fit better here than it does in Advance thanks to the more pedestrian level design of Sonic 1.

The lack of a roll and spin jump means it is necessary to change how to approach playing the game, and her hammer attacks and acrobatics work in a way that helps things feel familiar enough for casual play whilst allowing for shortcuts and different ways to deal with badniks and bosses to keep the attention of Sonic veterans.

What started out seeming a bit bare bones has ended up as a product that is leaps and bounds beyond that descriptor.

Now that the complete package is out I can safely say that this is a must have for any Mario Kart 8 Deluxe fan, hell any Mario Kart 8 fan in general.

I don't think there is a single track that I don't enjoy. And what they have done with some of the retro tracks is outstanding, I hardly even recognized some of them.

Now there are rumours that the Switch's lifespan is coming to an end next year. And if that is true it will probably bring Mario Kart 9 with it at some point in the coming years. So should that be the case then this pack is a brilliant swan song for what is, and will likely remain, the Switch's best selling title.

From what I played this game would have been alright, if it wasn't for two things.

One, the targeting of the auto-homing attack is far too wide and it will target things off-screen. Causing Sonic to get flung around the screen and into a hazard or pit because of how disorientating it is.

Two, it is far too easy to start doing parkour when you don't want to. Causing Sonic to get flung around the screen and into a hazard or pit because of how disorientating it is.

I will preface this review by saying that this game is NOT a replacement for the Master System original.

First off, the controls have been tweaked to be a bit closer to the Mega Drive game, which may sound good on paper but the faster movement and more precise jumping controls seem to result in the levels being too easy or hitting hazards you would normally avoid.

This is because of my second gripe with the remake, the original stages are not changed to accommodate the change in controls (I should add that some stages do have little extra sections in them but nothing that changes the overall stage). The original stages were designed around the controls so it just feels off.

My third problem is that the emerald challenge has been changed from finding the emeralds hidden in the stages to finding them in the bonus stages from the Master System original. This I feel removes some of the charm of the original and makes the game much easier as the levels were designed around the gameplay loop of having the player search for the emerald in each Zone. I don't even think the inclusion of Super Sonic is even worth the change, as he just exacerbates the controls issues and makes the stages even easier (which isn't helped by the fact that once you have all 7 emeralds you get given a giant ring at the start of each Act which is worth 50 rings.)

I should add that there are things I do like. I think the inclusion of 8-Bit demakes of the 16-Bit exclusive Zones are a nice touch, and as they are made from the ground up for this game they work better with the controls. I also like the fact that rolling into badniks has been made easier to pull off.

Overall I don't think this is a bad game. If you are looking for a fresh take on a classic favourite this game can be a fun time, just don't bother going super and resist the urge to grab the free 50 rings at the start of each Act when you have all the emeralds. I also think that if you don't like the slower pace and emerald hunting of the original title you might find something worthwhile here too.

[Played as Espio Alone]

I'm not really one for playing this game with the Team mechanic. Instead I prefer to play as one of the individual characters and playthrough Sonic 1 and 2 with their specific moveset.

Originally I didn't think Espio's wall and ceiling running would be that useful but the more I played the more I was proven wrong as it can open up some good shortcuts, especially in the later zones of each game.