"Limitation breeds innovation". It's the oldest cliche in the book when talking about video-games of the Retro Variety. It's true, and I believe it. If all the solutions, the late-night, sweat-filled hack-job work-arounds that make the impossible possible are good enough, it's those limitations that can be part of the artistry too. Not just the dream.
What happens when those limitations are taken away? Should they be? Is it messing not just with art, but history to do so? These are important questions, students of art have to grapple with them especially in mediums only as new as the Dwight D. Eisenhower Administration.
The story of the Sonic games on Game Gear and Master System (at least, until Triple Trouble) is not just one of that limitation, but it is also one of avoiding imitation. Imitation was only another limitation in a world where they sure as hell didn't need another. Instead, another path was forged, forgoing even the chalk and numbers that was the last vestige tying the knot of the SEGA ecosystem. Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble was and always will be a Game Gear game. It couldn't have been a Genesis game.
Noah Copeland dares dream of a world where it was anyway. It's been said that the best way to predict the future is to create it. Mr. Copeland predicts a past by also creating it, but with the respect and finesse to not forget Triple Trouble's roots. It doesn't come out of nowhere, it is rooted in something. Yes, it is clearly a Sonic game that is taking after Sonic 3 & Knuckles, turning Triple Trouble into a sequel of that. But if you're going to imagine a past, you better make it believable. Mr. Copeland and his team understood this, it wasn't enough to just be the Sonic game that all Sonic fans would want to play. It convinced me. For the first time that I had played a Sonic fan-game, and I have played many, I had felt that this really could have existed. Sonic 3 & Knuckles, one of the best games ever made, maybe could have been followed up this way. Had it existed, it maybe would have been considered one of the best Sonic games. Had it existed, maybe I would think it's the best Sonic game ever made. Noah Copeland and his team turned the dream into reality; it is my favorite Sonic game ever made.
This is not just a prettier version of that old Game Gear game. Perhaps that would have been enough or preferable for many, but to me that would not have been faithful to the spirit of Triple Trouble, the blazing spirit to make the impossible possible. It's that same spirit more than anything else that Triple Trouble 16-bit handles with grace.
In 1994, a dream came true. In 2022, a dream came true.
What happens when those limitations are taken away? Should they be? Is it messing not just with art, but history to do so? These are important questions, students of art have to grapple with them especially in mediums only as new as the Dwight D. Eisenhower Administration.
The story of the Sonic games on Game Gear and Master System (at least, until Triple Trouble) is not just one of that limitation, but it is also one of avoiding imitation. Imitation was only another limitation in a world where they sure as hell didn't need another. Instead, another path was forged, forgoing even the chalk and numbers that was the last vestige tying the knot of the SEGA ecosystem. Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble was and always will be a Game Gear game. It couldn't have been a Genesis game.
Noah Copeland dares dream of a world where it was anyway. It's been said that the best way to predict the future is to create it. Mr. Copeland predicts a past by also creating it, but with the respect and finesse to not forget Triple Trouble's roots. It doesn't come out of nowhere, it is rooted in something. Yes, it is clearly a Sonic game that is taking after Sonic 3 & Knuckles, turning Triple Trouble into a sequel of that. But if you're going to imagine a past, you better make it believable. Mr. Copeland and his team understood this, it wasn't enough to just be the Sonic game that all Sonic fans would want to play. It convinced me. For the first time that I had played a Sonic fan-game, and I have played many, I had felt that this really could have existed. Sonic 3 & Knuckles, one of the best games ever made, maybe could have been followed up this way. Had it existed, it maybe would have been considered one of the best Sonic games. Had it existed, maybe I would think it's the best Sonic game ever made. Noah Copeland and his team turned the dream into reality; it is my favorite Sonic game ever made.
This is not just a prettier version of that old Game Gear game. Perhaps that would have been enough or preferable for many, but to me that would not have been faithful to the spirit of Triple Trouble, the blazing spirit to make the impossible possible. It's that same spirit more than anything else that Triple Trouble 16-bit handles with grace.
In 1994, a dream came true. In 2022, a dream came true.