holy shit. I had heard the rumors about this game. How it is one of the worst ports of all time, absolutely butchering the original game by plaguing it with slowdown so bad, it makes sonic labyrinth seem like an unleashed daytime stage. In a way, I kinda prepared myself mentally for what I was about to play well in advance, and having been someone who can easily clear sonic 1 on mega drive with all the chaos emeralds without even breaking a sweat or using a continue, I thought this was going to be an easy clear of sonic 1 as I go through the ropes as I do, just slower thanks to the slowdown. I was so, so wrong to underestimate sonic genesis there. The slowdown is there. It is exactly as bad as everyone says. going in any area where more than like 2 sprites are on screen will slow things down by what feels like half speed, and levels like labyrinth zone or scrap brain become bigger tests of patience than they already were. What I wasn't prepared for was how they very slightly but visibly changed how sonic controls. His jump is higher than usual, allowing you to do various skips that you definitely shouldn't be able to. Sonic also has more advance-style movement where he starts slow and then builds up to a sprint, which is bad when the level design doesn't compensate for that whatsoever which makes slow precise platforming so much significantly harder as sonic just doesn't reach the platforms he so very clearly easily should be reaching with his jumps. The screen crunch is also horrible here as now enemies can easily blindside you from offscreen. All this leads to a sonic 1 experience where I was much more cautious and afraid than I have been playing sonic in years. In a sense, it felt like I was a kid again, playing through sonic 1 without the comfort of familiarity assisting me through the levels. In that sense, this was actually a very interesting and different play. The only way you could ever see me even consider reccomending this game is if you have already played sonic 1 to death and want a fresh new way to experience the game, for better or worse. Otherwise please play literally ANY other release of this game out of the many many dozens that exist.

Reviewed on Mar 15, 2023


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