Sonic Advance Trilogy Review

So, Sonic 06 was pretty bad eh? It basically completely destroyed Sonic's reputation in one fell swoop, but what if I told you that Sonic was pumping out hit after hit on handhelds around this time, mainly on the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS.

Everyone knows about the console wars of the 90s. Nintendo VS Sega, the ultimate challenge on which console was better rocked the nation and surprised Nintendo, who owned a monopoly during the last generation. This was all thanks to Sonic, who's edgy attitude attracted 90s teenagers everywhere.

However, when the Dreamcast failed and SEGA stopped making consoles, they needed a place to put the new Sonic games they were making. In a shocking turn of events, SEGA actually made amends with Nintendo and started pumping out games on their former rival's systems. This started with enhanced ports of Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, and later a cross release with both the Game Cube and PlayStation 2 with Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog. But most importantly, they created a HUGE library of games on Nintendo's handhelds: the Game Boy Advance and the DS. The first of these games was Sonic Advance on the GBA so let's check it out.

Sonic Advance has the basic Sonic storyline. After Sonic Adventure 2 Dr. Eggman is up to no good and Sonic needs to stop him. He does this by running and jumping though 10 unique zones each with 2 levels each, This game is much faster paced than the classic games, although not too fast. The gameplay is as solid as ever for 2D Sonic, and having a fully fledged 2D Sonic on the GBA is a great selling point for the console. This game also released very early into the GBA's life, further raising the sales of the GBA and surprising many.

There's not really much to talk about with this game. It's standard 2D Sonic fare with a bit of the more modern adventure games thrown in there as well. For example, Sonic now has his modern proportions and green eyes like in the adventure games and you can play as not only Sonic but Tails, Knuckles, and Amy as well. No Shadow, Rouge, or any other characters introduced in the adventure games though. Amy is also sporting her modern design, which IMO is much better than her classic one.

The only problems I can find with the first Sonic Advance is that the bosses can be a bit annoying and the special stages are torture to go though. Also to get to play as Amy (who's the worst character gameplay wise) you need to 100% the game as all other characters which is extremely annoying.

Now to talk about Sonic Advance 2, the most beloved out of the three advance games. Unlike Sonic Advance 1, Sonic Advance 2 actually has a plot. After Sonic Advance 1, the new character Cream the Rabbit (who was introduced in this game since it released only months before Sonic Heroes.) is minding her own business when suddenly Eggman comes in and kidnaps Cream, her mother, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy! 

Luckily Sonic is there to save them and quickly is able to save Cream. Cream joins Sonic with her pet Chao Cheese (Get it? Cream and Cheese? I'll see myself out.) and she is ridiculously OP! She completely breaks the game and makes all bosses a complete cakewalk.

After freeing all the other characters, Sonic heads up to Eggman's moon base and defeats him. If you have all the chaos emeralds, Eggman kidnaps Cream's mother again in an invisible robot and flies her to the moon. Sonic goes super and fights Eggman, defeating him for now.

Sonic Advance 2 has very different gameplay compared to Sonic Advance 1. Unlike Sonic Advance 1's use of the gameplay from Sonic 1, 2, and 3, Sonic Advance 2 goes for a super fast paced style of gameplay where you just run right and go super fast, focusing on spectacle rather than platforming. This can turn off some, but I think it's a good change of pace. There is still a bit of platforming to be done, just not as much as the other two Sonic Advance games.

What isn't a good change of pace is the bosses. Unlike Sonic Advance 1 or even 3, these bosses are all you chasing after Eggman as he pilots some robot and tries to slow you down. The controls in these sections are awful as well as most of these bosses being infuriating to fight (especially the Egg-Wheel) without using Cream. 

Just like Sonic Advance 1, the special stages in this game SUCK, and you need to beat them to get to the true final boss and ending. Also, despite Super Sonic being in the game, you can only use him in the final battle and not anywhere like in Sonic 2 or 3.

While Sonic Advance 2 might not be for anyone, it is certainly still a good game. Whether or not it's better than Sonic Advance 1 is up for debate, but I personally think Sonic Advance 1 is slightly better.

Finally, time to talk about Sonic Advance 3, being the opposite of Sonic Advance 1 since it released near the end of the GBA's life after the DS had already released. This game has gameplay similar to Advance 1 rather than Advance 2, but introduces it's own spin on things with the partner mechanic.

The story is pretty simple once again. Eggman has taken control of the A-Bots, a group of robots found in the spinoff fighting game Sonic Battle. We won't be talking that game here but all you need to know is that Battle takes place between Sonic Heroes and Sonic Advance 3 and that the A-Bots are some bad robots that need stopping. End of story.

Anyways Eggman and his A-Bots are up to no good and you need to stop him. End of story. Also just like Advance 2 there is a true final boss and ending where you team up with the A-Bots to defeat Eggman once and for all. Also the game takes place between Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic 06 by the way.

Not only are you able to play with Sonic and Tails, but also Sonic and Knuckles, Knuckles and Tails, Knuckles and Cream, Sonic and Cream, Amy and Sonic, and basically any other combination you can think of with the playable characters of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Cream all returning from Advance 2. This game also allows you to change characters on the fly, allowing for many puzzle opportunities. 

However where Sonic Advance 3 truly falters is in two major factors: the chao collecting and the gameplay. Sonic Advance 3 is much harder than the other two Sonic Advance games mainly due to the frustrating level design and abundance of instant kill traps. This makes the game much more frustrating to complete, especially factoring the other thing that makes this game annoying to play: the chao collecting. 

Unlike Sonic Advance 1 and 2, Sonic Advance 3 has an overworld to explore which mainly serves just as a hub to access levels. Also this game doesn't have any special stages! (Yay!) It has something worse. (Oh no.) The Chao collecting. 

You know the whole point of Sonic is to go fast? Well the Chao completely ruin this aspect of the franchise by hiding them in incredibly obscure or hard-to-reach locations, forcing you to scour the level like a puzzle or adventure game looking for them. Why do need to collect the Chao? Well, that's the only way to get the Chaos Emeralds, and thus the true final boss and ending. The chao collecting in this game and one other thing ruins the whole experience for me and many others, but despite all of this Sonic Advance 3 is not a bad game by any means, especially compared to the other Sonic games coming out around this time. However, I have not yet talking about the biggest issue plaguing this trilogy: the horrific music.

Oh dear God the music! Where to start? Well, as you may know the GBA isn't really known for it's high-quality music chip. Despite this setback, some games are able to make the most out of the limited GBA sound chip like Megaman Zero 2 and 3. However the Sonic Advance Trilogy does exactly the opposite. 

While the tracks are well composed, they sound like absolute trash though the GBA and can actually hurt the ears with how badly compressed they are. This is somewhat excusable with Sonic Advance 1, which released early into the system's lifetime. However this doesn't make any sense with Sonic Advance 3, one of the last games to launch on the GBA making the whole things extremely bizarre. Heck, Castlevania Circle of the Moon had better sound compression than ANY of the Sonic Advance games and it was a LAUNCH TITLE!

Anyways are the Sonic Advance titles worth your time? Well, it depends. They are definitely better than most of the 3D Sonic games, they aren't exactly perfect eaither. However if you are in a mood for any new 2D Sonic that ISN'T Sonic Mania, than you might want to give these games a try.

Sonic Advance 7.4/10

Good
-Fun 2D Sonic Gameplay
-The levels are fun.
-Lots of Characters

Bad
-Gigantic difficulty spike late-game
-Bosses can be annoying
-Amy sucks
- Music is horrific
-The special stages suck

Sonic Advance 2 7.2/10

Good
-Fun fact paced gameplay
-Levels are fun
-Lots of characters.
-Cream is a fun new edition.

Bad
-Amy sucks
-Music is horrific
-The special stages suck
-The game is mostly "press right and occasionally jump"
-You can't use super sonic outside of the final level.

Sonic Advance 3 6.9/10

Good
-You can use Super Sonic outside the final level.
-Levels are fun.
-A return to the more traditional style of Advance 1
-There are no special stages
-The partner system is a near edition.

Bad
-The replacement for the special stages is even worse.
-The music is horrific.
-Amy sucks.
-The story is bad because it ties into a crappy fighting game that nobody played.

(P.S. THQ worked on these games? What the hecky?)

Sonic 06 Review

It's here folks. The moment you have all been waiting for. Quite possibly the WORST sonic game of all time, maybe even the worst video game of all time. I bring you Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 on Xbox 360 and PS3.

The game has so many issues, too many to count. First of all, it has a ridiculous amount of glitches. The game gets nearly unplayable at times. the boss battles are horrid, some becoming infamous in the gaming community. (I'm looking at you Silver!) The story is a mess of plot holes, ridiculously complicated and poorly explained time-travel, alternate dimensions, bizarre re-designs, and a creepy love story between a cartoon hedgehog and a realistic human princess.

Let's start with the mess of a story, shall we? Like Sonic Adventure, Adventure 2 and Heroes, the game is split into multiple stories, each with a main playable character and a couple other characters you play as from time to time. 

There is Sonic's Story, the one you start with where you mainly play as Sonic and occasionally play as Tails or Knuckles in certain levels. There is Shadow's Story, which you unlock after beating Sonic's Story in which you mainly play as Shadow, but can also occasionally play as Rouge or Omega. Finally, there is Silver's Story, which unlocks alongside Shadow's Story in which you play as the new characters Silver the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat. Let's start with talking about Sonic's Story.

The game starts with a parade in the city of Soliana featuring Princess Elise as it's main attraction. However, Eggman comes in with his robot army, and he looks absolutely bizarre. What's with the nipple buttons and the realistic looking face? He looks disgusting! Anyways, Sonic tries to stop him, but Eggman is able to kidnap Elise anyways. He wants Elise as not only she holds multiple chaos emeralds, but she also has a demon named Iblis sealed within her which can only be freed if she shows extreme negitive emotion.

Eggman plans to have Sonic and Elise fall in love so that when he kills Sonic using his new chaos emerald powered weapons Iblis will be freed and he would be able to build Eggman Land on Soliana's ruins. After kidnapping Elise multiple times, Sonic saving her multiple times, and Sonic and Elise sharing some moments together, Eggman kidnaps Elise for the final time and plans to kill Sonic using his super-weapon powered by 5 out of the 7 chaos emeralds. Sonic defeats the super weapon and escapes with Elise. The end!

Wait, it's not over yet. There are still 2 more stories to go other and then the final story. Next is Shadow's story, so hang tight! Shadow now works for GUN alongside Rouge, and it's unclear which ending is canon in Shadow the Hedgehog which would lead to these events. Also we still don't know if the Shadow in this game and later the rest of the series is the original Shadow as seen in the "True Ending" of Shadow the Hedgehog or an android as seen in Sonic Heroes. If he is the original Shadow, then what happened to the Android Shadow in Heroes? We may never know, as that plot element is never brought up again after Shadow.

Basically, Shadow and Rouge find a chaos emerald, which sends them on a time traveling trip across the multiverse. I forgot the mention this, but in Sonic's Story Sonic runs into another hedgehog named Silver who claims that Sonic is the "endbringer" who will cause the world to be destroyed. Silver's reasoning for this comes up in Shadow's Story, where he discovers that Silver is from a future where Iblis was released and destroyed the world. He also discovers a shadowy being known as Mephilis, who wants to awaken Iblis to fuse with it, becoming a god in the process.

Silver and Shadow eventually team up, figuring out the dark past of Soliana. In the past, there were experiments done in order to create a new energy source for the kingdom. These experiments were done on an ancient artifact known as the eternal flame, which served as a gateway to other worlds. However, the experiment went horribly wrong, bringing fourth a demon, Iblis, and corrupting a scientist named Mephilis, who went insane and planned to re-create the world in his image by becoming a god.

Iblis was then sealed within the princess, who's innocence was the only thing able to seal away Iblis. If she ever showed any negitive emotion, the spell would be broken and Iblis would be released. Mephilis appears and says that he is going to kill Sonic, and traps both Shadow and Silver in the bad future. Silver than uses the last of the power of the chaos emerald to send Shadow, Rouge, and Omega back to the present, and Silver and Blaze go on to defeat Iblis. Iblis is too strong, and Blaze uses a special attack that will kill Iblis for good but would also kill her as well. Blaze dies, and Silver hopes that Shadow made it in time.

Now for the final story, as Shadow and Silver's stories basically go over the same events but from different perspectives. Mephilis arrives in the present and kills Sonic, causing Elise to cry and release Iblis. Mephilis immediately fuses with Iblis, becoming a all-powerful being known as Solaris and proceeds in re-making the world. 

The dead body of Sonic and all his friends arrive in a dark world made up of every area of the game, and proceed to collect the 7 chaos emeralds to revive Sonic. Once they collect all 7, it's not enough, and Elise kisses him (Eww! Gross!) reviving Sonic. The chaos emeralds cause Sonic, Shadow, and Silver to go super and they head off to kill Solaris.

They end of killing him, but the world is already destroyed. Elise and Sonic somehow end up in the distant past right before the eternal flame was found, and decide to blow it out, erasing the events of this game from existence and ending Sonic 06, although it's hinted that some lingering memories of Sonic and Elise's time together may still exist. (Kingdom Hearts anyone?)

The game's plot to put it bluntly is not a Sonic plot. Sonic plots are about sonic and his friends going on silly adventures with maybe a few mild twists and a cool final villain at the end which isn't just Eggman in the same mech suit, like, three times in a row. Sonic 06's plot sounds like a scrapped plot for Final Fantasy XIII, who's plot was already very messy to begin with. 

I have a theory that Sonic Team wanted a more gripping, engaging story for their "epic reboot," so they went to Tetsuya Numora, director at Square Enix who was currently working on Final Fantasy XIII at the time. They asked him for story ideas and in response Numora gave SEGA a early plot build for FFXIII, which he 100% scrapped since it was obviously crap.

Sonic 06's problems not only lie in it's story, but also in it's gameplay. They game is slippery, glitchy, and frankly completely broken. It is very common for you to just randomly fall though the ground, run though walls, and completely freeze in place at completely random times. Also, the character exclusive abilities are broken. Silver can eventually hover an infinite amount of time, and Sonic can get infinite jumps, completely breaking an already broken game.

But that doesn't even come close to Sonic 06's biggest problem. The AWFUL loading screens. There is literally a 2-4 minute loading screen every time you do anything. Talk to an NPC? Loading screen. Finish talking to an NPC? Loading screen. Enter a level? Loading screen. Enter a new room? Loading screen. There is literally a loading screen after every possible thing you do, and it's not like a 3 second loading screen like in games now or even games back then like the original Skyrim. It's a LOOOOONG loading screen that takes a seemingly infinite amount of time to load.

This along with many other issues like the game soft resetting after getting a game over, the game crashing on multiple occasions, the awful HD character models, and many more things, this game basically killed the Sonic series. Every game after this has either been mediocre, below average, or just plain awful, and that's a real shame. Sonic these days Sonic is just a living joke, especially with that God-forsaken movie coming out this fall possibly doing Sonic 06 all over again.

The only redeeming things about this game are the amazing OST and the really good FMVs. Tracks like "His World," "Solaris Phase 2", and "Crisis City Act 2" have become legendary in gaming, despite the game's poor quality. Also, the game is fun to rag on with friends or mess around in, so there's that.

Overall, there is no way in heck that I would ever recomend Sonic 06. Is is a terrible piece of garbage that deserves to burn in the eternal pit, and should never be played by any sane human being. This game is like torture to play, not because of the glitches, the awful story, or the bad gameplay, but because of those stupid freaking loading screens! Good day! 0.4/10!

Good

• The music is awesome.
• The FMVs are really pretty.
• The game is fun to rag on with friends, I guess.

Bad

• Everything else.

0.4/10

Sonic Chaos 2: Triple Trouble Review (Sonic Master 4)

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Sonic Marathon, where I will be reviewing every single Sonic game. Today we will be talking about the 4th and final mainline 8 bit Sonic game, Sonic: Triple Trouble, also known as Sonic Chaos 2: Triple Trouble or Sonic Master 4. 

This game released exclusively on SEGA's handheld the SEGA Game Gear, a console that overall flopped due to an expensive price tag and the low battery life despite requiring 8 AA batteries to work. Now, let's talk about the story.

This game takes place between Sonic 3 and Sonic Mania, and features three main villains as the title suggests. Dr. Robotnik, obviously, Knuckles for some reason, and the new character Fang the Sniper, who didn't appear in a Sonic game for decades until he was referenced in Sonic Generations in an easter egg and appeared physically in Sonic Mania as a hidden boss.

These three villains team up to defeat Sonic and Tails, except Knuckles isn't a villain. This is probably due to the 8 Bit titles being made by a different developer, so they might have seen Knuckles as a villain in Sonic 3 instead of an antihero as SEGA saw him... until SA2 where his role of antihero was replaced by Shadow. Thanks a lot SA2.

The gameplay in Sonic Chaos 2 is very similar to the first game, with 6 levels each with a boss along with Sonic and Tails both being playable characters. The spin dash, super peel out, and rocket boots return from Sonic Chaos 1, but now Tails can use them too. (except for the super peel out. That's for Sonic only.) 

Instead of simple platforming segments for the Special Stages like in Sonic Chaos, you have to fight Fang or Knuckles for the chaos emerald in this game. They are pretty easy fights, making the special stages in this game much easier than even Sonic Chaos 1. Also, the fixes presented in Sonic Chaos 1 also return, like you being able to pick up rings, having rings during boss fights, and having literally no screen crunch make this game probably the most enjoyable 8 Bit Sonic game by far.

Sonic Chaos 2 is overall a pretty enjoyable time. It may be almost as short as Sonic Chaos 1, but it makes up for it with a brand new character, Fang, bringing back all the great changes from Sonic Chaos 1, and improving on the formula despite the limitations give this game a 7/10.

Good

• Improvements from Sonic Chaos 1 come back.
• Tails now has more versatility.
• Fang the Sniper was a really cool character that severely needs more appearances in new modern sonic games.
• Improved on the formula despite hardware limitations.

Bad

• Almost as short as Sonic Chaos 1.
• Knuckles is not a villain.
• The special stages are literally just boss fights. LAME!

7/10

Sonic Chaos Review (Sonic Master 3)

Hello everyone and welcome to the Sonic Review marathon. Today we will be talking about possible the most obscure mainline Sonic game of all time. I present to you, Sonic Chaos.

Now let's talk about the story. This game takes place between 8 Bit Sonic 2 and Sonic 3, and in the story Dr. Robotnik has stolen the red chaos emerald from south island to power nuclear weapons. Sonic now has to retrieve the red chaos emerald from Robotnik before South Island sinks with the help of Tails, marking the first time Tails was playable in an 8 Bit Sonic game. 

There are only 6 levels in the game. Not zones, levels. This results in an adventure that lasts less than 15 minutes, which isn't a good tagline for a Game Gear title that costed full price at it's original release. The only thing to note about this game is that this was the last game released on the SEGA Master System EVER. Except in Brazil. 

For some reason, the Master System is still the most popular gaming device over there after three decades. The people SEGA gave full Master System publishing rights to (AKA, the Brazilian government) are still pumping out games and producing consoles for a system mostly everyone in North America, Europe, and even Japan forgot about. That's the reason SEGA never seems to port their Master System games to newer hardware. It's because the Brazilian Government owns full publishing, production, and development rights for the Master System, including games SEGA made themselves!

Anyways, this game was released after the deal, heavily limiting supplies of the Master System version outside of Brazil, making the US or Japanese version of Sonic Chaos on the Master System one of the rarest video games of all time alongside Nintendo World Championship, Birthday Mania, Air Raid, and King of Fighters 2000. Luckily, this version was re-released on the Wii Virtual Console (RIP) and the Game Gear version is available as a hidden unlockable in every version Sonic Adventure DX as well as being found on the Sonic Mega Collection on Game Cube, PS2, and Xbox.

The gameplay is similar to the previous 8 Bit games with a few major differences. First, this is the first 8 Bit game is incorporate the spin dash introduced in Sonic 2. You can also do the Super Peel Out from Sonic CD, but why would you use a dash that doesn't damage enemies compared to one that does? The other change is the addition of Tails as a playable character, who is basically an easy mode. 

Playing as Tails gives you extra lives and continues as well as infinite flight, basically making Tails an easy mode. However, Tails cannot enter special stages, which are new to this game compared to the previous two. This doesn't really matter, as chaos emeralds literally do absolutely nothing. They're literally just collectibles as they don't unlock a better ending or extra content. Sonic also has a power up that allows him to temporarily double jump, but that isn't really that important.

Finally Sonic Chaos finally fixed the problems found in the first two 8 Bit Sonic games, like not having rings against bosses and not being able to recover rings when you get hit. However, this isn't enough to save this game from it's extremely short length, it's biggest flaw.

Overall, Sonic chaos isn't really worth your time. It's a perfectly fine game, possibly better than the first two gameplay wise, but since it is the shortest Sonic game of all time, I would have to rate it a 6.5/10

Good

• The addition of the spin dash is really good.
• Tails is fun to play as, if a little OP.
• It's a decently solid Sonic game.
• The screen crunch on the Game Gear version is mostly fixed, as this game was developed for that system and not the master system.

Bad

• The level design is extremely simplistic.
• The game is extremely short.
• The special stages are bland.
• The addition of the super peel out is completely unnecessary.
• The master system version is extremely rare.

6.2/10

Sonic Master 2 Review

Hello everyone and welcome to the next part of the Sonic Marathon. Today we will be looking at Sonic Master 2, the sequel to Sonic Master on the Master System and Game Gear and also on the same devices. Let's begin.

Unlike Sonic Master 1, Sonic Master 2 has a much different plot compared to Sonic 2. After the events of Sonic 2, Dr. Robotnik decides to kidnap Sonic's best friend Tails and Sonic has to go save him. Unlike Sonic Master 1, all the stages in Sonic Master 2 are completely unique. You start off in Ruin Zone, heading to Sky Zone and then Lake Zone, Hills Zone, Gimmick Zone, Crystal Zone, and Machine Zone in that order. 

Now instead of a chaos emerald hidden every act, there is now a chaos emerald in every zone, making it much less clear where you can find them without a guide. The chaos emeralds in this game are much more important than in any other sonic game where collecting the emeralds was a side quest, as not collecting all of them not only results in a bad ending where Tails freaking dies, (Well, implied to die. We never actually see it.) it also locks you out of the final level and boss! Make sure to collect every Chaos Emerald in the game while you progress, or you will severely regret it.

While I'm seriously glad that they decided to give us all original zones this time, what I am not glad about is the various problems found in Sonic Master 1 not being fixed or addressed. You still lose all you rings when you die, you still don't have any rings against bosses, and the screen crunch on the Gear Gear version is still awful, possibly worse than the original. Let me explain.

In the first zone of the game, Ruin Zone, you fight an Antlion for some reason. The goal of the fight is to survive for as long as possible while Robotnik sends glowing spheres at you, bouncing their way down into the Antlion's jaw. This is a cakewalk in the Master System version, but in the Game Gear version, prepare for hell. There is almost no possible way you can see the spheres coming and dodging them in time, resulting in instant death. 

This makes the first level of the game impossible, probably resulting in many upset children and the parents returning the game to Toy's R Us where it falls into a cart and is randomly found by a shopper during the Toy's R Us sellout two decades later and buys it for 1 cent. He then proceeds to post the event on Twitter in the year 2018. This seriously happened. Check it out here.

Overall, Sonic Master 2 is a pretty enjoyable game, despite some major flaws including not fixing the problems present with Sonic Master 1, (Screen crunch, no rings against bosses, no recovering rings, etc) the first boss being nearly unbeatable on the Game Gear, and the horrific bad ending, this game still holds up, but is far from the best 8 Bit Sonic game. Also, why would you play this game over the original Sonic 2? For those reasons and more, I'd rate this game a 6.3/10.

Good

• Fun 8 Bit Sonic gameplay.
• The levels are all original this time.
• There continue to be no special stages, thank God! (I wish more classic sonic games did chaos emeralds this way...)

Bad

• Tails is not playable, despite being an 8 bit port of Sonic 2.
• The first boss is almost impossible to beat on Game Gear.
• The spin dash is still not in the game.
• Screen crunch is still a major issue for the Game Gear version.
• The problems found in Sonic Master 1 are still not fixed.

6.3/10

Sonic Master Review

Hello and welcome back to the Sonic Marathon. Today we will be talking about one of the most widely overlooked game in the Sonic Series, 8 Bit Sonic the Hedgehog on the Master System and Game Gear. Later, we will be talking about the many sequels this sub-series spawned, starting with 8 Bit Sonic the Hedgehog, or as I like to call it Sonic Master. 

Chronologically, Sonic Master takes place between Sonic 1 and Sonic CD. This game's story is almost identical to the 16 bit version's story. Dr. Robotnik is up to no good and it's up to Sonic to save the animals of south island from being corrupted by Dr. Robotnik's influence.

The game starts off similar, with you starting in green hill and all, now called simply "Hill Zone". However, the game quickly changes compared to the 16 Bit version, having you go though "Jungle Zone," "Cave Zone," the returning "Labyrinth Zone," and "Scrap Zone," which is much harder than it's 16 bit alternative. 

There are a few more differences between the 8 bit and 16 bit versions. The first is that you lose all your rings when you get hit and you can't retrieve them like you can in the 16 bit games and later entries. The second is that like Sonic 1, both the 8 Bit versions of Sonic 1 and 2 have three stages, but unlike Sonic 1 these stages are extremely short and have no rings. 

Instead they have a single boss against Robotnik or some other being, which are made much tougher than the 16 bit game's bosses thanks to you dying in one hit against every boss since you have no rings. 

The final change is how Chaos Emeralds are handled. There are 7 of them unlike the first game where there are only 6, and each one is hidden in a certain level. Chaos Emeralds don't appear in Act 3 of a zone or in Scrap Zone, but other than that you can find one in every stage of the game due to their being only 5 zones. The 7th Emerald is obtained automatically after defeating Robotnik and like the 16 bit version the ending doesn't change much if you collect the emeralds or not.

That's basically all I can say about Sonic Master. It's very simple, extremely short, and not really worth your time despite being a decent 8 bit re imagining of the first game. I'm glad they changed things up, like having none of those annoying special stages and unique modes, but due to some poor design choices like the ring issue (this was not done due to system limitations. Sonic Chaos 1 and 2 show this, and they are on the same hardware) and the extreme screen crunch on the Game Gear port, this game is heavily held back from it's potential. But even still, what reason is it for you to play this game over the original? Overall, I'd give Sonic Master a 6.5/10

8.5/10

Good

• Decent re imagining of the 16 bit original
• There are no more special stages. Thank God!
• There are new levels to explore separate from the 16 bit version, which is a great feature.

Bad

• The screen crunch on the Game Gear version make this nearly unplayable.
• You can't pick up rings after you get hit, causing many deaths.
• Boss stages have no rings, making even the simplest of bosses nerve racking.
• There is an auto scroll stage, IN A SONIC GAME!!!
• Jungle Zone has an annoying glitch that causes you to die by jumping.

Sonic CD Review

Hello everyone! It seems like I was so caught up in the crappy sonic games that I forgot about Sonic CD, a game in developed alongside Sonic 2 and released between Sonic 2 and 3 for the SEGA CD add-on for the Genesis. (called the Mega Drive outside of the US)

Sonic CD takes place sometime after Sonic 1, but before Sonic 2. This game introduces Sonic's pseudo-girlfriend Amy Rose and his metallic rival Metal Sonic. Against popular belief, Metal Sonic in both this iteration and it's modern form are completely unrelated to the Silver Sonic boss found in the final level of Sonic 2. Since Sonic 2 and Sonic CD were developed at the same time, they may have shared some ideas like a robot Sonic you have to fight, as you fight one in both games.

The plot of Sonic CD goes like this. After his defeat during Sonic 3 and Knuckles, Dr. Robotnik planned to take over a mysterious new mini-planet that appeared in the sky called Little Planet to use as his new base. Guess what, he succeed! Well, in one possible timeline. Sonic is warned by Tails that if Robotnik is not stopped from robotizing Mini Planet, he will become unstoppable and will inevitably conquer the world! 

As sonic arrives on Little Planet, he finds that Robotnik has already robotized most of the planet, and the only way to stop him now is to either use time travel to stop Robotnik's influence on the planet in the past, or find the 7 time stones, relics similar to the chaos emeralds, to purify Little Planet.

Sonic quickly meets a resident of Little Planet named Amy Rose, who instantly falls in love with him. Amy gets kidnapped by another new character, Metal Sonic, right afterwards. Now Sonic has to save Little Planet and Amy.

Sonic successfully collects all 7 time stones, defeats Robotnik, and mostly purifies Little Planet. Thus, the world is saved from Robotnik once again.

The game play is very similar to Sonic 1 and 2 in game play, having fast passed momentum based platforming levels. Like Sonic 1, this game does not feature any additional characters as Sonic is the only playable character. The game does feature a time travel system, which in my opinion is handled poorly. Throughout the stage, you can find many "time gates," signposts that when run though at maximum speed, transports you to a different version of a stage. 

There are 4 different stage types. Present, the type you always start every zone in, The past, which you can access by rushing though "Past" time gates, and the Good and Bad Futures, which you can go to either of them by rushing though a time gate marked with the word "future." 

As stated in the story segment, there are two ways you can obtain the good ending and truly beat the game. You could aim for the special stages by collecting 60 rings before the end of a stage, sending you to a special area where you need to complete a mini-game. If you are successful, you will obtain one of 7 time stones. You have plenty of chances to get them if you get a special stage every level, so don't worry too much if you plan to get the good ending this way.

The other way is to destroy 4 Robotnik capsules hidden across both the past and future segments of the level, requiring a lot of exploration and time travel. There are two capsules in each time period, as well as one at the end of the stage but that doesn't count since you will always get that one no matter what.

Once you destroy all four capsules, the bad future area will revert into the good future, completely changing the level layout. The past is usually easier than the present while the bad and good futures are generally harder. The biggest problem with this time travel system is that there's no reason to go to the future, which accomplishes nothing. As well as that, time travel in this game is a major hassle, as you need to reach maximum speed and find the time gate without losing any speed. This makes a game where the main gimmick is very unappealing unless you really don't like the special stages.

Finally, lets talk about the music and Easter Eggs. For some strange reason, the Japanese/European version's music is completely different from the music we got in the US. Only the Japanese OST is reused for future games and remixes, with the US OST forgotten except for two particular songs which forever turned Sonic CD from a fun, light-hearted classic sonic game into a living nightmare. 

These songs are the US Boss Theme and the US Game Over music. these songs bluntly sound like they were composed by Satan in the depths of hell. I'm not exaggerating, there that disturbing. Don't believe me? Listen to them yourself. Unless you are not easily frightened, you will be unable to sleep for a long, long time. They were so scary that they are commonly used in creepy-pasta/horror videos on YouTube to this very day along with FNAF jump scares, even when they are not sonic related.

This was made slightly worse by one of the secret images found in them game after entering a cheat code into the sound test. One of the pictures is a piece of art one Japanese fan made and sent to SEGA which depicts a chibi sonic. So cute! The next picture was a image of tails and a race car, saying "See you next game!" in Japanese. However, it was the final secret image that become infamous among Sonic fans everyone for it's disturbing content. After entering the cheat code, a screen would pop up with many pictures of a distorted, deformed, almost demonic-looking sonic with red words in Japanese that say "Fun is infinite at SEGA enterprises. -Satan" 

The music that plays in the background was the boss theme, which in the Japanese and European versions was a funky, silly beat implying that the message and pictures were intended to be humorous. However, the the English version of Sonic CD, the boss theme literally sounded like Satan' literal nightmares after falling asleep in a fiery river filled with millions of the sinful souls of the dead simultaneously screaming in agony. This caused the image to have a much different tone, scarring children for life across america.

Overall, Sonic CD is a decent classic sonic game. It's classic sonic like you knew him, and continues to hold up better today. However the time travel system is badly implemented as well as the numerous disturbing issues with the US OST makes this game inferior in many ways to Sonic 2. Not having the spin dash definitely contributes to that. I think Sonic CD is better than Sonic 1, but not as good as Sonic 2, so I'll rate it a 7.8/10.

Good

• The classic sonic you know and love
• The Japanese/European soundtrack is great
• The graphics and sound are much better than the other genesis games due to being on a CD instead of a cartridge.

Bad

• The US version had some very disturbing music choices.
• There is no spin dash. The "super peel out" just can't compare.
• The game was extremely rare until it was ported to mobile and PC, so much so that most people didn't know that the game even existed.

7.8/10

Shadow the Hedgehog Review

OK guys we did it. We reached the worst sonic games! Shadow the Hedgehog is by far one of the worst sonic games, heck, one of the worst games ever, and this is why. Let's start with the story, which is super strange. First of all, this game is extremely edgy, like SUPER edgy. Apparently, they made this game to appease fans who wanted a Sonic First Person Shooter like Call of Duty. (Why the heck would you ask for this?) This is why you don't listen to 12 year old edge lord's suggestions on what game you should make next kids. Secondly, Shadow The Hedgehog tells it's story in a very strange way. Unlike other games in the Sonic Series, Shadow the Hedgehog tells it's story in a non-linear multiple choice scenario system which results in many different paths from Hero to Dark and 9 different endings, one for each path.

To unlock the "Final Story" which is this game's true final level, boss, and ending, you need to unlock all 9 Endings. This could be handled in a very interesting way, but was severely misused as you can change paths on a whim, completely changing Shadow's personality and motivations on the fly. The game works like this. You start in the intro level, which is a destroyed city. You then have three missions that you can complete to go on a different path. The Hero Path, the Dark Path, or the Neutral Path. After you beat each level, you go either up or down on a grid which becomes bigger and bigger with more levels and therefore more possible choices.

This results in you needing to beat the game a minimum of 9 times to get every ending and therefore "fully" beat the game. But is it worth it to play the same levels 9 times? In short, no, it's not. Shadow's controls are like a slip and slide on ice, basically super slippery and fast all the time. It's torture to control, and the gun play doesn't help either. Oh right, this game has guns. Like, LOTS of guns, and swearing, and blood. What's this game rated again? E10+!? WHAT THE HECK!?

Yes, this game is indeed rated E10+, and fun fact, this was actually the first game ever given that rating. The thing is was that Sega were aiming for a hard T rating for this game, but last minute changed a few things to make it E10+, the new rated ESRB announced to them while they were finishing up the game. You think, oh, maybe the removed the swearing, removed the blood, and toned down the guns? Nope. All they did was to change the blood color from red to green and PRESTO! Instant E10+ rating! This was the case probably because the actual specifics on exactly what makes a game rated E10+ compared to E or T were not decided yet. That still doesn't explain why they give this game as an example for E10+ games, causing many possible parents to not allow their kids to play LEGO Star Wars of all games due to sharing the same rating. 

This, along with many other mistakes like rating every Halo game until 5 Mature, rating most recent Kirby games E10+, rating both Smash Bros Melee and Brawl T despite being kid-friendly games, rating the Dark Souls, (both original and remastered) Dark Souls 3, and Bloodborne M despite Dark Souls 2 both original and scholar of the first sin being rated T despite having the same sort of content as Dark Souls 1 and 3, Rating both Earthbound and Beginnings T despite one being an anarchic NES game and the other originally being rated E with a bit of rude humor, (Gygais is why) and rating Twilight Princess T despite Ocarina of Time being rated E is why I don't trust the ESRB anymore. (Ocarina of Time on N64 was darker than Twilight Princess BTW. The 3DS version made the game more kid friendly and still got a E10+ rating along with Majora's Mask 3D)  Also I'm still pissed about Nier Automata and Persona 4 and 5 being rated M. I know they deserve it, but It's just really disappointing not being able to play those amazing games.

Anyways, rant over. Time to talk about the story, which in all honesty, is a mess. The game starts of with Shadow the Hedgehog standing in the distance looking cool and having Vietnam flashbacks of his tragic backstory. Then suddenly, aliens! No joke, aliens just randomly fall from the sky onto the city. Then some big alien leader guy asks shadow to collect the 7 chaos emeralds for him and if he does he will tell shadow more about his past. Wait, didn't shadow already know about his past? Wasn't the Shadow that we played as in Sonic Heroes just an android? If so, how does he remember Maria and Gerald from Sonic Adventure 2? Artificial memories maybe?

Basically, shadow says he can't trust him, despite saying that he will probably have to do what he says anyways to get information out of him. Now, despite what happened in that cut scene, you have three choices. Each level has three missions you can complete to either go down to follow the dark path, go up to follow the hero path, or stay on the same path you are on to go on the neutral path. After each level, you will have a different cut scene depending on which path you choose and what path you were on. to fully experience this mess of a story, need to play though this awful game dozens of times, which is frankly not worth it at all.

At the end of each of the 9 possible paths, you will fight one of three bosses. Either a Alien Beast on the Hero Paths, Eggman on the Neutral Paths, or a GUN robot and/or Sonic on the Dark Paths. There are 9 endings. (10 if you count the true ending) The True Hero ending, the Hero Ending, the Semi Hero ending, the Heroic Neutral Ending, the True Neutral Ending, the Dark Neutral Ending, the Semi Dark ending, the Dark ending, and the True Dark ending.

This brings up the biggest sin of Shadow the Hedgehog, which is it's inconsistencies with it's story. Just randomly, if you so choose, Shadow can just go from full-on villain to goody-two-shoes good guy. It's terrible design for a non linear story to change on a whim if you so choose. This brings up many plot holes, the biggest being in one of the neutral endings. In that ending, it is completely 100% confirmed that the Shadow that you play as in both Sonic Heroes and this game is indeed an android. Heck, the whole reason Shadow supposedly started this adventure was to discover if he really was a android. 

This all come crumbling down in the true ending, which doesn't really connect with any other ending. The closest to it is the Semi-Hero ending, in which Shadow defeats the Dark Beast that Black Doom (the alien leader) sends after Shadow but he escapes anyways with all the chaos emeralds and leaves in his spaceship. The True ending could happen within a timeline where instead of Black Doom's ship flying away, he instead plans to blow up station square with the 7 Chaos Emeralds as shown in the True Ending.

Back to the main point. In the true final boss battle against Black Demon (Black Doom's final form) if you wait around without attacking Black Demon for around 10 minutes, you will hear a secret message from Dr. Eggman saying that the Shadow that you are playing as in this game is the real shadow and is not an android, directly contradicting all of the Neutral endings where Shadow discovers that he is indeed an android.

The game or any future game never explains how Shadow survived his supposed death in Sonic Adventure 2 or if the current Shadow really is an android as Eggman could have been lying to raise Shadow's spirits. Hasn't been the first time he lied to the fans. This plot thread was completely abandoned after this game, as this game was so bad that it caused SEGA to plan to reboot the franchise to start off the 7th Generation. However, they could have never excepted that the final result would tarnish Sonic's legacy forever...

Good

• The Music is fine, I guess?
• The opening cutscene, despite being super edgy, is surprisingly the best part of this game.

Bad

• The game play is horrid
• Shadow controls horribly.
• The story is a mess.
• The multiple path system is handled very poorly.
• The first of many instances of potholes in the sonic series.
• The game is way to edgy for it's own good.
• The gun play is generic, gimmicky, and forced.
• The boss battles are boring and repetitive.
• The missions are boring and repetitive, with them usually being "defeat all of this type of enemy" or "reach the end of the stage" for the entire game.

Overall Score: 1.8/10

Sonic Heroes Review

Hello and welcome back to the Sonic Marathon, where I review every mainline Sonic game ever made. This time, we will be talking about Sonic Heroes; a highly controversial game in the Sonic fanbase. Some say it's good, others think it's absolute trash. Let's find out how this game holds up.

The story is much different this time, as their are 4 different campaigns with three characters each that you all switch between to accomplish various tasks. The first stories to start chronologically are Team Heroes’ Story (Sonic Tails and Knuckles) and Team Dark's Story soon after. (Rouge, the new E-05 Omega, and ???)

Well it ends up that surprise surprise, Metal Sonic was behind the whole adventure. The Eggman they have been chasing was just a robot fake, and that the real Eggman was imprisoned by his own creation, metal sonic. This only happened because Eggman gave Metal Sonic an advanced artificial intelligence along with a stronger body which can upgrade by siphoning chaos energy from other beings.
The gameplay is completely different to every sonic game before and after.

After that Team Rose’s Story takes place (Amy, Cream, and BIG THE FREAKING CAT) and ends soon after Team Heroes’ Story ends. Team Chaotix Story starts at the same time as Team Rose’s Story, and ends around the time when Team Dark’s Story ends. Let's start with Team Heroes.

The story is pretty simple. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles are racing when the hear Eggman has returned. They set out to stop him, and after 10 levels Team Heroes gets captured by a shadowy figure who doesn't look like Eggman...

The next story to take place is Team Dark's story: which starts and ends around the same time as Team Heroes’ Story takes place. The story starts with one of Rouge's GUN missions. She is now working with her partner, E-05 Omega: a revived E-03 Gamma from SA1 in a stronger body. In the mission, they find a pod containing... SHADOW? Didn't he die in the last game?

Anyways, he seems to not remember much and has amnesia, but believes finding Eggman will restore his memories after hearing from Rouge that Eggman's grandfather created him. They search for Eggman, eventually leading them to his secret flying fortress, where a dark secret is revealed. Shadow really did die at the end of SA2, and this Shadow is simply an android!

Now to move on the shortest story and easiest team: Team Rose. Cream the Rabbit (a new character introduced in the handheld game Sonic Advance 2) is hanging out with Amy Rose, who finds out that Sonic is missing and sets out with cream and BIG THE FREAKING CAT  for some reason to try to find Sonic and convince him to marry her. These events take place after the Heroes Story ends but probably before the Dark Story ends.

Amy, Cream, and Big for some reason find and rescue a captured Sonic, who tells them to get out of there because "It's" coming. Then, a shadowy figure emerges and says "It's been a long time Sonic..." in a metallic voice.

Finally, there is Team Chaotix: a group of detectives and mercenaries including the obscure characters from the non-canon game Knuckles’ Chaotix Vector and Espio as well as the new character Charmy Bee.

They are extremely bored (well, except Charmy, who I think had a few too many Mountain Dews #notsponsored) until they get a phone call from what is presumed to be Dr. Eggman (they don't know that because they are stupid) who leads them to the same sky base that Team Dark, Team Heroes, and Team Rose were on. and they find out this was all a trap by a familiar foe...

Like SA1 and SA2, there is a final story. However, beating each story simply isn't enough. You need to 100% all four stories, meaning getting A Rank on all stages, completing all 'optional" objectives, and getting all 7 chaos emeralds in the special stages for all four teams.

You might think "Oh, that isn't too bad..." but you are highly mistaken. Do you remember Sonic 2's special stages? How they were entirely based on memorization? Well, what if it was the same as Sonic 2, except that the levels were randomized. Along with that, instead of having easy to dodge spikes that lower your ring count and needing to collect enough rings to get the chaos emerald, you have 4 different colors of orbs scattered across the stage in random patterns and touching one that doesn't align with your team's color makes you lose 1 point while hitting the one colored orb that you need only raises it by 1.

You need 100 orbs times the emerald number you need to get the emerald, meaning that for the 7th emerald you need 700 ORBS!!! This is absolute torture. Oh, I forgot to mention, to unlock the final story you not only need to do that but you also need to complete a entire story back to back with NO saving and NO deaths.

WHAT THE HECK SEGA!? WHAT DRUGS WERE YOU SMOKING WHEN YOU MADE THIS GAME!? THIS IS LIKE FINAL FANTASY X-2 NEEDING YOU TO 100% THE ENTIRE MASSIVE JRPG GAME TO EVEN GET THE CHANCE TO GET THE BEST ENDING BUT 1000% WORSE! WHO DESIGNED THIS?

With the ridiculous collision detection in this game, as well as the broken rail sliding controls, this game is torture to 100% WHICH YOU NEED TO DO TO GET STORY CLOSURE!!!

OK, rant over. Sorry, sometimes my dragon side takes hold which always seems to happen when I get pissed now I think about it. Well, no further delays. It's time to discuss the Final Story.

Metal Sonic absorbs the Chaos Emeralds, becoming Metal Madness, a giant monster. Now, you have to play as each team except Team Heroes to each weaken Metal Madness before Sonic in his super form finishes him off. Once you defeat Metal Madness as Team Rose, Team Dark, and Team Chaotix, you play as Super Sonic and…...Tails in Knuckles in just golden bubbles? Huh? Didn’t they already have established Super Forms in the genesis games?

Eh, you probably wouldn't notice it as one of the best final boss themes ever “What I’m Made Of” plays in the background as you fight Metal Sonic’s final form, Metal Overlord who is a giant flying draconic metal sonic. He is also based slightly off the boss Super Metal Sonic from Knuckles’ Chaotix, which is a neat reference.

As I said earlier, the game is split into 4 stories. Unlike Sonic Adventure or even it’s sequel, every level as every team is exactly the same. The only difference is that Team Rose only has to do half of the levels, Team Dark has to complete each level twice, and Team Chaotix has to complete certain objectives like time trials or defeat enemy missions.

But that isn’t the biggest change to Sonic Heroes’ gameplay. You always play as three characters as once, and each character has a special skill. Speed type characters are faster and can jump high, so they are good for platforming and speeding through levels. They

include Sonic, Amy, Shadow, and Espio.

Next are power type characters. They are good at fighting, do the most damage, have a special ground pound move, and can break certain blocks. Finally, flying type characters can fly but aren't as powerful as power types or as fast as speed types. This system usually just gets in the way, and Sonic Heroes’ biggest problems become crystal clear soon after you hit a rail.

The collision in this game is absolutely awful. At many times you can just fall though the floor for no reason. This is especially prevalent on the PS2 version, in which they didn’t configure the collision for different hardware as the game was originally made for the GameCube. However, even on the superior GameCube version, rails are still a major issue. At completely random times, you will just fall straight through the rails and this happens about 80% of the time while switching rails, and it is infuriating.

Overall Sonic Heroes has it’s good moments, like the incredible soundtrack, some great levels like Seaside Hill and Casino Park, and an epic final boss fight. However, Sonic Heroes fails to be a good game due to the numerous glitches, (especially on the PS2 version) broken controls, and absolutely atrocious game design that baffled people even back then.

Overall, I cannot recommend Sonic Heroes. It has it moments, but this truly is the first bad sonic game, and strap in folks because it just gets worse from here.

5/10

Good

• Some of the levels are really fun
• The team system is a nice change of pace.
• The music, as always, is excellent.
• The game controls fine.
• The story is good.

Bad

• You have to complete the same levels 4 times!
• The unlock requirements for the final story are ridiculous.
• The collision detection is awful.
• Forcing you to play each level twice as team dark is stupid.
• The objectives for Team Chaotix are too boring.
• The final boss fight takes way too long to beat. It's like a 45 minute boss fight, in a SONIC GAME!