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!

Sonic Adventure 2 Review

It was the year 2001, and the Dreamcast was on it's last legs. The only thing that could possibly save it was a new Sonic game. What could it be? Well, that game was Sonic Adventure 2, the direct sequel to the ultra-successful (well for Dreamcast standards) Sonic Adventure.

The game starts out with Sonic in a police helicopter, having been arrested for various crimes. After Sonic escapes and fights a police robot (don't ask how they got them, your guess is as good as mine) he runs into a new character: Shadow, who the police had mistaken for Sonic. Shadow teleports away, and Sonic is quickly arrested and put in prison.

Meanwhile, Knuckles is fighting a bat treasure hunter named Rouge, who is trying to steal the master emerald. While they were fighting, Eggman (Yes, that's his name now. "Dr. Robotnik" was simply a creation on Sega of America, and in Japan his name was always Eggman. In the English dub of Sonic Adventure 1, Eggman is called Dr. Robotnik and Eggman is an insult/nickname made up by sonic. After SA1, Eggman took liking to the name and made that his name from now on.) comes along and tries to steal the master emerald, which knuckles breaks as a safety maneuver. Knuckles now needs to search for the emerald pieces once again.

Eggman needs a power source for a super weapon known as the Space Station ARC, which he was told about by Shadow. Shadow was found by Eggman accidentally in a military base. Shadow was a top-secret military experiment that Eggman's grandfather and role-model, Dr. Gerald Robotnik, was working on for the military.

His daughter Maria had a deadly virus and was quarantined up in space so it wouldn't spread. The military offered a cure if Gerald worked on a bio weapon for the military called "Shadow." Shadow could use chaos energy, was immortal, could regenerate, and was immune to all viruses. Shadow befriended Maria, as he was the only one who could be by her as he couldn't catch Maria's illness.

However, the military was unpleased with Shadow, as he had emotions and that could be a problem. They forced Gerald to destroy his first creation and make a more powerful "ultimate life-form" called "The Biolizard." He did create the Biolizard, but refused to destroy Shadow. The military in response staged a raid on ARC to kill shadow, capture Dr. Gerald, and retrieve the Biolizard. Maria sacrificed herself for Shadow, and sent him down to earth in an escape pod. Shadow decided to seal himself away in an old factory, and slept for 60 years until Dr. Eggman released him.

Tails and Amy arrived at Prison Island were Sonic was being kept, and they release him and together the escape to the forest nearby. Meanwhile, Eggman and Shadow search for the Chaos Emeralds and Rouge is revealed to be working for Eggman. However, her real loyalties lie in the military branch known as GUN and is working as a spy and double agent.

Sonic and Shadow meet again in the jungle and fight, while Eggman and Rouge collect more chaos emeralds. Eggman then goes to his base in the desert so he can take a rocket ship to ARC, but Sonic and friends latch on and they all head to ARC. Eggman nearly kills tails, and uses him as bait to lure sonic so he can give Eggman the last chaos emerald he needs. Eggman gets the last chaos emerald and seemingly kills Sonic, but Sonic was able to teleport out of there at the last moment due to his latent chaos powers.

Eggman activates the weapon on the ARC and uses it to destroy the moon, while Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles try to destroy the cannon. Knuckles befriends Rouge after she is discovered as a spy and together they combine the shards they found to rebuild the master emerald, reversing the power of the other 7 emeralds. However, the cannon has just enough power for one blast, and is aimed straight at station square.

Sonic ruses to the cannon, but is stopped by Shadow, and they fight. After Sonic defeats Shadow, sonic destroys the cannon. While this seems like a good thing, this activates Gerald's secret backup. After he lost both Maria and Shadow, he went insane and built a mechanism that if the cannon is destroyed the Arc will head towards the earth and destroy it.

This also released the all-powerful Biolizard, who must be defeated to stop the Arc. Sonic and Shadow team up to defeat the Biolizard, but before they can finish it the Biolizard takes control of the ARC to head it to the planet faster. Sonic and Shadow go Super Saiyan and together the destroy the Biolizard and with Shadow's sacrifice they teleport the ARC back into orbit. Thus the world is saved, and Sonic and friends reminisce about Shadow and Gerald while the credits roll.

If you get A rank on all levels and complete the extra stage Green Hill you unlock a secret cutscene where Amy gives Rouge Gamma's core chip who Rouge puts into a stronger robot body, E-05 Omega, a unfinished fighting robot made by Dr. Gerald.

Sonic Adventure 2 plays just like the first game, where as Sonic (or Shadow) you run, jump, spin dash, and homing dash in 10 different levels. However, the game is split between two campaigns: Hero Story and Dark Story. They both happen at the same time canonically but certain story cutscenes only play on one or the other so multiple playthoughs is encouraged. Also, beating both stories unlocks "Final Story" which contains the last few cutscenes and the Biolizard and Biolizard ARC final boss fights.

The only thing that contradicts in the two stories is the final battle of the dark story, which is the same Sonic VS Shadow boss fight except you play as Shadow instead of Sonic and beating it unlocks a non-canon "Dark Ending" where the world is destroyed.

Finally, in the dark story, instead of playing as the trio of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles you play as Shadow, Dr. Eggman, and Rouge. They play identically to their good-guy counterparts so they are all but clones.

Now, for the meat of the game, the characters. SA2 has less characters than SA1, with only 3 instead of 7. (unless you count the clones, which still is less than SA1) You might think this is a good thing, as SA1 was a little rough around the edges, especially in a certain character, (You all know who he is.) but SA2 surprisingly only has one good character: Sonic. Yep, both Tails/Eggman and Knuckles/Rouge play like crap. Here's why.

First Tails/Eggman. Instead of playing like a 3D version of how tails plays in Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 & Knuckles, both Tails and Eggman pilot a slow, clunky mech with tons of weapons. Their gameplay mainly consists of walking forward and shooting. Also, they contain one of the worst bosses in Sonic history: Tails VS Eggman. It's bad as either character, as the other one spams their ultimate moves non-stop which you cannot do even though he CAN! Also, the arena has no rings, and Eggman constantly spams his lines of "How about this!" It's absolutely awful.

Knuckles/Rouge's stages aren't much better. Knuckles stages were already tedious in SA1, but here it's even worse as the already gimmicky radar is even more useless. Also, unlike SA1, the emeralds spawn in completely random spots meaning that Speedrunning this section and/or trying to get A rank is nearly impossible without luck on your side. At least they have awesome rap music playing in the background.

Another thing to note about the gameplay is that there is no longer a overworld. I personally appreciate this feature being cut, as I'm not a big fan of station square since I spent 75% of my SA1 playtime getting lost in there, especially on my first playthough.

The cutscene graphics are much better than SA1, with more realistic mouth movements and expressions. However, the English dub in this game is AWFUL, and most people cite it as the reason they think the game sucks. People are entitled to their own opinion, but I personally think it detracts little from the games quality and you should blame the dubbers at 4Kids, not SEGA or SEGA of America. Basically what happened is that 4Kids was lazy with the SA2 dubbing so they simply spliced in the unedited English dub and got rid of the Japanese dub. Unknowingly, this caused side effects that have become infamous among the Sonic fanbase and gamers in general. The audio is constantly too loud or too quiet, characters interrupt each other way to often, character lips don't connect up with the audio, etc.

But no one can mention SA2 without using at least a paragraph to explain it's most addicting feature: the Chao Garden. The Chao Garden is basically a simulation mini game within the game that allowing to create, breed, pet, care for, feed, battle, and race Chao, magical spirits who are the source of chaos energy and brood of the god of chaos, order and water Chaos, the main antagonist of SA1. The Chao Garden existed in SA1, but it was heavily expanded upon in SA2 and is the main reason people keep coming back to this 17 year old game.

While the Dreamcast version failed, the game was ported to the Nintendo GameCube and PlayStation 2 as Sonic Adventure 2: Battle and became a must-own title on both consoles. Sonic Adventure 1 also received an updated port called Sonic Adventure: Directors Cut which included bugfixes and new content.

Overall, I say that SA2 is both a step up and down from SA1. While it has better cutscenes (way better in the original version) Sonic feeling fluid, better story, and better new characters, it suffers from an awful dub, lack of (good) characters compared to SA1, Overall, I'll rate Sonic Adventure 2 at 7.8/10.

7.8/10

Pros

• Good story
• Better graphics than SA1
• Sonic/Shadow is fun to play
• Chao Garden

Cons

• Awful dub
• Tails/Eggman and Knuckles/Rouge play like crap.

Sonic Adventure Review

Wow, Sonic really had it rough during the 5th generation of consoles. Like, seriously. While series like Mario, Zelda, and Final Fantasy stepped into the 3rd dimension with huge success using the power of great consoles like the Nintendo 64 and the original PlayStation, Sega was trying to get it's footing. After the Genesis, Sega didn't know what to do.

They kept making complex ad-ons to the genesis which had power, but lacked the #1 thing a new console (or add-on) needs. Good games. With 3D games being the biggest thing at the time, Sega had to step up from simple Genesis add-ons. That "step up" was the Sega Saturn, a flawed console with an awful launch. In the west, there was literally no build-up. Sega was just like "announcing the Sega Saturn, the next generation of gaming. AVAILABLE NOW!!!" Due to this quick release, a new Sonic game was not ready at launch.

Multiple mainline sonic games were planned for the Sega Saturn, like the cancelled Sonic Xtreme and Sonic 3D World. (Thanks a lot Mario for stealing that title) However, when Sega released a new state-of-the-art console, the Sega Dreamcast, a new Sonic game was put in the works that would revolutionize the Sonic franchise forever.

Originally, Sonic Adventure was planned to be a spinoff Sonic RPG with an older, more mature sonic and a deeper story. However, early into development, the game shifted into a mainline fully 3D Sonic platformer. The game starts with a couple of weirdly designed menus that looks like their straight from that PowerPoint presentation that you made in 6th grade. Then you get into the actual game, where you see a bunch of... human police officers? Huh, I guess there are humans now in the Sonic universe.

They are chasing a blue water monster across the city streets, and we see Sonic for the first time in 3D, and it's bizarre. His model looks decent enough, but his mouth movements could give even Satan nightmares. Despite what you might think, this was absolutely revolutionary at the time. This game released in 1998, a time where the original PlayStation rained supreme. Even that year's most successful game, The Legend of Zelda 64: Ocarina of Time didn't have mouth movements of any kind. Crash Bandicoot Warped, which was released in the same year, had very similar mouth animations to Sonic Adventure. It just looks more bizarre in Sonic Adventure due to the crisper models.

Anyways, back to the story. Sonic chases after the water monster, and after a somewhat difficult tutorial fight, sonic meets with tails who shows him his Chaos emerald, before crashing his plane into the the dangerous beach area. You can now explore the pool area, but there isn't really much to see outside of poorly rendered NPCs who are standing in a T-Pose. Very unprofessional. Then you start the true first level of the game and it's AWESOME! Sonic is a bit more slippery than I would want him to be, and the collision needs work, but overall the level is amazing. Unluckily, the game sends us back to the overworld, where now we watch another bizarre cutscene. After that, we are free to explore in a barren city with nothing to do except progress. Problem is, WHERE THE FRICK DO YOU GO? I was wandering in this city for AGES with no clue on where to go next. Eventually, I did find level 2.

Level two, Windy Hill Zone (thanks for stealing that name, Sonic Lost World. Don't worry, we will get to you eventually) is another great level. Then, back to the bleak, boring overworld once again and this cycle continues until I beat the game. Fun level, two hours of getting lost, fun level, two hours of getting lost, repeat endlessly until I beat the game. But then I learned the terrible truth, I ONLY HAVE BEATEN 1 OUT OF 6 STORIES! IE: I have to beat all the levels 5 MORE TIMES!!!

To the games credit, the stories are very different and the gameplay is changed to a certain varying extent for each new campaign. Sometimes, they even have exclusive levels. Tails's story is the same as Sonic's since they spend most of the game together. The only difference is that Tail's levels are time trials, where you aim for the fastest time while beating Sonic in how fast you complete the level.

Knuckles story is quite different compared to the previous two, as in his levels the goal isn't to get to the end, but to hunt for 3 emerald shards to complete the level. Another difference is that in the Knuckles battles you fight Sonic instead of yourself which is a nice touch.

It is also in Knuckles story that you learn about the Chao (alien like beings that protect nature) and their leader, a echidna (Knuckles' race) sage named Tikal. She keeps watch over the Chao and their master, the god of water Chaos. After Dr. Robotnik (Eggman) destroyed parts of angel island during Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, Chaos got angry and eventually joined Robotnik who was the one behind his anger in the first place. Robotnik wants the Chaos Emeralds to make Chaos more powerful until he become Perfect Chaos, destroying Station Square. Robotnik wants this so he can build an amusement park city called Eggman Land over it that he can use to conquer the rest of the world.

Amy's story starts an unrelated subplot about a family of three Flickies (small birds) who were captured by Eggman and used to make super powerful assassin robots: the E Series M1. Amy runs away from one of them, E-02 Beta with the last Flicky remaining from the family.

She also meets another E Series robot called E-03 Gamma, who is malfunctioning and has gained a sort of sentience, having it's programming to "destroy" being changed to "protect." He got this defect after fighting and killing his "brother" E-01 Alpha. Gamma with his defect now active defends Amy from Beta, and together they kill him. After being repaired and upgraded, E-01 Alpha wants revenge for his two brothers deaths, so he fights Gamma and loses, releasing the second Flicky inside of him. Gamma, realizing that he too contains a Flicky, self destructs, releasing the Flicky and leaving only Gamma's core chip remaining. Amy takes this core chip and this plot point comes into effect later in the direct sequel, Sonic Adventure 2.

Finally, the last story and the final boss. What? You think there's another story to discuss? No, I don't remember a 6th story. Do you remember a 6th story? Eh, it's probably no big deal. It's not like an overweight purple cat with an fishing obsession who's best friend is a frog who is actually a demigod in disguise and is the star of the "6th story?" No, definitely not.

In the Final Story, Chaos obtains all 7 Chaos Emeralds, leaving Station Square in ruins and probably killing a bunch of people off-screen. But who cares about the murder of thousands? Let's have some big speech about love and the power of friendship or some crap like that. Apparently, that speech was so bad, the Chaos Emeralds regain their power and Sonic goes Super Saiyan and kicks Perfect Chaos's butt while epic rock music plays. Perfect Chaos dies and the world is saved. Yay?

Now to talk about the graphics. They are awful by today's standards, but in 1998 they were godlike compared to stuff like Ocarina of Time and Crash Bandicoot Warped. The cut scenes were also extremely dated by today's standards, but mouth movement was very rarely seen in games in the 90s, so it actually was pretty impressive for the time.

The gameplay is solid, but definitely needed more time ironing out the collision and making the overworld more clear, like adding a minimap and quest markers. The addition of extra characters is nice, as this game helped give a lot of previously bland characters some personality as well as introduce a whole bunch of new ones, like Chaos, Tikal, the Chao, Gamma, the forbidden character that must not be named, and random NPC humans.

It is annoying that you need to beat the game 6 times to get the true final boss and ending, but at least it spices up things enough to make it interesting, unlike some other game... (*cough*Sonic Heroes*cough*)

Sonic Adventure, despite it's flaws, is still a good sonic game and helped sell the Dreamcast to uneasy fans after the massive failure of the Sega Saturn. Overall, I'll rate the game 7.9/10

7.9/10

Pros

• Levels are fun
• Good story
• Revolutionary, yet dated graphics

Cons

• Boring overworld
• BIG THE FRICKING CAT

Sonic 3 & Knuckles Review

Sonic 3 & Knuckles is widely considered to be the best Sonic game ever made, even more than Sonic 2. This I agree with much more than with Sonic 2. Sonic 3 is just as big as a step from Sonic 2 as the sequel was to Sonic 1. It finally has a save feature like CD before it and it helps A LOT. Got GAME OVER on one of the final levels? No worries. This time you won't be forced to start the game all over from the beginning. Instead you just have to start the zone over since the game auto-saves when you beat a zone. 

Along with being able to play as both Sonic and Tails, together or alone, you can also play as the new character Knuckles, who is slower than sonic and can't fly like tails, but can glide long distances and can break special blocks, allowing him to access unique level paths.

Here is the story of Sonic 3 & Knuckles. After the Death Egg was destroyed by Sonic and Tails, Dr. Robotnik prepared to upgrade and rebuild the Death Egg at his new base at Lava Reef Zone. To power his superweapon, he steals the chaos energy of the floating Angel Island, causing it to fall into the ocean. Angel Island's guardian, the echidna Knuckles, blames the freedom fighter Sonic Hedgehog. 

Knuckles then leaves to find and defeat Sonic while Sonic rushes to stop the revival of the Death Egg. Sonic and Knuckles eventually team up after it is learned that Eggman was the one behind it as he steals the Master Emerald which Knuckles is the guardian of. 

Sonic then trains with Knuckles until Sonic masters a new, more powerful Hyper Form, while Tails and Knuckles go super for the first time. They then break into Eggman's base and together they destroy a massive robot on the Death Egg II. (a parody of the second Death Star from Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.) 

However, Eggman was getting away with the Master Emerald though the Speed Zone, (Called the Final Zone in-game) and sends his creation Metal Sonic to impede their progress. (Metal Sonic first appeared in Sonic CD, in which Sonic destroyed him. This is a new model) Knuckles goes super to fight Metal Sonic, while the real Sonic goes hyper to enter the Speed Zone and get back the Master Emerald. 

Sonic defeats Robotnik and with the Master Emerald and chaos energy restored, Angel Island heads back into the sky, and Sonic and Knuckles say their farewells as friends and friendly rivals.

Sonic 3 and Knuckles was too big of a game to fit on a SEGA Genesis cartridge, so the game had to be split between two cartridges. The game Sonic 3 was a normal cartridge which only contained up to flying battery zone and ended abruptly. 

The "sequel" Sonic & Knuckles was much shorter than Sonic 3 and the cartridge was in a weird shape that seemed to allow other cartridges to be inserted into the S&K cartridge. Sonic & Knuckles contained Mushroom Hill to Death Egg II, and playing just S&K made it impossible to get the good ending as Sonic. 

Instead, you had to place the Sonic 3 cartridge inside the Sonic & Knuckles cartridge to get the full game: Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Another thing to note is that you can put Sonic 2 in Sonic & Knuckles to allow you to play as Knuckles in Sonic 2.

The special stages are a lot better then the luck-based stages of sonic 1 and the memorization based stages of sonic 2. Even though I'm not very good at it, I can admit that it relies on pure skill and reflexes, which is a welcome change. The levels are also some of the best stages in Sonic, with memorable stages such as Ice Cap, Flying Battery, Lava Reef, Sandopolis, and more. 

The bosses are also harder than usual fare, and the endgame isn't a total butt. The new character Knuckles' gameplay encourages exploration much more than Sonic or Tails, which is especially useful when trying to conquer the special stages. Overall, I believe Sonic 3 & Knuckles deserves the title of best Sonic game, a it certainly holds up even to this day.

9.4/10

Pros

• Great levels
• Simple but effective story
• Best graphics yet

Cons

• You have to buy two games to experience the entire adventure.