Last time, I reviewed a game I had plenty of adoration and respect for and helped shape my gamer sensibilities growing up. This time, let’s shake things up a bit. I’m going to review a game that I feel the complete opposite. I have absolutely no love, no respect for this game whatsoever. I would go so far as to say that I loathe this game to a fair degree.
My first experience with a video game was at the tender age of two. Christmas morning, the year of 1991 I was given a Sega Genesis and a copy of the then-massively popular Sonic the Hedgehog game. At two years old, not only was the game revolutionary, it was mind-blowing. Of course, I wasn’t very good at the game at that age, but it set the foundation necessary to drive my interest in video games. It helped that the game was fucking brilliant and a near masterpiece only held back by minor flaws that the 3rd game in the franchise would fix.
Sonic the Hedgehog toned back the “Nintendo-hard” elements common in many NES 2d platformers, but didn’t dumb down the experience one iota. It just made the game that much more accessible to those that found Castlevania, Megaman, etc. to be a bit beyond their skill level. The game was intuitive but maintained a subtle level of complexity through it’s unique physics engine and non-linear level design. As I grew older, I found I adored intuitive game design (No doubt from my experiences with Sonic as a child) and some of my favorites games strike a delicate balance between being intuitive and accessible enough to engage the player but complex enough to not make the experience seem hollow and empty.
The physics engine allowed players to build enough momentum to quickly blast through levels – assuming they had the skills to maintain said momentum. Varying terrains (That being, the levels aren’t entirely flat terrain and actually vary, and skilled players can actually use this to their advantage!) could affect their momentum, obstacles could slow down their speed, different paths had different types of speed available to them. Being fast wasn’t a requirement, merely something for advanced players to do to prove their skill at the game. One could easily take their time and slowly crawl through it, and there would be hardly any punishment for it, but the reward for skillful play was plentiful and encourage repeated playthroughs so a player could master the game.
It was in this mentality, this kind of subtle design that Sonic the Hedgehog was such a massive success. In contrast, Sonic’s predecessors almost required a very high degree of skill to get by or to frustrate yourself trying. They lacked this intuitive yet clever design that made Sonic the Hedgehog so brilliant. They are by no means bad games, but a definite flaw to be brought up when discussing them. And it is with how these qualities made Sonic the Hedgehog such a fantastic success, made Sonic Genesis such an awful, awful game.
Sonic Genesis, as you may have already surmised by now, is a port of the original Sonic the Hedgehog, but on the Game Boy Advance. The port includes remixed tracks and the inclusion of the spindash move from the later Sonic games, which was not originally in Sonic the Hedgehog. So why exactly is this game such a failure? It’s a complete technical mess, resembling the original game by nothing more than level aesthetics and brand name, having none of the clever design quirks that made the game so brilliant. A wolf in sheep’s clothing, if you will.
According to the good folks over at Sonic Retro, Genesis was made using the Sonic Advance engine, with the original Sonic the Hedgehog source code. Now, I’m not a hacker, or a coder, or anyone who can say with any degree of professionalism as to what affect this had on Sonic Genesis’ physics, but I’d like to assume this decision influenced the game’s poor physics. I don’t think it’d be much of a stretch to say, that this decision reeks of laziness (Though not unsurprising, given Sega’s reputation around this time).
A good look at some of the game’s hilarious physics. Credit goes to the video author.
As you can see by watching this video, Genesis’ physics are beyond “wonky”. They’re absolutely abhorrent. The physics of the original game rewarded memorization and skill, yet maintained a fresh sense of intuitive design that still remains today. In this “port”, the control is jittery, unfocused, and lacks any sense of real “control”. The player is at the mercy of the game, instead of the player being able to manipulate the game to their whims. I won’t go into the minor details regarding Sonic the Hedgehog’s physics engine, but the general gist of it can be boiled down to “Slower uphill, faster downhill”, which allows the player to manipulate their environment so they can go as fast or as slow as they like. This gives the player an unparalleled sense of control compared to many other games. That’s the key word “Control”. The player is left helpless and out of control. In that sense, this port is hardly anything but a failure.
Many times, I’ve encountered situations where I was certain that the game had changed the hitboxes dramatically. Close encounters with spikes/enemies/obstacles that I could barely clear in the Genesis version, damaged/killed me without hesitation in this port. This requires me to completely change my approach to how I play the game, despite the many playthroughs I’ve completed in the original game. This in essence, completely defeats the point of a port (Which is to allow people who didn’t grow up with the game to experience the original game with some minor touchups, not entire physics changes). Sonic Genesis is not a remake of the original, but marketed as a port of the original, so this is completely unacceptable. Now, if this was a remake, I might be a bit more receptive to these changes (Though in all honesty, even in a remake these changes are total ass), but it’s a port.
Why is this all so important, you ask? That’s because, this lazy decision turned Sonic Genesis into the anti Sonic the Hedgehog, in a sense. It twisted and distorted everything that made Sonic the Hedgehog such a fun game to play, and made it incredibly tedious and cheap. The “screen crunch” (Meaning that in the transition from the console game to a handheld, less can be shown on the screen at once, giving the player a much smaller range of vision making the experience more frustrating as a result) makes jumps that were once routine, an exercise in tedium and frustration. This alone removes the intuitiveness that had made the game a classic, and one of it’s most addictive and accessible features. Only truly skilled players will be able to progress through this game, and that’s only through memorizing the game’s level design and enemy placement. A player whose first experience to Sonic the Hedgehog is this port, will find it to be incredibly difficult and frustrating. In short, Sonic Genesis just isn’t fun to play at all.
The remixed music, is probably the best part about the game, despite the pretty poor sound quality of the Game Boy Advance. It’s mediocre, and if you have a nostalgic connection to the old tunes, will probably make you cringe at first listen. They’re not abhorrent or atrocious if you don’t have any kind of nostalgia for the game’s original soundtrack, but it’s certainly mediocre and nothing noteworthy. The least offensive and most enjoyable aspect of the game, if you ask me.
The only way I can honestly recommend anyone play this game is if they are truly curious if the game is as bad as people say it is (Protip: It’s worse). If you want to play the original, I’d recommend emulation well before this recommending this port (And this game has been ported to so many goddamn platforms, there’s no real need to unless you’re really strapped for cash). I love Sonic the Hedgehog, the franchise and the original game with this title (Of course, not the 2006 title of the same name) despite the ups and downs that come with this franchise. But Sonic Genesis, is a game I honestly despise, to the point that I’d consider it the worst game in the series. Arguments can be made for other games in this woefully inconsistent franchise for being worse (Sonic 06, Labyrinth, Blast, Shadow to name a few), but I honestly think Genesis takes the cake.
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