INFO BURST

Format: Sega Master System and Game Gear game
Initial Release Date: 25 October 1991
Feature characters: Sonic the Hedgehog
Villain: Doctor Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik
Other Characters: Badniks (Moto Bug, Crabmeat, Buzz Bomber, Spikes, Chopper, Newtron, Jaws, Burrobot, Orbinaut, Caterkiller, Ball Hog, Bomb), Animal Friends (Flicky, Pocky, Cucky, Picky, Ricky, Rocky, Pecky)
Boss Fights: Egg Mobile (different modules in Green Hill Zone, Bridge Zone, Jungle Zone and Labyrinth Zone), Sky Base Zone boss (note that none of the bosses in this game have official names)
Locations: South Island (Green Hill Zone, Bridge Zone, Jungle Zone, Labyrinth Zone, Scrap Brain Zone, Sky Base Zone), Special Stage
Items: Ring, Item Box (Super Ring, Shield, Power Sneakers, Invincible, One-Up, Arrow, Continue), Sign Post, Prison Egg Capsule, Chaos Emerald
Continuity: Video Games
Synopsis: Doctor Eggman once again decides to lay siege to South Island in search of the Chaos Emeralds, which this time are hidden in Zones across the island. As before, Eggman captures Sonic’s friends and converts them into Badniks. If Sonic can get his hands on all six Chaos Emeralds hidden across South Island, he’ll be able to use their power to eradicate the island of the disgusting pollution coming from Eggman’s Scrap Brain Zone, freeing South Island from his choking stranglehold.
Notes: The first Sonic game to appear on handheld consoles

CREDITS

Programmer: Shinobu “Machine” Hayashi
Graphic Designers: Ayano Koshiro, Takefuni Yunoue
Sound Producer: Masato Nakamura
Sound Arrangement and Original Music: Yuzo Koshiro
Special Thanks: Yoshio Y, Lunarian SG

Review

Sonic the Hedgehog’s titular debut title on the Mega Drive had been exactly what Sonic Team and Sega were hoping for- a title that would help revive the fortunes of the console which had been showing its age next to Nintendo’s SNES. Little did they know the explosive popularity of Sonic would help the Mega Drive far outlive its natural life. But owners of Sega’s less powerful consoles, the Master System and Game Gear, weren’t to be left in the cold either. They would receive a version of Sonic’s adventures as well. However, this would be no mere downgraded port of the Mega Drive original. Instead, Sonic’s first 8-bit outing of many more to come would be an entirely new game, though one with a handful of familiar Zones to ease players in and ensure them this was still the same world.

In the creation of this game, Sega took two huge risks simultaneously. Making the game at all after the instant success of the original was a gamble. If this game didn’t live up to a high standard, it could have easily been perceived that Sonic was just a one-hit wonder, a flash in the pan, and perhaps Sega couldn’t stand up to Nintendo after all. More than that, however, Sega took a further risk by not having Sonic Team themselves, the team who knew Sonic and his world the best, work on the game. Instead, the game was outsourced to Ancient, a small company founded by now-legendary game music composer Yuzo Koshiro and his family.

Firstly, the differences, as they’re fortunately quite minimal this time round. Later Game Gear versions of games which also appeared on the Master System would not be so easily able to make the same boast, with some featuring different music tracks, some containing different level layouts and some making incredibly poor use of the limited screen real estate of the Game Gear, resulting in a frustrating and needless challenge. Luckily, the two versions of Sonic the Hedgehog on the less-powerful consoles don’t have any real issues evident in comparison. There are some slight level alterations to account for the smaller screen size of the Game Gear but the overall layouts are by and large the same. In most instances, this manifests in things being moved around if they might provide an unfair challenge on the handheld system, a welcome change for sure. Similarly, the Jungle Zone’s second Act is a vertical stage with a screen lock on the bottom on the Master System version- if Sonic drops below the bottom of the screen, the player can assume he’s swept away by the stage’s waterfall and he loses a life. Not so on the Game Gear version as the camera will, mercifully, pan to allow Sonic to fall down as many times as he likes. The Game Gear version also has some slightly squashed graphics to allow a larger screen space to be displayed. This does result in a Sonic sprite that appears to be missing a nose, but it’s a good trade-off to be able to see where you’re going at all times. Lastly, some of the bosses play out slightly differently- Bridge Zone is significantly easier with the addition of a safe bridge for the player to stand on and the final boss in the Sky Base Zone has a different method of attack in the two versions, meaning it’s a decent challenge to attempt to clear both, though you’ll still be aiming for Eggman at the right-hand side of the screen regardless of which version you play.

Beyond that, the two games function basically identically, a fact made possible by the sheer similarity in hardware of the two consoles. It is worth noting, however, that certain sacrifices are made to get Sonic on the 8-bit consoles. The most noticeable thing is that when Sonic takes a hit while holding any Rings but not using a Shield, it doesn’t matter how many Rings the player had amassed, all of them will be lost in an instant and cannot be recovered. Related, if the player collect 100 Rings, they will be awarded an extra life as on the 16-bit version, but the Ring counter will also reset to zero. Given entry to the Special Stage is only possible by holding 50 or more rings when passing the Sign Post in Acts 1 and 2 of a Zone, this means players may have to forgo collecting that hundredth ring (though they can easily rack up a hundred in the Special Stages, as well as finding the Continue monitors which exist only in those bonus areas, making the trade-off perfectly appealing).

Another major difference is one which goes on to be a feature in many of the 8-bit Sonic games. The third Act of each Zone is notably shorter than the first two, which may come as a pleasant change to many players who might not have liked the original three Act formula. However, there are no Rings to be found anywhere in these third Acts. In other words, each boss fight has to go perfectly in order for Sonic to progress to the next Zone- one hit during any boss fight in the game is enough to force the player to try again. This makes some of the boss fights incredibly challenging and while that challenge is sometimes welcome, it does mean some of them are perhaps more nerve-wracking than a player might usually like in a Sonic game. Each of these bosses manage to do something different and interesting, even taking into consideration the limitations of the hardware the game runs on. In order to defeat some of the bosses, players may well have to lose a few lives to learn the attack patterns in and out and work out when to attack- and when to hold back.

One other thing that sets this version of the game apart from the Mega Drive forebear is the lack of 360 degree loops for Sonic to run around. That may seem like an unusual thing to note, but it’s important when you consider not only were the loops a key part of the marketing for the original game (as they allowed Sonic Team to perform a clever bit of sprite trickery to imply the Mega Drive could handle sprite rotation when this was not actually the case) but really think of it- is there a more iconic piece of Sonic series level geometry than a 360 degree loop? There aren’t many Sonic games which don’t feature them at all and the fact they’re missing from this, a platformer game in the series, is almost surreal when you think about it.

That said, there’s no hint that just because Sonic won’t be getting dizzy the levels aren’t as well designed. On the contrary, the level design in this game is worthy of comparison to the series’ debut. There’s a real focus on navigation through the stages, with no two Zones feeling alike as a result. The first Act of Green Hill Zone is possibly (and entirely justifiably) the only stage you might call generic among the bunch, with subsequent stages including cave exploration, auto-scrollers, tricky platforming, vertical climbs, underwater sections and mazes before the Sky Base Zone really tests the player’s platforming skill and ability to dodge attacks with a pair of punishing Acts. Yet, at the same time, the variety never strays from the core gameplay mechanics of Sonic’s original adventure and none of the levels feel out of place or like they don’t belong. There’s no gimmickry that would become a problem in future Sonic handheld titles. These feel very clean and very honest platforming games.

With Yuzo Koshiro on the team, it goes without saying that the music is wonderful. He’s earned a reputation as one of the greatest composers in video game history for a very good reason. Koshiro is best known for his work on the Streets of Rage series and how he managed to make the Mega Drive do things lesser sound designers could only dream of. While the Master System and Game Gear are a good bit more limited than the Mega Drive in the audio department, Koshiro’s soundtrack gets the absolute most out of the machines. A lot of games on Sega’s 8-bit consoles have tinny soundtracks that sound as if they’re being played entirely on a synthetic recorder. That couldn’t be further from the truth here. Koshiro was tasked with arranging two of Masato Nakamura’s original tracks (three if we count the Marble Zone theme which didn’t make the final cut of the game), specifically the title theme and Green Hill Zone theme, but every other track here is new to this game. The Green Hill Zone comes across wonderfully in the conversion and every other track in the game is as toe-tappingly catchy as Nakamura’s. In fact, some of them are arguably more catchy and might not leave your head for a good while thanks to the fabulous arrangement of these catchy tunes. Even though the loop point of the songs are quite small and some are even perhaps a tad repetitive, there’s really never a point at which you get sick of hearing them. In fact, the boss theme is one of the most repetitive tunes in the series and yet it’s also one of the most catchy!

If there’s perhaps one criticism to be levelled at Sonic 1 on 8-bit consoles it’s that the enemies offer nothing new. With the exception of Batbrain and Roller, every Badnik from the first game reappears here and they function pretty well exactly as they did before. This is hardly the most damning concern, of course, but it is something of a shame that the Badniks may seem a little familiar to those who played Sonic’s debut game. Of course, when viewed through the lens of 1991, we can probably forgive this somewhat easily given not everyone who played this game will have played that first title and, in fairness to Ancient, they had no idea what Sonic Team’s plans were for the Badniks in future games. For all anyone at Ancient knew, the original line-up would be the same in all subsequent games (now wouldn’t that stale and boring, he said rather pointedly…).

The fact that we have to consider such a nitpick as a potential criticism for this game should really speak volumes. There’s just nothing to pull apart in this one, no dangling thread that if picked unravel the entire game. There aren’t any sections that are unfair or poorly designed, just Act after Act, Zone after Zone of well-balanced challenges that task the player with getting better at the game. Clearing the game is one thing, sure. But getting the best ending requires finding all six Chaos Emeralds, no longer in the Special Stage but this time hidden in the levels and requiring the player to explore and think outside the box in order to collect them all, sometimes toying with the mechanics of the game itself to see if the player can solve the puzzle. And once you’ve found all the Chaos Emeralds, you can challenge yourself further- can you find the hidden One-Ups in every single Act in the game? Doing so rewards the player with a secret extra One-Up in the final stage of the game and a huge score bonus at game’s end.

This is a game that not only rewards anyone who plays it, it rewards in particular players who want to master it. On the surface level, this is a more-than-worthy second entry in the Sonic series. Beyond that, however, on a deeper level, this is a game that invites players to really cover every inch of it and become better at the game, to become better players. That’s a pretty special experience and one not many games can boast. If Sega had any apprehension in handing the reins to their newest and most vital property to another team, they needn’t have- Sonic the Hedgehog on 8-bit consoles is every bit as wonderful as its big brother.