A Brief Background: I may have mentioned this before but, back in the early-nineties, SEGA’s super-speedy blue hedgehog of a mascot was on something of a roll; Sonic the Hedgehog(Sonic Team, 1991) had finally swayed videogame fans away from the Nintendo Entertainment System then, after the unforgettable and highly marketed release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2(SEGA Technical Institute, 1992), Sonic’s status as a cultural icon was cemented. It was amidst the wave of Sonic’s incredible popularity that SEGA decided to develop a Sonic title for the arcades, most likely as the arcade scene was still a popular way of enjoying videogames even with the Console War right on the horizon. Although it wasn’t the first time SEGA tried to get a Sonic arcade game off the ground, SEGASonic the Hedgehog is, perhaps, the most infamous. Featuring the debut of Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel (two characters that were long-forgotten by SEGA until very recently) and forgoing Sonic’s trademark speed, SEGASonic used a trackball to control its three playable characters and was pretty much exclusively released in Japan. I actually got to play the game at SEGA World in London years and years ago, back when that was a thing, but the game has never been officially released or ported to other consoles since quietly disappearing from the arcade scene.
First Impressions: SEGASonic makes an immediate impression simply through its bright, colourful graphics; the game features a charming cartoon-like aesthetic, featuring some extremely expressive and amusing animations and facial expressions from Sonic and his two friends. Captured by Doctor Eggman and forced to escape from his hazardous island, players are tasked with battling the game’s awkward trackball controls and navigating seven isometric levels.
Sonic, Mighty, and Ray must escape Eggman’s island.
Generally, players are chased by some kind of hazard (a wall of fire or a drilling machine, for example), must dodge past some kind of blockage (a cage, crumbling paths, or spiked walls and the like), and clamber across monkey bars to escape danger. Sonic, Mighty, and Ray all pretty much control exactly the same; no one character is faster than the other, they all have a Spin Attack, and the only real difference between them is the way they animate when performing certain actions (Ray uses his prehensile tail to climb, for example). Each character has a health bar, in a change for the series, which can be refilled by collecting the familiar Golden Rings generously scattered across the game’s maps, all while being chased by Doctor Eggman.
My Progression: Unfortunately, as SEGASonic hasn’t been re-released or ported to home consoles, the only way to play the game now is using a ROM and an emulator. Equally unfortunate is the fact that the ROM I have for this game is very finicky and prone to crashing; as a result, I didn’t manage to get too far in the game before the emulator crashed and kicked me out of the game. I’m pretty certain that I managed to clear at least one level when I played the game at SEGA World but, on this playthrough, my ROM conked out on me shortly after clearing Trap Tower. I probably will reload my save state and go back to the game at some point to try and get a bit more playtime out of it but, as much as I love the obscurity and visual presentation of the game, the controls make it quite difficult to play (or, at least, play well).
I love SEGASonic the Hedgehog; I would be so happy is SEGA got off their asses and made a real effort to put together a real, HD-quality port of the title that integrates modern analogue controls in place of the trackball. It, like Knuckles’ Chaotix (SEGA, 1995), is criminally under-rated, under-looked, and under-valued for its appeal and, considering SEGA loves to port and re-release their classic titles, it literally boggles my mind that we haven’t seen anything from this game in decades. The only thing holding it back from a full-blown replay is the dodgy controls (well, that and that unreliability of the ROM I have…); even when using a trackball, the game is difficult to control but, with analogue controls better and more sensitive than ever, I could see this game being a nice distracting for an hour or so if SEGA were to spruce it up and re-release it.
What do you think of SEGASonic the Hedgehog? What was your favourite of Sonic’s short-lived arcade games? Did you ever go to SEGA World in London? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Released: May 1994 Developer: Virgin Games USA Also Available For: Game Gear, Master System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and Game Boy
The Background: One of the greatest things about comic books published in the nineties was that the sky was, seemingly, the limit for plots, crossovers, and all kinds of stories to be told. Thanks to Dark Horse Comics snapping up the rights to some of the biggest science-fiction/horror franchises of the time, we got to see not only the likes of Aliens vs. Predator but also the cybernetic clash you always wanted to see in a movie but never got, RoboCop Versus The Terminator (Miller, et al, 1992). Given that the comic was written some time before Frank Miller flushed his reputation down the toilet with The Dark Knight Strikes Back (2001 to 2002), the RoboCop Versus The Terminator was relatively well-written, action-packed fun. The general premise was that RoboCop’s artificial intelligence (A.I.) formed the basis of the world-killing Skynet, which sent Terminators back through time to protect him and ensure its survival. Cue a time-line hopping, reality-bending story that sees RoboCop reduced to his digital consciousness, construct a fully robotic body, and travel back in time to destroy Skynet once and for all. It’s a pretty mental comic but, like Aliens vs. Predator, a fantastic concept that, apparently, had enough legs to warrant a videogame released on a number of consoles. I had owned and played the Master System version for years but, once I set my literal come corner up in my cabin, I knew that I had to track down the superior Mega Drive version.
The Plot: Unwittingly responsible for the creation of Skynet, RoboCop must battle from the streets of Detroit, to the offices of Cyberdyne, to a war-ravaged future eradicating the Terminator threat and freeing hostages as he goes to ensure a future free from Skynet’s influence.
Gameplay: Like the majority of videogames based on the RoboCop (Various, 1987 to present) and Terminator (Various, 1984 to present) movies, RoboCop Versus The Terminator is a side-scrolling action shooter with light platforming elements. Unlike the Alien vs. Predator (Capcom, 1994) arcade game, this is a strictly one-player experience that sees the player control RoboCop, who must blast his way through about ten levels taking out the likes of regular street thugs and Terminator alike. As much as I love RoboCop, he’s always a terrible character to control and play as; even in the excellent RoboCop (Data East, 1987) arcade game he was a slow, plodding hunk of metal and it’s more of the same here. RoboCop lumbers his way through levels at a steady pace, hopping half-heartedly to platforms (and, amusingly, monkeying his way across lines and pipes) and struggling to dodge incoming fire. While this is obviously a realistic way to portray RoboCop (who, despite being a massive efficient combat shooter, has never been the most versatile of sci-fi cyborgs), it does mean you can’t just plough ahead guns blazing.
RoboCop has a real weight to him.
Instead, it’s best to hang back and keep an eye on enemy projectiles, ducking and hopping out of the way as best you can considering RoboCop’s massive hit box. Thankfully, many of the game’s environments are destructible and will yield all kinds of goodies, from baby food that will restore Robo’s health to extra lives and weapons. There are also loads of secret rooms to be found that hold similar rewards, encouraging exploration. RoboCop is armed with his trademark Auto-9 handgun and can fire in multiple directions; this alone is more than enough to take out most of the enemies he’ll come up against but, if you get up close to enemies, you can also punch them, and you can acquire bigger, better weapons as you make your way through the game’s levels. You can switch between these with a button press but, once your health is drained and you lose a life, you’ll lose one of your weapons until you return to the default Auto-9. the good news is that RoboCop can take a fair amount of damage and will return to action right on the spot where he fell, but the bad news is that it doesn’t take much to drain Robo’s health and there are a few occasions where environmental hazards (like vats of toxic waste or flaming pits) will instantly kill RoboCop.
Rescue hostages to refill health and score points.
While RoboCop is generally given simple objectives (like cleaning up the streets or destroying the Terminator threat), some levels will see him having to rescue a number of hostages. Upon being rescued, a portion of Robo’s health will be restored, which is helpful; also helpful is that it doesn’t appear to be a requirement to clearing the level to rescue these hostages; when you see them, you can touch them to rescue them but I never reached the end of a level and was told I’d failed or was forced to go back and save any hostages I’d missed, so it’s more about gaining health and points than a level-clearing obligation. Yes, like pretty much every videogame ever made, there’s a nice little score tally at the bottom of the screen that’ll increase as you take out enemies, rescue hostages, and collect items. Earn enough points and you’ll gain an extra life, which you’ll need as the game ramps up in difficulty as you progress from the thug-infested streets of Detroit to the robot-infested headquarters of the killer A.I. known as Skynet. It’s around this point that you’ll struggle a bit with RoboCop’s controls, hit box, and clunkiness; Terminators of all shapes and sizes (from the traditional T-800s, to the robotic endoskeletons, to spider-like drones and wall-and-ceiling-mounted cannons) will unleash a hailstorm of projectiles your way and you’ll need all of your best weapons and skills to make it through the game’s bullet sponge of a final boss.
Graphics and Sound: Coming off of the Master System version (which, honestly, isn’t too and compared to some Master System ports), RoboCop Versus The Terminator boasts some gorgeous in-game graphics. RoboCop and his various enemies are big, fantastically-detailed sprites; while this does mean they have large hit boxes, it makes for some impressive, arcade-quality graphics.
Come for the cyborgs, stay for the gore!
One of the most enjoyable things about RoboCop Versus The Terminator is the copious amounts of gore it contains; when you blast away thugs, they explode in a bloody mess and it’s absolutely glorious. You’ll miss these effects once the Terminators begin to take precedence as the game’s primary enemies but, even then, you’ll see the T-800’s skin degenerate until only the endoskeleton is left, which is a nice addition. Alongside a few choice sound bites from the first RoboCop movie, the game features a techno-inspired soundtrack with a lot of beats and rocking bass; there’s some odd choices, like a sultry voice blurting out “Terminator!” every ten seconds or so but, while the game doesn’t feature either of the iconic themes from the two franchises, its techno-inspired beats seem heavily inspired by both.
Enemies and Bosses: RoboCop will initially face little resistance from the street thugs of Detroit; they’ll shoot at him, sometimes from behind windows, and get in his way but they’re small fry and easily dispatched with a single shot.
The T-800’s façade can be destroyed, revealing the robotic endoskeleton.
At the end of the second level, though, RoboCop comes face-to-face with a T-800 Terminator modelled closely on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s appearance from the end of the first film and the majority of the second. As a boss, this guy obviously takes more hits, degenerating from a fully clothed and skinned appearance to the iconic Terminator endoskeleton as the battle progresses. After this, similar Terminators will begin to appear as regular enemies; the Arnold models will take around three hits to put down (one to blast away the façade and two to destroy the endoskeleton) while the endoskeletons will take around two. Smaller Terminator drones also show up to spew projectiles at you as you journey deeper into the future and Skynet, but you’ll also encounter red Terminators, which are endoskeletons that take even more hits to put down.
You’ll also battle some classic RoboCop enemies, thoughSkynet is a giant floating skull…
You’ll also battle some iconic RoboCop bosses, such as ED-209 and (rather inexplicably) RoboCop 2 (or “RoboCain”), each of which are guarding the facilities and offices or RoboCop’s megalomaniacal creators, Omni Consumer Products (OCP). Once RoboCop travels to the war-torn future, he’ll battle bosses such as Terminator-controlled gatling guns, super-powered endoskeletons, and Skynet itself. Skynet is represented as a giant floating endoskeleton head that tosses small drones and projectiles at you while endoskeletons march in from either the left or the right side of the screen. This final battle is, honestly, a little underwhelming (though, honestly, most of the game’s bosses are after the first few and you’ve finished with RoboCain and Ed-209); you’ll have your work cut out for you to dodge all of the projectiles it throws at you and to unload enough bullets to finally do it in but I can’t help but feel the game missed out by not including a T-1000 battle or a final boss more reminiscent of the giant liquid metal T-1000000 spider from T2-3D: Battle Across Time (Cameron, Bruno, and Winston, 1996).
Power-Ups and Bonuses: As mentioned, there are a variety of power-ups RoboCop can collect as he explores (and destroys) each level; baby food will replenish his health, little RoboCop heads will grant an extra life, and shields will grant RoboCop a generous period of invincibility. Most notably, though, RoboCop can acquire a variety of bigger, better guns which will dramatically increase his odds of survival; we’ve got everything from a traditional three-way spread to a grenade launcher, to homing missiles and a laser pistol. You can also grab one of ED-209’s arm cannons from a rapid fire burst, which is a pretty great little bonus; you can grab one of these during the boss battle with ED-209 but they do crop up in secret rooms and other areas of the game, too,
Additional Features: There are three difficulty settings to pick from, each one carries a different set of lives, continues, and affects the amount of damage RoboCop can take. If you play on the hardest setting, enemies will be much more aggressive and the arrows that show you the way to go will also be missing. Aside from that, the only real incentive to replay again is to find all the secret rooms. As with all great old school games like this, there are a variety of cheats you can input that will grant you a whole bunch of lives and let you pick from all the available weapons. Unfortunately, though, you can only play as RoboCop; the narrative is geared in a way where Robo is the hero and the Terminators are the enemy but it might have been nice to see a mode where you play as a reprogrammed T-800.
The Summary: RoboCop Versus The Terminator is a blast to play; while RoboCop is a clunky and cumbersome videogame protagonist at the best of times, you really get the sense that you’re playing as RoboCop and his quick-firing weapon and variety of additional armaments more than makes up for his heavy, stilted control. It also helps that there’s not many cheap deaths here; projectiles can come at you quickly but each enemy has a specific pattern that you can learn and exploit and, given the generous amount of health and power-ups on offer, there are instances when it’s okay to plough ahead guns blazing. Some levels can be a bit of a maze but, other than that, it’s worth it for the gore and the joy of seeing RoboCop punch a Terminator right in the face.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Pretty Good
What did you think of RoboCop Versus The Terminator? What is your favourite RoboCop or Terminator videogame? What did you think of Frank Miller’s comic book? Do you think we missed out on seeing these two sci-fi icons clash on the big screen? Whatever you think, feel free to leave a comment below.
Released: March 2012 Originally Released: November 1994 Developer: M2 Original Developer: Aspect Also Available For: Game Gear, Gamecube, and PlayStation 2
The Background: A lot of people forget that, alongside Sonic the Hedgehog’s iconic and much-lauded Mega Drive titles, SEGA also released a fair few Sonic videogames for their 8-bit consoles. The 8-bit versions of Sonic the Hedgehog(Ancient, 1991) and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Aspect, 1992) differed considerably from the 16-bit counterparts, featuring entirely different Zones, gameplay gimmicks, and features. While Sonic 2 had almost nothing in common with its bigger, better brother, Sonic the Hedgehog Chaos (ibid, 1993) represented Aspect’s first real attempt at a completely original Sonic title. Released in Japan as Sonic & Tails, Sonic Chaos was a major step up from the first 8-bit Sonic, featuring a playable version of Miles “Tails” Prower, bigger and better graphics, and many other upgrades that left its 8-bit predecessors in the dust. After SEGA switched their focus entirely to the Mega Drive, Triple Trouble and all subsequent 8-bit Sonic titles were released exclusively on the Game Gear.
The Plot: The diabolical Doctor Eggman scatters the Chaos Emeralds across the world but secures one for himself and tricks Sonic’s friendly rival, Knuckles the Echidna, into tracking the remaining gems. However, Nack the Weasel (known as Fang the Sniper in Japan) is hording the Emeralds inside the Special Stages, resulting in Sonic and Tails facing all three in their quest to recover the Chaos Emeralds.
Gameplay: Like its predecessors, Triple Trouble is a sidescrolling, 2D platformer based on speed. Of all the 8-bit Sonic titles, this is easily the biggest and the fastest; players can choose to play as either Sonic or Tails and journey through the game’s six Zones and each plays a little differently.
Run or fly through Zones as Sonic or Tailsand tackle a variety of Special Stages.
Both characters can run, jump, and spin as normal and enter a Spindash by pressing down and A; pressing up and A as Sonic allows him to perform the Strike Dash, a version of the Peel-Out, to blast ahead at full speed. Tails, however, flies instead of performing a Strike Dash and, unlike in Sonic Chaos, Tails can actually access the Special Stages and collect the Chaos Emeralds. Speaking of which, like all 8-bit Sonic titles, Triple Trouble features a unique way of accessing the Special Stages; players must first collect fifty Golden Rings, locate and smash open a Chaos Emerald monitor, then enter the sparkling warp to challenge Nack for a Chaos Emerald. Like Sonic Chaos, each Special Stage offers a different challenge, including bouncing around collecting Rings, piloting the Tornado bi-plane, or navigating a maze.
Nack acts like a tough guy but is really a pushover.
At the end of each Special Stage, they then battle against Nack, who shows up sporadically throughout Triple Trouble to cause Sonic or Tails headaches, similar to Knuckles in Sonic 3. Despite his cool and unique character design, Nack is more a buffoon and an annoyance than an actual challenge, however. Triple Trouble’s Zones borrow heavily from other Sonic titles and yet still manage to stay relatively unique; Tidal Plant Zone has more than a passing resemblance to Sonic the Hedgehog CD(ibid, 1993)’s Tidal Tempest, for example, and Atomic Destroyer Zone is like a combination of Sonic & Knuckles’(SEGA Technical Institute, 1994) Death Egg Zone and 8-bit Sonic 2’s Scrambled Egg Zone thanks to its abundance of maze-like tubes. Oddly, Triple Trouble features a large number, and dependence upon, springs; the first Zone, Great Turquoise Zone, is chock full of them (they’re on the trees, the ground, and even the Badniks!) and one of the main things you’ll find yourself doing when playing Triple Trouble is bouncing around on springs and other bouncy hazards, fighting with the stiff controls to get Sonic or Tails back on track. Being that it’s an 8-bit title, Triple Trouble lacks some of the polish of its 16-bit counterparts but, saying that, its 8-bit predecessors felt a bit easier to handle. Here, Sonic jutters along, refusing to change direction mid-air, and feels sluggish and weighed down, making precise platforming difficult. This is a bit of an issue when trying to explore Zones for those elusive Chaos Emerald monitors and when tackling the Special Stages but, for a simple pick-up-and-play title, isn’t a major handicap, especially as there’s not much in the way of bottomless pits or cheap deaths.
Graphics and Sound: As mentioned before, Triple Trouble is probably the best looking 8-bit Sonic title. The sprites are large and full of character and the Zones and environments are bright and lively. Of all the 8-bit Sonic titles, this comes the closest to matching its 16-bit counterparts, particularly by evoking the same sense of fun and adventure found in Sonic 3.
You may recognise Triple Trouble‘s aesthetic.
What lets the game down, however, is the sound. As it was originally developed for the Game Gear, sounds are muddy and distorted, as though they’re playing underwater. The game’s music is catchy enough and fits perfectly but collecting Rings or smashing Badniks lacks the usual oomph I expect from a Sonic title.
Enemies and Bosses: Triple Trouble features the usual mechanised enemies we’ve all come to expect from a Sonic title, especially one from his heyday; Badniks range from robotic snails with springs on their shells to exploding penguins. Most are easily destroyed by simply spinning into them but there’s a fair few Badniks here that cannot be destroyed, which prove especially annoying when you run face-first into them and then stutter down to a lower level thanks to the game’s janky knock-back feature.
Bosses aren’t lacking in variety, although Dr. Eggman ends up being a bit of a pushover.
Like in the 8-bit Sonic 2 and Sonic Chaos, bosses consist, for the most part, of giant Badniks (such as a giant flying turtles and a bomb-spewing, rocket-powered penguin). However, Sonic and Tails also have to battle Knuckles, who fires bombs and rockets from a cute little vehicle, Nack (who bounces around in a funky spring-loaded contraption), Metal Sonic (in a variation of the iconic battle from Sonic CD), and, of course, Doctor Eggman. Sonic or Tails won’t battle Eggman until the game’s finale, however. This boss battle has three stages but there isn’t much to it; you simply ram his machine until it explodes and transitions to the next phase and, in the final stage (which is eerily reminiscent of the final bosses from the first two 8-bit Sonic titles), you dodge some lightning and smash him as he cycles around a tube.
Power-Ups and Bonuses: Like all Sonic titles, Sonic and Tails can smash monitors to aid their progress; they can get an extra ten Rings, a speed boost from the Power Sneakers, an invincibility, hit a checkpoint, or gain extra lives as standard but can also access some additional items.
Triple Trouble has some fun, unique power-ups, including Tails’s cute little submarine!
There’s a snowboard that lets Sonic cut through the Robotnik Winter Zone with ease, Propeller Shoes that allow him to navigate underwater, Rocket Shoes to allow him to burn through the sky, and a Pogo Spring because…there aren’t enough springs in the game already. These last two popped up in Sonic Chaos as well but it’s nice to see them return here and it’s a welcome change to the usual shield power-ups. Sonic doesn’t get all the toys, though, as Tails can jump into the Sea Fox to navigate through Tidal Plant Zone without the need for air bubbles. Since he doesn’t need to Rocket Shoes, he can also grab the Hyper Heli-Tails to increase the duration of his flying ability. Additionally, players won’t lose all of their Rings when hit; instead, they’ll only lose thirty Rings, which makes playing through Triple Trouble much easier compared to the first to 8-bit Sonic titles where Sonic couldn’t even collect the Rings he lost.
Additional Features: There isn’t much else in Triple Trouble; obviously, as with the majority of Sonic titles, the ultimate goal is to collect all of the Chaos Emeralds to receive the game’s best ending but this doesn’t offer any reward other than not being told to “Try again”. There’s no Super Sonic here, no two player mode, and you cannot unlock Knuckles or anything like that. It’s a very simple, one-player experience with the minimum of effort being asked of you. The Virtual Console version, however, offers a few extra features; you can create a save point (which is quite handy if you need to stop playing but you only get one save), change the aspect ratio of the display, and fiddle about with a few other minor settings but that’s about it. For such an ambitious 8-bit Sonic title, it remains as bare bones as all 8-bit Sonic videogames were back in the day.
The Summary: Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble is decent enough, for the most part; Zones are bright, vibrant, and easy to blast through, Sonic has never looked better in 8-bit, and there’s a decent amount of variety and challenge on offer. However, for as much as Triple Trouble outpaces its 8-bit predecessors, it’s still an 8-bit title; the controls are clunky and unresponsive, the knock-back from damage is a pain in the ass, and sound effects are distorted. Similar to the Game Gear version of Sonic 2, the screen is zoomed in quite a bit as well, which means you’re never quite sure what you’re running into. Overall, I enjoyed the game; it was probably the best 8-bit Sonic game of the bunch, but it’s still far from perfect. I loved Nack and how he was worked into the game, even if he was, technically, just a rip off of Knuckles, and it’s a shame that he hasn’t been brought back in a similarly high profile role. Honestly, I’d love to see this game get a proper, Sonic Mania (PagodaWest Games/Headcannon, 2017) style remake (alongside, or as part of, it’s other 8-bit brothers) but it seems like SEGA and Sonic Team and happy to let their 8-bit/handheld Sonic titles fade into obscurity, which is a shame really.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Pretty Good
What were your experiences with Triple Trouble? Do you also long for Nack’s return to the franchise? What did you think of Sonic’s other 8-bit outings? Drop a line in the comments to let me know.
One of the great things about adaptations, and adaptation studies, is that they both:
“[continue] to expand and become more inclusive […] it is increasingly difficult to determine a cohesive theory that accounts for the division between adaptation and other intertextual modes: allusions, plagiarisms, remakes, sequels, homages, mash-ups, appropriations, and the list goes on” (Dicecco, 2015: 161)
This quote sums up perfectly what makes adaptation studies so interesting; adaptations can be anything and are restricted only by the scope of your imagination and your commitment to researching the links between media.
While researching the theories of Nico Dicecco (and his contemporaries) during my PhD, I chose to focus on the adaptation of videogames into movies, television shows, cartoons, and comic books. This was primarily because it’s a lot easier to talk about media that is adapted into film and there hadn’t really been any serious research into videogame adaptations at that time. I’ve previously talked about how my studies into the Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic Team/Various, 1991 to present) franchise revealed that Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball (Polygames/SEGA Technical Institute, 1993) heavily influenced multiple Sonic adaptations over the years but there has been another Sonic videogame that has made multiple jumps to other media.
Today, I’m once again returning to one of my favourite Sonic videogames, Sonic Adventure (Sonic Team, 1998), Sonic’s first real foray into 3D gameplay and a title that focused on multiple characters and gameplay mechanics, a far deeper narrative than the franchise had experienced in a videogame before, and functioned as both a consolidation of Sonic’s competing iterations and a “soft reboot” for the franchise, due its use of “slight changes to be made without having to completely scrap the franchise and start over” (Bancroft, 2015).
I can’t praise this game’s variety enough!
Coming after a long absence from a main series Sonic title (and at a time when SEGA were almost haemorrhaging money thanks to failures like the Mega-CD and SEGA 32X), Sonic Adventure became “the best-selling Dreamcast game of all time, with almost two and a half million copies sold”. (Pétronille and Audureau, 2012: 70). It reinvigorated the Sonic franchise in a way that I think has been forgotten over time; while the game may have had its flaws, it successfully revitalised Sonic and led to a string of successful sequels and follow-ups. While these weren’t enough to curb SEGA’s financial woes, the success and impact of Sonic Adventure led to a shift in Sonic’s gameplay, narrative, and aesthetic direction; rather than racing along a 2D plane, players now ran along at break-neck speeds in fully 3D environments that were designed more like rollercoasters. Sonic was now “Taller, slimmer and somehow spikier”, his friendliness replaced with “an anime-style cool” (Jones, et al, 2011: 31), and his narrative was far darker and more mature than his bright, psychedelic 2D titles. Perhaps the most significant impact of Sonic Adventure came through Sonic Team eventually stripping away all other playstyles to focus purely on Sonic’s speed, an aspect that largely led to the development of the Boost-orientated gameplay of modern Sonic titles.
Surely this can’t be a coincidence?
One thing to note before I delve into the main focus of this article is how the adaptation process appears to have worked both ways with Sonic Adventure. Many elements from Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie(Ikegami, 1996) are recognisable in Sonic Adventure, such as Tails’ workshop on South Island, the appearance of cities and structures that mirror those of our world, and a lot of Doctor Robotnik’s (Edwin Neal) personality and technology. For me, the Sonic OVA is clearly a precursor to Sonic Adventure’s attempt to leave behind Mobius and show him as an adventure-seeking teenager in a world not too dissimilar to our own (though I still pray for the day when his characterisation matches the snarky attitude of his OVA counterpart). Sonic Adventure didn’t just impact Sonic’s videogames, however; by 1999, Archie’s Sonic the Hedgehog comic books had developed into a continuation of the fan favourite Sonic the Hedgehog (1993 to 1995, more commonly referred to as “SatAM”) cartoon, infusing characters and events from the videogames into its narrative. With this in mind (and, possibly, in keeping with SEGA’s desire to create a homogeneous version of Sonic), it was inevitable that Sonic Adventure would feature in these comics before long.
Robo-Robotnik soon replaced his organic counterpart as “the Eggman”.
Sonic Adventures’ influence began slowly but, in keeping with the increasingly-convoluted narrative of the comics at the time, was complex to the nth degree. First, the Archie team crafted an elaborate story to explain why Sonic now looked like his Sonic Adventure counterpart: ‘Retro Activity’ (Bollers, et al, 1999) not only showed how Sonic transformed from his pudgy, classic look to this edgier aesthetic by racing against a destructive energy beam so fast that he cycled through his various Super forms, but it told this story backwards! If you thought that was bad, though, the lengths they went to to explain Robotnik’s transformation into his Sonic Adventure counterpart, Doctor Eggman, were even worse! So, in ‘Endgame, Part 4: For Whom the Bell Tolls’ (ibid, 1998), Sonic finally destroyed Robotnik forever in a fight to the death involving his latest doomsday weapon, the Ultimate Annihilator. However, it is dramatically revealed in ‘I Am the Eggman!’ (ibid, 1999) that Robotnik has returned…in the form of his fully-robotic, alternate-universe counterpart, Robo-Robotnik. Though seemingly destroyed in that story, the issue ends with Robo-Robotnik downloading his consciousness into a body that is identical to his Sonic Adventure design; “Eggman” (for a long time “The Eggman”) would quickly become a derogatory nickname used to describe Robotnik until the madness was smoothed over by massive continuity changes much later down the line. The Sonic Adventure tie-in officially began with ‘The Discovery: A Sonic Adventure Tie-In’ (ibid), in which Sonic and the Knothole Freedom Fighters first learn about the “hidden city of the ancients”. Robotnik also learns of an ancient beast known as “Perfect Chaos” hidden within not the Master Emerald (…as that was where Mammoth Mogul was imprisoned) but the “Black Emerald”. Unearthing the Black Emerald in the Mysterious Cat Country, Robotnik discovers that it is severely depowered and promptly leads and assault on Floating Island to smash the Master Emerald in order to repower the Black Emerald.
Two issues in and I’ve already lost the plot!
After being denied the chance to accompany the Freedom Fighters, Amy Rose uses the magical “Ring of Acorns” wish herself into a more mature body in the follow-up story, ‘If Wishes Were Acorns’ (ibid), one that (you guessed it) is identical to her Sonic Adventure appearance. The Freedom Fighters then travel to the hidden city, which is located beneath an island (that is an almost exact replica of the OVA’s South Island) and accessed via a Mystic Ruins mine cart. A back-up story, ‘Swallowing Trouble’ (Penders, et al, 1999), introduces Archie’s readers to Big the Cat; his peaceful existence is disrupted when Froggy (who articulates through thought bubbles) swallows a piece of Chaos, grows a tail, and is promptly kidnapped by E-102γ (also known simply as “Gamma”). In the next issue, ‘City of Dreams’ (Bollers, et al, 1999) shows Sonic and friends exploring the hidden city, which is Station Square from the videogame and populated entirely by humans (who are different from “Overlanders”, the mostly-extinct human-like species that once waged war on Mobius), and sustained by an “artificial environment” (…that includes a sky, apparently).
Things pick up with this Sonic’s battle against Chaos 0.
While they end the story making good progress in establishing diplomatic relations with the humans, the two back-up stories show Robotnik sending his E-series robots out to find more Master Emerald fragments to empower Chaos and Amy rescuing an injured bird from ZERO. Interestingly, while Archie bent over backwards to explain the characters new look, they simply have Amy’s Piko-Piko Hammer appear out of thin air with no explanation; even she is shocked to see it! Things finally pick up in the next issue’s ‘Night of Chaos!’ (ibid), which recreates (with amazing fidelity) the first encounter and battle between Sonic and Chaos 0. The back-up stories introduce Tikal to the story, as she relates to Knuckles her history (meeting and befriending Chaos and the destruction of her tribe when her father, Pachamac, tried to forcibly take the seven Chaos Emeralds from its shrine), how Robotnik finalised Chaos’ 0 form by infusing it with Froggy, and recreates the beginning of Gamma’s story by showing it pass a training drill and release Amy and her bird friend (here clearly identified as a Flicky) after overcoming its programming and gaining a modicum of sentience.
Archie recreated Perfect Chaos’ birth in stunning detail.
Archie followed this up with a 48-page ‘Super Sonic Special’ that rapidly told Sonic Adventure’s familiar story beats: Sonic, Miles “Tails” Prower, and Knuckles battle Chaos 2 and 4 after Robotnik feeds it shards of the Master Emerald; Big, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles end up on the Egg Carrier; there’s a tussle with Gamma (where Amy spares it from destruction) and they fight Chaos 6, destroying the Egg Carrier in the process. The adaptation continues in the next regular issue; in here, Knuckles discovers “the Eggman” unconscious in the Mystic Ruins and Chaos, still alive, blasts through the land as a tornado, absorbing the six Super Emeralds, and transforms into Perfect Chaos, flooding Station Square (and attaching itself to the Power Siphon that control’s the city’s environment) exactly as it does in the opening and Super Sonic story of Sonic Adventure. Perfect Chaos destroys the Egg Carrier then, after learning a bit more from Tikal, Sonic uses the Emerald’s to transform into Super Sonic and engage Perfect Chaos. It’s around about at this point that the story stops creating its own dialogue and starts lifting lines directly from Sonic Adventure but, considering the quality of Archie’s writing back then, I would necessarily say that this is a bad thing. The story finally comes to a conclusion in issue 84’s ‘Perfect Chaos’ (Penders, et al, 1999), in which Super Sonic struggles to subdue Perfect Chaos while Knuckles overcomes his fear of water and uses his immense strength to restart the city’s power generator (tapping into his latent Emerald powers for the first time, which would later significantly change his appearance and powers). This, coupled with Super Sonic’s attack, is enough to revert Perfect Chaos back to Chaos 0. At peace once more, Chaos and Tikal return “to the Zone [where they] belong” and the threat is finally ended (…once again glossing over the untold death and destruction in Station Square).
Archie lore was dense enough before they wedged in Sonic Adventure.
Archie’s Sonic Adventure adaptation is one of the few times they actually crafted a long-running narrative out of a videogame story; normally, they just produced one-shots or sort stories that briefly (and very loosely and awkwardly) spliced the game’s story into their own convoluted narrative. The incorporation of Sonic Adventure’s narrative was especially difficult given that several key elements had to be changed due to them clashing with Archie’s lore; Chaos’ origin and imprisonment, for one, and the weird way they introduced Station Square for another, to say nothing of how the entire Echidna backstory struggled to fit in with the messed up narrative crafted by the notorious Ken Penders. Nevertheless, this was, perhaps, the closest Archie Comics got to a straight-up, beat-by-beat adaptation of a videogame; they made it easier on themselves in the future by generally just adapting the opening portions of a game and leaving a dialogue box that said something like “Play the game to find out the rest” and then vaguely referring to the game’s events in subsequent stories. Here, though, we got lines from the game, locations, notable boss battles, and hit almost every story beat from the game no matter how at odds it was with the world Archie had created for their version of Sonic.
Chaos cripples with its fear aura and alters Sonic’s look.
Over here in the United Kingdom, Fleetway’s Sonic the Comic (1993 to 2002, referred to as “StC”) was a little late to the party with their Sonic Adventure adaptation; like Archie, Fleetway had established their own, separate lore for Sonic and his friends, one that “felt” closer to the videogames but was still distinctly separate from it. Previously, their adaptations of Sonic videogames had tended to be multi-part stories that took the game’s characters and the vague outline of its plot and applied them to their unique narrative and Sonic Adventure was no different. The arc began in issue 175’s ‘The Coming of Chaos!’ (Kitching , et al, 2000), in which Sonic and his friends race out to confront StC’s version of Chaos 0 in Metropolis City Zone. This battle, which is a truncated version of the first boss fight with Chaos 0, showcases that StC’s Chaos exudes an aura that cripples its foes with feelings of utter dread. Headstrong and arrogant as always, Sonic attacks Chaos head-on regardless and manages to fend it off but is left with glowing green eyes and jagged spikes. In the following issue, it is revealed that Robotnik’s assistant, Grimer, unleashed Chaos in the hopes of destroying Sonic and his friends and shaking Robotnik out of the slump he had found himself in after multiple defeats. However, Robotnik reveals that Chaos is truly uncontrollable and that, by setting it free, Grimer has “doomed the entire planet”.
Defeating Chaos extracts a heavy price.
Meanwhile, Sonic’s tech buddy Porker Lewis arrives; he’s (somehow) discovered that it’s made up of Chaos energy and has whipped up a device to defeat it but Sonic, already weakened from his earlier tussle with the creature, is unable to fight through its fear-inducing aura to complete the process. Luckily, Johnny Lightfoot steps in to lend a hand but, while he succeeds and Chaos is seemingly defeated, he dies in the process! Yep, a kids comic actually killed off a beloved, long-time character and not just any kids comic, a Sonic comic! Up until this point, death had largely been a stranger to StC’s stories; characters were used as batteries for Robotnik’s Badniks or turned to stone, or trapped for all eternity (…for a while), but they had never died before! StC hammered home that Johnny was actually, really, 100% dead in the following issue, where the guilt and shame of having recklessly led his friends into danger causes Sonic to quit the entire thing. However, Chaos reappears the Floating Island’s Emerald Chamber, now able to talk and state its intentions: it claims ownership of the Chaos Emeralds and desires to absorb their power. Knuckles is left with no choice but the jettison the Emeralds in the following story, ‘Splash-Down!’ (ibid), which causes the Floating Island to crash and sink into the sea. There’s an interesting wrinkle here where Knuckles, despondent at his actions, resigns himself to facing the same fate as his ancestral home and has to be coerced by Amy (and a good knock on the head) to avoid killing himself.
Tikal raised new questions about StC-Knuckles…
Also in this story, rather than going through a whole complicated mess involving robotic counterparts and body swapping, Robotnik simply…puts on a jacket so he resembles his Sonic Adventure design. I find this doubly amusing and ironic considering the lengths StC went to to show Robotnik transforming from his classic design to his Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (1993) look. Oh, and Sonic just…comes back at the end of the story, ready to jump into the fray once more. In the next issue’s story, ‘Out of Time!’ (Kitching, et al, 2000), Porker continues to obsess over Sonic’s green eyes and the Chaos energy he apparently absorbed from battling Chaos. This turns out to be a pretty big deal as Sonic is the only one who can see Tikal when she suddenly appears and promptly zaps him 8,000 years into the past. This (and the subsequent issue) is also where StC loops Sonic Adventure’s lore into their own narrative regarding Knuckles’ past; we learn not only that Knuckles existed in the distant past (a plot thread that wouldn’t be resolved until StC was continued online) but also that the extra-dimensional Drakon Empire (who had previously attempted to invade Mobius) were involved in Chaos’ origin. After defeating a Drakon Prosecutor, revealing the heavily-armoured warriors to be mutated fish in armoured shells, Sonic chats with Tikal’s father, “Pochacamac”, who reveals that the Echidnas stole the seven Chaos Emeralds (and the Master Emerald) from the Drakon Empire after they invaded the Echidna’s sacred Emerald Mines and infused the gems with their patented Chaos energy.
StC gave Chaos a completely new origin.
During a battle with Drakon Prosecutors in which a stray energy blasts hits the Emeralds and causes their powers to surge out of control, the Drakon Sonic had previously defeated is released from its prison and fuses with the Emeralds to transform into Chaos. Sonic attempts to get revenge for Johnny in the following issue but is transported back to the future in order to weaken Chaos enough for past Knuckles to do…something to imprison Chaos. Sonic returns to the present just as Chaos arrives at Robotnik’s mountaintop fortress, where Robotnik gathered the Chaos Emeralds in order to lure it in…though he does this merely to have a front row seat to the end of not only Sonic and his friends, but the entire world. All hope seems lost in ‘Perfect Chaos!’ (ibid) when Chaos absorbs the power of the Chaos Emeralds and transforms into Perfect Chaos (which actually more closely resembles Chaos 6) until a severely weakened and dying Super Sonic arrives. How, I gave Archie flack for how complicated some of their stories were so I guess it’s only fair to deviate here to explain this a bit. In StC, Sonic absorbed a huge amount of Chaos energy a long time ago; this lay dormant in him for years and, whenever under extreme stress or driven to severe rage, he would transform into Super Sonic. StC Super Sonic was an uncontrollable, rage-filled, super-powered demon with maniacal eyes who could shoot energy blasts, fly at incredible speeds, and was all-but-invulnerable. However, Sonic’s friends eventually found a way to separate Super Sonic from him and imprisoned the demon within a time dilation of sorts. Super Sonic did eventually escape but the effort drained his power so much that he eventually lost his memory and became a confused, but harmless, individual.
Chaos, and Super Sonic, are both defeated, ending both the story and StC.
Sonic’s fears regarding his demonic counterpart are realised in the finale of the Sonic Adventure arc, ‘Point of no Return!’ (ibid), in which Super successfully drains Perfect Chaos of all its energy and regresses it back to a harmless Drakon fish. The Chaos energy returns Super’s memories and powers and he attacks everyone, intending to kill them all, and begins to drain the life energy out of Sonic. However, Super’s friend, Ebony, uses her magical powers to fuse Super and Sonic back into one being again. Grimer quits Robotnik’s employ, disgusted at his lackadaisical attitude to what looked to be the end of the world, and the story ends with Sonic and his friends triumphant. Sadly, the Sonic Adventure arc would be the last time StC ran original Sonic stories in their comics; for a while, the comics had consistently largely of reprints of old stories, even though the writers could have done what Archie did and used the extra pages to tell back-up tales to expand the story rather than rushing through everything in the main Sonic strips.
StC didn’t really give these guys anything to do in this arc…
Compared to the Archie adaptation, StC’s interpretation of Sonic Adventure is not only rushed but has some pretty weak connections to its source material. The characters never visit any of the locations from the game, Chaos is significantly different (though, in some ways, better; its “fear aura” was a nice inclusion with a lot of potential), Big is reduced to a throwaway, one panel cameo, Gamma doesn’t appear at all, and neither Tails or Amy have anything near the significance of the roles they played in the game. While Knuckles plays a vital part, he’s far more hands-off than in Archie (and the videogame), and Robotnik barely features at all (though this does make sense considering where the character was, mentally, at the time). If Fleetway had been able to use every page of their issues to tell this story, it probably would have landed much better; while I don’t doubt that they still would have sought to slot Sonic Adventure’s canon into their own as best as they could, at least e could have seen a five page back-up story featuring Knuckles, or Big, or anyone. Instead, it’s a very poor effort; StC did a pretty good job of telling stories heavily influenced by the videogames in the past but, by the point, the comic was on its last legs so I guess we were lucky to get anything.
Sonic X weaved the game’s story into its lore and mixed it up a bit.
Chaos would go on to sporadically appear in Archie Comics as it continued on, even when the license switched over to IDW Publishing, but it also notably appeared in Sonic X (2003 to 2006) when the anime did its own six-part adaptation of Sonic Adventure. Before I get into that, though, I just want to briefly mention Sonic Underground (1999), the oft-lambasted follow-up to SatAM that, for all its faults, at least featured Knuckles (Brian Drummond). There’s a couple of points in the series where characters refer to “Chaos” as being the destructor of Mobius and, in ‘New Echidna in Town’ (Boreal, et al, 1999) Chaos Energy transforms Dingo (Peter Wilds) into a mindless beast, Chaos Dingo, who takes on a malleable form. While this link to Sonic Adventure is tenuous at best (made all the more so by Sonic Underground’s dramatic departure from all Sonic lore), it’s still an interesting connection to make. Despite looking fantastic due to its anime aesthetic, Sonic X was a bit of a disappointment when it first started for a variety of reasons: Sonic (Jason Griffith) is largely lethargic, preferring to spend his days taking naps or smelling flowers, and all of his iconic friends are pushed to the side to make way for Chris Thorndyke (Michael Sinterniklaas) and a host of other human characters forced into the show when Sonic and the others are transported from their world to Earth. However, for me at least, things started to pick up near the end of the first season and with the episode ‘Pure Chaos’ (Kamegaki, 2004), which kick-started the Sonic Adventure saga with Froggy swallowing a Chaos Emerald, Dr. Eggman (Mike Pollock) launching the Egg Carrier, and Sonic and Knuckles (Dan Green) battling Chaos 1 and 2. Straight away, Sonic X is ahead of the curve simply by including Big in a role more suited to his videogame story and, like Archie, the series sticks quite close to the source material.
Sonic X featured almost all of Sonic Adventure‘s bosses.
The adaptation continued in the following episode, ‘A Chaotic Day’ (Kamegaki, 2004), which focuses a bit more on Knuckles’ side of the story, detailing how Chaos broke out of the Master Emerald and his search for its shards, which also brings him into contact with Tikal (Rebecca Honig). Sonic and Tails (Amy Palant) then battle both Chaos 4 at Eggman (in the Egg Hornet) at the Mystic Ruins (in what is a pretty faithful adaptation of the same boss battles from Sonic Adventure) before pursing Eggman to his Egg Carrier. They crash, as in the game, and Amy (Lisa Ortiz) and Cheese the Rabbit (Rebecca Honig) are attacked by ZERO, who kidnaps Amy and the birdie, Lily (Sayaka Aoki). Amy and Gamma’s (Andrew Rannells) stories are the primary focus for the next episode, ‘A Robot Rebels’ (Kamegaki, 2004), in which Gamma kidnaps Froggy right after Chris helps Big to rescue him and he subsequently frees Amy after suffering a bit of a short circuit at the sight of Lily just like in the videogame. Similarly, Amy convinces Sonic to spare Gamma and Knuckles recovers the last piece of the Master Emerald in the following episode, and, though Eggman successfully uses Froggy’s tail and Chaos Emerald to transform Chaos into Chaos 6, Sonic and Knuckles (randomly sporting his Shovel Claws) defeat it. The episode ends with the finale of Tails’ story, in which Eggman launches a missile at Station Square and he must gather his courage and self-sufficiency in order to disarm it (though he doesn’t battle the Egg Walker).
Gamma’s tear-jerking story is told from start to finish.
‘Revenge of the Robot’ (ibid) primarily wraps up Sonic and Gamma’s stories from the game: Gamma travels through the locations of Sonic Adventure deactivating its robotic brethren and freeing the Flicky’s trapped within (which is considerably easier than in the videogame) and eventually destroys itself and its older “brother”, E-101β “Kai” (Andrew Rannells) to reunite with its Flicky family. While Sonic does go on to defeat Eggman and his Egg Viper, Chaos obtains all seven Chaos Emeralds, transforms into Perfect Chaos, and floods Station Square in the final episode of the saga, ‘Flood Fight’ (Kamegaki, 2004). Up until this point, Chris’s involvement (and the involvement of his extended family and friends) was largely painless and unobtrusive. The changes this, however, as the destruction brought upon Station Square has a significant impact on the lives of Sonic’s new human friends and, wouldn’t you know it, it is Chris who supplies with the last Chaos Emerald he needs to transform into Super Sonic. Unlike in the videogame and the Archie Comics adaptation, Super Sonic defeats Perfect Chaos with hardly any issue at all in Sonic X; while Perfect Chaos had never looked bigger or badder, resembling more a water-based version of Biollante, and packs some serious firepower, it is defeated and reverted back in Chaos 0 with very little effort. To be fair, though, Sonic X’s Super Sonic was always far more powerful than his other incarnations, being more of a God-mode than a power-up. Still, Chaos is defeated and returns to the Master Emerald with Tikal, at peace once more. Station Square is left in ruins and, while the anime also glosses over the death and destruction the flood must have caused, subsequent episodes dealt with (or, at least, referenced) the restoration process.
Sonic X told the entire game’s story, giving everyone their due.
Like the other adaptations of Sonic Adventure discussed here, Sonic X incorporates the game’s narrative into its own unique lore but, in a twist, includes characters like Cream and Rouge the Bat (Kathleen Delaney) who debuted after Sonic Adventure. However, even these videogame characters have smaller roles than Chris and his cohorts; given that Chris was obsessed with following Sonic everywhere and putting himself in danger, this isn’t too surprising but, honestly, their inclusion and involvement is no more or less, better or worse, than those of the Archie and StC extended cast. However, Sonic X’s Sonic Adventure saga is easily the closest, most faithful adaptation of the source material of these three; Archie Comics came close bit their impenetrable lore meant that too many compromises had to be made. Both comic adaptations focused more on Chaos than other bosses and events, but Sonic X includes almost everything from the videogame, giving plenty of time to each of the game’s six characters and adapting their stories with a high degree of fidelity. It even streamlined and improved the story in many ways, such as having characters team up against Chaos’s various forms and improving the appearance of Perfect Chaos.
Sonic Adventure told a complex, interweaving Sonic story for the first time.
Sonic Adventure has been a rich source of adaptation, second only to Sonic Spinball. Aside from the more direct adaptations I’ve talked about here, stages, bosses, and narrative themes from the game cropped up in many subsequent Sonic titles. Unlike Sonic Spinball, I feel like this is probably because of the game’s story; this was the first time Sonic and his friends and enemies had a real voice in the videogames and the first time Sonic Team tried to tell a deep, overarching story. Add to that the influence that Sonic Adventure’s gameplay and aesthetic choices had on Sonic’s canon and future release and it’s not hard to see why. The only thing that hampered each of these adaptations was their attempts to shoe-horn the videogame narrative into their existing lore, rather than using the general story and themes of the game and threading it through in a more natural way. While Archie Comics and StC had good reasons for this, Sonic X had every opportunity right from the beginning of its run to properly prepare and lay the groundwork for its eventual videogame adaptations and, instead, it was happy to waste time focusing on Chris, his idiotic behaviour, and having Sonic be this bland, lethargic goody-too-shoes rather than a snarky, hyperactive adventurer.
Which of these three Sonic Adventure adaptations was your favourite? How did you find Archie’s writing at the time? Do you remember Sonic the Comic? What were your thoughts on Sonic X and Chris? Drop a line below and stick around for more articles in the future.
Released: 1994 Originally Released: 1992 Developer: Arena Entertainment / Probe Development / Midway Original Developer: Midway Also Available For: Arcade, Mega Drive, Mega-CD, Game Gear, Game Boy, Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), PC, Amiga, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3, Xbox, Xbox 360
A Brief Background: You’ve all heard of Mortal Kombat, right? The violent fighting game series that revolutionarily used digitised sprites instead of traditional 2D sprite art and was filled with all kinds of controversial violence and blood? These days, the blood and brutal Fatalities the series is known for don’t cause nearly as much outrage as they did back in the day but, in the early-nineties, parents and organisations alike were fuming at the levels of violenceMortal Kombat depicted. As you might expect, this meant that Mortal Kombat was massively successful; kids finally turned away from Street Fighter II: The World Warrior(Capcom, 1991) and wasted their hard-earned pocket money trying to tear their opponent’s spines from their bloodied bodies. Given its level of popularity, Mortal Kombat received numerous ports to home consoles; the Mega Drive version reigned supreme thanks to SEGA including the game’s trademark blood and Fatalities (albeit after a code was entered), while Nintendo lagged behind with heavily edited “Finishing Moves” and substituting blood for “sweat”. While the Mega Drive version is sluggish and hasn’t really aged very well, it’s got nothing on this Master System port!
First Impressions: After slotting Mortal Kombat into the Master System, you’re treated with a long diatribe about “codes”, which was the developer’s sneaky way of telling you that you need to enter a code to enable blood in the game. I skipped this, however, and, as always, selected Sub-Zero to take on the game’s arcade ladder. The first thing you’ll notice is that Kano is missing from the game’s roster; the second thing you’ll notice is how absolutely God-awful the game’s graphics are! I grew up playing the Amiga version of Mortal Kombat but, mostly, was playing either Mortal Kombat 3(Midway, 1995) on PC or Mega Drive (except for that odd period were I happened to have a copy of Mortal Kombat II (Acclaim Entertainment/Probe Development, 1994) for the Master System) so maybe I was a little spoiled but…my God, the graphics here are terrible! The downgrade to 8-bit has left the already-questionable digitised sprites looking blocky and blurry. Sprites seem to float or merge with the foreground and background, and so many frames of animation have been lost that there seems to be a delay in every button press!
Backgrounds are okay and everyone has their special moves…but still…
It’s not all bad, though; the backgrounds are okay, for the most part, those there’s a noticeable lack of stages here. Each character also has their signature moves but, thanks to the Master System’s two button setup, I couldn’t throw even one Ice Ball for the life of me. None of this changes the fact that the game plays like absolute garbage, though. One of the things I love about Mortal Kombat (especially the early titles) is how the game is easy to pick up and play and gets deeper the more you master its controls; unlike Street Fighter II and its sequels and spin-offs, you don’t have to stress yourself with worrying about “frame cancels” or whatever. Every Mortal Kombat character basically plays the same, with only their special abilities separating them, meaning it comes down to how good you are at getting through the opponent’s offense and landing your own.
My Progression: In this version of Mortal Kombat, you can technically wipe the floor with the computer without any real problem; if you select the “Easy” difficulty, you can pretty much trounce every opponent with just flying kicks, rapid punches, and leg sweeps no matter how much better they are at throwing their projectiles at you. The issue is, though, that you have to battle against some really dodgy hit detection and slow-down; it’s like the game is taxing the Master System to its very limit, as you’ll slowly stutter through the air and punch through the opponent more often than not.
At first, it’s not too difficult to get the win, especially on “Easy”.
When I fired the game up to have a quick playthrough, I selected the “Easy” difficulty, picked Sub-Zero (because…obviously…!), and played through the arcade ladder. I managed to get all the way to the Mirror Match without losing more than one round (Rayden turned out to be a cheap spam-artist) and was promptly, soundly defeated by my doppelgänger. Truthfully, I’m not too bothered about this as the one thing I always hated about Mortal Kombat was those damn annoying Endurance Matches, where you have to take on two opponents with two health bars while you only get one. That probably wouldn’t be so bad but you need to fight your way through three of these bloody things before you can take on Goro and, eventually, the game’s final boss, Shang Tsung.
Honestly, the original Mortal Kombat has not aged well at all. The only version worth anyone’s time is the arcade version, and even that is slow and graphically sub-par to its later sequels. This 8-bit port of the game is a joke from top to bottom; it’s literally the poor man’s version of Mortal Kombat, made for those kids unfortunate enough to not be able to upgrade to the Mega Drive, and should be avoided at all costs. Am I being too harsh on the Master System port of Mortal Kombat? Which was your favourite version or sequel to Mortal Kombat? Do you have any fond memories of wasting your childhood away in arcades trying to set your opponent on fire? Write a comment below and let me know.
The Background: It was 2011 and SEGA were eager to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their iconic videogame mascot; after years of disconnect and complex additions to what had begun as a simple, one-button videogame, it’s fair to say that there was some…confusion regarding Sonic’s past, canon, and timeline. SEGA initially opted for a soft reboot, of sorts, with Sonic Adventure (Sonic Team, 1998), which clearly depicted Sonic and his cast of characters redesigned into a slightly older, more anime-inspired aesthetics in a world similar to ours, inhabited by both humans and anthropomorphic characters, and with a tenuous connection to the previous videogames. However, very quickly, this fell apart a bit as Sonic videogames became both incredibly dense and complex or laughably simple, especially in their narratives. After years of fans wanting a return to the traditional, 2D gameplay of the past, Sonic Team opted for a title that would combine not only the tried-and-true 2D gameplay of the past with the fast-paced 3D gameplay of what was, at the time, the present but also bring together two different generations of Sonic for the first time.
The Plot: While celebrating Sonic’s birthday, Sonic and his friends are scattered through time by Doctor Eggman’s ferocious, mysterious beast, the Time Eater. Teaming up with a past version of himself, Sonic races through from his past to rescue his friends, retrieve the Chaos Emeralds, and put a stop to the Time Eater’s rampage.
Gameplay and Power-Ups: Sonic Generations takes the fast-paced, “Boost”-centric formula of Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Colours and further refines it, offering both 3D and 2.5D, high-speed action stages as players race through some of the most iconic stages (or “Zones”) in Sonic’s history. While Sonic remains the only playable character, there are now two of him: the “Classic” Sonic (who plays exclusively in 2.5D) and the “Modern” Sonic (who plays in 3D and 2.5D). There are nine Zones to playthrough in Sonic Generations, each with two levels (or “Acts”): Act One is exclusive to Classic Sonic and Act Two is tackled by Modern Sonic. Although you’ll pot a timer in the to-left of the screen, there are no time outs here’ instead, you get a letter grade a points for finishing Acts as fast as possible. You’ll want to stick to the higher paths, where available, and utilise rails, pulleys, and other shortcuts to cut down your time, but you’re basically guaranteed an “S” rank if you finish an Act without losing a life. Unsurprisingly, Golden Rings are your life source, protecting you from most attacks and granting an extra life for every increment of 100 you collect. Golden Rings also fuel Modern Sonic’s “Boost” gauge (which is also filled by performing tricks off ramps and bashing Badniks), allowing him to blast ahead at high-speeds and plough through any enemies and destructible objects in his way. While both Sonics have unique gameplay mechanics, they share some common controls: you jump with A or X, pressing it again in mid-air to attack nearby enemies or hit targets with Sonic’s Homing Attack. While this is exclusive to Modern Sonic, you can unlock the ability (or “Skill”) for Classic Sonic, too, and it becomes mandatory in the 3DS version. B sees you crouching to fit through small gaps, Y activates any Skills you have equipped, and the Right Trigger either blasts Modern Sonic off or quickly performs Classic Sonic’s Spin Dash. When Boosting, you can hold the Left and Right Triggers to drift and use the Left and Right Bumpers to quick step. As Modern Sonic, you can press B in mid-air to perform a stomp, wall jump off specific surfaces, and dash along a line of Rings by pressing Y.
Both Sonics have distinctive playstyles, though gimmicks are recycled and shared between both.
These controls are largely mirrored on the Nintendo 3DS, with players jumping and using the Homing Attack with A or B and Boosting with Y, though there’s no quick Spin Dash for Classic Sonic. Classic Sonic’s taught the Homing Attack early on, though he doesn’t really need it and ends up playing as a slower, clunkier version of his counterpart. While it might seem like Modern Sonic has more tricks at his disposal, each Sonic can be assigned Skills, unlocked by collecting Red Star Rings, completing additional Challenges, and spending points in the Skill Shop. Each Skill has a point value, and you can assign as many as you like to each Sonic until you hit the point cap of 100. A bunch of these are shared between both Sonics, giving each the ability to begin an Act with ten Rings, granting an additional extra life, giving them more movement options when underwater, and eliminating the recovery time after taking a hit. Classic Sonic can equip one of the elemental shields from Sonic the Hedgehog 3(SEGA Technical Institute, 1994), gaining a bounce, flame burst, and double jump and being able to breathe underwater, resist flames, and attract Rings, respectively. He can also equip the “Twin Spin Attack” (or “Insta-Shield”) from Sonic 3, start with a temporary invincibility, extend the Spin Dash, turn enemies into Rings, and even hop on a skateboard. Some of these abilities are available in Zones as well, such as the speed up and invincibility and skateboard, though you’re more likely to smash Ring monitors. Modern Sonic can also be assigned Skills to allow him to blast off at the start of an Act, perform faster Homing Attacks and wall jumps, and increase the length of his Boost gauge. When playing Planet Wisp or Tropical Resort, you’ll utilise the returning Wisps, with Classic Sonic using the Pink Wisp and Red Wisp to race across walls and ceilings and turn gears or burst through the sky and Modern Sonic rocketing up Dr. Eggman’s factory and smashing through barriers or ricocheting about with the Cyan Laser. Acts also contain the usual gimmicks and hazards, such as springs, spikes, flame bursts, ramps, and rails. You can jump through boost rings to blast through the air, fly off ramps to perform tricks and fill your Boost gauge, repeatedly hit bouncy springs to get higher, and even run on those awful Marble Garden Zone platforms to reach higher areas in Sky Sanctuary. When underwater, you’ll need air bubbles to keep from drowning; when leaping to platforms, you must watch for bottomless pits; and you’ll often press switches to activate or move platforms and blocks.
Sonic’s greatest hits and misses are revisited in each Zone and Challenge.
Interestingly, the Nintendo 3DS’s bottom screen is only used to track your progress in an Act, display the boss’s health bar, and to navigate the sparse hub world. Sonic Generations takes place in a simple hub world called “White Space”, a disappointingly barren void where stages from Sonic’s past have been dumped by the Time Eater. These are arranged in three areas corresponding to an era of Sonic’s history and guarded by a Boss Battle. To progress through the game’s brief and simple story, you must complete each Act to partially restore colour and life to the White Space, then acquire a Chaos Emerald from a Rival and Boss Battle. By and large, the game’s Acts aren’t particularly challenging, though there are some unfair bottomless pits and each Sonic seems to have lead in their sneakers, which can make precision platforming slippery and frustratingly difficult. The difficulty comes in the lengthy and haphazard variety of gameplay mechanics seen in the later, modern levels; unsurprisingly, Crisis City stands out as one of the game’s more frustrating stages thanks to the fire traps, lava pits, bottomless pits, and that Goddamn flaming tornado! The Nintendo 3DS version sees you flying through Mushroom Hill using propeller plants, bouncing around Casino Night, and racing from a destructive orca in Emerald Coast, though the additional Challenges are missing from the Xbox 360 version. Here, after clearing each area, you’ll unlock five additional Challenges for each Sonic; you’re required to clear at least one of these for each Zone to gain a Boss Key, battle the boss, and progress to the next area. These Challenges are considerably varied and can be anything from racing against a ghostly doppelgänger to finding Chao, to completing a stage with only one Ring. Sometimes, you’ll also race against, or team up with, one of Sonic’s friends; you’ll use Mile “Tails” Prower to hover over obstacles and gaps, knock musical notes back to Vector the Crocodile, and clear walls of flame with Blaze the Cat, for example. While you may call upon Sonic’s friends with Y in these Challenges, you’ll never control any character other than the two Sonics, which is quite disappointing. These Challenges can be frustrating but clearing them is the only way to completely restore each area and also unlock additional Skills, artwork, music, and character profiles in the Collection Room.
Presentation: Graphically, Sonic Generations is still one of the brightest, most vibrant Sonic 3D titles ever made. Classic Sonic, especially, looks and animates really well and every stage is packed full of life, colour, and little details that will be recognisable to any Sonic fan. Both Sonics have idle poses and celebrate or lament their letter grade after each Act, though, strangely, Classic Sonic is completely mute. This means that Modern Sonic gets all he puns and one-liners and voice clips, while Classic Sonic simply pantomimes his feelings and relies on Classic Tails to talk for him. Sonic’s friends appear as non-playable characters (NPCs) in White Space, offering encouragement and hints after being restored to guide you towards Red Star Rings. White Space is very annoying for such a simple hub world, with the game forcing you to take boost pads, loops, and springs to reach Challenges (though you can cycle through Acts, at least). I’m glad the game isn’t bogged down by a huge open world, but White Space feels very cheap and half-assed at times, despite some fun Easter Eggs. Sonic Generations takes the original 2D and 3D environments and gives them an eye-catching visual makeover, though the screen’s a bit too zoomed in at times for Classic Sonic and it’s easy to just blast off into the void as Modern Sonic. Perhaps the pinnacle of Sonic Generations’ graphical achievement, though, is in the fantastically updated battle against Perfect Chaos, who has been turned from a choppy, flappy-mouthed monstrosity into a genuinely terrifying, bio-organic creature. However, when playing the Xbox 360, I did notice some blurriness to the images, some frame rate issues, and the game crashed on me three or four times, which was odd. It’s obviously graphically superior to the 3DS version, which offers the same headache as all 3DS titles and is extremely basic at times. You cans ee this in Mushroom Hill, which looks strangely bland, the cutscenes (which are simple 3D models with dialogue boxes), and the reduced Zone count.
A generational adventure that lovingly recreates Sonic’s classic stages.
Each of the game’s Zones are beautifully rendered and expanded upon with gameplay gimmicks from other games and even little extra things, like a celebration taking place in Rooftop Run and getting to visit Hidden Palace in Sky Sanctuary. While there are some obvious choices (Green Hill and Chemical Plant have since been overused to death), there are some odd inclusions, like Speed Highway from Sonic Adventure (I would have picked maybe Ice Cap or Red Mountain), and some disappointments, like Seaside Hill from Sonic Heroes (Sonic Team USA, 2003). I’m honestly surprised that Sonic Team didn’t include Casino Park instead, though I would’ve liked to see them mix it up with Egg Fleet or Frog Forest. There’s some real depth to the environments, with Chemical Plant’s factory exploding in the background, the Death Egg rising in Sky Sanctuary, and desolation as far as the eye can see in Crisis City. Things can be a bit cluttered at times and it’s not always clear which winding path you can take and which is part of the background, but I loved how faithfully Sonic Generations recreated each area and the little twists they toss in. Classic Sonic’s Seaside Hill is largely underwater, for example; the infamous truck wrecks the environment and rockets after you across walls in City Escape; and Dr. Eggman airship hounding you in Rooftop Run. The Nintendo 3DS version oddly adapts Zones from Sonic’s main console games rather than his handheld ventures, with the exception of Water Palace (and, I guess, Tropical resort), which was an odd choice and results in some janky, bland stages that are actually inferior to their Nintendo DS predecessors since the action’s limited to one screen. The Xbox 360 version features some really well done CG cutscenes; it’s just a shame that the game’s story is so criminally short that we don’t see more of these. When you free Sonic’s friends, they’ll make a comment while Sonic just stands there like a tool rather than properly interact with them. As for sound, Sonic Generations has you covered! Every area features a unique, remixed version of its original track and each Act has a different version to differentiate the two. On the Xbox 360, you can also unlock additional music tracks, including some great remixes by the likes of Cash Cash and Crush 40, and play these on any Stage, allowing for a lot of variety in the music you hear as you play.
Enemies and Bosses: Given that it features stages from three eras of Sonic’s history, Sonic Generations also includes many recognisable Badniks and enemies from each time period being represented. You’ll smash apart the likes of Moto Bugs, Buzz Bombers, Crabmeats, Spinys, and Egg Robos from the classic games, with Egg Robos sporting missile barrages and giant Badniks even chasing you at certain points. Moving into the modern era, you’ll bop Eggpawns, Cop Speeders, robots from the Guardian Unit of Nations (G.U.N.), and flaming Iblis creatures. While most slow and easy to attack, they can still surprise you with bolts of energy or other attacks, such as the construction Egg Pawns on Planet Wisp tossing their pickaxes. Enemies are largely there to be bothersome, with the cannons surrounding Rooftop Run’s clock tower being particularly aggravating and the Egg Pawns in the barrel store being notably cheeky. Enemies also act as “bridges” between platforms, rails, and other areas, allowing you to Homing Attack or bop them to reach higher paths, cross lava, or avoid spike pits. The Nintendo 3DS version features a handful of unique enemies due to its different Zone selections, such as those mushroom-tossing moles, axe-wielding Egg Pawns, and even a massive Egg pawn that wrecks the ruins of Water Palace. Spikes are annoyingly commonplace, often waiting right where you land, as are crushing hazards, moving blocks, flame bursts, and missiles from the walls and ceilings. You’re chased by a gigantic truck in City Escape, one that now sports giant buzzsaws, have debris flung at you by a flaming tornado in Crisis City (which also whisks away the environment and the end goal for Classic Sonic!), and must watch for crumbling platforms when bouncy from clouds in Sky Sanctuary. Spiked obstacles also appear on rails, mines litter the ground, and you must quick step left and right to avoid being blasted by Dr. Eggman’s drones and airship. While warning signs alert you to bottomless pits, it’s very easy to plummet down them when moving so fast, or to clip through the environment, and Sonic can be quite slippery, which doesn’t help when trying to make trickier jumps.
Iconic bosses get a massive upgrade, adding extra gimmicks and attacks to their arsenals.
Six classic bosses return and are remixed in each version of Sonic Generations. On the Xbox 360, Classic Sonic first fights the Death Egg Robot on a narrow platform, dodging its extending, drill-like arms and running under it when it jumps to ram its butt. The fight the switches to a recreation of the Death Egg Zone and the mech exclusively attacks from the background, forcing you to lure it to attack bombs with its arms so you can run up and ram its head. The fight with Perfect Chaos is now a whole stage as you dodge its tentacles and jump on crumbling platforms to reach it, hitting springs and pulleys and blasting across the water on boost pads to race up its body. Perfect Chaos spawns twisters, fires energy beams, and unleashes its massive mouth laser, before erupting water geysers. This forces you to precariously hop to platforms, battling the awkward camera to land the final blow. The Egg Dragoon sees you blasting through a circular tunnel avoiding its freeze bolts and missiles and hopping to rails to ram the cockpit. When on a 2.5D plane, you must hang back and jump over shots then quickly wall jump up its arms, avoiding a downward shot, before diving after the falling mech, avoiding its drill arms to target its body. On the Nintendo 3DS, you battle one of my favourite bosses, the Big Arms, now avoiding its arm slams and palm slaps, then, oddly, battle the Biolizard. This is an annoying fight as you must awkwardly run from its gaping mouth or thrashing tail, grinding up to its core, avoiding high and low shots and bouncing off orbs to smack its core. Finally, you battle the Egg Emperor in an autorunner, desperately avoiding its energy waves, dodging its charge, and taking out the cannons to smack his big, stupid face.
Best Sonic’s rivals to power-up and battle the aggravating Time Eater with two Super Sonics!
You’ll also compete against some of Sonic’s rivals in both versions, with the Xbox 360 fights yielding Chaos Emeralds. You’ll once again race across Stardust Speedway against Metal Sonic, hopping over its torpedo dash and avoiding its lasers and the debris it tosses at you to give it a smack. You’ll across the walkways of the Space Colony ARK against Shadow the Hedgehog, chasing down purple energy orbs to power-up and blast meteorites at him in a battle that’s ridiculously easy if you can speed after him fast enough. Finally, you return to Crisis City to battle Silver the Hedgehog, avoiding his telekinetic waves and targeting the debris he flings at you to wallop him, before scrambling over a huge wave of junk and racing towards the camera to finish him off. This rival fights are significantly downplayed on the Nintendo 3DS as you don’t fight Silver and both are reduced to races, with you hopping over obstacles and slowing Metal Sonic or Shadow with some lucky shots and desperately trying to avoid Shadow’s boost and Chaos Spear. Unfortunately, Sonic Generations and its bosses arefurther let down by the final battle with the Time Eater. Despite an impressive, ominous score, the unique design of both the creature and the bizarre vortex you battle it in. Despite the joy of seeing Classic and Modern Sonic turn Super Sonic to battle two versions of Dr. Eggman, this fight is a confusing mess. You hold down RT to charge head-first through a time/space distortion, dodging pieces of the Zones and the Time Eater’s arms and lasers, to ram its core. You can press Y to switch to the outside of the vortex and press X to fire the other Sonic to destroy incoming projectiles, all while Sonic’s friends constantly shout “advice”. You can barely see Golden Rings until they’ve flown past you, you have no idea if you’re holding or mashing buttons, and defeating this monstrosity is much easier on the Nintendo 3DS. You battle it on a 2.5D plane, with no attacks at your disposal and simply dodging its lasers and arm swipe until its core is exposed, then race towards it on a 3D plane. This can be tricky as it’s not easy to dodge its hand claps and it’s easy to run out of Rings, but at least you’re not bombarded by repetitive voice clips, and you can land hits a lot easier.
Additional Features: There are forty-nine Achievements to earn in Sonic Generations, with one popping every time you clear both Acts in each area and defeat a rival and boss. Every Act as at least one Achievement tied to it (normally something involving going a specific route and collecting a specific Red Star Ring before completing the stage), you’ll get Achievements for performing tricks, acquiring Skills, and unlocking all collectibles. Every Act has five Red Star Rings to find, with each one unlocking artwork, music, and other extras; you’ll also get an Achievement if you find them all. As you complete Acts, Challenges, and collect Red Star Rings, you’ll unlock additional music tracks, cutscenes, artwork, and little character trophies that can all be viewed in a little gallery/museum at the far left of White Space. If you explore the Green Hill hub, you’ll find a SEGA Mega Drive and, for 7777 points, you can purchase a Mega Drive controller to play a port of the original Sonic the Hedgehog(Sonic Team, 1991)! You can also challenge the rivals and bosses on “Hard” mode (though there’s no Achievement for this), upload your fastest times to an online leaderboard, and play a pinball table themed on Casino Night Zone if you snagged the DLC. On the Xbox 360, you acquire the seven Chaos Emeralds by playing the main story, unlocking Super Sonic for the finale and as a 100-point Skill for both Sonics, but play Special Stages on the Nintendo 3DS. These are modelled after Sonic Heroes’ pipes, with you collecting orbs to power-up your boost and avoiding spiked mines in super easy challenges. You can also download additional missions using the handheld’s “StreetPass” feature, play an online versus mode (that appears to be a head-to-head race), customise a profile card, and play a time attack mode, though the Nintendo 3DS lacks the Skills and Red Star Rings of its counterpart.
The Summary: When I first played Sonic Generations on the PlayStation 3, I remember it being a fantastic experience; it was fun, fast paced, and chock full of nostalgia and little bits of fan service. Aside from the final boss, I had a blast breezing through everything the game had to offer and lamented the lack of follow-up downloadable content from Sonic Team, hence my excitement for the later remaster. I was therefore super exited to revisit Sonic Generations on the Xbox 360 and snag the Nintendo 3DS version, only to be put off by how zoomed in the camera was for the 2.5D sections. Nevertheless, I ploughed ahead, happy to be revisiting this slice of nostalgia and, very quickly, found myself quite frustrated by a lot of little things. The sheer uselessness of the regular jump both Sonics have, their tendency to spontaneously slip off platforms, the frustrating nature of a lot of the Challenges and, of course, the massive letdown of the final boss. All these years later and I’m still disappointed that the story wasn’t a bit more grandiose given that this was a celebration of Sonic’s 20th anniversary. White Space feels so empty and lifeless, the lack of other playable characters and extra stages was disappointing, and the barebones nature of the title makes it feels cheap and rushed at times. The Nintendo 3DS version is even more barebones, lacking so many features, characters, and even having a reduced Zone count, with the only consolation being simplistic Special Stags. Not adapting Zones from Sonic’s handheld past was a huge mistake, the Zones we do get are largely empty, and both Sonics play too similar for the game to compete with Sonic’s Nintendo DS library. Yet, by and large, Sonic Generations is still an enjoyable experience. I fear this playthrough may have been soured by me rushed through it as quickly as possible rather than taking my time and losing myself to the nostalgia. If you can do that, there’s a lot to like here from a visual and aural perspective, as well as the game being a fun, if all too brief, break-neck action romp through some of Sonic’s most iconic areas.
Nintendo 3DS Rating:
Xbox 360 Rating:
⭐⭐
Rating: 2 out of 5.
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Could Be Better
Pretty Good
What did you think of Sonic Generations? Do you think it still holds up or, like me, do think that it was lacking in content and features? What did you think to the Zones featured in the game and the remixed boss battles? Were you disappointed by the lack of other playable characters? Which Challenge was the hardest for you and why was it Vector’s? What was your favourite Classic and/or Modern Sonic videogame? Share your thoughts in the comments, support me on Ko-Fi, and go check out my other Sonic content.
That’s right; we’re back in the nineties with another bright, colourful action/platformer. This time we’re looking at one of many attempts by the Amiga to copy SEGA’s success with Sonic the Hedgehog(Sonic Team, 1991), Zool: Ninja of the “Nth” Dimension (Gremlin Graphics, 1992), which was ported to the Mega Drive by Electronic Arts. Given that it released about a year after Sonic, and about a month before Sonic the Hedgehog 2(Sonic Team, 1992), Zool was one of the first videogames to ape Sonic’s success and even beat the franchise to the punch in some ways. Hell, just look at his eyes; they’re almost exactly the same style as Sonic’s!
Zool used cutscenes and comics to tell its story.
One of the main things that sets Zool apart from Sonic is its use of text-and-picture cutscenes in the game’s opening and ending to tell its story; this story was also elaborated on through a charming little comic included in the game’s manual. It would be some years before Sonic videogames even used in-game sprite animations to convey their story, much less text-and-picture cutscenes.
I’d rather have a packet of Love Hearts…
As we saw in Cool Spot (Virgin Games, 1993), Zool also includes some rather unsubtle product placement; the entire first World is littered with Chupa Chups, quite possibly the most generic lollipop sweet there is. Quite how Zool contributed to the sale and advertisement of Chupa Chups is beyond me but perhaps it was this advertising revenue that allowed the videogame to be ported not only to the Mega Drive but also to MS-DOS (where it would later be surpassed by the far superior Jazz Jackrabbit (Epic MegaGames, 1994)), Game Boy, Game Gear, Master System, SNES, and even the Atari ST.
Zool‘s Levels are certainly vibrant.
But let’s start from the top; upon beginning the game, players are immediately tossed into an absolute blast of bright, vibrant colours and catchy, rock/electronic music. Zool, a little gremlin ninja thing from the “Nth dimension”, must jump, blast, and spin his way across seven equally animated and colourful Worlds (each with four Levels), defeating the minions of Krool in an effort to return to his home dimension.
Blast, spin, and slide your way to victory.
Despite wielding energy sticks on the game’s box art, Zool’s primary form of attack is to blast enemies with energy projectiles; however, unlike other sidescrolling shooters, Zool can only fire projectiles in the direction he is facing. Zool can also perform a spinning top attack when jumping to attack airborne enemies or break certain level obstacles or, thankfully, simply jump on enemies to defeat them. Zool can also scale walls by either climbing or jumping up them, slide under spikes and through narrow gaps, and fire projectiles whilst ducking.
Zool darts around maze-like Levels at break-neck speed!
Arguably, Zool plays a lot faster that Sonic, however the game lacks some of the polish of SEGA’s iconic platformer; controlling Zool is like skating on ice on the Moon as Zool darts across Levels and soars through the air seemingly in defiance of gravity. While this doesn’t stop the game from being extremely fun to play or make navigating Levels that difficult, it can make some of the game’s attempts at precision platforming trickier.
You have to collect items and find a coin to clear Levels.
What does get in the way of navigation is the game’s primary gameplay mechanic; in order to clear a Level, Zool must collect a certain number of items. These change as Zool visits new Worlds (being anything from various fruits to CDs and bath toys) and the number you must collect depends on the difficulty you set the game to. Once Zool has collected enough items, he must follow an extremely vague arrow in the game’s HUD to reach a coin and be spirited away to the next Level or World.
Blast walls to reach hidden routes.
Zool must do all of this while battling against not only respawning enemies and level obstacles such as spikes and disappearing platforms but also while traversing the game’s maze-like Levels. Some Levels are considerably more labyrinthine than others, to be fair, and sometimes the game cheekily hides your route behind a wall that must be blasted open…though, as there’s no visual distinction between walls, it’s easy to miss these routes entirely.
Truly the stuff of nightmares!
Zool’s enemies are as wacky and outrageous as the game’s Worlds; Zool must contend with the likes of anthropomorphic jelly, killer violins, floating screws, projectile-spitting liquorice treats, and evil fruit (the implication being that sweets are good and veggies are bad…which I can get behind). To clear each World, Zool must also battle equally weird and wild bosses, such as a giant cactus and a screaming pink head with a spring-loaded boxing glove for a tongue!
Double Zool’s shot with power-ups!
Luckily, Zool has plenty of things to assist him in his mission; Zool has an energy bar and can take three hits before losing a life, can blast various checkpoints to respawn at a number of different points throughout a Level, and can collect numerous power-ups that increase his jump height, give him a shadow to double his firepower, increase his time, destroy all onscreen enemies, or make him invincible.
Some hidden mini games add some spice.
There are a few hidden secrets to be found in Zool as well; when I played the Master System version, I distinctly remember accidentally finding a warp point that simply took me straight to the game’s ending. There’s also some mini games and arcade games that can be played by doing certain actions in some Levels to add a little intrigue and variety to the proceedings.
Platforming can get tricky.
Zool isn’t especially difficult, even on its hardest difficulty setting; 1 Ups are scattered across Levels (sometimes extremely liberally) to increase your chances, enemies often drop health, and the bosses have very simple attack patterns. However, there are some frustrating elements; the time limit, for one, and having to collect enough items to access the exit point, for another. While there are no bottomless pits, there are some frustrating platforming sections that require Zool to jump to very small, disappearing platforms and, if you fall, it can be a chore to get back up, especially as the enemies will respawn.
Turns out it was all for nothing and the REAL battle is still going on!
Perhaps the biggest letdown of Zool, though, is the ending; after defeating the final boss, Zool successful escapes back to the Nth dimension where he is greeted by Zooz, his female companion. Although she congratulates Zool, she reveals that Krool has invaded another handful of worlds, essentially making the ending a giant tease for its sequel, Zool 2 (The Warp Factory, 1993). This might be fine but, unfortunately, Zool 2 never received a port to the Mega Drive, all but forcing players to invest in an Amiga or other such console to play the sequel. I did own Zool 2 back when I had an Amiga and remember it being a pretty fine little game in its own right; this time, players can select between Zool and Zooz, with each character playing slightly differently (Zooz had a whip…) and being able to take alternative routes through Levels. It’s a shame that Zool 2 didn’t get the same cross-platform release but I guess that does go some way to making Zool the unofficial mascot of the Amiga. Unfortunately, despite these two titles, the myriad number of ports Zool received, and even a couple of young adult novels, Zool has pretty much faded into obscurity. Quickly surpassed by Sonic 2 and other similar action/platformers, Zool never quite managed to outshine Sonic like the Amiga probably hoped he would. Zool’s time in the sun was very brief and it’s a shame, really, as, despite the game’s slippery controls, the character has a unique design and his games were extremely bright, energetic fun with some nice levels of animation. When it comes to a re-release, port, or HD remaster, I’d like to say “never say never” as even the similarly-themed, arguable more obscure Superfrog (Team17, 1993) got a nifty HD version in 2016 but it does seem like Zool’s brief flirtation with fame has long since passed.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Great Stuff
Do you remember Zool? If so, which version did you play? If you haven’t, I urge you to track down a copy and give it a whirl but, either way, let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
Released: 1994 Developer: Banpresto/Nova Also Available For: Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, Game Gear, and Mega CD
The Background: If you were a kid back in the early nineties, right after you finished up being obsessed with what we in the UK know as Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles(1987 to 1996), and before Pokémon (1997 to present) took my generation by storm, you were all about Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1993 to 1996). Cobbled together from stock footage from the Japanese tokusatsu series Gosei Sentai Dairanger (1993 to 1994) and Ninja Sentai Kakuranger (1994 to 1995), Power Rangers focused on five teens “with attitude” (despite the fact they were a bunch of geeky do-gooders who couldn’t break a rule if they were held at gunpoint) imbued with superhuman powers and abilities. Harnessing the power of the dinosaurs, they could transform into martial arts superheroes and conjure giant mechs to battle against the forces of evil. To say Power Rangers was a cultural phenomenon would be an understatement; parents were outraged at the glorification of violence but we headed out in our droves to buy every bit of Power Rangers merchandise we could, from t-shirts to action figures. Given its dominion over the playground and the airwaves, you know that this also meant the franchise received its own multi-platform videogame that I’m sure hapless kids everywhere begged their parents to buy for them.
The Review: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is a simple 2D fighting game; you can choose to battle head-to-head with a friend or take on the game’s Scenario Mode, where you’ll battle one of Rita’s minions in a format that will be more than familiar to anyone who has played a Street Fighter (Capcom, 1987 to present) videogame. However, Street Fighter II: The World Warrior(ibid, 1991) this is not; first of all, you’re (unsurprisingly) limited to only six playable characters (the titular Power Rangers). Each plays largely the same and the variations come only in their special attacks and weapons; the Red Ranger wields a sword but the Black Ranger has an axe, for example. After you face, and defeat, the evil Green Ranger (in my opinion, the greatest Power Ranger of all time), he becomes a playable character as well. There’s one main difference between playing as the Green Ranger compared to the other Rangers, though, and that’s in the game’s other battle mode. Once you defeat Rita’s monster, she’ll make it grow (as she is wont to do…) and the Rangers summon the Megazord to battle it. The Green Ranger, however, summons the Dragonzord but it basically amounts to the same thing: smash the buttons until you whittle away the enemy’s health bar and win.
The game’s literally over in less than an hour. It’s sad.
If you’re looking for depth…well, there isn’t any. Power Rangers the game has about as much depth and variety as Power Rangers the television show. I literally sat there, mashing buttons and hardly even trying, and never lost a single round. When I fought the Green Ranger as the Black Ranger, I did one whirlwind attack with Zack’s blade and won without Tommy landing a single hit! The game is also pathetically short; you always battle the monster on the same stage for the first fight but, once you’ve battled all five of Rita’s minions, the game is over and you’ve pretty much done everything Power Rangers has to offer in less than an hour. Unless you suck at videogames, but I’d wager even if that is the case you could beat Power Rangers without a great deal of difficulty.
Once you go Green you never go back…
Graphically, there’s not much to write home about; the sprites themselves are colourful and large and surprisingly detailed but not very animated. The backgrounds are even worse, being largely barren and devoid of life or character, and severely lacking in variety. It’s pretty much the same story for the game’s sound, too; there’s a noticeably bad rendition of the iconic Power Rangers theme and some shitty voice samples but the in-game sounds are muted and dull. Characters grunt and yelp a bit and Zords thud about but it all sounds so half-assed and a far cry from the loud, impactful sounds the Mega Drive is capable of producing. There are some nice cutscenes between battles that tell the story and evoke the same spirit as the television show but they don’t really contain much in the way of animation, meaning the game is outclassed by even some Master System titles in that regard.
Get used to seeing this same stage over and over…
As I mentioned above, the game has only five enemies to battle against. Sure, you face each one in two different types of battle but, if you’ve ever seen Power Rangers, you’ll know that doesn’t really mean much as the monster’s second form is literally just a bigger version of its first form. Goldar makes an appearance (he was the only monster I actually recognised…) but there’s no Putty Patrol to wade through and no Lord Zedd as the game is only pulling its inspiration from the first series of the show. Similarly, there aren’t any beyond the different weapons and abilities of the Power Rangers. The only thing to unlock here is the Green Ranger, which is the second battle and, once you have him, you’ll never pick another character because Tommy is the best character. Finally, you can battle against a friend but, honestly, I can’t see why you’d even bother.
The Summary: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers may have been a cultural phenomenon but this videogame outing is a dreadful experience; the controls are sluggish, the battles are ridiculously easy, and the game is just boring from start to finish. I wouldn’t even recommend this to die-hard Power Rangers fans as there are far better Power Rangers videogames available; the game’s counterpart on the SNES, for example, or the one based on the movie. Either way, just don’t even give this the light of day and stick to playing Street Fighter II because the only thing “mighty” about this game is how bad it is.
My Rating:
⭐
Rating: 1 out of 5.
Terrible
Did you watch Power Rangers when it first aired? Who was your favourite Ranger and why was it the Green/White Ranger? Do you think I was too harsh on the Mega Drive videogame, or have a favourite Power Rangers videogame? Let me know in the comments.
Sonic Mania (PagodaWest Games/Headcannon, 2017) was a hit, there’s no doubt about it; within a year, the game sold over one million copies. A physical edition, Sonic Mania Plus, was later released in 2018 featuring all the updates and downloadable content (DLC), and some nifty extras like a reversible sleeve that featured classic nineties-inspired artwork. In addition, Sonic Mania Adventures (2018) had a nice little five episode run online alongside a few bonus episodes along the way to keep the game alive in the minds of fans and the general public. However, since Sonic Mania released, we’ve heard very little about a sequel; in 2018, Takashi Iizuka stated that a sequel was not likely to happen as “it feels like we did everything we could for the Sonic Mania project”. With 2020 being touted as the “Year of Sonic” and some major announcements planned to take place in the run up to Sonic’s 30th anniversary, I think it’s only fair to hope that Sonic Mania 2 is on the cards for a 2021 release.
With that in mind, or just for a laugh, today I’m going to talk about a few key features I’d like to see in a potential Sonic Mania sequel…
Less Classic Zones
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good HD reimaging of Sonic’s classic Zones as much as the next person but, if SEGA have proven anything about their understanding of Sonic it’s recent years, it’s that they rely way too much on the same familiar Zones. Sonic Mania, admittedly, mixed it up a bit with the likes of Flying Battery Zone and Oil Ocean Zone but we still saw yet another rendition of both Green Hill and Chemical Plant Zone, which both featured heavily in Sonic Forces (Sonic Team, 2017) and that released in the same year! Regardless, I would still like to see some classic Zones make a comeback but SEGA really need to start taking some chances; why not use Emerald Hill Zone, or combine it with Hill Top or Aquatic Ruin Zone, for the traditional grassy-fun opening level? Why not use Scrap Brain Zone instead of Chemical Plant, or bring back Ice Cap and Marble Garden Zone? One of the things I did like about Sonic Mania, which also cropped up in Sonic Generations(ibid, 2011), was the use of gameplay gimmicks being incorporated into other Sonic Zones and I feel like this would be a great way to go in Sonic Mania 2. If you’re going to do Scrap Brain Zone, for example, throw in some of the steam-based mechanics from Metropolis Zone; if you’re bringing back Spring Yard Zone, toss in some of the pinball mechanics from Toxic Caves; if you’re making new Zones (and you absolutely should), splice in the dreaded barrel from Casino Night or the light-based mechanics from Sandopolis Zone. There are so many great levels and gimmicks from the last thirty-five years of Sonic’s life and returning again and again to Green Hill and Chemical Plant would be very disappointing, even if those Zones were mixed up with new mechanics. Go new, or outside the box, to show some real narrative and aesthetic growth.
Don’t Drop DLC Characters
Okay, I know I’m in the minority with this one but I like Sonic’s extended cast of characters; they’re fun and colourful and each one has a unique gimmick that has been either poorly utilised, undervalued, or simply slapped onto Sonic either through his base moveset or through the use of Wisps. Why include Tails as a playable character when Sonic can “Hover!!” Sonic Mania did a great thing by finally (finally) bringing back Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel; not only did they come back but they were far more than Sonic reskins and their individual abilities and personalities really came through thanks to their unique gameplay mechanics and Sonic Mania’s gorgeous sprite animation. For Sonic Mania 2, they absolutely should include both of these characters right off the bat. It really irks me when DLC characters are still DLC in a sequel. Maybe have them unlocked along the way after defeating bosses, like in Sonic Advance 2(Dimps/Sonic Team, 2002). In fact, I would look to the Sonic Advanceseries (ibid, 2001 to 2004) for a lot of inspiration for a Sonic Mania sequel in two very specific ways. First of all, Amy Rose should definitely be a playable character. She apparently missed out on being included in the first game because “she’s the only one without a kind of gameplay-oriented “power”” but she did show up in Sonic Mania Adventures and, honestly, it is a crime that she wasn’t included in Sonic Mania not just because six playable characters makes a lot more sense than five but also because she’s just as much a part of Sonic’s history as Metal Sonic and he was included.
Team moves have promise that Sonic Mania 2 could expand upon.
Amy should feature in much the same way she played in Sonic Advance but tweaked slightly; have her hop by default and twirl around in a Spin Attack with her Piko-PIko Hammer when you press the button again, similar to Sonic’s Insta-Shield. Holding down and X would see her rev up on the spot, like in Sonic Advance but, when the button is released, she should blast away swinging her hammer to attack enemies. I’d like to see Amy be a bit more floaty, kind of like Princess Peach in Super Mario Bros. 2(Nintendo EAD, 1988), to basically make her an “easy mode” character for younger players and to compensate for her moving slower and jumping lower. Secondly, Sonic Mania 2 should really capitalise on its expanded roster to build upon the team-based gameplay seen in Knuckles’ Chaotix(SEGA, 1995), Sonic Advance 3 (specifically), and Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II (Dimps/Sonic Team, 2012). This means that not only would we finally be able to play as Sonic and Knuckles, or Knuckles and Tails, but we’d also be able to team up any two characters for co-operative play and to utilise some unique co-op mechanics. For example, playing co-op with Tails would be pretty much the same for every character (Tails can carry his partner while flying or swimming) but teaming with Knuckles would see characters jump onto his back to glide across gaps and use his immense strength to bash through walls. Teaming with Sonic could involve the use of a faster speed dash or a general increase in speed and jumping power, which would be great for Knuckles and Amy. Mighty, meanwhile, could jump ahead of his partner to shield them with his shell and use his slam to break through areas of the ground, while Ray could use his bushy tail to swat his partner up in the air and help them swing across vines and ledges. Given that multiple different character variations were included as part of Sonic Mania Plus’s “Encore Mode”, I would definitely include this co-op gameplay right from the off, if only to add some variety to the gameplay and to, hopefully, refine and perfect this mechanic, which has always had a lot of potential but never quite been that great in execution.
Add MORE Playable Characters
So I think I’ve made a convincing argument that Amy, at the very least, needs to be a playable character in Sonic Mania 2 but why stop there? The one thing SEGA should not take away from Sonic Mania is that players only want to play as Sonic; the developers definitely should totally use the sequel as a means to bring in some more classic Sonic characters like Metal Sonic (most likely only available until after completing the main story mode), Espio the Chameleon, and Vector the Crocodile as DLC. Espio and Vector looked so wacky and had some unique twists to their gameplay in Knuckles’ Chaotix that I would love to see turn up again, like Epsio’s Spinning Top Attack and Vector’s weird cartwheel-spin-thing. Let’s take this further, though, and have Espio incorporate the wall-jumps from Knuckles’ Chaotix and, by holding X alone, turn invisible/translucent for a brief period while Vector could gobble up enemies and spit them out as a projectile like Yoshi, perhaps. Teaming with Vector would see him launch the player in an arc, while Espio would toss them upwards, in a variation of the “Hold!” team-ups from Knuckles’ Chaotix.
Charmy’s tiny size makes him perfect as a Cheese-like projectile.
You could make a case for also including Charmy Bee but I always found is tiny (miniscule, even) size in Knuckles’ Chaotix a bit of an issue; I would either redesign him to be about the size of Tails or relegate him to a power-up that can be obtained by breaking a Monitor. He could then buzz around the player and automatically attack nearby enemies, similar to Cheese in the Sonic Advance games, until the player takes a hit. As for Metal Sonic, I would have him be a faster, slippery variation of Sonic but with a couple of changes; pressing A to jump and then A again could see him blast off a magnetic pulse that attracts nearby Golden Rings and destroys any Badniks onscreen (it would be useless against bosses, however). Pressing down and A would see him charge up his booster and blast forward in a variation of the modern Boost mechanic, smashing through enemies as he goes, and teaming with Metal could see him form a brief barrier that protects the player and deflects projectiles. As a bonus, I would also like to see SEGA delve into the obscure and resurrect the Feel, the rabbit character that was the original concept for Sonic. Feel would basically play exactly like Ristar only he’d use his stretchy ears to grab and attack enemies rather than his hands; he could also use his ears as a kind of charged pounce when teaming with him.
Bigger, Better Boss Battles
One thing I liked about Sonic Mania was the variety in the boss battles; similar to those seen in Sonic the Hedgehog CD(SEGA, 1993), boss battles were generally big, varied, and with specific tricks being required to beat them. I mean, we even had a mini game borrowed from Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine (Compile/SEGA, 1993), which I really did not expect! In Sonic Mania 2, I’d like to see more of the same but with a greater focus on Doctor Eggman; the Hard-Boiled Heavies were fun but it didn’t really feel like we battled against Eggman enough in the first game. Given that the Heavies seem to have been a one-and-done deal, I don’t expect to see them return in the sequel; instead, I’m hoping we’ll see Eggman hop into some massive, mental mechas. Without one exception, however; I’d like to see Sonic Mania 2 take some more inspiration from Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble(Aspect, 1994) and feature Bean, Bark, and Nack/Fang as sub-bosses who hound the player constantly throughout the game. It was great to see them appear in the first game but, this time, I’d like to see them get a bigger spotlight for a change (if not as sub-bosses then, at the very least, as rivals to contend with in Special Stages for the Chaos Emeralds).
Mix Up the Special Stages
Speaking of Special Stages, and Triple Trouble, I’d like to see Sonic Mania 2 mix up the format for each Special Stage; the half-pipe, rotating maze, and races against UFOs are great but, sometimes, it feels like SEGA fall back on these classic tropes way too often rather than try something new. No two Special Stages were the same in Sonic’s Game Gear outings and I’d like to see that format return; perhaps one stage is a rotating maze, another is a variation of the half-pipe in a race against Fang, another is the Blue Sphere stage, or Sonic is racing on Rocket Boots. This is also a great opportunity to weave in gameplay mechanics form other Zones and spin-off games, like snowboarding or, perhaps, even a mini game inspired by the Sonic Drift (SEGA/Arc System Works, 1994 to 1995) videogames. Either way, I feel that including Bean, Bark, and Fang as a team of mercenaries either working for Eggman or as wild cards after the Chaos Emeralds means that they should be involved in Special Stages, at the very least, and not sticking to one standard for the Special Stages would add a bit more variety and challenge to acquiring Chaos Emeralds.
Incorporate Animation
One of the biggest disappointments of Sonic Mania Plus for me was that the Sonic Mania Adventures shorts weren’t included in the bonus features; to be fair, they hadn’t finished making them when the game released but, still, it felt like a missed opportunity to not include them and like the definitive collection of all Sonic Mania materials wasn’t quite as “definitive” as it could have been. Going forward, I’d really like to see the developers use this animation style to tell the game’s story in the same way Sonic CD used anime sequences. As much as I love Sonic Mania’s sprite animations, the opening, ending, act transitions (which should be included after every Zone right off the bat this time), and interludes should all use animated cutscenes. I wouldn’t use any voice acting, though; just rely on music, sound effects, and grunts rather than ruin the mystique.
More Content
I loved Sonic Mania and the extra features included in Plus really added to the experience but it definitely felt like the developers could do even more; “Encore Mode” was great, for example, but there weren’t any Achievements tied to it, which kind of takes away some of the incentive to play the mode. Obviously they’ll want to keep something back for DLC but, for starters, Sonic Mania needs to be, at least, twice as big as its predecessor; that might mean adding more Zones, or more Acts to Zones, and including features like day, night, and seasonal cycles/variants to the Zones. Maybe they game will utilise a similar time/space hopping mechanic to Sonic CD and allow us to travel to different time point sin certain Zones so we could finally play Wood Zone while playing Metropolis Zone. The Time Trials are an obvious inclusion and allowing us to replay the Special Stages and mini games was great but maybe the developers could include a Challenge Mode that has players play Zones in reverse, or forced to collect a certain number of Rings or destroy a number of enemies; perhaps take inspiration from the bonus missions in Sonic Generations where other characters challenge the player to a race or something as simple as a boss rush mode. Either way, this would add a nice extra layer of replayability to the game and open up the options for some more Achievements to be added.
Personally, I feel like if SEGA don’t produce a Sonic Mania sequel then they’re fools; the first game was everything long-time fans have been clamouring and begging for for years and it did really well. To not capitalise on that success is crazy to me; we should have seen similar follow-ups to other iconic SEGA franchises, and a Sonic Mania 2, long before now but, instead, we’re left with Sonic’s mobile titles while we wait for the inevitable next 2.5/3D Sonic game to cause division within the fanbase.
Leave a comment below with your thoughts on Sonic Mania? Would you like to see a sequel? Do you think we’ll even ever get a sequel? And what else do you think SEGA have in store for Sonic 2021?
Released: February 2020 Director: Jeff Fowler Distributor: Paramount Pictures Budget: $81 to 95 million Stars: James Marsden, Ben Schwartz, Tika Sumpter, and Jim Carrey
The Plot: Small town cop Tom Wachowski’s (Marsden) life is turned upside down when Sonic (Schwartz), a superfast hedgehog with an insatiable curiosity and the means to travel between worlds, is targeted by the megalomaniacal Doctor IvoRobotnik (Carry).
The Background: Back in the nineties, in the middle of the escalating Console War between Nintendo and SEGA, the videogame industry was changed forever when Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima dreamed up the idea of the superfast hedgehog that would become their mascot and most profitable franchise for years to come.Sonic has seen his fair share of adaptations; he’s been a hot air balloon, on t-shirts, featured in comic books, and has, most prominently, had more than a handful of ventures into animation. Every time Sonic is adapted from one form of media to another (and, it seems, almost every time a new Sonic videogame is released) something is altered, however subtly, about his appearance, backstory, or mannerisms, making for one of the most iconic and, yet, convoluted videogame mascots ever made.Aside from the gorgeous original video animation (OVA), Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie (Ikegami, 1996), Sonic has had to settle for cameos in movies until now. After a disastrous first trailer and initial design that saw Sonic look like some weird mutant human/monster hybrid thing, Jeff Fowler and Paramount delayed Sonic the Hedgehog to redesign the titular hedgehog for his first big screen, live-action debut.
The Review: Raised in secret on a far away world, Sonic is forced to flee his home through the use of dimensional Golden Rings; arriving in Green Hills, Montana, where he spends the next ten years living in isolation out of the fear that his super speed will draw attention to him and force him to flee once again.
Sonic accidentally draws attention to himself…
Sonic spends most of his time observing Tom Wachowski and his wife, Maddie (Sumpter), and longing to be a part of society and make a real friend. When his speed powers unintentionally cause a massive blackout in Green Hills, the US military bring in Doctor Robotnik to investigate the disturbance.
Nothing like a good, old-fashioned road trip with a twist!
Spooked by the incident, Sonic reluctantly decides to leave his home but accidentally drops his bag of Golden Rings through a dimensional portal, where they land in San Francisco. Unable to find his way there, Sonic and Tom team up on a road trip to retrieve the Rings, all the while being pursued by Robotnik and his deadly robotic drones.Going into Sonic the Hedgehog, I wasn’t expecting anything more complicated than a by-the-numbers family-friendly kid’s movie; I was unimpressed that Paramount opted for a live-action/CGI hybrid film rather than a full-on CGI movie in the style of a Disney/Pixar production (or the amazing CGI cutscenes of modern Sonic videogames) and, upon seeing Sonic’s ruinous first design, I was ready to write the entire movie off, which was rather distressing for me given that I have been a life-long Sonic fan.Instead, Sonic the Hedgehog is a really fun (and funny) little romp; Sonic’s characterisation has been tweaked slightly and, rather than the “hedgehog with attitude” or the cocky, confidant superhero of the videogames, he is a lonely, curious, hyperactive little creature who longs to belong in a world and is struggling to control his great speed and with his desire to use his powers for a greater purpose.
Sonic’s human cast does a far better job than I expected.
His interactions with Tom are charming and whimsical. Marsden is no stranger to films or roles such as this and, yet, he is the perfect actor to portray an everyman character who longs for a greater challenge beyond his mundane, everyday life. To my great surprise and delight, the two quickly form an odd couple friendship that grows throughout the film and there isn’t one of those clichéd moments where they argue and fall out and have to rebuild their friendship.
Jim Carrey steals every scene he’s in, it’s fantastic!
Surprising no one, the real star of the show here is Doctor Robotnik; Jim Carrey is back at his scenery-chewing, maniacal best as he perfectly encapsulates the Doctor’s madcap, zany megalomania and slowly degenerates further and further into both madness and a more recognisable version of his videogame counterpart. Do I think he would have been just as good in a fat suit and acting alongside a cast of CGI characters? Sure, but that doesn’t stop his performance being a delight.Sonic the Hedgehog is part comedy, part road trip, part quasi-sci-fi/fantasy action; Sonic himself provides much of the jokes and action, but Carrey is no slouch in either department either thanks to his wacky personality and his incredibly adaptable machines.As with all Sonic adaptations, Sonic the Hedgehog weaves in numerous references to the source material; there’s a loving recreation of the character’s traditional home, South Island, nods to iconic Zone names, and even a few musical cues from the videogames. Arguably, the film could have gone further with these and weaved iconic boss themes into a motif for Robotnik but it definitely feels as though the movie was concentrating on establishing a new version of Sonic and bringing in additional videogame elements in a future sequel.
Sonic’s redesign looks great.
As it stands, though, Sonic the Hedgehog was a surprisingly good time; all the characters were fun and enjoyable and the film avoided a lot of the clichés that movies of this type often fall back on. It may not be the best videogame adaptation but it’s more than a worthy successor to Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (Letterman, 2019) despite featuring only one fully-realised CGI character largely through its whimsical charm and is surprising amount of restraint as it focuses on telling its own unique Sonic story rather than overloading the film with elements from the videogames.
The Nitty-Gritty: As with most Sonic adaptations, Sonic the Hedgehog feels the need to include, and place special emphasis on, the Golden Rings that form the life energy of the videogames. Rather than being the source of Sonic’s power, or a power boost for him, here they act as dimensional gateways, which isn’t a million miles away from the function the Big Rings perform in Sonic videogames.
There’s some charming humour at work here…
Going into the film, I was concerned that they were pushing the Rings as Sonic’s “super power” rather than his super speed but, luckily, that wasn’t actually the case. Instead, Sonic’s speed seems to have some mystery behind it. His childhood guardian, Longclaw (Donna Jay Fulks) seems to be hiding, and protecting, Sonic not just because of the power of the Rings (which seem to be her possession rather than his) but also because of his speed, which (alongside the way his super speed is presented as a quasi-power-up at dramatic times) makes me think we might see a connection between Sonic’s speed and the Chaos Emeralds in a future sequel.
Robotnik only has time for machines…
Speaking of future sequels, and Longclaw, perhaps the biggest surprise for me was that, in the opening moments, Sonic and Longclaw are attacked by a group of masked echidnas after they spot Sonic using his super speed. This was a fun and unexpected inclusion and raises a lot of questions for future sequels, especially with Robotnik being marooned on a mushroom-filled planet and vowing revenge.Unfortunately, I had the big mid-credits reveal spoiled thanks to Twitter but, suffice it to say, Sonic’s long-time friend Miles “Tails” Prower (Colleen Villard) shows up looking for Sonic, setting up both futurefilms and spin-offs in this world.
The Summary: Sonic the Hedgehog was way better than it had any right to be. The overhaul of Sonic’s design alone makes the film worth the price of admission but, alongside that and some clever references to the videogames, the film is a fun, charming little family action/comedy that brings a new dimension to Sonic’s character and lore.Sonic and Jim Carrey are the clear stars of the show but there’s plenty here to enjoy. I feel that, if we do get a sequel, we will see the filmmakers take things a little further and delve a little deeper into Sonic’s more familiar mythology now that they’ve established their version of the character and I am honestly looking forward to seeing this version of Sonic (and, especially, Robotnik) return in the future.
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