Attempting to seriously review every game I've played #4:
SegaSonic the Hedgehog is a somewhat obscure Japan-only arcade game that was played with a trackball. For quite a while this game wasn't playable at all unless you had an original machine, but thankfully now MAME and FBNeo both support it.
The biggest issue with this game is the controls. I'm sure it works fine on an actual trackball, but unfortunately unless you have one you're going to be pretty limited. It's very difficult to be precise since analog sticks really aren't well suited to slowing down. I played this on Steam Deck and I wish FBNeo had an option for mouse to trackball emulation since then I would be able to use the trackpad to at least approximate the feeling of a trackball. Be prepared to find yourself slamming into walls and falling off of ledges a lot. The coyote frames, which are really coyote seconds, are appreciated as a way to mitigate this, but it's still very awkward to deal with since moving back away from ledges doesn't seem to work consistently, and not being able to jump when your character is in the air means that precise platforming is pretty difficult. Though the only level that really asks that of you is Wild Water Ways, which despite its creativity is easily the worst level in the game as a result.
But, if you can get past the control issues, this is a really great game. There's a crazy amount of detail in every level and all the characters have super expressive animations, it really feels like a playable cartoon (or anime), and not in the Dragon's Lair way. Unlike a certain other isometric Sonic game, this game never really uses its third dimension other than in brief set pieces and for visual flair, which is absolutely preferable. Unfortunately that doesn't really fix the fact that positioning your character in a 3D environment is still pretty difficult without depth, and I did find myself having some moments where I genuinely didn't know where they were physically.
I'm pretty mixed on the soundtrack in this game. I think the compositions are great, but the instrumentation ends up sounding a bit flat and samey, and does grate on you after a while. Special mention has to go to the Trap Tower theme though, and especially its remix from Sonic Mania.
Overall a great arcade game, and if you can get the controls working then I'd recommend it. I hope to see an official re-release of this with controls that are specially configured to work well with an analog stick, but unfortunately I doubt that's very likely to happen.
SegaSonic the Hedgehog is a somewhat obscure Japan-only arcade game that was played with a trackball. For quite a while this game wasn't playable at all unless you had an original machine, but thankfully now MAME and FBNeo both support it.
The biggest issue with this game is the controls. I'm sure it works fine on an actual trackball, but unfortunately unless you have one you're going to be pretty limited. It's very difficult to be precise since analog sticks really aren't well suited to slowing down. I played this on Steam Deck and I wish FBNeo had an option for mouse to trackball emulation since then I would be able to use the trackpad to at least approximate the feeling of a trackball. Be prepared to find yourself slamming into walls and falling off of ledges a lot. The coyote frames, which are really coyote seconds, are appreciated as a way to mitigate this, but it's still very awkward to deal with since moving back away from ledges doesn't seem to work consistently, and not being able to jump when your character is in the air means that precise platforming is pretty difficult. Though the only level that really asks that of you is Wild Water Ways, which despite its creativity is easily the worst level in the game as a result.
But, if you can get past the control issues, this is a really great game. There's a crazy amount of detail in every level and all the characters have super expressive animations, it really feels like a playable cartoon (or anime), and not in the Dragon's Lair way. Unlike a certain other isometric Sonic game, this game never really uses its third dimension other than in brief set pieces and for visual flair, which is absolutely preferable. Unfortunately that doesn't really fix the fact that positioning your character in a 3D environment is still pretty difficult without depth, and I did find myself having some moments where I genuinely didn't know where they were physically.
I'm pretty mixed on the soundtrack in this game. I think the compositions are great, but the instrumentation ends up sounding a bit flat and samey, and does grate on you after a while. Special mention has to go to the Trap Tower theme though, and especially its remix from Sonic Mania.
Overall a great arcade game, and if you can get the controls working then I'd recommend it. I hope to see an official re-release of this with controls that are specially configured to work well with an analog stick, but unfortunately I doubt that's very likely to happen.