Picture this scenario in your head, if you would. It is late 1991, and you are an average kid living an average life. You hear about this video game console known as the Sega Genesis, and you see this new game that had come out a while back for the system known as Sonic the Hedgehog. You are blown away by it, not just by the graphics and the gameplay, but also just how fast it was going compared to other games at the time, and you are sold on it. So, for Christmas, you ask for both a Sega Genesis and a copy of Sonic the Hedgehog, and you have a great feeling that you will be getting those things for the holiday. The day finally comes, you open up your presents with glee, and you feel… slightly thrown off. Instead of getting a Sega Genesis and a copy of Sonic the Hedgehog, you got a Sega Master System and a copy of… Sonic the Hedgehog. Eh, close enough, right?
So yeah, sometime after the original Sonic the Hedgehog, they made a separate companion game for both the Sega Master System and the Game Gear, and it was developed by a company called Ancient, with this being their first game they developed (always a good sign). Obviously, the Sega Genesis Sonic the Hedgehog would be both better, quality-wise, and more well remembered then this game, but as a companion game, Sonic the Hedgehog for the Master System is… pretty alright. It is obviously inferior to the original game, and there are questionable design choices present everywhere you look, but for an 8-bit Sonic game, it does its job well enough.
The story is the exact same as the original, so no need to comment on that, the graphics are pretty good for the Master System, and they fit well enough with the Sonic style, the music is actually pretty great, which I really wasn’t expecting for this game, the control is around the same level as the original game, although you obviously can’t go as fast as the original, and the gameplay is your typical Sonic affair, which is pretty fun at points, while serviceable for the rest of the time.
The game is still your average 2D platformer, where you run through many different side-scrolling stages, defeating enemies and collecting rings along the way, finding alternate paths with optional goodies (and by that, I mean six of them), and fight bosses at the end of each zone. It all functions pretty much exactly like the original game, but of course, it is held back by the system’s limitations, making it more platform-oriented overall, which works for the game that we have here. There are also several new stages to be seen, along with repeats from the original game (even though I didn’t wanna see them again), which provides enough variety throughout the game.
Just like with the original game as well, you can also collect the six Chaos Emeralds in order to get a different ending, adding a bit of replayability to the game, but unlike the original, you don’t get them by going into special stages. Instead, they are located in several of the levels, and you simply just have to find them and collect them. It may not be as exciting or involved as with the original, but it is way more convenient and less annoying then the special stages from the original game. And speaking of which, Special Stages also make a return in this game, but instead of them being used to collect Chaos Emeralds, they are meant to get extra lives and continues, which is very helpful, and a nice change of pace compared to the rest of the game.
Now, with all of that said, there are plenty of problems with the game, although most of them are pretty circumstantial. For the problems present throughout the whole game, first off, whenever you get hit in the game, you lose all of your rings rather than being able to collect some of them back, which does suck, and in terms of the boss fights, most of them are simple enough, but you are given no rings when fighting them, making them much more annoying than they need to be. And speaking of more annoying then it needs to be, guess which level is back in this game? LABYRINTH ZONE, and it is just as god-awful as it was in the original game. Seriously, I hope the guy who created this level feels happy with himself, making a lot of kids in the 90s suffer because of it.
Aside from that, there are a lot of little problems present in the game, such as auto-scrolling levels (you know, in a game about GOING FAST(sometimes)), one of the Chaos Emeralds being placed in a bed of spikes, and there being leaps of faith that happen sometimes throughout the game, which can lead to several unwanted deaths. A lot of these problems all boil down to poor level design, and making the game needlessly difficult, but not by much at all, in reality. The game overall, I would say, is easier then the original Sonic (with an exception here or there), and it doesn’t last too long at all, so for being a short and somewhat easy game, I would say it is pretty alright, and I am glad that I finally chose to play it after all this time.
Overall, while it doesn’t even hold a candle to the Sega Genesis game, Sonic 1 on the Master System is still an alright companion piece for those who probably weren’t fortunate enough to get a Genesis back in the day, and I would recommend it for big fans of the classic Sonic games. For those who aren’t that much into Sonic… you can just skip this one. I mean, after all, this is gonna be a one time thing, and there aren’t gonna be anymore weird companion games made like this… right?
Game #227
So yeah, sometime after the original Sonic the Hedgehog, they made a separate companion game for both the Sega Master System and the Game Gear, and it was developed by a company called Ancient, with this being their first game they developed (always a good sign). Obviously, the Sega Genesis Sonic the Hedgehog would be both better, quality-wise, and more well remembered then this game, but as a companion game, Sonic the Hedgehog for the Master System is… pretty alright. It is obviously inferior to the original game, and there are questionable design choices present everywhere you look, but for an 8-bit Sonic game, it does its job well enough.
The story is the exact same as the original, so no need to comment on that, the graphics are pretty good for the Master System, and they fit well enough with the Sonic style, the music is actually pretty great, which I really wasn’t expecting for this game, the control is around the same level as the original game, although you obviously can’t go as fast as the original, and the gameplay is your typical Sonic affair, which is pretty fun at points, while serviceable for the rest of the time.
The game is still your average 2D platformer, where you run through many different side-scrolling stages, defeating enemies and collecting rings along the way, finding alternate paths with optional goodies (and by that, I mean six of them), and fight bosses at the end of each zone. It all functions pretty much exactly like the original game, but of course, it is held back by the system’s limitations, making it more platform-oriented overall, which works for the game that we have here. There are also several new stages to be seen, along with repeats from the original game (even though I didn’t wanna see them again), which provides enough variety throughout the game.
Just like with the original game as well, you can also collect the six Chaos Emeralds in order to get a different ending, adding a bit of replayability to the game, but unlike the original, you don’t get them by going into special stages. Instead, they are located in several of the levels, and you simply just have to find them and collect them. It may not be as exciting or involved as with the original, but it is way more convenient and less annoying then the special stages from the original game. And speaking of which, Special Stages also make a return in this game, but instead of them being used to collect Chaos Emeralds, they are meant to get extra lives and continues, which is very helpful, and a nice change of pace compared to the rest of the game.
Now, with all of that said, there are plenty of problems with the game, although most of them are pretty circumstantial. For the problems present throughout the whole game, first off, whenever you get hit in the game, you lose all of your rings rather than being able to collect some of them back, which does suck, and in terms of the boss fights, most of them are simple enough, but you are given no rings when fighting them, making them much more annoying than they need to be. And speaking of more annoying then it needs to be, guess which level is back in this game? LABYRINTH ZONE, and it is just as god-awful as it was in the original game. Seriously, I hope the guy who created this level feels happy with himself, making a lot of kids in the 90s suffer because of it.
Aside from that, there are a lot of little problems present in the game, such as auto-scrolling levels (you know, in a game about GOING FAST(sometimes)), one of the Chaos Emeralds being placed in a bed of spikes, and there being leaps of faith that happen sometimes throughout the game, which can lead to several unwanted deaths. A lot of these problems all boil down to poor level design, and making the game needlessly difficult, but not by much at all, in reality. The game overall, I would say, is easier then the original Sonic (with an exception here or there), and it doesn’t last too long at all, so for being a short and somewhat easy game, I would say it is pretty alright, and I am glad that I finally chose to play it after all this time.
Overall, while it doesn’t even hold a candle to the Sega Genesis game, Sonic 1 on the Master System is still an alright companion piece for those who probably weren’t fortunate enough to get a Genesis back in the day, and I would recommend it for big fans of the classic Sonic games. For those who aren’t that much into Sonic… you can just skip this one. I mean, after all, this is gonna be a one time thing, and there aren’t gonna be anymore weird companion games made like this… right?
Game #227
Weatherby
1 year ago