Christian Whitehead later proved it was completely possible to port the original Sonic to the GBA with no issues, meaning that the port team behind this have pretty much no excuse for screwing up big time.
That port was made by Simon Thomley (Stealth/Headcanon), Cristian Whitehead (Taxman) had nothing to do with it. Not everything good about Sonic on the fandom was made by Taxman, other developers should get credited too, it makes me sad that only Taxman gets credit for Sonic Mania.
This port is the laziest, most cynical cash grab I have ever had the misfortune to come across. Shame on you SEGA for having the audacity to release this to 'celebrate' anything... PS: Kris, I was wondering, since you're on a GBA roll, if you'd consider covering the 3 F-Zero games for the system. Those games never get enough love!
Mint Jeffer there is an even worse port for the Gameboy advance and that would be Tales of Phantasia what makes it even more of a cash grab is Tales of Phantasia for the Gameboy Advance came out in Japan in 2003 and they didn't release it in the North America and till 2005 Knowing damn well how broken it was and Namco Bandai only did it because it is in the same world has them then release and probably the most popular game of the series Tales of Symphonia for the GameCube. This game has been remade two times afterwards and both times on the PSP but due to Nintendo being super stingy with the licensing in North America Nintendo of America is the only reason why that the US has not seen better ports of the game they even managed to get a cease-and-desist on the smartphone version for the u.s. and get this this Smartphone version was better than the Gameboy Advance version and that's when you know the Game Boy Advance versions bad.
I’ve read somewhere that this remake was developed by one developer who wasn’t allowed to port it straight from the Genesis original for some reason, so he had to remake it using the Sonic Advance engine.... That explains everything.... By the way, this and Sonic Advance 3 were my first Sonic games
The game's original source code was lost Which is a shitty excuse because the first sonic advance was built with the original physics data of the megadrive games
@@shalpp And Stealth did a translation from a disassembly... And though they weren't as thoroughly worked over and documented at the time as they are now, split disassemblies of Sonic 1 *were* publicly available by mid-2005.
It seems that the art department tried their best in remaking the zones, but the programers just said "Whatever" and didn't even tried. Oh what a shame SEGA....
I've heard rumors that they built this game using the Sonic Advance engine, but that the engine wasn't properly optimized for any of the physics or performance required for the Genesis games. It would explain a lot if it's true. Also, can confirm, I gave up on the game in Labyrinth Zone too because I could not beat its boss.
Derr Rtee Because it’s his world and it doesn’t matter and this channel is my sweet passion and I hope he flys high some day why I love this channel so much is unknown from me
Can you do a video on Is Sonic Unleashed Underrated? Because I would love to see if you think that the game was underrated or not. I personally think it is by a long shot. Because it's one of my all time favorite Sonic games in the whole series. But just would like to see what you think of it though.
You know that I'm a teenager right. I'm 18. And also recently watch a different youtuber make an almost 2 hour long video why he loves Sonic Unleashed. And I agreed a lot with most of what he said about the game. Here's the video though if you want to watch all of it or part of it. th-cam.com/video/nUxyfaU-v6U/w-d-xo.html
This was the first Sonic game I played, sure the zoom in was...unwelcome, and the slowdown was...also unwelcome, I easily beat this game within two hours. After practically forcing my muscle memory to remember every pixel of Labyrinth Zone, Starlight Zone was surprisingly easy... Although I do remember glitching out and defeating Robotnick in Act 3. (He just flew around, and didn't drop any spike mines. While I stood in place, he would randomly take damage even though i wasn't jumping.) But Scrap Brain made me come so close to snapping my Game Boy in half. The amount of cheap deaths, and lag towards the halfway point of Act 2 was absolutely infuriating. The Final Zone was the easiest of all, and somehow, I actually collected all 6 Chaos Emeralds. Thx for reading this, and wasting your time. ;)
To those who can't really tell how awful the game is due to the slowdown and the borked mechanics... just take it from me, I'd rather have Sonic 06 over this. At least the glitches are fun and the soundtrack is great. The GBA version of Sonic 1 has ZERO redeeming qualities and there is pretty much no reason at all to play it. The soundtrack is awful, the slowdown is sometimes there, sometimes its not, launching you faster than expected or slower than you'd think... you just saw the video, so my comment to this is useless anyways, but I played this GBA port and I HATED it. When people were crying over Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric, I showed people THIS. Sure, Boom is boring, 06 is bugged, but THIS game is PAINFUL to play, something a game should NEVER be. In both Boom and 06 you can get something out of it, even if its just you laughing at how bad it is, but THIS is worse. Infinitely.
True but that one had a reason as to why it is worst cause it was not developed by Sega. This one was developed directly by Sonic Team and they still screw it up.
If you really want to play sonic 1 on the go, get yourself sonic classic collection for the ds. It has pretty much everything in the game, except there is no anniversary mode. And there's also sonic 2, sonic 3 and sonic and knuckles. It's much better.
No, Sonic Classic Collection for the DS. The box art looks like this: vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/sonic/images/1/1b/SCC_EU_cover.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/350?cb=20120810015242
This game has zero excuse. Super Mario and Donkey Kong Country worked amazingly well on GBA. How does Sonic become a total cacophony of horrible design choices and technical nonexistence?
Even before the Stealth remake and him proving that the GBA can run Sonic 1 flawlessly. SEGA did do a decent Genesis/Megadrive port of some games on the SEGA Smash Pack. Which NEVER gets brought up ever! It's like people don't know it exists! I have it myself. It features Golden Axe. Ecco the Dolphin and Sonic Spinball. Each games play exactly like their megadrive counterparts, no issues
I greatly enjoy your sonic the hedgehog reviews. Seeing that a new implantgames video on sonic has been released always fills me with a huge amount of joy.
Although this may be unpopular. This (Sonic GBA) is the only Sonic game from 2006 I found to be bad from that year. If anything Sonic had it far worse in 2014 or 1995 to name a few.
Great video Kris! I never would have thought that this game could have been so screwed and awful. This was actually the first sonic gameboy game I owned, i played Sonic Advance 2 before that, but it belonged to a friend of mine at the time. I was 10 years old when this game came out and I didn't know or care about how bad this game. All I knew is that is was Genesis Sonic on the gameboy, and I played it more times than I can remember. I did get to labyrinth zone act 3 and couldn’t get past it for the longest time, but i eventually got past it, and I honestly didnt think star light and scrap brain were bad, as I got through them pretty quick and took down the awful version of final zone. Back then, I would have defended this game, but as I got older, I can truly understand just how awful and shameful this port is. I may never play this game ever again, but 10 year old me will still enjoy it. But yeah, thanks for showing me just how bad this game really is.
I remember getting this game when I was 8 years old, and somehow I managed to play through the entire game, even through Labyrinth Zone. How I managed to survive I'll never know.
Wow. It was so frustrated just watching the gameplay. Didn't know a GBA port existed. I bet the DS version isn't much better. Respect for making it through this game, man. I would have flushed this one down the toilet after experiencing those slope physics on Marble Zone. What a reward for getting the emeralds; being able to hear exactly how shitty the sound is in the game. Geez.
js200gb The DS version is far better. The only issues as far as I remember on the DS version is that the sound is a bit too compressed and some of the tracks don't loop properly, but the gameplay is nearly flawless.
The DS version uses emulation, it's not a port It's not too bad, but high pitched music when picking the super sneakers and bad framerate at some moments make Classic Collection not really enjoyable. They also removed 2P and options from Sonic 2 and 3, and there is no 2P coop.
I have the DS port trilogy. Its way better than this port but sometimes the framerate can be slightly choppy, the graphics flicker, and there's occasional glitches especially in Sonic 2.
Conspiracy theory: The reason this port is so bad and the reason Sonic has arguably lost his luster is because Sega wants to make the consoles of today look bad as part of a secret plan to make people want them to return to making consoles so they can make a successor to the Dreamcast and restore Sonic to his rightful home.
A correction for the beginning, there was another port of Sega Genesis for the GBA, Phantasy Star Collection which was actually pretty good 3 games on 1.
I don’t remember, but this may have been my first exposure to Sonic 1. I remember having Mega Collection Plus but I don’t know if I played Sonic 1 on that collection. But I do remember getting this thinking that I had never played Sonic 1. Still have it. To this day, I’ve not made it past Labyrinth Zone Act 3 boss
The terrible collision reminds me of a few old sonic 2 development builds. Early on, green hill remained in the build with it's sonic 1 collisions. Sonic 2's collision is fairly different from the first, so when playing green hill in the prototype, sonic frequently would run downwards into the ground and do all kinds of weird shit. With the inclusion of the spin dash, it makes me wonder if this GBA port of sonic 1 tried to use authentic sonic 1 collisions while replicating the changes made in sonic 2.
You pretty much hit the nail on the head on this one. This port of Sonic 1 is easily my least favorite Sonic game not only because it's pure garbage, but because it's such a slap to the face. It's a pretty insulting product. Anyways, nice video as always
I guess I should be thankful my folks were so averse to buying me more than one version of a game. I always really wanted this when I was younger, but I'm glad I just stuck to playing it on the Genesis. It's clear I wasn't missing much with this port.
9:25-9:29 Oh, so like how in Super Mario Bros Deluxe, the wind is completely absent in the Super Mario bros for super players (lost levels remake) in the levels that contain them. Interesting.
Man watching the gameplay is so hard. Can't imagine playing this, so glad I avoided this and instead played the Advance games. Sonic Advance 1 through 3 might have their flaws, but at least they're not broken and can be fun.
Never knock my favourite Mega Drive Game of all time. Sonic the Hedgehog is the best game I've ever played. You're wrong about the seesaws in Starlight Zone. To gain momentum, all you have to do is set the ball into the air and walk to the other end of the seesaw. The ball will propel you upwards at the right height after two or three walks to the opposite side. Yes, Labyrinth Zone Act 3 is tricky to get through with the last climb upwards to free Sonic's friends. Retrieving all six Chaos Emeralds is tricky but essential, if you want to get the proper happy ending. I've managed to succeed many a time before. Also, you forgot to include the shortest zone of all: Final Zone. No rings to collect here, but two things have to be avoided: energy bolts and being squashed by one of four moving cylinders. Robotnik appears randomly inside one cylinder after another, leaving you to guess which one he's hiding in. Hitting him is a bit difficult to master, yet once the cylinders stop working, all you need to do is hit the villain one last time. Happy ending to a good patient gamer. Sonic the Hedgehog Rules.
10:20 "Hardcore gamers might disagree..." you mean people with no sense of fun? starting games over from the beginning is so fun that i end up giving up on most games that have that '''''hardcore'''' mechanic that said i wouldn't really trade it for immense amounts of slowdown let alone in a game where going fast is one of the objectives
I remember getting this game on my lunch break, played it for less than a minute and got up and returned it I asked my boss to make an exception because it was open, lol. I knew instantly this version was wrong
I have two important things to say here. First of all, you were incorrect on the bonus you get for earning the emeralds. The sound effects are actually awarded for completing both modes, original and anniversary. Second, a major issue people have is the slowdown. Turns out there's actually an easy and cost-effective way of fixing it. Simply turn off the BGM in the options. It doesn't get rid of all of it but it has a significant improvement on the overall speed of the game.
Starting over is actually better than starting Labyrinth Zone over. Why? because most of the games 1-ups are in the first two zones and you are gonna need them to get multiple shots at the Labyrinth Zone boss fight without having to start Labyrinth zone all over aging. Escially when you consider that the earlier zones are much less frustrating to play.
Ugh. I always heard this was one of the worst ports EVER. At least we have downloadable online services now, so everybody can just buy the original Genesis version without fuss! Otherwise, by all means, play Sonic Jam or Sonic Mega Collection instead, people! Those were awesome and had near-perfect replications of the classics! You hit it right on the head at the end. This was an insult to the fans. Compared to most anniversaries, this year has been SO much more respectful to Sonic's legacy! :(
This wasn't the first time Sega tried a GBA port. There was a Sega Smash Pack game for GBA with Ecco, Golden Axe and Sonic Spinball, and while those ports also had their problems, what with sharing a cartridge and all, they were still loads better than this mess.
As far as the stealth port, he used the equivalent of mp3s for the soundtrack and that would require a decently large cartridge. Regardless, the soundtrack could've been way better even using midis. Everything else the stealth port did right should've been in the official one.
I heard that the reason this game runs so poorly is because Sonic Team implanted the level data from the original game into Sonic Advance's engine. But then that makes me wonder, why didnt they just recycle the instruments from that game as well, I think the soundtrack could have sounded a lot better had they used Advance 1's instruments, hell even 2 or 3 could have done something.
Worst? Are we seriously going to forget that a mobile port(and by mobile port i mean JAVA version) actually is a thing? Comparing to it Genesis is absolutely flawless.
Well, Sega also ported over two of the Earthworm Jim games. They weren’t much better than this. Edit: There’s also apparently Sonic Spinball on the Genesis (in a pack with Ecco, Golden Axe, and Altered Beast). They sound like garbage, but look to play pretty accurately to the Genesis originals. So there’s that as well.
Don't worry about it. When I wasn't playing Mega Collection Plus on my Dad's PS2, I played Sonic Genesis GBA on long car rides and loved it to death when I was 5. I still remember seeing it in a KOHLS and my Dad getting it for me. Good times man, sometimes I wish I could go back with everything I know now and relive all those days
Funny thing is I still have my Spongebob GBA and Sonic Genesis. I just want to travel back to 2006 is all. Just to complete that feeling. Old Nick and Cartoon Network, etc
From what I've heard, the dev team had an unimaginably small amount of time to develop it in order to release the game on time and in order to tie in with the release of sonic 06
I've noticed that a majority of people who don't like Sonic the Hedgehog don't like the idea of running quickly into obstacles (They can never see anything ahead of them)
Orange Swirl I actually still have that game and the Didj. I even have that Sonic X game on the Leapster. My mother literally only let me play educational games until I was 7 or 8, so they were all the Sonic I had at first. That is if you don’t count Sonic RPG or Sonic Final Fantasy X (I had to play those in secret).
this game is worse sonic 2006 has good things about it and at least they tried and is not as bad as people make it out to be it can still be fun and funny to laugh at the glitchs and other stuff but i can understand why people hate it dont get me wrong it still has a lot of flaws
And plus in my opinion shadow 05, free riders, and rise of lyric is worse than 06 but I can say that the game com version is the worst sonic game or "port" ever made
The interesting thing is I made it through 2 of the three acts in a showcase of the GBA remake. I would have kept going... If the ROM didn’t freeze in act 3. I must have had a bad copy of the ROM. On top of that, I had about 45 straight seconds in Labyrinth Zone where the framerate was very stable. I don’t know why that happened, but I’m not complaining! Anyways, if anyone is interested, it is on my channel.
Couldn't even watch to end... Love how this reviewer talks about "sloppy programming" for 2 minutes yet ignores that a Sega Genesis/Mega Drive game is being ported to portable hardware with insufficient power to fully play such a detailed game. Even the SNES at the top of it's prime could not fully handle the amount of details that the Sonic games provided while also providing the amount of smoothness and speed that Sega achieved in their systems at the same time. He even comments "the music sounds off!" Yeah, no duh it uses different sound chips! That's like comparing SNES to PC Speaker! -Mad Wolf
I just stumbled upon your channel the other day and have been binge-watching your videos since! Do you just review retro platformers, or have I only tapped into a small portion of your channel?
The backlog of content is deep and varies but the quality goes down the farther back you go. Recently I've been sticking with platformers though. Thanks for binging :)
someone (either Stealth or Taxman I forgot which) made Sonic 1 work on GBA near perfectly (even the music sounds on par) plus adding Tails and Knuckles to the game. So Sega just did a shit job.
Ugh, this version's music… Why did they go with what sounds like Roland Sound Canvas samples? It sounds like a really low quality fangame that used MIDI files instead of anything official! Also, that's the complete opposite of Yamaha's synth. They should've imported samples of the synth instruments, sorta like what Kulor did with the SNES port of Chemical Plant Zone's music.
I know most programmers don't intend to make bad games, but it takes a special kind of stupid for a game that doesn't function at a basic level to be released to the public. What's sad is that this isn't the only bad Sonic title to ruin Sonic's 15th anniversary.
Christian Whitehead later proved it was completely possible to port the original Sonic to the GBA with no issues, meaning that the port team behind this have pretty much no excuse for screwing up big time.
19:23
He mentions the one made by Stealth at 19:26
It was Stealth, not Christian Whitehead (who was known as Taxman).
That port was made by Simon Thomley (Stealth/Headcanon), Cristian Whitehead (Taxman) had nothing to do with it. Not everything good about Sonic on the fandom was made by Taxman, other developers should get credited too, it makes me sad that only Taxman gets credit for Sonic Mania.
The problem was the lack of blast processing capabilities from the GBA.
The problem is that the GBA lacks blast processing.
But the GBA is actually more powerful than the SNES or Genesis. It's just the small screen and sound that sucks.
That would had been true had it not gotten three good Sonic games before this one.
Yeah... if you pretend the Sonic Advance series doesn't exist...
Is this a joke?
OmegaChase1002 .
This port is the laziest, most cynical cash grab I have ever had the misfortune to come across. Shame on you SEGA for having the audacity to release this to 'celebrate' anything...
PS: Kris, I was wondering, since you're on a GBA roll, if you'd consider covering the 3 F-Zero games for the system. Those games never get enough love!
Mint Jeffer there is an even worse port for the Gameboy advance and that would be Tales of Phantasia what makes it even more of a cash grab is Tales of Phantasia for the Gameboy Advance came out in Japan in 2003 and they didn't release it in the North America and till 2005 Knowing damn well how broken it was and Namco Bandai only did it because it is in the same world has them then release and probably the most popular game of the series Tales of Symphonia for the GameCube. This game has been remade two times afterwards and both times on the PSP but due to Nintendo being super stingy with the licensing in North America Nintendo of America is the only reason why that the US has not seen better ports of the game they even managed to get a cease-and-desist on the smartphone version for the u.s. and get this this Smartphone version was better than the Gameboy Advance version and that's when you know the Game Boy Advance versions bad.
*laughs in New Super Mario bros U deluxe*
Ah, Sega must’ve outsourced the work to EA! They’re infamous for sleazy tactics like that, haha!
I’ve read somewhere that this remake was developed by one developer who wasn’t allowed to port it straight from the Genesis original for some reason, so he had to remake it using the Sonic Advance engine.... That explains everything....
By the way, this and Sonic Advance 3 were my first Sonic games
RetrOfir at least Sonic Advance is pretty good.
The game's original source code was lost
Which is a shitty excuse because the first sonic advance was built with the original physics data of the megadrive games
@@shalpp And Stealth did a translation from a disassembly... And though they weren't as thoroughly worked over and documented at the time as they are now, split disassemblies of Sonic 1 *were* publicly available by mid-2005.
It seems that the art department tried their best in remaking the zones, but the programers just said "Whatever" and didn't even tried. Oh what a shame SEGA....
I've heard rumors that they built this game using the Sonic Advance engine, but that the engine wasn't properly optimized for any of the physics or performance required for the Genesis games. It would explain a lot if it's true.
Also, can confirm, I gave up on the game in Labyrinth Zone too because I could not beat its boss.
I feel sick. This game should have been buried with e.t.
Truth!
butcherax This game makes ET look like Ocarina of Time
No one like this game. 0/10. Some timed ttthhhheee gggaaaammmee ffeeeeeelllsss sssllloooww andsometimesfeelsfast
E.T was actually good by Atari 2600 standards
Especially considering it was developed by one guy in five weeks
How? How did you make a *20 minute* video on this version of the game???
Derr Rtee Because it’s his world and it doesn’t matter and this channel is my sweet passion and I hope he flys high some day why I love this channel so much is unknown from me
Mr Needlemouse that's a lot of references for one sentence, impressive
Derr Rtee it’s called an analysis. Might wanna look not that before commenting.
Jaymz X it's called joke. Might wanna look at the context before negatively replying.
Derr Rtee ah okay! Then I apologize sir, you certainly are a hilarious fella!
2006 really was a bad year.....
At least we got Sonic Riders. That's good, right?
Yeah, it gave birth to all the kids that play fortnite now.
@@shpoink5373 no that's 2011
@@PikaNoobYT no its all the cancerous 11 year olds that play it now.
Shpoink my brother is 11 and he hates it and prefers Minecraft more
The performance issues are inexcusable. It's as if the game engine was programmed in BASIC by nobody who worked on the original game.
Can you do a video on Is Sonic Unleashed Underrated? Because I would love to see if you think that the game was underrated or not. I personally think it is by a long shot. Because it's one of my all time favorite Sonic games in the whole series. But just would like to see what you think of it though.
You know that I'm a teenager right. I'm 18. And also recently watch a different youtuber make an almost 2 hour long video why he loves Sonic Unleashed. And I agreed a lot with most of what he said about the game. Here's the video though if you want to watch all of it or part of it. th-cam.com/video/nUxyfaU-v6U/w-d-xo.html
Cameron Douglas I actually did too. When I saw from the title of the video. I was like holy crap. I’m not the only one that really liked the game.
I salute you for suffering through this game
This was the first Sonic game I played, sure the zoom in was...unwelcome, and the slowdown was...also unwelcome, I easily beat this game within two hours.
After practically forcing my muscle memory to remember every pixel of Labyrinth Zone, Starlight Zone was surprisingly easy...
Although I do remember glitching out and defeating Robotnick in Act 3. (He just flew around, and didn't drop any spike mines. While I stood in place, he would randomly take damage even though i wasn't jumping.)
But Scrap Brain made me come so close to snapping my Game Boy in half. The amount of cheap deaths, and lag towards the halfway point of Act 2 was absolutely infuriating.
The Final Zone was the easiest of all, and somehow, I actually collected all 6 Chaos Emeralds.
Thx for reading this, and wasting your time. ;)
I love how they never use a different button sprite, it’s always the Marble Zone one
If this is true it's something I never noticed.
To those who can't really tell how awful the game is due to the slowdown and the borked mechanics... just take it from me, I'd rather have Sonic 06 over this. At least the glitches are fun and the soundtrack is great. The GBA version of Sonic 1 has ZERO redeeming qualities and there is pretty much no reason at all to play it. The soundtrack is awful, the slowdown is sometimes there, sometimes its not, launching you faster than expected or slower than you'd think... you just saw the video, so my comment to this is useless anyways, but I played this GBA port and I HATED it.
When people were crying over Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric, I showed people THIS.
Sure, Boom is boring, 06 is bugged, but THIS game is PAINFUL to play, something a game should NEVER be. In both Boom and 06 you can get something out of it, even if its just you laughing at how bad it is, but THIS is worse. Infinitely.
If your game is worse than sonic 06, you need help
The GBA needs a high chair to sit at the table
I don't know why but this made me lol, thanks!
2006, the year Sonic hit rock bottom both on consoles and handhelds.
The worst Sonic game ever is Sonic Jam on the Tiger Game.com
Jacob Poole Agreed Honey. Agreed. Lmiao.
True but that one had a reason as to why it is worst cause it was not developed by Sega. This one was developed directly by Sonic Team and they still screw it up.
Sonic jam game.com is the worst official game.
This one is the worst made bysega
hate to be that guy but its just the Game Com there's no dot
Gavin Fagant eh, well the more you know I guess. thanks anyway
If you really want to play sonic 1 on the go, get yourself sonic classic collection for the ds. It has pretty much everything in the game, except there is no anniversary mode. And there's also sonic 2, sonic 3 and sonic and knuckles. It's much better.
No, Sonic Classic Collection for the DS. The box art looks like this: vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/sonic/images/1/1b/SCC_EU_cover.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/350?cb=20120810015242
I must say, that's the most accurate description of Sonic Classic Collection DS I've ever heard
Or,if u are on mobile,use a Genesis emulator
@@luisjogos821 yawn
This game has zero excuse.
Super Mario and Donkey Kong Country worked amazingly well on GBA. How does Sonic become a total cacophony of horrible design choices and technical nonexistence?
Even before the Stealth remake and him proving that the GBA can run Sonic 1 flawlessly. SEGA did do a decent Genesis/Megadrive port of some games on the SEGA Smash Pack. Which NEVER gets brought up ever! It's like people don't know it exists! I have it myself. It features Golden Axe. Ecco the Dolphin and Sonic Spinball. Each games play exactly like their megadrive counterparts, no issues
I assumed there must have been other ports but could not find them. Was Smash Pack and Sonic 1 it? Or are there some others hiding in the GBA library?
There was a port of Comix Zone for the GBA. But I think it was only released in Germany, for some reason
I definetly knew this was a bad overall sonic game. Great video as last time! :)
Your voice is amazing! Also thanks for another great video; don't stop with these amazing videos
I like this port
My favorite part was moonwalking through green hill zone at breakneck speeds after colliding with a rock
11/10
As someone who has been playing Sonic 1 for the majority of my life, it’s physically painful to see my childhood butchered in this manner.
I greatly enjoy your sonic the hedgehog reviews. Seeing that a new implantgames video on sonic has been released always fills me with a huge amount of joy.
The only good Sonic game to come out in 2006 is Sonic Riders.
Spinosaurusking875 maybe but tbh I enjoyed sonic 06 more than riders.
Although this may be unpopular.
This (Sonic GBA) is the only Sonic game from 2006 I found to be bad from that year.
If anything Sonic had it far worse in 2014 or 1995 to name a few.
Derr Rtee yeah but in Christmas eve but I will open one present but in Christmas I will open alot of presents
Yeah, and even then it was only an average racer.
and even then riders takes a shitload of practice before you could have fun with it
Great to see you reviewing games again. Always a pleasure to hear what you have to say.
I never stopped :D
ah.. I dont think im getting the notifications, that or you passing de second radar.
Will keep an eye out tho B-)
This game was released over half a year after MOTHER 3 and yet was still exported to the USA.
The other sonic game released the same day: Am I a joke to you?
What game is it
@@Phoenix_Blader_93 Oh, I don't know, a certain sonic game some people call "Sonic 06"
this game is worse
Great video Kris! I never would have thought that this game could have been so screwed and awful. This was actually the first sonic gameboy game I owned, i played Sonic Advance 2 before that, but it belonged to a friend of mine at the time. I was 10 years old when this game came out and I didn't know or care about how bad this game. All I knew is that is was Genesis Sonic on the gameboy, and I played it more times than I can remember. I did get to labyrinth zone act 3 and couldn’t get past it for the longest time, but i eventually got past it, and I honestly didnt think star light and scrap brain were bad, as I got through them pretty quick and took down the awful version of final zone. Back then, I would have defended this game, but as I got older, I can truly understand just how awful and shameful this port is. I may never play this game ever again, but 10 year old me will still enjoy it. But yeah, thanks for showing me just how bad this game really is.
I remember getting this game when I was 8 years old, and somehow I managed to play through the entire game, even through Labyrinth Zone.
How I managed to survive I'll never know.
Kids are far more persistent than adults :)
Great video as always man you definetly do put alot of effort into these. :)
Also could you maybe review a Pokemon game?
Wow. It was so frustrated just watching the gameplay. Didn't know a GBA port existed. I bet the DS version isn't much better.
Respect for making it through this game, man. I would have flushed this one down the toilet after experiencing those slope physics on Marble Zone.
What a reward for getting the emeralds; being able to hear exactly how shitty the sound is in the game. Geez.
js200gb The DS version is far better. The only issues as far as I remember on the DS version is that the sound is a bit too compressed and some of the tracks don't loop properly, but the gameplay is nearly flawless.
The DS version is exactly like the genesis games.
+TackyRackyComixNEO I played the Sonic Classic Collection on the DS and remembered the frame rate being really bad. Maybe I'm remembering wrong.
The DS version uses emulation, it's not a port
It's not too bad, but high pitched music when picking the super sneakers and bad framerate at some moments make Classic Collection not really enjoyable.
They also removed 2P and options from Sonic 2 and 3, and there is no 2P coop.
I have the DS port trilogy. Its way better than this port but sometimes the framerate can be slightly choppy, the graphics flicker, and there's occasional glitches especially in Sonic 2.
9:36 LOL. The switches are from Marble Zone and they didn't even finish porting Scrap Brain's background in.
You 100% captured, and conveyed the atrocities accurately. Best and most thorough video anyone has ever made on this game.
Conspiracy theory: The reason this port is so bad and the reason Sonic has arguably lost his luster is because Sega wants to make the consoles of today look bad as part of a secret plan to make people want them to return to making consoles so they can make a successor to the Dreamcast and restore Sonic to his rightful home.
Now that’s a catchy title! I notice the audio is kinda different, you use another kind of mic? Great content as always Kris, thanks so much!
I legitimately laughed at the spike just WOOSHING down and Sonic ZOOMING up.
A correction for the beginning, there was another port of Sega Genesis for the GBA, Phantasy Star Collection which was actually pretty good 3 games on 1.
So far that makes Sonic 1 Genesis, Sega Smash Pack, and Phantasy Star Collection.
I don’t remember, but this may have been my first exposure to Sonic 1. I remember having Mega Collection Plus but I don’t know if I played Sonic 1 on that collection. But I do remember getting this thinking that I had never played Sonic 1. Still have it. To this day, I’ve not made it past Labyrinth Zone Act 3 boss
Hey, I'm a new subscriber after watching this video, and I wanna say, awesome video, and congrats on 10K subscribers!
Thanks!
The terrible collision reminds me of a few old sonic 2 development builds. Early on, green hill remained in the build with it's sonic 1 collisions. Sonic 2's collision is fairly different from the first, so when playing green hill in the prototype, sonic frequently would run downwards into the ground and do all kinds of weird shit. With the inclusion of the spin dash, it makes me wonder if this GBA port of sonic 1 tried to use authentic sonic 1 collisions while replicating the changes made in sonic 2.
You pretty much hit the nail on the head on this one. This port of Sonic 1 is easily my least favorite Sonic game not only because it's pure garbage, but because it's such a slap to the face. It's a pretty insulting product. Anyways, nice video as always
When I was young, I thought I was just awful at this game. I can't believe I thought this was actually the Sonic 1 I had missed out on at the time.
Not the worst Sonic game ever, the worst *port* of a Sonic game ever
0000000066666666666666
Mario & Luigi Bros. BOOOOOOOOOOOOM
You can also save by pausing the game and pressing exit
I guess I should be thankful my folks were so averse to buying me more than one version of a game. I always really wanted this when I was younger, but I'm glad I just stuck to playing it on the Genesis. It's clear I wasn't missing much with this port.
9:25-9:29 Oh, so like how in Super Mario Bros Deluxe, the wind is completely absent in the Super Mario bros for super players (lost levels remake) in the levels that contain them. Interesting.
Man watching the gameplay is so hard. Can't imagine playing this, so glad I avoided this and instead played the Advance games. Sonic Advance 1 through 3 might have their flaws, but at least they're not broken and can be fun.
Never knock my favourite Mega Drive Game of all time. Sonic the Hedgehog is the best game I've ever played. You're wrong about the seesaws in Starlight Zone. To gain momentum, all you have to do is set the ball into the air and walk to the other end of the seesaw. The ball will propel you upwards at the right height after two or three walks to the opposite side. Yes, Labyrinth Zone Act 3 is tricky to get through with the last climb upwards to free Sonic's friends. Retrieving all six Chaos Emeralds is tricky but essential, if you want to get the proper happy ending. I've managed to succeed many a time before. Also, you forgot to include the shortest zone of all: Final Zone. No rings to collect here, but two things have to be avoided: energy bolts and being squashed by one of four moving cylinders. Robotnik appears randomly inside one cylinder after another, leaving you to guess which one he's hiding in. Hitting him is a bit difficult to master, yet once the cylinders stop working, all you need to do is hit the villain one last time. Happy ending to a good patient gamer. Sonic the Hedgehog Rules.
I hope you are trolling hard and noticed this video was on the GBA port...
10:20 "Hardcore gamers might disagree..."
you mean people with no sense of fun? starting games over from the beginning is so fun that i end up giving up on most games that have that '''''hardcore'''' mechanic
that said i wouldn't really trade it for immense amounts of slowdown let alone in a game where going fast is one of the objectives
This is when you need the right team on a project, people who understand what the end goal is, and what is not acceptable
I remember getting this game on my lunch break, played it for less than a minute and got up and returned it I asked my boss to make an exception because it was open, lol. I knew instantly this version was wrong
I have two important things to say here. First of all, you were incorrect on the bonus you get for earning the emeralds. The sound effects are actually awarded for completing both modes, original and anniversary. Second, a major issue people have is the slowdown. Turns out there's actually an easy and cost-effective way of fixing it. Simply turn off the BGM in the options. It doesn't get rid of all of it but it has a significant improvement on the overall speed of the game.
The weirdest thing about the soundtrack is the samples are all basic MIDI samples.
Starting over is actually better than starting Labyrinth Zone over. Why? because most of the games 1-ups are in the first two zones and you are gonna need them to get multiple shots at the Labyrinth Zone boss fight without having to start Labyrinth zone all over aging. Escially when you consider that the earlier zones are much less frustrating to play.
The less time playing Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis for the Game Boy Advance, the better.
Ugh. I always heard this was one of the worst ports EVER. At least we have downloadable online services now, so everybody can just buy the original Genesis version without fuss! Otherwise, by all means, play Sonic Jam or Sonic Mega Collection instead, people! Those were awesome and had near-perfect replications of the classics! You hit it right on the head at the end. This was an insult to the fans. Compared to most anniversaries, this year has been SO much more respectful to Sonic's legacy! :(
This wasn't the first time Sega tried a GBA port. There was a Sega Smash Pack game for GBA with Ecco, Golden Axe and Sonic Spinball, and while those ports also had their problems, what with sharing a cartridge and all, they were still loads better than this mess.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a less consistent frame rate in any game, not even Race Drivin’.
As far as the stealth port, he used the equivalent of mp3s for the soundtrack and that would require a decently large cartridge. Regardless, the soundtrack could've been way better even using midis. Everything else the stealth port did right should've been in the official one.
Good to know about the music!
I heard that the reason this game runs so poorly is because Sonic Team implanted the level data from the original game into Sonic Advance's engine. But then that makes me wonder, why didnt they just recycle the instruments from that game as well, I think the soundtrack could have sounded a lot better had they used Advance 1's instruments, hell even 2 or 3 could have done something.
Worst? Are we seriously going to forget that a mobile port(and by mobile port i mean JAVA version) actually is a thing? Comparing to it Genesis is absolutely flawless.
imo the J2ME versions were better lol
or that's what I remember... i'll play them again lol
Well, Sega also ported over two of the Earthworm Jim games.
They weren’t much better than this.
Edit: There’s also apparently Sonic Spinball on the Genesis (in a pack with Ecco, Golden Axe, and Altered Beast). They sound like garbage, but look to play pretty accurately to the Genesis originals. So there’s that as well.
Totally agree with the points made in this video, but is it really fair to call it a terrible game as opposed to a terrible port/remake of a game?
It's an interesting thought for sure.
Sonic 06 + Sonic 1 GBA + the sad end of Cosmo the Seedrian = most disappointing anniversary ever
P.S. Although she was alive by fans for some reason.
Least we got Sonic Riders
You reviewed one of the 2 sonic games from 2006, When is the 2nd coming? I would love a 06 review
4-5 weeks.
The other notable exception in the category of SEGA's classic ports towards the GBA and that's the SEGA Smash pack which plays... OK-ish?
Wanna know whats sad
This was the sonic game i grew up. I grew up with bad sonic games.
The Garbage Gamer it's okay dude. Some people grew up with the DOS version of megaman. There is nothing good about the DOS megaman games
Don't worry about it. When I wasn't playing Mega Collection Plus on my Dad's PS2, I played Sonic Genesis GBA on long car rides and loved it to death when I was 5. I still remember seeing it in a KOHLS and my Dad getting it for me. Good times man, sometimes I wish I could go back with everything I know now and relive all those days
Funny thing is I still have my Spongebob GBA and Sonic Genesis. I just want to travel back to 2006 is all. Just to complete that feeling. Old Nick and Cartoon Network, etc
You might have loved it then. But come back to it now and you'll see it's a lot worse than you think.
From what I've heard, the dev team had an unimaginably small amount of time to develop it in order to release the game on time and in order to tie in with the release of sonic 06
Which is funny, considering that Sonic '06 was also rushed, practically releasing a year before intended
I've noticed that a majority of people who don't like Sonic the Hedgehog don't like the idea of running quickly into obstacles
(They can never see anything ahead of them)
It sounds like the music is having an asthma attack
My eyes are bleeding, why tf is Sonic so slow?! Agh!!!
All of you are incorrect. The worst Sonic game is _Sonic_ _the_ _Hedgehog_ for the Didj.
Come on dude, it's educational. You can't hate on it _too_ much.
Worst is Sonic Jam on Game.com, Google it
Didj is educational so what would you expect, also I'm probably the only one that likes Sonic X for the Leapster...
The What?
Orange Swirl I actually still have that game and the Didj. I even have that Sonic X game on the Leapster. My mother literally only let me play educational games until I was 7 or 8, so they were all the Sonic I had at first. That is if you don’t count Sonic RPG or Sonic Final Fantasy X (I had to play those in secret).
Nope...
Sonic Jam on the Tiger Gamecom is worse
And the version you mentioned was not made by Sega.
*sees the video title*
Sonic 06: I am a joke to you?
this game is worse sonic 2006 has good things about it and at least they tried and is not as bad as people make it out to be it can still be fun and funny to laugh at the glitchs and other stuff but i can understand why people hate it dont get me wrong it still has a lot of flaws
And plus in my opinion shadow 05, free riders, and rise of lyric is worse than 06 but I can say that the game com version is the worst sonic game or "port" ever made
implantgames is such a legend, can review one of the worst games ever made without suffering, F
While I was playing sonic Genesis it made me smile because of how beautiful it was
The PAL version was also slower, I wonder how the speed compares to the EU release of Sonic.
2006 was not a good year for Sonic...
The only good thing was Sonic Riders.
This was the first Sonic game I ever played. I'm surprised I still became a Sonic fan.
I feel sorry that you weren't like me and played Sonic Advance first.
The interesting thing is I made it through 2 of the three acts in a showcase of the GBA remake. I would have kept going... If the ROM didn’t freeze in act 3. I must have had a bad copy of the ROM.
On top of that, I had about 45 straight seconds in Labyrinth Zone where the framerate was very stable. I don’t know why that happened, but I’m not complaining!
Anyways, if anyone is interested, it is on my channel.
Luckly, we live in 2020 so mobile ports and emulators are a thing.
You have the best voice on TH-cam. Do you do the weather for tv or radio?
This game makes the original look like a HD remaster.
It was weird when putting in Genesis footage, and it suddenly not looking so cramped anymore :D Everything is relative I guess.
Couldn't even watch to end... Love how this reviewer talks about "sloppy programming" for 2 minutes yet ignores that a Sega Genesis/Mega Drive game is being ported to portable hardware with insufficient power to fully play such a detailed game. Even the SNES at the top of it's prime could not fully handle the amount of details that the Sonic games provided while also providing the amount of smoothness and speed that Sega achieved in their systems at the same time. He even comments "the music sounds off!" Yeah, no duh it uses different sound chips! That's like comparing SNES to PC Speaker!
-Mad Wolf
I just stumbled upon your channel the other day and have been binge-watching your videos since! Do you just review retro platformers, or have I only tapped into a small portion of your channel?
The backlog of content is deep and varies but the quality goes down the farther back you go. Recently I've been sticking with platformers though. Thanks for binging :)
someone (either Stealth or Taxman I forgot which) made Sonic 1 work on GBA near perfectly (even the music sounds on par) plus adding Tails and Knuckles to the game. So Sega just did a shit job.
19:23
Believe it or not this was my first sonic game and how i first found out about sonic to begin with
I suspect many got stuck with GBA Sonic 1 as their first Sonic game...
so what youre telling me is this is the classic sonic from Forces?
0:00 My ears are dead.
Ugh, this version's music… Why did they go with what sounds like Roland Sound Canvas samples? It sounds like a really low quality fangame that used MIDI files instead of anything official! Also, that's the complete opposite of Yamaha's synth. They should've imported samples of the synth instruments, sorta like what Kulor did with the SNES port of Chemical Plant Zone's music.
Watching the footage for this port really hurts my soul. 😵
I know most programmers don't intend to make bad games, but it takes a special kind of stupid for a game that doesn't function at a basic level to be released to the public. What's sad is that this isn't the only bad Sonic title to ruin Sonic's 15th anniversary.
I feel bad for the developers, I assume Sega didn't give them appropriate time or resources. Such a shame!
I'm so glad I didn't get this when I was little.... I thought about getting it every time we went to Walmart when I was 5 or 6. I lucked out .
This could of been a good sonic game but sadly due to the games slow framerate it was trash. Nice video by the way like last time.
:)
To answer your question, yes, it is the worst Sonic game, this port is completely unacceptable and there is no excuse for it to be this bad.
Sonic 1 in the Sonic Classic Collection on the Nintendo DS is proof that Sonic 1 could have worked on the DS. Christian Whitehead was correct!
That level in the first few minutes was so cringeworthy with how slow sonic would jump and such
It wasn't SEGA's fault; porting games to the GBA was a pain.
P.S. Mario 3 isn't a port, it was a redesign. That's why it was so good.