Another nitpick I don't see mentioned anywhere is the asset laziness. Notice how ALL the "switches" (the buttons that you press in the zone) ALL have the Marble Zone assets. The ones in Spring Yard, Labyrinth, and Scrap Brain, are supposed to be generic grey and blue graphics, but ALL are Marble's green and purple graphics.
Thanks for putting up this detail for everyone to read here! I did mention the switches very briefly in the graphics segment. But it was rapid fire info about object mistakes so no specifics there.
7:15 Small correction on that. They didn't take the Advance games' engine to make this port. Sonic Genesis is actually based on the J2ME port of Sonic 1 called Sonic The Hedgehog Mobile released in 2005, which in itself is based on the Sonic Cafe version of the game, which is why stuff like the title screen is adjusted, because they already had assets for that.
I do see now that the J2ME claim can be found on TCRF. But they resort to using the word "seems" on the page for Genesis so I guess it's just as much of a theory as the advance engine one. Comparing the title screen I do see that Genesis has added dithering on the logo like J2ME. But Genesis definately has its very own background. J2ME has the brighter level water and 3 layer paralax. Genesis has correct dark water but just one merged plane. On further analysis there are interesting discrepancies in the level backgrounds. J2ME actually has some extra parallax layers from REV01 in some levels but not the cloud layer in GHZ that Genesis received. Wish I could've included this in the video. The phone versions totally didn't cross my mind back then. Sonic Genesis looks to be even more of a messed up Frankenstein Monster with even more obscured source of origin than I originally thought.
the fact that's even a thing is an example of bad programming. having music on shouldn't lag a game. i have never seen any other game act like that. heck no Nintendo game in existence lags if the music is on but i guess sega does what nintendont.
This is probably the most extensive review on Sonic Genesis I've ever seen! I never knew up until now that part of the reason why this port is slow is because of the music. Not to mention your dedication to beating the game not only once, but TWICE, just to show off the jukebox. That's a herculean task if I've ever seen one.
You know what's more insulting? Well, at least to me...I got this for my birthday. Yeah....what a birthday surprise. My parents know I'm a huge Sonic fan and at the time, they felt bad, because they didn't have enough money to buy me a Xbox 360 or PS3, so I can get Sonic 06. So when they saw THIS at Walmart, they "knew" I love it. After I played this and saw how awful this game tried to recreate the beauty of the original, I actually had to lie and pretend to my parents that I loved it lol just so they won't feel bad that they couldn't get me a new console lol and I wanted them to think this game made me feel better....it didn't. Years later and I still have this game laying in my drawer collecting dust. Why haven't I thrown it away? I don't know, maybe it's because my parents bought it for me, and no matter how awful this game is, believe me, its BAD! But it's still a gift from my parents. UGH!!!! Great review my guy! The editing, clips and everything was good! Sorry you had to suffer to play this shit lol
A lot of people wonder nowadays how something this bad could have been made. For context, all the Sonic games in development at the time were, Sonic Genesis, Sonic 06, the Wii version of 06 (which would later become Secret Rings), and Sonic Riders, all of which were slated to be released for the 15th anniversary.
The fact that Sonic Team developed 06, Secret Rings and Riders at the same time still baffles me. I fucking love Riders but I don't even understand how that was greenlit given how busy Sonic Team was. SEGA really didn't care about how far stretched ST was back then. It's a miracle that Riders was good.
@captinsparklezremix they were also working on Shadow and Rush at the same time too since they came out relatively close to when those games were made too
"What can be said about this game that hasn't already been said?" Considering I've never heard a single thing about this game, the answer to that question is absolutely anything.
I don't know how this could've possibly happened. How can you make something THIS BAD for the GBA? It's not just bad, it boggles the mind how bad it is.
@KitsuneYojimbo That means nothing when you're comparing a game to a port. Afaik Dimps was never given the source code for Sonic 1, having the source code of a game means way more when you're making a port lol
Fun fact, this is the first Sonic game I ever played. I was 6 when I first played this game and for a few years I could never get past Marble Zone. I didn't even think it was bad, I wasn't knowledgeable enough to know that this was a terrible version of Sonic 1.
I got the Genesis in 1991 when they cut the price and changed the pack-in game to Sonic 1, I was initially shocked that this port on a piece of hardware that is supposed to be so much more advanced (no pun intended) was such a janky mess... but SEGA at this point in time were also pretty uncaring and ambivalent about their legacy pre-Sammy merger so it wasn't completely surprising.
This port was my introduction to Sonic 1. I never knew it was a bad port when I had and never got past Labyrith Zone. I knew the game was stupid slow so I never really played it much. Now that Sonic Origins is out, I'd argue it's the superior way to play Sonic 1 and onward
Why does this video have only 22 likes? Why does this have only 466 views? Why does this video have only 3 comments (4 including this comment of mine)? This video was really REALLY well made! I watched the entire video all the way to the end and I enjoyed every second of it, got some laughs here and there. A while ago, out of curiosity, I tried this game on a GBA emulator, and gave up by the time I reached Act 2 of the Marble Zone because of how laggy it is (and it's not the emulator because other ROMs work perfectly fine). I also wondered about the screen size and why I couldn't see as much as those TH-cam videos of Sonic 1 can (turns out, it was screen crunch as you mentioned). Now, having watched this video, it all made perfect sense. Oh dear, the slowdown. Thank you SO MUCH for this video! Honestly, by the time I finished watching the video, I scrolled down and was expecting like at least several thousand likes on the video, some thousand views and at least a few hundred comments, but I'm really REALLY surprised. This video is really well made and, to be honest, I think it is on par with bigger channels out there that have thousands of likes per video, several hundred thousand views per video, hundreds of comments per video. Keep up the good work! I haven't seen your other videos, but, I gotta say, your channel really deserves to grow big if you keep making videos of such high quality.
Thanks! I'm glad someone finally really appreciates what I have done with this video. I'm honestly shocked how much it tanked and I really don't know why it's so ignored. It also got a bunch of thumbs down right out of the gate, during the last days where TH-cam showed them openly.
@@BlueMueI really like this video too. If I had to guess it might be the title of the video. Someone might look at it and assume you're talking about the og game and not read the gba part of the title so they might get touchy as a result.
@@noname-jt6kl Thanks for the advice! I don't think there's any confusion but I really should've considered are more attention grabbing video title. Might be way too late now but I guess I'll think of a replacement.
@@BlueMue I really do wonder why they thought releasing this in this state was ok. Putting aside the sound problems, the performance is so bad that surely any dev would have looked at it and thought 'hmmm, maybe we should fix this'
A year or two ago I kid you not in a Sonic group on Facebook I saw somebody post an image of Sonic Genesis inbox and they were not even being ironic about it and literally said that they're happy that they finally got to experience the first Sonic game. I could not help but laugh because this was not the true experience of the first Sonic game because it is such an awful port. Most people agreed with me but some people were for some reason defending him Like as if they didn't know that the GBA port of Sonic Genesis was so damn bad. I mean it's no wonder why this person got this game from a flea market. Whoever had it there was trying their best to get rid of it
I find it funny how the GBA struggles with emulating the music from the Genesis yet Nintendo had no problem with making newer versions of songs of the NES/SNES games they ported to the GBA.
Fr. They remade A Link to the Past perfectly on GBA so there was genuinely no excuse especially considering the many other pretty great GBA remakes of SNES/Genesis games out there
This was the first game I played as a kid that I understood was... "bad". I'd played bad games before then, but I was just a dumb little kid, so I didn't really care as long as there were flashing lights and colors. But playing this game, I had the distinct sense that something was wrong. It felt difficult to control, I often couldn't tell where I was going or when an enemy would come onto the screen, and I just had this weird feeling that I wasn't having fun. I gave it a few tries because I assumed I just needed to get better before the game would be fun to me, but eventually I just gave up and put it down for good. This port is so bad even my 6 year old self could tell.
PLEASE DO MORE VIDEOS LIKE THIS. I literally loved this video so much so that the day after i watched it which is tonight im eating and got a random urge to watch ur channel and man!!!! I love this style you do
Thanks! Very pleased that you enjoyed this enough to rewatch. This here was actually very much not my style and a one-off thing. Don't know if I'll be doing another review like this so I have to curb your expectations.
@@ilikesonicxbro I could point you towards my Hitachi TRQ-298 video if it helps any. Very different subject and different kind of visual and narrative style. Also old... But it's literally the only other video I have where I actually talk.
People always say they always got stuck at Marble Zone as a kid. I was one point then learned where to go on my own. But i mainly remember getting stuck on Scrap Yard and Labyrinth Zone
Great video. Ive seen videos on this port before but not this in depth. We sonic fans salute you for torturing yourself with this game for our entertainment
The sad thing is, The Sonic Advance series proves that Sonic games can run great on GBA. They just didn't try. It would have been cool to see a native port of some of the classic Sonic games on GBA. Instead we get this abysmal failure. :( Sonic Classic Collection I think was the next time we got official versions of the classics on handhelds. Those games were emulated and also had some performance issues but at least they were mostly playable and the slowdowns they did have was because of emulation. I'm curious as to what this game's excuse for it's bad performance was because surely it's not being emulated because it'd be crazy to try that on a GBA. Even a DSi can just barely run Genesis games full speed. I couldn't stand playing this game. The stuttering and off sound fx turned me off from giving it any serious attempt. :P
What really stinks about Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis on the GBA is that the handheld actually did have the capability to use the same kind of audio heard on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, but Sega and Sonic Team cut corners instead because they were trying to meet a deadline. The end result was a mess with the wrong synthesized Instruments and sound fonts.
@@EngineerMonkeyBTD6 except Doom is technically more demanding than the frickin sonic 1... So its no excuse for Sonic 1 to run THIS BADLY when the motherfucking Doom can run on the GBA Better.
@@naoaquieopatrickpatrick8565 No, he's right. Doom isn't _that_ much more demanding, originally it was designed for low spec machines, but what matters a lot more is the fact that ID-soft actually went and released its source code publicly on top of having it optimized to near perfection in the first place. If you're porting Doom everything you need is already prearranged and set up in your favor which makes the process a breeze even if you're porting to underpowered hardware, on the other hand Dimps had their work cut out for them and everything was working against them. They didn't even get the source code of Sonic 1 and without one it's practically impossible to make a competent port, it's effectively the same as making the game almost from scratch.
The resolution issue was horrible on the Game Gear port of Master System's Sonic games. (Confusingly, there was both Master System and Genesis Sonic games, none of them were related to one another). Specifically, MS Sonic 2 on Game Gear had such a cut down resolution that the first act's boss was insanely difficult. You simply couldn't see the balls that were coming towards you to dodge them, AND they were randomized (on the original they had a fixed pattern).
This was the first way I played sonic the hedgehog as a kid and I caused me to memorize the levels because of the cut screen space, I loved this video TY.
I loved my GBA SP when I got it for christmas the year it released. Golden Sun, Metroid Fusion, and the GOAT: Super Mario Advance 4 (SMB 3) Also the last year my whole family got together for christmas parties. Where's that Delorean when you need it?
And this is why ports need more than 1 month. The other thing is that while this game uses the engine for Sonic Advance, it was also not meant to run Sega Genesis programming. The Java version ran better than this for crying out loud.
I remember my friend had and let me borrow this game, and I straight up thought it was a defective copy because it was struggling to run on my GBA 😂😂😂 No, apparently that's just how it is. I dont know if it's a hardware limitation, or a lack of software optimization, but these noobs really released TWO games that weren't capable of running smoothly in the same year for Sonic's anniversary!!!!
It's not, GTA Vice City builds for GBA existed as early as 15+ years ago so SM64 in 2024 feels tame by comparison. The only reason that SM64 version runs as fast as it does on GBA is because it's a demake that looks nothing like the original, calling it a port is a misnomer. GBA could probably run an unchanged version of SM64 so I don't get all the hype for this particular project.
Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis for the Game Boy Advance, where do I even begin? the way Sonic jumps in the game is so exciting and thrilling, making it feel like an absolute surprise every time you land high in the air, never quite knowing where you’ll end up. the spin dash is nothing short of amazing, the slow motion effects being applied as you roll around on the grassy hills or the marble floor being a nice touch to such a brilliant move added to the game. the soundtrack captures the emotion of nostalgia and how it distorts the nature of things very well, being a successful meta commentary on the relationship between nostalgia and accuracy to the imagined past. I especially love it when it ends, it’s such a satisfying and fun experience to see the game finish and you feel really accomplished after all the hard work you’ve put into the game, trying to figure out its secrets and hidden meaning. thank you for everything, Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis for the Game Boy Advance. you truly are the best Sonic 1 port of all time. 😁
I did broke and destroyed a Sonic 1 GBA cartridge after failing in Green Hill Zone Act 2 3 times until i got a game over, because of those stupid controls and physics.
I feel for the developers, really... SEGA has lost the original game's source code, they had to work with a terrible java port that also didn't use the original source code, and had to release a piece of crap because SEGA wanted to fuck everything Sonic-related that came out in 2006.
Well, I specifically mentioned a sound _processor_ there. Unlike the SNES with its SPC700 or the MD with its Z80 there really is no additional helper chip to run the sound code on the GBA. The main CPU has to juggle game code and sound code. You are still right about sound hardware though since the GBA has the Game Boy APU for legacy reasons. Probably should've mentioned that because after all that chip is responsible for the wonderful "fart noises" in Sonic Genesis.
@@BlueMue There's actually an annoying explanation for why the audio takes so much CPU. The original sound driver written for the GBA (known as "M4A", or "Makecodes for AGB") was included as part of the BIOS, and it is /incredibly/ slow. Executing code from BIOS is blazingly fast, but the code was heavily optimized for size rather than speed, and from the looks of the disassembly, it was an early prototype (eg. unnecessarily precise math). Most games (especially those coming out of Japan) used an updated version of that driver (so it obviously couldn't be part of the BIOS), which was a fair bit faster and more optimized, but it's honestly still far too slow; the main mixing loop processes four samples per iteration, but those four samples are processed in an inner loop, which adds a 3.5 cycle penalty per sample, per voice, which adds up quite a bit (eg. at 13379Hz, that's an extra 0.28% CPU per voice), and then there's loop-end checks inside the loop instead of moving them outside, an extra "optimization" for when the playback rate is close to 1.0 (which usually hurts more than it helps), and so on. Some of the clicks/pops are also caused by the samples overflowing, because this driver doesn't do any clipping whatsoever (it writes straight to the output buffer to save on a scratch buffer and a final mixdown stage). Most homebrew used/uses far more optimized drivers (eg. Krawall, Maxmod, and the absolutely insane AAS driver), but the main downside to these is that I don't think any of them (except maybe Maxmod, under the right configuration?) support interpolation. That's actually what you want for a classic "chip-tune" style, just don't except a lush soundscape from them... which is a major reason I've been designing my own insanely overpowered sound driver for a tech demo, which I've seen peaking at around 80% CPU for 21kHz output hahaha. To be fair, though, I am doing a lot of insane things (stereo waveforms plus interpolation, 3-tap reverb processing, upsampling to 42kHz to reduce aliasing, ADPCM-compressed waveforms, volume ramping, etc.), so this is kinda expected.
Well I actually showed that I played my cartridge on a DS Lite. The GBA inside the DS is absolutely identical to an original GBA so there's no possibility for differences.
To give credit to whoever made the port, Stealth had years of experience with the S1 engine and all the hardware knowledge to understand what should have been changed when porting, this team probably didn't in the slightest, so they just transpiled from a language to another and hoped for the best. Also it's based off the equally horrible J2ME port (which is the original Assembly transpiled to Java, and I think GBA only accepts C, so the game went through 3 different languages by this point)
Wasn’t that game by THQ? I also assume they released it on the Game of Advance because wasn’t that THQ’s contract with Sega that they could develop Sega games on GBA. Which was great with Sonic Advance but terrible with Crazy Taxi. I would assume that’s why they released it for GBA. I assume they didn’t get the rights from Sega to release games on DS
THQ only did the publishing in North America for the Sega GBA games. Sonic Genesis doesn't come with their logo on the box so they probably didn't even have that involvement there.
@@BlueMue I wasn’t aware that THQ wasn’t the publisher. I just knew most Sega games for GBA were published by THQ and developed by a third party. Jet Grind Radio GBA was by Vicarious Visions, Crazy Taxi was by Graphic State Limited, The Revenge of Shinobi and Altered Beast were by 3d6 even Sonic Advance was published by THQ and mostly handled by Dimps. Those are just the ones I played. I assume there are more.
This game is essentially "WHAT IF EVERY SONIC ZONE HAD UNDERWATER PHYSICS?!" Which means Labyrinth Zone is DOUBLE as slow at least for this port. And as I've mentioned before, the Spin Dash is useless in Sonic 1 because the game itself was never built around the idea of using a move to blast through terrain like that; Sonic 2 was. Look at the layout between the two games and you'll see Sonic 1 is built for quick reactions on jumps because there are so many jumps and the groundwork is LADEN with so many traps. Sonic 2 and beyond are all about speeding through with slides, inclines abd pipes. To give a better idea, look at how the START of Marble Garden is built. That's utter hell for Spin Dash because of the constantly moving ground, the lava pits, and how it's a constant journey down. Then look at Lava Reef which is also about great timing but is built a lot better to accommodate Spin Dash usage to the point there are designated ramps and platforms for its direct use.
This game was my first and only experience with Sonic the Hedgehog as a kid. Learning that the original version was nothing like this was definitely an eye opener LMFAO
I was playing this and wondering “why is this so crap? I’m not usually so bad at this game” but the screen size being to small makes so much sense because you’re constantly running into shit because once you see it can finally see its, it’s too late and you’ve already been hit
Knew a guy like 12-13 years ago who defended this port with his *life* , it was absolutely insane how he would spam comments in every video criticizing it saying how it's "actually good, you guys are just mean!!!"
Super Sonic was not in the original Sonic the Hedgehog or its GBA remake. It is playable in any level by collecting 50 rings and jumping or double-jumping in Sonic 2, 3, both episodes of 4, Mania and various final boss Super Sonic stages are playable in lots of other games throughout the series.
If this is supposed to be a java port like some have speculated theres a chance it's not even properly ported and just running in a sort of j2me interpreter for the gba there's no way the sonic advance engine couldn't handle this game out the box tbh it's doubly embarrassing because i've played through "part 1" of the java version on several phones and none ran anywhere near as dog ass as this one did.
I wish I knew more about this theory back then, would've definately included it in the video. I remember playing these old Java versions on a flip phone and I have to agree that they worked better than Sonic Genesis. They were quite choppy but at least not sluggish. Really no idea if the J2ME theory holds any water though. It could really be anything that makes Sonic Gensis such a mess. Unless the code gets completely disected we may never know.
I'm surprised you didn't mention that they got the physics of knockback when hit wrong. When you land after getting hurt, you're supposed to stop, not keep your momentum.
I remember seeing a copy of this game on display at Wal-Mart a few times all the way back in 2004 and I've been wanting to get the game not only because I owned only one Sonic game on GBA, that being Sonic Advance 3, but because I always wanted to play the old Genesis classic that started the whole franchise anytime, anywhere. Now looking back, I feel congratulated by not wasting away my cash on this train crash of a game. This is obviously what the Sonic Advance series would've been like if all those games sucked. Like, if I wanted to play what resembled a version of Sonic Genesis that was actually GOOD, I could do a run on Green Hill zone in SA3 with a team of Sonic and Knuckles.
Sonic Genesis borrows some graphical assets from the J2ME version, that much is sure. But there seems to be no definitive answer to how much it borrows from the code. The phones never got the special stage so that must've come from the original and then there are a bunch of smaller things that make it go beyond a straight port.
Not really. There's a lot of technical differences between the two. It's not even a port of the Genesis ROM it's just a lazy copy and paste of assets over a Dimps engine
I'm having a weird moment here I played the heck out of this game as a kid. Granted it was the only Sonic game I had played at the time and didn't know the slowmo wasn't supposed to be there. I'm not defending it but one person in the world had fun with it.
Sonic GBA Official Port's good point in my opinion is No deletions to the original Genesis Version, Actually, it can be the old fans' memories before NDS Classic Collection and 2013 Official Mobile Port (except home console and computer)
I still find it funny that when the fixed version of this port was making the rounds the Dude behind it was going by the name “some guy named stealth”. Funny
It's honestly hard to put into words how bad it is. It feels like an old, BAD Flash game from Newgrounds, where the jump doesn't work properly half the time, you constantly clip through everything, you get stuck to things because the collision detection is broken... it's really insane. There's bad, and then there's THIS.
I notice that when sonic dies no matter where it happens, he does the drowning animation, that's really weird. (edit) I just realized that you mention this later in the video lmao
Thankfully, we have Sonic Origins now, and the Sonic 1 in that collection is what Sonic Genesis should have been. Not only it's a faithful port, but it has an actual spindash, and Tails, Knuckles and Amy are all playable now.
True story. On a family vacation I passed on Fire Red at Walmart and got this instead. My younger brother got Fire Red and I regretted it on the rest of the road trip back to Indiana from south Texas. I only got this port because I always loved sonic and I only really played Pokémon at a friends house so I didn’t see why I would want it even tho these two games were the biggest draw in the gba section. I thought it was okay but when I snuck my bros gameboy while he slept o quickly realized I chose the wrong game ! I was enthralled to the max with fire red and my bro didn’t even know how to play it. I always had to end up fighting him just to play it . This port tho was just a straight dud. Decent but lacks content.
Well described😁 But i i indeed found this cheap 15 year aniversarry edition of sonic the hedge hog for the gba just stupid am mean could they not have wait for a proper 25 year aniversarry edition of it for the 3DS instead? Well it is interesting that they used the sonic advance 3 engine and moddified it to make it work with sonic 1 but they still should,ve tweak it more and more. Those sound samples are scratchy as well wich they could,ve improve on it as well. So it was just a rushed attempt to bring this game on the market😟
I remember emulating this about 10 years ago on my phone, i had a really shitty phone at the time so when the game kept lagging i just assumed it was because my phone wasn't strong enough to emulate this 🤣
They could have just zoomed out the screen a bit? Why in the world wouldn't they do that that's such a simple change (I know the reason, it's because they didn't care whatsoever)
![[TAS] GBA Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis by Tuffcracker in 16:46.89](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kGA-RqDOk8s/mqdefault.jpg)
Another nitpick I don't see mentioned anywhere is the asset laziness. Notice how ALL the "switches" (the buttons that you press in the zone) ALL have the Marble Zone assets. The ones in Spring Yard, Labyrinth, and Scrap Brain, are supposed to be generic grey and blue graphics, but ALL are Marble's green and purple graphics.
Thanks for putting up this detail for everyone to read here! I did mention the switches very briefly in the graphics segment. But it was rapid fire info about object mistakes so no specifics there.
@@BlueMueSonic Game Boy Advance Genesis has the same camera problem like Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 PS3.
I wonder if that's more of a problem with GBA carts' limited size
@@brendangilbert3283 Sega really made such a poor utilization huh
11:59 isn't that spring upside down too? In fact I think all the horizontal springs are upside down
This is the best review of Sonic The Hedgehog Genesis EVER!!!
I enjoyed this review much more than I would for playing Sonic The Hedgehog Genesis.
Sonic original 1991 still miles above Sonic GBA GENESIS.
I prefer ClementJ64's review more tbh
7:15 Small correction on that. They didn't take the Advance games' engine to make this port. Sonic Genesis is actually based on the J2ME port of Sonic 1 called Sonic The Hedgehog Mobile released in 2005, which in itself is based on the Sonic Cafe version of the game, which is why stuff like the title screen is adjusted, because they already had assets for that.
That is some truly nerdy Sonic knowledge that you got hold of.
I was going to say...that doesn't seem right and would probably take a LOT more work to get the physics similar with all its quirks
I do see now that the J2ME claim can be found on TCRF. But they resort to using the word "seems" on the page for Genesis so I guess it's just as much of a theory as the advance engine one.
Comparing the title screen I do see that Genesis has added dithering on the logo like J2ME. But Genesis definately has its very own background. J2ME has the brighter level water and 3 layer paralax. Genesis has correct dark water but just one merged plane.
On further analysis there are interesting discrepancies in the level backgrounds. J2ME actually has some extra parallax layers from REV01 in some levels but not the cloud layer in GHZ that Genesis received.
Wish I could've included this in the video. The phone versions totally didn't cross my mind back then. Sonic Genesis looks to be even more of a messed up Frankenstein Monster with even more obscured source of origin than I originally thought.
Does that mean that it could be theoretically possible to port sonic 2 J2ME on the GBA?
@@heitorsant1759well could be possible.
FINALLY, I FOUND SOMEONE TO ADDRESS THE MUSIC LAG
the fact that's even a thing is an example of bad programming.
having music on shouldn't lag a game.
i have never seen any other game act like that.
heck no Nintendo game in existence lags if the music is on but i guess
sega does what nintendont.
@@Boomrainbownuke9608 That's called not having a dedicated soundchip
@@abc_4226 sonic advance games didn't need it.
They were optimized @@Boomrainbownuke9608
Everyone else do
13:51 Those particular sound effects sound like the experience point bars from Pokémon.
they do sound alot like that
Really enjoyed the editing and how elaborate the video is. This port is rightfully infamous. Truly horrible...
Ride to Hell Retribution to Sonic GBA GENESIS: FINALLY A WORTHY OPPONENT.😂
This is probably the most extensive review on Sonic Genesis I've ever seen! I never knew up until now that part of the reason why this port is slow is because of the music. Not to mention your dedication to beating the game not only once, but TWICE, just to show off the jukebox. That's a herculean task if I've ever seen one.
Even in 2024, Sonic GBA GENESIS still deserved a 0/10.
You know what's more insulting? Well, at least to me...I got this for my birthday. Yeah....what a birthday surprise. My parents know I'm a huge Sonic fan and at the time, they felt bad, because they didn't have enough money to buy me a Xbox 360 or PS3, so I can get Sonic 06. So when they saw THIS at Walmart, they "knew" I love it. After I played this and saw how awful this game tried to recreate the beauty of the original, I actually had to lie and pretend to my parents that I loved it lol just so they won't feel bad that they couldn't get me a new console lol and I wanted them to think this game made me feel better....it didn't. Years later and I still have this game laying in my drawer collecting dust. Why haven't I thrown it away? I don't know, maybe it's because my parents bought it for me, and no matter how awful this game is, believe me, its BAD! But it's still a gift from my parents. UGH!!!! Great review my guy! The editing, clips and everything was good! Sorry you had to suffer to play this shit lol
I feel bad for you, I wonder how you would’ve felt if you got 06 instead
he would've been dead either way@@thecoolbroscoolman4672
in hindsight would you really have been happier with sonic 06 lmao
Better this port than the mess that was Sonic 06 tho xD
@@thecoolbroscoolman4672 I feel like that would've been even worse, knowing how much more money their parents would've sunk into that.
A lot of people wonder nowadays how something this bad could have been made. For context, all the Sonic games in development at the time were, Sonic Genesis, Sonic 06, the Wii version of 06 (which would later become Secret Rings), and Sonic Riders, all of which were slated to be released for the 15th anniversary.
The fact that Sonic Team developed 06, Secret Rings and Riders at the same time still baffles me. I fucking love Riders but I don't even understand how that was greenlit given how busy Sonic Team was. SEGA really didn't care about how far stretched ST was back then. It's a miracle that Riders was good.
@captinsparklezremix they were also working on Shadow and Rush at the same time too since they came out relatively close to when those games were made too
Now that is some serious "mean beans" Robotnik ate. lol
Well seems like even Espio the Chameleon approved that.
"What can be said about this game that hasn't already been said?"
Considering I've never heard a single thing about this game, the answer to that question is absolutely anything.
I don't know how this could've possibly happened. How can you make something THIS BAD for the GBA? It's not just bad, it boggles the mind how bad it is.
The irony is, the Sonic Advance trilogy proved that you can make a good GBA Sonic game.
@@KitsuneYojimbo And this came out AFTER those.
@@KitsuneYojimboSonic Advance Trilogy originally also planned to be released on 2005. 2 years after SONIC ADVANCE 3.
@KitsuneYojimbo
That means nothing when you're comparing a game to a port. Afaik Dimps was never given the source code for Sonic 1, having the source code of a game means way more when you're making a port lol
Fun fact, this is the first Sonic game I ever played. I was 6 when I first played this game and for a few years I could never get past Marble Zone.
I didn't even think it was bad, I wasn't knowledgeable enough to know that this was a terrible version of Sonic 1.
Same. Played it on a friend’s GBA. Became familiar with Sonic afterwards and bought Sonic Rush and Sonic Heroes.
I always felt bad for those were not at least gifted a hand-me-down Genesis with Sonic 2. That's just how I grew up.
I got the Genesis in 1991 when they cut the price and changed the pack-in game to Sonic 1, I was initially shocked that this port on a piece of hardware that is supposed to be so much more advanced (no pun intended) was such a janky mess... but SEGA at this point in time were also pretty uncaring and ambivalent about their legacy pre-Sammy merger so it wasn't completely surprising.
This port was my introduction to Sonic 1. I never knew it was a bad port when I had and never got past Labyrith Zone. I knew the game was stupid slow so I never really played it much. Now that Sonic Origins is out, I'd argue it's the superior way to play Sonic 1 and onward
@@ShadamyLover15 Sonic Origins gets way too much crap despite not being bad at all
+1 more person accurately describing the gba sound hardware situation
Sonic The Hedgehog GBA Genesis originally should've been delayed into 2008 to avoid this gameplay mess.
Good video and good analysis, shame this video is not as popular as it deserves to be.
Why does this video have only 22 likes? Why does this have only 466 views? Why does this video have only 3 comments (4 including this comment of mine)? This video was really REALLY well made! I watched the entire video all the way to the end and I enjoyed every second of it, got some laughs here and there. A while ago, out of curiosity, I tried this game on a GBA emulator, and gave up by the time I reached Act 2 of the Marble Zone because of how laggy it is (and it's not the emulator because other ROMs work perfectly fine). I also wondered about the screen size and why I couldn't see as much as those TH-cam videos of Sonic 1 can (turns out, it was screen crunch as you mentioned). Now, having watched this video, it all made perfect sense. Oh dear, the slowdown. Thank you SO MUCH for this video! Honestly, by the time I finished watching the video, I scrolled down and was expecting like at least several thousand likes on the video, some thousand views and at least a few hundred comments, but I'm really REALLY surprised. This video is really well made and, to be honest, I think it is on par with bigger channels out there that have thousands of likes per video, several hundred thousand views per video, hundreds of comments per video. Keep up the good work! I haven't seen your other videos, but, I gotta say, your channel really deserves to grow big if you keep making videos of such high quality.
Thanks! I'm glad someone finally really appreciates what I have done with this video. I'm honestly shocked how much it tanked and I really don't know why it's so ignored. It also got a bunch of thumbs down right out of the gate, during the last days where TH-cam showed them openly.
@@BlueMueI really like this video too. If I had to guess it might be the title of the video. Someone might look at it and assume you're talking about the og game and not read the gba part of the title so they might get touchy as a result.
@@noname-jt6kl Thanks for the advice! I don't think there's any confusion but I really should've considered are more attention grabbing video title. Might be way too late now but I guess I'll think of a replacement.
@@BlueMue I really do wonder why they thought releasing this in this state was ok. Putting aside the sound problems, the performance is so bad that surely any dev would have looked at it and thought 'hmmm, maybe we should fix this'
Oh... Shit, I just brought four Sonic games for GBA, for my Analog Pocket. This was one of them.
imagine buying ram chips in the year 2024
A year or two ago I kid you not in a Sonic group on Facebook I saw somebody post an image of Sonic Genesis inbox and they were not even being ironic about it and literally said that they're happy that they finally got to experience the first Sonic game. I could not help but laugh because this was not the true experience of the first Sonic game because it is such an awful port. Most people agreed with me but some people were for some reason defending him Like as if they didn't know that the GBA port of Sonic Genesis was so damn bad. I mean it's no wonder why this person got this game from a flea market. Whoever had it there was trying their best to get rid of it
Now hold on a minute. The GBA wasn't the problem. The devs were. Proof? A fan made a way better version of GBA Sonic 1. The game was clearly rushed.
And that fan was *"Stealth" who worked on Sonic Mania.*
@@Sonic_the_hedgedog No it was done by someone called Stealth.
I find it funny how the GBA struggles with emulating the music from the Genesis yet Nintendo had no problem with making newer versions of songs of the NES/SNES games they ported to the GBA.
and to think this console also runs doom 2 just fine as well
@@Mr_Waheeand also Doom 1995 game.
Fr. They remade A Link to the Past perfectly on GBA so there was genuinely no excuse especially considering the many other pretty great GBA remakes of SNES/Genesis games out there
Mother 1+2?
@@estadian earthbound gba's music is trash
This was the first game I played as a kid that I understood was... "bad". I'd played bad games before then, but I was just a dumb little kid, so I didn't really care as long as there were flashing lights and colors. But playing this game, I had the distinct sense that something was wrong. It felt difficult to control, I often couldn't tell where I was going or when an enemy would come onto the screen, and I just had this weird feeling that I wasn't having fun. I gave it a few tries because I assumed I just needed to get better before the game would be fun to me, but eventually I just gave up and put it down for good.
This port is so bad even my 6 year old self could tell.
The problem is that the GBA does not have blast processing!
PLEASE DO MORE VIDEOS LIKE THIS. I literally loved this video so much so that the day after i watched it which is tonight im eating and got a random urge to watch ur channel and man!!!! I love this style you do
Thanks! Very pleased that you enjoyed this enough to rewatch. This here was actually very much not my style and a one-off thing. Don't know if I'll be doing another review like this so I have to curb your expectations.
@@BlueMuenoooooooooooo😢
@@ilikesonicxbro I could point you towards my Hitachi TRQ-298 video if it helps any. Very different subject and different kind of visual and narrative style. Also old... But it's literally the only other video I have where I actually talk.
@@BlueMueYes please:)
@@BlueMue Ah, so this is like a super one-off!
People always say they always got stuck at Marble Zone as a kid. I was one point then learned where to go on my own. But i mainly remember getting stuck on Scrap Yard and Labyrinth Zone
I didn't even notice the water ripple in Labyrinth Zone until you mentioned it being missing in this port! Great video
Great video. Ive seen videos on this port before but not this in depth. We sonic fans salute you for torturing yourself with this game for our entertainment
The sad thing is, The Sonic Advance series proves that Sonic games can run great on GBA. They just didn't try. It would have been cool to see a native port of some of the classic Sonic games on GBA. Instead we get this abysmal failure. :(
Sonic Classic Collection I think was the next time we got official versions of the classics on handhelds. Those games were emulated and also had some performance issues but at least they were mostly playable and the slowdowns they did have was because of emulation. I'm curious as to what this game's excuse for it's bad performance was because surely it's not being emulated because it'd be crazy to try that on a GBA. Even a DSi can just barely run Genesis games full speed. I couldn't stand playing this game. The stuttering and off sound fx turned me off from giving it any serious attempt. :P
This looks like an interesting _30_ minutes..
What really stinks about Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis on the GBA is that the handheld actually did have the capability to use the same kind of audio heard on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, but Sega and Sonic Team cut corners instead because they were trying to meet a deadline. The end result was a mess with the wrong synthesized Instruments and sound fonts.
You know it’s bad when the GBA port of _Doom_ works better…
Okay, to be fair, Doom... is Doom. You can run Doom on a pregnancy test.
@@EngineerMonkeyBTD6 except Doom is technically more demanding than the frickin sonic 1... So its no excuse for Sonic 1 to run THIS BADLY when the motherfucking Doom can run on the GBA Better.
@@naoaquieopatrickpatrick8565 No, he's right. Doom isn't _that_ much more demanding, originally it was designed for low spec machines, but what matters a lot more is the fact that ID-soft actually went and released its source code publicly on top of having it optimized to near perfection in the first place. If you're porting Doom everything you need is already prearranged and set up in your favor which makes the process a breeze even if you're porting to underpowered hardware, on the other hand Dimps had their work cut out for them and everything was working against them. They didn't even get the source code of Sonic 1 and without one it's practically impossible to make a competent port, it's effectively the same as making the game almost from scratch.
Fantastic video! Thanks for going in depth on it's quirks and why things turned out this way!
The resolution issue was horrible on the Game Gear port of Master System's Sonic games. (Confusingly, there was both Master System and Genesis Sonic games, none of them were related to one another). Specifically, MS Sonic 2 on Game Gear had such a cut down resolution that the first act's boss was insanely difficult. You simply couldn't see the balls that were coming towards you to dodge them, AND they were randomized (on the original they had a fixed pattern).
This was the first way I played sonic the hedgehog as a kid and I caused me to memorize the levels because of the cut screen space, I loved this video TY.
This and Sonic '06 have some things in common. Do you know what they are?
This was a very entertaining video. Loved how thorough you were with the quirks of this port and the recordings were great!
7:48 also notice how he just clips through that spring
I loved my GBA SP when I got it for christmas the year it released. Golden Sun, Metroid Fusion, and the GOAT: Super Mario Advance 4 (SMB 3)
Also the last year my whole family got together for christmas parties. Where's that Delorean when you need it?
damn, great lineup
And this is why ports need more than 1 month.
The other thing is that while this game uses the engine for Sonic Advance, it was also not meant to run Sega Genesis programming. The Java version ran better than this for crying out loud.
Thank god for the 3DS compilation, giving us a better version with the spindash. Classic Collection on DS made up for this too.
12:25
"Just listen to Spring Yard Zone!"
_Doesn't let you listen to Spring Yard Zone_
I didn't want to waste everyones time by letting the terrible music play out. If you are curious consider the comparison as homework.
I remember my friend had and let me borrow this game, and I straight up thought it was a defective copy because it was struggling to run on my GBA 😂😂😂 No, apparently that's just how it is. I dont know if it's a hardware limitation, or a lack of software optimization, but these noobs really released TWO games that weren't capable of running smoothly in the same year for Sonic's anniversary!!!!
The fact that someone is porting Mario 64 to the GBA, which runs faster than this bullcrap is insane
It's not, GTA Vice City builds for GBA existed as early as 15+ years ago so SM64 in 2024 feels tame by comparison. The only reason that SM64 version runs as fast as it does on GBA is because it's a demake that looks nothing like the original, calling it a port is a misnomer. GBA could probably run an unchanged version of SM64 so I don't get all the hype for this particular project.
@@Diwasho Me when I don't know what I'm talking about
Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis for the Game Boy Advance, where do I even begin? the way Sonic jumps in the game is so exciting and thrilling, making it feel like an absolute surprise every time you land high in the air, never quite knowing where you’ll end up. the spin dash is nothing short of amazing, the slow motion effects being applied as you roll around on the grassy hills or the marble floor being a nice touch to such a brilliant move added to the game. the soundtrack captures the emotion of nostalgia and how it distorts the nature of things very well, being a successful meta commentary on the relationship between nostalgia and accuracy to the imagined past. I especially love it when it ends, it’s such a satisfying and fun experience to see the game finish and you feel really accomplished after all the hard work you’ve put into the game, trying to figure out its secrets and hidden meaning. thank you for everything, Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis for the Game Boy Advance. you truly are the best Sonic 1 port of all time. 😁
I beat this game with all the chaos emeralds and only unlocked the music. Do I now have to beat this game without chaos emeralds?
Did you play it in Original Mode? As mentioned in the video I had to do that because I didn't get the sound effects from Anniversary Mode.
@@BlueMue Yes.
@@casultaser Well that sucks. Just another facet of this games' brokenness...
I did broke and destroyed a Sonic 1 GBA cartridge after failing in Green Hill Zone Act 2 3 times until i got a game over, because of those stupid controls and physics.
I feel for the developers, really... SEGA has lost the original game's source code, they had to work with a terrible java port that also didn't use the original source code, and had to release a piece of crap because SEGA wanted to fuck everything Sonic-related that came out in 2006.
small correction at 11:18
the gba *does* have sound hardware, they are just trying to push it past its limit
Well, I specifically mentioned a sound _processor_ there. Unlike the SNES with its SPC700 or the MD with its Z80 there really is no additional helper chip to run the sound code on the GBA. The main CPU has to juggle game code and sound code.
You are still right about sound hardware though since the GBA has the Game Boy APU for legacy reasons. Probably should've mentioned that because after all that chip is responsible for the wonderful "fart noises" in Sonic Genesis.
@@BlueMue There's actually an annoying explanation for why the audio takes so much CPU. The original sound driver written for the GBA (known as "M4A", or "Makecodes for AGB") was included as part of the BIOS, and it is /incredibly/ slow. Executing code from BIOS is blazingly fast, but the code was heavily optimized for size rather than speed, and from the looks of the disassembly, it was an early prototype (eg. unnecessarily precise math). Most games (especially those coming out of Japan) used an updated version of that driver (so it obviously couldn't be part of the BIOS), which was a fair bit faster and more optimized, but it's honestly still far too slow; the main mixing loop processes four samples per iteration, but those four samples are processed in an inner loop, which adds a 3.5 cycle penalty per sample, per voice, which adds up quite a bit (eg. at 13379Hz, that's an extra 0.28% CPU per voice), and then there's loop-end checks inside the loop instead of moving them outside, an extra "optimization" for when the playback rate is close to 1.0 (which usually hurts more than it helps), and so on. Some of the clicks/pops are also caused by the samples overflowing, because this driver doesn't do any clipping whatsoever (it writes straight to the output buffer to save on a scratch buffer and a final mixdown stage).
Most homebrew used/uses far more optimized drivers (eg. Krawall, Maxmod, and the absolutely insane AAS driver), but the main downside to these is that I don't think any of them (except maybe Maxmod, under the right configuration?) support interpolation. That's actually what you want for a classic "chip-tune" style, just don't except a lush soundscape from them... which is a major reason I've been designing my own insanely overpowered sound driver for a tech demo, which I've seen peaking at around 80% CPU for 21kHz output hahaha. To be fair, though, I am doing a lot of insane things (stereo waveforms plus interpolation, 3-tap reverb processing, upsampling to 42kHz to reduce aliasing, ADPCM-compressed waveforms, volume ramping, etc.), so this is kinda expected.
So, why wasn’t this on the DS? Or any other console? Just the GBA?
I know this is a old video but did you try it on the Nintendo Ds and see how the perform it was love to see a follow up video Ps I’m a new subscriber
Well I actually showed that I played my cartridge on a DS Lite. The GBA inside the DS is absolutely identical to an original GBA so there's no possibility for differences.
So, which ones is better, this one or the nGage version? 😁
To give credit to whoever made the port, Stealth had years of experience with the S1 engine and all the hardware knowledge to understand what should have been changed when porting, this team probably didn't in the slightest, so they just transpiled from a language to another and hoped for the best. Also it's based off the equally horrible J2ME port (which is the original Assembly transpiled to Java, and I think GBA only accepts C, so the game went through 3 different languages by this point)
Wasn’t that game by THQ? I also assume they released it on the Game of Advance because wasn’t that THQ’s contract with Sega that they could develop Sega games on GBA. Which was great with Sonic Advance but terrible with Crazy Taxi.
I would assume that’s why they released it for GBA. I assume they didn’t get the rights from Sega to release games on DS
THQ only did the publishing in North America for the Sega GBA games. Sonic Genesis doesn't come with their logo on the box so they probably didn't even have that involvement there.
@@BlueMue I wasn’t aware that THQ wasn’t the publisher.
I just knew most Sega games for GBA were published by THQ and developed by a third party. Jet Grind Radio GBA was by Vicarious Visions, Crazy Taxi was by Graphic State Limited, The Revenge of Shinobi and Altered Beast were by 3d6 even Sonic Advance was published by THQ and mostly handled by Dimps. Those are just the ones I played. I assume there are more.
you deserve a subscriber, enjoy x amazing video
What I don’t understand is why this wasn’t a DS title, this was 2006, I know the GBA was still technically supported at the time but-why?
On the camera comment, if only there were two unused buttons, that your fingers always have access to, that could be used to manually pan the camera
This game is essentially "WHAT IF EVERY SONIC ZONE HAD UNDERWATER PHYSICS?!"
Which means Labyrinth Zone is DOUBLE as slow at least for this port.
And as I've mentioned before, the Spin Dash is useless in Sonic 1 because the game itself was never built around the idea of using a move to blast through terrain like that; Sonic 2 was.
Look at the layout between the two games and you'll see Sonic 1 is built for quick reactions on jumps because there are so many jumps and the groundwork is LADEN with so many traps. Sonic 2 and beyond are all about speeding through with slides, inclines abd pipes.
To give a better idea, look at how the START of Marble Garden is built. That's utter hell for Spin Dash because of the constantly moving ground, the lava pits, and how it's a constant journey down. Then look at Lava Reef which is also about great timing but is built a lot better to accommodate Spin Dash usage to the point there are designated ramps and platforms for its direct use.
You know what would have been cool for anniversary mode redo the game in sonic advance graphics
Sonic The Hedgehog Genesis on Game Boy Advance still is very famous for its "Lives Undeflowing" glitch.
11:16 "Hardware of the GBA" no, that's a skeleton, I'm sorry.
This game was my first and only experience with Sonic the Hedgehog as a kid. Learning that the original version was nothing like this was definitely an eye opener LMFAO
I was playing this and wondering “why is this so crap? I’m not usually so bad at this game” but the screen size being to small makes so much sense because you’re constantly running into shit because once you see it can finally see its, it’s too late and you’ve already been hit
Knew a guy like 12-13 years ago who defended this port with his *life* , it was absolutely insane how he would spam comments in every video criticizing it saying how it's "actually good, you guys are just mean!!!"
I don't know which Sonic game where he Turns into Super Sayian Sonic. Can you turn him Super Sayian on these GBA games??
Super Sonic was not in the original Sonic the Hedgehog or its GBA remake. It is playable in any level by collecting 50 rings and jumping or double-jumping in Sonic 2, 3, both episodes of 4, Mania and various final boss Super Sonic stages are playable in lots of other games throughout the series.
I love how the bumpers sound like Mac OS 9
This is the way I played sonic 1 before I got sonic classics collection for the DSi 😭
If this is supposed to be a java port like some have speculated theres a chance it's not even properly ported and just running in a sort of j2me interpreter for the gba
there's no way the sonic advance engine couldn't handle this game out the box tbh
it's doubly embarrassing because i've played through "part 1" of the java version on several phones and none ran anywhere near as dog ass as this one did.
I wish I knew more about this theory back then, would've definately included it in the video. I remember playing these old Java versions on a flip phone and I have to agree that they worked better than Sonic Genesis. They were quite choppy but at least not sluggish.
Really no idea if the J2ME theory holds any water though. It could really be anything that makes Sonic Gensis such a mess. Unless the code gets completely disected we may never know.
It would explain how disabling parts of the sound processing improves performance just like old emulators on weak computers
I'm surprised you didn't mention that they got the physics of knockback when hit wrong. When you land after getting hurt, you're supposed to stop, not keep your momentum.
3:26 Though to be fair, not many people had a Sega Saturn.
The one game Sonic fans won't pretend is secretly good -- but I don't know, give it 10 more years.
Wait a minute... 15th anniversary and the game becomes 15% faster if you disable the music? It's all connected
I remember seeing a copy of this game on display at Wal-Mart a few times all the way back in 2004 and I've been wanting to get the game not only because I owned only one Sonic game on GBA, that being Sonic Advance 3, but because I always wanted to play the old Genesis classic that started the whole franchise anytime, anywhere. Now looking back, I feel congratulated by not wasting away my cash on this train crash of a game. This is obviously what the Sonic Advance series would've been like if all those games sucked. Like, if I wanted to play what resembled a version of Sonic Genesis that was actually GOOD, I could do a run on Green Hill zone in SA3 with a team of Sonic and Knuckles.
Game didnt come out til 2006 pal
you shoulda got mega collection
@@ScourgeTheKing I do have the Mega Collection!?
wasn't this a port from a Java mobile version of the game?
Sonic Genesis borrows some graphical assets from the J2ME version, that much is sure. But there seems to be no definitive answer to how much it borrows from the code. The phones never got the special stage so that must've come from the original and then there are a bunch of smaller things that make it go beyond a straight port.
At this point. Sega just took the original sonic the hedgehog's file and squeezed it in a Gameboy advance cartridge
Not really. There's a lot of technical differences between the two. It's not even a port of the Genesis ROM it's just a lazy copy and paste of assets over a Dimps engine
I bought this game at a car boot sale and I thought Sonic on the go. At first looked fine but then noticed the lag.
I wonder if their are GBA mods that can make it actually playable.
I'm having a weird moment here I played the heck out of this game as a kid. Granted it was the only Sonic game I had played at the time and didn't know the slowmo wasn't supposed to be there. I'm not defending it but one person in the world had fun with it.
I was given this game by my grandpa so I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for it
EAT FOAM
Also, thanks for reminding me yet again that we still don't have the Sonic Advance Trilogy on Switch...
The true irony is that Sonic Genesis is based on the Sonic Advance engine lol
Sonic Advance was probably the closest replica of the Genesis physics until Mania popped out.
Sonic GBA Official Port's good point in my opinion is No deletions to the original Genesis Version, Actually, it can be the old fans' memories before NDS Classic Collection and 2013 Official Mobile Port (except home console and computer)
I still find it funny that when the fixed version of this port was making the rounds the Dude behind it was going by the name “some guy named stealth”. Funny
I remember getting this GBA Cart when I was a kid. I ended up tearing off the VRAM chip and unlocking every single level.
The question is why didn't they just use the 8bit version instead? Couldn't that have worked better?
only now that you say this do i unironically want a rerelease or remaster of the master system version of sonic 1. i'd say it's different enough
It's honestly hard to put into words how bad it is. It feels like an old, BAD Flash game from Newgrounds, where the jump doesn't work properly half the time, you constantly clip through everything, you get stuck to things because the collision detection is broken... it's really insane. There's bad, and then there's THIS.
I notice that when sonic dies no matter where it happens, he does the drowning animation, that's really weird.
(edit) I just realized that you mention this later in the video lmao
even Super Mario 64 DS runs smoother, i don't get why they ported this to the GBA when the DS should have been better
Thankfully, we have Sonic Origins now, and the Sonic 1 in that collection is what Sonic Genesis should have been. Not only it's a faithful port, but it has an actual spindash, and Tails, Knuckles and Amy are all playable now.
I'm sure I'd have a different opinion on this today buuuut I recall buying this back when I was 19/20 and I didn't hate it! Crazy, right?
I kinda want this on NSO for the lolz. It should be a kind of rite of passage to beat this game.
ive beaten it more times the the original
One of the most notable port fuckups in gaming history.
Ugh, Labyrinth zone was a nightmare in this port…I could never get past it as a kid
Sonic the hedgehog genesis is like gta the definitive edition
It's insane how literal DIMPS can make better games than this
I played this game a lot as a kid since it was my only gameboy game at the time, I loved and still do
Why
@@ivythay4259 well I mean it's obviously a terrible port but I still do enjoy it a little bit
True story. On a family vacation I passed on Fire Red at Walmart and got this instead. My younger brother got Fire Red and I regretted it on the rest of the road trip back to Indiana from south Texas. I only got this port because I always loved sonic and I only really played Pokémon at a friends house so I didn’t see why I would want it even tho these two games were the biggest draw in the gba section. I thought it was okay but when I snuck my bros gameboy while he slept o quickly realized I chose the wrong game ! I was enthralled to the max with fire red and my bro didn’t even know how to play it. I always had to end up fighting him just to play it . This port tho was just a straight dud. Decent but lacks content.
Fun fact, if you emulate this on a DS it’s one of the best ports ever
Well described😁
But i i indeed found this cheap 15 year aniversarry edition of sonic the hedge hog for the gba just stupid am mean could they not have wait for a proper 25 year aniversarry edition of it for the 3DS instead?
Well it is interesting that they used the sonic advance 3 engine and moddified it to make it work with sonic 1 but they still should,ve tweak it more and more.
Those sound samples are scratchy as well wich they could,ve improve on it as well.
So it was just a rushed attempt to bring this game on the market😟
I don't know why they thought it was a good idea to port it to the GBA instead of the DS when the DS was literally around 2 years old
I remember emulating this about 10 years ago on my phone, i had a really shitty phone at the time so when the game kept lagging i just assumed it was because my phone wasn't strong enough to emulate this 🤣
They could have just zoomed out the screen a bit? Why in the world wouldn't they do that that's such a simple change (I know the reason, it's because they didn't care whatsoever)