Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis is a Game Boy Advance port of Sonic the Hedgehog, originally released for the Sega Genesis. It was released in November 2006 to celebrate the franchise's (and the original game's) 15th anniversary. There are several differences from the original game.
Differences
- The screen ratio has been reduced to fit the GBA screen and keep everything the same size.
- Sonic's "death" animation is only shown for a split second. Whenever the player loses a life, the drown animation is shown instead.
- A new "Anniversary mode" has been added where the player can use the spin dash, which was introduced in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, although there is an original mode that could be played without this feature.
- The music and some sound effects were remade.
- The gameplay and music are constantly out-of-sync, as seen in the credits medley.
- The game experiences significant lag and the frame-rate quality is poor.
- The Debug and Level Select modes have been removed, but an unlockable juke box room has been added.
- The game saves any zones/acts completed so that they can be replayed or continued, but does not save any Chaos Emeralds or the player's score.
- If the player quits the game without getting a game over, retrying can be selected at the menu screen so that the player can continue the game with any emeralds and score, and the player will start on the act he/she left off.
- Some bosses, like the Eggmobile (mine dropper) in Starlight Zone, can be damaged by jumping and hitting them, which wasn't possible in the original version.
Gameplay
The game is divided into 7 zones that have 3 acts each (with the exception of Final Zone, which only has a single act.) The goal of the first 2 acts is to simply get to the end and run past the sign post. However, the third act always has a boss battle at the end. (Final Zone's single act is a boss battle). When running through the stages, their are various obstacles such as Badniks, Spikes, Lava and Water. Also, there are rings scattered throughout the stages. If Sonic gets hit without any rings, he loses a life. However, if Sonic gets hit while holding on to at least a single ring, he won't lose a life (he will however lose all of the rings he is currently holding). If Sonic collects 100 rings, he gains an extra life.
Power Ups
Within each of the stages there are different types of power ups:
- Super Ring Monitor: Grants a total of 10 Rings.
- Power Sneakers Monitor: Grants fast speed temporarily.
- Shield Monitor: Grants a shield (this counts as an extra hit).
- Invincibility Monitor: Grants temporary invincibility
- Extra Life Monitor: Grants an extra life
Zones
Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis consists of seven zones. Each zone consists of three acts. The zones are as follows:
- Green Hill Zone
- Marble Zone
- Spring Yard Zone
- Labyrinth Zone
- Star Light Zone
- Scrap Brain Zone
- Final Zone
Special Zone
After collecting at least fifty rings and completing the first or second act, there will be a giant ring that takes you to a Special Zone if the player jumps through it. In the Special Zone, the player has a chance to collect one of six Chaos Emeralds. The Special Zones consist 2-D mazes that rotate costantly. The goal is to find the Chaos Emerald at the end without touching the goal orbs that take the player out of Zone. The player also has a chance to collect a lot of rings for 1-ups or to improve his/her score.
Reception
Sonic The Hedgehog Genesis was universally panned by critics and gamers alike. Some of the most heavily criticized aspects include the extremely choppy framerate, poorly emulated physics, awful remixes of the Sonic The Hedgehog (1991) tunes and the unbelievable amount of bugs and glitches. Due to these reasons, the game is often named as one of the worst Sonic The Hedgehog games of all time.