Sonic the Hedgehog 2
1992 Aspect/Sega Sega Master System Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is the second instalment in the Sonic the Hedgehog series and was released in 1992. The 8bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 completely differs from its 16bit counterpart released on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis with a different story, different levels and although the game makes visual references to the character Tails, Tails is unplayable. In the second instalment of Sonic series, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is somewhat of a halfway house between the original Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Chaos which surfaced a year later. Dr. Robotnik has returned and is up to his usual tricks, this time he has captured Tails and wishes to trade the six Chaos Emeralds for Tails. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is a decent 8bit game and is easily able to hold its own against the other 8bit games in the series. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 runs much smoother than both Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Chaos alike and although the game still lacks the spin dash, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 now includes the ability for Sonic to re-collect his rings after taking damage, making certain parts of game much easier than its predecessor. One thing that makes Sonic the Hedgehog 2 relatively unique in the early Sonic world is the inclusion of ‘vehicles’ so to speak. The mine carts from Underground Zone, coupled with the hang gliders from Sky High Zone, the moveable bubbles from Aqua Lake Zone and the fly wheels from Gimmick Mt. Zone make Sonic the Hedgehog 2 still a lot of fun to play. The 8bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 has a very mixed colour palette, other than a few of the zones such as the first act of Sky High Zone and Green Hills Zone that have the brightness of the previous game. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 features an overall darker colour scheme that at first can be quite off-putting especially after playing Sonic the Hedgehog. The soundtrack used for Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is much more advanced than the previous game, with the soundtrack opting for a more low to mid sound than a mid to high and although the soundtrack is more advanced, it fails to capture the bouncy track ear worms of the original. Composed of only 7 zones, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is not much longer than the original, easily finished in just over an hour. In the usual Sonic tradition, each zone is split into 3 levels, 2 standard levels, one with a chance to discover a Chaos Emerald and a 3rd battle with one of Dr. Robotnik’s animal boss creations. It is a shame that some of these levels never made their way onto the 16bit format as it would have been pretty cool to see 16bit versions of Underground Zone, Scrambled Egg Zone and Sky High Zone act 2 with the storms, winds and hang gliders. It may be a fair assumption to say that the 8bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is a forgotten gem of the Sonic series, even if a lot of the Badniks are basically rehashes of the original, the levels are relatively unique and as far as the Sonic series goes, it falls just below the original and as mentioned above, it’s a shame that some of the zone ideas from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 never made it further. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 has aged much better than expected and has been a pleasure to play again after many, many years. 8/10 Adam
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Sonic the Hedgehog
1991 Ancient/Sega Sega Master System Sonic the Hedgehog is the first instalment in the Sonic the Hedgehog series and was released in 1991. The 8bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog differs from the 16bit version by featuring shorter different levels. The first instalment of the Sonic series, differs quite significantly from the 8bit games in the Sonic series that followed this game. Sonic the Hedgehog introduces the series’ antagonist; Dr. Robotnik who sets out his perennial quest to harness the power of the Chaos Emeralds to bend it to his evil whim and to turn the animals of South Island into his mechanical slaves, called Badniks. Sonic the Hedgehog is a great 8bit game and should not be compared to the 16bit version bearing the same name. Sonic the Hedgehog runs very smoothly with very few frame rate issues and although certain elements of the later Sonic games are missing such as the Spin Dash and the ability to re-collect rings after taking damage, Sonic the Hedgehog stands up exceptionally well today. The 8bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog has a very bright colour palette, much brighter than possibly any other Sonic the Hedgehog game. The tones are very bright and relatively blocky, but it works exceptionally well with the background music for each level being bouncy and extremely memorable, in particular the music for Jungle Zone and Scrap Brain Zone are very catchy. Sonic the Hedgehog is not an overly long game and can easily be finished within the hour. In true Sonic style, each Zone is split into 3 levels, 2 standard levels and a 3rd boss level where Sonic encounters Dr. Robotnik. Sonic the Hedgehog isn’t massively challenging either, but by the same token, it is very fun. Bridge Zone, Jungle Zone and Sky Base Zone are all excellent additions to the 8bit version and it is a wonder why Sega didn’t place these in the 16bit version. In fact, both levels of Sky Base Zone are very interesting with their lightning rods and huge cannons. Sonic the Hedgehog is a very inspiring first edition for the series. The classic Badniks that were introduced with the original Sonic the Hedgehog such as the Moto Bug, Crab Meat, Orbinaut and Catakiller are still popular today and as a series, Sonic never topped this. Also, the most memorable zones of Green Hill Zone and Labyrinth Zone made their first appearance here and you can’t help wondering whether at times did Sega basically rehash the first game over and over again. Sonic the Hedgehog has aged very, very well, it is an absolute pleasure to play over and over again and has an amazing replayability. Sonic the Hedgehog was definitely the best release out of any of the 8bit games from the Sonic series and is possibly only trumped by the 16bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. 9/10 Adam Sonic Chaos
1993 Aspect/Sega Sega Master System Sonic Chaos is part of the Sonic the Hedgehog series, only released on the Sega Master System and Game Gear in 1993. Similar in style to the 8-bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic Chaos also features Tails and is the first time on 8-bit that Tails is playable. The story of Sonic Chaos once more features Sonic’s nemesis, the evil Dr. Robotnik, who steals the Red Chaos Emerald which causes Sonic and Tails to race against time to stop South Island from sinking into the ocean. The main difference in Sonic Chaos between playing as Sonic or Tails is that Sonic is the only character capable of collecting the Chaos Emeralds, thus it is only possible to get the ‘good’ ending with Sonic. That said, a lot of fun can be had by playing Tails, being able to fly is quite distracting at times and when playing Tails it can feel like you’re on an easier mode. Sonic Chaos suffers from being released at the back end of the 8-bit era when the majority of the focus was on 16-bit. Stylistically, Sonic Chaos is not an improvement on Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and if anything Sonic Chaos may even be a step backwards. Sonic Chaos suffers from frame-rate issues right from the get go, Sonic Chaos feels sluggish and can be clearly seen once the Sonic or Tails reach high speeds. That said, there is still a lot of fun to be had on Sonic Chaos, the inclusion of the Rocket Shoes causing Sonic to be able to fly for a limited time is a nice touch, as well as the pogo springs allowing Sonic to bounce and move brings in another dimension to the game. Sonic Chaos is not an overly long game and can easily be finished within the hour. In typical Sonic style, each Zone is subdivided into 2 levels and a 3rd boss level. Sonic Chaos doesn’t stray too far away from the mould with the ideas for the levels, however, one level in particular is very good. Green Hill once more makes a return, but with a twist, it has now been mechanised into Mecha-Green Hill Zone and is a brilliant idea for a Zone with its pseudo-3D walkways, which originally make their appearance in Gigapolis Zone and the return of the spiral passageways from Turquoise Hill Zone. Sonic Chaos does rehash a lot of ideas, Sleeping Egg Zone feels very similar to Sky High Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 with the pipes and chutes of Electric Egg Zone being massively reminiscent of Scrambled Egg Zone. As a game on the whole, for a Sonic game, feels rather uninspired, even the graphics of Sonic the Hedgehog from 1991 feel better, brighter and much more welcoming than Sonic Chaos’ rather dull pallet with even the Badniks feeling rather lacklustre and easily overcome as opposed to some of the more irritating Badniks of the previous games in the series. Sonic Chaos has not aged as well as the previous 8bit games in the Sonic series. However, Sonic Chaos is not without its charm and there are parts of the game which are fun and will keep you playing, but overall, Sonic Chaos is distinctly average. 5/10 Adam Ninja Gaiden
1988/1992 Tecmo/Sega Sega Master System Ninja Gaiden is a 2D platform game originally released in 1988. This version of Ninja Gaiden differs from the original release and follows a different story, however, it still features the same protagonist, Ryu. The story of Ninja Gaiden revolves around Ryu retrieving the all-powerful Bushido scroll from the Shogun of Darkness. The game of Ninja Gaiden itself is pretty long, consisting of 7 levels, plus the final fight with the Shogun himself. Each of the 7 levels is broken down into various different sections involving different obstacles for Ryu to overcome, with every level ending with a boss fight ranging from exceptionally easy, to quite frustrating. Ryu must travel through forests, caves, icy wastes and Tokyo itself before fighting his way to the Shogun of Darkness’ castle for the final showdown. During his travels, Ryu meets many different types of enemies and platform puzzles which require some thought and practice to overcome at times with the final boss fight still holding up well as a particularly tough fight. The graphics of Ninja Gaiden have held up very well over the years with Ninja Gaiden still looking quite pretty and as it was released in 1992, it is at the cutting edge of 8-bit technology, being much sleeker and tidied up from its 1988 counterpart. However, one of the downsides to Ninja Gaiden is the fact that Sega recycled a lot of the same features throughout each level giving not just a familiarity and déja vu, but more of a ‘really, this bit again’. This aside, each level with Ninja Gaiden is very pretty, in particular the Castle of the Shogun of Darkness has a lot of detail in the background art and the best example of this is when Ryu is fighting his way through the outside towards the inside and you can clearly see that the Castle is in disrepair. As can be expected, Ninja Gaiden has very Japanese influences on the music that plays throughout each level and can draw parallels with the likes of previous games of this genre such as Shinobi. The music is very orientated towards that 1970s martial arts movie style through the 8bit sound and does a decent job at removing the focus from the rather repetitive and common sound effects of this era in gaming. Ninja Gaiden is a decent, challenging platform game and still holds up really well today. The main issue with the gameplay is that sometimes it is difficult to get Ryu to turn around very quickly, which can be a tad frustrating at times, especially with the boss on the ice level. This aside, Ninja Gaiden has really good replayability and is a fantastic example of a game that could easily overshadow a lot of games ahead of it. 7/10 Adam Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker
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