You all probably know the story by now. Dr. Eggman aka Dr. Robotnick has been kidnapping your furry friends and turning them into evil robots to combat you. As Sonic, you must free your friends from their robotic confines and take down Dr. Eggman the best to your abilities. This is the 8-bit version of the game and is based more-so on the portable Game Gear version with a few slight differences here and there.
 
GRAPHICS - B
 
The graphics are OK for the most part of the game with flowing waterfall in the Jungle Zone, electrical thunder in the Sky Base Zone and a wild flowing river in the Bridge Zone. All zones have their unique points within the detail. However, there is one bit of detail that the game suffers from as does plenty of games you may have played in the past and that is the game's horizontal resolution. You may notice on the very left hand side a solid line of color with no graphics within it. The game's resolution is small than the resolution allowed for the Sega Master System console so they added that solid line to make up for it. It will change color with the game's main background color but will be black for the most part. You will see this in games like Super Mario Bros. 3 and every Mega Man NES game that came out after Mega Man 2 to name a few but all in all, it is an eyesore of sorts.
 
GAMEPLAY - B+
 
Once again I will have to shave points off here because of the way the mechanisms are compared to the Game Gear version. In the Game Gear version, you can hit the first boss while he moving back and forth through the air and finish him off before he even gets a chance to come at you with his rushing attack. In the Sega Master System version, you cannot even register a hit on him while he is airborne and can only hit him when he is lowering himself to the ground and getting ready to attack. You can still hit him while he is attacking too but it is too much of drag to let it get that far. Another difference in this version is the location of the fourth emerald located in the Labyrinth Zone or as Shadow puts it "that damn fourth chaos emerald". In the Game Gear version, it is a simple jump to snag it while being wary of the spikes. In this version, at least one of the developers was on crack when they decided to embed it in a bit of spikes underwater and require you to get the Invincibility power-up and maintain up until you are able to get the emerald within the spikes. The final notable difference I am aware of is the final boss. The final boss is totally different from the Game Gear version so it's kind of a good thing that it is not a complete carbon copy of its portable counterpart. The ending is the same and only shows you which version of the game you just beat.
 
Remember that you must collect all six chaos emeralds to see the good ending which shows the dark cloud dissipating and that is pretty much it as I don't remember the bad ending saying Try Again at the end. There are six zones in all with only three of them even named after the Genesis version: Green Hill, Labyrinth and Scrap Brain. They all look the same as before and utilize the same or similar gimmick. One thing to note is that while water is Sonic's worst enemy. He is only able to drown in only two levels in the whole game and that is Labyrinth Zone Act 1 and 2. Act 3 takes place completely underwater and Sonic will never drown. Guess he learned a thing or two from Mario for that level. Not only that, other bodies of waters in the other levels will not drown especially in Green Hill Zone and to a small extent, Jungle Zone. The water in the Bridge Zone is deadly as it constitutes falling into a pit and dying. Speaking of the Jungle Zone, if you have played Lion King and got to level 6 (Hakuna Matata) then you may have noticed where the logs coming down the waterfall got its influence from when you play this level.
 
SOUND - A
 
Most of the songs in this game are very catchy. The catchiest of them all is the Labyrinth Zone followed by the Bridge Zone. Ironically, those two songs sound like songs I've heard from real artists. Labyrinth Zone reminds of "Gonna See Ms. Liza, Gonna Go To Mississippi." Bridge Zone although it came out first sounds like Janet Jackson's Together Again. Jungle Zone's music sounds like something you would here in a Bubble Bobble game, most notably Rainbow Islands. Green Hill Zone sounds exactly like it did in its Genesis counterpart only in 8-bit and along with the Invincibility theme and the title screen are the only tracks that got converted to an 8-bit rendition. There has been an FM hack version of the game that shows that if you had gotten all the emeralds then an 8-bit version of the Marble Zone will play during the end credits. Whether it was meant to be in the original version of the game, I have yet to find out.
 
REPLAYABILITY - B-
 
If you missed all emeralds the first time around, then there is room for replayability here. Otherwise, the only reason to play the game again is if you want to do so on your leisure time. Nothing wrong with the game but it is one of those beat the game once and you will be done with it.
 
OVERALL - B-
 
Like I said, it is a nice 8-bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog but it is a small step lower than the Game Gear version and could have been improved upon a little bit since it was a console version but other than that it was a fun game to plays no question about that.

Yeah I know the story, played this and the game gear version.
I agree with everything you've said here and it's good how you made comparsions from the master system games to the Nintendo ones.


Just one tip of advice, I get you said its not as good as the game gear version. While I do agree with that statement, I have to point out the fact that the master system is older and more limited, as the Game gear was released later on and  the Game gear is basically a portable and improved Sega Master system in all aspects.

5/5 for my overall rating.

Wow, I never knew there were SO MANY differences between the Master System and the Game Gear! From what I saw on tasvideo.org, I thought Game Gear was the transplant from the Master System.

Anyway your review was excellent. You have your own unique structure I like - it is very clear - and you give ample details about the differences between both versions but also the most distinctive graphical details that characterize the zones. They are accurate, from what I remember from Sonic Mega Collection +.