Code Gray? Too Hey guys. So, today, I'll be continuing on with my Sonic hacks marathon reviews. We might be reaching an end to these Sonic hacks marathon reviews very soon. It might possibly end next Wednesday or Friday. Afterwards I'll be making non-sonic reviews (but not an everyday marathon like this). So, I was going through the RGR for the next Sonic hack to review, I found this game and played it for a while, then I thought it was good enough to review. So, let's go ahead and start on the review.
EDIT: I'm sorry to mention this but this is gonna be my last Sonic review for the Sonic hacks marathon reviews I have done. I just forgot to mention this. My future reviews for my staff role (if I get one hopefully) will be non-sonic reviews. Anyways.....
Intro: Too Grey? But how?Alright, so, in the title of this review, I didn't literally mean that it is literally grey, I was sort of talking about the quality of the color grey that is somehow similar to the quality of this review. Which I would say, not so bad, not that good. Well, ehhh.... I wouldn't blame you if you get too confused with what I mean but hopefully you know what I'm getting too. So, anyways, as you can obviously see, this is a hack of Sonic the Hedgehog 1 for the Sega Genesis (No, really?). It features a lot of graphic changes (typically about everything of the graphics were modified indeed), a lot of sound changes (mostly for the background musics), and last but not least, some zones and acts layout changes. (As in they are different from the original zones). Basically, those are really the basic changes for a lot of Sonic 1 hacks, nothing really very unique or dedicated for this Sonic hack but it doesn't always have to be very unique or special to be a very good hack. Honestly, for the title of this Sonic 1 hack, "Sonic 1 - Code Gray", I barely have any idea what that has to actually do with the game itself since it doesn't show any type of hint relating to it, but it doesn't always have to relate to the title. I guess it's decent enough for a title. Anyways, let's go ahead and jump in a little more to the game in this review, folks!
Gameplay: 8.5
Well, the gameplay is typically similar to most other decent Sonic hacks out there. So, basically, Sonic can run and jump like usual (No, duh). He can also do the spin-dash (by standing on the ground, hold the down key, then tap the jump button), however, it doesn't really seem to charge up that much to it's max no matter how much to tap the jump button and Sonic doesn't really blast off as fast as the Sonic 2 and/or Sonic 3 spin dash. Feels somewhat less controllable too since you just feel like as if you are literally forced to roll on the ground for a short while once you blasted off from the spin dash. Doesn't really let you jump from the ground that easily nor does it allow you to stop for like 1-4 seconds once you done the spin dash. (Seem to somewhat depend on the area you are in too, not 100% sure though). I honestly find that somewhat a bit sad though. Why not just copy the good old original Sonic 2 or Sonic 3 spin-dash? But ehh, it's not really THAT bad though. It does feel mostly alright.
Yea, now the next thing I want to point out as another special move, which is the air-dash. You can simply do it by pressing the jump-button while in mid-air, however, it's not a homing attack. (As in, if there is a monitor or badnik nearby, you don't automatically go right into them once you do the move like the homing attack, you just dash in mid-air normally, you can however, hit them manually with the air-dash.) Well, yea, sadly, but still, at least you can do the air-dash. Also, the air-dash simply gives you an instant boost to dash forward in mid-air and I find it quite useful in many cases, especially in these zones. Like in some of the easy areas (like the first act in the first zone), I find the air-dash useful because I can abuse it and do it as much as I want to help me easily dash through the whole zone, quickly. I also find it fun to use. And as for the hard zones (a lot of them), this move also saves lives. (Sonic's lives in this case) Like in the modified marble zone, I'm just running, then I blindly jump half-a
sleep, and in the second I'm in mid-air, I realize that there is nothing but lava and hazards under me and I have 0 rings, then I was basically like, "Oh no! Not again!", then suddenly, I turn around in mid-air and do the air-dash move and just dash right into safety so I can have something to stand on. Then I'm like, "Phew. That was a close one". And then, a random flying badnik bumps into me and I lose a life after all of that to save it. Yea, wow. So, you can basically see what I mean in how the modified zones are typically like, just random and surprising a lot of times, but not all the zones were modified much.
As for the physics, it is fairly similar to that of Sonic 2 and 3's physics. You can run down steep areas faster without rolling and the gravity is pretty much normal. I usually like it when you can run down in steep areas faster unlike Sonic 1, it makes the physics feel a bit more realistic like how it is supposed to be like. Yea, I guess I overkilled the gameplay section in my review again. Just so much to talk about! XD
Graphics: 9
Now, the next thing to talk about is the graphics. So, as you can pretty much see in the screenshots, it is obviously modified from the original Sonic 1. I guess I can say that it was modified fairly well. A few zones may seem quite a bit visually different from the original zones, other zones just seem colored differently. Like, let's go ahead and talk about the first zone's appearance so you can see what I mean. So, as you can see in the first modified zone, which is green hill zone, in the background of the zone, there are literally bushes and palm trees in the background, and some mountains and hills. I must say, it looks quite different than original. It feels more like a tropical island but with mountains and bushes than "green hill" zone. The ground also appears to be a bit darker and the other trees you run through are literally coconut trees. Dang, just makes it feel quite different than green hill zone. Now, you know what I mean by how some zones appears to be quite different than original, right?
But now, let's talk about what I mean by "other zones just seem colored differently". So, let's go ahead and talk about the 2nd zone, marble zone in it's appearance. (I could have talked about another zone but I forgot to take screenshots of the other zones I played and I forgot to make a save state and there is no level
select screen in this Sonic hack! Darn it. I'm not gonna spend time replaying the zones until I reach labyrinth zone again.) Anyways, so, for marble zone, when you just look at the screenshot for marble zone in the game page, don't you just see that there isn't really much changes but color changes? Doesn't give you much of a different feeling from original since the theme of that zone with the modified color just feels like original. Though, I guess I can say it does feel a bit more weird and creepy when you are indoors in the modified marble zone since the ground is mostly dark yellow. but still not that much of a change.
Now, one last thing I want to point out is the Sonic sprites. Sonic looks more like how he is exactly like in Sonic 2 but a little shorter, however, he still does seem to run like Sonic 1 and funny enough, when he starts running, his fur appears to flash light blue then dark blue, just a little bit though for a short while. So, I'm guessing they forgot to modify one of the Sonic 1 sprites since the original Sonic sprites made Sonic look more light blue and slightly colorless compared to Sonic 2.
Sound: 6
Well, alright, now, this is probably the 1st time I see the background music in sonic hacks to be pretty messed up. Ok, I have seen other Sonic hacks before with pretty bad background musics but that was like months ago the last time I saw it. So, really, about all of the sound effects seemed to be original. (Like jumping, collecting rings, hitting badniks, losing rings... etc). And honestly, I'm happy that they didn't bother to mess that up. But now, the background music. Alright, so, they aren't all THAT bad, but not that good though. Well, let me explain it. So, do the background musics fit the zones pretty well? Yep they do. They do actually fit it well. Is the background musics repetitive? Well.... In my opinion, yes. They tend to get repetitive pretty quick. You just hear the same and same thing in the background musics. Just somewhat boring and a bit of an annoyance. Well, I mean, it is not repetitive at first but just try to listen to it for more than 1-2 minutes, and you will see what I mean. Now, do some of the background musics hurt my ears by any chance? Sadly, yes they do. Why? Because firstly, there is literally like one type of instrument that just continuously keep playing along with other instruments and sounds that make up the background music. And that one type of instrument just sounds obnoxious, very loud compared to the other sounds that make up the background music in the game, and just unstoppable from eventually hurting your ears a little. Also, a few other sounds (like completing an act after going through the sign post, game over music, and the title screen) are pretty good and fitting and decent quality. Like the game over background music is very sad and yet soothing for a loss. But, a problem here is that they are way too long than original. At least maybe 5-12 seconds longer than how it is supposed to be and you just have to wait for it until it is done playing. Other than that, yep.
Addictiveness: 7
Well, it is not that addictive but somewhat addicting at first. Like, the first few zones are modified quite differently from original, as you move on, they slowly seem more like original. So, at first, you would want to keep playing it again just to complete the first few zones that are really modified, then as you move on..... Meh. Just slowly turning to original. Also, it is fun to play around with the air-dash move but it is not very useful or fun in some cases. But now, one real thing that bangs down the addictiveness is the background music which I already talked about. It just makes you want to walk-away from this Sonic 1 hack, however, one simple solution to that is to listen to your own favorite music while you play this Sonic hack. It might not seem very fitting to the zone you are playing in depending on what you listen to but ehh. Yea, not sure what else to talk about here.
Story: 6
Well, based off what I have seen in this Sonic hack, there is really no story other than the same, old, and simple plot of defeating Dr. Eggman and foiling his evil plans. Nothing else really. Just nothing that makes you even think about the story and nothing very interesting, however, sonic games usually just jumps right straight into the gameplay and thats basically more important. So, basically, it is the same, old, overused, and very simple story throughout most Sonic games and hacks.
Depth: 8
So, let's see, it offers no options. Not even the level
select cheat. It offers some modified zones and other zones that are a bit modified here and there. Typically everything was modified graphically. All background musics were changed but not really the best background musics out there. And lastly, you can do the spin dash and air dash moves. I already explained all of this in the previous sections. Anyways, this game does have decent depth.
Difficulty: 8
I really find some of the zones and areas quite an annoyance. Like, for example, for the first boss, the difficulty somewhat depends on your luck. Like, there is the same wrecking ball thingy Eggman is using, however, there are no 2 still platforms. Just one small swinging platform right before Eggman. So, that platform is required to reach Eggman and hit him. Sometimes the swinging platform may swing with the wrecking ball. (As in, while it is swinging left and right, the platform is also sticking to it left and right.) Which makes it pretty hard to go on the platform without getting hit. And sometimes it just swings mostly the opposite direction of the wrecking ball which makes it easier to hit Dr Eggman. At times, you may be surprised with several badniks in certain areas and at times, you may reach areas with nothing but hazards and no rings and even a checkpoint. (So, if you die, you'll start out in a horrible area). Those are mostly the challenges in this Sonic hack.
OVERALL: 8
Yea, thats about it for my review. Thanks for reading. Have a nice vizzed day!
Graphics
9 Sound
6 Addictive
7 Depth
8 Story
6 Difficulty
8
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