Some cool levels, an easy boss battle, then.. It's over?

12-22-13 11:13 AM

name543 is Offline

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name543

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As you know if you read my review on the last Sonic hack I played, I liked the idea, but not the execution very much. This game seemed to change that at first. The graphics were very nice and I liked the stage designs. I really enjoyed my first time playing through this hack. That's the problem though. I did really enjoy my time playing through it, but it's far too short.

Graphics: I'll start with what I did really love about this hack. The graphics were very nice and fit the season well. The snow on the ground looks like actual snow, and the background is well added in and really brings the feeling of the season. It helps that this game doesn't merely switch colors. It redoes whole textures to make everything more like Christmas, even adding winter trees in among the stage. Another nice feature is that the rings are replaced with stars. Strangely though, Sonic glows most of the hack, like he's in Super or Hyper Sonic form. Overall, the graphics are very nice, even if the only background is a snowy mountain. I give the graphics a nine, for looking good and going with the Christmas theme. Though there is a lack of variety.

Sound: The sound isn't much to talk about in this hack. Mostly it's just one Christmas themed song, and the boss theme from the original Sonic the Hedgehog. All of Sonic's actions still make noise and you still get the normal in game sounds from Sonic the Hedgehog. Really, all I can say is that everything sounds the way it should. The fact they only play two songs is disappointing to me though. They could have used a different track for a different act. But instead it's just two tracks, and one is only used for an end of game boss encounter. Overall, the sound gets an eight. It's pretty nice to listen to, like the game it came from. But there's very little variety and not much else.

Addictiveness: You might be moderately addicted to this game for a playthrough or two. Mostly because there's very little to go through in this game. That means you might want to play through it another time just because it's quick and easy to beat. That's really all there is to do really with addictiveness. You're not likely to play it very much since it's not that much to do. You just play three acts and beat a boss. So you're most likely only going to play through another time or two to enjoy the small amount of gameplay it has. The addictiveness gets a four, for not being much, but still offering some reason to go back and play it through.

Story: There's barely any story in this game. In fact, there is none if you don't just assume the same Sonic story applies. But that doesn't work since you don't actually beat Robotnik more then once. You beat him in a fight, he flies off, then you free animals. It can be assumed from this that Sonic was only in the adventure to rescue one capsule of animals, but I'm not sure.. That's just my personal version of the story. The story for me gets a 1. Since you really don't get any story, there's nothing to rate about it.

Depth: Depth is another feature that this game lacks. You simply run through the three stages, collecting stars and maybe a power up or two, before fighting the boss and finishing the game up. Sure you can take different paths and try to get through in a different way, but there's not much to do other then that. You can't even get into any special stages when you reach the goal ring with more then fifty rings. This leaves you with almost nothing to do except beat stages, and maybe take another path if you want to try something different. The depth gets a 3, for having almost nothing to do. But the extra paths do add a little bit of depth to the experience.

Difficulty: The difficulty is very low in this hack through most of it. But there are certain parts where it goes up not due to genuine challenge, but due to cheap traps. Most of the game is very easy. You won't die if you know what you're doing. This leaves it pretty surprising when the cheap traps start to pop up. One of these was a bottomless pit directly when you come out of a section that made you spin. The ground still goes below it, so it seems you could run through. Though even through ground is below your feet, it counts as a bottomless pit and it kills Sonic. Another cheap instance is where you have to jump onto a spring to get higher in the level. Most likely there will be a motobug perched directly above the spring. This means you'll fly up and hit the motobug. The largest surprise is the boss at the end. It's the Green Hill wrecking ball boss. Only there's no platforms, and Robotnik flies close to the ground. This makes the boss even easier then normal somehow. The difficulty gets a three, for being very easy, yet having some difficult parts, mostly due to cheap programming.

Wrapping up: As much as I have spoke about what's bad in this hack, I don't actually think it's that bad a hack. The real problem I had with it was the potential. The one zone it has looks great, and I would love a full game made of zones like this. The graphics are great and the sounds are pretty good, but could use some improvement. If they added more depth, like extra zones and the ability to gain Chaos emeralds, it would be something that I'd want to play more. Though, as a miniature hack it's not that bad. Sure the difficulty comes mostly from cheap hazards, but after you know where they are they can be easily avoided. I give the hack a 7.3. It had a lot of potential it didn't live up to, and that's what really disappointed me about it.

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12-22-13 11:19 AM

Batcake is Offline

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Batcake
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name543 : Nice review! Kinda long, Descriptive, etc. I do not see too much flaws in this! Keep up the good reviews if you like!

I'll stay tuned if you make any more reviews and I will reply and rate them.

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01-25-14 08:45 PM

deggle is Offline

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deg2000

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name543 : nice job on the review very long nice and descrpitive just how i like it hope you do more good review

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01-25-14 10:12 PM

SacredShadow is Offline

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SacredShadow
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Nice job on this review, I agree, it was long and descriptive which are very essential in a good review. Aside from that, you kept your review organized and looking professional by breaking it down into categories and spacing it out in between. I am glad you did that and I think neatness and good organization should count for half of the review besides the content itself.

You kept the font large and easy to read as well which is another plus to your review. I like how you gave reasoning for each part of it as well, you didn't just say, this part of the game sucked or said this part could use improvement, you were clear and you elaborated when necessary. I think it came out pretty good in the end.

Overall, excellent job man, to make a review over 1,000 words and super detailed and looking professional like you did is an achievement. Keep up the awesome work and I encourage you to keep making more reviews. I look forward to your next one!