Hey guys. Now, it's time to continue my reviewing for my staff role. This time, I'm gonna review a Sonic hack! The last time I reviewed a Sonic hack was probably around February so I thought, "Why not review one of my favorite game franchise that I haven't reviewed in a while?". Anyways, let's get started!

Intro: *Starts the game* Uhh... What? Sonic Advance  on a Sega Genesis??? (Not really....)

Honestly, when I started playing this game at first, I thought for a second that I was playing Sonic Advance . It was way too similar to Sonic advance  in many ways for a Sega Genesis. Just look at the title screen and the home screen and you'll already know what I'm talking about, but this isn't really some kind of Sonic hack where it would exactly be like Sonic advance  on the Sega Genesis, it is just similar to Sonic advance  in some ways, while having completely different levels and stuff, which I will go into detail in the upcoming sections of my review. I actually like this hack because I like Sonic advance , but I didn't like the gba, but I like the Sega Genesis.This hack has quite a lot of changes that it's somewhat a little hard to believe that it's a Sonic 2 hack. Let's go ahead and dive in to some more detail about this game. 

Gameplay: 9

There were quite an amount of aspects in this Sonic 2 hack that made me really like the gameplay of this game. Firstly, the physics are basically like Sonic 3 or Sonic 2's physics. (Honestly, it's a little hard to compare between Sonic 2 and Sonic 3's physics since they feel like the same to me.) There are also several characters you can play as: Sonic (alone), Sonic & Tails, Knuckles (alone), Knuckles & Tails, Sonic & Knuckles, Tails (alone) and RedHotSonic (which is a made up character, I guess) .  Each one with their own special abilities but a bit modified for some of them.

So, when you play as Sonic, he can do the spin dash (by pressing and holding down and tapping the jump button, duh), obviously jump, and when you press the jump button while on mid-air, he will do a quick air dash. However. this air dash isn't really the air dash we all know, this one is non-damaging and Sonic doesn't roll into a ball so if he bumps into a badnik, he'll lose rings. Also, this air dash doesn't quite work underwater. Just like in Sonic 3, Sonic can have Tails as his partner and you can play a 2P Co-op by simply having player 2 connect his remote to control Tails. Tails can also carry Sonic just like in Sonic 3. Also, similarly to Sonic advance 3, Sonic can have Knuckles as his partner, but they don't really have any certain special abilities like Sonic advance 3.

When you play as Tails, just like in Sonic 3, Tails can fly! And he tires out after a short while (To Fly, simply press the jump button while on mid-air, then keep tapping the jump button to go higher, duh). He can of course do the spin dash also. Now, one new thing that I found out that seems a bit unoriginal to me is that, when you press C while Tails is flying, he will instantly stop flying and fall down. (He also does a weird trippy sprite animation) Sadly, Tails can't have anyone as his partner, he can only be a sidekick with Sonic or Knuckles or just be alone. (Wow. I feel quite bad for Tails. lol)

When you play as Knuckles, just like in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, he can glide and climb. (To glide, simply press and hold the jump button while on mid-air. To climb, just go to a wall while gliding. Duh.) Sadly, just like Sonic 3 & Knuckles, he also has his slightly low jump height. He can be partnered with Tails and Tails can carry Knuckles. 

When you play as RedHotSonic..... I seriously don't know.... He's exactly like how the normal Sonic was in Sonic 2. He can only do a spin dash and jump. The only difference is that he's red. Unless he does have some secret move that can't be figured out... Yet.... Also, he can't be partnered with anyone. 

So overall for gameplay, it's pretty good since it makes you comfortable with which ever character you want for whatever zone you play. Also, my apologies for the long gameplay section, it's simply just the most significant thing about retro games for me and I had a lot to talk about. The rest of the review should be a breeze.

Graphics: 8

I guess I can say that they're pretty good for a Sega Genesis. Not really "amazing" or "bad". Some of the zones are really scenic and eye catching. The colors are vivid and well done. Nothing really very fuzzy, plain, or colorless. They're simply creative. A few things to point out is that the title screen of this sonic hack is quite similar to Sonic advance for the gba from what I remember. Well, not really exactly the same but it just feels somewhat familiar. Also, if you play as Sonic, the title screen color is blue, if you play as Tails, the title screen color is yellow, for knuckles it's green, and for RedHotSonic it's red. Which is creative but not such a big thing. The sprites of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles are all simply taken from Sonic 3 & Knuckles. As for the RedHotSonic sprite, looks exactly the same like Sonic's sprite from Sonic 2, except he's red instead of blue. Some badnik sprites were taken from Sonic 2, beta elements of Sonic 2, and Sonic advance (Well, just similar to Sonic advance). All of the zones are completely redone from scratch and I have to say that they look quite impressive, especially for something done in scratch. 

Sound: 8

As for the sound, the sound effects (jumping, collecting rings... etc) seemed mostly unchanged from the original. As for the background music though..... That was completely changed for each and every zone. I think at least most of the background musics must have came from various different Sonic games, including some remixes. I'm not sure honestly since I didn't memorize all tracks from all Sonic games I have played. There were just way too many new music tracks. I do recognize most of them, but I simply can't put my finger on which Sonic games these sound tracks could have been taken from or remixed, possibly some of them may not be from a Sonic game but I'm not sure.. Well, I'm not going to talk about each and every sound track but I'll put off an example for you to know what I mean. In some bosses, you can hear the boss music soundtrack from Sonic 3D blast playing. Another example is that the homescreen soundtrack from Sonic advance plays while you are in the homescreen at this Sonic hack. (Probably a Sega Genesis remix of it) Anyways, these sound tracks sound pretty good, encouraging, and fits the zones very well.The only flaw I can point out is that if you are stuck in the same zone for such a long time, you will eventually get sick of hearing the same background music since it's very repetitive, but other than that, they're pretty good.

Addictiveness: 7

Firstly, keep in mind that the way the game can be addictive can possibly vary depending on what kinds of games you like to play and how much of a persistent gamer are you. So, for me, I found this game quite addicting at first. The first time I played this game, all of these zones were completely new to me so I was simply curious to find out how the next zones are going to be like and discover zones that are basically foreign to me. Another thing that makes the game even more addictive for you is that it allows you to play as your favorite Sonic character with their special moves. So, you can glide and climb around with Knuckles, fly with Tails, and play around with the air dash with Sonic. As for RedHotSonic, not really sure. Later on, when the zone just get too difficult at times and I got a bit tired, I just felt like I wanted to stop playing the game for a while. If you get familiar with all of the zones, then the game can possibly be even less addictive depending on what kind of gamer you are. 

Story: 6

Well, as you can guess, same old and simple story. Just defeat Dr. Eggman with whatever Sonic character you chose to play as and thats pretty much all. The story is just too simple, overused, and boring. There is really nothing else to say. But the story isn't all that important in most retro games anyways.

Depth: 9

This game does offer a lot of depth for a Sonic hack. Well, a pretty good amount at least. Firstly, you have a Home screen to select a zone, which is quite similar to the Sonic advanced series. However, only one of them are select-able. Once you finished the 1st zone, only the 2nd one is select-able and not even the previous one is select-able anymore. After you finished the 2nd zone, only the 3rd is select-able and so on. However, if you have finished all 4 zones, you can select which ever one you want to play. Also, in the beginning of the zone, you have the option to actually return to the homescreen. And at anytime while you are in the homescreen, you can go to options and change what character you are playing as. There is also a sound-test and you can enable and disable underwater mode. With underwater mode enabled, while you are underwater, the game will literally sound like you are underwater. All sound effects and the music volume will be lower as if you are underwater, which is pretty cool and realistic. One more thing to mention is that if you lose a life, the whole screen will just quickly scroll back to your last checkpoint or the beginning of the level. Quite a nice amount of depth, eh?

Difficulty: 9

During the 1st three zones in this game, the difficulty will seem somewhat random. Some parts in some zones are easy and some parts are difficult. However, the amount of difficult parts that you will encounter during the game can actually increase a little bit as you go on at times. In the 4th zone, which is the last zone, it is pretty difficult. There are literally traps everywhere. An example of this would be: You are on a lift, it moves as you run on it. Suddenly, a random large boulder just falls on you, you lose all of your rings and then end up falling all the way to the bottom of the screen, and then BOOM, you lose a life. And then, the checkpoints are pretty far apart so you might be forced to redo a lot of parts in a zone depending on the checkpoint you went to and where you are located. Gee.... Quite annoying honestly.

Another example that was sort of hilarious was: I was playing as Knuckles in the 4th zone. I noticed all of these platforms and an endless pit. Then, I thought, "Why not just glide over it easily?" So, I glided over the whole pit with ease, then out of nowhere, a spike just popped out of the wall once I reached the other side of the pit, and then all of my rings were gone and I ended up falling to the bottom of the pit and lost a life. Then, I had to redo the WHOLE act because there were no checkpoints on the route I took in this act. Ugh. And then the whole screen scrolled back to the beginning of the zone and I was just watching it with disappointment. But it looked pretty funny though, I wished I recorded it. 

OVERALL: 8.5

Well, that wraps up everything of the review. I honestly didn't expect the review to be over 2000 words... Oh well, hope it's not a bad thing. Thanks for reading! Any feedback appreciated!

Nice work with this review man, it is very detailed and very well put together, which is precisely what I would expect from you. It is very organized and easy to read, plus the content itself is high quality. I am glad you elaborated on why it was different than the original rather than just talk about the game itself because it gives us a good comparison. 

Altogether, just keep up the amazing work, and I can't recommend any advice for this review because it is already great, so just keep doing what you are doing! 

Hey cool review man, I like the fact you compared it with a similar Sonic game and that you told a bit about the different characters. It's very good you made this review longer than 2000 words and I have nothing left to say. Keep up the good work!

Good review! Keep up the good work, the Sonic hack is very good.