Got Sonic
Gems Collection CD.
I am disappointed. For what many consider the second best Sonic title (next to Adventure) It sure is the most disjointed 2D sonic I've ever played.
The art of this game is immaculately made, and you could tell that they put a lot of effort into it, but holy dang! I can hardly tell what will kill me and what will not half the time. I can't tell what I can and can't stand on, I can hardly tell where I'm going and what's a bush and what's a spike.
The game also has a very different take on level design from any Sonic game EVER. Branching paths? Heh, nope. This is like a 2D sandbox. There are literally no paths in this game and they interweave left, right, backwards, forewards, upside down, rightside up, wrongside left and rightwrong side. It's the single most confusing conglomeration of 2D level design I had ever seen. There's really only one thing you can be sure of, the goal is to the right. That is the only direction the game gives you. Some of the things they do are awesome. for instance, you're running forward, and hit a spring. You fly up into the air, and provided you don't mess with the controller, you land on another spring that shoots you higher. Then you go into a corkscrew, just missing a few enemies, and then you're on that ledge you were trying to get to. This might be where a lot of the newer games took the idea of "watch Sonic play the game for you" but it's a whole lot more fun to watch in CD than the new games.
You'd thing the combination of confusing visuals and insanely undirected level design would make this game hard. Well remember that rule, where the goal is always on the right. That's all you need to know. Just keep going right and work around obsticals, and you will beat the level with absolutely no problem. In fact, the game is so easy it's boring. There are barely any enemies on screen and none of them pose a threat. They don't even have many bottomless pits. In this game, Spikes are your biggest enemy, and there aren't too many of those either.
The big hook of this game was time travel, but I sure as heck have no clue how it works. I think you pass a sign that either reads Past or Present, then if you gain enough speed, (probably 80MPH) then you go backwards in time or forwards in time. But for the life of me, I don't think this machanic does anything more than change the visuals and maybe a few platforms here and there. Considering how fast Sonic can run, it's easy to pass a sign without knowing, and sending yourself through time on accident.
Oh, and the music is terrible, minus a few cool ones that are only cool if you hear cool remixes of them. But I can blame Sega of America for that, since the Japanese version is said to have the far superior music. (unless this is the japanese verison, in which case it's weak sauce to begin with.)
I haven't beaten the game for one reason though...
MECHA SONIC!
The race with Mecha Sonic essentially takes the difficulty curve and says "Hey, remember how crazy easy everything before this was? Yeah well forget that! RACE MECHA SONIC! What's that? You're too slow? Robotnik fries you with a laser! Got rings? IT KILLS YOU ANYWAY! Now run forward, and try not to miss those spikes. Uh oh, you hit a wall. That's ok, you'll only DIE NOW ANYWAY! You're near Mecha sonic! Let's throw spikes at you and make him electrified so you can't touch or pass him! Whoa now! You're waaaaay ahead of Mecha! We can't have that now! Mecha! GO FLY AT SUPERSONIC SPEEDS AND HIT SONIC NO MATTER HOW FAR AHEAD HE WAS! What's that? You don't have enough speed to go up that incline? YOU'RE DEAD!" They throw EVERYTHING at you at this ONE PART OF THE GAME, and has to be one of the most devious moves in video game design ever.
Despite all this, the game is playable, but it's not nearly the gem the fans, or the collection title claims it to be. If I could tell what I was looking at, where I was going, and was actually given a challenge, maybe then I'd be interested in seeing what's beyond the race level. But as it stands for me, this is the Sonic Heroes of 2D Sonic games.
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Popped in the Orange Box again, this time to try Half-Life 2.
