It's late in the year of 1993
and the Master System was coming to the end of its life-span in Europe
and was already discontinued in North America and Japan.
But it had a good run and a sweet library of games.
The brilliant Sonic 1,
the not-so-brilliant Sonic 2,
as well as other classic plays such as Hang-On,
Streets of Rage,
The Lion King,
heck, I even have a soft spot for 'The Ninja',
despite being terrible at it.
But I digress, with Sonic the Hedgehog 3 for the Mega Drive only being a few months away,
it seemed like it was time for the Master System to stop receiving the Sonic treatment.
Actually, no, they could still milk it a bit further.
Sonic Chaos!
Known as Sonic and Tails in Japan,
arrived for the Master System in Europe.
And as already mentioned,
with the console being obsolete almost everywhere else,
North America and Japan only got the Game Gear version.
Yay(!).
And I have to say,
when I initially got my hands on this and booted up for the first time,
I was… 'umm'ing and 'ahh'ing.
I really did not know what to make of it.
At a glance, the sprite art looked poor and the level graphics appeared crowded,
yet it was all bigger and clearer at the same time.
Honestly, I had to do a double check to make sure Sonic Chaos was even an official Sonic game
and not a cheap bootleg.
But no, it's right there.
Brought to you by the same developers who created Sonic 2.
And that title left a sour taste in my mouth.
But will my palate be revived after playing this Chaotic 8-bit classic?
Will my early uncertainty be lifted once giving this game the full time and appraisal?
Let's not waste another second and dive right into this Sonic Chaos Review!
I'm now going to waste a few more moments with my Intro.
All of the game footage you're seeing is being played and recorded from real hardware
unless the video states otherwise.
Just like it was for my Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 Master System retrospectives;
which I highly endorse you watch beforehand.
Not that the plot exactly follows on from the predecessors.
According to playing the game alone;
Eggman steals a Chaos Emerald, and requires the remaining five.
Grab them along the way and as a token of his appreciation,
he'll give you back the emerald he took.
Okay...
Sonic then gets locked up in the Crystal Maze's Dome.
The End.
Eh, what?
What kind of logic is that?
Does the mad man feel pressured by stares in the retro games or something?
If you however do not collect the colourful stones,
Eggman suddenly remembers he has an IQ of 300 and flies away after the final fight.
The ending cutscene is presented which is practically a duplicate of the intro
but with a plain background,
but Sonic concludes with the most pathetic temper tantrum I've ever seen
and then gives chase again.
Try again.
And with Tails, cor, what a bully he is!
He can't seem to get the gems in his run for some bizarre reason
so he just finds Eggman,
beats him up senseless
and scares him out of his fortress.
Then Tails gets bored and runs back home.
I don't think any of us were really that bothered about what was going on;
no one ever checked the manual for anything back in them days.
But for the sake of this video;
The antagonist being Eggman steals one of the emeralds,
which meant the other emeralds became anxious from being separated
and therefore, separate themselves further.
Makes total sense.
As a result,
unbalance was bought to South Island with terrible storms and earthquakes wreaking havoc!
I have no sympathy for Green Hill there!
Sonic and Tails, well Sonic mainly, goes and saves the day.
So, what, you get to play as Tails in this quest?
Too right you do, he's now a selectable character!
And it's not a bad start for the little fella as he's considered as the easy mode.
You start with 5 lives and three continues in the bank!
You're able to fly to reach higher ledges with comfort,
and 100 rings gives you a 1-up rather than opening the special stages,
giving you even less to worry about.
He does however seem to have a flying impediment though.
Instead of pressing the jump button in mid-air to activate like in the classics,
you have to have both feet on the ground and be faultlessly still,
face the sky and then press the jump button.
In which Tails then hovers in the strictest manner I've ever seen.
To be fair, I believe this is the very first official game
where Tails has the skill to fly,
nevertheless, there's no momentum or gravity to his capability
and he ignores all laws of physics.
But I suppose it makes his ability calmer to control.
You use the D-pad to move the fox in the direction you want him to go
and he steadily obeys his given directions.
There's no need to repeatedly stress the jump buttons here.
Eventually, like all games, he gets tired and his weight becomes a thing again.
But no matter, while on the ground he can spin dash!
We finally have one of the best gifts ever invented
in the Sonic series come to life in the 8-bit genre.
Be that as it may, the golden sidekick loses his tails when spin dashing
or rolling,
or jumping...
and it looks very out-of-place!
Ha, uh(!)
But except for that small mis-placement,
Tails is looking very stylish.
He always has that determined look on his face,
he's at the perfect size and uses the correct colour for his fur.
It gives the impression the designers were trying to give Tails the Mega Drive look,
but in an 8-bit form.
Sonic on the other hand,
Good gracious!
What have they done to you?
He's had his hair trimmed to look like the Dorito triangles.
His legs have been awkwardly stretched as if he took some advice from this guy!
And when he runs, he's waddles from side to side.
I can see why they changed his sprite-work in this game,
seeming as Sonic 1 and 2 were practically identical and it needed an overhaul.
And with Tails given the 3D effect,
it wouldn't make sense if the main hero didn't receive the same treatment,
but, compared to Tails,
our blue blur just looks like a cardboard cut-out.
Why did it work out for our younger pal but not for the main protagonist?
Is it the limited shading?
His big fat head?
I can't quite put my finger on it.
What do you guys think?
I would love to hear from you in the comments.
But hey, at least Sonic can now spin dash
which I found extremely useful for passing through corkscrews
and looping around... well, loops.
Sonic clearly cannot fly but he can do the super peel-out.
Two new more mechanics have been added into the adventure.
The long-forgotten hop springs
where Sonic and Tails treat the stage as a bouncy castle to gain extra height,
and the rocket shoes exclusive for Sonic
because screw you Tails, you can already fly,
gives you the ability to blast through the air like nobody's business for a partial stretch.
It's a great way to skip over the level design if you're in a hurry!
But why would you want to bypass over those attractive visuals?
Admittedly, it's not the strongest work of art in the series,
but there's still plenty of detail where needed
and all zones here have got a fresh coat of paint
rather than borrowing assets from other Sonic chapters.
Yet, everything seems a bit larger compared to the former Master System's.
But I welcome that change because it's more pleasing to the eye.
I will say though that there appears to be an insane number of repeated tiles
plastered left-right-centre and it comes across a bit lazy.
Also, not one stage design blew me away.
Jungle Zone in Sonic 1 did, and remains to be my favourite to this very day,
and the outside of Aqua Lake for Sonic 2 was pretty elegant also,
but in here, the best this game ever got out of me was,
"This looks good"
and that was that.
Having said that, Electric Egg has some dynamic flooring
that tail-gated you wherever you ran
and the technical circuit board flowing in the background was also a nice touch.
Which makes me question; what the heck happened to all the other backgrounds?
Did they become camera shy or something?
Very little to optically see and a lot of solid colour.
And Mecha Green Hill which God-forbid they leave out the used-to-death zone name,
looks really bleak and boring.
Which in hindsight, it has been taken over by
"Eggman's robots"
so eh, mission accomplished I suppose!
What I'm trying to say is, they've met their target in creating the right atmosphere,
but at the same time, it will leave a lot to be desired.
Particularly the presentation in this instalment.
Now this is a bit of a grey area to talk about
because I just don't know whether to praise the demonstrations,
or just down-right slate it.
Hear me out.
Right off the bat, you're shown an introductory cutscene
which is related to Sonic 2's opening but without the surrounding emblem.
So, thumbs up for the clearer performance,
but a dislike for the similar story introduction.
It's pretty much just bigger, and has replaced Tails with a lozenge, but that's it.
The title screen is next and apart from for the plain blue background,
I've got nothing but admiration for this display.
Gone away with the insignia banner combination,
they've tried a new aspect and it's really paid off
with the smart look of the shaded ring and the comprehensive expression of our heroes.
But it's from here, the title cards that appear before each act,
and the result screen, have been downgraded since its precursor.
It's simple to read and gets the stats you require, sure,
but I definitely prefer Sonic 2's style.
Sonic Chaos' presentation is a little lacking.
But I'll tell you what has finally arrived to Sonic's Master System expedition
is the inclusion of special stages!
About bleedin' time!
I love the way you have to have to enter them too!
No need to discover big rings,
or checkpoints which require special permits.
Just find 100 rings in the zone and Sonic will automatically warp to the trials.
It can be pretty tough obtaining that many rings without losing some;
particularly as there's no such things as shields again!
But with this game being pretty easy,
and they have given you more than enough chances to acquire that many, you should be fine.
So what field is the special stages representing for this game?
Well it differs.
All five special stages,
yes, five,
because Eggman took the sixth emerald,
consists of variant level gimmicks.
The first task is to
"blast through with Sonic speed"
and grab the emerald towards the end.
And the challenges keep on altering.
From bouncing your way to the top of "Floating Platform Land",
to cleansing the pipes in particular mazes.
It's a bit of a bummer that there are two tube encounters
and two sky rocketing exercises
but the latter can be pretty tough to reach in time.
And as simple as they are,
3 of the 5 rounds I would say takes some trial and error
and you may not grab the reward on your first go.
Really, except for them not being exactly technically amazing,
they're the absolute equity to what we need for perusing the fulfilled game.
And by fulfilled game, I mean you get to see the credits and that's essentially it.
No Super Sonic, like always, but there's no secret level this time around either.
They're just lucky that I like to add a bit of spice to my game play
and complete the Special Stages anyway seeming as the whole game is super short!
And I mean, several levels can be completed within 30 seconds.
Including the final zone which is such a breeze to speed on through.
Even the signpost likes to calculate your speed and ask,
"How'd you get here so quickly?"
By the by, I don't know how these speedometers work.
Yet again, the signpost causes a commotion and it isn't easily explained in the manual--
Holy crud!
Are the instructions telling me how to gain a Sonic sign post?
It's a miracle!
Apart from that, no idea how to display the other cast or the rings or--
Did I just break the game?
The manual says nothing.
Okay then.
It happened again another 2 times and I found out this is an actual feature!
You have to spin it again!
You gain nothing and you lose nothing with this happening, so what's the freaking point?
Such a waste of time coding this useless innovation.
And it so happens, the bosses almost got the same treatment.
Seriously, I'm not even attempting to hurt him and here,
I am waiting for him to attack but he does... nothing.
Yawn!
Now this is definitely broken.
Even the final boss isn't too difficult when you get the hang of the physics to this game.
Just watch how many hits I hand to him before I land on the ground.
Except for a few occasional hiccups, some of which were totally not my fault!
If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me!
I can't see anyone struggling with these bosses.
But at least they've finally given us rings for the battles now...
which just makes it a ton easier!
Unfortunately, there is one fundamental flaw affecting the gameplay which is hard to ignore.
The slowdown is unreal in this game!
I mean for the love of Monkey Trumpets, the lag is everywhere!
In high traffic areas which is forgivable,
in calm, quiet places which is unacceptable,
even as soon as you start the very first act of the primary level, boom, frame drop.
Who on earth gave this game the greenlight in the condition it's currently in?
It's pathetic.
A few times my button presses weren't even registering
and what knacked me off was that I was only 1 ring from entering the damn special stage!
Okay, before you go and fetch your pitchforks,
yes, sure,
both previous ancestors also contained pace-breaking gameplay here and there,
but it was understandable.
With being underwater alongside air bubbles floating,
by rings jumping all over the place because of the crab being in the gangway, the little pri--
Pinch!
I'll go with pinch.
But this title is sluggier than a... slug.
I had nothing, let me have this!
It's a tad smoother on the game Gear version but even then, it's still present.
It's a shame really because if it weren't for the slothfulness,
the gameplay would have been alright.
It's not all bad news though.
As the tunes for this adventure are pretty jammin'.
First of all, that sound as I've personally dubbed as the 'beat-boxing' effect
has been greatly reduced since Sonic 2 but still a notch louder than Sonic 1.
Meaning it's still noticeable,
but it's not a hindrance as before and it settles in nicely.
Therefore, I can finally indulge in hearing all of the other instruments that make up the songs.
The whole soundtrack to Sonic Chaos is an enjoyable listen.
Dare I say it's one of the best so far?
Either way, I cannot get enough of Aqua Planet's melody.
If I have to be honest, before I started to play the game and put my analysis forward,
I wasn't confident on what to think and now, ugh, I'm still not sure.
Since Sonic 2, a few elements have improved such as special stages,
the spin dash and the music,
but other foundations brought it back down such as the game being way too easy and short,
the graphics being sub-par and the lag!
There are also some minor bugs in this game.
For example, the rings have such a tight collision area.
Here I am going perfectly straight not touching the D-pad
and abruptly I stop gathering rings...
Why?
Or how about this?
I collected 100 rings fair and square.
Wait, what?
I got kicked out immediately!
What was the timer on for that special stage; zero?!
That son of a--
Glitch!
Hey, what's going on?
A+Start: Oh, sorry, I thought you were going to swear so I had to cut in!
RHS: Aw, man, aren't you the guy behind the remake on Sonic Chaos?
A+Start: I sure am!
Well, it's not just me; there's also a team of really talented people joining me on this project.
RHS: I'd love to hear more.
This is one of my favourite fan games in SAGE last year.
So, who are the awesome guys behind this development?
A+Start: Firstly, we have Mr. Potatobadger, who's not only the lead programmer on the entire project,
he's also the one responsible for making the Crimson Engine that powers the entire game.
And he's joined by TheStoneBanana who also programs the game and is incredibly talented for his age.
What these two guys have done in the past year and a half
is amazing to bring what is essentially a fan game
into something that actually feels more like a real Sonic game.
Any ideas that I've had with the game I've been able to send their way
and they've been able to kind of make it a reality.
RHS: Oh wow, it sounds like they got a lot ahead of them
but I'm glad you got extra members in your crew to help get them support?
A+Start: We have Heraga, Jassbec and Sparks
who work together to work on the level design.
We also have Tpot who kind of doubles as a programmer and also,
he's like our go-to guy if we have a problem; amazing team member.
And then finally on music we have Michael Staple
who is just killing it with this soundtrack for this game.
Some of the things that I've asked him to do, he kind of just nails!
One great example is Turquoise Hill Zone Act 1.
I kind of wanted to go with something that wasn't the original theme
and so I described to him something that was a bit more the first stage of a game
and a bit friendlier to the player,
and he took the original theme from the original games
and kind of made it something a bit more playful
and a bit more beach themed I want to say.
And it fit the whole Act 1 being the first stage and welcoming you into the game
and he just nailed it!
And that's not to mention things like the boss themes
and all the options menus and things like that.
Just the music for this game is going to be incredible
and it's mostly just his genius that kind of carries the whole thing.
And then my job on the whole project is basically the Game Director
but I also do all the artwork, all the animation, all the kind of,
everything you've seen from the title screen to just some of the new animations with Sonic,
the zone looks and designs, which kind of evolve over time.
You never go with your first draft; you always kind of try to figure the design out.
And we're still working on that,
there's still a lot of things that people have seen that we may change.
And there's also a lot of things that they haven't seen which we will eventually reveal.
RHS: I had no idea how much work had to go into a remake!
So, how did this all come together?
A+Start: The story behind this Sonic Chaos remake is actually kind of funny
because it really started out as a joke.
I did some mock-up designs and posted them on Twitter
and then Mr. Potatobadger actually approached me and said,
"we could actually make this!"
And the whole premise behind this remake is to do something along the lines of Sonic Mania
but what would Sonic Chaos look like if it was Sonic Mania?
That kind of idea just taking an older game and reinventing it to be something new and modern.
I know that sounds kind of weird
in the context that it's a pixel art Classic Sonic game but you get what I'm going for.
RHS: When I first saw the trailer, I did mistake it for being a Sonic Mania mod.
For that alone, these guys must know what they're doing!
The team is fantastic.
There's a lot of things you don't see when you consider how a game is made.
And you know that obviously there's things like the visuals and the music to the game
and that's something you can see first-hand,
but you really have to commend everybody that's working behind the scenes
and the jobs that you don't necessarily think of.
These guys just, kill it!
Absolutely nail it.
So, expect to see more from this game in the future!
There's some more demos to come but there's already a demo that you guys can play right now.
Absolutely, for everyone's convenience,
I have left a link in the video description to the download page
where you can try the SAGE 2018 demo for yourselves.
As you can see, I've played it and I am full of anticipation
to see what's to come from this project.
Although this early sample does show a few bugs such as contact errors on the monitors
and...this.
But in all honesty, I'll be keeping my eye on this one.
But until then, how about next Saturday,
I'll do a live stream of Sonic Chaos using the Game Gear?
The details for that can be found in the description.
Thanks ever so much for watching guys!
And a huge thanks to A+Start for making appearance to the show!
Check out his channel with the card on the screen now.
Also, thanks to my sponsors!
Their support helps me go the extra mile.
Click the join button below to become a sponsor yourself.
Or why not subscribe?
It's completely free!
But until then, you guys have a great day, and take care.
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