Back in 1992, a new Sonic puzzle game was on its way to the arcade machines.
But a long-story-short, it failed its location test in Japan
and therefore it never got released nationwide.
It wasn't until 24 years later,
it came to everyone's attention due to an arcade board collector, ShouTime!
In a nutshell, the game eventually got ripped
and was available for emulation in late 2018,
and then someone who goes by the name of Dustin O'Dell
ported it over to the Mega Drive, also known as the Genesis.
And this will be the version I'll be demonstrating in this video!
It's still early days and the port is not perfect,
but seeming as I was on the front cover,
I was eager to give this a go.
So, I present to you, my initial thoughts on the long-forgotten classic,
SegaSonic Bros!
You'll be forgiven if you immediately think that this is a Tetris clone
or even a premature concept of Puyo Puyo,
I mean Peeyo Peeyo,
Whatever!
It's along the same idea except instead of trying to clear a straight line
or connect colours in a group of 4,
you need to make loops, or surrounding traps using the same coloured Sonics.
You have Sonic the Hedgehog,
redhotsonic,
Super Sonic...
and the Sonic who was clumsy with a bucket of paint.
Nevertheless, you initially commence the game with the former three.
You get three options when you're in Arcade mode before you start.
You can originate from the beginning and all level and score points
you earn are proudly your own,
or you can get a head start with Normal or Hard with some points in the bank.
There are earlier decisions foregoing the genuine game
like altering the time limit or difficulty or even the speed
but for this examination, I left all options at standard.
The only one I was interested in was the language option
but as of this build, it doesn't work and all the text will stay in Japanese.
The premise seems difficult when you first initiate a game
but you pick it up really quick.
You get a square shape of 4 Sonics,
and either slowly let them descend into place,
or hold the down button to make them drop quicker.
Which by the way, that's nice attention to detail
changing their sprites to their hurt pose as they rapidly fall.
They also go into their roll animation every time you spin your selection.
Yet, it only seems to be one way; clockwise.
So, A, B and C all do the same thing.
Slot the Sonic's into place and any overhanging colours will collapse.
Make a circle to make those Sonic's and any other enclosed hedgehogs escape.
They do not have to be a perfect shape.
It can be irregular loops, large or small rings,
and you can even use the wall and floor to your advantage here.
The sides and the ground work with any piece so you can score some great points this way.
Also, as long as you're using the wall to help,
you can release the colours before they even collapse.
Pretty handy.
Clear the whole screen, and you get a clean-up bonus.
It is also possible to perform chains but from what I can tell,
it doesn't give you any extra points for doing so.
Once you're near the top,
you get a high-pitched siren alerting you that's the case
and to be honest,
it just makes me want to rip my ears off!
Reach to the top of the ceiling, and its Game Over.
As you progress, you gain a new level rank,
which noticeably the game starts to pick up the pace
and won't be as generous with the colours you would like.
But no worries because each new zone you enter,
you gain a Chaos Emerald.
And when set, this creates a big blast
and instantly warps all Sonics to the side and above to freedom.
In fact, you can easily get a clean-up bonus by leaving a free space on the base
and placing the emerald there.
From what I can tell, you enter a new zone with every ten levels you advance through.
You've start off with Green Hill,
(duh),
then the Special Stage,
that's oddly out-of-place,
and then Marble, Spring Yard
and the highest I got to, Labyrinth.
Once you enter Spring Yard Zone,
Dulux Sonic arrives!
Making the game play a bit tougher for you.
I managed to get to level 44 from the very beginning with a score of 180,000.
Or by selecting hard mode, I got to level 45 with a score with over 1.1million?
How the heck?
YOU CHEATER!
No, no, for some reason,
if you choose 'Normal' mode,
you set yourself with 300,000 points.
Already I've beaten my high score.
Or if you select the 'Hard' approach, you bank a million!
The score system seems a little bit scrambled here
and there are a few other bugs but this is due to the port rather than the arcade game itself.
Dustin has already released a music fix for this
which is the version I'm showcasing today,
but the melodies died every single time I used the Chaos' power for me,
well, at least on real hardware anyway.
Other bugs I noticed is that the start button pauses the game no matter what you are doing.
So, a second contender couldn't actually join in half way
because it would just pause the game.
And as good as the sprite work for Eggman is,
on the very rare occasion, he would become a glitched mess.
But this is still a prototype transfer to the Mega Drive and is revision two,
so I'm sure there will be plenty of future updates;
even by the time I release this video.
Although we couldn't actually find an option to go against the computer,
my wife and I did give the 2-player method a try
and you can either go head-to-head,
or just play alongside each other as if it was a double 1-player game.
The latter I've pretty much already described
but the versus mode is almost identical.
From what we could tell,
the only difference being is every time you clear some of your screen,
you fill up your opponent's screen with...
ghostly skulls?
To remove these clouds of death, you either have to ensnare them
like you would have to release the Sonic pieces,
or they would just desintergrate themselves overtime.
The bigger your capture, the more fluff balls your rival has to deal with.
But the great thing about these hazards, is that you get to choose where they lay to rest.
Whoever reaches the top, loses.
And you see Sonic either cheering,
or crying like a little baby.
But I have to say, for a quick and cheerful arcade game,
the sprite work is very polished.
And that goes for the jingles too, when they want to work of course.
I tell you what, if this was an actual Mega Drive game, I would buy it.
I think I prefer Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine in terms of its gameplay structure
but the presentation to SegaSonic Bros. most certainly gives it a run for its money.
And this doesn't even compare to that cheap Sonic Eraser game.
I don't think there was a lot I disliked about this title.
The only thing I could think of is that the current piece you have in play
is so loose to move.
Holding left and right would literally send the Sonic's from side to side
and you have to tap the D-pad if you want them to move a tile at a time.
You also have to re-enter your name for the scoreboard every single time,
but I'm just being fussy there.
Damn it!
I have to praise Dustin for his conversion here; it is superbly done.
And if you want to try it out for yourselves,
I will leave link to his tweet in the description.
I'll be looking out for updates to this in the future and will live stream it soon.
Thanks for watching guys and if you enjoyed this video,
then give it a thumbs up.
If you like to see more reviews by me then make sure to hit the subscribe button.
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But until next time guys, you have a wonderful evening.
See ya!
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