Hey I'm Derek, it's me Derek, and welcome to Stop Skeletons From Fighting! I don't know if any video game has had a more complicated history with itself than Sonic the Hedgehog. Not even the series, just the game! How amazing is it that there are THREE games called Sonic the Hedgehog, and they are all vastly different from each other? On top of that, there are the multiple different ports of the original 16-bit Sega Genesis Sonic the Hedgehog that all have pretty significant differences! I mean, are they all ports? Are some of them remasters? Do they attempt to approve upon, or just preserve that classic recipe? I mean, this is not a rare thing in video games, but Sonic is definitely in another league! And it's a case-by-case basis, which of course means it is time for another Punching Weight glimpse into the wonderful world of Sonic the Hedgehog ports! One video wasn't enough! Two videos might not be enough! But I had to put on the only Sonic the Hedgehog shirt I own for nuthin'! So let's get back to it! I just spilled water on myself 'cuz I'm so excited about Sonic. In this episode, we start with the downgraded port of Sonic the Hedgehog for the Master System and Game Gear. Today it's instead known as Sonic the Hedgehog 8-bit, but this was technically the second Sonic game released, predating Sonic 2! And okay, yes, it's less of a port and more of a totally original game, but stick with me here: When you're talking about lower-grade hardware, really, there's two ways to port a game: You stay true to the original as much as you can, or you just reimagine the whole thing from the ground up, and preserve its essence. Either can be good or bad, there are lots of examples of both being good and bad, it really just depends on the circumstances. This game takes some risks and reimagines the 16-bit original. But it had to! I mean, the Master System lacked the Blast Processing and Nintendon't of its fancier kin. I appreciate when a game takes a lack of processing power as a challenge! Sonic 8-bit makes a lot of smart and charming changes. For starters, this is much more of a pure platformer than Sonic 16-bit, complete with redesigned and totally original zones! This can be kind of jarring at first, but it's easy to forget that Sonic 1 was more of a traditional platformer than the sequels! It's kinda shocking to remember that he didn't get his Spin Dash until Sonic 2! Sonic 8-bit was made at a time when the Sonic formula wasn't truly set in stone yet, though you can basically skip the entire first level by hitting this jump just right. That is pretty fast. One change I really like was how the Chaos Emeralds are instead hidden in levels, which puts more emphasis on exploration. There are other changes as well: There's an auto-scrolling level, and even an infuriating vertical level complete with scrolling death... eugh. Each zone has three levels, like Sonic 1, though usually the third level is just a boss fight, meaning Robotnik still basically comes at the end of the second level, like Sonic 2. It's not trying to be a one-to-one of Sonic 1, except on a spiritual level, and I think it really works! But there were still hardware limitations to account for: You can't pick up your rings after getting hit, and getting 100 rings resets your ring count! You'll still get the extra life, but one time I finished a level with 101 rings, but the game thought I only had one ring, so I wasn't able to go to the special stage. Speaking of special stages, they're more like the bouncy segments in Spring Yard Zone, and they house extra continues in this game instead of Chaos Emeralds. If you didn't know, the Master System and the Game Gear are basically the same system, but there are minor differences between these two versions: Levels have slightly different layouts, some bosses are different as well, but the biggest difference is that the screen size! Naturally, the Game Gear is smaller, and this makes the game a little tougher, even with the Super Wide Gear! Lookit this thang! Can you believe this was supposed to be a portable system? Wide Gear. He... he WIDE, boy! That's a Wide boy! Even without it, this thing's huge. Six batteries. Both versions are great, though I prefer the Master System version, however, the Game Gear version is much easier to come by physically, because in North America, this was the last Master System game! In fact, apparently they didn't make enough for North America, so they had to ship over the PAL versions, and they just stuck a sticker over the UPC, which has, and it shouldn't surprise me to learn this, significantly increased the resale value! It's just a sticker!! Game collecting is dumb! Sonic 8-bit was developed by Ancient, a company founded by Yuzo Koshiro for this very port. You might recognize that name if you are a Streets of Rage music fan, and who isn't? He re-arranged the songs from the original soundtrack, and composed a bunch of original songs, including some honest-to-god bops, really, the music from here, from top to bottom, is pretty great! Hey, we saw with Sonic on the GBA you can't always take great music for granted on these Sonic ports! A lot of the times, when 16-bit games are ported to the 8-bit systems, they'd be usually rushed out the door so that there could be another SKU for the publisher. But Sonic the Hedgehog for the Master System and the Game Gear stands on its own, and properly represents the source material! You could never do what... the Genesis-yes... - No.
- ... does what the Master Sysdon't? - Don't ever do that again. - But they didn't try to! Much like I shou- I shouldn't try to make that joke, but I did it anyway. So this is how Sonic's port journey started. We talked about last time how it was a bit of a bumpy road from the early 90's to the 2010's. Most original Sonic the Hedgehog appearances on other systems were part of collections, with mixed quality. I mean, Sonic Jam on Saturn? Yes! On Dreamcast? No! PSP, Xbox 360, PS3... yeah, right? Now don't worry, I'm not about to claim that Sonic 2006 is a port or anything like that, but it would be a pivotal year for the Blue Blur: For instance, yes, there was also that beautiful, garbo GBA port, but 2006 marked a sea change for retro games, introduced by the Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console. Sonic the Hedgehog was actually a launch title for the Virtual Console! If I could time travel and tell my elementary school self that Sonic would launch on a Nintendo system, my head would've exploded! But 2006 also caused an upswing in fan support for Sonic: Eventually people like Simon Thomley, a.k.a. Stealth, and Christian Whitehead, a.k.a. Taxman, would take the reins, delivering fantastic iOS games, which we talked about last time. They would eventually have an integral role in Sonic Mania the Sonic throwback game that outclassed its official, Sega-made 3D game, Sonic Forces. However, they would not be given the keys to the Sonic franchise, despite their amazing showing on smartphones, the original Sonic the Hedgehog console ports would instead be helmed by a different studio, M2. In May 2013, Whitehead and Thomley released iOS and Android ports of classic Sonic games that were so good, they replaced the ones released by Backbone Entertainment in 2009! Now, most publishers would commission a definitive port like this and be like, "Let's call it a day, guys! We nailed it! Not Sega. They have never been about making things simple, or easy, or really making sense. " ... Sonic?" "You're alive!" "Wait... what?!" "Oooh..." Just a few months after the iOS ports, Sonic made his way to the 3DS, instead coming from M2, who we haven't really covered enough on Punching Weight, but they are absolute hall-of-famers! If you aren't in the know, M2 are legendary porters of old games to newer systems, and are even responsible for new games of old franchises! There's the Sega 3D Classics on 3DS, the three Konami ReBirth games on the Wii, may they one day see re-release, 'bout a decade's worth of Sega Ages titles, and so, so many more, it is a very long list! My Life In Gaming made an amazing documentary about them, which I highly recommend you check out! I just wanted to make it clear: M2 are the real deal. So anyway, after making amazing ports of Space Harrier and Super Hang-On for the 3DS, you'd think that porting lil' ol' Sonic the Hedgehog would be a walk in the park. The 3D is incredible, this is an amazing port, it feels like it was always meant to be played this way! But of course, it was actually a bit more complicated than just wheeling Sonic out for another stroll through Green Hill Zone. You see, these arcade games already had a fake 3D presentation that lended itself to adding in real 3D effects for the 3DS, but Sonic was never trying to be anything more than a sidescroller with two background levels. And okay, I'm gonna stop the video here and let you know that I love when developers arbitrarily shove gimmicky 3D into games, like, what could be more unnecessary?! I've always wanted to do a Punching Weight or Past Mortem on it, but I've avoided it because the 3D is designed to trick the human eye, not a camera lens, so it just looks like a jumbled mess when you try and film it, but I still really wanna talk about this port, so... just use your imagination, like... trust me, the 3D looks really good! But it's not gonna look good on the camera. Adding 3D to Sonic was actually a tall order, even for an experienced studio like M2. The first order of business was making an entirely new console emulation architecture called the Giga Drive. Without getting too technical, this let them double the max background layers of the Genesis, while also adding depth information to just about every asset. And then they went in and added, by hand, depth information to every asset that Sonic runs behind! Apparently it was hell trying to get all this to run without input lag. But then there was the problem of the Spin Dash, which you wouldn't think would be a problem in the first place, but if you'll remember, putting the Spin Dash into Sonic Jam required original programmer Yuji Naka himself to rewrite the original game's code! M2 actually had to email Yuji Naka to ask him how to implement it without slowing the game down, which he did help them, actually, even though he doesn't even work for Sega anymore! [snickers] What a guy! Of course, the solution meant that they needed to double the VRAM capabilities of the Giga Drive architecture. Okay, to hear it like they tell it, they were essentially pushing the 3DS' 3D rendering capabilities to its absolute limit, and they weren't able to physically fit much more special features, uh, like widescreen, into the game to meet their deadline, meaning it's a beautiful-looking game, but more true to the Genesis original than the completely rebuilt iOS ports. And I'm not sure that they would've even included things like widescreen anyway, M2's approach is way more about preserving the source material, and they nailed it again here, man! Playing this game feels like stepping into an alternate universe where 3D TV's ruled the nineties! This is also a time where we can get super into the tech side of things thanks to a fascinating interview that details the whole process. Link is below, definitely check it out, it's really fascinating stuff. 2013 gave us not one, but two amazing ports of Sonic the Hedgehog, however, two ports that represent two very different approaches to porting, remastering, and even game preservation. And years later, there's still some unresolved tension between the two parties. Whitehead and Thomley rebuilt Sonic from the ground up and made fan-developed improvements. M2 preserved Sonic in its original form. But this remains unresolved, though. In 2018, the Nintendo Switch got its own port of Sonic 1, but from the wizards at M2 under the Sega Ages label. And without the restrictions of creating a 3D architecture from scratch, they managed to turn out a great package with lots of awesome special features! Sonic Switch lets you choose between the International REV00 or the Japanese REV01 versions of the game, has the Spin Dash, and adds an all-new Ring Keeper Mode, which is basically a beginner's mode for new fans of the series. There are other special features too, but my favorite is an all-new port of the super-challenging Mega Play arcade version of Sonic 1, which had never been released in North America before! There's still some contention in the Sonic community, because this version lacks some of the more meaningful extras found in the iOS port, like the extra characters, the widescreen, and most of all, the improved framerate. And they're not wrong! I mean, the Sega Ages Switch version feels more like a straight preservation project, with some extra bonuses and speedrunning options. If this Switch port had also featured the special features from the iOS port, it would've been relevatory, especially with that Sonic Maker debug thing, I'm still reeling from that! But it's not like Sega, and by extension, M2, completely ignored Thomley and Whitehead's contributions to the franchise. Sonic Switch has the distinction of being the first Sonic port ever to add the Sonic Mania Drop Dash, which I feel like is a huge symbollic addition, like, kinda them acknowledging "Yo, Sonic Mania was awesome!" but it doesn't seem to be what the hardcore fans of Sonic want, at least according to YouTube comments sections. But Pandora's Box has been opened, Sega! You know, in this day and age, we are drowning in remastered games. The way it's been for Sonic the last decade, you'd hope that it's only a matter of time before we get another remastered Sonic. I mean, we already got our insane in-name-only reimagining of the series, so a massive multiplatform remaster project seems like the way to go! In terms of the original Sonic the Hedgehog and how it's represented today, which great port do you want? You got the 3DS, you got Switch, you got iOS, or y'know what, forget all that and go back to the Master System and Game Gear versions for a charming change of pace! Do you know how incredibly rare it is for a retro game to have THIS much good representation?! We cover a lot of ports on Punching Weight, but I don't think any single game has had it as good as the first Sonic! And there's been all that wild stuff that's been goin' on in the fan community... ... Sonic is in a pretty good place right now, and the future seems bright! But that's gonna do it for now, if there are any weird, ambitious or unnecessary games you'd like to see covered on Punching Weight, let us know in the comments below, I am Uncle Derek, I've been doin' this for a couple o' years now, if you wanna help us, you wanna support the channel, go on Patreon, for one dollar you can get your name here in the credits and get videos early, access to our Discord, all of that good stuff, hey! That's two Sonic videos down, you want more Sonic? Or you just want us to do another crazy ports video, man... so much we can do, let us know, we love hearin' from you, and we love... havin' you back! So I will see you again real soon! Thanks for watching!
I love punching weight. It’s so nostalgic to me and it’s a great perspective in gaming.
Average Youtuber: This Doom port on Saturn is trash.
SSFF: This Doom port on Saturn is unique and weird and has all these sacrifices and really should never have been made and it’s so cool that it even exists! cue to clip of programmer saying they coded it in 2 weeks to meet Christmas release date
Gamers normally just look at ports as inferior versions, but SSFF sees them for the marvels and achievements they are, even if they are technically worse.
Uncle Derek and Producer Grace putting in the work, as usual.
I love SSFF, great channel