90s Sonic Knockoffs and our experiences with them.

This topic will be about the many Sonic anthropomorphic knock-offs that came and went during the early and mid 1990s.

I want to talk about my experiences with them and would like to for people to share their thoughts with the ones we've tried out.

Of course, Busby Bobcat and Awesome Possum are more infamous, but there was also Aero The Acrobat, Radical Rex and even the obscure fighting game Brutal.(not even sure how many people remember THAT series.)


So let's get started!




First up:

http://www.gaminggenerations.com/sto...bubsy_snes.jpg

Bubsy: Claws Encountered of The Furred Kind. Systems: SNES, Genesis. Publisher: Accolade. Developer: Accolade. Released: May 1,1993.


I remember renting the first Bubsy game on Super NES back in the late Spring of 1993. To be honest, I never ever expected Sonic to see other animal furry mascots from different publishers at the time. I didn't expect them to be any interesting so there weren't any expectations from me at all.

Bubsy on Super NES is a mixed bag as I in 1993 saw as. It's certainly very ambitious for a platformer. As it shows that Accolade really wanted to make this game a whole franchise. Level design feels......fair. Not entirely lush or vibrant even for 1993. But the color sprite levels and very good for the Super NES. The controls believe it or not, are iffy and sluggish. Bubsy can squash enemies and bounce off them but the introduction of "one hit and your dead" makes gameplay very tedious especially through the 16 or so levels you have to tread through. Though the game is tedious, it can be beaten in under 3 hours, making the game un replayable.

http://howlongtobeat.com/gameimages/...bub2_large.jpg

Bubsy 2. Systems: Genesis, Super NES. Publisher: Accolade. Developer: Accolade. Released: April 5,1994.

I've only played the Genesis version of Bubsy 2. Back in '94, I found the sequel to be a bit more balanced then the first game and surprisenly shorter. I beat the whole game in one day, but when I played it on Sega Channel a year later, I found it more frustrating then previously, maybe because I had become more impatient than before since I had beaten the damn game pretty quickly a year earlier. Likewise, I did tend to find Bubsy's one-liners a bit grating but the replay value seems higher than the first game. Maybe because this game feels more balanced than Bubsy 1, but shorter.



It's a start, I'll have more later!

I can't recommend Zool 2 enough. I normally abhore sonic knock offs, but Zool 2 is an excellent clone, mainly because it doesn't take very many gameplay elements from Sonic but rather borrows the aesthetics.

The first game is pretty terrible, and Zool 2 was only released on the Amiga, DOS, CD32, and Jaguar, so finding a way to play it is difficult. but damn is it great.

Quik the thunderrabbit is another great Sonic clone, this time borrowing more from the mechanics than aesthetics. It's pretty underrated.

Kid Chaos is an amiga game that rips off the sonic engine wholesale. As such, it's got incredibly good mechanics and gameplay, but the objective (destroy all object X) and aesthetics are super poor. Still, they nailed the engine.

The BEST sonic knock-off, however, has to be Jazz Jackrabbit. It takes the Zool route, copying the speed and aesthetics but not the gameplay. Jazz Jackrabbit is it's own thing, and it's great.

Brutal: Paws of Fury. Systems: Super NES. Genesis, Sega CD. Publisher: Kemco. Developer: Eurocom/GameTec.

Released: December 7,1993(Sega CD). April 12,1994.(Genesis, SNES).

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...y_Coverart.png

This is one of those weird as hell relics from the mid 1990s. Brutal is a 2D fighting game that came hard on the heels of Atari's Primal Rage. Its publication and release history is odd too. It first hit the SEGA CD in Christmas of 1993 before rolling out onto its 16-bit Cartridge counterparts in the Spring of 1994.

Brutal's own premise sounds like shit a group of furries would come on with or rather bad fan fiction. It mixes, Kung Fu stereotypes with, cardboard cutout characters, FMV and chiched character design.

The execution itself is pretty generic. Graphically, it doesn't look too special especially since this was for the beginning of 1994. The FMV and animation is about a step ahead of CD-i(which is a good thing) and the sprite detail looks like "Genesis pushed to its 2D limits".

The sound is bizzare. A mixture of the monosyllabic Early 90s-esce vomit, I would have to say at least its coherent. You can hear many grunts and groans and the cheesy techno soundtrack.

Other the that, the game is pretty interesting and solid. It gets tough, the hit detection can be off at times, but you can tell its a well designed game.


Here's a longplay of what its like(what's weird is that the game is quite rare and commands a hefty price tag.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2rUc8cH6aE

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Originally Posted by TheSonicRetard

I can't recommend Zool 2 enough. I normally abhore sonic knock offs, but Zool 2 is an excellent clone, mainly because it doesn't take very many gameplay elements from Sonic but rather borrows the aesthetics.

The first game is pretty terrible, and Zool 2 was only released on the Amiga, DOS, CD32, and Jaguar, so finding a way to play it is difficult. but damn is it great.

Quik the thunderrabbit is another great Sonic clone, this time borrowing more from the mechanics than aesthetics. It's pretty underrated.

Kid Chaos is an amiga game that rips off the sonic engine wholesale. As such, it's got incredibly good mechanics and gameplay, but the objective (destroy all object X) and aesthetics are super poor. Still, they nailed the engine.

The BEST sonic knock-off, however, has to be Jazz Jackrabbit. It takes the Zool route, copying the speed and aesthetics but not the gameplay. Jazz Jackrabbit is it's own thing, and it's great.

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I never got to play Zool 2 and vaguely remember the first Zool game on Genesis(from the makers of Brutal.) but I recall Zool 2 being a very stellar platformer for Jaguar.

And as for Jazz Jackrabbit, wasn't that by Epic Games makers of that awesome DOS game Jill of The Jungle?

Anybody ever remember Radical Rex?

http://image.allmusic.com/00/agg/cov...03170jfjxj.jpg

Activision had a mascot? HA!

How is Brutal a Sonic ripoff?

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Originally Posted by The Jackal

How is Brutal a Sonic ripoff?

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This.

Brutal Paws of Fury pissed me off. I wanted a game where Badgers are fighting Squirrels and instead I got some cartoony tosh with toshy moves and crap sounds. Screw you ninja rabbit type thing and crappy bear character.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MrSega

I never got to play Zool 2 and vaguely remember the first Zool game on Genesis(from the makers of Brutal.) but I recall Zool 2 being a very stellar platformer for Jaguar.

And as for Jazz Jackrabbit, wasn't that by Epic Games makers of that awesome DOS game Jill of The Jungle?

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Brutal was developed by GameTek and published by Eurocom/GameTek depending on the area of Europe. Zool was developed by Gremlin Graphics and published by them as well. Gremlin today has been reinvented as Sumo Digital with key members of Gremlin making up the new team. They were best known for Lotus Turbo Challenge, the original Outrun clone.

Zool 1 is awful. Zool 2 is much improved in every possible way. I can't stand the first Zool game while I think the second is one of the best Sonic knock-offs around.

Jazz Jackrabbit was made by Epic Megagames. They indeed made Jill of the Jungle, along with countless other classics. They're best known for Gears of War and the Unreal Engine these days. Jazz Jackrabbit itself was made by CliffyB, who has made tons of influential games.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mr Smith

This.

Brutal Paws of Fury pissed me off. I wanted a game where Badgers are fighting Squirrels and instead I got some cartoony tosh with toshy moves and crap sounds. Screw you ninja rabbit type thing and crappy bear character.

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The execution is pretty bad. I would say the character I found the most grating & perhaps the dumbest character in whole game with the worst concept is the worst concept is the "Kickboxing Rat".

This thread should be deleted and you should start a new thread titled "anthro games" or something like that.

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Originally Posted by Drakon

This thread should be deleted and you should start a new thread titled "anthro games" or something like that.

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Don't know any post Sonic Antro ones from the 2000s. And I'm not really fond of Spyro. And I never liked Crash Bandicoot.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MrSega

The execution is pretty bad. I would say the character I found the most grating & perhaps the dumbest character in whole game with the worst concept is the worst concept is the "Kickboxing Rat".

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Saying the execution in Brutal Paws is pretty bad is like saying Hitler was fairly evil. All the characters are tosh, without exception.

I bought both Brutal games for the SCD and 32X back in the early 2000 and well they both sucked to say the least. I do remember playing Jill of the Jungle at my local library back in the early 90s on that 386sx with no soundcard lol.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mr Smith

Saying the execution in Brutal Paws is pretty bad is like saying Hitler was fairly evil. All the characters are tosh, without exception.

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Out of all the useless & asinine characters in the game, I would say the Vixen has some redemable qualities. After all she does have a semi decent character design and has a backstory that's salvageable. But other than that, the roster consists of poorly designed characters that nobody gives a shit about.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MrSega

Don't know any post Sonic Antro ones from the 2000s.

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