Game Gear Sonic Games: The Best and the Worst

[A Black Falcon]

It's possible he was transferred to Aspect for the game, would explain the difference in quality.

Aspect was of course a shadow-developer who did not get credited for the games they worked on, so it makes sense that Sega would use some of their own staff on the games too, I guess... I've looked this up before, but looking at the credits for Sega GG games on Mobygames finds quite a mixture of staff. Aspect games often have some staff members with mixed Sega and Aspect credits, and some games that Sega itself is credited with (not just on Mobygames, but also elsewhere) have some Aspect or Sega/Aspect people working on them... without asking the actual people in Japan, and I don't know of anything in English which has done this, I think that figuring out exactly what Aspect did and what Sega did is challenging. They often seem to have used some Sega people on games mostly made by Aspect, and perhaps also sometimes some Aspect people in Sega games.

For instance, Monaco GP II (Game Gear). The game is credited to Sega. The game had a small team, and unfortunately Mobygames only identifies three of them, but of those three, one is an Aspect person (all Aspect games from '91 to '95), one is credited in both Sega and Aspect games between '91 and '93, and the third, the sound guy, is a Sega person. Unfortunately the programmer isn't one of the three identified people, but if that was another Aspect game, maybe it'd explain why that game was such a massive downgrade from the first Monaco GP for the Game Gear...

Of course though, the whole point of shadow-developers was to help out companies who needed more people but didn't have them, so the mixing does make sense. Also maybe the Land of Illusion guy didn't do anything more for Aspect because he was clearly far too competent to be stuck working on Aspect games...

You got your signals crossed somewhere. I said:



And then you replied this.



Hence,



You misread my first statement up there. Legend is the one I couldn't remember the name to. That game is mediocre.

I've got nothing against Land of Illusion. Actually it's probably my favorite Illusion game. Hell, it's one of my favorite 8-bit Sega games period.

Maybe Aspect didn't make it though as you've said or maybe Sega had other staffers working with Aspect as Kamahl theorized, I don't know. I can't say without asking the people who worked on it. It's a sweet game regardless.

I'm glad that's cleared up because I couldn't imagine how anyone could call Land of Illusion "bad."

You're right, I misread it.

I can't believe any praise at all for Sonic Blast, the second worst platforming Sonic game of all time, just a hair above Sonic Jam on the Game.com

Nothing about that game is good, nothing.

Well, to be fair, I'm mainly thinking of the SMS version, since that's the one I've played more. But Blast has some serious collision detection issues, bad physics, the weakest music, and the blandest level design. I just played it a bit to refresh my memory, and yeah, it's still pretty bad. Blast is the only one that I'd actually call bad; Chaos is very mediocre, the rest are decent/good but not great. Sonic 2 has some fun levels and good music, and the physics are good. I prefer Triple Trouble, but Sonic 2 SMS is fine, and better than Chaos. The GG version would be fine if not for the first boss, IMO.

These are exactly the kind of things that I just can't understand. I don't get how people could hate Blast so much without recognizing that its gameplay and design are cloned straight out of all of Aspect's other Sonic games! It's not different, and it's not much worse. It's just the same thing again with a new coat of paint. The problem is that Aspect's Sonic designs were bad all along, not that Blast made things far worse.

On another note, I also went and played Sonic Labyrinth for a bit, and I actually liked it. What's supposed to be so bad about this game? At worst it shouldn't be a Sonic game, but the actual gameplay is good.

I'd guess that it's probably because of what you say here, that it's not like a Sonic game at all. I mean, Sonic 3D Blast was hated by many for pretty much that reason, but I at least think it's a good game...

[j_factor]

These are exactly the kind of things that I just can't understand. I don't get how people could hate Blast so much without recognizing that its gameplay and design are cloned straight out of all of Aspect's other Sonic games! It's not different, and it's not much worse. It's just the same thing again with a new coat of paint. The problem is that Aspect's Sonic designs were bad all along, not that Blast made things far worse.

I really don't see Sonic 2, Chaos, Triple Trouble, and Blast as all the same thing. I guess they all have a certain feel to them, but they're certainly not all of the same quality. Even removing Blast from it, I don't see the other three as clones of each other. *shrug*

In any case, Blast still has borked collision detection, which the others do not. And the spin dash is different. And they didn't implement Knuckles correctly, which is disappointing.

[Kamahl]

Yeah, Sonic 2 and Chaos/Triple Trouble do not play similarly. They all have Aspect Slowdown(TM) but that's not gameplay. Even Chaos and Triple Trouble don't play quite the same (and the levels in triple trouble are way bigger and more interesting).

[phoenix]

How many of these were ported to sms so far ?

[j_factor]

How many of these were ported to sms so far ?

Sonic 1 (actually the GG version is the port)
Sonic 2 (not sure which)
Sonic Chaos
Sonic Spinball
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
Sonic Blast (Brazil only release, ported by Tec Toy)

[zetastrike]

I don't hate Blast, but it feels like an unlicensed game made by Russian pirates. I guess Sega just had to have something to release along with 3D Blast.

[Kamahl]

Blast [...] feels like an unlicensed game made by Russian pirates.

That's... a perfect description.

[Obviously]

Sonic 1 (actually the GG version is the port)
Sonic 2 (not sure which)
Sonic Chaos
Sonic Spinball
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
Sonic Blast (Brazil only release, ported by Tec Toy)

And here's the ROM of the unofficial SMS Triple Trouble for the heck of it: http://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_Triple_Trouble_SMS

[A Black Falcon]

That's... a perfect description.

Almost all Aspect games sort of feel that way, though, so that's nothing special about Blast.

[Kamahl]

Almost all Aspect games sort of feel that way, though, so that's nothing special about Blast.

It's not just the feel, it's the look. Aspect games, if nothing else, looked great.