Undertoads, if there's one thing about Sonic that everyone can agree on, it's that he is
blue and he's gotta go fast.
I'm not going to complain about how the newer sonic games are bad because I've never really
played them, and I'm not going to Mario is better because they're different games with
different gameplay aspects.
Back in the 90's Sega had a success with Sonic.
He had three TV shows, comic books, toys, and a library of awesome video games.
And yeah, Mario had the same thing, sure sure, but after the Genesis rocked the world with
its blast processing and high definition graphics and what not, Sega decided to release some
Sonic games on their older home console, the Master System, as well as on the Game Gear.
This is Sonic game; Sonic Chaos, on the Sega Master system.
Some will look at this game and say "Wow, it looks a bit rough!".
After seeing sonic in 16 bit, why would anyone want to see him in the 8 bit world?
Well, consider the market.
Not everyone had migrated to the expensive Genesis yet, even by 93 when this game was
released.
But Sega wanted people to eventually get on the Genesis Express and start their 16 bit
gaming adventures.
So why not introduce players who still owned a Master System to their prodigal son, Sonic?
In this game he's still fast, he still collects Chaos emeralds and he's still kicking Robotnik's
but, so there's not a ton that's changed.....it just isn't as pretty.
Now that's a stretch of a reason for the games creation.
Granted, the Master System didn't have the sales figures the NES did, thus not having
the install base, but it wouldn't surprise me if that was the logic behind it.
Sonic Chaos plays exactly like it should: You collect rings, roll through enemies, and
stop the fat balding doctor from collecting the chaos emeralds.
It's the same story you've seen before, though Sonic Chaos is a little too easy when compared
to its Genesis counterparts.
But what is impressive about Sonic Chaos and its other 8-bit Sonic relatives is that it
still has that feeling of going fast.
And if your wits are not about you, you won't be very good at this game.
It's not as fast as the Genesis games, but it doesn't need to be because it's still fun
and feels like a Sonic game.
A supplement to the Sonic games you've already played and loved, if you will.
One thing I can complain about is playing as Tails.
Sure, it's nice to be able to play as the two tailed fox right off the bat, but he offers
little change from the Blue Blur's gameplay.
He doesn't fly like he does in the genesis games and he can only take off from the ground,
which makes him near useless to play as.
But he's there if you want to use him.
Sonic Chaos is out on the Virtual Console, of course it's on the Master System (what
we're looking at here) and it's on the Game Gear.
While it doesn't do anything to change the Sonic formula, it doesn't need to, because
it's still a fun Sonic the Hedgehog release.
It's Sonic Chaos, on the Sega Master System!