Sonic Chaos is a game of desire.
It's a game of my desire.
When whispers first emerged of it, I was still rocking a Sega Master System, and although
the previous Sonic outings on Sega's 8 bit platform were good in their own right, they
were very different from the 16 bit releases.
Whereas the Mega Drive offered a fast, open and expansive levels where you felt free to
pave your own destiny, the Master System and Game Gear outings were more linear, slower,
in a sense, more like a Mario game.
Sonic Chaos looked like it would change all of that, and give 8 bit owners, the Sonic
we craved.
It still makes me smile when loading it up, because it felt like a game which pushed the
boundaries, and, wait a minute, what the hell is going on here.
Well, well, well, if it isn't a brand new remake of our faithful friend.
I say remake, but these are not the same Turquoise Hills we witnessed in the original.
Artistic licence has been used to re-imagine the game, and to good effect, bringing Sonic
Chaos well and truly into a 16 bit aesthetic.
You've be forgiven for thinking this is running on the same engine as Sonic Mania, but no,
no.
This is a brand new engine, called the Crimson Engine.
The game has been in development for about a year, and what we're seeing here is a demo,
featuring two stages.
In association with Box Robot Studios, the fine people behind this outing include A+
Start, Mr. Potatobadger, TheStoneBanana, Michael Staple, Heraga, Jassbec and Tpot, and updates
are coming thick and fast, even to the bugs reported in this early demo, released in time
for the Sonic Amateur Games Expo
For me, this seems to be a terrific outing.
All the bits of Chaos which I found compelling are here, along with a whole lot more.
The engine is smooth, fast and feels...
Like Sonic.
It also feels like Sonic Chaos.
Whereas the 8 bit versions had to utilise simplified route designs, here, the creators
have gone to town, but still managing to retain elements which made Sonic Chaos both compelling
and in small doses, frustrating.
Including a multitude of island platforms and uneven terrain, requiring a lot of jumping.
Although we don't have the original Chaos level design, we do have many paths, nooks
and multi-directional play.
In fact, this is probably the first Sonic game I got lost on at one point, but in all
honesty, it didn't feel like a bad thing.
In fact, there's not much which feels bad at all in these two levels.
The things which wowed me in the original Sonic Chaos, like the shuttle loops, are back,
wowing me again.
I know they shouldn't, but seeing these for the first time on 8 bit hardware widened my
eyes, and seeing them again with the Chaos aesthetic pleases me.
In fact, being able to play as Tails was a revelation in the 90s, especially after raising
our hopes in Sonic 2, only to have him kidnapped at the start of the game, and of course, that
feature is back in this version.
The only thing I couldn't find were the rocket boots, but looking at the resources shows
me that they will make an appearance at some point.
Maybe I just missed them.
Talking of resources, apparently, Sonic Chaos is currently making use of the odd sprite
from Sonic Mania, which doesn't seem out wrong or even out of place, but I'm curious as to
whether these will be tweaked or swapped out in the final release.
In any case, I haven't confirmed this, but you can see this Sonic standing sprite, although
very similar to the Mania sprite on the right, has discrete differences.
It's early days, so we've got the odd glitch here and there, along with momentum problems
and tunnel upsets, but that's to be expected and swiftly forgiven.
Personally, I'm looking forward to where this outing goes, because frankly, it feels like
it could easily be the next Sonic Mania.
If you fancy giving it a whirl yourself, the download links are below.
Thanks for watching.