Sonic Retrospective Part VII – Sonic Chaos
[Click here to read more long, overly-detailed posts in the Sonic Retrospective.]
Sonic Chaos is another Game Gear/Master System Sonic game that many overlook when talking about Sonic’s history. It’s interesting to go back and play these 8-bit releases since I never owned a Master System or Game Gear. The quality varies from game to game, but some of these 8-bit titles had some good ideas.
I was very pleasantly surprised by Sonic Chaos, it had solid level design, and was the first game that made Tails play differently from Sonic. This is the very first game that you can control a flying Tails. The game is built around the ability to play the game as Sonic or Tails and the differences in how they play. Because of this, the Japanese title, Sonic & Tails, is a much better name.
Sonic plays much like he always does, but with the addition of the Super Peel-out(as explained here in my article on Sonic CD). This is the only game besides CD and Triple Trouble to implement this feature. The more interesting thing is how he collects Chaos Emeralds. Instead of finding them like in the other 8-bit games, you now have to collect 100 rings and then beat a special stage. This makes playing as Sonic much harder, but the more interesting thing is how this affects the level design. The levels are built with the necessity of 100 ring in mind, which is interesting, but it makes the game a lot easier. You can generally beat the game in about half an hour, quite easily.
When playing as Tails there is obviously the ability to fly, but there are some other differences. Tails cannot do the super-peel-out because his flying is tied to up+jump which is much clumsier than future iterations of his flight. He also has more lives and continues at the beginning as compared to Sonic. Also, you do not need to acquire the Chaos Emeralds for the good ending with Tails.
Sonic Chaos is an okay game, the levels are fine, but only a few are more than just good. There are a few weird new items, such as a rocket skateboard, but they ultimately don’t have that big of an effect on the game. It’s fun, but not great. If you like Sonic games, give it a shot, but I wouldn’t recommend going out of your way to play it.
I miss the in depth Zone analysis…