Game:

Sonic Advance (2001)

Duration: 1:51:11

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2

I wanted to give the Game Gear games another chance. Specifically, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which I gave up on the previous day. And... I once again confirmed that it simply isn't worth playing. However, it was not the only Game Gear game that didn't really deserve it's own video for one reason or another, so I decided to take a look at several of the games today.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2: This game simply is not worth playing. Even as someone who wanted to experience all the Sonic games, this game is an exercise in pure frustration. The difficulty was ramped up from the previous game. That itself is not a problem, the previous game was pretty easy overall. But combine that with there not being special stages that I could find - thus no easy way of getting lives and continues - and you've already got a recipe for disaster. A game that simply forces you to replay it with extreme difficulty as a way to artificially extend play time, and thus perceived "value". No thank you. But that's not the worst of it. The worst of it was the INCOMPREHENSIBLE controls for the hang glider in zone 2, that really prevented any forward progress. I cannot stand them, I cannot understand them. I want nothing to do with them and they are so frustrating as to make me strike the game from my list in its entirety.

Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine: It's not a bad game. This is the US version of Puyo Puyo, with plenty of computer opposition. This game looks and plays alright (though I did have some problems with dropping the pieces). My issue is - I just don't really like this gameplay. It's not bad, it's actually very solid for what old arcade style should be. Something fairly simple to learn, hard to master, and infinitely repeatable. To the point where this style is still being used today. It's just not for me. As you can see with my awful gameplay here.

Sonic Drift: A terrible, and terribly easy racing game. I truly dislike this style, the Pole Position (as I know it best as) style. The curves never looked right to me, it never felt right to me. This game has a trick. A drift button, to make it easier to go around corners. TOO easy if you tap it. I went through this entire game today, so this is my playthrough of it. I don't recommend it.

Sonic Drift 2: More complex, and yet much worse to play than the first. Much like Sonic the Hedgehog 2, they overtuned the difficulty compared to the previous one's easy. Here, I tried as Knuckles, and had both Sonic and Metal Sonic as opponents. Both of whom seemed to be able to infinitely boost. On straights, going full speed, I COULD NOT catch them. They would also pass me. It's an unwinnable game. Yet it did include one thing I actually liked, a few banked curves. That was neat in this style.

Sonic Spinball: I mean, it's a Game Gear port of the Genesis game. A lesser version with worse physics and really wonky hit boxes. Pinball games were already notoriously bad back in the day. This one's got a lower framerate as well. I just don't like this version. Then again, I didn't really like the Genesis version THAT much, even though I do kinda like pinball. But I'd rather play that than this. Even being portable wouldn't have saved this one.

Sonic Labyrinth: I.. I don't even.. Collect three keys in an isometric video game and get to the exit. It feels like it was not designed to be a Sonic game. Or maybe it was designed as a different take to Sonic 3D Blast. It's... not TERRIBLE, one that maybe, MAYBE I could see myself trying to play through at some point. But today was just a demonstration of it and it's not really a game I'd keep up with.

Tails Adventure: This one I'm actually going to hold for another day. It looks interesting. It feels like it was designed to be something else and they just threw Tails in it to increase it's appeal. I mean, it worked for me, only reason I'd even think of playing it. But this one is being saved for a later playthrough.

Tails' Skypatrol: It's a terrible, TERRIBLE auto-flier that I don't even want to think about. Go ahead and make whatever fun of me you want for not finishing the "Training" course. But this was the end of the stream, and I was just done with looking at bad games. -- Watch live at https://www.twitch.tv/the_nametag

Humble Bundle Partner reference links:
General link:
https://www.humblebundle.com/?partner=nametag&charity=8443
Sonic Adventure DX (Game Gear ROMs in data files):
https://www.humblebundle.com/store/sonic-adventure-dx?partner=nametag&charity=8443