Games for Lunch: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (iPhone)
Developer: Sonic TeamPublisher: SegaRelease Date: Late April 2010System: iPhone/iPod TouchESRB Rating: E
In a nutshell: Not quite uncontrollable, but not quite controllable either...
0:00 The original Sonic 2 was the primary reason I bought a used Genesis to go with my beloved SNES as a child. That said, I'm not at all confident the game will be as enjoyable when controlled via touchscreen. Some games just need buttons, I think.
0:01 A good ten seconds of loading precede Sonic running in front of the traditional "SEGA" screen, complete with singers chanting the name. The title is the same as ever: "Sonic and Miles 'Tails' Prower in... Sonic the Hedgehog 2" Oh man, this takes me back. I remember being SO impressed with those big character sprites back in the day.
0:02 I tap the screen to bring up a ridiculously bare bones menu, and tap it again to bring up the familiar Emerald Hill Zone, Act 1. The scene is stretched nicely to fill the whole iPod. There's a little translucent d-pad in the lower lefthand corner and a little A button in the lower right. Hey, what if I want to use the B or C buttons? I know they all do the same thing, but still.
0:04 So far it's surprisingly easy to place my thumb in the center of the d-pad picture and kind of rock it back and forth to move. I get hit by a few coconut-throwing monkeys, but I feel like that's my fault, not the game's.
0:05 I've already collected my first 100 rings and my first an extra life, so I guess the controls can't be that bad. So far the game runs with nary a hiccup on my 2nd gen iPod. "Sonic Got Through Act 1" and earned a continue in the process.
0:07 I'm spin dashing through Act 2, with occasional backtracking to pick up some extra rings. I've decided to make it my goal to earn as many extra lives as possible in this hour, just to spice things up.
0:08 Hmm.... when I unpaused the game just now the music went away and the framerate slowed to a crawl. About 30 seconds later, it fixed itself. This is technically a pre-release version of the game, but still, that's a pretty big glitch.
0:10 I get up to 103 rings and extra life #3 as Robotnik comes out in his familiar drill tank. I dispose of him easily and let out all the warm fuzzy critters out of their container. Still cutesy after all these years.
0:12 Chemical Plant Zone is up next. I had forgotten how annoying it was to have Tails following me everywhere I go. It doesn't seem like there's a two-player mode over Wi-Fi or anything to justify his presence, either.
0:14 The slowdown/music glitch just happened again. This is gonna get old real fast...
0:16 I'm running into some problems tryign to get Sonic to curl into a ball. Half the time, when I try to hit the down arrow on the touchscreen, I hit the left arrow instead.
0:17 The invincibility music is continuing, even though my invincibility has worn off. It's kind of nice, actually. Makes me feel powerful
0:19 OK, the invincibility music has gone from kind of nice to kind of annoying amazingly quickly. It was not designed to be looped for this long. On the plus side, 103 rings and an extra life box get me up to eight Sonics in reserve.
0:20 You'd think the latest slowdown glitch would make it easier to complete the precise jumps required for these tiny moving yellow platforms... but you'd be wrong. Instead, I miss three times and die on the underwater spikes below.
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In a nutshell: Not quite uncontrollable, but not quite controllable either...
0:00 The original Sonic 2 was the primary reason I bought a used Genesis to go with my beloved SNES as a child. That said, I'm not at all confident the game will be as enjoyable when controlled via touchscreen. Some games just need buttons, I think.
0:01 A good ten seconds of loading precede Sonic running in front of the traditional "SEGA" screen, complete with singers chanting the name. The title is the same as ever: "Sonic and Miles 'Tails' Prower in... Sonic the Hedgehog 2" Oh man, this takes me back. I remember being SO impressed with those big character sprites back in the day.
0:02 I tap the screen to bring up a ridiculously bare bones menu, and tap it again to bring up the familiar Emerald Hill Zone, Act 1. The scene is stretched nicely to fill the whole iPod. There's a little translucent d-pad in the lower lefthand corner and a little A button in the lower right. Hey, what if I want to use the B or C buttons? I know they all do the same thing, but still.
0:04 So far it's surprisingly easy to place my thumb in the center of the d-pad picture and kind of rock it back and forth to move. I get hit by a few coconut-throwing monkeys, but I feel like that's my fault, not the game's.
0:05 I've already collected my first 100 rings and my first an extra life, so I guess the controls can't be that bad. So far the game runs with nary a hiccup on my 2nd gen iPod. "Sonic Got Through Act 1" and earned a continue in the process.
0:07 I'm spin dashing through Act 2, with occasional backtracking to pick up some extra rings. I've decided to make it my goal to earn as many extra lives as possible in this hour, just to spice things up.
0:08 Hmm.... when I unpaused the game just now the music went away and the framerate slowed to a crawl. About 30 seconds later, it fixed itself. This is technically a pre-release version of the game, but still, that's a pretty big glitch.
0:10 I get up to 103 rings and extra life #3 as Robotnik comes out in his familiar drill tank. I dispose of him easily and let out all the warm fuzzy critters out of their container. Still cutesy after all these years.
0:12 Chemical Plant Zone is up next. I had forgotten how annoying it was to have Tails following me everywhere I go. It doesn't seem like there's a two-player mode over Wi-Fi or anything to justify his presence, either.
0:14 The slowdown/music glitch just happened again. This is gonna get old real fast...
0:16 I'm running into some problems tryign to get Sonic to curl into a ball. Half the time, when I try to hit the down arrow on the touchscreen, I hit the left arrow instead.
0:17 The invincibility music is continuing, even though my invincibility has worn off. It's kind of nice, actually. Makes me feel powerful
0:19 OK, the invincibility music has gone from kind of nice to kind of annoying amazingly quickly. It was not designed to be looped for this long. On the plus side, 103 rings and an extra life box get me up to eight Sonics in reserve.
0:20 You'd think the latest slowdown glitch would make it easier to complete the precise jumps required for these tiny moving yellow platforms... but you'd be wrong. Instead, I miss three times and die on the underwater spikes below.