Retro Gaming Magazine April 2014 | Page 31

The enemies you will face are the usual Sonic fare, none are “new” except for the bosses which are unique and challenging to defeat. The first boss comes out of nowhere but if you pay attention, you will see that you literally pass him in the level as he sits unassumingly on a ledge prior to the battle screen. Defeating this firepower spewing machine will take a lot of paying attention and trial and error to get his pattern down. The speed shown in Sonic Winter Adventures is some of the best I have ever seen on the Genesis. Had Sega created a Sonic game this fast then gamers might have actually fallen for the whole “Blast Processing” advertising campaign. This game is fast and there is a ton of stuff going on onscreen. This thing has several attacks from the basic brute force attempt to bouncing around the screen in a deadly game of squash and spewing firepower when he calms down. Just look at the background of the first level, that is chunks of ice floating by in perfect line scrolling goodness on top of even more parallax in the background. If you think the Street Fighter II series is the king of parallax scrolling then you need to check out Sonic Winter Adventures it puts to shame what is in Capcom’s fighting game. Sonic Winter Adventures has an amazing ending too, reminiscent of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom mixed with some Metroid exit strategies. This was very well done and was a great end to this game hack. I can not go into detail without ruining it, suffice to say, you won’t be disappointed when you finish this hack. There are a ton of Sonic hacks available not just Sonic Winter Adventures, though SWA is one of the better ones that I have found. This feels like a Sonic Gaiden (Side Story) and could pass as a transition title for those waiting with baited breath for another quality, official, Sonic game from Sega. There are only a handful of levels in Sonic Winter Adventures, nothing near what Sega gave gamers officially but what is here is amazingly cool. Playing this game to its fullest requires taking leaps of faith in some places then running like hell through other areas plowing through a ton of enemies and hitting springs causing you to soar to new heights, and that is just the first level. If you know of a game hack that you want us to take a look at, just let us know and we will check it out. 31