| Sonic Chaos (Sonic and Tails) |

| Screen Shots |

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History

Sonic 3 was doing the rounds on the Mega Drive and the Master System and Game Gear got a Sonic game of it’s own - Sonic Chaos. This was to be another original title for the 8-Bit machines only.

Story

South Island is in trouble again. Robotnik has managed to get hold of the red Chaos Emerald. By using it’s power he has somehow managed to throw the remaining Chaos Emeralds into a parallel universe. South Island needs the Chaos Emeralds to continue floating. Now that the emeralds have gone the island starts to sink. Sonic must reclaim the emeralds before everybody goes for a swim.

Gameplay

The Sonic gameplay style has not changed yet brings you a step closer to the Mega Drive versions in terms of speed. Run from left to right collecting rings and other items and destroying the Robotnik drones that exist throughout the levels. Pressing left and right on the D-Pad moves him in that direction, holding up and down scrolls the screen slightly, both buttons are jump and pressing down while running makes you roll. Defeat the enemies by jumping on them or rolling and rings are lost when you are hit. A few remain on screen for a few seconds to recollect. Get hit with no rings and you loose a life.

Sonic or Tails are now both playable characters. Although Tails made appearances in Sonic 2 he was never a playable character. Now you can decide whether you want to play with Sonic and his super speed or Tails and his flying ability. The Spin Dash move from the Mega Drive version of Sonic 2 made it into this game which is good for rocketing around those loops and destroying enemies. Both Sonic and Tails are both able to do this by pressing down on the D-pad and revving up with the jump buttons.

The speed of Sonic Chaos is a notch faster than of Sonic 2 with slightly more action. The size of the levels in Sonic Chaos has been increased by a large margin over Sonic 2. This is more noticeable when you decide to venture upwards. There are loads more secret areas to find as well. Levels are also packed with loads more gameplay elements with plenty of walls to smash through. There are more type of springs as seen in previous Mega Drive versions; some springs propel you straight upwards while others make you twist in the air. The Mobius Twists have it into the first level.

Usual Sonic items inside monitors return for collection in the levels.

Ring - Earns you 10 rings
Speed boots - A short boost in speed
Invincibility - Makes you invincible for a short while
Sonic - Extra Life
Tails - Extra Life

Rocket shoes - Sonic only item. You can blast through the air for a short amount of time. If you take a hit they will disappear straight away.

The end of an act is marked with the familiar Bonus Panel. The faster you hit it the more points you get. Like before an image will dictate a reward. The reward depends on rings and time.

Flicky - Nothing
Ring - Get 10 rings
Sonic - Sonic gains extra life and Tails a continue
Tails - Tails gains extra life and Sonic a continue

Your points are then updated.

Each zone consists of 3 acts, 2 are full sized levels with act 3 being a boss level. At the end of each you are rewarded with ring and time bonuses based on your performance. More rings = more points and the quicker you are completing the act the more points you receive for the time bonus. For every 50,000 points you gain a continue.

There are 6 Special Stages each requiring you to complete a different task in each one. These include flying throught the air on rock shoes or rolling through a maze of pipes. You exit the stage when your time runs out or you have collected a Chaos Emerald.

Conclusion

From the start there is a noticeable graphics improvement. The Sonic and Tails sprites are a little larger with more detail and have a little more frames of animation. The levels are more detailed and the backgrounds....There does seem to be some slowdown when Sonic is going through the stages at a pace.

The music and sound fx are of usual quality for 8-Bit. The background tunes are simplistic as are the sound fx

Sonic Chaos is a reasonable challenge. It will tae a few attempts at some of the later levels to complete them and locating all of the Chaos Emeralds should keep anybody busy for a while.

Sonic Chaos is again another great 8-Bit title different from it’s predecessor. More gameplay, more characters, larger levels it’s great follow on from Sonic 2 and an impressive 8-Bit title.

Cheats and Tips

Level Select

At the title screen press Up, Up, Down, Down, Right, Left, Right, Left, Start.

Sound Test

At the title screen, press Down, Down, Up, Up, Left, Right, Left, Right, 1, 2, Start.

Sonic Fireball

At the sound test menu, press Down, Down-Right, Right, 2. You can now throw a fireball while playing.

Version Changes

The Sonic Chaos detailed on this page is the Master System version. The game was also released on the Game Gear and that version sports some differences over this one.

They are:

The title screen is different as is the character select screen and the intro screen to a zone.
When collecting Speed Boots the music changes.
The name for Gigalopolis Zone was changed to Gigapolis Zone and the music is totally different. The boss for Gigapolis does not shoot the spiked ball at you before he explodes.
Slightly different in music for the start of Turquoise Hill Zone.
The music for the intro before the title screen is different. In the Master System version it is from Electric Egg Zone Act 3.
Act 3 for both Aqua Planet Zone and Mechna Green Hill Zone are different.
The arena for fighting the boss in Mechna Green Hill Zone is different.
There is no victory jingle before calculating your score after collecting a Chaos Emerald.
There is only 1 Ring Monitor in Electric Egg Zone Act 3.
Sonic’s ending version 2 Sonic is not rolled up in a ball. He trips and falls when Robotnik goes off the screen.
In the Game Gear manual for the game all the Badniks (enemies) have names.