Somari (full title: Somari the Adventurer) is a pirated port of Sonic the Hedgehog, made for the Famicom by Hummer Team under their Someri Team alias and published by Ge De Industry Co.
Overview
Green Hill Zone.
Somari is a well-known pirated Famicom port of Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Megadrive/Genesis featuring Mario in place of Sonic, and is known to have been made by Hummer Team. This game also includes the Spin Dash, a move introduced in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, dating the game to November 24th 1992 (the release date of that game) or after. Also notable is the usage of the Special Stage and the background graphics for Green Hill Zone from the Master System version of Sonic the Hedgehog, almost certainly due to hardware limitations of the Famicom.
All of the zones from the Mega Drive version are included, with the exception of Scrap Brain Zone which is unfinished and can only be accessed by savestate hacking. The controls are similar to Sonic the Hedgehog, albeit including the Spin Dash and Somari suddenly slowing down when going into a jump from full speed, a problem also encountered in the Famicom port of Super Mario World by Hummer Team. Oddly, the game includes loops and ramps, although these have somewhat glitchy programming such as the player being able to get permanently stuck on a loop if hit by a badnik as well as passing through one ring when the player runs through it, a glitch also present in Jurassic Boy 2 by Sachen. Also, unlike StH, while rolling you cannot control yourself at all.
Somari is considered to be significantly more difficult than StH due to the enemies always respawning in the same places whenever they appear on the screen, poor programming and physics, as well as lack of continues and checkpoints. The level design is somewhat flawed, from frequently repeating areas of zones, most noticeably in Marble Zone and Labyrinth Zone, to inescapable pits in Green Hill Zone. You can also get a time over after elapsing 10 minutes, like in the original game. However, it doesn't seem to work in Labyrinth Zone, presumably because of how long it takes to beat each act in this version. Unlike the Mega Drive version, there's only one ending in this game which shows Dr. Robotnik juggling the Chaos Emeralds, which is odd considering that they're nowhere else to be found in the game.
The graphics are mostly taken from StH for the Megadrive, with a few exceptions. The background for Green Hill Zone and the Special Stage graphics are from the Master System version, the sprite of Somari is an edited version of Mario's sprite from Super Mario Bros. 3 and some other graphics were modified on the title screen; namely the removal of the Sega copyright on the emblem and in the bottom right corner, the edit in the title to read Somari and Sonic himself being replaced with Mario in the same pose. The "Sonic Team Presents" screen from the original was also modified to read "Somari Team Presents." The music is mostly taken from the same game, although in much lower quality as well as the Special Stage music being from the Master System version.
Clones
Somari has been hacked to produce many other games: (The Sonic games are in the order that they were released)
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Same as Somari but the sprite has been replaced with Sonic and the title screen has been redrawn)
- Sonic 3D Blast 5 (Identical to Sonic the Hedgehog but you start in Spring Yard Zone. Published under NT)
- Sonic and Knuckles 5 (Uses Sonic & Knuckles' title screen and music, the game starts in Spring Yard Zone. Published under NT)
- Sonic 3D Blast 6 (Uses Sonic 3D Blast's title screen and start screen, starts off in Marble Zone. Published under NT)
- Family Kid (Replaces Mario with a supposedly original character. Published by Family)
- Doraemon (Replaces most of the graphics and music to be more Doraemon themed. Published by Waixing.)
- The Hummer (Hacks done by ex-Hummer members which replace the title screen, the main character and alter the graphics)
Sonic the Hedgehog Hacks
Sonic The Hedgehog and Sonic 3D Blast 5 were the first to be released, with the title screen graphics being replaced and the "Somari Team Presents" screen being removed. It is very possible that they had to be released in 1996. This is because Sonic 3D Blast itself came out in 1996, and it's doubtful that the developers would've known about its existence before then. A couple of bugs in the game were fixed, like the inescapable pits in Green Hill Zone, as well as the addition of rings on the starting point of its' first act, despite the game clearly starts at the Spring Yard Zone and the earlier zone is available only through stage selection screen. This incarnation of Somari is relatively common on multicarts, especially those made by JY Company.
For Sonic & Knuckles 5, (also known as Super Sonic 5 1997) they changed the title screen graphics and music in an attempt to copy Sonic & Knuckles. They match quite well, but in lower quality and the theme song is much faster than it should be. Like as S3DB5, the player starts off at Spring Yard Zone. On Super Sonic 5's title screen, Knuckles is there but doesn't make an appearance in the actual game.
Sonic 3D Blast 6 was possibly released in 1998. While the title screen graphics are ported from Sonic 3D Blast and a "Start" screen was added between levels, the theme song is reused from Sonic & Knuckles 5. This time, the player starts at Marble Zone for unknown reasons. Also notable is that when doing a soft reset on this hack, the title screen keeps switching between its normal state and some garbled graphics, which is likely a result of removing Somari's title screen graphics and the game switching between two CHR banks, one of which is not meant to be used in this hack.
The names and the actual warps on the level selection screen are now scrambled up. For example, whenever the player picks the Final Zone, the game brings him to Special Stage instead.
A common misconception with these games is that Somari was released after the Sonic the Hedgehog hacks. Not so, because while Somari was definitely released around about 1994 (with development starting in 1993), the others were made in 1996 and after. Many enemies in Somari use one of Somari's palettes which makes them use the right colors when compared to the first StH. However, in the hacks they appear blue instead. If you look through the graphic tiles of these hacks, you can find many leftovers that were from Somari like Somari's titles and the unused "Mario" title.
Family Kid
Family Kid is a basic hack of Somari, replacing the "Somari Team Presents" screen with the Family logo (which appears in several other pirates, except smaller) and Mario with Family Kid, presumably named after Family TSI Ltd. who made it. However, they didn't change the signpost graphics which still have Mario's face on them. As well as this, part of Family Kid's standing sprite is missing for unknown reasons. It's unknown when this hack was made, but it was released on a 2-in-1 multicart along with Aladdin 4. (hack of Aladdin)
Doraemon
Doraemon was made by Waixing and it's probably the most extensive hack of Somari. Somari is replaced by Doraemon, the character from the anime of the same name. With the exception of the Final Zone, the level designs are completely different and most of the graphics and music have been redone. However, it should be noted that some graphics are stolen from Aladdin (the cobras under the spikes in level 3) and Chip and Dale 2. Somewhat notably, in a similar way to Sonic Triple Trouble on the Game Gear you lose 20 rings when hit and not all of them like Somari did (but only 3 still fly out) and unlike him, Doraemon can't drown underwater. The Special Stage was omitted although still accessible through save state hacking; it includes the music and graphics from the original level, although the background is grey as opposed to black for unknown reasons.
The Hummer
This hack completely replaces the title screen, with the one used here having an original character possibly modeled after Sonic the Hedgehog, a logo in English and Chinese and some graphics reused from Final Zone. The main character's sprite is different in this hack and the backgrounds are recolored. This game might be a hack of Sonic & Knuckles 5 as it uses the same music on the title screen and they both start in Spring Yard Zone.
Another Somari hack starring the Hummer was released and is known only to exist on the Samuri 60-in-1, where the background graphics are almost completely different. This particular version is split up into seperate acts, with Green Hill Zone Act 3, Labyrinth Zone Act 2 and the Final Zone omitted and Star Light Zone Act 3 appearing twice on the system. The character himself also appears on various games for that system, acting as a mascot for Hummer Team.
Reception
- Suponev made a quick look at in Dendy: The New Reality (perhaps, it's one of the few Hummer Team's games that got a spotlight in here, alongside Street Fighter II), noting that the port is somewhat accurate to its' predcessor, Sonic the Hedgehog.
- A level-by-level walkthrough has been given in one of the issues of Great Dragon.
- Among the amateur reviewers, this game usually gets mixed reviews. For instance, this one mentions that it's barely playable and the graphics suffered a lot, although it has good music and may amuse die-hard retrogamers.
Trivia
One of Somari's carts, possibly the original. While difficult to tell on the photo, to the side of the logo is the message "Somari Team Presents" which also appears on the box art.
- The Dendy: The New Reality episode featuring Somari was originally broadcasted on November 26th 1994, dating the game from November 24th 1992 to that date. Also, the trademark for this game was filed in 1993,[1] less than a month after "Sonimari," most likely an earlier title for the game.[2] It was also trademarked by a company called Ge De Industry Co., who likely distributed it.
- The level select screen (from Sonic the Hedgehog) can be accessed by a cheat code at the title screen. The codes are:
- Somari, Sonic hacks and Family Kid: Left, Down, B, A, Right, Up, A, B, Up, Down, Up, Down
- Doraemon: A, B, Select, Up, Down, Left, Right, A
- The Special Stage is misspelled as "Spacial Stage" on the level select screen and named "Special Zone" on the title cards. As well as this, Spring Yard Zone is misspelled as "Spring Yand Zone" on the level select screen. These spelling errors are present in all of the hacks, with the exception of Doraemon which is in Chinese as opposed to English.
- There are unused tiles in Somari's rom which have the banner on the title screen read "Mario" instead of "Somari." This was most likely a development name at the time because the title doesn't seem to fit in with the banner.
- The background on the title screen is completely different to that of Green Hill Zone's due to limitations of the Famicom's hardware.
- Somari Team is spelled "Someri Team" on one of the cartridge arts, with the same cart having a 1994 copyright. This spelling is also used on the circuit board and the cartridge art of AV Bishoujo Senshi Girl Fighting.
- There is a hack of Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis where Sonic is replaced with Somari but not much is known. The origin is known to be New Zealand.
- You can get 255 lives in the game if you beat a level but at the same time die from a time out.(10:00) Your life counter will say 0 and eveything after that will be all tiles.
- This game and some of its hacks are common on JY Company's later multicarts, and these releases are usually Sonic 3D Blast 5.
- Somari appears on the front page image.
Cartridges and Boxes
