Sonic the Hedgehog (SNES)

Sonic the Hedgehog (SNES)
Hack of	Speedy Gonzales: Los Gatos Bandidos
Developer	Twin Eagles Group
Original developer	Sunsoft
Console	Super NES
Date	September 1996
Alternate names/hacks	Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Sonic & Knuckles

Sonic the Hedgehog (also known as Sonic the Hedgehog 4 on some cartridges) is a pirate game for the SNES by Peruvian scene organization Twin Eagles Group. In actuality, it is a hack of Speedy Gonzales: Los Gatos Bandidos. Notable features include Sonic's new ability to kick, and missions to free Marios from cages (upon which the latter exclaims his own name). On some emulators, the game freezes completely after four levels.

Overview

File:SonicSNESGameplay.png

Sonic the Hedgehog's Gameplay. Note the imprisoned Mario and the glitched background.

A hack by Peruvian sceners Twin Eagles Group, released in cartridge form with their permission; later pirate cartridges were released under the name "Sonic the Hedgehog 4" and "Sonic & Knuckles".

The hack itself replaces Speedy Gonzales with Sonic and the imprisoned mice with Mario. There is some voice acting in this hack, recorded by the hackers themselves to replace the voices in the original game, with Mario yelling "Mario!", when he's rescued and Sonic yelling "Sonic, Sonic!" when he picks up speed shoes. Mario works as a checkpoint, just like the mice in the original game. The cheese pieces have been replaced with rings, although Sonic has a health meter as indicated by the hearts at the bottom left of the screen. Sonic's sprites are from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on the Sega Genesis, except for his handling sprites, which are from Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

The backgrounds are glitched, being rendered in a red gradient which makes them look disjointed. However, they're normal during boss fights. The level order has been altered too, as the forest (the second stage in the original game) is now the first stage, followed by a castle and what appears to be a futuristic spaceship. The game can crash on the third level after hitting a switch (a glitch which is also present in the original Speedy Gonzales ROM if played on some emulators) although it can be bypassed. After a level is completed, a running Sonic with a glitchy palette (probably Speedy's) appears on the screen and the score is calculated. Unlike the original game, this screen doesn't show how much cheese (rings) has been collected, how much time was left or how many mice (Marios) were rescued.

Mario checkpoints are very common in the game, which is quite strange. However, the reason for all these oddly placed "checkpoints" is because Speedy Gonzales: Los Gatos Bandidos has a strong emphasis on rescuing trapped mice, more so than actually getting to the end of the screen (so it's more of a collecting game than a standard left-to-right platformer). However, the first level of Sonic 4 is the "Surely Woods" level in LGB, picked presumably because unlike the others, it's a very linear "fast" level and the Marios aren't hidden too well.

Credits

• Coding: Alex
• Animations: Mr.Byte/TEG
• "Sonic!" voice: Mongrut ?

Trivia

• Much of the music and some of the levels were removed from the original game, with the missing levels only accessible through save state hacking.
• This hack is similar to Sonic 6 for the Game Boy, because both are Speedy Gonzales games hacked to include Sonic in them, released for Nintendo platforms and the first level is a forest.
• Twin Eagles Group also made Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the SNES, which is a hack of Sparkster.

Gallery

Pirated cart with a plastic box, the cover art is the same as Sonic the Hedgehog 3 cover art for the Sega Genesis, which were how SNES games were commonly rented out in Brazil

Closeup of cartridge

A boxed copy in a Super Famicom style cart

Img.jpg

Same as the one above, but in a Super Famicom shell.

Multicart with "Sonic & Knuckles"

A 9-in-1 cart in a Super Famicom shell. The third game is "Sonic 4".

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (SNES) - Longplay

Gameplay video.