Sonic the Hedgehog (SNES)

Sonic The Hedgehog 4
Hack of	Speedy Gonzales: Los Gatos Bandidos
Developer	Twin Eagles Group
Original developer	Majesco Warner Bros. Consumer Products Sunsoft Acclaim
Console	SNES
Date	September 1996
Alternate names/hacks	Sonic the Hedgehog Sonic & Knuckles

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 is an unlicensed 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 name). On some emulators, the game freezes completely after four levels.

Overview

File:SonicSNESGameplay.png

Sonic The Hedgehog 4'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 Mega Drive, 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 The Hedgheog 4 is the "Surely Woods" level in Los Gatos Bandidos, picked presumably because unlike the others, it's a very linear "fast" level and the Marios aren't hidden too well.

Music

The songs can be found in Options as a Music Test. Plus, some of the original tracks were removed and replaced the same tracks.

Name / Originally	No.
El Gato Battle #2	00, 02, 04, 05, 07, 08, 11, 13
Sleepy Rock (00) Snowy Cabin (02) Surely Wood (05) Fiesta City (07) Ye Olde Bountry (08) Level Complete (11) Game Over (13)
Ancient Keep	01
Galactical Galaxies	03, 12
Title Screen (12)
El Gato Battle #1	06
Continue?	09, 16, 17
Battle with Pirate Gato (09) Map (16)
Introduction	10
Staff Roll	14
The Mice Have Been Rescued	15

Credits

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

Differences

Sonic saving Mario. (Bootleg)

Sonic kicks. (Bootleg)

Continue screen. (Bootleg)

Speedy saving mice. (Original)

Speedy kicks. (Original)

Continue screen. (Original)

• The lives have 15 instead of 2.
• The continues have 9 instead of 3.
• Most of the sounds was changing from the same original game.

Video

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (SNES) - Longplay

Gameplay video.

Gallery

Main article: Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (SNES)/gallery

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Options.png

The Options menu.

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, a not-LT related game.
• The ending screen features the line "Sonic loves Nintendo, Mario loves Sega". This became true when Sega stopped making its consoles and started releasing official Sega games (with Sega exclusive characters) on Nintendo consoles.

Reference

List of games by Twin Eagles Group

SNES: 101 Dalmatians · Bananas in Pajamas · Ferrari F-50 · Flubber · Futbol Excitante · Man in the Iron Mask  · Men In Black · Saint Seiya · Saint Seiya 2 · Sextris · Sonic The Hedgehog · Sonic the Hedgehog 2 · Street Fighter II: Champion Edition · Street Fighter 2 vs. X-Men · Tarzan · Titanic · Xuxa N64: Ronaldinho Soccer 97 Game Boy: Saint Seiya SEGA: Argentina Soccer 97 PlayStation: Bolivia Soccer · Chile Soccer · Futbol Brasilero · Futbol Peruano 98 · Peruvian Soccer 97 · Peruvian Soccer 99 · Peruvian Soccer 2000 · Peruvian Soccer Turbo