Sonic the Hedgehog Megamix (often shortened to Sonic Megamix) is a fan-made hack of the original Sonic the Hedgehog game made by Sonic Retro members, Team Megamix. The project started as a Sega Mega Drive/Genesis hack, and has moved to the Mega CD because of its more powerful hardware. It is an extensive reworking of the original game, featuring new art, music, abilities, layouts, and other things. The game was cancelled more than once, however, it is still being continued to this day.
This Sonic hack is notable for being the first and only one to be released on cartridge (by pirates).
Overview
Gameplay is the same as the original Sonic the Hedgehog, but, as of the latest versions, it has evolved to incorporate elements from more recent Sonic games. It has five playable characters (Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Mighty and Shadow) which are very differentiated by their special abilities (Tails and Knuckles play similar to the original games, Sonic has a homing attack and peel-out, Mighty can use a insta-shield attack and is the only character that can use the special abilities of the shields, Shadow plays similar to Sonic but can double jump). After collecting the Chaos Emeralds from the Special Stages (which are similar to the originals but with new textures and music, not to mention much harder), they can transform into their Super forms that have special abilities never seen before in 2D Sonic games, such as flying or using special powers by the cost of rings.
The monitors in this game are all the ones seen in 2D Sonic games, 10 Rings, 4 types of shields (Normal, Fire, Bubble and Lighting, the latter three have special abilities that only Mighty can use), Speed Shoes, Invincibility, 1-Up, Eggman (damages the player) and S monitor. (turns the player Super)
Zones in this game are modified versions of the zones from the original game, but much longer, with new colors and textures, and different music for each act (some of which are borrowed from other games, for example, Starry Night Zone Act 2 uses Smooth Criminal from Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, and Misty Maze Zone Act 2 uses music from Columns 3). Three modes exist within the game: normal, which features new levels, original, which has the original levels from Sonic 1 intact, and extra, where you play a harder version of normal mode, but you can collect a few extra goodies (unlocked by completing normal mode).
- Sunny Shores Zone (Sunset Hill Zone in older releases) - Green Hill Zone
- Dark Fortress Zone - Marble Zone
- City Outskirts Zone - Spring Yard Zone
- Misty Maze Zone - Labyrinth Zone
- Starry Night Zone - Star Light Zone
- Metallic Base Zone - Scrap Brain Zone
Pirate Release
The game was put on cartridges and sold by pirates, without permission of its original creators. It was released in Russian markets (the back cover has Russian text) for both the Mega Drive and Mega Drive Portable. The version that was bootlegged was the v3.0 build, the last Genesis version of the hack before Team Megamix moved the project to the Mega CD.
Team Megamix originally created the game not for profit, and later found out about its pirate release. However, they couldn't do anything about it, as the game is a fan work and uses Sonic the Hedgehog without permission from SEGA.
Trivia
- This is the only Sonic fan-made hack known to be released on a cartridge.
- Tweaker, the leader of Team Megamix was removed from the Sonic Retro fansite due to legal matters. It is being continued with a different leader.
- Due to the game being made a group of experienced hackers, it is notably much better than most pirate games.
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