Top 10 Sonic ROM Hacks

8 min read

Deviation Actions

Tailikku1's avatar
By
Published:
3.8K Views
CLASSES CANCELLED DUE TO BLIZZARD

This is definately going to be controversial considering that it mainly requires the use of emulators, a taboo in the eyes of certain retro gamers.  But most retro gamers these days resort of emulation.  Without further ado:

10)  Sonic Megamix & The S Factor - Base game:  Sonic 1.  Both of these games take the original Sonic the Hedgehog and turn it into an all new esperience altogether.  I'm listing these two together due to a head-canon thanks to a future version of the S Factor being tied to menu themes based on characters who are also playable in Megamix.  In Megamix, the story goes that Eggman has decided to return to South Island after leaving it alone for years and restart the conquest he began there.  Sonic however is having nothing of that and brings with him his two best buds, Tails and Knuckles, Shadow, and his old friend Mighty to help liberate South Island from Eggman like in the days of old.

Since those five characters are also going to be made into playable characters in the S Factor, it is possible that upon leaving whereever they were before, Eggman Nega decided to take his chance by taking over one of Eggman's via time travel.  Chasing him through time travel is Silver ending up in Spectra Valley and encountering Sonia, Sonic's triplet sister, also determined to defeat Nega.  In a previous version of the game, and potentially in the next version, Scourge came along for the ride since he's got nothing better to do since he's boared out of his mind fighting Kintobor.  A potential update also throws Blaze into the mix from the Sol Dimention.  Both games give the characters their own distinct feel by allowing Sonic to play like a 2D version of Sonic Adventure 2.  Shadow allows for a more speed oriented gameplay with a double jump doubling as a homing attack.  Mighty plays similar to Sonic 3 & Knuckles.  Tails plays similar to how he does in Sonic Advance.  And Knuckles just plays exactly the same.  Sonia is not as fast as her brother, but she makes up for it in her top-spin attack.  Silver again gets to make use of his ESP and floating, making up for his slow pace.  Scourge plays exactly like Sonic in Megamix.

Megamix has two modes of play:  Normal and Original.  The Original mode is just the 1991 classic, but with the controls of the Normal game, allowing for you to play through the game as the other four heroes.  Speaking of...

9)  Tails/Knuckles/Super Sonic in Sonic 1.  The Tails hack allows for the player to go through Sonic 1 as their favorite kitsune on real Sega Hardware.  This has since become moot thanks to the smartphone versions of Sonic 1 making Tails an unlockable player.  The Knuckles hack meanwhile has been considered the "Holy Grail of ROM Hacking."  This hack was pulled off by Stealth, working around the pallette limitations of Sonic 1, at the same time importing Knuckles' abilities from Sonic & Knuckles using Sonic 2 as a base.  Stealth's hack was based on the legend of Knuckles in Sonic 1 being worked on while Sega was making Sonic & Knuckles, but having issues with the pallettes, leading to the endless Blue Sphere game.  Stealth later worked with Taxman on the smartphone versions of Sonic CD, 1, and 2, making this hack official Sega material.  Super Sonic in Sonic 1 hacked in the Super Transformation if the player was able to get the 6 Emeralds in the game, another idea added into the smartphone version.

8)  Sonc 2 Long version.  Ever wonder how Sonic 2 would have turned out with all of the cut zones intact?  Look no further.  In this hack, players can go through the cut Wood, Dust Hill, Hidden Palace, and Genocide City zones.  Of these zones, only the Hidden Palace ended up in the Taxman-Stealth version of Sonic 2 as Proto Palace Zone.  Genocide City has a lazy level design for both acts, being exactly the same.  The same goes for the Death Egg Zone Acts 1 & 2 being CPZ reskinned.  Act 3 is still the fights with Silver Sonic and the DE Robot.

7)  Sonic 2 XL.  This hack takes a spin on the concept of avoiding rings, in this case, turning the rings into onion rings and fattening Sonic up.  The fatness impares his abilities to run, jump, and spin.  Get too many and you die of a triple bypass.  Your only method of escaping obesity in this game is by burning off the fat or by hitting a ? monitor.

6)  Sonic 1 & 2, Sonic 2 Heroes, and Sonic Classic Heroes.  These three games make use of expanded memory allowing for play through the zones of Sonic 1 & Sonic 2 back to back, the ability for play as Team Sonic, or both with the added ability to play as Team Chaotix.  In order to play as Super Sonic in Sonic 1 & 2 and Classic Heroes, you need to complete all 13 Special Stages, getting the Chaos and Sol Emeralds.  There are plans later down the line to inclde Team Super/Hyper, Team Mini (the Competition mode sprites of Team Sonic), Team Glitch (Asura, Blue Knux, and Wechnia), SegaSonic (Sonic, Ray, and Mighty), Rose (Amy, Cream, and Tikal), and Generations (Classic, Modern, and Sonic Boom).

5) :icone-122-psi:'s Hacks.  Psi's hacks make use of adding new characters and gameplay abilities to Sonic 1-3K.  Most notably, he inserted Sally into the three games, slowing her down, but letting her use Nicole as a blaster, Sonic 2 Pink Edition, which along with the "Amy in" games replaces Sonic altogether and allows Amy to use her hammer and abilities from Sonic Advance.  The Pink Edition replaces Tails with Cream with her Sonic Advance 2 abilities, notably throwing Cheese.  The Chaotix even get a chance with their own abilities from the 32X game.  He even worked alongside Stella Hoshine and inserted her Mobian OC, Stella, into Sonic 1.  Also of note is Sonic 3 Cz which includes Amy as a playable character and allows Tails to be paired with Amy and Knuckles.

4)  Sonic 2: Sweet Relief/Strike Dash in Sonic 2 - Base game:  Sonic 2 on Master System.  Both of these hacks both change the experience of Sonic 2 on the Master System, one of the more beloved games in England.  Sweet Relief balances the game out by allowing for 10-ring monitors giving you an extra life if you have 90-99 rings on you, a 2-digit life counter, checkpoint monitors from Sonic 1 on the Master System, a 3-digit ring counter, and adding rings to the boss acts, denying one hit kills made to Sonic.  The Strike Dash hack allows for Sonic to perform the Strike Dash from Sonic CD and Sonic Chaos.

3)  An Ordinary Sonic ROM Hack - Base game: Sonic 1.  This hack shows some potential despite being unfinished.  The gist of it is that you have 12.5 seconds per stage to explore it normally until you are warped to the realm of Sonic.EXE.  Sonic must find a special monitor to escape from Sonic.EXE or else the demon will kill him.  After the first escape from hell, all reentries will be random.

2)  Sonic 1 Color Contrast.  Dr. Eggman has somehow stolen almost all of the colors (and music) from South Island, and Sonic himself! It is now up to Sonic to return them to where they belong, and restore the island to its colorful musical self.  All stages begin in 50 shades of gray but finding monitors will return the colors to the stage.

1)  Sonic 3 Complete.  This is the most customizable version of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, acting as a console cousin to Sonic & Knuckles Collection.  The website has a customizer so that you can change what music plays during the Ending and the Hidden Palace Zone, the graphics for Sonic, how he plays in Sonic 1 gameplay, what shields, what monitor style, monitor behavior, continues, Knux's main colors, the icon for the Flying Battery Zone, whether or not Big Arms is fought, and others.  The game however allows for the Masaru Setsumaru music from the PC version and Masato Nakamura's compositions from Sonic 1 & 2 to be used.  Pair the last option with the Sonic 2 or Sonic CD graphics for Sonic and now the hack becomes a beta restoration.

As of April, 2016, most of these hacks are now avaiable on the Steam Workshop to play on the Genesis and MD Hub
© 2016 - 2024 Tailikku1
Comments4
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
LevelSmack's avatar
Very lovely list. I have to agree with your #1 pick also for the best sonic rom hack. Here my top 10 list www.levelsmack.com/10-best-son…