The Worst Sonic Game of All Time | Sonic Genesis (GBA)

[@Knuxfan24]

I still think Jam on the Game Com beats out Genesis as the worst game in the series. This game at least tried to copy its homework, Jam looked at it through a steamed up window with a broken pair of binoculars then tried to write it out from memory while drunk.

[@benceszarvas5464]

Finally! Whenever i see worst sonic game title videos and they show great games like SA,SA2,Heroes or good ones like 3D Blast,even bad ones 06...i feel the urge to write this game down every single video...people never do their research just suck at a game and call it instantly the worst...

[@CCJ15S]

​@@benceszarvas5464Because these games are the main ones, and that's just an excuse to call them the worst. Also, Sonic Genesis is a severe port of the original game and the GameCom version of Sonic Jam is a failed port of the three original games, so despite obviously not being the main games, those are legit the worst in the series, at least in my opinion.

[@benceszarvas5464]

@@CCJ15S i think the reason why they call them the worst is simply for views. Thanks to the live action movies sonic became popular again and people who don't really care about the franchise try to/force themselves to play game games just to tell their "opinion" on it which of course will be that's it's the worst game they ever played no matter what the game they are playing. They do this only for the views and it's just sad. Of course Sonic is not the only franchise who get this treatment.

[@RetroIsWatching]

@@benceszarvas5464 i didnt even finish SA2, heck, not even beaten pumpkin hill yet, yet i can still admit that it definitely doesnt deserve to be called “bad” by any means (except for maybe some ports of it which i know that are BAD)

[@benceszarvas5464]

@@RetroIsWatching The only truly bad SA2 stage is "Mad Space". I did beat the game 100% on Sega Dreamcast and Gamecube too. If i don't count the chao garden then aside i can get every emblem in a weekend when i start a new game. People have to realise that when you compare games then you have to look what other games that time were released. There are a lot of games that were made in 2001 and much worse than SA2. For example Megaman X6.(fans despite this game for reasons) I could only beat X4(both campaign with every secret upgarde) but that was the only one in the series i really wanted to complete. Yet i won't say that the other X games or classics are bad just because i'm bad at the franchise in general.

[@Michaelexi3]

“There goes Sonic, **fastest** hedgehog alive!” GBA Sonic 1:

[@JoeContext]

Something I'm surprised few people mention about this is the fact that by the time this came out the GBA had not one, not two, but THREE entirely original 2D Sonic platformers that are still some of the most popular GBA games in general and some of the few Sonic games that I've never seen anyone call bad. Sonic on the GBA had already worked thrice, and yet this still happened

[@beraetuestarz3696]

I think it's also very highly worth mentioning that the gba is capable of Duke nukem and Doom.... which are borderline 3D games that STILL don't lag as badly as this.

[@mrpro538]

My hatred of Advance 3 aside, yeah. I find it baffling how they mess this up after 3 perfectly functional games on the GBA

[@BlueAizu_]

It was touched on a little bit in the video, but there is a silver lining for Sonic Genesis: it was _so astonishingly bad_ that Stealth (AKA Simon Thomley) was compelled to make his own proof of concept GBA port of Sonic 1, and that's what jumpstarted his career. Sega was actually so impressed by it that they brought him in to remaster Sonic CD (which was a very obscure game at the time), then Sonic 1, then Sonic 2, then commissioned to make Sonic Mania! Now the Sonic Mania team has their own company called Evening Star and they made their own game, Penny's Big Breakaway. Sonic Origins is also based on Stealth's remasters, including an all-new one made for Sonic 3 and Knuckles. Sonic Genesis itself is a travesty, but it did cement its place as a notable game in that regard.

[@DaltonLunday2103]

Actually, Stealth is not Christian Whitehead. That’s Simon Thomley. He worked with Whitehead.

[@BlueAizu_]

@@DaltonLunday2103 You're right! I edited it to have the correct name. Whitehead works at Evening Star, but Stealth has his own company called Headcannon. Looks like they're also making an original game of their own, called RUBATO!

[@user-ly1ko6be9t]

Sonic cd isn’t obscure. This was 2011

[@user-ly1ko6be9t]

Also the sonic 3 remaster isn’t nee

[@gezeo750]

...and now you know the rest of the story!

[@FunkyStudios]

*Fun (sort of) fact:* Most of the lag that is seen in this game actually comes from the poorly integrated background MIDI music which hogs all of the CPU. So if you disable the music in the game settings, the game runs "mostly" correctly with the plus of you saving your ears.

[@yassinedahbi7727]

Hot Take: The ost of spring yard zone of this game is my favourite sonic ost of the 2000s

[@darius-m3p]

No it doesn't. You are correct, but it's still slow

[@CeleryX5]

The reason for the awful performance is because the devs reused the Sonic Advance engine. Those games have much smaller sprites and emphasis on faster gameplay. Why they couldn't go with another choice was beyond me. It's baffling how SEGA thought this was fine to release.

[@UmberBee]

Fun fact, if you turn off the audio entirely in the options, there's enough of a boost to make the game slightly more bearable, not that the actual physics are fun to control, but jumping won't bring the game to a crawl. I think I read somewhere that the audio was competing for CPU time, but could be wrong.

[@XaviBruh]

THEN WHY NOT USE SONIC ADVANCE SPRITES THEN?!

[@CeleryX5]

@XaviBruh 😆 As a Sonic fan, I can only imagine the loads of complaints from the fandom had the devs recycled the Advance assets rather than stay true to the original.

[@BrandonVout]

​@@CeleryX5It's the Sonic fandom, they'd get loads of complaints no matter what. Although, changing the sprites wouldn't help much in an engine that couldn't handle as many enemies and moving objects running around.

[@CeleryX5]

@@BrandonVout That was my point. They'd complain about anything, good or bad lol

[@thegoodoldays911]

Sega being unable to replicate sonic 1s physics is like a staple of the series at this point lol

[@cloudshines812]

SomecallmeJohnny put it best into words how he calls this the worst Sonic game ever made during his BrainScratch run: “You’re taking something that’s already been established as great… and COMPLETELY shitting all over it!”

[@mighty_king92]

The GBA CPU was not cooking whatsoever when it came to the music

[@maximyllion]

it is sample based tbf

[@metalmario1231]

not for this game but Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga would like to know your location

[@mighty_king92]

@@metalmario1231 Hold up let me reiterate: The GBA CPU was not cooking whatsoever when it came to the music for THIS game

[@S-Groove]

I thought marble zone sounded good in the gba. Not better than the genesis though.

[@lepopcornnaisseur546]

Oh it cooked alright... a frozen TV dinner in the microwave 💀

[@Kumlord]

42 seconds and 69 rings 🫡

[@MindSweptAway]

so many rings in so little time!

[@gustavochavarria8161]

*Nice!*

[@stardmg]

Stealth taking it upon himself to prove a GBA version of Sonic 1 could work, just absolutely *stunting* on Sega, was such a baller move. Even if it was just a proof of concept, it's clear he could've gone all the way if he wanted. Just embarrassing for Sonic Team, and as we all know, it wasn't even their *only* one that year.

[@AgdaFingers]

Yeah, it's like Sonic 1 if it was run over by a bus...and then a train...and then hit by a missile...and then buried in the litter box.

[@whyareallofthegoodnamestaken]

And then hit by depression

[@autobotstarscream765]

And then the litter box was nuked from orbit.

[@mondopatrick]

I still dont understand why sega would choose to make this game in 2006, the year where the DS was 2 years old, and the wii was new they couldve just made a Sonic Classic Collection on DS which they did a few years later or they couldve remade sonic 1 for the wii with new graphics

[@JSRphones]

I should mention that in Labyrinth Zone, the frame drops can get so bad that even the timer falls behind

[@kchrules775]

Getting this on a family trip when it was new and being the only new game I got to play was brutal

[@The_Prizessin_der_Verurteilung]

After playing Sonic Advance and Sonic Battle, the music in this game baffles me. The only thing SEGA of America tried to do was out do SEGA of Japan with an even worse final product that Sonic 06.

[@SirAzur3]

I agree, also even Sonic 06 had some enjoyable parts compared to this

[@Majokodomo]

The sad thing about the music is, Sonic Advance had remixes of at least 4 songs from this game and they all sounded pretty good! What happened here? And this is a little of a minor thing, but even the sound effects in this version are butchered! The explosion sound effects when Eggman's machine is destroyed sound like they belong in an Atari 2600 game rather than a GBA game. And the sound when you pick up a bubble sounds ridiculously high pitched and off, whereas it sounded just fine in the Sonic Advance games! They really dropped the ball for this version! >.

[@ac31048]

Sonic 06 was supposed to be the 15th anniversary celebration. But SEGA knew how bad it was and moved the labeling to this game.

[@runnersdialzero1244]

I stole this game and a GBA mini from a Walmart in 2006 when I was on bad antidepressants. I probably played this one a collective fifteen minutes after that because it was so broken. Total ripoff.

[@WispyBlueBricksGPX]

Did you get in trouble for stealing?

[@thetreyceratops]

The fact that the music in the game is so bad is even more inexcusable because Advance 1 has remixes of the Star Light, Scrap Brain and boss themes, and Advance 3 has 3 Green Hill remixes, and all of them sound great

[@melo-7904]

apparently S1G was based on the sonic advance engine no wonder why dimps made sonic 4 so bad, they wanted sega to suffer for making their engine suck

[@JoseGregorioValeroVillarroel]

Now THAT'S what I call karma!

[@chaosemerald7654]

0:24 and Sonic Rivals too

[@phorchybug3286]

Looks like the Sonic game on my mom's old button phone.

[@RodriG0_]

0:24 I hate being that kind of guy that tries to correct everyone, but I think that sonic rivals was part of that anniversary too. Or at least there were 4 games in total

[@walkerslegendz]

I appreciate the correction! I honestly forget about Rivals a lot, probably because I've never played those games

[@Mohammed1000real]

Stealth really could've completed his port on the GBA.

[@Princess_Jade64]

No joke it took me two years to beat labyrinth zone on this game, to this day I still have yet to beat the final zone either.

[@lordenma4449]

This game let's you experience the 5 stages of grief

[@robertanderson9447]

I'm a huge Sonic apologist, at least when it comes to the 90's and 2000's, but Sonic Genesis is a special kind of bad even I can't appreciate. Though I did get some enjoyment from the spin dash actually, the broken physics make it weirdly fun to mess with. Not enough to make the game worth playing but, yeah. Regarding the Emeralds, there seems to be a glitch where sometimes the game doesn't save them properly. I missed one, but upon getting my 5th Emerald the game declared I got them all. Wasn't gonna argue with that. Sonic still releases the Emeralds at the end, but the flowers don't appear. Allegedly this port is at least partially based on the 2005 iFone version, since they seem to have the same unique graphics for the zone name and act clear text.

[@NMRH258]

4:17 why tf is Sonic wobbling like that when he dies? 😂😂

[@professorhaystacks6606]

Ugh I got this and for awhile thought I was like sick or old or something as I was suddenly so bad at the game. I then looked into it and realized it really did have altered timing.

[@lobians]

I know stealth/head cannon made their own version of s1 gba but… it’s gba no matter if it runs good u still can’t see much on screen.

[@Ninblasto]

The GBA soundfont isn’t my favorite either, but the one thing that I actually love about it is the loud bass most GBA games have. And of course, this game fails to do that as well

[@midi_feline]

Don't use the word soundfont, you don't understand what it means

[@Ninblasto]

@@midi_feline Yeah I do, I just didn’t know what else to put there

[@midi_feline]

@@Ninblasto Skill issue

[@Ninblasto]

@@midi_feline hell you mean skill issue?

[@sridrawings4510]

Gba > snes

[@beatziegraham6928]

I cry that this was my first experience with sonic 1. Before mega collection even.

[@DumbBunny5328]

Sega should have just rereleased the game gear version. The gba is perfectly capable of emulating the sms/gg and the resolution is not a problem

[@madden8021]

If you wanted to play Sonic on the GBA, then just get the Advanced Series, simple as that.

[@RADish-official]

You know it’s bad when they remove the drum track

[@trollsansofficial]

Why is it called sonic GENESIS when it's on the GBA

[@Catwins]

genesis game on gba

[@KperaOfficial]

sonic1 for the GBA is not even the worst version of sonic 1 out there, if you really wanna suffer then play sonic 1 java/ifone + no way this game is worse than sonic jam for the game com

[@shivamarya5225]

Obviously the game was not complete but they haf to release it in time for anniversary

[@Ismatic1906]

I actually quite enjoy Marble Zone in the original Sonic 1, labyrinth zone as well.

[@walkerslegendz]

They're not awful or anything, I just think they're a bit rough around the edges at points.

[@jadedheartsz]

@@walkerslegendz it could've been worse, Labyrinth Zone was originally going to be the SECOND level in the game, talk about a massive difficulty spike.

[@robertlupa8273]

IMO Labyrinth is fine (aside from the boss which can go to hell for all I care). It's Marble that's miserable.

[@jadedheartsz]

@@robertlupa8273 I never had too many issues with Marble myself.

[@Toughmaster245]

Spring yard music is the original after it took 4 hours at the bar

[@Burn_Angel]

"Hurr durr, the GBA has no blas processing"

[@CCJ15S]

Chugga chugga chugga chugga... Jokes apart, I think you made a decent, yet obvious, opinion of Sonic Genesis, because this is bad at all. Really loved the thumbnail, though, it's funny to me. 😂 Great video. You have inspired me to subscribe to your channel. Take care, buddy! 🙂

[@MIUofficialchannel-ip3bv]

This makes Sonic 06 look like a amazing game everyone loves…..

[@IvoRobotnikOfficial]

Wait until you discover sonic jam Edit: he did1,lol

[@CuriousGuy_]

Sonic Genesis defense force here we're here to revoke your Sonic Genesis privileges

[@LuigiJoe1219]

The only good thing about GBA Sonic 1 is that they fixed the spike bug

[@JEK_VaNNNNN]

Its incredible how sonic 06 has the reputation of being the worst sonic game of all time and yet come to find out, its not even the worst sonic game to release on November 14th, 2006.

[@MarioPikachu626]

1:20 don't you mean BDSP?

[@DAJTheYouTuber_2007]

ah yes, Sonic Advance 4

[@brandonp7503]

Even 15 years later, the Genesis was doing what Nintendon't.

[@Cignus349]

holy shit they got everything wrong. zoomed in screen, missing background sprite animations, slowdowns, physics, music. its amazing how bad it actually is.

[@enderbo]

sound is the reason why the game lags (the only sound chip the gba has is the gbc sound chip, so the sounds are processed on the cpu)

[@samiiiyusufff]

In the newest "update", SEGA ruined Sonic 1's mobile port, i'd say that it's worse than Sonic 1 Genesis now.

[@ami4705]

Doesn't getting all the chaos emeralds unlock the sound test, which has a bunch of sound effects not even in the game? Pretty sure that's the purpose of the emeralds in this game.

[@mruchiha0209]

Bro watched Brainscratch’s commentary of this game and made a script lol

[@hornetscout2579]

How the Hyrdocity Zone are there THREE ORIGINAL and BETTER 2D Sonic games with WAY more detail and animations that came BEFORE a PORT of a GENESIS game, when the handheld has MULTIPLE Genesis ports and even a few PLAYSTATION ports??

[@torterratortellini6641]

Bro sounds like the Thomas Narrator.

[@Knightfall8]

clearly they couldnt fit the BLAST PROCESSING™ into the GBA cartridge

[@TheSpaceking12]

The gba is capable of good music, it just takes effort on the developers part. Listen to the megaman battle network or golden sun games osts to see what i mean

[@UltraCenterHQ]

I wonder how it's so slow. Even Sonic Advance wasn't like that

[@Turbulation1]

very badly optimized

[@UltraCenterHQ]

@Turbulation1 yeah I know, but how?

[@malcolmkoharian]

meanwhile sonic advanced:

[@retrorobbyreviews]

Yeah, this game definitely shouldn't have been released back in the day, lol. I agree with your opinion of this one being the worst.

[@liverydistuntion3144]

yeah, only 1 level vs a a better game with more levels

[@DudeWatIsThis]

I've heard this was made off the mobile port. If that is true, then seeing that this was 2005-2006, it was probably programmed in Java. Java is an EXTREMELY slow language, since it runs on a virtual machine (think an "emulator" of sorts). So basically, the GBA is emulating Sonic (not running it natively), with the expected worsened performance that comes with it, in a console that can't handle it.

[@pedrofelipe9885]

Congratulations. You just roasted Sega.

[@NewGabeOrder]

This and Sonic '06 have some things in common. Can you guess them all?

[@NeweRen]

they're both glitchy messes

[@gianni2003]

Glitchy messes that got released on the exact same day

[@Stickboy321Go]

Sonic 06: an unfinished masterpiece Sonic forces: boring Sonic blast: ugly Sonic GBA: torture.

[@Thaumiel98]

Project 06: "Allow me to introduce myself"

[@darkmagicianfan3423]

Sonic free riders: Guantánamo Bay

[@Olflix]

Just you wait until you play the J2ME port...

[@Higuy2]

2:22 that’s just sad

[@darkmagicianfan3423]

I gotta go with Sonic free riders but gba is a close second.

[@orsonzedd]

I'm glad someone else hates the GBA sound fart. The only games that actually sound good for it were made for it like Wario Land Wario Ware or the Pokemon games

[@StrikerZero6]

I'm not easily offended, but this game really did offend me in several ways...

[@eddie20onine]

Great video, your hard work is appreciated, but I gotta say sonic spinball is also just terrible for other reasons, however I can't disagree with anything that you said, cheers

[@Toughmaster245]

"The return of chugga chugga chugga chugga" ha ha😂

[@EWOODJ]

Oh this is *FAR* from the worst.

[@jadedheartsz]

I liked Sonic06 in spite of it's issues but I never bought this piece of crap as I knew it was bad through word of mouth alone.

[@AnakamaTheHedgehog]

Its not trying to emulate the og game

[@alex-29789]

Your better off buying a Sega genesis and playing sonic 1 on there

[@ChrisThePlayer777]

I haven't played this game nor sonic boom but i know for a fact that the very worst sonic game of all time is easily sonic boom

[@OSHAIO123]

not as terrible as free riders

[@SaddieMoon]

You sound like Radical Soda.

[@GodKitty677]

I have this game and a ND lite it lags all the time. Also it doesn't play like the mega drive version. Just get Sonic Advance 1-3.

[@DylanDemarkus]

Sonic heroes and frontiers

[@robertlauncher]

As bad as 06 is, when people oversold the “Glitchy” aspect, something along the lines of this is more what I was expecting. Glitches that are near always unavoidable, most of the time instantly take a life, and always come out of nowhere. In 06, you can learn things like automated loops will be janky and avoid that one ramp in Wave Ocean. In Sonic 1 GBA, you’re gonna face that roulette of death no matter what.

[@Jonathan-ne2zn]

Was it me or playing this game hurt your eyes?

[@SparkNitr0]

Stealth did it better

[@deiongreenaway9751]

.....

[@Hatesman]

I don't get the hate? it's not the worst Sonic game at all! The game is playable

[@gustavochavarria8161]

1:36 That's a fact!! Sonic Frontiers was a complete s(guitar feedback) show on a story that made no sense!! It had *SO MUCH POTENIAL* for some interesting especially how Sage could've been a great villain to fight against. But instead, the story we got from this is f(guitar feedback) terrible, I am *SO GLAD* I didn't even bought it. They had *ONE JOB* to make a good story, but the bag was fumbled. Congratluations Sonic Team, you are a failure.

[@Cr102y]

Massive L take,and claiming that you never played the game doesn’t help your point at all.

[@gustavochavarria8161]

I saw some videos on KZbin so sorry if I already gave you the facts.

[@jametriusgaston6388]

Sonic jam game com is worse