Open Your Heart!

Sonic Genesis 3 is a game created by juniortennis7

Heyyy guys! It’s GnashtyNaS here for review number…8! Here to extend my record for most consecutive reviews by a user without a review by a different user being posted! What an honor, thank you all. Anyways you may be like, “Another review, Gnashty? Really?” Yes. Then you look to see what game it is and you say: “Another juniortennis7 game? Really Gnashty?” Yes. Now we kind of have a trend going with a juniortennis7 review every two reviews. Now, I like juniortennis7, I think he is a…swell fellow if you will. However I’m not reviewing his games because I like him, that’s only the reason I’m not refusing to review his games, like I would if I hated him. But I love everyone! I mentioned at the beginning of my first juniortennis7 review that he wasn’t very popular, now I didn’t do this as a way to mock and laugh at juniortennis7 in the way that I laugh at the one tree in Rain Water I by haloing247 (hehehe…). I mentioned his lack of popularity because it surprises me; I think he is extremely underrated. This user is a gold mine of creativity, and I plan to explore his entire catalog of games, which happens to be 166 at the time of writing. I shall review every game worthy, and maybe a couple more people will open their hearts to this fella. With that hefty introduction out of the way, we meet again juniortennis7: me, your biggest anti-fan, and your game Sonic Genesis 3. Sit forward and prepare yourselves folks, because this one is going to be a doozy.

Remember how Sonic Genesis 2 went with a more creative direction than Sonic Genesis did? Well Sonic Genesis 3 continues this trend; in fact, it takes this trend and runs as fast as Sonic with it. It starts you off in “Orchestral Zone”. This zone has you making your way through a music staff, in and out of the lines, which is pretty dang cool. Me being me, I grabbed my keyboard and played the song which you navigate in this level. It didn’t sound good, that’s a shame isn’t it? If it even needs to be said anymore, Sonic Genesis 3 is a 2D PPG Platformer. You have to collect all the rings in the level and reach the post with Eggman’s ugly mug on it in order to win. It’s a load of fun…usually.

After level 1 you’re sent into the “School Zone”, these first two zones are really weird, it’s like two Jungle Zones all over again. Except these levels were more fun, and like the rest of the game: had no enemies. That’s one thing I’d love to see more of in these Sonic Genesis games is enemies. I was kind of put off at first by these two levels because I was thinking: “What are you thinking juniortennis7? These aren’t even close to the realm of Sonic!” And they aren’t, they’re truly out of place. I like the creativity, but it was out of place. Very, very out of place.

After juniortennis7 is done weirding you out, he delivers 3 more fairly standard levels in concept. However the gameplay in all 3 of these levels was awkward. He warned me before playing that the Grindrail Zone would probably annoy me; well it didn’t annoy me much. However playing on a board was not nearly as smooth as it was in the original Sonic Genesis. The zone had great visuals, which the whole game had in fact. Juniortennis7 continues the upward trend with visuals in this game; everything is pretty and looks great. You also get a water zone that had some other weird marine-related name. This level dragged on and on and bored me quite a bit; however it felt just like playing as Sonic in water in actual Sonic games! So good job there!

One thing that makes the water level cool is the switches pulled straight from the real Sonic games. About time we get another actual Sonic graphic! Speaking of Sonic graphics…the Sonic in Grindrail Zone is a different Sonic than all the others…weird, still a good sprite but I figure I’d mention it. The Gear Zone (it was called something else but it had gears in it) was probably the best level in the game because it was fun, and didn’t have especially weird graphical or level design, and was overall the most fun level to play. Unfortunately, juniortennis7 proves to be like a mosquito to his own series in this game. He is a better mosquito than most, but a mosquito nonetheless. He latches onto his series; he bleeps the fun straight out of it, and injects an absurd amount of creativity. Well…on the bright side, the creativity still makes this game worth your time.

With actual Sonic graphics still in our minds, I was pleased to see that this game had a “Special Stage” in it. Straight from the old Sonic games, you go through a little course with as much gravity as Sonic Genesis 2’s “Gravity Zone” in order to grab a chaos emerald. That was great, and used the absence of gravity very well. The controls in this game are great again as they were in Sonic Genesis 2, although Grindrail Zone butchers them pretty badly just by the shape of your character.

Now after the past two games, I thought the guarantee was that I get to go through 6 platforming levels and then I get to fight a horrible final boss so I can pick on juniortennis7 for how bad it was (I sound so cruel). Well this game doesn’t hold up that end of the imaginary deal. This game would be like having an awkward platforming stage at the end of a Mario game instead of a bowser fight. The game finishes with “Spin Zone”, which has you moving Sonic’s ball form left and right to grab spawning rings while avoiding bombs. This was way too easy, it was completely easy to sit in the same place and be fed rings, sure you were fed slowly but there was no time limit so this level had absolutely no difficulty.

Speaking of difficulty, this game doesn’t have a lot of it. A bit more than Sonic Genesis 2, but it’s still not all that fun. It’s really too bad we had to make a sacrifice and trade a lot of creativity and fun for tons of creativity and little fun. So the series was going upwards, but it has taken a few steps down with Sonic Genesis 3. But can you really be disappointed when this game didn’t have a Jungle Zone? Oh wait…yes, I’m looking at you Orchestral and School Zone.

The Wrap-Up

This game is decently fun, but it isn’t really even close to Sonic Genesis 2. The sheer weirdness of the first two zones make you think you’re having fun, but the gameplay and level design isn’t that great this time around. The water zone was a good change of pace, but it was boring. Couple all that with the Spin Zone and you have a very confusing game that doesn’t seem to have its head screwed on straight. I’d say this title is passable, but you should play it anyway, because Orchestral Zone is just cool.

Rating: 36.725/100

I use a super-secret and amazing formula in order to rate games, check it out... http://forums.sploder.com/index.php/topic,371010.msg4449809.html#msg4449809

Feature Worthy: Nope, not fun enough.

Did you like this game? Check this one out!

http://www.sploder.com/games/members/juniortennis7/play/sonic-genesis-4/

As usual, it is the next game in the series. I played it once a few days ago. I don’t remember it too well but it is more platforming so I’m sure it’s a blast!