History YMMV / SonicTheHedgehog28Bit

* SophomoreSlump: Downplayed. While not a hated game outright, it's considered far less remarkable than its 16-bit counterpart, largely being a MissionPackSequel for the first 8-bit game, with Sonic's third 8-bit platformer ''Sonic Chaos'' being a better translation of 16-bit ''Sonic 2's'' new innovations and gameplay.

* BreatherLevel: The first two acts of Green Hills Zone, which is the stereotypical "peaceful grasslands" setting and very easy compared to [[NintendoHard the rest of the game]] despite being around the middle. They have the most 1UPs and Rings out of any zone in the entire game, with the very first act alone having a whopping four 1UPs and well over 200 rings. This makes (re)stocking on lives insanely easy, especially if you [[InfiniteOneUps repeatedly grind the stage by dying at the end]]. Oddly, Green Hills' third act is considered to be ThatOneLevel instead.

* TearJerker: [[DownerEnding The bad ending]]. Even if you don't subscribe to the theory that Tails dies in the bad ending, it still leaves the fact that Sonic went on the journey just to save him from the clutches of Dr. Eggman… and he didn't. [[https://youtu.be/MKgTjGSWfcI The music]] doesn't help matters that much. It is currently the page image for the [[TearJerker/SonicTheHedgehog main page]].
* ThatOneBoss: The Mecha Antlion, specifically on the Game Gear. It's considered tougher due to the ScreenCrunch (such that it is that page's image), making it harder to avoid the bouncing balls (you're also on a 90 degree slope that leads to the boss, and falling into the actual boss on the right of the screen is also easy to do). Making matters worse, some bombs fall low and others bounce high, whereas in the Master System version they all bounce low and are easily jumped over. Finally, after throwing the last bomb, Eggman does a fast ground-sweep charge along the ground that you barely have any time to jump over, plus it's possible for a bouncing bomb to still be coming down the slope when Eggman comes down. This is only the first boss of the game, but every boss afterward is a pushover by comparison, though you don't get rings for any of them.

* CondemnedByHistory: The game received positive reviews on release for expanding the mechanics and challenge of ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog18Bit'', aided by the fact the game released a few weeks before the [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2 16-bit version]] in certain territories. While the flaws would be highlighted more with the passage of time, the game still has fans... on the UsefulNotes/SegaMasterSystem that is. While the UsefulNotes/GameGear version was once considered an excellent way to play Sonic on the go, it's now seen as a giant PortingDisaster that heightens the flaws of the Master System version. The Game Gear version features ScreenCrunch amping up the difficulty significantly [[FakeDifficulty and not in a good way]], the poor visibility turns even the smallest challenge into TrialAndErrorGameplay, requiring the player to inch across slowly to have any chance of survival, which defeats the purpose of being a ''Sonic'' game. Even its handheld novelty no longer matters with several Sonic games designed specifically for handhelds coming out since, with far better difficulty balance and level design. To make matters worse, while the Game Gear version has received numerous rereleases, the Master System version's only rerelease was on the [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes now-defunct Wii Virtual Console]].

* CondemnedByHistory: The game received positive reviews on release for expanding the mechanics and challenge of ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog18Bit'', aided by the fact the game released a few weeks before the [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2 16-bit version]] in certain territories. While the flaws would be highlighted more with the passage of time, the game still has fans... on the UsefulNotes/SegaMasterSystem that is. While the UsefulNotes/GameGear version was once considered an excellent way to play Sonic on the go, it's now seen as a giant PortingDisaster that heightens the flaws of the Master System version. The Game Gear version features ScreenCrunch amping up the difficulty significantly [[FakeDifficulty and not in a good way]], the poor visibility turns even the smallest challenge into TrialAndErrorGameplay, requiring the player to inch across slowly to have any chance of survival, which defeats the purpose of being a Sonic game. Even its handheld novelty no longer matters with several Sonic games designed specifically for handhelds coming out since, with far better difficulty balance and level design. To make matters worse, while the Game Gear version has received numerous rereleases, the Master System version's only rerelease was on the [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes now-defunct Wii Virtual Console]].

* CommonKnowledge: No, Tails does not ''actually'' die in the Bad Ending. Despite this being one of the most popular "facts" shared about the game, it's left ambiguous what his fate was, but it is never suggested by the game he ended up being killed by Robotnik, and the Good Ending shows both Tails and Sonic in the sky despite Tails being physically present in it. This mostly stems from a piece of fanon from LetsPlay/{{WhoIsThisGit}}, and people then taking it [[WordOfDante as truth]].

* AntiClimaxBoss: Silver Sonic, the penultimate boss (and, if you haven't gotten all of the Chaos Emeralds, the final boss) is probably the second easiest boss next the the seal boss. He mainly just jumps around, and if you jump into him, you just both go flying back without harm. His only other attacks include simply charging at you (at which point he is completely vulnerable to hits) and attacking with a claw like appendage (which ''may'' kill you if you're unlucky or haven't fought him before, but is still pretty easy to avoid, as its reach is very short).
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The themes for the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l63f4Bk_wvY Gimmick Mountain]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktI0WUV8soc Scrambled Egg]] zones. The music from Green Hills Zone would be adapted into "Sonic - You Can Do Anything," the opening theme from the Japanese version of ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogCD Sonic CD]]''.

** There's no canon indication that the 8-bit Silver Sonic is the same Mecha Sonic from the Genesis game, but the fandom generally treated them as the same robot out of simplicity. This has shifted a bit with the bot's surprise cameo in ''VideoGame/SonicMania'', however, which depicts it at the same height as its 8-bit sprite (and thus, much smaller than the Genesis Mecha Sonic); with this in mind, Silver Sonic is now often treated as a "younger brother" to ''Mania''[='=]s Metal Sonic.

** It also edits the first boss to throw the bouncing balls at random heights rather than at a consistent height from the Master System version. This plus the cramped arena makes the boss nearly impossible.

** The port suffers from [[ScreenCrunch the camera being zoomed in on Sonic too much]], but, unlike ''Sonic 1'', the levels aren't compacted in order to compensate, leading to a lot of cheap deaths and leaps of faith required on behalf of the player.

* AntiClimaxBoss: Silver Sonic, the penultimate boss (and, if you haven't gotten all of the Chaos Emeralds, the final boss) is probably second easiest boss next the the seal boss. He mainly just jumps around, and if you jump into him, you just both go flying back without harm. His only other attacks include simply charging at you (at which point he is completely vulnerable to hits) and attacking with a claw like appendage (which ''may'' kill you if you're unlucky or haven't fought him before, but is still pretty easy to avoid as its reach is very short.)

* TearJerker: [[DownerEnding The bad ending]]. Even if you don't subscribe to the theory that Tails dies in the bad ending, it still leaves the fact that Sonic went on the journey just to save him from the clutches of Dr. Eggman... and he didn't. [[https://youtu.be/MKgTjGSWfcI The music]] doesn't help matters that much. It is currently the page image for the [[TearJerker/SonicTheHedgehog main page]].

** Aqua Lake Zone Act 2. For starters, it's completely underwater, and any ''Sonic'' fan would know what underwater means in this context: drowning. To make matters worse, it has patches of fake walls in rather nasty spots that you can accidentally fall in, and at least four big bubble dispensers you climb into to float upwards. The worst of these is near the end, which can fortunately be avoided by going through a fake wall, but if your speed is not maintained, you fall down and have to do that horrible "dodge the spikes + enemies hoping your bubble doesn't pop" section. While you can jump right through the fake wall to get to the exit, you must take the pipe under it to be able to reach the zone's Chaos Emerald, which is required to reach the final level, and being unable to go back up the pipe after the Emerald will force you to deal with the final shaft with the spikes, spears and Badniks. Doesn't help that it's an enormous level compared to most of the others.

** Scrambled Egg Zone, thanks to the very elaborate and very confusing transportation pipe system, full of TrialAndErrorGameplay as one wrong move can mean inescapable spike pits. There's only one pipe maze with spikes that you CAN climb out of near the end of Act 1, but Act 2 has several spike pipe puzzles, and the last one requires timing with no room for error, or it's a spike pit that is effectively a bottomless pit for Sonic.

* AntiClimaxBoss: Silver Sonic, the penultimate boss (and, if you haven't gotten all of the Chaos Emeralds, the final boss) is probably second easiest boss next the the seal boss. He mainly just jumps around, and if you bump into him you just both go flying back without harm. His only other attacks include simply charging at you (at which point he is completely vulnerable to hits) and attacking with a claw like appendage (which ''may'' kill you if you're unlucky or haven't fought him before, but is still pretty easy to avoid as it's reach is very short.)

* BreatherBoss: The Mecha Sea Lion of Aqua Lake is almost completely incapable of harming Sonic, and his only method of attack is inflating an explosive ball to throw at you, which can be very quickly popped before he can even launch it--it can be taken down in mere seconds.
* BreatherLevel: The first two acts of Green Hills Zone, which is the stereotypical "peaceful grasslands" setting and very easy compared to [[NintendoHard the rest of the game]] despite being around the middle. They have the most 1UPs and Rings out of any zone in the entire game, with the very first act alone having a whopping four 1UPs and well over 200 rings. This makes (re)stocking on lives insanely easy, especially if you [[InfiniteOneUps repeatedly grind the stage by dying at the end]]. Oddly, Green Hills' third act is considered to by ThatOneLevel instead.

* CommonKnowledge: No, Tails does not ''actually'' die in the Bad Ending. Despite this being one of the most popular "facts" shared about the game, it's left ambiguous what his fate was, but it is never suggested by the game he ended up being killed by Robotnik, and the Good Ending also shows Sonic in the sky despite Tails being physically present in it. This mostly stems from a piece of fanon from LetsPlay/{{WhoIsThisGit}}, and people then taking it [[WordOfDante as truth]].

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The themes for the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l63f4Bk_wvY Gimmick Mountain]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktI0WUV8soc Scrambled Egg]] zones.

* AwesomeMusic: The themes for the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l63f4Bk_wvY Gimmick Mountain]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktI0WUV8soc Scrambled Egg]] zones.

** There's no canon indication that [[http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111219152401/sonic/images/7/7a/1Silver_Sonic.png the 8-bit Silver Sonic]] is the same [[http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091121095828/sonic/images/3/34/SQM3-SilverSonic.png Mecha Sonic from the Genesis game]], but the fandom generally treated them as the same robot out of simplicity. This has shifted a bit with the bot's surprise cameo in ''VideoGame/SonicMania'', however, which depicts it at the same height as its 8-bit sprite (and thus, much smaller than the Genesis Mecha Sonic); with this in mind, Silver Sonic is now often treated as a "younger brother" to ''Mania''[='=]s Metal Sonic.

* TearJerker: [[DownerEnding The bad ending]]. Even if you don't subscribe to the theory that Tails dies in the bad ending, it still leaves the fact that Sonic went on the journey just to save him from the clutches of Dr. Eggman... and he didn't.[[https://youtu.be/MKgTjGSWfcI The music]] doesn't help matters that much. It is currently the page image for the [[TearJerker/SonictheHedgehog main page]].

* TearJerker: [[DownerEnding The bad ending]]. Even if you don't subscribe to the theory that Tails dies in the bad ending, it still leaves the fact that Sonic went on the journey just to save him from the clutches of Dr. Eggman... and he didn't. [[https://youtu.be/MKgTjGSWfcI The music]] doesn't help matters that much.

** Scrambled Egg Zone, thanks to the very elaborate and very confusing transportation pipe system, full of TrialAndErrorGameplay as one wrong move can mean inescapable spike pits. There's only one pipe maze with spikes that you CAN climb out of near the end of Act 1, but Act 2 has several spike pipe puzzles, and the last one requires timing with no room for error, or it's a spike pit that is effectively a bottomless pit for Sonic.
* WhatAnIdiot: Just before Underground Zone's boss, Sonic is sent careening right for a pool of lava... and Eggman saves him from this most-definitely-fatal situation just so Sonic can fight the boss instead. Presumably Eggman had TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou mindset or wanted to save the Chaos Emerald Sonic was already likely to have at the time. And then he drops bombs onto the boss, [[TacticalSuicideBoss the only thing that can harm it]]. If he just refrained from attacking, Sonic would be stuck there forever.

* ThatOneBoss: The Mecha Antlion, specifically on the Game Gear. It's considered tougher due to the smaller resolution, making it harder to avoid the bouncing balls (you're also on a 90 degree slope that leads to the boss, and falling into the actual boss on the right of the screen is also easy to do). Making matters worse, some bombs fall low and others bounce high, whereas in the Master System version they all bounce low and are easily jumped over. Finally, after throwing the last bomb, Eggman does a fast ground-sweep charge along the ground that you barely have any time to jump over, plus it's possible for a bouncing bomb to still be coming down the slope when Eggman comes down. This is only the first boss of the game, but every boss afterward is a pushover by comparison, though you don't get rings for any of them.

** This was the first game to lock the true final zone and boss behind the Chaos Emeralds, several years before it became a staple in later 2D games starting with ''VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles''.

** This was the first game to lock the true final zone and boss behind the chaos emeralds, several years before it became a staple in later 2D games starting with ''VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles''.

* OlderThanTheyThink: The 8-bit version actually predates the Mega Drive/Genesis game by two months, and was Tails' first true appearance in the ''Sonic'' series.

* WhatAnIdiot: Just before Underground Zone's boss, Sonic is sent careening right for a pool of lava... and Eggman saves him from this most-definitely-fatal situation just so Sonic can fight the boss instead. Presumably Eggman had TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou mindset at the time. And then he drops bombs onto the boss, [[TacticalSuicideBoss the only thing that can harm it]]. If he just refrained from attacking, Sonic would be stuck there forever.

** For those going after the GoldenEnding, the hang glider has an additional degree of scappiness in the Game Gear port: in Sky High Zone act 2, it is possible to make use of the wind to soar to the very top of the zone. In the Master System version, Sonic simply stops ascending after hitting the top of the zone, then continues gliding, allowing him to easily grab the Zone's Chaos Emerald. In the Game Gear version, once Sonic hits the top of the screen, he immediately lets go of the hang glider and falls.

* ScrappyMechanic: The infamous hang gliding sections from Sky High Zone, panned for the hang glider controls taking a great deal of time to get used to (keeping altitude is done by repeatedly tapping left, but not too quickly or else Sonic will lose speed). This is made even worse by the per-recorded advice given by the Sega Help Line, a phone number printed on the top of the game cartridge in some regions. The advice for Sky High Zone Act 1: "use the hang glider to fly across the gap". [[SarcasmMode Thanks]].