An Ordinary Sonic 1 ROM Hack, is a crossover ROM hack of the original Sonic the Hedgehog video game, released at Sonic Hacking Contest 2013. In this game, Sonic.exe invades the game and targets the genuine article.
Unfortunately, the author was unable to complete the game before the contest deadline, so Star Light Zone and Scrap Brain Zone are Dummied Out. However, he confirmed that he is working on a complete version of the game, two years after its original release.
Tropes:
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- The game allows monitors to respawn. The reason for this is so that Sonic will always have a way to temporarily return his world to normal and prevent Sonic.exe from killing him. There are also more monitors in general in the hack compared to the original Sonic 1, including in the fights with Eggman, because the author said that the game would've been Unwinnable by Design otherwise, but he also stated that the additional amount that was put in wouldn't end up making the hack "too easy".
- Once you enter the goal area in the normal world or defeat Eggman in the third act, the game won't switch to the Dark World in order to prevent a Kaizo Trap from occurring.
- Big Bad Ensemble: X and Eggman. Eggman plays the same role he did in the original game (conquering South Island and turning the animals into Badniks), while X appears periodically to drag Sonic into a Dark World and chase him.
- Checkpoint Starvation: In the Dark World, where both the checkpoint lampposts and the goal turnstile are gone. This means that you could be closing in on one of them, only for the game to warp you to the Dark World, causing it to vanish, and instead have you risk starting the whole act over again should you die from anything there.
- Jump Scare: Either getting a game over or even getting through all of the available zones will result in this as you're greeted with the "I am god" face from the games.
- Luck-Based Mission: As a whole. When a level begins, it takes 12 seconds and a half for the level to warp to X's world. After you escape once, the timing of subsequent warps is random. This can lead to unwinnable situations as levels are only beatable in their normal version (the ending turnstile is not present in the Dark World, but the screen will still lock you in the end zone if you approach its position while in X's world, leaving you with no way out. On the other hand, entering the goal area in the real level will knock X out and allow you to finish).
- Nigh-Invulnerability: X is impossible to kill or avoid, and Sonic will die instantly if X catches him. Your only means of survival against him is to smash open monitors to return Sonic back to the normal world.
-
Nintendo Hard: Because of the above and monitors becoming very few and far between in levels like Labyrinth Zone, the game starts out quite challenging and eventually becomes nearly impossible. This might be why there isn't a Scrap Brain Zone. - No Name Given: Sonic.exe is referred to simply as Him.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: The Dark World is designed to turn you into this. Grabbing rings in it actually depletes your ring counter. This, combined with the invincible enemies, the checkpoints disappearing, and the ever looming threat of X trying to kill you, makes the gameplay a lot more challenging.
- Puzzle Boss: The fights against Eggman's contraptions are turned into this. In the Dark World, Eggman is invincible, but hitting him four times in a row will make him drop a monitor, which will allow Sonic to return to the normal world and dish out damage on Eggman while he has time. Defeating Eggman also means X will not try to get you before you move on to the Egg Prison capsule.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning:
- X, along with Black Eyes of Evil, as per usual with their depiction.
- This is also true of the Badniks/Eggman/Robotnik. Whenever you enter X's world, all the enemies and Eggman have their eyes replaced with dark eyes and red pupils (think Robotnik's eyes in non-Japan 90's media), and they are invincible in this realm.
- Shout-Out: Robotnik's design as a completely black sillhouette with glowing red eyes and a Slasher Smile is based on how he looked in the infamous An Ordinary Battle Amongst Familiar Hills.
- Songs in the Key of Panic: Every time X shows up to close in on Sonic, the drowning music plays to warn you how much time is left to smash a monitor and evade him.
- Survival Horror: The romhack turns the original Sonic game into this. Sonic has no control over when he gets thrown into the Dark World. His only means of escape is smashing open certain monitors, but that's only a temporary fix. And in the Dark World, both enemies and Eggman are invincible and after just seconds of play, the timer starts counting down and X starts closing in on you, and it's absolutely impossible to avoid or fight him, and you die instantly if he catches you. The tone and art of the game also calls to mind a horror film.
- Unintentionally Unwinnable: There are a few portions of the game where, if you are sent into the Dark World, there are no monitors to return. Most annoyingly of all, the final section of Green Hill Zone Act 2 becomes unwinnable if you get sent there after you enter the tunnel that leads you to the turnstile.
