YMMV / Sonic the Hedgehog (8-bit)

• Anticlimax Boss: The Game Gear final boss is insultingly easy and pedestrian, where Eggman's weak spot is out in the open and he has no recovery time for his collision damage, with your only threat being your lack of rings, and an easy to dodge combo of floor-mounted flamethrowers and the occasional electric spark flying down at you—he can literally be beaten in less than 30 seconds (this is not the case with the Sega Master System version, which replaces the flamethrowers with an electrified wall and is much harder to beat).
• Awesome Music: The tracks that weren't in the Genesis version are composed by Yuzo Koshiro of Streets of Rage fame. So naturally, they're this.
  • Bridge Zone is the game's most popular track and is an incredibly catchy and relaxing theme that is perfect for the stage's peaceful setting.
  • Unlike Green Hill, which is mostly an 8-bit version of the 16-bit track (though it's still as catchy as ever), Labyrinth and Scrap Brain both have entirely new and original themes, which are just as awesome and catchy as the 16-bit tracks. Some fans even prefer the 8-bit tracks over their 16-bit equivalents.
  • Sky Base is a short, but fast-paced, and adrenaline-pumping track that perfectly suits the tense mood of the final zone in the game.
  • The fanmade Commodore 64 version managed to take advantage of SID's more advanced hardware while still keeping it faithful to the SMS/GG original and made the OST even catchier.
• Broken Base: Opinions on how this game compares to its more famous 16-bit brother range from that it's just as good, not quite as good, or even slightly better.
• First Installment Wins: This game is much nearer an outright example of this trope than the 16-bit version, as 8-bit Sonic 2 and Sonic Chaos certainly have their fans, but aren't as well-remembered as the first 8-bit game due to the market mostly having moved onto 16-bit consoles by the time they came out. Similarly, Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble is regarded as easily the best of the Game Gear entries, but wasn't released until Sega had largely given up supporting the system.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The Screen Crunch caused by the smaller screen in the Game Gear version ends up making the first boss much easier than in the Master System version. ^note In the first boss fight, Robotnik flies across the top of the screen in his Egg Mobile and periodically lowers the vehicle to the ground to charge at Sonic. In the Master System version, this was your only chance to attack, but the Game Gear version allows you to hit him at any time and defeat him before he can even attack. In the next 8-bit game, Screen Crunch would make the first boss much harder, to the point of it being That One Boss.
• Nightmare Fuel: Labyrinth Zone. This rendition is downright dark. Worse yet, the boss is fought not only entirely underwater (slowing Sonic down) but also during the era in which you had no rings for boss fights.
• Older Than They Think: The auto-scrolling levels in Sonic Lost World were derided for being out-of-place and painfully slow for the standards of a Sonic game. There has been one example of an auto-scrolling level in a Sonic game dating as far back as this game in the form of Bridge Zone Act 2.
• Polished Port: The Game Gear port has a more cramped screen than the Master System version, but much of the level design and boss fights as well as Sonic's sprites are redesigned to alleviate this, making the game much more forgiving in difficulty, especially in regards to Jungle Zone Act 2 and that zones boss, and getting the Chaos Emerald in Labyrinth Zone Act 2.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: Bridge Zone sounds very similar to Janet Jackson's Together Again in parts. One video goes into more detail.
• Tear Jerker: Something about the Scrap Brain Zone/Sky Base Zone theme is very sad. And if isn't sad enough for your tastes, try this.
• That One Boss: The Master System Jungle Zone boss is the most irritating boss fight in the game, due to how fast Eggman can drop the metal balls and how slippery the platform you move on is. And remember, you have no rings in the boss encounters, so one slip up will leave you dead. On top of that, the vine platform is above a pit, and its a tricky jump to get over to the area with the capsule, so you can still die even after you defeated Eggman. The Game Gear port, in contrast, keeps Robotnik just low enough to where you can easily hit him and defeat him just seconds after the fight begins.
• That One Level: Jungle Zone Act 2 in the Master System version. Unlike the Game Gear port, the vertical oriented stage is subject to Ratchet Scrolling, which forces you to be very careful with your platforming since one slip up can mean falling to your death.
• That One Sidequest: Most of the six Chaos Emeralds are fairly easy to find and get (although the Sky Base Emerald hides the platforms leading to it in a rather obtuse way) but the Labyrinth Zone Emerald presents a nasty little challenge in the Master System version—it's hidden in a bed of spikes very close to the end of Act 2, and you have to use an invincibility monitor to get it. Thing is, the pit's spread out fairly far away from the nearest monitor, the pathway is underwater and there's a vertical tunnel leading to it that you have to rush through with no slip ups, leaving you just barely enough time to grab it before your invincibility wears off. If you fail, you have to deliberately lose a life to get another shot at getting the Emerald. The Game Gear port rectifies this by just putting the Emerald near the end of the stage, unobstructed and in plain sight for you to grab, since the water in that port slows you down so much more that it would've make the aforementioned challenge unwinnable if it were left intact.
• Underused Game Mechanic: There is one Speed Shoes monitor in the entire game (in Green Hill Act 1).

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