For the big 100 I decided to play a game that's VERY important. An obscure arcade Sonic game no one gives a shit about. Seemed appropriate. Back in the 90s, Sega made a lot of Sonic arcade games, none of which came out in the West... kinda, but we'll get to it. The big one people remember is SegaSonic the Hedgehog, which is where Mighty and Ray are from, and is KIND of the second Sonic game? There's also the like, very small ticket-based arcade games, like the cop one, the popcorn one, and this.
This is a tiny shmup for very little kids. Here's how it works. You sit down, Sonic tells you the plot (Eggman is being bad in space, we gotta go stop him), then you blast off. You can shoot, transform your ship into another configuration, or use a super speed move to go faster. You meet Eggman in space, and he throws exactly 36 enemies at you. You can shoot Eggman for extra points, and chase him down with your superspeed move. At the end, he fights you one on one, then gets in a weird mech and there's a boss fight. If you don't hit him enough, he'll escape and Sonic will go "oh no, try again next time". If you do beat him, Sonic is all "thanks for defending peace in space!" and either way, you get graded one to five stars, based on if you got hit and how many enemies you beat, and how much you hit Eggman in the flying phase. And that's it! That's the game!
It's EXTREMELY simple, and for very, very little kids. It's also less a game and more an amusement ride, it's built into a little spaceship seat that rocks and moves as you play, and obviously I can't experience that. It's a fascinating thing from a historical standpoint, but really there's no point to play this now... UNLESS YOU PLAY THE WESTERN RELEASE.
So, Australia had a Sega amusement park for a very brief moment. It was called Sega World Sydney, and it lasted from 1996 to 2000. And one of the rides they had... was Segasonic Cosmo Fighter Galaxy Patrol. It's ONLY release in the West. And the voice they gave to Sonic is fucking ridiculous.
It's such EXTREME "Hello Mario." energy, and it's REAL. THIS IS REAL. THIS IS THE VOICE THEY THOUGHT TO GIVE HIM. Eggman sounds more like Sonic in this than Sonic does!! "Hi, my name is Sonic!" is the FUNNIEST shit to me, holy shiiiiit
Ahem, anyway, this game is fascinating. Thanks for listening to me talk about so many god damn games. Here's to 100 more.
