The Worst Sonic Game of All Time | Sonic Genesis (GBA) 

I still think Jam on the Game Com beats out Genesis as the worst game in the series. This game at least tried to copy its homework, Jam looked at it through a steamed up window with a broken pair of binoculars then tried to write it out from memory while drunk.

“There goes Sonic, **fastest** hedgehog alive!” GBA Sonic 1:

Something I'm surprised few people mention about this is the fact that by the time this came out the GBA had not one, not two, but THREE entirely original 2D Sonic platformers that are still some of the most popular GBA games in general and some of the few Sonic games that I've never seen anyone call bad. Sonic on the GBA had already worked thrice, and yet this still happened

42 seconds and 69 rings 🫡

It was touched on a little bit in the video, but there is a silver lining for Sonic Genesis: it was _so astonishingly bad_ that Stealth (AKA Simon Thomley) was compelled to make his own proof of concept GBA port of Sonic 1, and that's what jumpstarted his career. Sega was actually so impressed by it that they brought him in to remaster Sonic CD (which was a very obscure game at the time), then Sonic 1, then Sonic 2, then commissioned to make Sonic Mania! Now the Sonic Mania team has their own company called Evening Star and they made their own game, Penny's Big Breakaway. Sonic Origins is also based on Stealth's remasters, including an all-new one made for Sonic 3 and Knuckles. Sonic Genesis itself is a travesty, but it did cement its place as a notable game in that regard.

*Fun (sort of) fact:* Most of the lag that is seen in this game actually comes from the poorly integrated background MIDI music which hogs all of the CPU. So if you disable the music in the game settings, the game runs "mostly" correctly with the plus of you saving your ears.

The reason for the awful performance is because the devs reused the Sonic Advance engine. Those games have much smaller sprites and emphasis on faster gameplay. Why they couldn't go with another choice was beyond me. It's baffling how SEGA thought this was fine to release.

Yeah, it's like Sonic 1 if it was run over by a bus...and then a train...and then hit by a missile...and then buried in the litter box.

The GBA CPU was not cooking whatsoever when it came to the music

SomecallmeJohnny put it best into words how he calls this the worst Sonic game ever made during his BrainScratch run: “You’re taking something that’s already been established as great… and COMPLETELY shitting all over it!”

After playing Sonic Advance and Sonic Battle, the music in this game baffles me. The only thing SEGA of America tried to do was out do SEGA of Japan with an even worse final product that Sonic 06.

Stealth taking it upon himself to prove a GBA version of Sonic 1 could work, just absolutely *stunting* on Sega, was such a baller move. Even if it was just a proof of concept, it's clear he could've gone all the way if he wanted. Just embarrassing for Sonic Team, and as we all know, it wasn't even their *only* one that year.

I stole this game and a GBA mini from a Walmart in 2006 when I was on bad antidepressants. I probably played this one a collective fifteen minutes after that because it was so broken. Total ripoff.

I still dont understand why sega would choose to make this game in 2006, the year where the DS was 2 years old, and the wii was new they couldve just made a Sonic Classic Collection on DS which they did a few years later or they couldve remade sonic 1 for the wii with new graphics

Getting this on a family trip when it was new and being the only new game I got to play was brutal

The sad thing about the music is, Sonic Advance had remixes of at least 4 songs from this game and they all sounded pretty good! What happened here? And this is a little of a minor thing, but even the sound effects in this version are butchered! The explosion sound effects when Eggman's machine is destroyed sound like they belong in an Atari 2600 game rather than a GBA game. And the sound when you pick up a bubble sounds ridiculously high pitched and off, whereas it sounded just fine in the Sonic Advance games! They really dropped the ball for this version! >.

I should mention that in Labyrinth Zone, the frame drops can get so bad that even the timer falls behind

Sonic 06 was supposed to be the 15th anniversary celebration. But SEGA knew how bad it was and moved the labeling to this game.

Looks like the Sonic game on my mom's old button phone.

4:17 why tf is Sonic wobbling like that when he dies? 😂😂

I'm a huge Sonic apologist, at least when it comes to the 90's and 2000's, but Sonic Genesis is a special kind of bad even I can't appreciate. Though I did get some enjoyment from the spin dash actually, the broken physics make it weirdly fun to mess with. Not enough to make the game worth playing but, yeah. Regarding the Emeralds, there seems to be a glitch where sometimes the game doesn't save them properly. I missed one, but upon getting my 5th Emerald the game declared I got them all. Wasn't gonna argue with that. Sonic still releases the Emeralds at the end, but the flowers don't appear. Allegedly this port is at least partially based on the 2005 iFone version, since they seem to have the same unique graphics for the zone name and act clear text.

This game let's you experience the 5 stages of grief

apparently S1G was based on the sonic advance engine no wonder why dimps made sonic 4 so bad, they wanted sega to suffer for making their engine suck

sonic1 for the GBA is not even the worst version of sonic 1 out there, if you really wanna suffer then play sonic 1 java/ifone + no way this game is worse than sonic jam for the game com

0:24 I hate being that kind of guy that tries to correct everyone, but I think that sonic rivals was part of that anniversary too. Or at least there were 4 games in total

Sega being unable to replicate sonic 1s physics is like a staple of the series at this point lol

Ugh I got this and for awhile thought I was like sick or old or something as I was suddenly so bad at the game. I then looked into it and realized it really did have altered timing.

I know stealth/head cannon made their own version of s1 gba but… it’s gba no matter if it runs good u still can’t see much on screen.

The GBA soundfont isn’t my favorite either, but the one thing that I actually love about it is the loud bass most GBA games have. And of course, this game fails to do that as well

Sega should have just rereleased the game gear version. The gba is perfectly capable of emulating the sms/gg and the resolution is not a problem

I actually quite enjoy Marble Zone in the original Sonic 1, labyrinth zone as well.

You know it’s bad when they remove the drum track

Chugga chugga chugga chugga... Jokes apart, I think you made a decent, yet obvious, opinion of Sonic Genesis, because this is bad at all. Really loved the thumbnail, though, it's funny to me. 😂 Great video. You have inspired me to subscribe to your channel. Take care, buddy! 🙂

The fact that the music in the game is so bad is even more inexcusable because Advance 1 has remixes of the Star Light, Scrap Brain and boss themes, and Advance 3 has 3 Green Hill remixes, and all of them sound great

Its incredible how sonic 06 has the reputation of being the worst sonic game of all time and yet come to find out, its not even the worst sonic game to release on November 14th, 2006.

Even 15 years later, the Genesis was doing what Nintendon't.

The only good thing about GBA Sonic 1 is that they fixed the spike bug

Spring yard music is the original after it took 4 hours at the bar

I cry that this was my first experience with sonic 1. Before mega collection even.

holy shit they got everything wrong. zoomed in screen, missing background sprite animations, slowdowns, physics, music. its amazing how bad it actually is.

"Hurr durr, the GBA has no blas processing"

Obviously the game was not complete but they haf to release it in time for anniversary

sound is the reason why the game lags (the only sound chip the gba has is the gbc sound chip, so the sounds are processed on the cpu)

0:24 and Sonic Rivals too

Why is it called sonic GENESIS when it's on the GBA

2:22 that’s just sad

How the Hyrdocity Zone are there THREE ORIGINAL and BETTER 2D Sonic games with WAY more detail and animations that came BEFORE a PORT of a GENESIS game, when the handheld has MULTIPLE Genesis ports and even a few PLAYSTATION ports??

Bro watched Brainscratch’s commentary of this game and made a script lol

Congratulations. You just roasted Sega.

7:11 the only good song is the drowning theme, honestly (though some parts of it also struggles to keep the tone)

clearly they couldnt fit the BLAST PROCESSING™ into the GBA cartridge

If you wanted to play Sonic on the GBA, then just get the Advanced Series, simple as that.

Bro sounds like the Thomas Narrator.

Just you wait until you play the J2ME port...

Sonic Genesis defense force here we're here to revoke your Sonic Genesis privileges

Great video, your hard work is appreciated, but I gotta say sonic spinball is also just terrible for other reasons, however I can't disagree with anything that you said, cheers

I'm glad someone else hates the GBA sound fart. The only games that actually sound good for it were made for it like Wario Land Wario Ware or the Pokemon games

I'm not easily offended, but this game really did offend me in several ways...

Yeah, this game definitely shouldn't have been released back in the day, lol. I agree with your opinion of this one being the worst.

"The return of chugga chugga chugga chugga" ha ha😂

I gotta go with Sonic free riders but gba is a close second.

This and Sonic '06 have some things in common. Can you guess them all?

yeah, only 1 level vs a a better game with more levels

Oh this is *FAR* from the worst.

In the newest "update", SEGA ruined Sonic 1's mobile port, i'd say that it's worse than Sonic 1 Genesis now.

.....

Its not trying to emulate the og game

I liked Sonic06 in spite of it's issues but I never bought this piece of crap as I knew it was bad through word of mouth alone.

Sonic heroes and frontiers

Sonic 06: an unfinished masterpiece Sonic forces: boring Sonic blast: ugly Sonic GBA: torture.

not as terrible as free riders

Your better off buying a Sega genesis and playing sonic 1 on there

You sound like Radical Soda.

1:20 don't you mean BDSP?

I haven't played this game nor sonic boom but i know for a fact that the very worst sonic game of all time is easily sonic boom

As bad as 06 is, when people oversold the “Glitchy” aspect, something along the lines of this is more what I was expecting. Glitches that are near always unavoidable, most of the time instantly take a life, and always come out of nowhere. In 06, you can learn things like automated loops will be janky and avoid that one ramp in Wave Ocean. In Sonic 1 GBA, you’re gonna face that roulette of death no matter what.

Stealth did it better

1:36 That's a fact!! Sonic Frontiers was a complete s(guitar feedback) show on a story that made no sense!! It had *SO MUCH POTENIAL* for some interesting especially how Sage could've been a great villain to fight against. But instead, the story we got from this is f(guitar feedback) terrible, I am *SO GLAD* I didn't even bought it. They had *ONE JOB* to make a good story, but the bag was fumbled. Congratluations Sonic Team, you are a failure.

Sonic jam game com is worse