spot the Difference

The features that helped 8-bit Sonic stand out

chaos emeralds

While the Mega Drive games featured special stages that held the Chaos Emeralds, the first two Master System games hid them in levels instead. Even when Sonic Chaos put them in special stages, those stages were more like standard platforming stages than the gimmickfocused 16-bit equivalents.

end POST bonuses

On the Master System, passing the end post didn’t just mean completing a stage – it could also mean a valuable bonus. Rings were a fairly common bonus, for sure, but if you satisfied some obscure conditions that varied from game to game, you might even find yourself earning an extra life.

modes of Transport

While Sonic could ride various types of moving platforms in the early Mega Drive games, the Master System games offered up rolling logs, gigantic bubbles, hang gliders and more. The difference was that these modes of transport gave players much more control than any of the 16-bit options.

easy come, easy go

Losing rings in Sonic games on the Mega Drive was a pain, but not the worst thing in the world – the first 32 would scatter to be gathered back up later. The first Master System game doesn’t let you reclaim lost rings at all, and subsequent games were a heck of a lot stingier than those on the Mega Drive.

deadly duels

Neither of the first two Sonic games on the

Master System give you rings during boss fights – one hit means that it’s all over. Even Sonic

Chaos briefly reprises this concept– Robotnik’s final attack of the game will kill you regardless of how many rings you have, so it’s an intense do-or-die situation.

These games offered rolling logs, gigantic bubbles and more