Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble (1994)

Preliminary: Yayyy I can play as Tails

I dunno it's messy it's floaty it's glitchy it's innocuous, but here I am on the 4th level. What a boring first boss that was tho

The music is quite ugly and it has the usual qualms I have with Sonics: weird momentums, weird jumps on hills, level design taht spites the fast speed

I do like the music on this train-running type part of the uh level 6? ish? I guess Sunset Park Act 3. (What a boring level that was, and I didn't even realize that was a boss I was fighting since they don't flash when you do damage etc lol) Part of me wants to say there si no way this would get above a 3 star since it's so bland and glitchy and I'm not a big Sonic guy, but two things make me hesitant: I am enjoying this more than most the console/main Sonic games so far, and I have to remind myself that Game Gear was a handheld device with color while I was playing my Gameboy-green-toned Link's Awakening :-p

As I get to Meta Jungliara Act 3, I question whether I should continue. I think I got the gist of it and it's getting repetitive. Still, one of the more notable early Sonics.

Yea during Act 2 of the Winter Zone, I knew it was time to call it

Look: 8/10 Seemed higher rated than it is, but taking into account it's handheld in 1994.

Sound: 7.5/10 Some jams were particularly good, and generally good for handheld, but some were annoying.

Play: 7.5/10 One of the better early Sonics in terms of design, but still the usual antics.

Feel: 7.5/10 I was going to give this a solid 7 but then had to give a boost cuz I love Tails.

Attachment: 7/10

Overall: 7.5/10

The 8-bit Sonic games overall just don't work for me, but I will give Triple Trouble credit where it's due. This one is easily the best of the bunch, feeling more tailor-made for the Game Gear's screen size and capabilities, at least compared to its predecessors. It felt like the devs really wanted to push things to the limit for this one, and so we get some pretty cool set pieces and fun little gimmicks, the highlight being the boss atop a moving train (which has easily the best music track in the game).

All in all this is one I don't think I'll care to return to (Sonic's very loud jump sound got grating quickly), but for a game of its time (1994), on a handheld of its power (from 1990!), it's an impressive showcase that makes for a decent playthrough. I'll still be sticking with the 16-bit entries for my typical Sonic gaming sessions though.

I never owned a Game Gear growing up. I remember being jealous of my friends that had one, until I saw them tethered to the wall given its abysmal battery life. But I definitely experienced some pangs of FOMO whenever Archie loosely adapted one of these games.

I've heard Triple Trouble is the best of the Game Gear titles, in that it was designed specifically for the hardware (unlike Sonic 1 and 2, which are cropped Master System ports) and doesn't suffer quite as much from the Game Gear's limitations as Chaos or Blast do.

It isn't bad. Sonic's kinda floaty and the physics are off, but it's actually pretty impressive how many of the rhythms are still there. Unlike the handheld titles that Dimps developed (Sonic Pocket Adventure, Sonic Advance, etc.), this feels less like a core Sonic title and more like a weird cousin. Sort of like how Super Mario Land feels in comparison to the NES games... objectively worse but also kind of charming.