Sonic ERaZor 7 – or, Sonic ERaZor (Seventh Public Release), if you prefer it old-school – is a complete overhaul of the classic, chaotic, explosion-filled Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit) ROM hack, and it marks the first new release since 2016!

Work on this update began in October 2023, and it took a full ten months to see its completion. Besides adding new stuff and fixing bugs, improving a ton about the poorly aged game design was just as important: if something wasn't fun, it got mercilessly rethought and reworked, or just straight up rewritten from scratch – with a few deliberate exceptions for nostalgia's sake. In a way, this update was like finishing a beta after almost a decade.

If you aren't familiar with ERaZor yet, I suggest you take a brief look at the wiki page first.

Highlights

Originally, I wanted to post the full changelog here. But, uh... it's easier to list the things that haven't been changed. So, for the sake of brevity, here is just the basic overview of some of the highlights in ERaZor 7:

• Introduced Casual/Frantic Mode (see below for more info, it's a big one)
• Reworked. Every. Single. Level. Some more and some less, but all in some significant way. For the most part it was to reduce awkwardness, but there's also a ton of new cool content. I won't spoil anything though~
• Massive engine overhauls courtesy of vladikcomper, including the implementation of his amazing MegaPCM 2 sound driver (along with a fancy Sound Test screen)!
• Added fancy new and improved cinematic Black Bars! So fancy, in fact, that they behave differently between emulators and real hardware, so it also comes with a custom configuration screen.
• Speaking of real hardware... full compatibility with real hardware! Yes, even without SRAM :V
• Rewrote every single custom screen mode from scratch (most notably, the story text screen – boy, that code was a mess).
• Oh yeah, regarding stories: everything text-related received a total rewrite. English hard.
• Completely overhauled Uberhub Place to hopefully feel more engaging now. But if it still isn't your thing...
• Added "Skip Uberhub Place" and "Skip Story Screens" options, for that authentic playthrough-in-one-sitting-without-interruptions experience (inspired by "Straight Version", for those who remember).
• Added "Photosensitive Mode" option to turn off all flashy lights and camera shakes. Furthermore, the intensity of flashy lights has been reduced a lot in general – no more epilepsy warning necessary, dear YouTubers.
• Added two new unlockable options and greatly overhauled the existing one, all in an effort to loosely connect them to the ERZ letters from the game's name.
• Added/reworked tons of easter eggs! Which means I can't tell you anything about them...
• And in general, just a plethora of bug fixes and general quality-of-life improvements!

Casual/Frantic Mode

In a nutshell, this is a difficulty selection screen, though quite a bit more involved than just the traditional "easy/hard". In fact, it might just be the single largest feature addition to ERaZor since... ever. It made the game much more accessible while also kinda giving it New Game+ on top. To understand what it's for, you need to understand why it was introduced in the first place.

See, my attempts at balancing ERaZor have always been a never-ending tug-of-war – too hard scared off the casual players, too easy bored the seasoned ones. But one day I realized something: the main culprit for many people seems to be pressure. A challenge doesn't even need to be hard, something like the ring counter starting to tick down on its own was already enough for many players to feel overwhelmed.

The solution came in the form of what started as a simple experiment: I did some research by watching a ton of YouTube playthroughs, identified the pain points causing the players the most trouble due to pressure, and made those optional. Originally, I had low expectations for this to make any difference at all, but it didn't take long before it became apparent that this fixed everything and then some! No longer did I have to worry about a one-size-fits-all approach to game balance, I could simply make both modes equally fun in their own right. Let's take a closer look:

• Casual: The main focus is the absence of pressure, allowing you to get comfortable with the game at your own pace. As a result, playing ERaZor becomes a much more relaxed experience and won't patronize you if you fail too many times (well, within reason). Plus, some of the tougher challenges are toned down a little.
• Frantic: If Casual is the mode that reduces pressure, Frantic is its antithesis. It can be summarized as "removing the concept of taking-it-easy itself". For example, rings barely matter in Casual – in Frantic they often are uniquely tied to challenges as your life insurance. Furthermore, Frantic is ruthless, as it's specifically designed to be like a very strict but fair teacher to make you truly master the game. And while death might feel like an ever-present threat, there are some interesting twists exclusive to this mode to keep you going~

Casual is the new baseline difficulty and is recommended for new players, but this is explicitely not a requirement: do you want to take your time or do you want to be constantly pushed forward? The choice is no longer the game's, it's yours!