Sonic The Hedgehog: To Be A Star
By Katsushimi
It's a beautiful summer morning. You are Sonic. Today's the big day where you finally get to show the world your talent. You and the band haven't stopped practicing for this moment. You can hear the crowd cheering in your dreams.
You are going to be a star.
All you've gotta do is get up, turn that alarm off, get ready, get set, and go...
...nothing can stop you now, right?
This is an extremely early demo for my upcoming hack, set as a prequel to the events of Sonic 1. It's meant to be simple, short and sweet. There is only 1 level currently, and currently the ROM itself is very small, only 256KiB big! I wanted to show that you can still make something meaningful without tacking more advanced tech onto Sonic 1's base engine. The engine this runs on was engineered from my work-in-progress disassembly of the Sonic 1 prototype, utilizing and in some cases restoring some forgotten functionality to drive some screen effects here and there.
- Katsushimi - Main programmer, music arranger/composer, project lead.
- KGL - Main game designer, planning, general assistance.
- MDTravis - Sound programming, secondary programmer.
- Atolly Guyke - Main level artist, sound design, level design assistance and character art assistance.
- CyberChobo - Music assistance, level design assistance, and programming assistance.
- Oct - Lead character artist.
- Stick Nick - Character & misc. artist.
- Blaze - Character artist.
- Laffy Taffy - Intro Rock GFX Base.
- CyanHyprPsychic - Promotional Art.
- ProjectFM, Inferno, Chopp, Rivet, BladeOfChaos, MrLordSith, Vincent, Naoto - Playtesting.
File Type: rom/mega-drive
File Size: 256 KB
Amazing showcase of programming! That intro cutscene was really nice and entertaining, the stage is very vast and big and i really like the music too (that scrap brain motif was so genious i have to admit
I really hope to see this one get completed! It has extreme amounts of potential.
I went in expecting an amazing experience for the short demo this was and i cannot believe how much i was let down. This game looks pretty and the music is top notch. But i was not satisfied with the level design it plays like a mario game with a sonic coat of paint and i really dont like that. Theres only so much a pretty game can look instead of playing good. The game starts off so great but then it just dips down insanely low. I see potential with this hack in the future but, as of now it just eye candy.
I love the idea making prequel of sonic 1 with prototype elements (yeah, yeah it's conceptually reminiscent of Overture but i don't think Katsushimi inspired by this project).
And i love the intro animation, level art and other
just as i saw the story description,(especialy the bonus one under the story one),it rly tells smth,that no one cant give up,neither me,u and all of us (during rom devlogs and progress)
i must say that its rly a good message u did...
I will say this defintely shows alot of promise! The level design was a little bit confusing towards the end of the second for me. Although I admire the art and music direction!
Loved It, from the cutscenes to how It feels, great visuals
There are fundamental game design issues.
The game was composed of mostly vertical platforming areas (mostly in weird interior areas) which was hard to focus on where to go. The only gimmick was a ball puzzle that felt clunky, not fleshed out & poorly telegraphed for novices. The later half just focused entirely on plain platforming + needing springs to go up areas.
Judging this as a fan rom hack, it’s decent quality. But having good art work and technical qualities doesn't save poor game design.
Thank you all so much for the criticism so far!
Bluntly, this demo isn't the demo I wanted to ship for SHC. High Hazard is outright unfinished, It lacks a core gimmick and doesn't really have a pay off for the exploration elements we designed around. We really rushed this demo for SHC because we wanted to sell the concept, so it's less a full demo and more a proof-of-concept. Regardless of this, I'm glad so many enjoyed this hack!
Visually, this hack is a marvel, both in level design, sound, and especially in the graphics. The pixel art is truly precise. Even though it's a demo, it has huge potential. I hope it thrives.
By the way, will SEGA MARK V be compatible with the latest Mega Drive? Will it have sprite rotation and deformation effects? It would be crazy and the next level of ROM hacks.
That screen is referring to the R&D group that calls themselves Mark-V, not the enhanced MD emulator included in the Mini consoles.
Oh, I really like that title entrance animation, where that Eggman installs a bomb on the timer, blasts Sonic away, and then enters the level. I love this design.
Last modified by tate2023 @ 2025-10-04 02:58:21