Hello, welcome to my first Romhack! I hope this is enough for the contest or at least the expo, but if it isn't I understand. I have spent so much time on this there is no way I am not going to take a shot at submission. God help me for this. So it was moved to the expo. Sorry, I haven't updated it in the time since then.

Nearly two years ago now, I was thinking about how unfun a majority of underwater levels in Sonic games are. Or at least, they aren't fun to move around in. They're simply long and sluggish to get through, and often a player's reaction to falling in the water is to get out of it as soon as possible. Even a newer game like Sonic Colors has this problem. Aquarium Park was at its most fun when you were speeding through the water with the Drill wisp. And then it hit me. What if Sonic had access to that kind of movement system at will?

The result is the following system: If Sonic rolls while underwater and then jumps, he will perform the SpinSwim, allowing multi-directional movement similar to the Drill Wisp or perhaps NiGHTs. The SpinSwim will slow down and stop soon enough depending on how fast you were rolling; however, to cancel it on a whim, simply press the jump button again. It will also (at least in theory) stop if you bump into something.

This is all because I became suddenly interested in assembly code. I'd been watching the Hacking contest for years, and I became fascinated with how the Genesis and its emulation really works. I did some research, then started editing an assembly about a year ago. By now I have learned a lot about art editing, level editing, hex editing, physics, and even a little bit of sound editing.

Unfortunately, figuring all of that out took up most of my time. My original hope was to create a unique level with original sprite work, in order to show off some of the possibilities this movement system would open up for level design. But then the week of the contest arrived, and all I had time to cobbel together was a small and empty "sandbox" in Emerald Hill. I edited the level select cheat to simply be "01," so if people want to see how it feels to move around Aquatic Ruin like this, it should be less cumbersome to reach that stage.

Whether or not this is accepted into the contest, I'm happy to have done this at all. I'd like to thank the internet in general for allowing even an amateur like me to learn how to modify a Sega Genesis ROM. With some luck and determination, I hope to follow through on some of my original goals next year. Regardless, let me know just generally how this feels to play or if this movement system has any potential.