Sonic the Hedgehog: Eggman Strikes Back Demo

The Sonic franchise is the most popular target for indie game developers, right next to Super Mario. Hence, in case you ever feel like experiencing a bit of the old times, you can plunge into the treacherous waters of indie productions and find Sonic in basically any kind of scenario. However, you should also be prepared to deal with some issues when it comes to quality.

Sonic the Hedgehog: Eggman Strikes Back is a retro platformer inspired by the Sega classic and it doesn’t venture too far from the boundaries of the original game. Thus, the gameplay mechanics are more or less the same, while the level design should also be quite familiar. Unfortunately, this is merely a demo, so you can only enjoy it for a couple of minutes.

There is even a story going on in the background, to make matters more interesting. As it happens, Sonic’s friend Tails gets kidnapped, which means that he must do his best to make things right and rescue her. Along the way, many vicious enemies try to stop Sonic and he must fight his way through them in order to reach Tails and bring her back to safety.

When it comes to the actual gameplay, it’s all about running around, jumping and rolling in order to avoid the traps and deal with the enemies. Unlike in the original game, Sonic dies instantly if he touches an enemy, so you really need to make sure that you are always spinning. The double jump mechanic is present as well, and it is pretty nicely integrated into the gameplay because it allows you to deal with the tricky sections a lot easier.

Speaking of which, the level design is not at all satisfying, and you often feel like you are exploring the same ten feet of the world, due to the repetitive patterns. There are some interesting sequences that might brighten things up, but as a whole, it’s not a very fun journey. To make things worse, the graphics are not very smooth and the not even the retro theme can’t hide that fact.

All things considered, there are certainly worse games out there, but Sonic the Hedgehog: Eggman Strikes Back needs a lot of work before it can be called a decent game. Hence, you may only find joy in this if you truly are a great Sonic fan.