While Sega is a third-party publisher now, when the Game Boy Color was Nintendo’s portable commercial focus Sega was fighting hard. Well, they were searching for the boxing ring, especially in the portable world, around this time (the jury is still out on whether they found it or not). That is not stopping a fan from making a port of the original Sonic the Hedgehog available for the Nintendo Game Boy Color, there is no spin dash so it must be based on the original.
A Work in Progress Worth Checking Out
Unlike most work in progress games I cover here, Sonic on the Game Boy Color, as it is named on itch.io, is already well along in development. There is a fair bit of gameplay already available and you can get a good feel for what the final version will be like.
Concessions had to be made and one of those, so far, is level design – no loops (yet, maybe) and enemies are sparse (and annoyingly placed due to the available screen space).
Collect the Chaos Emeralds and Rings
The goal of Sonic on the Game Boy Color seems to be focused on searching through levels. Hunting Chaos Emeralds, and rings, in a much more platforming centric level layout than I prefer in my Sonic games.
To me, Sonic is about speed and when exploration is introduced, that speed aspect naturally has to take a back seat. I get that Sonic cannot be 100% speed, but in Sonic on the Game Boy Color, there are precious few spots where speed is helpful and not a hindrance.
I am sure Sonic the Hedgehog fans will love this interesting take on the original game. It is probably about as good as the Game Boy Color can muster considering the zoomed in view and other limitations of the hardware.