Lost Sonic

Okay, I'm a big fan of oldschool Sonic Games, I've played them all as a child. I have the first Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic 2, Sonic 3, Sonic and Knuckles. You name it, I have it. And yes, I play all of them on a Sega Genesis.

So I was in the attic lately, cleaning up the crap I have in there. But while I was cleaning, I found this weird Sega Genesis cartridge. It had a piece of paper on there with the words "LOST SONIC" written on it. I really have no idea what the hell this was doing in my attic. I never remembered this game from my childhood. But, curiosity got the best of me. So I put the game in, grabbed my controller, and started playing.

It started with the intro from the original Sonic The Hedgehog, but some things where unusual about it. There was no background, just a black screen. And there was no title, just a giant ring with Sonic in it. But I still pushed start and the game began.

It started with the same thing every old Sonic game started with, a green island stage with flowers and palm trees. But the Zone didn't have a name, It only said "Act 1". The music was "Green Hill Zone" but slowed down like in the European version. There also was no Life, Time, Score, or Rings counter. There were no badnicks or hazards in the Zone. But I still kept going. It was like your normal Sonic level. But then out of know where, Robotnick came out of no where and hit you. There where no rings in the zone so I died. But instead of the normal death animation, the screen cut black and the "Death Sound" was heard. The game just froze there, on a black screen. I pressed the "Reset" button on the Sega Genesis and the game restarted.

I was shocked this time. The title screen went through a HUGE change. The background turned BLOOD red. Under the ring with Sonic in it, it said "LOST". And the music was screwed up. It was slowed down and missing A LOT of notes. Sonic however, was worse. His color scheme was lightened A LOT, and his eyes were red. Sonic was also frowning while blood was dripping from his eyes. In fear, I pressed the start button.

The Level started up, It was horrible. The top of the title screen "TSOL ON EPACSE" and "TCA 1" on the bottom. It took me a while to realise it, but It was "LOST NO ESCAPE ACT 1" backwards. Sonic was the same as he was on the title screen, light colored with red eyes, blood under his eyes. The music was the same as it was on the title screen. I played through the level.

The level was underground themed, with blood drooping from the top. Bones and puddles of blood surround the level, some gore was found, too. The only Badnick was the centipede from Mystic Cave Zone. But instead of dropping and animal when you killed it, blood splattered out of it. There were also spikes with blood on the tips. And at some cases acid that kills you in one hit. Every time you got hit you go back to the start of the level (There where no checkpoints). The level was extremely difficult.

I finally got through the level, but there was no signpost, but a giant black ball. But then, two ghoulish red eyes peeked out of the black ball. It than charged at me making the screen go completely Red. I thought it was going to do the same as last time and freeze immediately, but I was wrong. A message saying "YOU COULDN'T ESCAPE" appeared with a picture of Sonic... being hung by a bloody rope.

I turned off the game.

"What the hell did I just play?" I thought to myself. "Was this really made by Sega, or was this a bootleg?" I didn't know that day, and I still don't know today. But I do know where this game is now. It's in the trash.