Ugh
I wasn't going to spend money on the real thing, so I downloaded the rom and gave it a whirl. Well I can tell you it was a traumatic experience. Sonic goes slow. Why? Just because its a GBA game doesn't mean sonic should go slow! Ok, if it was a NES game, because that can't use a very fast engine, but there have been plenty of fast GBA titles, including the sonic advance series.
It also takes light years to slow down. This makes it difficult in zones like labyrinth; when you get sucked through the tube, sonic gets hit by the spikes. That didn't happen in sonic 1, so why here? Also, due to the smaller screen, the top and bottom of the screen from the original are cropped off, so you can see less of your surroundings. But it was just unnecessary. In Sonic advance thay didn't do that. In the game gear games they didn't do it so severely.
There are so many glitches. Sonic 1 had glitches. While STHG fixes these ones, it 'made up for it' by adding a load more! In this game you can walk through walls, cheat your way through the boss fights, and when you pick up some speed shoes, you slow down instead of speed up! Then there's the famous dying on the stairs bug in Star light!
The music is horrible; it sounds like the people who made Somari made the music. There's also no variety in destroying noises. The killing, battering and crumbling noises are all the same, and some noises like the star post and inhaling noises are on helium.
So, stay away from it at all costs!
Graphics: 3/5
Gameplay: 0/5
Music & Sound: -2/5
Controls: 0/5
Entertainment: 0/5
Overall: 1/25
0.4/10