Many are the nostalgic 2D Sonic fangames, but Sonic Galactic might be the best

The last time I wrote about Sonic fangame, I innocently and absent-mindedly described it as “SNES-style”. This led to a social media dog-pile of an intensity typically reserved for major international banks accidentally tweeting rule34, a howl of derision that washed over me again and again while I rolled around on the floor beneath my desk, caterwauling at Graham to please please delete the whole internet, I want to start all over again.

Let’s see if we fare better this time round: Sonic Galactic is an absurdly accomplished Sonic fangame from Starteam that, broadly, imagines how the Mega Drive and Genesis platformers might have looked and felt had they been made for the Sega Saturn. There’s a new demo, if you fancy trying it for yourself. Please find it here on Itch.io. Perhaps if I’d put the download link higher up the page in the other article, people would have got distracted and refrained from dunking on me so awfully.

The base marker for judgement of any post-Mega-Drive Sonic game is: which sidekicks have they kept in? Because after all, the addition of sidekicks has gone hand-in-hand with Sonic’s dilution from iconic platform game into puddle of franchising goop. Expand beyond the core trinity of Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, and you are adding a range of, at best, gimmicky, at worst, actively poisonous condiments to an exquisite layer cake. But there are circumstances under which a dollop of Amy Rose, a smattering of Shadow can bring piquancy and zestiness.

Sonic Galactic seems to have the right idea. Aside from Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, it adds Fang the Sniper (a jerboa) from Sonic The Hedgehog Triple Trouble, and a new character, Tunnel the Mole (a mole). Each character has their own moves with which to modulate the classic Sonic thrill of pinballing through beautiful, “hand-pixelled” arrangements of ring-bedecked loops and ramps, only to collide with some spikes when you’re 10 rings away from a 1-Up.

I’ve played a bit of the demo, which terrifies me slightly for having a tutorial level, with quite wordy text instructions that clatter into view while you’re platforming. The game otherwise fits my memories of the Mega Drive games like a glove. It very much feels like the game Sonic Team might have made if they’d been asked to iterate upon the visual and ability design of Sonic 3 – it has the same roster of elemental TV power-ups, but adds a wall-kick for Sonic and various nifty techniques for when running on water. So far, Galactic seems to play things straighter than the obvious comparison, Sonic Mania, which I think is showier in its remixing of elements from the older Sonic games.

The 3D special stages are where you most see the “power of Saturn”, a very good console that is now mostly remembered for getting its arse kicked by PlayStation 1. The chiptune soundtrack, meanwhile, has that pacey wistfulness I associate with the series at its best.

Sonic Galactic was announced back in 2020, and doesn’t have a release date yet. Go on, take the demo out for a spin-attack.