Sonic Triple Trouble

While the sixteen-bit Sonic was raging on the Mega Drive, the handheld Game Gear was home to its own, parallel line of the blue hedgehog - and its indisputable peak is Sonic Triple Trouble from 1994. If you thought eight-bit Sonic was just a stripped-down substitute, this game will set you straight.

An important piece of context: the eight-bit Sonic games were not developed by the famous Sonic Team, but chiefly by the studios Aspect and Ancient, and the different design reflects that. The most striking difference? The Chaos Emeralds are hidden right in the levels, not in separate bonus stages - so exploration and attentiveness pay off differently than with their big siblings.

By eight-bit standards Triple Trouble is expansive and brisk: it offers varied zones, a decent pace and, above all, the presence of the sidekick Tails, who expands the ways you can play. On the small Game Gear screen it was an ambitious title that tried to catch up with the sweep of the console installments, as far as the hardware allowed.

An interesting point is the interconnection of platforms: the Master System version of this eight-bit line also runs on the Game Gear, because both SEGA consoles shared a related architecture. Players thus often got the same titles in slightly different variants, adapted to the size of the display.

Thanks to its quality and character, Sonic Triple Trouble earned itself a reputation among fans as one of the best handheld action games of the era, and to this day it is remembered as proof that the eight-bit Sonic detour had its own full-fledged charm. For Game Gear collectors it is a mandatory piece.

Why play: The peak of the eight-bit Sonic line - an expansive, brisk and characterful handheld platformer with Tails at your side.