Robotnik Returns

Robotnik Returns is a fan-made hack of Sonic the Hedgehog for Sega Genesis by Pacguy which features a complete overhaul of the game, including new Zones, artwork, music ports, layouts, and several other things.

Story

Robotnik was getting frantic. Every plan he made seemed to be thwarted effortlessly by the blue hedgehog, and his ideas were getting stupider and stupider by the week. Utterly confused and enraged, he looked back on some of his old files, and realized that his previous ideas were much better than his current schemes! They’d given Sonic a run for his money, and he had just barely escaped Robotnik’s seemingly fool-proof plans. Perhaps, if he lured Sonic back to South Island, he could get his old lairs back in working order. Of course, most of the ruins had been torn apart by the test of time and Dr. Robotnik’s “Modifications”. Green Hill Zone was protected by the lingering Chaos Emerald magic, and spring yard zone had to be left behind. He got lucky, though. Scrap Brain Zone was in working order, and he worked hard to make it as cruel and soul-crushing as Sonic could ever imagine…

Items

• Ring: Gives Sonic 10 rings.
• Shield: Gives Sonic a shield.
• Invincibility: Makes Sonic invincible for a short period of time.
• Speed Shoes: Makes Sonic faster for a short period of time.
• S: Points out secrets, and gives the player 10 rings. It does something special when you get all six chaos emeralds…
• Timer: Causes all enemies on screen to freeze for the remainder of the level. These are hidden in very hard to find places, and only exist in Lazy Field Zone and Technopolis Zone, due to issues with Caterkillers and Orbinauts.
• Ghost: A very, very secretive monitor. It only appears once in the entire game (Hint: It’s somewhere in pollutant plant zone)

Zones

• Lazy Field Zone: The first Zone, which is heavily based on Green Hill Zone. As it exists in the same general area of Green Hill Zone, it shares a lot of its features. It’s said that the orignal Green Hill zone is just beyond those far off mountains…

• Construction Zone: A huge construction site which is building the extremities of Technopolis Zone. Contains an excessive amount of floating platforms and springs. In act 2, the Orbinauts seem to have forgotten their orbs!

• Technopolis Zone: A huge city built around Scrap Brain Zone. Strangely, Despite its size, Robotnik hasn’t advertised housing there yet, so it has no residents. Like Construction Zone, It has an excess of platforms and springs, along with the usual amounts of rings and deadly hazards that casino/carnival inspired levels hold.

• Pollutant Plant Zone: A terrible system of pipes that dumps raw sewage and radioactive waste into the local environment. It is filled to the brim with traps, spikes, and crushers (not to mention all the toxic sludge)! Act 1 contains two hidden exits (can you find them all)?

• Scrap Brain Zone: This Zone has been given a remodeling turning it into a hell hole of twists and turns. Act 2 contains an extremely minimal amount of rings, and only one shield monitor.

• Scrapped Ruin Zone: As the water from the orignal Scrap Brain Zone act 3 flooded up, it engulfed the lower sections of Scrap Brain Zone, turning it into a mess of broken wires, lost machinery, and of course, Sonics’ favorite obstacle!

• Final Zone: Robotniks’ very last attempt at getting Sonic. Not expecting our hero to get so far, Robotnik had only just rebuilt his original Final master piece, and had only just added a few extra obstacles.

• Hidden Palace Zone: a very mysterious place that Sonic goes to after trying to enter the 7th special stage. This magical place is essentially a bonus stage, with rings and lives galore. Leave through the top of the level to return to the Zone you were previously in. Strangely, Hidden Palace Zones magic seems to prevent Sonic from drowning…

Credits

• nineko, for all custom music besides the themes for Lazy Field and Pollutant Plant Zone, which are my own ports, as well as helping with code for Sanic’s level layouts.
• Xeta (Sonic Retro), for an edit of the theme used for Construction Zone (made by nineko) which uses Sonic 1’s default DAC
• LooneyDude (SSRG), who gave me some advice for art changes
• Professor Neo (SSRG), who helped with the special stage layouts
• The Sonic Retro wiki How to section, for lots of coding, and teaching me how to edit raw ASM
• The SSRG repository, where I found Nineko’s songs
• And the Sonic Retro and SSRG forum members, for playtesting and general feedback

Credits:

Robotnik Returns is developed by FM Studio.

Just Have Fun!